I Saved Too Many Girls and Caused the Apocalypse: Volume 1
Page 4
“Hah... hahahah...” She was mistaken about quite a few things, actually, but it didn’t feel like a good time to correct her.
If I’d left Satsuki in the factory, I needed to go back and get her. I tried to tell Iris I was in a hurry, but she wasn’t listening.
“Yes, that settles it! Rekka— you can be my lover!”
“Huh?!” Isn’t that skipping a bunch of steps?!
“If I show Daddy I’ve got a lover, he’s sure to give up on that stupid marriage thing. Now, off we go!” She took a strange item out of the bag slung over her shoulder. It looked like a makeup compact. When she opened it up, I could see several buttons in a row. She pressed one of them with a slender finger.
Everything around us suddenly got darker as a huge flying object appeared above.
“A U... U...”
“Looks like a UFO, doesn’t it?” I was too shocked to move, but R’s voice was calm.
Iris pushed the button again, and this time a mysterious beam of light came down from the UFO— and began to suck us upward.
Was this going to be like cattle mutilation?! Wait, I just realized this when we started to float up, but Iris has a tail coming out of her butt! Was she really an alien?
“W-Wait! What about what I want?!”
“You’re going to to protect me no matter what, right? So be my lover, okay?”
“That’s a big misunderstanding!” My scream was swallowed up by the light from the UFO, and so was I.
▽
“Mm...”
“Oh, you’re awake?”
Did I pass out? I was in some room I didn’t recognize. The ceiling and floor gleamed a dull silver. There were two windows on the walls and something that looked like a control panel. It seemed like I’d been sleeping on the floor.
“Sheesh, you scared me. Humans sure can’t handle their gravitational changes. Oh, and you were filthy, so I cleaned you and your clothes up while you were asleep.” Iris was grinning, and her face was strangely close to me. Wait, if I was sleeping on the floor, why did it feel like the back of my head was touching something soft?
“U-Uwah!”
“What? Does the idea of sleeping on my lap bother you that much?”
S-Sleeping on her lap?! I never thought I’d experience that! I felt my face turning red, but I couldn’t help but look at Iris’s thighs. So my head was lying on those bare thighs... Wait a second.
When I looked down, I could see her tail bouncing back and forth happily. Its hair was smooth like a horse’s tail, and it was silver, just like the pretty hair on her head. It was cute, I thought, but it was also unshakable evidence that she wasn’t human.
“Wait, where am I?!” I asked, a little belatedly.
“Inside a spaceship.”
“Not that! Where’s the ship?” I pressed my face up against the window to look outside.
On the other side of the window, I could see blurry, warped space that shone with rainbow colors.
“Is this... space?”
“It’s warp space. We’re heading to planet Finerita. It should take about three hours or so, I think?”
“Three hours?! I don’t have three hours! Send me back to Earth, right now!” Satsuki was in danger. I needed to hurry back and save her.
But the answer that came back wasn’t the one I wanted.
“I can’t. Warp space is a one-way street. Once you’re inside, you can’t get out until you reach your destination. If you want to get back, you have to wait until you arrive and then warp again.”
“N-No way...” I staggered and fell to my knees.
“What’s gotten into you? What’s wrong?”
I wanted to scream at her, but it didn’t feel like I had the strength. If only I hadn’t mistaken Iris for Satsuki... But regrets wouldn’t help me now. I’d just have to pray for her safety while I waited for the warp to end, and then ask Iris to take me back.
But it would take at least six hours to get back no matter how fast I hurried. I felt like I was going to pass out.
Iris got mad again when she saw how I looked. “Come on, get a hold of yourself! I can’t introduce you to Daddy looking like that.”
“Huh? Daddy? Introduce me?”
“That’s right. I’m going to say that you’re my lover, and introduce you to my dad.”
“Why?”
“To make my dad give up on marrying me to King Satamonia!”
“Why?” Iris got even madder.
“I didn’t say a word about wanting to get married! That disgusting Satamonian just keeps trying to court me. And Daddy’s trying to hand me off because he doesn’t want to make him mad. He’s trying to marry me off to help him politically! No, he’s basically trying to sacrifice me!”
“Sure, that sounds bad, but is this King Satamonia guy really that scary when he gets angry?”
“He is, yeah. The Greater Galactic Federation... Wait, you wouldn’t know what that is. It’s basically like a space government. And it’s run by representatives from 72 planets, chosen by each galaxy. And my home planet, planet Finerita, has one of those 72 seats, but since it’s political, there’s all these factions and hierarchies.”
“King Satamonia’s planet is high up in those hierarchies, then?”
“Yup. He’s the leader of a bunch of stupid, violent fascists. And there’s all kinds of dark rumors about him, too. They say his armies are pillaging some of the border planets and things. Just hearing it makes me sick.”
If that was true, King Satamonia was a really bad guy.
“Anyway, I just don’t want to marry him!”
“Uwah!” Why was she grabbing on to me?!
“So... you can be my lover, and then that’ll solve the problem!” Her high-pitched voice tickled my ears. I could feel two soft, round things pressing against my back. They felt like pudding! It made it impossible to think.
“No, why would I...”
“Because you’re going to save me, right? And you were kind of cool when you grabbed my hand and pulled me out of there. And it’s an honor to be my lover, even if it’s just pretend.”
“Okay, okay! Just let me go!”
“Huh? Why?” Iris tilted her head to the side in confusion. She seemed to not be doing it deliberately.
Please! Stop pressing those soft things into me! Please! Huh? What? I have to pretend to be her lover to stop her from getting married? But I have to get back and save Satsuki from Messiah, and... wait, her... her... they’re... Gah! I can’t think! I need to get her off of me so I can take a minute to think.
“Sorry, but do you have anything to drink? I’m really thirsty.”
“Oh, come to think of it, you really have been doing a lot of running. Wait. I’ll bring you something now.” Iris got off me, and went through one of those fancy sci-fi sliding doors into the next room to get me something to drink.
“All right, R.”
“What is it?” R, who had been staying quiet this whole time, raised her hand and answered me.
“Let me ask you a question.”
“Sure. As long as it’s not something that will help you resolve one of the stories.”
“Then let me ask you straight. Whose story am I involved in right now?”
“Iris’s, I believe.”
“Then what happened to Satsuki? Is she safe?”
“I can’t answer that question. But if your question is whether you’re still involved in Satsuki’s story, too, the answer is yes.”
Damn it. I figured she’d say that.
“So I’m caught up in both Satsuki’s and Iris’s stories at the same time?”
“You’re so popular! All these different stories want a piece of you.”
“Don’t act like it’s a good thing!” How was I supposed to save my childhood friend and a space princess at the same time?
“Well, for my part, I’m just relieved to see that you’re capable of blushing and acting embarrassed around the heroines.”
Grr... I just realized that R
had seen everything that happened when I’d been sleeping on her lap and when she’d been pushing up against me.
“Anyway, Rekka, don’t you think you panicked a little too much back there?”
“Any guy would react that way!” I tried desperately to defend myself, but R just grinned.
“Sheesh... What’s your take on Iris, R?”
“I’m not into yuri.”
“That’s not what I meant!”
“I was joking. My take on Iris? Hmm... I think she’s a very frank person who says what she likes and what she doesn’t like. You could call her selfish or childish, if you liked. But she has a very natural way about her.”
Hmm... her opinion was about the same as mine. “She’s a kid, in both a good and bad way.”
“But she doesn’t have the body of a child.”
“Shut up!”
“But you decided to help her after you felt her breasts, didn’t you?”
“No!” The instant I yelled back at her, the door slid open and Iris came back.
“No what?”
“No, nothing!” Iris couldn’t see R, so I was able to talk my way out of it.
“Here, have some juice.” She offered me an orange liquid that tasted like a sports drink. The taste filled my mouth and slaked my thirst instantly.
“This tastes really good.”
“Does it? I’m glad.” Iris smiled.
Honestly, it was a beautiful sight to see.
“Huh? What’s wrong?”
“No, nothing!”
“You said that a moment ago.”
Gah... I’d never had any girls in my life except my mom and Satsuki. The encounter rate was going up way too fast! I didn’t know how to handle this!
As I gulped down the juice to hide my red face, Iris pushed herself up against me. Her breasts pressed up against my back again, and I almost spit out my drink.
“Hey, are you busy?”
“Huh? N-No, but um... get away from me...” I tried to subtly move away, but I couldn’t shake off the hand she put on my shoulder. Were Fineritans stronger than humans?
“I’ll show you around the ship, then. Your planet— Earth, was it? It doesn’t have this kind of technology yet, right? I’m sure you’ll enjoy it.”
“Fine. Fine, just get off me...”
Iris moved away a second later, but I ended up letting her show me around the ship.
The only place that wasn’t really decorated was the control room I’d been in. All the other rooms had pink or soft white walls, and her private room was filled with the kind of fancy furniture and decorations that girls love. Her taste didn’t seem to be that different from an average Earthling’s.
The last room she showed me into was a tiny one at the ship’s stern.
“What is this place?”
“Hmm... it’s kind of like a storeroom, I guess.”
Iris said “open” and the door slid open with a whoosh sound. I went inside and saw that it was filled with all kinds of different things. I couldn’t imagine what most of them were for, but several of them piqued my interest.
“What’s this?”
“A warp watch. It’s a small teleportation device.”
“Huh, cool.” Just as the name “warp watch” implied, it was shaped like a small wristwatch.
“Want to put it on?”
“Can I?” She gave me permission, and I tried it on. You wore it just like a regular wristwatch. Hmm? Couldn’t I use this to get back to Earth?
“Hey, how do you use this thing?”
“It’s simple. You push the button on the side to boot it up, and then input the coordinates of the place you want to warp and activate it.”
“Coordinates?”
“The spatial coordinate axis, based off the place you’re currently standing.”
I’m terrible at math, though.
“Oh, and since it’s a small device, it can only move you a few hundred kilometers. And it can only move one or two people, and maybe the things they’re holding.”
So even if I could use it, I couldn’t get back to Earth, then. I sighed a little when I thought she wasn’t looking, and then I picked up something that looked like a gun.
“What’s this?”
“A laser gun.”
I thought so. I’d seen guns like this in science fiction movies. It was kind of cool-looking.
I was feeling a sense of awe as I looked at the gun, but I could see Iris pouting next to me. Did I do something wrong?
“Um... you look kind of upset. Is something wrong?”
“I don’t like that thing. It’s from Satamonia. But it’s really strong, and sometimes undeveloped planets can be dangerous...”
“Oh, I see.” She must really hate this King Satamonia guy.
I would feel really bad if she had to marry a guy like that. But... compared to the danger that Satsuki was in right this very minute, it didn’t seem like a very pressing problem. If I couldn’t deal with Messiah somehow, I probably wasn’t going to have time to help Iris.
Satsuki’s phone was in my pocket. I didn’t want this to be the last thing I had to remember her by. Just as I was about to tell her I needed to go back and save my childhood friend, the room suddenly filled with green flames.
“Uwah?!”
“Huh? What’s going on?! Rekka!” Iris backed away in surprise as she cried my name.
“Wh-What is this?” I thought it was fire... but it wasn’t hot? The strange flames, if that’s what they were, got stronger. Soon they were covering me and R, too.
“R!”
“Oh dear. What a sticky predicament, huh?”
Don’t act so calm! Freak out a little, like I am!
Then the green flames’ color became white.
A flood of light filled the room, and took me away to a world of pure white.
“Rekka!”
The last thing I heard was Iris’s voice. And as I felt a strange, floating sensation, I crossed some kind of boundary.
1-3: Summoned to Another World
I’d been keeping my eyes shut, but suddenly I could tell that the light had vanished, and the strange sense of floating was gone. Did this mean that whatever happened was now over? I fearfully opened my eyes, only to be shocked. I’d lost count of how many times that had happened to me today already.
I’d gone from a futuristic spaceship to a big, medieval-looking room made of stone. There were elaborate decorations everywhere, and a thick carpet lay on the floor. But the carpet cut off where I was, and instead there was a strange, intricate design on the floor.
There were a bunch of middle-aged and old men in medieval clothes, staring at me from a distance. What was going on here?
“Who’s that?”
“I’ve never seen clothes like his.”
“Did it succeed?”
“Impossible!”
“But what else could it be? It worked!”
“But he just looks like an ordinary boy to me.”
“A hero’s a hero, no matter how old he is.”
“But is he really a hero?”
“A hero...”
“A hero...”
What were they whispering about? I heard a word that I was normally only used to hearing in video games.
“Our hero!” And then there was a loud shout, and a girl jumped into my arms. She looked to be thirteen or fourteen. She wore a robe that covered her whole body, and her smokey blond hair was pressing into my chest.
The girl in my arms looked up at me. I was shocked at what I saw.
There were huge tears in her eyes.
“Huh? Wh-Why are you crying?”
“Hero! What is your name?” The girl cut me off. Her voice was full of energy. She seemed to be crying tears of joy, not sadness. That was a relief, at least.
“My name’s Rekka Namidare, but... where am I?” I answered the girl’s question and asked one of my own.
“Rekka Namidare... So the hero’s name is Sir Rekka, then!”
“Your Highness! The hero says his name is Rekka Namidare!”
“Huh? ‘Your Highness’?”
I followed the girl’s gaze, and... there he was. The most regal-looking man I’d ever seen, sitting on a huge, luxurious throne. He was fat and wore a crown. That’s exactly how kings were supposed to look!
“I see! Then the royal family’s legend was true?” The king was impressed for some reason, but I was having a hard time trying to keep up.
I had a bad feeling, though.
“Hero from another world! Please, defeat the Demon Overlord that threatens our kingdom of Aburaamu and save us!”
And there’s the line I was expecting. Thanks. Now I knew exactly what was going on.
“I see. So this time, you’ve been caught up in the story of a hero and a demon overlord, huh?”
Seemed like it. I was already busy with wizards and aliens, and now I’d been sent to another world. Give me a break.
“Well, good luck.” I was on the verge of a breakdown, but R was floating in space with her knees crossed, relaxing. My suffering probably meant nothing to her.
But I couldn’t afford to be unconcerned. There were over a hundred people around me, and they looked so excited that it was a little scary. They were getting closer and closer. If I wasn’t careful, they might all leap on top of me like the girl had done. One of them in particular was a middle-aged man with rippling muscles. I definitely didn’t want him jumping on me.
“Harissa. What’s wrong with the hero?” The king must have wondered why I wasn’t saying anything, because he looked suspicious when he asked the girl.
The girl— Harissa, her name was— still had her face buried in my chest. She looked up at me. Her eyes were a pretty blue.
“Hero. Tell me something.”
“Something? Is anything okay?”
“Yes!”
“All right... Please let me rest for a little while. Please.”
Chapter 2: I’m a Level 1 Villager. Can I Beat the Demon Overlord?
I wasn’t sure whether they granted my request or not, but the king and his men gave me a guest room with a big canopy. I flopped onto the bed and finally got to catch my breath.