Editing Shinmai Maou no Keiyakusha:Volume 5 Chapter 2 (section)

===Part 4===

Now – after Noel had already brought them around the market once,

“—alright, last up, we absolutely have to drink tea from this shop before we can consider this complete!”

She once again came back to Aderbell Plaza and stopped before a café. At this place, one can enjoy the plaza’s open-air observatory, a favourite of the young and old, it was a shop which had many customers. While Basara and the others were queuing up behind Noel and other customers, Zest glanced through the inside of the shop.

“?   What’s the matter, Zest?”

“…Basara-sama, please enjoy the café, I’ll wait here outside.”

After bowing to Basara and the rest, Zest turned around and left the café.

And then she headed towards the dark alley behind the café.

''…this place should probably be safe.''

There were a few people in that shop, and it would be best if Zest were to avoid having contact with them. Right now she was not alone, Basara and the rest were also present, so she can’t let her own problems cause disruption to them. After coming to a place where there was no one, Zest released a sigh and leaned her back against the shop’s wall. Just then—

『……….』

Something appeared before Zest from within the alley’s darkness. Possessing long ears, looks very similar to a cat, but has something growing out on its forehead – a unicorn pup.

It had no collar, and it doesn’t seem to be someone’s pet; it hadn’t come into the city to forage for food, but instead it was chased in here – no matter what it was, it probably shouldn’t be able to survive in this place.

<nowiki>『-------』</nowiki>

The little unicorn raised its head to look at Zest, and ran towards her feet to sniff at her shoes. Seeing how it interacted with a stranger—

“This isn’t a place someone like you should be at… but I suppose you have no other places to go.”

Zest slightly bent down and caressed its small head. The little unicorn also narrowed its eyes, and began playing with her hand. Seeing this, Zest couldn’t help but to think – this child is just like me.

--Even though the power Zolgear held within the Council was the lowest, he was still one of the unified rulers of the Current Demon Lord Faction.

Zest had been created to be his subordinate, and lived a subordinate’s life; when she was almost killed by her master Zolgear, the one who saved her was the enemy Basara.

Not only had Basara saved her life, he helped her; one who had nowhere to go to look for the optimal solution, negotiating with the Moderates Faction and giving her a safe place to stay; Sheera, who had voluntarily looked after her, also treated her well.

The number of things Zest was thankful to Basara for were numerous.

''…However.''

She would occasionally think – ‘’am I really allowed to remain here?’’

But that thought remained a thought. Right now, she had nowhere else to go.

…No.

To tell the truth, there is still someone she could still rely on, only that she chose not to. Hence—

“……Basara-sama.”

Zest said out loud his name quietly.

--Since taking refuge in the Moderates Faction, there was never a day where she stopped thinking about him.

Not only just that, thoughts like [I want to be by his side] and [I want to serve him] within her increased day by day. On the day the messenger from the Moderates Faction came to the Toujou Residence, Basara had told her that she was welcome any time to come back if anything happened, but she was unable to do that.

…Since,

If she were to go to the Toujou Residences for real and got rejected, not being allowed to be by his side – she would truly have nowhere to go.

--So when Sheera let Zest be in charge of looking after Basara, she was truly happy.

Being able to see him again, hear him call her name again, tears had almost welled up in her eyes.

…Even then,

Zest cannot be by his side, since Basara thinks that Zest should remain in the Moderates Faction; when he interacted with either Mio, Yuki, Maria or Kurumi, the caring eyes that he would show them would most likely never be shown to her.

「…………Even then, I still--」

Zest squatted down, and the little unicorn licked her hand, as if worrying about her.

After remaining in this posture for a while—

“—Oioioi, what are you doing here?”

A rough voice shouting came from the alleyway connecting to the Main Street. When Zest raised her head to look, she saw the ones standing there are the ones from the café that made her decide not to enter the café.

The four male bodies were wearing blue armour, they were the guards stationed in this neighbourhood. Just to avoid making contact with them, she had left the café and gave up the chance to have tea with Basara and the others—

''…I should’ve taken refuge in a place further away.''

Just as she was feeling regret over her own judgement—

“Those clothes… a maid from the castle? If I remember correctly, it’s probably—“

The soldiers looking into the alley noticed her appearance, and the soldier beside the one who just spoke nodded and said:

“Oh – this girl is the one the higher ups took in, Zolgear’s subordinate, right?”

The expression in his eyes he used to look at Zest also cooled down substantially.

“Oi, what is someone who was the Current Demon Lord’s dog doing sneaking around here? Are you planning to blow up one of the shops filled with customers?”

“……No. I was running an errand, and am currently having some rest here.”

“A person alone hiding and having some rest?”

Hearing him say so suspiciously, another soldier said while sneering:

“Say, Glen, you didn’t mean [A person], but [A thing] instead, right?”

Despite receiving gazes filled with extreme contempt and verbal insults, yet—

“………”

Zest endured it silently. It was nothing surprising, from the perspective of the soldiers of the Moderates Faction, there would definitely be animosity towards Zest who was part of the Current Demon Lord’s cadre; enemies like Basara who put themselves in their shoes were extremely rare. But it was because Basara was that sort of person, Zest could not hold any hate towards him.

“Why the hell would those higher-ups make such a dumb decision, to take in the sex slave of some arrogant big scum?”

“Who knows, that might’ve been a better decision? After becoming tired of playing with the maids serving them, those big figureheads cannot go to some brothel on the streets, much less call a prostitute into the castle. Having some different flavours to play with is nice, and the fact that it’s a second-hand product makes no difference.”

“That makes sense… So those higher-ups just want to find a toy with lasting appeal, right?”

The gazes of the soldiers with their mouths full of insults towards Zest became dirtier, and their eyes began looking all over her body brazenly, before stopping on a certain place. The place their gazes were all fixated on, were her large breasts which had grown to the point where her breasts were obvious even in her maid uniform, while she dreamt about Basara in her days.

It had grown to the point where during their reunion, Basara couldn’t help but to look at them. Back then, Zest didn’t mind it at all – instead, it made her happy; but right now, those gazes only made her feel disgusted.

“—Say, let us have some fun too, ‘kay?”

After the soldier named Glen said that, the other soldiers looked at each other and smiled, and they began approaching her. Seeing this—

「……Quickly be on your way. 」 

Zest nudged the little unicorn on its back, letting it seek refuge in the other end of the alleyway before facing the soldiers before her.

“…….”

"What’s wrong…? You do service those higher-ups in the city often right?”

Facing these soldiers with dirty smiles on their faces, Zest remained silent.

''…I guess it’s inevitable that other people would think that…''

Zolgear’s prurience<ref>Inordinately interested in matters of sex; lascivious</ref> is well known throughout the Demon Realm, and it is only matched by a few. Thus, they could hardly be blamed for thinking that Zest who had fought under him was like that too. But in reality, Zolgear had created her in a way so that her power comes from her virginity, and thus had never requested for Zest to do the thing between a man and woman with him. Although she didn’t know what intentions he had—

''…But still,''

She is now glad that he had done that. If Zolgear had encroached on her– she would’ve cursed him for all her life. To have never been encroached by anyone, that matter is now Zest’s most important wish. Now that Zest had managed to get the task of looking after Basara while he is in the Demon Realm, it would be fine even if it was on a whim or was just a joke – she wished to be able to serve Basara as a woman.

That moment of happiness shall become Zest’s most treasured memory, pushing her to continue her life.

That’s why, she can’t be sullied by these soldiers before her.

''…However,''

It was only with Basara’s help that she was able to come to the Moderates Faction and become Sheera’s subordinate. If anything were to happen here now, she might cause him trouble – and that was something she could not allow to happen.

“…………!”

"That’s right that’s right, stay like that quietly. Things like a maid, was originally supposed to be used for things like that.”

One of the soldiers boldly stretched his hand towards Zest biting her lips in resentment.

Though separated by her clothes, her breasts which had grown bigger due to longing for Basara were about to be touched by someone else – but right before that happened—

“—enough is enough.”

A hand, with that voice, came from the side, and grabbed that soldier’s arm.

<nowiki>『————！?』</nowiki>

This unexpected development not only shocked that soldier, but also everyone else—

“…Basara-sama!”

Zest too widened her eyes in shock. The one she had longed for – Toujou Basara had appeared by her side, and after giving her a wink—

“She is a maid serving under Sheera-sama. You do know that if you do anything to her, there will be serious consequences?”

By saying that in a polite tone while blocking them from Zest, it was probably to avoid the trouble from having their identities exposed and thus going along with cleric’s attire, trying to send them away like another servant. One of the soldiers then said after regaining his calm:

“Who the hell are you… are you with this person?”
	
“That’s right. She is someone important to me… Showing her disrespect, might cause trouble to me.”

“Another servant, huh… stay right there and don’t move. If you’re nice, we might let you play a bit too.”

Seeing him laughing and turning towards Zest, Basara gave a deep sigh.

“…I guess there’s no other way.”

In the moment Zest saw Basara whisper that – that soldier was blown away.



What Basara had done, was one of the moves of Aikido. <ref>[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Aikido Aikido] : a modern Japanese martial art</ref>

He had swiftly grabbed the soldier’s wrist and pushed it downwards, and focused his energy to twist it – as a result, that soldier who wanted to violate Zest turned a circle in mid-air.”

Although there was the option of bringing Zest away from that place or shouting to attract the attention of the other people on the streets, there was of course a reason Basara chose to use force.

--It was to resolve the problem at its root.

They were people who couldn’t be reasoned with, what just happened may repeat again if they were to run away now and if Zest were to run into them again. In order to not have a ‘next time’, they must learn the errors of their ways right here and now.

Thus, the moment that soldier landed on his back on the ground, Basara pulled and twisted on the joint of the hand he was grabbing onto, dislocating both the shoulder and elbow joints while creating two cracking sounds in the process.

“ ! ! Gaaaaaaaaaaaa--aaaaaaaa!!?”

Basara then mercilessly kicked his foot at the soldier squirming and screaming on the ground, the impact dislocated his jaw, and the originally sharp scream turned into gibberish. After that—

“Dear dignified soldier… can you please not scream like that just from having a few of your joints dislocated by this insignificant cleric?”

Basara looked down at that soldier, and purposely harshly ridiculed him. Not only was it to fell his spirit, it was also to make the other three develop a fear towards him, hoping to make them run away from fear – but alas, the situation did not develop as he hoped it would. While one of them did nothing out of fear, the other two drew their swords. To that—

''…would be best if I don’t take out Brynhildr here.''

It would be best if they were to remain thinking that he was just a cleric throughout. If these soldiers were to lose to a cleric, they probably wouldn’t have the face to tell it to the other soldiers after returning to the palace.

“You arrogant brat, stop acting big!”

Seeing the soldier at the front moving his sword to make a slash at him, Basara simply moved sideways to avoid it. Since this alley is narrow, in order to avoid hitting the sword on the wall, the room to swing the sword is very limited. So, it would be very simple to just make the sword miss its mark.

“That’s too obvious --  hmph.”

In a flash, Basara dug his left elbow into that soldier’s lower jaw.

That attack was unbiased, and cracking sounds were released from that soldier’s upper and lower teeth.

<nowiki>「——————」</nowiki>

Receiving the impact on his head, the now unconscious soldier collapsed on the ground – Basara then released another kick at his chest, causing him to hit the other soldier holding onto his sword.

“ ! …Move aside, you idiot!”           “—you’re the idiot here.”

Once his movements stopped, the results couldn’t be changed. While his opponent had his footing slightly messed up, Basara frog jumped on the left and right walls going out of his opponent’s view, doing a flip over him and connected his right heel with his forehead, producing some cracking sounds. The soldier staggered for a bit, rolling his eyes, before collapsing backwards.

''Settled.''  Just as Basara wanted to release his breath—

“--?”

He sucked in more air again. The soldier from just now who couldn’t do anything had now extended both his hands and expanded a magic circle. This place is narrow, a shop full of customers was just beside them, and they are soldiers – Basara had thought they had that self-awareness, and thus would not use any magic to avoid doing damage to nearby buildings and civilians. Probably because they panic, they now lost their calm.

“You scum…!”

''Although how bad that person is, he is still a soldier, so how could he'' – to deal a blow to him before the magic activated, Basara began to move towards him.

--But there was no need for that already.

Because before Basara moved, the magic circle already disappeared. Not only that—

“Ah…Oo…Aaa…!”

That soldier who attempted to release magic now lay on the ground, paralysed, with fear obvious on his face.

Just why? Basara somewhat had an idea – and thus without even turning around, he said to the one behind im:

“Calm down, Zest – killing them would be going too far.”

“…But these people wanted to kill you.”

From her anger-filled cold voice, the S-Class Zest’s killing intent was evident. Thinking back, Zest had used many different types of magic circles; the moment these kinds of stuff activated, no one would know what could happen to this neighbourhood. Thus—

“Don’t worry about me. What I wanted to do was not to have them harass you anymore, and it does not mean – I want to kill them. There is no need for you to do these sorts of things, and let yourself turn into these people who wanted to kill me.”

Hearing Basara say that, Zest slowly cancelled the magic.

“………I understand. I will… listen to Basara-sama’s orders.”

“I’m sorry. I made the first move, yet I’m saying this.”

After saying that to Zest with a bitter smile, he looked downwards to check on the collapsed soldiers. That soldier who originally wanted to violate Zest but was taught a harsh lesson by Basara,

“Wuu…aaa…uh….uoo---!?”

Suddenly feeling Basara’s gaze while moaning in pain, his face froze up.

“Relax, I only dislocated your joints, and didn’t break any nerves. The pain you feel right now is only from moving around on the ground. If you see a doctor after returning to the palace, the joints can be fully put back.”

“Oh…aah…?”

“It’s true. If you know that you are in the wrong, then don’t do these sorts of things again. If you get caught by me again, I definitely won’t let you off the hook – even if Zest wants to kill you, I wouldn’t mind it.”

“---…---…!”

Seeing him nodding his head vigorously, Basara said: [Ok] and also nodded.

“We’re going now. When the others wake up, remember to tell them what I just said. Let’s go.”

Basara grabbed Zest’s hand after saying that, and walked towards the alley’s other end.

If anyone were to see them walking out of the alleyway the soldiers walked in from, the information of them defeating those soldiers might spread. Their priority right now should be concealing their whereabouts by taking more turns within these alleys, drawing as much distance as possible from that place. Thus—

“Zest, why did you not take any action even though you met—“

Basara suddenly could not continue with his reprimanding tone.

Reason being – Zest suddenly hugged him tightly, with no intention of letting go.

“……I’m sorry, to have caused you trouble… Please bear with this for now.”

Tightening her hug, Zest’s body shook slightly.

''…I see.''

Toujou Basara understood it. Despite receiving protection as a witness, Zest who once was part of the Current Demon Lord Faction would receive a lot of complex grudges in the Moderates Faction, and would face many different challenges; if she were to cause any trouble, she would fall into a very difficult position. Thus in order to maintain her current situation, she beared with those soldiers.

“You must be very scared… But, it’s all fine now.”

Basara returned Zest’s hug, rubbing her back to placate her.

--Reportedly although Zest was Zolgear’s subordinate, she had no bodily contact with him.

While this is a good thing for her, it also meant that she had built up no immunity or resistance towards other people’s actions concerning her body; moreover as she was to maintain a close distance with Zolgear while he did lewd acts, it wouldn’t be weird if she were to develop any physiological hate towards it. Despite all that, Zest still beared with the actions of those soldiers.

''…Probably because Zest has got a strong sense of responsibility.''

Or perhaps she was scared that if anything happened, blame might be placed on Sheera who was supervising her, or even Basara who handed her over to the Moderates faction, thus gritting her teeth and bearing with it all.

Hence, Toujou Basara said it as if delivering it into her ears:

“Zest – you are a girl. Will you promise me, that you will treasure yourself in the future?”





Basara had called her a [Girl], and worried for her, After that—

“I beat up those guys just now… it was because they wanted to do what girls hate the most to you.”

“……!”

In Basara’s arms, Zest’s breaths came to a stop.

''…I can’t…!''

If she were to be careless even a little, her tears would come out. She had not expected that it would not only be Mio and the others – Zest was also receiving Basara’s care. Though it was incomparable to Mio and the others, it was still a fact that Basara right now is by her side, hugging her.

And gazing at her – worrying for her.

“Back then, I saw you restraining yourself to that extent… Could it be that ever since you came here, things like that had happened?”

For Basara who was worrying for her, Zest shook her head while within his arms and answered:

“…No. I was always by Sheera-sama’s side, and I would remain within the city.”

“Then, did anyone in the city do something like that to you?”

“No… Because Sheera-sama always treated me well.”

“—Really?”

“Really – I have never been touched by another male. Please believe me, Basara-sam!”

Zest began panicking from Basara’s questions, and nervously confirmed them.

The reason Zest was trembling, was because her body was almost touched by a male other than Basara.

“Like hugging me like this, Basara-sama is my first…”

“I-I see… I’m glad you’re fine.”

Probably because she had a large reaction, Basara believed her. Thinking that—

<nowiki>「————————」</nowiki>

Zest suddenly felt her energy suddenly leaving her whole body.

Having her fear that Basara would mistakenly think that she had an affair with another male – the nervousness that was present until now left her exhausted.

“—Oh?”

Basara quickly grabbed onto Zest who almost collapsed.

“Are you fine…?”

“I’m very sorry… The moment when I think about Basara trusting me, my energy suddenly—“

Zest tried to stand up by herself, but her legs couldn’t summon the energy to do that.

“I’m sorry, Basara-sama, I’m very sorry… I will immediately stand properly…!”

She did not want to cause trouble to Basara, yet she had become like that. Zest became nervous to the point of wanting to cry.

“You have nothing to apologise for – here you go.”        “Ah--…”

In the blink of an eye, Zest ended up being carried by Basara on his back.

“Y-You can’t, Basara-sama… You can’t do something like that, so please put me down.”

''I should be the one looking after Basara…'' Seeing Zest becoming flustered, Basara bitterly smiled and said:

“How can I do that? Didn’t I just say – you should treasure yourself more?”

“But…!”

“If you’re worried about being seen by others, I’ll just put you down when we leave the alleys. So just try letting me carry you, and think about what I mean by treasuring yourself.”

Saying that, Basara began walking slowly, and—

“…I guess occasionally relying on others is great too, right?”

Hearing Basara say that while smiling, Zest resisted as if not being able to tolerate these sort of jokes:

“My job is to be responsible for looking after you, Basara-sama. Now that I’m being cared for by you, how could I—“

[I see]. Basara suddenly interrupted her in a low voice.

“Since you don’t like it, then forget it – I don’t want to be like those people from just now, doing something that you don’t like to do.”

And then simply began to place Zest back on her feet.

In that moment – Zest suddenly thought that she was about to be coldly brushed away by Basara—

“No – D-Don’t!”

She tightly shut her eyes, and tightly grabbed onto Basara’s shoulders, afraid of separating from him.

However, after ten long seconds, she realised that Basara had not let go of her. When she worriedly and timidly opened her eyes—

“Ah--…”

And she couldn’t hold back her deep sigh. Because before her eyes, was Basara’s loving expression.

It was just like the expression he would often show to Mio and the others. Other than that—

''—what did I, just do?''

That hasty reaction, originally dwelled within her heart, her true feelings.

''…Ah…''

Hence, she could no longer conceal her true self. She clearly remembered, the result and ending she wanted for that youth called Toujou Basara and herself; and with that sentiment, the one who caused her soul to tremble incessantly was no one other than Basara – and her emotions for Basara immediately became stronger. However, being this bold towards Basara—

「…Now I have realised, Basara-sama, you are so naughty. 」

Zest pushed her face against his back and said while rubbing it against his back.

Basara gave no reply, only just returning a sigh and a bitter smile.

“Sorry… But for today, I need to protect that part.”

But his voice suddenly became serious, and continued walking while carrying Zest.

“Basara-sama…?”

As she couldn’t see his expression, she asked back worried, feeling some inexplicable unease, and thus missed Basara’s whisper at the end.

He said in a cold and frightening tone:

“I swear to definitely protect you all – no matter what I have to do.”