Hero-sama! The relay base has suffered great damage!"
"Look for survivors! There might be monsters lurking, so always have someone with magic probe equipment with you!"
I could hear the hero's voice on the other side of the hall, they can't see us due to an obstruction.
I pull Lady Karina by hand toward the hero and his party.
There are pillars of stones and burnt wreckages in the center of the hall so the view here is bad.
"Hero-sama! There are people on top of the cliff."
"That's, Satou?"
A knight wearing black armor pointed at us and shouted, a woman wearing silver armor muttered my name quizzically.
The girl with the silver straight hair is Lady Ringrande, the [Sky-tearing Witch], one of the hero's follower. She's the big sister of Sera the [Oracle Miko] who's in my solitary island palace, the daughter of the duke and also a bit of a siscon.
I waved my hands at her and jumped down the cliff.
Lady Karina followed while holding down her fluttering skirt.
"Why is Satou in this place...."
Wariness floated in Lady Ringrande's eyes, she puts her dominant hand on her sword's grip.
When we've come close enough to have a conversation, I open my mouth to greet them.
"Good day, Ringrande-sama, for this occasion--"
"Hero-sama, over here!"
While I was saying my condolence, a black knight appeared, together with Hero Hayato.
"Satou--"
His macho handsome face looks exhausted due to the long-term labyrinth exploration and his battles with the demon lord.
His blue armor is also dented and dirtied, the brilliance of [Hero] that I saw back then has lost its luster.
"I-it's hero Hayato-sama in flesh desuwa."
『Karina-dono, I do not mind if you are delighted, but do not let your guard down.』
Lady Karina reacts like a fangirl when she sees the hero, it's probably because the education she's gotten from Earl Muno the hero researcher since childhood.
While feeling heartwarming looking at her, I turn back to the hero.
"Hayato-sama, please excuse me for my long silence."
My eyes met the hero's while saying that with a smile.
His eyes somehow remind me of the time when I was in a development death march.
They remind me too much of eyes which resent everything in the world, wanting sleep, peace, and liberation from work.
I should have come to help him sooner.
I repent the fact that I had left the hero alone in my mind.
"--It's you this time huh."
The laugh which doesn't suit him at all bothers me.
"Hayato-sama, what's the matter?"
"Take this, Satou!"
The hero drew the holy sword Arondight and swung it.
"."
The hero's technique which I haven't seen for a long time is faster than before.
I evade the blue light extending from the blade.
"Kyaa, desuwa."
『Gununu, as expected of hero's technique.』
Lady Karina and Raka who seemed to have taken the after-wave of the attack screamed.
Lady Karina seems suspiciously happy about it.
It's hard to understand, but as a hero fan, is she glad for taking the attack with her body?
Still the technique's focus is worse than I expected.
The after-wave of the technique he showed me back then would have not gone toward Lady Karina.