Late at night.
A faint click sounded.
Kazuma and Naofumi, sleeping near the door, only mumbled something indistinctly before turning over and continuing to smack their lips.
Makoto didn't open his eyes.
Yu, the Four Gay Bros, and the others, who had been ready to act, seeing that their leader wasn't responding, continued to pretend to sleep.
Malty held an oil lamp in one hand and tiptoed into the room.
She first went to Naofumi's bed and stuffed the rewards the group had earned from their quest that day into a bag she had prepared.
She looked at the shield, the country's divine weapon, thought for a moment, and decided not to take it.
After all, once a divine weapon had bonded with its owner, no one else could use it unless the owner died.
Then she went to the area where Makoto's group was staying and collected the rewards, weapons, and armor, piece by piece.
As she was about to close the door and leave, her footsteps paused by Makoto's bed.
Moonlight fell through the window, covering his face.
Malty stared at that face for two seconds, her teeth clenching slightly.
She pulled a small bundle of purple lace underwear from a secret pocket on the side of her skirt and threw it onto Makoto's chest.
"Originally, if you had been willing to kneel and be my dog, I might have let you live."
"But since you were so ungrateful, willing to pour your heart out to a little girl rather than give me a second glance, then you can go die with them."
After indignantly uttering this harsh threat, Malty closed the door.
The sound of her footsteps gradually faded down the corridor, disappearing around the stair corner.
The dormitory was quiet for a few seconds.
Kazuma was still snoring.
Makoto opened his eyes and looked down at that ambiguous purple color on his chest.
He picked it up with his fingers and casually tossed it on the ground.
"Everyone, get up."
Everyone opened their eyes. Even Yu couldn't control the corners of his mouth from curling up wildly at this moment.
The Teddy Devil wasn't pretending at all. His right paw frantically slapped the bedboard, his whole body shaking with laughter.
Makoto's expression didn't change. He raised his right foot and the next second, stomped down hard.
Squelch—
The Teddy Devil's laughter stopped abruptly. He was instantly stomped into a meat paste.
A pair of eyes fell on the puddle of flesh, twitching slightly.
The Rabbit Devil beside him wiped the blood spatters off his face, expressionlessly pulled a prepared blood bag from under his pillow, and poured it over the meat paste.
After a moment, the Teddy Devil sat up from the pool of blood, shaking the remaining flesh bits off his head like a dog shaking water off after a bath.
"I was just joking. Why so serious?"
Ace sat up from his bed and shouted in frustration, "Damn it! And here I thought she was a good person!"
He hadn't been smitten like Kazuma and Naofumi, but when a princess extended a helping hand when everyone else was looking down on them, that kindness had still touched Ace deeply.
But just now, Ace felt like he had become a clown.
"Learn from this."
The Teddy Devil curled his lip. "So you don't get deceived by women later."
"Senpai."
Yu stood up from the edge of the bed. "How do you want to deal with them?"
Makoto pulled the covers back over himself and said casually, "Let's just say this country won't exist tomorrow."
The next morning, while Kazuma and Naofumi were still asleep, the dormitory door was kicked open.
The iron tip of a spear stopped less than a palm's width from Kazuma's nose.
"Get up!"
Kazuma was so startled by the shout that he nearly wet his pants.
Naofumi was also dragged out of his futon. Before he could figure out what was happening, an iron spear was already against his neck.
"What's going on? What are you doing? Hey! Where are my things?"
Kazuma looked around the room. The equipment and clothes they had left in the room the night before, even the bag of copper coins hidden under his pillow, had all vanished without a trace.
As he was escorted out of the room by the guards, he saw Makoto's group also surrounded by guards in the middle.
"Wh-what's going on?" Naofumi asked in a low voice.
The lead guard captain pointed at them and shouted righteously, "You beasts! How dare you try to defile the princess! Do you think that just because you have the status of Brave Heroes, you can do whatever you want in this country?"
Kazuma was dumbfounded.
He did want to lose his virginity. He wanted it badly.
But rape was something he really couldn't bring himself to do.
Naofumi had the same expression.
However, the guard captain had no interest in listening to their explanations. With a wave of his hand, he said, "Take them away! Hand them over to His Majesty the King for judgment!"
All the way from the dormitory to the palace's main hall, Kazuma and Naofumi's minds were complete mush.
However, Makoto's subordinates were grinning brighter and brighter, looking like they weren't heading to an execution ground but to a party.
Just as they reached the main hall's entrance, at the corner, Yunyun was also being escorted by a group of guards. Her hands weren't bound. The guards just surrounded her, and no one dared to touch her.
The Crimson Demon Clan's deterrent power was probably even better than the Brave Heroes'.
Yunyun also looked completely bewildered. Seeing Makoto, she quickened her pace.
"Makoto, what's happening?"
Makoto raised his hand and patted her head. "Don't be afraid."
The doors were pushed open again.
Just like yesterday, the civil and military officials of the court stood on both sides, only this time, the mostly appraising and disdainful looks had been uniformly replaced by deep loathing.
On the throne, King Aultcray's face was dark, his gray-white beard slightly trembling.
Motoyasu and Ren stood to one side.
The two were wearing the armor that Malty had given to Kazuma and Naofumi yesterday.
Kazuma recognized his shoulder guard at a glance and couldn't help but shout, "Hey, did you steal my armor?!"
Motoyasu sneered coldly. "Your armor? How amusing. This was a gift from the princess."
Malty lay on the armrest of the throne, her eyes red and swollen, her face haggard, her wine-red long hair falling to cover half her face, her body trembling slightly, looking like she had just experienced a great shock.
"Hey! What's going on here? We didn't do anything!"
Kazuma, now unconcerned about the armor, hurriedly shouted, "After we went back to our room yesterday, we went straight to sleep!"
Naofumi also chimed in, "Your Majesty the King, there must be some misunderstanding!!"
"Silence!"
Aultcray's palm slammed against the throne's armrest. "I didn't expect that among the Brave Heroes summoned this time, there would be two with such despicable character! And you bunch of barbarians from another world!"
His gaze moved from Kazuma to the faces of Makoto's group. Noticing the faint smiles on their faces made his expression even darker.
"Malty, tell everyone their crimes."
Malty wiped the corner of her eye, looking like a frightened rabbit.
"This morning... I kindly went to bring tea to these guests from another world. After I entered... before I could even put the things down..."
Her voice trembled as she continued, "That man named Makoto pinned me to the ground and tried to rape me... including the Brave Hero of the Bow and the Brave Hero of the Shield... not only did they not stop him, but they also intended to... join in..."
She didn't say those last few words, but her violently trembling body had already answered for them.
Kazuma's mouth hung open. Naofumi was also dumbfounded.
'This woman came to bring us tea this morning? We had no recollection of any such thing.'
Yunyun looked at Makoto, also showing an expression of disbelief.
Makoto looked down at this little girl who was two heads shorter than him.
"Yunyun, do you think I would do something like that?"
Yunyun didn't answer immediately.
From the time they met yesterday until now, all together, it wasn't even a full day.
But not long after, Yunyun decided to trust her first true friend in life and shook her head vigorously.
Well, Megumin was half-rival, half-friend, so she didn't count as the first.
Makoto was very satisfied with Yunyun's attitude.
"Hahahaha—!"
Yu was the first to laugh out loud.
Unlike his usual cold laugh against enemies, this was genuine, heartfelt, hearty laughter.
Beam also doubled over laughing. The Four Gay Bros huddled together laughing within the guards' encirclement, their four paws scratching wildly at the ground.
Yu was laughing so hard tears were about to come out. He raised his bound wrist, pointed at Malty, and couldn't speak coherently: "R-rape? Senpai wants to rape you? Someone like you, hahahaha! Laugh, laugh, I'm dying—"
Malty's body stiffened.
'What did that mean? In their view, I wasn't even worthy of being raped by that guy?' She took a deep breath. The forced tears in her eyes turned into raging, burning fury.
'Good. Very good.'
She decided not to let Makoto's group die so easily.
'So you like that little girl? Then I'll have someone fuck that bitch to death right in front of you!'
"You—!!"
Aultcray was beside himself with rage, his chest heaving violently from excessive anger.
Makoto tilted his head and looked at him with a smile.
"So what do you want to do about it?"