Side: Amahashi Kakeru

Maybe because we'd shopped all over the place, but we had a lot of bags. After stashing everything in a coin locker, we'd come to an electronics retailer.

I still hadn't put them on a train, but I had gotten them on a bus. I'd figured they'd be amazed, but since they had vehicles back in the other world too, they were less impressed than I'd expected.

"It's incredible."

The one most thrilled with the electronics retailer was, of all people, Noctia. The look on her face was clearly different from when we'd been clothes shopping. She'd shown interest in the home appliances back at the house too—said she wanted to take them apart. I'd stopped her, obviously.

She'd started drifting off on her own through the appliance floor.

"Kakeru, look at that!"

Just as I was about to go after her, Filia's slightly startled voice made me turn around, and there was the TV section. What was playing was probably some video-sharing site.

"Oh, come on…"

The four of us went straight over and got drawn in by the footage.

It was footage of someone firing a gun at a Lesser Goblin like the one I'd fought the other day, and at a slime, a gelatinous monster.

The place was probably inside a dungeon. This one looked like a cavern-type, though. Thanks to the translation magic item I could understand what was being said, but the language wasn't Japanese. They were speaking English, so it was probably somewhere in the English-speaking world.

The filming was amateur, too. From the camera angles and the shaking, I figured it was a poster on a video-sharing site.

"CG's gotten so realistic these days."

"This is better than most movies."

It was realistic enough that a young couple who happened to be watching nearby were making a fuss over it. No wonder. It was probably the real thing, after all.

"Huh…?"

"Hey, let us see the rest."

I was watching to see how it played out when the video suddenly stopped and switched to a screen saying it had been deleted by the operator for violating the terms of service.

The young couple drifted off, dissatisfied, but…

"That was… what we think it was, right?"

"Yes. No doubt about it."

Filia was certain. That the footage just now was a dungeon. Pricia and Sanctina seemed to be of the same opinion.

"So there really are others, just as I thought."

"Why does no one know about them?"

"It's more natural to assume they're hiding it. That's what those who govern are like."

Pricia was right. Sanctina found it odd that no one knew despite the dungeons existing, but there was no mistaking it—they were hiding it.

If a video-streaming site had deleted it, then there was a strong chance it was being covered up at the international level.

Wait. Or, conversely, maybe some country or faction was leaking the information out little by little, watching for reactions? It was too soon to jump to conclusions.

"Let's get back to shopping."

I'd gotten lost in thought for a while, but right now I needed to buy what everyone needed for daily life, not worry about dungeons. We'd come here to buy smartphones.

I needed to do one more loop and make sure there weren't any other appliances we needed. Honestly, when it came to what these girls needed, I couldn't figure it out on my own.

Come to think of it, where had Noctia gone?

She was the one who'd be in on this kind of conversation, and she wasn't here. When we all searched the store for her, she'd roped in a clerk and was asking about the appliances.

"I see, so it has that feature."

"Yes, the latest models are extremely high-performance."

Wasn't she being treated like one of those foreigners on a shopping spree? The clerk was making his pitch to Noctia, who was happily asking about this and that.

"Kakeru, this is amazing. To think you can buy a tool with intelligence for this price…"

What she'd been looking at was a refrigerator. A so-called smart appliance, probably. Calling it "intelligence" was an exaggeration, but well, Noctia didn't look Japanese either. Seen as a foreigner, it probably wasn't unusual for someone to be impressed. The clerk didn't seem to mind in particular.

"Ah, right. But our fridge still works, so…"

"I see…"

Noctia looked openly disappointed. Was she this kind of person?

"Then how about that one? Just looking is fine, isn't it?"

"No, we came to look at smartphones today. Let's look over there first."

Yeah, at this rate she'd keep wanting to know about every appliance in the store until she'd grasped them all. When I glanced at Pricia and Filia, the two of them flanked Noctia on either side and started walking so she wouldn't wander off.

"So she's that kind of person."

Sanctina was dumbstruck. I guess it was because Noctia had this air about her—like she'd risen above it all and saw straight through everything.

Honestly, I was surprised too.

"When you think about it, her showing us her true feelings is the strange part. In Noctia's case, anyway."

I still didn't understand her well.

What was clear was that she'd been trying to quit being the Demon Lord. That she intended to live in this world. About that much, maybe?

Her real feelings and her lies, truth and falsehood—she kept them all perpetually vague. Just when you thought she'd told you how she really felt, it'd turn out to be a lie, or she'd say it was a joke. There were even moments when I suspected she was making sure no one around her ever grasped who she really was.

"Kakeru, this is the smartphone thing you have, isn't it? How is it different?"

When we got to the smartphone section, Noctia's eyes lit up again. But being asked the difference put me on the spot. There were pamphlets, at least, so I explained while looking at one.

For the record, she'd already learned that machines run on electricity. She was the one who understood and made the best use of the appliances at our house, after all.

With the questions coming one after another, the clerk seemed to try to approach and then back off. They didn't actually know the fine details, surprisingly. The clerks in the smartphone section, that is.

As for Pricia and the others, they looked like they wanted to say anything was fine.

"I see… splendid!"

She'd probably only use it for calls, the internet, and electronic payments, so I'd figured a cheap one would do for now—but Noctia seemed to want a high-performance smartphone.

"Um, Noctia. We're being looked after by Kakeru, so…"

"Ah, right. It's fine. I'm thinking it through properly."

Filia stepped in to stop her, thankfully. Though for someone saying that, she kept handling and inspecting nothing but the high-end ones.

"What do the rest of you want to do? If there's one you like, I'll consider it…"

"Anything's fine for me…"

"Yes. For me too… as long as it works, that's plenty."

I asked Pricia and the others their opinions just in case, but Pricia and Sanctina didn't seem all that interested. It seemed like they figured it was handy and just needed to work. Of course, I'm sure there was some holding back, too.

"Um… this mid-range one here is on sale. It's last year's model, but the performance isn't bad. If you buy now, I'll throw in a screen protector as well."

I was wondering what to do when the clerk who'd been watching from a distance threw me a lifeline.

"I see. That sounds good, then."

Yeah, it seemed to be a model Noctia could just about accept. I figured I'd put the contract under my name and buy it. Then we'd head home before Noctia took an interest in any other appliances.

I was scared she'd pull out gold coins or jewels and start saying she wanted to buy something.