The Perverted Old Geezer Bathes in the Rising Sun, and the Obsessed Old Geezer Bathes in the Setting Sun

Now, let us go back a little in time, to shortly after Emi set out from the base.

“Foooh~~~...... right to the very end, she truly was a mischievous child, wasn't she!”

The sun had fully shown its face over Mount Nanga and was shining on the Zamago Forest base, but few people were up and about yet.

Hence, the silence.

All that sounded around them were the lonely voices of insects, and the wind......

Fiddling with his mustache, Earthcell said it in a deliberately jokey voice, breaking that wistful silence, the lingering mood after a parting.

“......Fufu, that's true.”

“She's got that much energy...... wherever she goes, Miss is bound to be fine, right!”

“Hahaha, no doubt about it!”

“UOOOOOOOOH!!!”

In response, the members of the “Brown Dragon's Heel” also began to move at last, each of them stretching with a wry smile.

Emi.

Their precious Miss.

She had left this base having told them almost nothing about herself.

Even so, it had come through to them clearly.

That she had accepted them as precious comrades.

She had, without a doubt, been their comrade.

It was their comrade's decision.

And even if they had tried to stop her, they couldn't have.

In that case, all they could do was respect the outcome, and their comrade's will.

......Yes, all they could do was come to terms with it in their own hearts.

And fortunately, they were grown-up enough to do that.

They saw Emi off and prayed that her journey would be blessed.

And they swore to keep protecting this base, so that she could come back whenever the whim took her.

The first thing these people had to do.

That was.

“““““............”””””

The repair of the road, where Emi, kicking off with all her might as she left the base, had punched a great crater-like hole.

Earthcell had called Emi ‘mischievous’ on seeing this hole, but honestly, this was not damage that such a cute word could describe.

“Well, anyway, let's fix it! Patchino, could you all gather a bit of soil from around here! Once it's prepped, I'll fix it up in a flash with magic!”

“Roger!”

Under Earthcell's orders, everyone started moving to do the repair work...... and it was just then.

“Wh, wait, WAAAAIT! That noise just now, what exactly was it!?”

That Special Affairs Officer Taiche, a coat thrown over her pajamas, came running up to Earthcell with a sleepy Yuju in tow.

She had been jolted awake by the blast of Emi's kick-off, and had rushed all the way here in a panic, forgetting even her makeup.

◇ ◇ ◇

“E, EEEEEH!? She left!? Emi-san did!?”

Once Earthcell had finished telling her how Emi had set out, Taiche pressed her aching forehead and furrowed her brow.

“And there was something Emi-san absolutely had to receive......”

“Oh, you too, Taiche? Actually, so do I......”

So saying, Earthcell slowly took something out from his pocket.

When he opened the hand he had drawn from his pocket...... what lay in that clenched hand was......

Panties.

“‘Hope’...... is what I have named them! I fully intended to give them to Emi-chan! But there wasn't even a chance to!!”

Earthcell spread the panties out with both hands and held them up to the rising sun.

The pure morning light passed through the filter of the panties, took on a faint pink tint, and poured down on Earthcell......

“Don't you lump my business in with that thing, you perverted old geezer!! I'M TALKING ABOUT WOOOORK!!”

Taiche, in a fury, punched the carefree Earthcell's right cheek as hard as she could.

She punched him, really, with everything she had!

“FUOOOOOH!? Wh, what do you mean, ‘that thing’!? Apologize to the Panty God!!”

“Like I care about that god!! Listen, the Adventurers' Guild has to pay that girl a large sum in compensation! We searched and searched for where she was, and finally found her in person! And now we're back to square one!”

“......Eh, compensation?”

Hearing those words, Earthcell suddenly went pale.

Unlike back when he was posted to Topuringon, he had long since washed his hands of stealing underwear.

But living in a demon realm, where the ties...... the shackles of human society were few...... or rather, now that he really thought back, from the very day he came to the demon realm...... he had been, perhaps, a little too open about his, um, favorite things, as he only now realized.

Really, a bit late for that.

“In other words...... Emi-chan is suing me...... for sexual harassment......!?”

“Wrong!! Listen properly! We were already looking for her on a separate matter, from before you, old geezer, ever met Emi-san!”

This time, Taiche punched Earthcell's left cheek.

Then she cleared her throat with a kohon and returned to her usual calm Special Affairs Officer mode.

In her pajamas, though.

“......We of the Adventurers' Guild caused Emi-san a great deal of trouble in the town of Yoshanka. Naturally, a single apology from me, a mere officer, could never be enough to show our sincerity. We must properly pay what is owed. In truth, I meant to tell her so properly at yesterday's talks, but......”

“I see, then the attack happened, didn't it......”

“Yes, and even after things settled down...... there was Giovanno-san's funeral too, so it hardly seemed right to bring up money, and I held back. I never expected...... that she would leave this base the very next morning......”

Taiche let out a small sigh.

She looked a little pale, or so it seemed.

Earthcell, noticing this quickly, felt a little concerned.

His granddaughter was dry enough by nature to throw her own grandfather into a demon realm without a second thought.

Of course she was pained over Emi too, but she ought to be drawing a firm professional line, keeping enough distance that it wouldn't make her heartsick.

And yet, she looked this pale.

In other words.

“......Is there some troublesome story behind this case?”

That must be it.

Perverted old geezer he may be, but Earthcell had not worked for the Adventurers' Guild so long for nothing.

He could sense that much immediately.

With her feelings seen through, Taiche braced herself for a moment, but the man in front of her was her grandfather and her colleague.

Besides, it wasn't information that needed to be hidden in the first place.

She let out a sigh and revealed the circumstances.

“Troublesome...... or rather, the Supreme Commander is showing a great deal of interest. In Emi-san.”

“Good heavens!”

Earthcell was a man who had long worked as an adventurer, and now worked as a guild employee.

He also knew Supreme Commander Lairine Rune.

She was a superhuman.

The strongest adventurer in the world.

And a person never short of dangerous rumors.

The head of such an organization was interested in Emi, and though they had managed to make contact with her once, they had lost her again; Earthcell thought it was only natural that even a granddaughter as capable as his would be reluctant to report that.

(Still, that Supreme Commander, of all people......)

Lairine Rune, Supreme Commander of the Adventurers' Guild, was a being beyond reason who somehow never aged.

She had lived longer than any human could, and her beauty had not changed in the slightest since Earthcell was a rookie adventurer.

And perhaps because of that strength a world apart, or because of her long life...... at first glance she seemed a gentle, kind person, but in truth she had little human warmth and wasn't very interested in other people.

That Supreme Commander had taken an interest in Emi.

(In other words, is Emi-chan really the same kind as the Supreme Commander, after all? Considering that strength, it would make sense...... will that child end up like that someday too?)

That...... would be kind of unpleasant, Earthcell thought, and sighed.

(......Hm?)

As his thoughts got that far, something suddenly occurred to Earthcell.

“Taiche, if the Supreme Commander is so concerned about Emi-chan, then what is that shady old geezer doing?”

“Shady old geezer?”

“You know! The Vice-Commander with the long name, Gai-something! That fellow goes a little crazy whenever the Supreme Commander is involved, doesn't he? Isn't he making a move?”

Now, the Vice-Commander Geistpfenanjeshiriard just mentioned was about the same age as Earthcell.

This Vice-Commander had also been an adventurer active on the front lines in the past, and while they rarely met face-to-face now, they had known each other for a long time.

That earnest, gentle face he put on had another side to it.

Earthcell had once, during a certain large-scale joint request, been forcibly thrown out of the inn he was staying at by Geistpfenanjeshiriard, who back then was no Vice-Commander or anything of the sort, just someone playing the Supreme Commander's secretary on his own initiative; the reason was that the Supreme Commander was coming to inspect.

Even though he had been badly injured on that request.

He was usually capable, but...... the moment the Supreme Commander was involved, a screw in his head came loose: that was the Vice-Commander.

Earthcell, an old hand, had learned that firsthand.

“Don't say rude things. Unlike a certain perverted old geezer, the Vice-Commander is a fine person!”

But Taiche, being a young employee, didn't seem to have noticed that side of the Vice-Commander yet.

(Well...... unlike the Supreme Commander, that one has aged too. He must have mellowed.)

Given that he had become the Vice-Commander and the organization still ran without trouble, that was probably the case.

Or else he had gotten better at keeping up appearances than in the old days.

Either way, since his granddaughter hadn't noticed the Vice-Commander's flawed side, it meant the man no longer showed that side in public, and there was no need to go out of his way to warn her.

He also didn't want a word from him to plant doubts about the Vice-Commander in his granddaughter's mind and make her job harder.

So, though he snorted, Earthcell didn't argue further with his granddaughter, who spoke of the Vice-Commander with pride.

“Um, so, about the Vice-Commander...... as far as I know, he hasn't done anything in particular, you know? Naturally, wouldn't you say? Of course it matters that the guild properly settles its own blunder, but however interested the Supreme Commander may be, favoring this case and pouring effort into it for that alone would be unthinkable for someone in an organization, wouldn't it?”

“Foh...... I do hope so......”

Earthcell said so while absently looking up at the sky.

A cold gust carrying fallen leaves with a kasakoso rustle blew past and stirred his mustache.

He didn't really know why...... but he had a bad feeling.

“Heey! The soil's all ready!”

“......Foooh~~~! Roger that! Then today too, feast your eyes on the splendor of my earth magic to your hearts' content!”

But then.

Emi had already run off somewhere at a speed like flight, and left this base behind.

There was nothing more Earthcell and the others could do.

(Well, whatever happens, she'll be fine! She's Emi-chan, after all!)

For now, deciding to let Emi handle Emi's business herself, Earthcell, called over by Patchino, began repairing the road.

Another day in the demon realm was beginning.

◇ ◇ ◇

Meanwhile, at the same moment, an island of eternal summer sinking into a red-purple dusk.

The name of this island, where dragons danced through the sky with shrill cries, slicing through pink clouds, was Aave Island.

......And the white building on this island, dyed pink by the setting sun like the clouds, was none other than the headquarters of the Adventurers' Guild, which has branches all over the world.

“............”

In the private office provided for him at that headquarters, deep in the finest leather office chair, sat an elderly, butler-like man, alone.

He was the man who in practice ran the business of this Adventurers' Guild: Vice-Commander Geistpfenanjeshiriard!

He usually wore the mask of the gentle Vice-Commander, calm and never without a smile, but the air he gave off now was startlingly cold.

With the setting sun streaming in through the window behind him, he was backlit, and the finer points of his expression couldn't be read...... but with his legs crossed arrogantly, his arms folded...... and his index finger tapping his arm ton ton in quick little beats, he was, to anyone's eyes, making no secret of his displeasure.

The one he was glaring at was something standing still on one knee in the dim room dyed in the dusk.

It could just barely be made out as something like a human with black cloth wrapped all over its body, but whether it was a man or a woman, or how old it was, there was no telling at all.

It was a black-clad humanoid that gave the impression it might melt into the dusk and vanish at any moment.

“You found the target. At last. That, is good.”

After a moment of silence, Vice-Commander Geistpfenanjeshiriard spoke in a cold voice, still appearing displeased.

The target was, of course, Emi.

Geistpfenanjeshiriard was originally an orphan taken in and raised by the Supreme Commander, Lairine Rune.

To him, Lairine was his teacher, his sister and his mother.

She was the object of his reverence, and...... of a maddening love that would never reach her.

That Lairine had turned an interest he had never seen before, from a report alone, on a black-haired, black-eyed girl: Emi.

Geistpfenanjeshiriard was jealous of this Emi.

Mother's interest in humans was somehow thin.

While she showed an attitude of trying to be polite, her gaze toward humans, if observed closely, was always somehow cold.

That...... held even for himself, who ought to be her son, her disciple and her right hand.

......And yet!

When she read that report about some girl named Emi...... the look on Mother's face!

That look in her eyes, as if she were pining for someone she had fallen for at first sight, just what was it!?

When she has me......!

Me, not even once!

She has never once gazed at me with eyes like that!!

What's more, ever since, the Supreme Commander kept asking the Vice-Commander.

Had Emi been found yet?

Every day, every day, every day, every day, every day......!

With such a wistful face!

With such a lonely face!

Without a thought for my...... Geistpfenanjeshiriard's feelings!!

How much I, the one being asked that!!

feel as if my heart would burst, she never knows!!

Having spent a long time with Lairine, Geistpfenanjeshiriard knew the reason why Mother showed such obsession toward Emi.

Mother had always lived searching for her own kind.

She had kept searching for a human who could become as strong as she, who could live as long as she, and who could spend the ages at her side.

Through her intuition, Mother had seen that Emi was such a human.

......It was unforgivable.

There was no way he could forgive it.

That some cursed child, a nobody from who knows where, should push him aside and become Mother's most beloved child!!

Absolutely unforgivable!!

So Geistpfenanjeshiriard at once gave an order to the black-clad figure standing before him...... a being bound by contract to obey him absolutely.

‘Kill the black-haired, black-eyed girl Emi,’ he ordered.

But for about the past 2 years, that order had never been carried out.

This black-clad figure...... took human form, but was not human.

It had never before failed to carry out an order.

The reason was simply that it had never been able to find this so-called Emi girl.

He assumed she had probably died in a ditch somewhere.

By convincing himself of that, Geistpfenanjeshiriard had managed to find some peace of mind, but a trace of unease remained, and just in case, he continued his personal search for Emi.

This included not only investigations using the black-clad figure, but also patient clerical work.

For example, he had secretly planted suggestions in a few employees devoted to him, so that they screened the documents delivered to headquarters in advance and caught any information concerning Emi.

Letters addressed to headquarters, even if the addressee was an individual, were opened at the reception and given a receipt stamp.

Screening them in advance was easy.

As a result, Geistpfenanjeshiriard finally found the name of the hated Emi!

It was a letter sent to Special Affairs Officer Taiche by Earthcell, the New Branch Establishment Official dispatched to the demon realm called Zamago Forest.

Taiche was a talented Special Affairs Officer, and had been involved in the Yoshanka incident, which was how the Supreme Commander came to know Emi's name.

And so she moved quickly.

Quite apart from the personal obsessions of the Supreme Commander and the Vice-Commander, the Adventurers' Guild owed Emi an apology and reparations, so it was only natural.

But Geistpfenanjeshiriard moved even faster!

Before Taiche could move, he sent the black-clad figure.

To assassinate Emi.

And he personally approved the business-trip requests and other documents coming up from Taiche, cutting off the information reaching the Supreme Commander.

With this, at last, that evil called Emi or whatever, which troubled Supreme Commander Lairine's heart, would be destroyed, and peace would come to this world.

......That was how it was supposed to go.

“Why...... why did you come back without killing her!!”

His voice must not carry outside the room.

And so Geistpfenanjeshiriard put the question to the black-clad figure in a low, stifled voice, yet one filled with a hatred he couldn't hold back.

“............”

The black-clad figure answered nothing.

It only stayed there on one knee, perfectly still.

But whether through 【Telepathy】 or something, its side of things seemed to reach Geistpfenanjeshiriard.

“Hah, a mighty being? Beyond your power to match? It is just one human girl, is it not! And on top of that, the target may have seen you once? You grow more useless year by year, don't you, eh?”

But though it got through, he didn't entertain the black-clad figure's view for a moment and dismissed it out of hand.

For a while he kept foully cursing the black-clad figure for how useless it was, but as he did, he calmed down a little.

To begin with, this black-clad figure was a stealth type.

It was poor at head-on fighting.

The target, Emi, had been expected from the start to have a certain degree of fighting ability.

About 2 years had passed since the Yoshanka incident, and if her power had grown to some extent, it was possible that the black-clad figure simply wasn't up to the job.

“Then...... I shall use another assassin. You, you have put a ‘marking’ on the girl, I trust?”

The black-clad figure, remaining silent, conveyed a yes.

“Good. Where is she now? ......Heading west on the Saikanan Highway? ......Hmph, how convenient.”

The Vice-Commander wore a wicked smirk, took out writing paper and an envelope, and wrote a letter with quick strokes.

Then he tossed it carelessly to the black-clad figure, who was waiting motionless on one knee.

“That grubby band of assassins working in the east of the Naganahate Kingdom...... give this letter to them.”

“............”

“I am a valued customer; I have used them many times. If the request comes from me, they will move at once. I spare no expense, after all. Above all, since their leader died and their setup changed, they have been hungry for results. They have become very easy to deal with. They will gladly kill the girl for me. Unlike you, useless as you are.”

“............”

“......What are you doing. You have been sent to their base before, have you not? Get going. Set the scum on her, and have the trash killed.”

At that order, the black-clad figure left the Vice-Commander's room, if a little reluctantly.

Its body sank into the room's shadows, stretched long by the setting sun, as if melting into them, and vanished.

All that remained was Vice-Commander Geistpfenanjeshiriard, alone, gazing at the sea from the great window.

“The evil that troubles Mother's heart...... at last, your final hour has come.”

So murmured Vice-Commander Geistpfenanjeshiriard.

“I'm counting on you, ‘Purple Dual Rings’......!”

And watching the sinking sun, he twisted his lips and chuckled.

With something sort of like a hook for the next arc, that's the end of Arc 12.

At last, the Vice-Commander makes his move!

And the ‘Purple Dual Rings’!?

You lot weren't wiped out!?

Just how many readers would react like that, I wonder?

The ‘Purple Dual Rings’ are the bunch from Arc 3.

It's been way too long since they last showed up; nobody can remember them!

Now then, thank you for reading my humble work, ‘The Omake Reincarnator’, this far.

Bookmarks, star ratings, reviews, comments: they really keep me going.

Thank you so much.

This work has finally reached the closing stretch of Part 1.

Counting from the next arc, Part 1 has just 5 arcs left!

Only a little more...... no, not really, there's still quite a lot to go, yep.

I'd be glad if you stuck with me.

By the way, I suddenly started saying ‘Part 1’, but the serialization will carry on as usual even after Part 1 ends.

It just means a small break in the story is coming up soon.

Not that it's much of a break.

Part 1 and Part 2 have exactly the same vibe, so I think you, dear readers, can go on enjoying this story with no change at all, so please rest assured.

By the way, if you ask how many parts ‘The Omake Reincarnator’ has in all...... it has 5 parts.

That's long!!!

I hope you'll keep sticking with me.

I look forward to your continued support.