Prologue

The shelf was lined with all kinds of boots. I was trying to decide which pair to buy. There was too much variety, and form seemed to be as important as function. I couldn’t ask the shopkeeper for help, either, because they were currently dealing with another customer.

The choice would have been easy if I’d been buying a pair for myself.

“What about...those?” I proposed, pointing at a white pair.

“Master, those are weird.”

So much for my carefully considered selection.

The shooting down had been done by Hikari, a young girl with dark hair and eyes. She’d been a spy for the Kingdom of Elesia sent to monitor me—a guy summoned from another world to become a hero—and through an odd chain of events, we’d ended up traveling together.

It wasn’t one of those friendships-born-from-battle things or anything like that. It was just that I couldn’t simply abandon her after I learned about her situation.

Hikari had become more expressive since our initial meeting, but she was still awkward in many ways. In particular, she wasn’t afraid to let loose with a beaming smile when she was eating a food she liked.

“Sora, how about these?” said Mia, holding up a pair of boots.

Mia normally had long, eye-catching golden hair, but due to an incident in the capital of the Holy Kingdom of Frieren, she’d dyed her hair black and cut it to shoulder length. She was using contact lenses to darken her eyes as well. Because of that, she and Hikari looked a bit like sisters when they stood side by side.

Back in Frieren, Mia had been prepared for authentication as the nation’s Saint. However, the machinations of