Mayu’s story, summarized, went like this.
It turns out Mayu had the aptitude of a Sage.
An extremely rare aptitude in this world — she was expected to be ace-tier even among the summoned heroes, except…
She’s too kind-hearted to finish off monsters in combat training. A fatal defect, by the program’s standards.
And the training facility was a place of legendary excess — every toxic trait of sports-club culture, boiled down and concentrated.
・Corporal punishment
・Collective responsibility
・Mutual surveillance
Total madness — and morale among the group-transfer kids was rock bottom.
Then Miyamoto and several others deserted, and the facility’s grip tightened further still.
Which is where “collective responsibility” became the problem.
Right after the desertions, the collective-punishment and surveillance pressure turned openly brutal — and Mayu became the lightning rod.
Every time Mayu “failed” by being unable to kill a monster, the entire group was beaten for it under the banner of collective responsibility… and things spiraled from there.
So her resentful “comrades,” during a live monster-subjugation exercise, shoved her into a ravine and dressed it as an accident.
She took injuries that put her on death’s doorstep — but at the bottom of the ravine, an eccentric sage living near a village found and saved her.
Magic training and a peaceful life followed — happy ending, you’d think. Then the incident.
The sage who took her in died of illness.
The region around that village had terrible public order, kept at bay only by her master’s reputation.
So, as night follows day: with the sage’s death, bandits and armed robber bands started circling the village.
A frontier village, formally abandoned by its lord — left on its current course, it would be destroyed outright.
The villagers pooled their last savings, hired adventurers, and launched a bandit-subjugation expedition.
Mayu, as the sage’s disciple, joined it—
—and the result is how she ended up collapsed and bloody outside my cabin.
“Mm! Verily, curry is DELICIOUS!”
—and with beaming Cornelia going back for seconds, Mayu’s story concluded.
“So what will you do, Mayu?”
“The expedition was wiped out, and the village is going to face retaliation. Badly.”
“Yeah… that’s how it’ll go.”
“My wounds are healed, so… I have to go back. Even if I can’t win… there has to be SOMETHING I can do for them.”
I was about to respond when Ouroboros shook her head.
“Master. If I may—”
“What is it?”
“I would advise against.”
“Meaning?”
“—This matter does not concern us.”
“I mean, sure, but…”
“Stories like this are as common as pebbles in this world — one under every stone. Intervene at this level and there will be no end to it. Ever.”
“That’s… probably true, but…”
And there, Cornelia turned to me.
“A moment, thou.”
“Hm? What?”
“Today’s curry — the flavor differs from the usual?”
“Ah — now you mention it, yeah.”
“Hm? ‘Twas not THY cooking?”
Mayu gave a small nod.
“A tiny bit of instant coffee as a secret ingredient. And… our family curry probably uses more garlic than standard.”
Cornelia’s eyes flew wide, and she was rendered briefly speechless.
“Thou… nay — THOU TOO canst make curry?!”
“Mm. My mom died when I was young, so… cooking was always my job.”
“Instant coffee, in curry… a conception possible only to natives of THAT land. It is as I always said: curry must be entrusted to residents of the other world. No exceptions.”
Nodding along to some internal argument, Cornelia clapped Mayu on the shoulder.
“When Tatsuya is unavailable — I hereby appoint thee MINISTER OF CURRY.”
What even is a Minister of Curry…
And given where this conversation was clearly heading… — I glanced over, and Ouroboros, having reached the same forecast, was already sighing.
“Now — what was it again? Bandits, was it?”
“Ah… yes.”
Cornelia rose to her feet and began cracking her knuckles.
“Then it is DECIDED! We march AT ONCE!”
—In that instant, the bandits’ hyper-overkill was confirmed.
“That sounds fun~♪”
“Captain, ma’am! What is the carrot ration for snack purposes?!”
“A picnic~♪”
—In that instant, the bandits’ extinction was confirmed.
“Master… let us bring home the bandits’ treasure to shore up the household budget. If we are doing this, we do it down to the roots.”
—In that instant, the bandits’ bankruptcy was confirmed.
“I heard EVERYTHING! An’ we’ll be collectin’ a HANDSOME gratuity from them villagers too!”
—In that instant, it was confirmed that the villagers’ grateful smiles would come out slightly strained.
“Ah — I’ll watch the house. The laundry has been piling up, you see.”
“Boku can’t fight, so.”
And so, leaving Maria and Katia behind… the Demon Lord and Her Merry Band’s Massacre Picnic commenced.