(MC POV)
"Master! We did it! The demon lord is slain!!" Eris cheered while rus.h.i.+ng up to me while her front was still caked in the demon lord's blood.
I didn't mind the blood even as she hugged me which prompted her other selves to come hug me as well, all of them already ignoring the dead demon lord that lay on the ground behind them in a pool of her own blood.
I spent a good half an hour pampering them until they were satisfied before I cleaned them of the blood.
"What do we do now, Master?" Eris asked, her eyes sparkling.
"Hmm? Isn't it obvious? We return back to the kingdom as heroes, don't we? That's how the story usually goes."
"Oh!! That's right! Do we have time for that, Master?"
I considered it for a moment, "If you wish to skip the journey and let me fast forward time to return, then yes we can make it. But if you want to experience the journey home, that will take quite a while I'm afraid."
"Teleport…?" Laverna suggested.
I shook my head, "We need to let the news of the demon lord's defeat travel first. Otherwise, they might not believe us when we tell them that the demon lord is defeated."
Denna nodded, "That makes sense. This one believes we can take her sword but what do we do about her body?"
"Ain't the usual thing ta' do is ta' burn it or sumthin'?" Bait pointed out.
I nodded, "That would be how we should do it, so no one can try and take her body and resurrect her or even try to absorb her powers."
Eris turned to me, "They can do that?"
"Theoretically yes. Practically? Not in this decade at least. But we wouldn't need to worry about it since we wouldn't be here for that anyway."
"Ah, that's right, we're here just to play around~ I almost forgot~ Ehehe~"
"Anyway, you girls should transform your equipment back to normal before we leave. Those were supposed to be the iconic equipment for each of you and it would not do to see them changed to something else."
The four of them groaned but did as I asked, returning their swords back to the equipment they had started in this World with.
"One more thing," I added while they were strapping their gear to themselves. "We need to agree that Eris was the one who dealt the killing blow to the demon lord and we were only there as her support. Everyone believes that the hero Eris is the strongest being in this World and it would cause quite a bit of chaos if they were told otherwise."
"Understood, Master!" All of them agreed without question.
I reached out my hand to them, "Alright now, hold my hand and I'll move time forward such that we are being welcomed as heroes."
All of them placed their hands in mine and I prepared for the transfer.
The World around us then blurred for a moment before snapping back into focus, the scenery changing to one where we were inside a grand city with various types of buildings arranged in a neat row on both sides of a street. All of us were also no longer standing but seated in an open top carriage while being escorted by several knights in s.h.i.+ning white armour.
"The Hero has defeated the Demon Lord!"
"Hooray for the Hero!!"
"I love you, Hero!!"
"The Hero is the strongest!!"
All kinds of praises were being lavished upon us from the crowd on the sides of the street, a few of them throwing flower petals from the windows above us.
"Smile and wave, everyone," I told them with a wry smile.
We stood up and waved at the citizens, receiving their cheers and praises graciously.
It was a little amusing to see the four of them waving back awkwardly since they weren't used to this amount of attention being lavished upon them.
Our hero procession headed directly towards the castle where we had an audience with the king while the n.o.bles of the kingdom watched us within the audience hall.
"Congratulations on defeating the Demon Lord, heroes!" The king welcomed us while standing up from his throne.
I know that Eris and the others would definitely be against kneeling or even bowing to the king so I already made sure to remove the need for that from this reality.
eαglesnovel`c,om Thus, no one batted an eye at us when we simply walked up to the king.
Eris used her other self's memories to figure out what she needed to say, "We have returned your majesty. This sword is proof of the defeat of the Demon Lord."
She then pulled out the sword in question and presented it to the king.
He received it with both hands and nodded, "Indeed, this is the sword of the dreaded Demon Lord! The one that was stolen from our treasury so many years ago. We shall have it sealed away for the rest of time! Rejoice everyone! The great evil of the world has finally been defeated!! It is time for celebration!"
A cheer rang out throughout the audience hall from the n.o.bles in attendance, loud enough for the people outside of the throne room to hear as well. No doubt the news was being spread to the people all around the capital as we speak.
After this news has spread, the city should be having a feast and party for the entire night just to celebrate the downfall of the demon lord.
The king returned to his throne and sat down on it with a wide grin on his face, "Of course, for such great heroes, a reward for your achievements is expected! First, all of you will be granted n.o.ble t.i.tles with land within the kingdom! All of you would also be exempted from tax and a national holiday would be made in your name!"
Well, it's all pretty much just standard stuff so it's nothing special. What's more, I already knew that this was going to happen so I wasn't surprised. To Eris and the others, this would simply be a conclusion to our date since they wouldn't be able to enjoy the rewards for long anyway.
That's also ignoring the fact that they were G.o.ddesses and material rewards like this no longer mean anything to them anymore.
If any of them wanted to, all they needed to do was to will all of this into existence or even simply ask me to do it for them, so it's really quite meaningless to talk about material wealth to them.
The reason why I actually secretly wanted to come back here with them was the surprise reward that came after that.
The king then gestured to the side and a rather handsome young man with a pretty face and rather messy blonde hair strolled forward to stand at attention.
"For the Hero Eris, you are also permitted to marry my son, Prince Christopher!! We shall set the wedding date to happen tomorrow!"
The other n.o.bles started to cheer but it was cut short by a loud shriek from the hero herself.
"WHAT?!! ABSOLUTELY NOT!!"
There we go~