Chapter 216

Seitry left after giving me all of the bad news.

The tactician was probably gathering information in the castle now.

“…Still, these wars around my country never seem to end.”

Was there some kind of curse?

The main problem was that Lesser Demon King Kyuka was very close to becoming a Demon King.

He had defeated Lesser Demon King Fara, and the only thing left to do was to defeat Leninoth. And that would make him a Demon King. That would have been the plan.

However, Leninoth was defeated by someone else, and so that door was closed to him.

He now had to defeat whoever it was that defeated Leninoth. But there was no information about them.

Of course, there wasn’t.

It was not known that Demon King Tralzard had sent us soldiers.

The only thing that Kyuka knew was that they were stronger than Leninoth.

And it wasn’t as if Kyuka had crushed Fara without taking any damage. So it was only right for him to be cautious.

He was right to prioritize healing his wounds.

With this valuable time given to us, my country could now prepare… Or so I thought, but now we were involved in a battle with the other small countries.

In fact, all four had united to fight against us. I didn’t know that such bad luck was even possible.

They must have heard of Leninoth’s defeat.

If you wanted to defeat Kyuka, then you had to conquer the small southern countries.

Are we going to be attacked? Then we should get them first!

They would have thought such things.

No matter where you were in the Demon World, people were always ready to fight.

Five more days passed after Seitry’s visit.

But nothing had changed. I was still inside of the tower.

As I had nothing to do, I started to train on my own. But I wasn’t sure how effective it was.

I tried to learn tricks to absorb enemy mana, sending mana throughout my body, and seeing if I could use magic.

“…Hey, what is it? Why are you here?”

I was spending so much time on the top floor, that Yorba came up to see me.

In spite of appearances, the Sand Armor was very friendly, and worried about my well-being.

“I was just wondering how long it will be until I can get out of here.”

How many times had I said this to him already?

“You’ll have to ask Her Majesty about that. There is nothing that we can do.”

Everyone who was here were of the higher ranks. And yet there were things that they couldn’t do.

They had been posted here in the tower because they were strong.

Misinformed invaders would attack, and so it was their job to deal with them.

I had even helped them one time.

And it had been rather fun.

“You worry too much. Hey, how about some kumite?”

Recently, I had taught Yorba how to do it, and he started inviting me often.

Kumite involved two people standing at a fixed distance apart, and then fighting without moving their feet.

Of course, I had the advantage in terms of technique, but it was not easy to break down someone like Yorba, who was protected by natural armor.

And so it was good practice for me.

“Why not? I’ll give you a good beating then.”

“Don’t think it will be the same as last time.”

The good thing about kumite was that you could do it anywhere.

You didn’t need a lot of space.

And so I responded to Yorba’s moves while ruminating over what I had talked about with Seitry.

The tactician had come all the way here alone and talked about my country.

Given who I was talking to, I knew there must be some hidden motive, and so I listened carefully.

(Why was this told to me now?)

It was something that bothered me for a long time after.

Perhaps it was mere kindness. But what if it wasn’t?

(That would mean it’s part of some plan…)

For instance, what if I could stand it no longer and escaped?

Would Tralzard happily send men after me?

But it would be difficult to take me down if I went all out.

It could mean causing great damage to our surroundings and the death of some valuable subordinates.

Besides, there was no guarantee that I would try to leave. So that wasn’t a good plan.

(What else could it be?)

Were they waiting for me to get frantic and act?

This was Demon King Tralzard’s tactician, and so he would be thinking about the country’s interests, while following along with the Demon King’s will.

“Hmm. I really don’t know.”

“Damn it. I surrender.”

That brought me back. Yes, I had been fighting with Yorba.

When I looked at him, his face was all puffed up.

“Huh? It’s over?”

“Over? What’s wrong with you? You beat me like mad!”

“Oh. I don’t remember doing that.”

I had been too deep in thought.

“Are you serious… And here I was, trying my best…”

Yorba walked unsteadily out of the room with a terribly disappointed expression on his face. He was probably going to go and cool off.

I felt bad. I would have to apologize to him later.

Still, I was sure that Seitry had approached me with intention.

There must be a lot more information that I wasn’t given.

“I need to find all of the pieces, or the picture won’t be complete.”

And then I will know how to act.

And then two more days passed.

Yorba had heard some information from the outside when a soldier came to bring us food.

The tower was surrounded by a high wall, and there were people watching it.

And while there were a number of people whose duty it was to bring the food, they were all acquaintances, and so they often talked with Yorba and the others.

“Apparently, a ‘holy stake’ was discovered near the town.”

“A holy stake? Ah, those things.”

What the Celestial World used to gather information from the Demon World.

After a few days, they would turn into salt.

In the meantime, they would continue to deliver information.

First it would be the surrounding geography. Was it in the sea? River? Forest? Desert?

After that it was the mana density. And whether or not there were residents of the Demon World nearby. And if it was a miasma zone.

And while it hadn’t been confirmed, it was likely that these stakes were able to search for people with specific kinds of mana.

People with immense mana, or a special type.

It was also said that they could even determine their basic race category.

This information was all from the fallen ones.

So these holy stakes gave them a wide variety of information on the Demon World.

And one had been sent here.

Sending just one of them was supposed to be very costly.

In other words, it could mean a serious invasion.

“Things are about to get busy.”

Something was definitely going to happen. I was sure of it.