Chapter 9

「……An intruder?」

The west side of the Dark Continent.

One of the many scattered about dungeons that were there, the Meshram Underground Palace.

The Majin Meshram, who was its owner, knitted his eyebrows at his subordinate’s report.

「The Goblins are making a fuss, but I could not obtain the essentials.」

Meshram proclaimed himself to be a Demon King, but having an appearance that an Amoeba would probably have if it forcibly took a human-shape, there was practically no Majin that would follow him.

If there were any, it was pretty much the single G rank Majin that was currently standing in front of Meshram.

Other than him, there were only Goblins and Beastia that were gathered and added to his subordinates.

The upholstery of the Meshram Underground Palace was extravagant, and couldn’t be compared to the decaying Demon King’s Castle.

Because of that, and since he only secluded himself underground when the Hero invaded, he normally proclaimed himself to be a Demon King and only indulged in delicious food and laziness in this palace. There was no way that there would be any following him from the start. Speaking of Meshram himself, saying things like a true Demon King is one that is not understood, or that there are too many that are deceived by other fakes, these are words that the western Majin would definitely have said at least once to irresponsibly misrepresent themselves.

「It couldn’t be the Hero, could it?」

However, even he knew of the 「Consecutive Dungeon Raids」 that had been done when the past Hero had invaded. The Hero party invaded dungeons that they discovered in the western part starting from the edge, and repeatedly did massive killings and pilaging──At the time of that incident, he was seriously frightened.

「How about the Beastia. They talk better than the Goblins.」

「Yes, I headed over there to confirm things earlier but……They still haven’t come back.」

With those words, Meshram started to aimlessly wander inside the room with an unsettled look.

The room they were in now──The 「Throne Room」 was at the lowest floor of the Meshram Underground Palace.

If the Hero was attacking, they might be satisfied with the treasury that was placed in one of the upper floors for pillage-used, and go home.

It was something that he had created after hearing that there were Majin that escaped danger by doing that at the time of the past Hero’s invasion.

It was also for the aim of things possibly working out if he were to run away from a secret escape door while they were scavenging for treasure.

As he was hypothesizing such a situation……Suddenly, he heard the sound of the door of the throne room opening up.

「Oh, ohh! So you’ve returned, how was it?」

While trying to preserve as much majesty as he could, Meshram turned his face towards the door.

However, what was there wasn’t a Beastia.

「……A Maid Knight?」

The subordinate Majin muttered that.

What appeared was, a single young lady.

Although she couldn’t really be considered small, by no means could her height be said to be average.

She had light green very short hair, and green eyes.

She wore a maid uniform that had dark green like that of a dense forest as its basic theme.

And then, armor that covered her breast.

Having swords on both sides of her waist that were visible, she was that sort of young lady.

Seeing the young lady that was making a displeased-looking face for some reason, Meshrem frantically moved his Goblin-like diminutive head.

Maid Knights.

They were those whose own destiny was to serve a designated person.

Generally different from regular knights, it was a high grade occupation that was in demand for their skillfulness of performing a great variety of jobs including battle.

Naturally, for Maid Knights, those with high ranks would gather many of them but……Because of that, there were also many wandering Maid Knights searching for a suitable master for them to serve.

It was said that such Maid Knights would promote themselves to the masters that they recognise as the one.

In other words──

Meshram, he arrived at the thought that he himself was worthy of that.

「……Majin Meshram. Is he here?」

Because of that, Meshram answered the young lady Maid Knight’s question with a full faced smile.

「That is exactly right. However I am not a Majin. I am a Demon King……」

「Nino’s master desires a major cleanup of oversized trash like you.」

Meshram and his subordinate Majin froze in place at those words.

「M, master……Could it be……」

「Wh, who is oversized trash! Saying that towards the great Demon King Meshram-sama!」

The shrinking away subordinate Majin and Meshram who was drawing closer to the young lady in anger.

After looking at that Meshram with eyes that looked like she detested him from the bottom of her heart, the young lady informed Meshram as if she were spitting it out.

「In the name of Demon King Vermudol, Nino will destroy everyone here.」

Two curved blades glistened in the young lady’s hands.

At the same time as that, the subordinate Majin started to run away together with a scream.

Moving the throne, he escaped to the escape passage that was underneath it.

「O, oi! Kuu……Someone get in here! There’s an intruder!」

Meshram raised his voice.

It was for times like this that he had enclosed the skilled Beastia here.

They would twist and crush a single lowly Maid Knight.

Believing that, Meshram shouted out.

「It’s useless.」

Meshram trembled at Nino’s words.

The radiance of the curved swords.

And then, her faintly glittering green eyes.

The instinct that was inside Meshram muttered that those were Magic Eyes.

「Because if they aren’t on standby in some secret room somewhere, then Nino has already destroyed them all.」

「Y, you’re lying……」

「Nino, doesn’t make lies. Besides, too busy.」

One step.

Two steps.

Three steps.

With the curved swords readied in both hands, Nino stood in front of Meshram’s eyes, whose waist had given out.

While looking down on Meshram with eyes that saw him as trash, Nino muttered.

「It’s because Nino is a hard worker. There is still a lot of cleaning that needs to be done.」

The curved swords once again sparkled.

With one attack, she decapitated his head.

With one attack, she tore his torso into two.

With the following series of attacks, she finely chopped that head into pieces.

That time was a mere several seconds.

Around the time that the throne room was transformed to a pool of blood together with a dirty sound, Nino had already plunged into the escape passage.

With this, the cleaning of this place was finished.

However, Nino’s job still had a lot of things to do remaining.

After all, the self-proclaimed Demon Kings……there are a great amount of them in this western part of the Dark Continent.

Chapter 10