Book 5: Chapter 24

Outside of the main entrance of the town of Elgrad, that man was absent-mindedly sitting on a rock.

The man that wore red armor that had fiendish-looking thorns attached and swung a gigantic battleaxe that he held in his hand, the thing known as motivation couldn’t be felt from him at all.

If he hadn’t come out from the aforementioned mysterious castle, there was no mistake that he would have been ignored as a mere strange Mazoku.

After the red armored man gazed at the town of Elgrad for a while, he took a baked coin out from his breast pouch, and started nibbling on it.

「……It’s completely cooled down.」

While saying that sort of thing, he took another bite.

As he chewed on it like that, coming from the front of the red armored man……from the top of the wall of the town of Elgrad, some voices could be heard.

After it boisterousness that sounded like quarrelling, a single man jumped off from the wall.

「What the heck, is that.」

The red armored man gazed at that figure looking amazed.

The wall was stupidly high, and even if it was a Mazoku that had excellent physical abilities, it was not a height that they could casually jump off from.

The man that jumped from there without any hesitation eventually landed together with an earth tremor.

The man looked all around just like that, found the red armored man, then walked towards him.

After approaching close enough to be right in front of him, he broadly grinned.

「Yo, I’m called Raktor. You, what’s your name?」

Being told that, the red armored man looked at the man who introduced himself as Raktor.

Although he was in wonderment by the friendly attitude taken by the man with truly villainous looks, the red armored man took out one more piece of baked coin from his pouch and tossed it over.

「My great self is called Olred.」

「Hoー……Mu, this is pretty good. What’s it called?」

Olred gave an explanation to Raktor who caught the baked coin and bit into it.

「It’s a baked coin. It’s something that’s the latest craze in a country called the St. Altlis Kingdom.」

After Raktor nodded looking impressed, he tossed the rest of the baked coin into his mouth all at once.

「Muguh, aguh……fuu. Thanks for the treat.」

「Nn, ou.」

Olred replied like that, then finished up the rest of the baked coin he held in his hand all at once.

Estimating when the baked coin would disappear from Olred’s mouth, Raktor then pointed at the town behind him.

「It’s a good town, right? It’s called Elgrad.」

「……Right.」

「These wild lands where there was nothing but guys that rampaged about, includin’ me, up until not too long ago, is now like this. With hands that knew nothin’ but sockin’ people, they’re makin’ accessories and sweets that’re popular with women.」

「……I see.」

Raktor turned around to the nodding Olred.

「Did ya know? The Dragons who always went on about pride are now feelin’ like having customers ride them and running are their purpose in life. Unbelievable, right?」

Olred made a short nod at Raktor who was leaking out a suppressed laugh.

After that, Raktor completely stopped laughing and went into a serious face.

「……So, what’s yer business here? If yer here for sightseeing, it’s not like I won’t welcome ya.」

Raktor asked that question while emitting a fiendish, overpowering presence.

Receiving that feeling that was strong enough to make even a normal Mazoku, let alone a Goblin, feel like fainting, Olred answered without any change to his condition.

「What’s my business……huh. It’d be nice if it were sightseeing.」

That’s right, his objective wasn’t sightseeing.

The mission given to Olred was to be a diversion and buy time. It was to become a sacrificial piece for the sake of the final move.

For the sake of that, thoughtlessly running wild was the quickest way.

But, even after understanding that, Olred was unable to do that.

Something was conclusively mistaken──That sort of irritating feeling had dampened Olred’s motivation.

He understood that he should carry out his mission.

But even so, Olred didn’t move.

Something was wrong……but, he had absolutely no idea what was wrong.

That is why Olred was spacing out. It was because he felt like if he stopped thinking and let his thoughts clear up, that would resolve everything.

But, the more he did that, the more new questions started to well up.

「Ah?」

Noticing Olred’s state, Raktor made a puzzled face.

He wasn’t attacking with no questions asked, he was simply spacing out.

Going up against that sort of opponent, this was first experience for Raktor.

However, his expression stiffened back up by Olred’s next words.

「I don’t get it. It should be correct, but I don’t get why it’s correct. Slaughtering you all, and slaughtering Vermudol. Anything and everything should be okay by doing that.」

He said that it would be correct to do that.

However, when he was transferred to this town of Elgrad, when he heard the laughter that came from within the town, doubts were born within Olred. He didn’t know why he hadn’t noticed them until now, but the doubts came spilling out one after another.

Killing the Mazoku of the Dark Continent, and killing the Demon King of Chaos Vermudol.

What would be found beyond that?

He should have definitely seen that, and thought that something glittering was waiting.

However, what about now?

The current Olred didn’t know what that was at all.

That’s right.

To begin with, what was their origin?

The origin of themselves and Ykslaas who they held respect and affection for. If he thought back from there, maybe……

「……I don’t really get it but.」

Raktor breathed a sigh at Olred who had fallen into silence and was spacing out.

「You, what did you ultimately come here for?」

While being dejected by the opponent that was more disappointing than he expected, Raktor made a look of amazement.

And then──he felt something that was like a chill.

Something about Olred who did nothing but space out in front of him had suddenly made a complete change.

His eyes regained some brilliance, and a fearless smile was expressed on his lips. Strength filled every muscle in his body.

Slowly, Olred stood up from the rock.

「What did I come here to do? It’s obvious.」

After hitting the ground with his gigantic battleaxe, Olred grinned.

「I came to crush you. To crush the Demon King of Chaos and his followers, and bring back harmony to the world. That the mission given to my great self.」

「Hoo. In that case, are you fine without the sightseeing?」

Hearing that, Olred snorted.

「Sightseeing? I’ll do that to my heart’s content right now. Well, it’ll be a mountain of rubble once I’m done though.」

Olred thought “that’s right, that’s it”.

Break everything, and leave nothing behind.

That was the sole method that lead to guiding the world to flow of harmony.

For starters, it would be this town. He would kill the man in front of him, then destroy the town.

Everything, was for the sake of Demon King Ykslaas-sama that he held respect and affection for.

「Well then, die.」

Olred readied his battleaxe, and swung it down at Raktor.

But, that battleaxe didn’t reach Olred.

It was because the instant Olred tried to swing down his battleaxe, Raktor, who was making a face as if he chewed on a bitter-tasting bug, had kicked Olred away.

Raktor scratched his head while breathing a big sigh and seeing Olred rolling back just like that.

「Ahー……So it’s like that. You, you’re bein’ controlled by somethin’, aren’t ya?」

「Guh……What are you talking about!」

Raktor thrusted a finger at Olred who stood up.

「I ain’t talkin’ about anything or any shit like that, you idiot. Just when I felt sympathy for ya as I thought you were a guy that was worryin’ over somethin’, yer mind suddenly gets refreshed. Even Goblins’re a bit more stable than that.」

「I have absolutely no idea what you’re talking about. No, to begin with, who are you.」

「……So we’re starting from there. I’m Raktor.」

After nodding at Raktor’s words, Olred readied his battleaxe once again.

「My great self is called Olred. In the name of the Demon King of Harmony Ykslaas, I have come to destroy you all.」

「Hoー, that’s pretty amazin’. Ohh, ohh. I’m super scared. I’m so afraid that I’ll plug up my ears.」

While putting his fingers into his own ears, Raktor showed a yawn.

Honestly, he no longer had any interest whatsoever.

He liked fights, and he also liked death fights. Since the clashing of the souls was fun when they seriously tried to defeat each other, Raktor enjoyed fighting.

However, this man in front of him called Olred didn’t have a will of his own. Being bound by something that seemed like crude brainwashing, he was nothing more than a pitiful puppet.

Guys who did stuff like that also existed in the old Dark Continent. Mazoku that act like schemers, tricking the foolish members of their same race with deceitful words and setting them on Raktor.

For guys like that, Raktor would always track them down and beat them up.

……That’s why, he would do the same this time as well.

Even that someone this time, they turned this pitiful man called Olred into a puppet, and had him meddle with them.

Also, it was a level of meddling that wasn’t funny.

To Raktor, to the town of Elgrad, to Vermudol. They were picking a fight with everything that composed the Zadark Kingdom.

Raktor had no intention of allowing that.

He would locate the mastermind, and crush them to small pieces. This was already a decided matter.

That is why he would quickly bring an end to the fight with the man in front of him. Since he felt that he was pitiful, at the very least, he wouldn’t kill him.

Raktor filled the distance all at once, and sent Olred flying with a serious fist.

With just that, Olred was blown away into the distant wildlands while spinning like a top.

「Go……haah……!」

Just a single attack. With just that, Olred fainted pretty much not using the power that dwelled within his body.

「It looks like you possess a tremendous amount of magical power, but for a puppet like you who doesn’t have yer own will, it’s wasted.」

After confirming that Olred had become unable to move, Raktor looked up at the cloudy sky.

What he remembered were the words that Olred said after he suddenly changed personalities.

「The Demon King of Harmony……huh. Thinking back on that food called a baked coin from earlier, it’d be reasonable to think they came from mankind’s territory but……」

Raktor recalled the talk he had with Vermudol before.

The Demon King Shuklous that was said to be in mankind’s territory. The other Demon King that the God of Life might have created.

「……The Demon King of Harmony, huh.」

In that case, that Demon King of Harmony Ykslaas or whatever, the possibility that they were of the same kind as Shuklous was high.

But, even so, the attack this time was too ill-prepared.

He was able to think that this was a move done in desperation due to Vermudol’s countermeasures being effective.

But, there was something that didn’t make sense. There should be something.

Raktor continued to think about it……however, he clicked his tongue at how the answer wasn’t coming out.