Book 7: Chapter 22

The Sword Demon jumping away with that in front of him was something mostly done out of instinct.

A defensive instinct, or maybe a survival instinct. All of his senses that were working to escape from death had made the Sword Demon do that.

The fact that he was stimulated to do such a thing was nothing but a disgrace to the Sword Demon.

Normally, the Sword Demon should have gone into a rage, however, surprisingly, he felt that he himself was calm.

But, that was also natural. There was also no way he should be able to go into a rage.

The Sword Demon’s instincts continued to send him warnings even now.

Saying that it would be best to run away from here, no, that he needed to run away.

However, since the Sword Demon wasn’t acting, only his head was frantically moving in order to search for other methods on how to survive.

「……This should be the first meeting, between you and I as well though.」

「That’s right. But, I know you.」

Vermudol readily affirmed the words that the Sword Demon finally managed to squeeze out.

Hearing that, the Sword Demon thought “Again huh……”

It was the same for that woman, but guys that he didn’t know about knew about him. That felt awfully terrible.

「……Nn?」

Going “come to think of it”, the Sword Demon searched for Margaret who should have been nearby up until now.

However, her figure was already no longer nearby, and behind Vermudol──she was carried in the arms of a silver-haired man that stood at the entrance of the workshop.

He didn’t have the time to say something like “when did that happen”.

It was because Vermudol had started walking making a *kotsun* with every step.

「There is the word “if”.」

*Kotsun*

Calmly, he advanced one step at a time.

「For example, in some tales……where it is a scene where the protagonist is in a pinch or suffering, it is said that some have reveries of 『if I was also at that place』. Such as, even though I would extend a hand out to them if I were there.」

*Kotsun*

In Vermudol’s hand, there was a sword emitting a black brilliance.

「But, that is also a meaningless action. The ones being saved by that are imaginary protagonists, and not the actual protagonists themselves after all.」

「……What the heck, are you talking about.」

*Kotsun*

Vermudol approached in front of the Sword Demon.

He made slow movements where the Sword Demon should be able to run away if he tried to run away.

However, he couldn’t run away. The brilliance of Vermudol’s red eyes seemed as if they had sewn the Sword Demon to that spot.

「I am explaining the meaninglessness of the actions I am going to do starting now. My hitting you here won’t redeem that incident from the past, nor will it save her past self.」

Vermudol stood right in front of the Sword Demon.

「Well, it does seem that you did whatever you pleased here. That would be more than enough of a reason to condemn you but……a considerable amount of my own personal grudge will be added to that. That’s why……You will die here.」

「U, OOOOOOH!」

As if being released from his bindings, the Sword Demon unleashed surging consecutive attacks towards Vermudol.

If he didn’t kill him here, he would be killed.

Based on that all too simple reason, it was his greatest attack that abandoned every single bit of his self-conceit.

Those consecutive attacks that had a speed that made it impossible to visually see were all driven in right in front of Vermudol, but even so, as if that weren’t enough, the Sword Demon swung his sword as if making a boisterous dance.

However, at the same time, he also noticed.

Those attacks that should have been his greatest, were all being repelled by the Attack Guard that was deployed right in front of Vermudol.

「Gu……nu……gaaaaaaaaaaaa!!」

He yelled.

In the instant his consecutive attacks stopped, the Sword Demon shot countless blades from his body.

However, even those fruitlessly broke on Vermudol’s Attack Guard.

「D, dammit! Dammit! What the hell are you! I am the Sword Demon! The strongest of the glorious Four Demon Generals, Sword Demon-sama, you know! Why is……why is a single barrier like this……!」

「Ahh, did I not introduce myself?」

While ignoring the Sword Demon’s shouts with a nonchalant face, Vermudol answered.

「I am Vermudol. The strongest Mazoku, the Demon King. The reason why you can’t pierce through a single barrier like this……Do you understand it now?」

The moment those words reached the Sword Demon, Vermudol’s palm was pointed towards the Sword Demon.

In that hand, a colossal amount of magical power was gathered.

「Well, this is just me trying to reproduce something that faintly remained in her memories though. Magical Power Cannon……that’s what it seems to be called, you know?」

「Wha……ah……」

That sort of thing, wasn’t in the Sword Demon’s memories.

However, something within the Sword Demon was shouting in fear.

「U……AAAAAAH!?」

Flinging his sword to an unrelated place, the Sword Demon tried to activate some sort of magic.

However, in the next instant──

Together with a *gou* sound, the Sword Demon was swallowed into a space of destruction.

That was a rough technique that simply turned magical power into a destructive force, and couldn’t be called magic.

However, possessing a definite destructive force, it smashed the Sword Demon to pieces.

Even the things that were behind the Sword Demon were swallowed up and erased, and a gigantic hole was opened up in the underground space just like that.

Among the traces of the destruction that had swept over, nothing remained.

「……」

While gazing at the traces of destruction, Vermudol thought a of scene of the past that he had seen before.

He had various complicated feelings about it.

The young lady Ria, who aimed to subjugate the Demon King together with the Hero Ryuuya in the past, but had lost her life midway due to the Sword Demon’s attack. What she had reincarnated into was the current Ichika.

Making an extreme argument, if the Sword Demon hadn’t killed Ria, Vermudol would have never met Ichika……that might be the case. Thinking about it like that, Vermudol himself shouldn’t have any sort of resentment towards the Sword Demon though.

「Emotions are quite the difficult thing, aren’t they. I suppose it’s one those things that aren’t about logic.」

Going “fuu” and breathing a small sigh, Vermudol turned his back to the traces of destruction.

When he did, what was there was the figures of a repeatedly trembling Margaret, and Altejio who was gently carrying her in his arms.

It was only natural that Margaret was trembling.

There was a need to investigate on how the Sword Demon managed to infiltrate this workshop that should have been safe, but that could be done later.

Thinking that they should first calm Margaret down, Vermudol was about to open his mouth……but.

「M……My workshoppppー!」

Hearing that shout of grief, Vermudol once again turned to face the traces of destruction.

……Indeed, from the place that Vermudol stood at to the very back, the workshop had cleanly vanished.

The things that were outside of the Magical Power Cannon’s range were safe, but Vermudol didn’t know how much that was as part of the whole.

「Calm down, Margaret. It couldn’t be helped, right?」

「I know! I know that! Uwaーhn!」

Margaret flapped her limbs about within Altejio’s arms as he tried to soothe her.

While secretly averting his eyes from that, Vermudol thought.

……Actually, there were other hands that he could have played if it was just to defeat the Sword Demon.

Although he had thought of choosing a peaceable hand that wouldn’t completely destroy the workshop as much as possible, he certainly dared to choose the method of 「a bit of destruction would appear」 called the Magical Power Cannon.

As an execution method, he thought it to be the most appropriate……but after thinking about it for a bit, there might have been various other ways to do it.

For example, there was the method of hacking him to pieces with the Bale Blade. This time, he used the Bale Blade as the medium for the magic activation, but there was no mistake that the workshop wouldn’t have been destroyed if he wielded it as a sword.

「……Uugh. Gusu. Demon King-sama, thank you very much for saving me.」

「Nn……Yeah. Don’t mind it. It’s something that I naturally should do.」

Thinking about it, the damages might have been suppressed if he had left it to Altejio who was about to rush into the workshop anyway……While thinking that, Vermudol nodded while still averting his eyes.

「Please allow me to say my thanks as well, Demon King-sama. If you had not come with that timing, I do not know if I would have made it in time for Margaret’s crisis.」

「N, nn……No, don’t mind it. The reason why I came this time was……」

Speaking that far, Vermudol suddenly remembered, and turned his gaze towards his sword.

The reason why he came this time, was because he felt like Bale Blade was showing a strange reaction the other day.

「Well, let’s leave that talk for another day……First off, Altejio, let’s go to your office.」

「Yes, Demon King-sama.」

Altejio gave some sort of orders to the Northern Army soldiers that were at the workshop entrance.

And then, Vermudol and Altejio, as well as Margaret who was still carried in his arms, transferred and vanished.

As if replacing Vermudol’s group, something appeared within the workshop.

It was someone that wore a red robe, was covered themselves with a white mask, and held a metal staff in their hand.

That robed Mazoku walked to a corner of the workshop without being noticed by the Northern Army soldiers at the entrance of the workshop, and picked up a single sword from there. It was the sword that the Sword Demon that thrown away earlier.

「……Fumu. For you, you really used your head. Or could it have been on instinct?」

After muttering that, the robed Mazoku tossed the sword into its internal darkness.

And then, it dug out a small fragment from within the traces of the Magical Power Cannon’s destruction.

「Ohh, thank goodness. This would have all become pointless without this.」

That was the fragment of Gramfia’s horn that the Sword Demon had swallowed up.

The robed Mazoku tossed the horn fragment into the darkness as well, and nodded looking satisfied.

「There are some other interesting looking things as well……but it will become a repeat of the Sword Demon if I covet too much.」

After saying that, the robed Mazoku picked up a single black fragment of something from a corner of the workshop.

「I suppose I shall take only this.」

Tossing the black fragment into its darkness as well, the robed Mazoku erased their figure from the workshop.

None of the Northern Army soldiers noticed the faint brilliance of its transfer light.

Immediately after that robed Mazoku vanished, within the workshop that was exceedingly quiet, the voices of the Northern Army soldiers talking about something started to be faintly heard. That was proof that the Silencing Barrier that the Sword Demon had mentioned was released, but there was no one at that location that noticed that.