Book 10: Chapter 3

Around the time that sort of conversation was taking place in Febris Castle.

Several changes had appeared in the fight in the castle town as well.

What was the start of it all was the appearance of a man and woman pair through a Transfer Magic Formation.

They cut down any Goblins that appeared before them, and blew away the Beastia with magic.

「Dammit, no matter what, they were way too fast! Not even half a day has passed since then, you know!?」

It was not even half a day since the fight in the vice-capital Kashnart. As an action after Narika vanished from Elreim Castle, it was abnormally fast.

Even though there was a considerable number of knights in Kashnart as well, she came to attack leading not them but a mixed army of Goblins and Beastia, as well as men and women of all ages that did not seem like they could fight. Moreover, she had prepared enough splendid equipment for all of them.

With a clearly abnormal army that had monsters mixed in, she wouldn’t earn the populace’s support even if she were to gain total control of Elarc, so just what was she thinking?

Since it was an impossible action going by the advocacy that Narika touted, the fact that the Zadark Kingdom’s intelligence operatives just happened to infer it was a possibility that no one was able to think of.

However, the Zadark Kingdom, who had brought that information, was unable to intervene in this fight from the front.

It was not a distance-wise problem over how they were separated from the Canal Kingdom by the Sea of Farthest Ends, nor a racial problem over the fact that the Zadark Kingdom was a country of Mazoku, nor a monetary problem. It was simply due to a political problem.

The Canal Kingdom’s civil war was, to the bitter end, a problem within its own country. If the Zadark Kingdom were to have intent to support either Narika or Celis and make a military intervention, that would be an interference in the domestic affairs of the Canal Kingdom, and it might be suggested to the other nations that a puppet administration had been established by the Zadark Kingdom.

For a military intervention, they need to demonstrate an official stance where, to put it easy to understand for even other countries,「an intervention with a humane yet justified reason is necessary」──and if put in simpler terms 「we are not fighting for the sake of our own profit」.

The image that the general public of mankind had of Demon King Vermudol was not that of a king, but of 「the ringleader of evil」, and if the Zadark Kingdom is an army of evil that is scheming of trying to bring the downfall of mankind, there was no need to pay a single bit of attention to their official stance on the occasion of their intervention.

However, to the bitter end, the Zadark Kingdom was a country, and Vermudol was its king. So as to not break that major premise, the Zadark Kingdom also needed to protect that sort of tacit rule.

That is why the Zadark Kingdom was unable to dispatch its army in this situation.

That’s right, it wasn’t able to but……for Kain and Ein who had come to this land having received the request of the St. Altlis Kingdom’s Princess Elia to begin with, they were not restricted by this rule.

Kain was the eldest son of a baron house who was seen as having a promising future in the St. Altlis Kingdom, and through Princess Elia who valued his great efforts, he was asked to lend his strength to Princess Celis who was her friend.

The one who was cooperating with that Kain was an intelligence operative of the Zadark Kingdom, Ein.

For the Zadark Kingdom, they had the intention of investigating the Canal Kingdom’s true state of affairs, and Ein, who had been interacting with Kain for quite a while, was ideal for the reconnaissance role.

Princess Elia had no way of knowing that Ein was a Mazoku, but it was fortunate that Kain, despite knowing her true identity, continued an unchanging relationship with Ein, and did not possess the preconceived notion that Mazoku were absolute evil.

But, even so, Kain was a member of mankind. Just because it was a war, he was unable to cut down the Humans that were currently attacking Elarc without hesitation, and focused on attacking the Goblins and Beastia.

On the other hand, Ein showed no mercy no matter who her opponent was.

With Ein’s magic shooting down a man who seemed like an elderly person along with his armor, all of Narika’s army that was at that place was silent.

「We are grateful for your assistance……!」

「No, we only did what was natural to do. More importantly……」

「Yeah, I know! All hands, evacuate the citizens in the vicinity while we can! Secure a path up until the defensive position……」

Seeing the Elarc Defense Knight’s execution of promptly giving out orders, Kain thought that it was alright to leave this place to them and was about to walk away.

But, turning around from hearing the earlier knight’s voice go 「Uoh」 behind him, he became speechless.

「Wha……」

What had grabbed and raised the knight up, was a member of the Serge army that should have been dead.

Their helmet was broken apart and their face looked like that of a young man’s, but with his head having been struck and smashed like this, he shouldn’t be able to move.

But, the hard fact was that he was moving.

Not even a single drop of blood was flowing from his body anymore, but was the black mist that was leaking out from his split head taking the place of the blood?

「gE, GO……hU, Humans aRe……」

「Gu, aaah!」

「Captain!」

「Damn you, you monster!」

The surrounding knights readied their swords and slashed at him, but they were repelled by an Attack Guard and tumbled to the ground.

What was reflected in the eyes of the knights that didn’t give up despite that and tried to stand up, were countless fireballs.

The split head of the 「monster」 that created something like that without even a proper chant was smoothly covered by something black, and a distorted horn pronouncedly grew.

「……Geo Light!」

「GIAAAAAA!?」

Kain’s magic smashed the head of that thing that had changed into a literal monster, and the monster turned into a black mist and vanished.

The knight that was grabbed and raised up also fell to the ground as if falling on his butt, and he gazed around looking worried, thinking “wouldn’t the surrounding corpses of the Narika Army also change into monsters like the one just now?”

「Ein, that just now……」

「It was, an Alva. I had that sort of worry but, those bastards, it seems they are able to disguise themselves to be Humans.」

The mysterious Mazoku called Alva, who weren’t under Demon King Vermudol’s command.

The Zadark Kingdom was at a loss as to what to do with these troublesome Mazoku who had an unknown ecology. 

Ein stated that they 「disguise themselves to be Humans」, but more accurately, the Zadark Kingdom’s worries went a little beyond that.

It was a question of “it is not a 「disguise」, but being able to manipulate a dead Human?”

At any rate, it was fine to kill them the moment they learned that they were Alva, but the problem was that they were unable to differentiate them from other Humans at a glance just like what happened just now.

As long as they aren’t able to check by killing them, it was a troublesome problem for the Zadark Kingdom who desired peace with mankind, but……

「This is perfect. Kain, prioritize the bunch that look like Humans and kill them. This will be a good experiment to figure out what needs to be done to expose their true identities.」

「E, ehh!? What do we do if normal people get mixed in!?」

「Either way, they are participating in the death match known as a war. They can’t complain about getting killed.」

「I wonder about that……No, wait, we need to go to the royal castle!」

「It’s not a problem. We will head to the royal castle while killing them. Let’s go!」

「Ah, oi! ……Ahh, jeez!」

Kain and Ein started running while saying that, and the remaining knights were dumbfounded by the contents of that conversation.

「They said, that was an Alva……」

「Has Narika-sama, joined hands with those damned Alva……?」

There was no one at that place to answer that question.

But, whether or not there was someone that could, that didn’t change what they had to do.

「Kuh……At any rate, we have to evacuate the citizens! Don’t let those monsters do as they like with Elarc!」

And then, the Elarc Defense Chivalric Order, the Swords of Light Chivalric Order that sortied out from the royal castle, and the knights of the Staves of Light Chivalric Order that remained in Elarc following Anna were in the middle of the fierce fighting that was unfolding, and a revolt made by a portion of Elarc citizens that rose up for the sake of Princess Narika spurred on the chaos.

Or, this might also be Mazenda’s……no, a plan made by the Alva, but a means to check that was not with the knights who fought to protect Elarc.

If they were to take up weapons and face the knights, the knights would naturally have no choice but to cut them down. However, the knights couldn’t simply cut down those who only shouted 「Celis-sama is trying to do a double suicide with Elarc」.

In most cases, this sort of misinformation would be extremely effective, and the scared Elarc citizens would run and scatter in all directions without listening to the orders of the knights.

Furthermore, the misinformation that the Elarc Defense Knights were cutting down citizens also spread, unforeseen situations occurred here and there, and it all turned into an uncontrollable situation.

And then, even now, in a block of Elarc, several men were surrounding a single young woman that was running away.

「Heh, even though I was expectin’ a good woman, ain’t this just a Beastman. Just a mutt.」

「Ain’t that fine? A woman’s a woman.」

「You serious? You’ve got strange tastes.」

While raising an extremely scummy laughter, the men extended their hands towards the dog-eared Beastman woman……and slipping through that, the woman escaped.

But, the companions of the men were also in the direction she escaped to.

These men were a gathering of the 「scum that could be found anywhere」 that were in Elarc. They were outlaws that repeatedly committed extortion and violence, and just happened to not get caught. They were nothing but a bunch that were taking advantage of the town’s chaos, called themselves 「Narika-sama’s volunteer soldiers」, and started to pillage the place.

And their first act, was this woman.

Having her path blocked, the woman looked around trying to search for a way to escape……and her face was dyed in a color of despair.

「We great Humans, will bring down divine punishment on the wicked Beastmen. Right?」

「Ohh, that’s good. We’re a volunteer army of justice that fights in order to liberate Elarc after all!」

While laughing, the men shrunk the circle that surrounded the woman. Seeing their prey’s face of despair and final resistance as they did that sort of process was their favorite dish.

RIght before that downright scummy deed had developed into its worst scenario.

The brillians of a Transfer Magic Formation appeared between the men and the woman.

「Guah……」

「So bright……」

The shining light instantly blinded the men, and when the light finally settled down, a single man with swaying golden hair stood there.

That face, which would even be called a beautiful form even from the eyes of the men, was frighteningly beautiful, and had something that made it hard for them to oppose. Even the sword that hung on his waist emitted an extraordinary air into the surroundings.

Even so, the small pride that struck through without being afraid of anything didn’t let the men shrink away.

「Who the hell are you……Doin’ some weird shit. You tryin’ to get in our way!?」

After lightly looking around at the surroundings, the blond man turned his eyes towards the dog-eared woman that was vacantly looking at him.

「Honestly, I can’t grasp the situation. Taking advantage of the chaos, you were going to rape her, is that what is going on?」

「Oi, don’t go ignorin’ me!」

The man, who had his best effort threat ignored, shouted, but the blond man ignored him even more.

The dumbfounded dog-eared woman instinctively understood that the blond man could be her ally, and shouted 「Please help me!」.

In response to that, the man pat her head with a *pon* in a way that he wouldn’t touch the woman’s dog ears and answered.

「I got it. Leave it to me.」

Saying that, what the man drew out was a sword with a simple design. But its brilliance made one believe that it had a definite sharpness to it, and even the man’s form would make one think of a warrior with much experience in battles.

We can’t win──A man understood that in an instant, but even so, he made a bluff with all of his might.

「D, dammit……You think you can win!? What’re you thinkin’ when we’ve got several people on our side!」

「Well now. Even if there were several people of your level on your side, I don’t think there would be much of a difference.」

Before he could even speak out the words 「Don’t screw with me」 at the blond man’s words, the man who had a sword hilt struck into his solar plexus raised a short scream and crumbled down.

「Gu, eh……」

「Wha……So fast, geh!」

「Obuh!」

After making all of the scum men faint in agony with a speed that couldn’t be caught by the eye, the blond man sheathed his sword into its scabbard.

The dog-eared woman unconsciously became absorbed in looking at the blond man who made the scum men powerless without using the blade of his sword at all, but after immediately coming to a realization, she lowered her head.

「Th, thank you very much! Who knows how things would have turned out if you weren’t here……」

「There is no need to worry about that. My coming here was merely a coincidence. Anything else beyond that is inevitable. There isn’t a single thing for you to say your thanks for.」

Him saving her was inevitable……Facing the blond man that declared that as if saying it was only natural for him to do that, the dog-eared woman shook her head.

「No, no! You are my benefactor!」

「Is that so. Krim, you are there, right?」

「Yes, yeーs, Sancreed-sama! The wonderful maid that can read the atmosphere, Krim, is right~ here!」

Sancreed lightly pushed the dog-eared woman with a *ton* to the red maid──to Krim, who came running over from the other side of the road, while ignoring those words just now and left her to her.

「Evacuate her to a safe looking place somewhere.」

「Un~derstood. What should be done with this trash? Wouldn’t it be better to kill them?」

The dog-eared woman trembled with a start hearing Krim say 「better to kill」 without hesitation and a pure smile, but Sancreed answered that with 「I won’t kill them」.

「We aren’t a part of the chivalric order of this town or anything after all. It’s probably fine to just tie them up and leave them there.」

「I wonder if it’s fine like that.」

Sancreed answered with 「It is」 to Krim who tilted her head, and then turned around.

To begin with, the task that was given to Sancreed was to head to Febris Castle and escort Princess Celis in a way that didn’t stand out, so the case here was nothing more than a miscellaneous matter.

「Now then, let’s go. Until we reach a defensive point somewhere, this Krim will be guarding you.」

「Y, yes. Um, that person earlier……」

「Ahー, yes. Please don’t worry. That person has something that that person has to do.」

After that sort of sloppy reply was made, the dog-eared woman muttered 「He’s like the legendary Hero-sama, wasn’t he……」. While thinking “Although he’s a Mazoku, I wonder how she would react if I were to say that he actually really was a Hero……”, Krim guided the dog-eared woman.