CH 422

The Silent Voices Haunting Those Left Behind – Part 5

A few hours ago.

“…Lefi…Guuu…”

The people, in charge of the luxurious carriage used to transport dignitaries, were having a conversation with some trepidation at the sound of a groan coming from behind them.

“…wait. It should have completely sealed away its will, but it’s still making noises.”

“…I’m sure we have given it enough potion to render even a war-capable demon knocked out, and the slave collar should have deprived it of self-consciousness. Maybe we should give it more medicine while we’re at it.”

“As much as I’d like to agree with you, this one is needed to be active by tomorrow morning. If it’s still unconscious because of medicine by that time, it’s going to ruin the plan.”

“I know, I know. But if we don’t do something, it might just end up becoming out of control.”

The men were delivering a certain package, a young man.

The young man, hands bound and collared, shook his head wildly as if resisting something. Despite being out of focus, he never looked away from the people who were with him, keeping his eyes on what they would do the whole time.

The slave collar was designed to deprive the subject of their will and made the subject obey the person who put it on, and the young man was that was bound by it was ordered not to move.

Their plans revolved around the young man who was distinguishable to be not human. However, it would require them to be sure that they were in complete control of his behavior, yet this was the result.

“…Fine. I give up, give it another bottle of extra numbing agent.”

“Yes, sir.”

Once the medicine was given, the carriage continued on its way, eventually reaching its destination, which was one of the entrances to the underground sewers.

There, waiting for them, were six men.

“Right on time. Where is the demon?”

“Yes, he’s inside. We have properly secured him… are the six men of you going to be his guards?”

One of the men waiting at the rendezvous replied with a grim look on his face.

“We have been informed that the man is not just an ordinary demon, he is a man who has always been present during the uprisings in Allysia, and has solved everything with his military might. I used to be in the military, so I know his record to the point of disgust. Let me be clear: If something were to happen, even the six of us would not be enough to stop him. No, even if we had a whole army, it wouldn’t be enough.”

“Well, I just gave you an extra dose of medicine a few minutes ago. He won’t even be able to move his fingertips for a while.”

“…I hope it works well.”

The people who handed over the young man from the demon tribe promptly returned to the carriage that was hidden nearby, and the six took the young man to the depths of the underground sewers.

After pushing the young man, who was unable to stand, into a prepared cell, each of them took a post to stand as guards.

Two of them were at the doorway of the hidden passageway inside the underground sewers.

The other four up positions in the guard room near the prison.

“…That man was muttering the woman’s name with trembling lips.”

“Han, do you feel guilty? They are the enemy. That’s how they’ve been, and we have been killing each other since then. For years, decades, centuries. We’ve been…”

In a guard room near the prison, the two men exchanged words, and the rest of the group joined them.

“I understand how you feel. What we do is never good. I am certain that, historically speaking, we will be treated as fools. And yet, we have gathered like this because our will and bodies need to move, right? …Well, even without the bad reputation, that man has gone too far out of control, doing what he wishes within this country.”

“Ah. Either way, to remove that person’s influence from the country. We would need to thin them out…”

–A clatter, and then some noise was heard from the prison.

The four of them broke off their conversation and reached for their weapons at once.

“…Hey, I’m going to go take a look–“

he couldn’t finish those words.

In the blink of an eye, one of the men at the front was killed instantly by a hand piercing his chest.

The person in front of him was the young man whom I had pushed into the prison.

As soon as they recognized their enemy, another one of them reached for the sword at his waist with agile movements, but he was unable to reach it in time.

The young man, who had been one step closer to the guard, sends a high kick that crushes his head like a pomegranate, killing him.

The men assigned to the watch were all retired but originally trained elite soldiers.

However, they could not even hold back the attack of a young man who seemed to be a human and whose power was on berserk due to his lack of reason.

“You monster…!”

“Calm down, you’ll end up dead if you rush in!

One of the two remaining men stepped forward, round shield at the ready, prepared to receive his attack, while the other stepped in behind him, sword at the ready to counter.

This was a two-man formation that they learned in the military.

The swiftness of the movement was appropriate for an elite – but for the young man, it didn’t matter.

“Gaaaaah!!!”

After a beastly roar, he assaulted the one in the front with a right-hand punch.

It easily penetrated the iron round shield and went straight through to the man’s abdomen.

The young man then swung his left arm around and delivered a thrust to the last guard, who was poised to counter him.

“Kuh–“

The remaining one barely managed to avoid the thrust, but because of the small room, he was unable to keep a decent distance and his back hit the wall.

The next moment, five fingers and a palm fill the man’s vision, and he was grabbed by the head, and then with a crunch–

***

I followed the footprints, with the faint smell of human scent mixed with the smell of sewage, and the vague path I could remember. Eventually, I emerged from the underground sewers, and a horse-drawn carriage parked nearby primed me to fully recall my memory.

I was transported by this and brought to the royal capital, Alshir.

It seems that even in the state of being deprived of consciousness, my instincts sensed the danger and my body resisted with all its might.

No, since I had some remaining memories about the journey, I was probably not completely unconscious, and deep down I was able to grasp the situation.

That was why I broke the seal and get out of prison, and even eliminated the guards.

In the process of resisting, my demon king body exceeded the capacity of “domination” allowed by the slave collar around my neck, and the collar probably broke during that time. Bringing me back to sanity.

This body seemed to have done a pretty good job.

I often overjoyed that I was born a Demon King.

“Anyway, where am I?”

I observed my surroundings.

I knew that I was brought to Alshir, the royal capital of Allysia, the moment I escaped the underground sewers, but my map only showed a part of the city, as it seemed to be a section I had never visited before.

Desperately, I tried to recall the time when I was still enslaved by the collar.

As I recalled… after entering the city, the carriage stopped once at a mansion somewhere.

There, I remembered being made to change carriages.

They changed it from a long-distance one to this aristocratic, over-decorated carriage.

Remember it Yuki!

The trip was short, so the mansion and this underground sewer were not that far apart.

And there should have been a reason why they went to the trouble of changing the carriage to one used by nobility.

Like, well… why must it be from the noble district… what would be the expected outcome if something were to happen…

“…”

After thinking for a moment, I activated my “Concealment” skill and flew up with the wings that popped out of my back.

I already knew that Nell and the others weren’t involved this time, and that if I continued towards the castle, I would be able to return safely… but I didn’t choose that option.

I went around the perimeter and looked around – there it was.

There was a section of what appeared to be an aristocratic district adjacent to this section of the city.

One of the houses in the area looked familiar, although I was not certain if that was really the place.

It was not small, but compared to those that surrounded it, it was on the smaller and less flashy side.

I should have been dropped off there once and was then transferred to another carriage.

I flew around the house I caught, activated my Evil Eye, and checked the area once.

――Bingo.

There were few guards.

From their expressions and gestures, I could see that they were tense.

I wondered if they were tense because their enemies seemed to be proceeding with some kind of operation the moment they were able to  capture me.

There seem to be quite a few of them inside…but overall, there were no notable ones with unreasonable strength.

All of them only had the status equivalent of human civilians, which was only about two thirds of the status of the soldiers who were guarding me.

So, the only people here were civilians? 

“Well, I guess it doesn’t matter.”

I descend, and after quickly knocking out the two guards outside, I entered the interior.

I had been doing nothing but sneaking around in this town, haven’t I?

How many times had I broken into people’s houses without their permission?

Why must I be trapped in this sad cycle?

The guards inside the house were on alert, giving the impression that they were already in the middle of a battle, but unfortunately, they were just civilians.

I continued to search the mansion, incapacitating them without any particular difficulty, and eventually, I arrived at a certain room.

The room that opened with a “gee” sound seemed to be a bedroom, with only a wardrobe and a bed.

“…Did their plan fail as expected?”

I heard a quiet murmur

There, I found an old woman.

An ordinary old woman, the kind of old woman you could find anywhere, raised only her upper body from the bed and looked at me.