CH 177

Gray reflexively caught Marionetta as she suddenly fell from the air and held her close to his chest.

“Marionetta, you’re safe………..?”

“Yes, Ellis and the others rescued me. Hey Gray, have you forgotten already? The vow you made that night with the Sabbath. Who is the Hero?”

“I am………”

“But, I’m happy……… You didn’t try to kill Ellis for my sake…….. Thank you………I want to be with you until the end.”

Whispering her truest wish, Marionetta hugged Gray’s head to her chest, tears rolling down her cheeks into his hair.

“I…….I……..”

The Hero broke down and began to cry into Marionetta’s breast. It was all he could think to do.

“We don’t have time for your tears.”

Ellis chided Gray once again and pointed towards Warren’s army. At the same time, a break appeared in the army’s ranks, and an old man walked forward supported on both sides by Frau and Katie.

That man was Joe J. Skycastle VIII himself.

Going back in time a bit before the turmoil with the pumpkin heads had ever broken out, Ellis and the other girls had managed to sneak into Skycastle. Their purpose was to rescue Duke Marsfield.

They were able to break into the castle with ease, holding their breath and arriving as quietly as possible in the castle’s waiting room. During that second audience with the King, Ellis had thought she might need to break in here someday, so she and Claire set up a magic circle in the waiting room. Then using a Ring of Return they had received from Izerina, they were able to teleport from Warren to Skycastle with ease. They had also received a confidential sketch of the castle’s layout from Sir Chaffee to make the operation run smoothly.

But then a signal came through.

“We’re changing the strategy.”

The Jewelry Box left for Stewart’s home which they had used as a secret base in the past. From there Ellis changed into her Abyssal leather equipment, and with Ra-chin on her back, she disappeared into the darkness. Meanwhile Claire followed Ellis’s directions and followed after the signal they had received.

When Skycastle’s Thieves’ Guild’s guildmaster suddenly announced the dissolution of the guild, he became the most wanted man in Skycastle. That’s why while saying, “The guildmaster is our benefactor,” Gise left the party to try and smuggle him back to Warren.

The remaining Gray and Marionetta couldn’t head to Warren by themselves, so they waited in their hideout until Gise came back. It was then that the Hero showed his negligence.

“I’m going out for a bit to grab something for my stomach.”

“Ah, I’ll go with you.”

“No, Gise might come back while we’re gone, so you should wait here.”

“But…….”

“It’s fine. I’ll be back soon.”

It was during this short time Marionetta was alone that she was targeted by the demons.

When the Hero returned to his hideout, a note was left on the desk reading, “Come to the Sabbath Proxy Service office,” sitting next to Marionetta’s favorite hat.

“Where have you taken Marionetta!?”

The Hero Gray burst through the office’s front door, the volume of his voice far surpassing the noise of the door splintering off its hinges.

“I can hear you just fine. There’s no need to make all this noise Gray.”

The demon posing as Cliff sat next to the demon posing as Dams and greeted the Hero when he finally arrived.

“Sorry, but the King has a new royal decree for you, and if we didn’t go this far, you wouldn’t have paid it any attention right?”

Cliff handed over a letter to the Hero while wearing an irritating smile.

The letter’s instructions were short and simple. “Bring a total of ten heads belonging to the five Dragon Maidens and their five dragons to Skycastle royal palace.”

“Who would do such an idiotic thing!?”

The Hero was getting worked up into a rage, but Cliff continued smiling like usual.

“And yet what will befall the poor Marionetta if such an idiotic thing doesn’t get done?”

The Hero grabbed Cliff by the collar and lifted him towards the ceiling.

“I wonder what will befall you if anything happens to Marionetta.”

“Don’t you worry, making you an enemy is the last thing I want. Mis • ter • He • ro”

Cliff went on.

“An army from Ceramics is currently stationed east of Warren even as we speak. You can meet up with them and attack the city while you’re at it.”

“Shut up!”

“Whoa, scary scary. But, if you don’t head over quickly, I can’t say what will happen to Marionetta. The demon watching her might be getting hungry right about now.”

“Tch!”

The Hero clicked his tongue and immediately flew to Warren using {Leap City}.

“Well then, should we head back to the royal palace as well?”

Cliff and Dams left their office together, heading back to their comrades in the King’s bedchambers. All of this without any of them ever noticing Ellis hiding herself in the ceiling.

Ellis had given Marionetta a Howling Plush Toy finger puppet to use in times of emergency. Marionetta had activated the magic tool when she was kidnapped, transmitting everything she and her kidnapper said to Ellis and the others.

That’s why the Jewelry Box split in two. Ellis secretly tailed Gray from their hideout to see what the demons wanted from him while Claire used {Find Marker} to determine Marionetta’s position.

“All right, from here on it’s a race against time.”

Once again Ellis and the girls found themselves in the royal palace’s waiting room.

Ellis started out by locating the room where Duke Marsfield was being imprisoned.

“Uncle, sorry to interrupt your vacation, but it’s time to come out now.”

“Ugh, it’s that time already? Then I guess I’ll head home.”

The two of them shared a joking greeting between each other before immediately returning to the waiting room using the Ring of Return. Once he was safe, they explained to him the plan going forward with the Hero.

“Well there’s no point in having you girls imprisoned after all!”

After laughing energetically like a man who hadn’t just been imprisoned in a dungeon for a couple weeks, Duke Marsfield gave the girls a solemn bow.

“I’ll leave Skycastle’s fate in your hands.”

Ellis continued slinking through the castle until she found the room where Marionetta was being held prisoner. Marionetta was tied up in one corner of the room, a gag covering her mouth with her hands and feet bound. A lower grade demon had been put in charge of watching her.

Ellis drew her stiletto knife and silently snuck up on the demon. Not bothering to ask any questions, she slid the blade into its back. The demon fell forward unable to even scream as Ellis helped Marionetta to her feet and removed the gag.

“Are you fine?”

“Yes. But more importantly, Gray………”

“Oh that idiot. He needs to be punished a little bit, so I’m going to need you to be patient.”

“………..okay………..”

Ellis jumped back to the waiting room with her ring and instructed both Marsfield and Marionetta to wait there.

“Well then, with the Hero gone, now’s our best chance! Let’s start the main event!”

Ellis, Reeve, Frau, Claire, and Katie all moved to the King’s bedroom.

Cliff and Dams arrived inside the King’s bedchambers just as a conversation appreciating what the Hero was about to do had formed.

“Any signs of life from Zakuroma have disappeared.”

“That guy was trash among great demons, but he still shouldn’t have died that easily.”

“Perhaps there was a repeat of the previous demon slaughter.”

“Maybe so. He wouldn’t have stood a chance against the Hero.”

“Indeed. But let’s see how the Hero finishes his dance going forward.”

On both sides of an unconscious king, a man and woman giggled to each other.

Suddenly the bedroom door burst open, and several people rushed into the room. One of the intruders shouted at the bed.

“Demons! Prepare to meet your ends!”

“Aren’t you being awfully rude in front of the King?”

The Peach-looking demon gracefully gestured behind her to draw the intruders’ attention towards the royal hostage she had. But when she turned around, she was met with a sight that caused her eyes to open wide in shock.

Sitting right next to her was a blonde little girl holding onto the King. Meeting Peach’s gaze, the girl gave a wicked smile capable of making even a demon quiver with rage and fear. The little girl was looking down on her as if she were a fool before saying,

“After all demons, this is goodbye.”

Then in the blink of an eye, the little girl and the King disappeared from view.

“Tch!”

Peach and the other demons realized quickly how their situation had been reversed. But if that was the case, then they’d just have to start over. For now they only needed to kill the intruders and look for another chance to take power again.

“Well then Miss Intruders, we’ll just have to reverse the situation back into our favor.”

Peach, the Nightmare Dragon, Cliff, and Dams all crawled out of bed and returned to their original demon forms.

“Who will be my opponent?”

Dams turned into a large great demon and was the first to step forward.

Intent on facing him one on one, Frau moved to meet him with an amused expression on her face.

“Okay Dams, if you’re asking, I’ll happily cut you down today.”

“I hate fighting though.”

Saying that despite his wide grin, Cliff returned to his original demonic form and followed after Dams with several {Flame Bullets} floating behind him.

“I guess I should fight you.”

Claire activated several of her own {Flame Bullets} and pointed her left hand towards Cliff.

“My oh my, you humans sure are stupid.”

The Nightmare Dragon retook his original from as a nightmare incubus with the body of a horse and the head of a dragon.

“Well I’m a clever beastman, and I’ll be your opponent nya.”

Katie happily snorted, putting up her hands and drawing out her claws ready for battle.

“I am me, and you are you. But, the leftover memory from when this woman lost to you is still quite irritating.”

Peach shed her skin like a molting snake revealing the true beautiful and bewitching nightmare succubus underneath.

“There’s no harm done when you lose a singing competition. But this loss is going to leave you dead.”

Reeve’s face was expressionless as she drew her sword, readying a stance with her blade in front of her eyes.

You could hardly call it a fight.

Frau ignored the blade of her halberd, instead using the full force of the weapon to strike a strong blow to her opponent’s head. Disoriented and unable to move, the demon could do nothing as the next strike shattered his body and left him dead on the floor.

Claire released a flurry of {Flame Bullets} to match with Cliff’s. Each bullet canceled out the other, but it only took a second for the sheer number of bullets Claire had made to overwhelm the demon’s attack and burn him to ash.

Katie lunged forward before her opponent could move, and with the equipment of a Demon Lord, she gouged out his neck, then his front legs, then his wings, and finally his hind legs to ribbons. The demon collapsed, a pile of bloody shredded ribbons.

In a flash Reeve drew her sword and decapitated the succubus. With a second stroke, she cut the demon’s body in half from the neck down. Its head rolled to her feet, a smile still on its face.

Immediately turning on their heels with the trash cleaned up, the girls returned to the waiting room. There, Ellis was nursing the now conscious King as Marsfield urged him to sign off on two new royal orders.

Once the last of the preparations had been finished, Ra-chin was made to take his human form, and as Ellison, he was put in charge of carrying His Majesty. Afterwards everyone left the castle, joining up with Sir Chaffee and Stewart who were waiting for them. They had already gathered their forces and were prepared to storm the castle. Duke Marsfield took the helm, leading his retainers back into the castle with both of the recently signed royal orders in hand. In the castle’s grand hall, he would announce for all to hear about the reinstatement of civil rights for all beastmen, and the declaration of how Duke Marsfield was to be crowned as the next king active immediately.

Meanwhile Ellis and the now dethroned Joe J. Skycastle immediately returned to the mansion in Warren using a different Ring of Return to begin the preparations for the upcoming show.

All to teach the Hero a lesson. To keep him from doing whatever he wanted.

And so Ellis was willing to make a bet. She knelt down and showed her neck to the Hero.

Should the Hero give in and turn his blade against Ellis, then Ellis would escape at the last instant and take Marionetta hostage. If she couldn’t kill the Hero, she would force him to commit suicide and be done with him that way. Obviously Marionetta wasn’t let in on this particular portion of the plan.

But Ellis’s bet had paid off in the end. It was her complete victory.