CH 12

「Kukuku…… stupid humans. I’m one of the”Demon King’s Four Heavenly Kings,” Death-Eating Kafes will invite you to eternal sleep.」

The unpleasant skeleton is equipped with a number of expensive jewelry ornaments, rattles and shakes his bones.

Eh?」

Raffine and her colleagues were confused by the skeleton that suddenly appeared in front of them, and they looked stunned as if their understanding had not caught up.

「W, why!？《Clairvoyance》didn’t react…….!？」

Raffine’s body shakes as she looks at the skeleton with an incredulous face.

「Fufufu, I’m truly pathetic……. It seems that my level’s lower……. I couldn’t find you at all…………………..!」

Tch…!」

Raffine kicks the ground, distances herself from the skeleton, and pulls out a rapier for self-defense. Letty and the adventurers also faced it, pointing their swords towards the skeleton.

It’s a tense situation. But…… because I saw the skeleton a while ago, it seemed comical to me. This is awkward.

「Eat this!　《Sky Blade Slash》!！」

While I was trying to be subtle, one of the adventurers jumped out to fight him, thinking that it would be an easy win. Then, he used a technique that uses a double-edged sword combined with magic― 《Sky Blade Slash》―to attack the skeleton.

Empty Blade slash

.

Masters can do it without the assistance of wind magic, so he’s far from mastery in that sense, but its power and speed is fairly strong.

The 《Sky Blade Slash》 released from the adventurer flies towards the body of the skeleton. But―.

Kafes:「…… It didn’t work. Is that a sword a toy?」

《Sky Blade Slash》is stopped by the protective barrier that was stretched over the body of the skeleton! The adventurer couldn’t believe the sight and had to blink his eyes to double-check.

The skeleton watched and laughed eerily,

「It didn’t work…………. I hate people like you.」

「……Hah? Like I would care――」

Before the man finished saying that, the skeleton turned his thin arm of bones, pointing it towards the man.

Don’t

A dull sound echoed.

」

The man looked down at his body slowly, and said so in a hoarse voice.

Then― collapsed on the ground with a thud. Blood pooled on the ground because of a gaping hole in his torso.

「A lowly human dares to defy me, a noble?」

The skeleton grinned and laughed happily while looking down at the body.

~

「……《Recovery Magic》!　Come on!」

Raffine and her colleagues, who were still stunned from when the man fell to the ground, screamed urgently when they finally caught up to what happened.

「――《High Heal》」

Eve, who moved faster than Raffine, heals the man using the advanced magic of a White Mage.

Perhaps thanks to Eve’s quick response, the large hole in the man’s torso closed in the blink of an eye. If she were perhaps a few seconds later, the man would have died.

However, the fallen man is still in danger. It seems that a temporary organ was created by closing the hole as temporary first aid, but normally several White Mages must concentrate on its treatment. We need to take him to a clinic immediately. But―

「So…… now, do you understand your position?」

As long as this skeleton was there, it was impossible.

I look at the fallen man with a glance, calculate how much longer Eve can keep up with the special magic 《High-Speed Calculation》.…About 12 minutes and 42 seconds left until the estimated time of death. If Eve’s life-prolonging treatment is included … 25 minutes and 12 seconds? Then― I can afford to use it.

I decided to use Holy Mage’s Emperor-class magic 《Immortality Erasure》. It’s the undead’s strongest magic, and it should be able to forcibly purify him.

Immortality――》」

When I point my palms towards the skeleton to try to exorcise it,

Letty:「I’m the bad guy!　This holy sword Gura… …Gura?　What?　It’s called something different ……Anyways, I’ll use this sword to kill you!　Get ready!！」

Letty came in front of me and pointed the tip of her holy sword at the skeleton, and declared so.

Jirei:「Ah………………. seriously?」

Because it was interrupted in the middle, the magical power that was used for 《Immortality Erasure》is scattered.

No you…….What a timing. You can’t read the mood. I can only use 《Immortality Erasure》 once a day due to restrictions…… I can’t use it anymore today. Now what are we going to do?

She forgot the name of the Holy Sword. It’s her sword, yet she forgot it’s name.

After declaring that, Letty turned around for some reason and looked at me with a smirk. What’s with that face? Did I disturb you?

“Oh, a holy sword…………. holy sword? Although it’s fading, I recall fighting against one long ago… that was fun.  That means you are one of the heroes of this generation, right?」

That’s right!　And this is my master!　He’s 100 billion times stronger than you!！」

100 billion times?　Kuku… there’s an amusing joke.」

The skeleton’s bones rattle as he laughs at Letty.

He glanced at me and said, 

This man with cloudy eyes is strong?」 What does he mean by that?

…Doesn’t it look like your eyes are dead from the perspective of other demons?　Aren’t they literally dead because you don’t have eyeballs? Hah?？*

Kukuku…… then, let’s play― it seems that these people can earn me some time.」

The skeleton turned to Raffine as he said so. Earn some time?　What are you talking about?

The point of the skeleton’s gaze was not Eve, who was treating the fallen man, but Lina, who was beside her.

Kafes:「You…… you’ve been working on masking your magic power so that I couldn’t notice it, right? I already caught on, so it’s useless?」

Letty:「―!？…It’s because of my mind, isn’t it?」

Lina’s face showed surprise momentarily, before immediately returning to normal as she stared at the skeleton Apparently he was doing something. I didn’t notice it at all.

「Besides…… I have to report to the 『Demon King』 as soon as possible. I don’t have time to play with you guys.」

The skeleton says so, his bones rattling.

「―I was able to get rid of the 『Black-haired Hero』that the Demon King was talking about, and I also got the “things” that I had been looking for from the town Sita…… Ah, Demon King, I’m glad to be Kafes……!　You’ll be home……!！」

The skeleton holds up his hands ecstatically and raises his voice as if excited. It’s kind of creepy. I mean,『Black-haired Hero』

Clang.

There was a metallic sound as if from a sword falling.

…………Eh?」

Raffine, who had dropped her sword, muttered in a faint voice that could not be heard.

Raffine:「It’s……a lie. Right……?　Why would that person die?――」

「Why would I lie like a human?　Look― see his body over there?」

The skeleton said that to Raffine, who’s body shook as he pointed to a zombie sitting in the back of the Open Terrace, a coffee shop in Etal. The zombie had the same hair color as me― black.

「He was really weak, sorry……. The protection of the Holy Sword is vulnerable to the habits of a hero…… I thought that he was a bug……!」

The skeleton’s face distorts wickedly as he ridicules the dead hero.

When she heard it, Raffine knelt on the ground in despair, as if she had lost all will.

「………………Llie. It’s a lie. It has to be a lie.That person is my hero…… my destined person…… that person can’t die……!」

「Oh? So he was your lover.　I’m sorry for that……well, it was still his fault for being so weak, right?」

「……………………That can’t, be.…」

「Raffine-sama!　Please, don’t listen to him!　After all, he’s a demon!!」

Shion continues to call out to Raffine to try and return her sanity, but it’s like talking with a broken doll that no longer responds.

No matter how Shion tried, the light would not return to Raffine’s eyes and she looked hollow, as if her soul had fallen out of her body.

「It’s been a while now……it’s about time to finish. First of all… 《Excess Gravity》」

The skeleton chants the Emperor-class 《Gravity Magic》, 《Excess Gravity》.

「Guh……!？What is this? Body, heavy……!！」

Immediately after the chant ended, the surrounding gravity increased many times. Wed, Letty, Eve, and Lina… or rather, everyone except for me fell to the ground.

「Kuku……You cannot escape this.」

This gravity magic. Considering the weight on my shoulders… it’s maybe ten times stronger than usual. I feel that my shoulders are a little heavy, but that’s about it.

「Hmm……? How come you didn’t fall down? Did the spell miss you?　―-《Excess Gravity》」

The skeleton uses gravity magic again targeted solely at me.

The gravity multiplied by ten times again, but I could still only feel it in my shoulders.

Combined, both spells make the gravity around me twenty times stronger. But … at this level, I can still move easily. Rather, it feels good, it helped lessen the recent stiffness in my shoulders. I want more.

The skeleton uses gravity magic again, saying 「Did I miss my target again…?」

I don’t fall down again. Rather, I feel quite comfortable.

The skeleton passes 《Excess Gravity》 over and over again.

The weight on my shoulders kept increasing― I think it’s around 350 times stronger now. I want to see how much farther he can go.

I kept on standing there, and after probably over 1,000 times, the skeleton was out of breath.

「W, why! It doesn’t work!！」

I just stand there quietly.

*So this part is honestly my fault for not explaining earlier. Throughout the series Shiroao Toraneko-sensei uses the metaphor “cloudy eyes/muddy eyes”, which has multiple meanings. The meaning that she has for it in the beginning is a reference for chuunibyou. However, as the story goes on the meaning changes to someone with dead eyes, meaning a jaded person.

AN: Sorry!!! I know I’m really late for this one, but these chapters are getting longer since the arc’s ending soon lol. While it’s good that you guys get more to read, that also means that it takes longer for me to translate. It’s also becoming harder because of the unfamiliar terms (spells, names, monsters, all typical fantasy stuff), so it’s slowing down the process a bit, too. So, for right now, I am slowing down our release schedule. This story will be updated Monday and Friday of every week. Besides that, I hope you all like the story so far!