Chapter elf-lead: The Elf Leader's Miscalculation

The Elf Leader’s Miscalculation

Author’s note: Po-no-ji’s point of view.

Translation note: This is referring to Potimas

The war between the humans and demons has come to an end. The result, is more or less a draw. Both sides suffered enormous damage.

Several of the forts that form the cornerstone of the human territorial borders were taken, and the situation has become one where it’s unclear when the demons will invade again. Not just that, but while the forts being taken was bad enough, the damage to the humans wasn’t limited to just that. The death of the Hero in particular, could be said to be the hardest blow for the humans. While I didn’t have much expectations of this Hero, I won’t deny that I did have some faint hopes that maybe he could achieve something. Him and Ariel killing each other would be too much to ask for, as that would be the sort of dream a child who cannot face reality would have.

While the demons were able to successfully capture several forts, both at the places where they failed and where they succeeded, naturally they did not come away unscathed. Purely in terms of the number of casualties, there probably wasn’t much difference between them and the humans. So, from the perspective of the demons who have fewer numbers than the whole of humanity, the damage they took is great. Because they conscripted soldiers without considering the consequences, if they manage their losses poorly then it could even cast a shadow over the continued existence of the demons as a species. But then again, since she was well aware of that possibility, by pressing ahead with the unreasonable conscription of soldiers anyway, I guess you could say it’s going as Ariel planned.

Yes, as planned. The war on this occasion has been entirely within the palm of Ariel’s hands. That ability of hers to cause all this damage to the humans and demons, and eradicate the one person who needed to be dealt with. Maybe it would better to call it completely magnificent. Or perhaps even artistic. At any rate, even I was lead around by the nose after all.

Since before the war began, I sensed that it was becoming hard for the elves within the demon territory to carry out their activities. While I had thought that Argnar had been spotted as being one of our collaborators, I still feel ashamed of having our movements entirely understood and being one-sidedly crushed. It was a surprise in itself that Ariel would have someone under her capable of conducting such information warfare. I had looked down on Ariel’s strength as purely being in her fighting ability.

「Prepare a thorough inspection of every Gloria model. Make sure they’re ready to be used at any time.」

「Yessir!」

Now then, be prepared to receive recompense for doing whatever you like outside.

Sorry bud, that whitey is a god, okay.

Translation notes:

“Po-no-ji” – written ポの字 this is a rather unusual way to turn Potimas’s name into a nickname. Shortening someone’s name to just one character (normally one kanji character for Japanese names) and adding の字 (letter of) is something you might see in an old style yakuza story. Though it seems this style has had some broader use in the internet age and ポの字 seems to have some reference to Pokemon, for example. Anyway, just think of it as the author being playful with Potimas’s name.

“Girl vampire” – the term Shiro uses to refer to Sophia is 吸血っ子 (kyuuketsukko), short for 吸血鬼の子 (kyuuketsuki no ko), which is a bit like saying “vamp-girl” or “vamp-child”. While Potimas refers to her as 吸血鬼の娘 (kyuuketsuki no musume) which is more literally “vampire girl” or “vampire young lady”. To help distinguish the terms I used “girl vampire” instead for Potimas.

“Gloria” – this pretty much a direct phonetic translation. Whether there’s any deeper meaning is hard to say. The “anti-magic model Gloria” is probably the type that Shiro faced just before her apotheosis.

The line at the end is from the author, lightly mocking Potimas.