CH 3

Let’s assault the villages nearby ― 2

「So with that said, we’ll be attacking that village

……has your mood still not recovered?」

The earth, it’s been a few months for Oulu and a several decades for Lil since the last time she was summoned by a human. Pointing at the far village, Oulu told Lil with his body still bent forward.

「Well it’s not like it’s that bad」

Lil answers with a tone clearly in a bad mood, Oulu sighs.

Indeed Oulu was aware that it was his remark that was bad rather than his actions, even so no nice words to fix her mood came out of his mouth, nor was he a young man and it’d be silly trying to jolly the young girl along so he decided to not to pay much attention.

Her look and behavior may be that of a young girl but a devil is a devil. It’s not like her work quality will depend on her mood.

「Then let’s confirm again.

I’ve trained magic to a certain extent, but the most of the research I did was for the dungeon core.

At handling the magic, I’m confident that I’m the best in the world, but my combat experience is almost none and I’m not suited for melee fights. It’s not like i’d lose against a villager but it’d become a little painful for me if there’s a swordsman with a certain level.

In other words, you alone are the whole fighting force. I leave it to you」

「……it’s fine, I’ll just kill you!」

Lil answers like groaning with the evil eye. While pitying a little the villagers that are going to be hit by her rage, Oulu walks toward the entrance to the village with Lil.

At the entrance of the village, there was a monster stone statue instead of a charm (*to ward off evil spirits and so) and a woman that looked to be a villager.

「Alright, here goes the first one……Gefuh!」

Oulu immediately grabbed Lil’s collar who was going to assault and stop her

Ignoring Lil who shouts 「What are you doing!」, he tells to the village girl.

「You, the girl there. Bring me the village chief here.

Tell him that the evil sorcerer Oulu came to claim a tribute.

「……Ha?」

To the sudden arrogant tone, the girl wears a dubious expression.

It’s clearly like an eye looking at a madman.

Oulu casted a short spell, a fire ball floated in his palm and went towards the fence surrounding the village.

Explosion sounds and the weak wood fence went flying into pieces. And another fence burns, spitting a cloud of dark smoke.

「I won’t repeat it. Hurry up if you don’t want the whole village turning into ashes」

When Oulu said in a low voice, the woman ran to the village like jumping.

「It’s annoying. Isn’t it alright to just exterminate them all at once?」

Lil said something dangerous while complaining.

「Because I can use them if I do not kill them. However, if they defy me, there’ll be no mercy.

……and I guess this village will defy me」

「How do you know that?」

「Well, just look」

At the grinning Oulu, Lil somehow had a bad hunch.

After a while, a middle-aged man who looked to be the village chief came on his cane.

About past 40 and middle of it. It was a brown haired man with a big body.

「I’m sorry for making you wait, Oulu-sama. Anyway, about the desired tributes……」

「Ah yeah. It’s all good If you accept and if you don’t, this village will turn into ashes」

「That is frightening……Of course, we will……

……That is if you are fine with this iron sword!」

The village chief pulled the tip of his cane, wield the drawn sword. It was a sword cane.

He instantly closed the distance and aimed at Oulu’s neck. It was an unexpected deadly move.

However, Oulu dodged it without difficulty.

「Tsk, dodged it, huh……」

「Lil, protect me」

Following the contract, Lil comes out to protect Oulu. At almost the same time, behind the village chief, men are coming out with weapons and squirming from the shadows of the houses.

「Hey! What’s it!?」

「I can say that he had no intent to accept from the very beginning. That said, it was poor acting. A man that haven’t reached 50 like you coming out on a cane would probably be having a hidden instrument behind.」

「Thank you for your advice. I’ll be careful about it next time……after I’ve killed you!」

The village chief swung his sword, pouncing on Lil. Lil stretched her nails long like a sword and barely blocked it.

「Oulu, this guy’s strong……! I can’t win against, let’s flee!」

「No」

While she was somehow blocking the sword with her nails, Lil whispered to Oulu with a voice that only him would hear but only a word of refusal came back.

She’s somehow managing to endure it but if the men behind the village chief run and come into the fight, Lil can’t prevent them. To begin with, a succubus is not a combat-oriented devil.

Still, she can fight against a swordsman to a certain extent as she’s middle ranked but this village chief clearly was good at handling his sword.

Kyin, with a clear sound, Lil’s nail is cut from the middle.

「Well then, little devil missy. If you want to blame someone, do it to your stupid master.

Because I’ll soon send him to the same place as you.」

The village chief raised high his sword.

「Now, kill him」

And a grey arm grew from his chest.

「……Eh?」

Lil raised a dumbfounded voice. Everybody in the place did not grasp the situation and stopped moving dumbfoundedly.

In fact, it did not grow. It was the statue at the entrance of the village that have started to move and penetrated through the village chief’s chest with its arm.

Without even having the time to raise his voice, the village chief fell to the ground.

「After that, it’s only a bunch of mobs without combat training experience. I entrust them to you, Lil, gargoyle」

Oulu left the place, leaving the people that were dumbfounded.

After that, a one-sided massacre has begun.

「Hey, just when did you put that gargoyle there?」

Several tens of minutes later. In the village where people moving were gone……no, at the site of the former village, Lil asked to Oulu.

「To think that the stone statue moved with magic, it was a genuine gargoyle, right? I was surprised」

The gargoyle is, in a way, one of the most famous kind of devil. It was a devilish devil with an ugly appearance and that had wings, but its most distinctive feature is that it’s indistinguishable from a normal stone statue when it doesn’t move.

Therefore, a lot of stone statues imitating a gargoyle were made as a threat against the thieves or as a charm. In fact, there’s some restraining effect at the thought 「What if it’s real」. However, the village chief certainly haven’t even thought himself that he’d get killed by the statue that was supposed to be protecting the village.

「It’s been about 30 years that it’s been put there」

「Huh?」

At the unexpected answer, Lil had her mouth opened, dumbfounded.

「50 years ago, because I knew that there was a dragon vein around there, I sold it, pretending to be a peddler, as to prepare a foothold. They even bought it gladly, saying 「What an exquisite and realistic gargoyle!」.

Of course it is, since it was a real one. And also, I knew the actual village chief’s ability and character through the gargoyle.

That guy is a former adventurer and he was a swordsman with a certain notoriety before.

Since there was no reason that he comply obediently, I made them gather to make it easier to annihilate them all at once.」

「I see……really, you are so scrupulous and cunning that it’d become hateful」

「I’ll take that as a praise」

While returning the smile, Oulu finishes to prepare the magic. It was a giant magic circle.

On the magic circle drawn in the middle of the village, corpses of village people has been stacked on.

「Then, shall we start it? This number is a little troublesome. I’m going to take the mana」

As soon as he said, he forcefully embraced Lil and kissed her. Lil seemed to not like it much but she doesn’t resist.

「……just by the way, just holding hand is enough to transfer mana」

「Is~it~so~」

Although she says like she doesn’t matter but as she’s giving looks here, it perhaps means that she didn’t hate it so much.

Is her mood somehow finally up? He thinks that……it’s a bit troublesome but surprisingly for Oulu, it didn’t feel that much unpleasant.

Oulu decided to not tell her that the kissing is the most efficient way to transfer mana, turns around the magic circle, sits down properly and begun to chant a long spell.