Volume 3 - CH 9

Act 3 – 9 : Land Dominated By Ogres 2

「Shall we ask them first just in case?」

After she uttered her question haughtily, Kyouka glared at Echigos and his lackeys and looked at them as if they were trash.

It seemed as if she already knew the reason why he and the citizens visited them late at night.

（Tch! They realized it, huh.）

Echigos clicked his tongue. Now there was an even bigger chance for them to injure these women while they were fighting back, which was the only thing he worried about. Echigos knew that it was pretty much impossible to deceive these women at this point.

「Y-You girls will be sacrificed instead of my daughter! Sorry, but you women just happened to be here at the right time. Of all places you came to this country, it must be fate!!」

When Echigos was about to say something, another person came out first and spoke to them. It was the prostrating man from before. He was really desperate since the women before them could become his daughter’s replacements.

The three women exchanged a look between themselves upon hearing the man’s remark, and started a discussion of their own.

「It seems you have your own circumstances. Do tell us, we’ll hear your story.」

Maybe because of the man’s remark from before, the haughty-looking woman spoke again with a softer expression this time. But Echigos had no intention to waste his time with useless talk.

「Unfortunately we can’t do that, Young Lady. Now throw away your weapons if you don’t want to get hurt.」

Echigos smiled as he warned them. In the first place, nothing would change even if he told them about the situation. He knew that there was no way those three women could beat all of them. He was even thinking of treating them nicely until he gifted them to Zengu if they stayed obedient.

「It seems we have no choice but to let you people taste a bit of pain. Kaya! Shirone-san! Let’s teach them a rather gruesome lesson.」

After the haughty-looking woman spoke, the women by her side nodded at the same time.

「Please step back for the time being, Milady.」

「That’s right, please step back for now, Kyouka-san.」

Just as Echigos had expected, the two other women were attendants.

The haughty-looking woman in the middle then stepped back while the woman on her left readied her fist as the woman on the right unsheathe her sword.

「Y-You’re only going to hurt yourselves if you keep resisting you know!!」

Despite his warning, the women didn’t seem to be scared at all. He wondered what made them so brave even when they were being surrounded by so many people.

「What are you talking about? The one who are going to be in pain are you people!」

The sword wielder called Shirone spoke as she glared at them.

Echigos faltered a little bit upon receiving that glare.

「Don’t blame me for not warning you then!! Capture them!!」

Echigos gave his order with a loud voice as if to suppress his fear, following that, his subordinates moved closer to the women.

Five of them surrounded the sword wielding woman.

「Catch them with as little injury as po— EH?」

Echigos suddenly halted, doubting the scene before his very eyes.

The five men had already collapsed even before he finished his sentence. Those men were rolling on the ground, moaning in pain.

「UWAAAAAAAAAAAA!!」

Suddenly, there was a scream from his right side.

When he turned to the right, he saw that the men who tried to capture the woman on the right had already fallen on their rear. They were looking at her with dread. Their weapons and ropes had already been shredded to pieces and, upon closer look, it seemed that their hair had also been trimmed so smoothly until there was not a single strand left.

Since Echigos knew that there were no baldies among his subordinates, he knew that she had trimmed the men’s hair within a single moment.

His other subordinates got scared sh*tless upon seeing such a superhuman feat.

「HEY!! WHAT ARE YOU WAITING FOR!! THERE’S ONLY THREE OF THEM! DO YOU WANT TO BECOME OGRE FOOD?! CATCH THEM QUICKLY!!」

Echigos shouted at his subordinates. However, nothing could be done as anyone who approached Kaya ended up the same, falling on their rear with bald heads. Even he was terrified by the end of these events.

「Step back, Echigos. Let me do this.」

「D-Daigan-sama! Everyone step back immediately! Daigan-sama’s going to fight them!」

After Echigos and his subordinates stepped back, Daigan stepped forward with large strides.

「You look quite strong. Anyway, I shall be your next opponent.」

Daigan’s body swelled up after he spoke. His tall and muscular figure became even bigger as bristles started growing from his body and his mouth grew longer, forming a wolf snout. His canines had also become more intimidating.

「A human wolf? No, a Werewolf!!」

「Yes. This is the power I got from the great God of War, Felion! Your blood shall become the offering for our God!」

Daigan spoke with a malicious smirk on his face.

「The God of War Felion? Eh, shouldn’t the the Gods of War be the Goddess of Wisdom and Victory, Rena, and the God of Battle and Power, Thors?」

「Shirone-sama. Thors and Rena are worshiped by humans, Felion on the other hand might be an evil God. I think that man used to be human, but became a Werewolf due to the evil God’s power.」

Kaya explained while knocking her fists together, ready for some action.

「Humph, former human huh… Should we kill him or not? That’s really troublesome since he was a former human. Well, whatever. I’ll be your opponent.」

Shirone readied her sword, she was really calm as if she was just going to take a walk. Even when facing a Werewolf, she looked like she was enjoying the situation instead of being afraid of her opponent.

Echigos felt something was amiss upon seeing the elated look on Shirone’s face.

「Hou, quite confident, aren’t you? Well let’s enjoy this battle.」

Daigan unsheathed his sword and readied it.

Originally, Daigan was a human warrior. He, seeking more power, started to worship the Evil God Felion, and gained his blessing.

Shirone and Daigan closed in on each other.

「HERE I COME!!」

Daigan swung his sword.

It was a sharp attack which made full use of the skill that he honed in his entire life. Yet, Shirone acted as if that splendid attack was not coming to reap her life.

「… EH?」

Daigan couldn’t hide his surprise.

""

Even Echigos doubted the scene that unfolded before him.

The sword in Daigan’s hand… was gone.

A few seconds later, something fell right beside Daigan, digging into the ground.

It was his sword.

「I-Impossible!」

Daigan was really confused.

「Fufun. It’s a disarming skill. Still want to continue?」

Shirone pointed her sword at Daigan as she asked that question.

「Humph! I’m not done yet! I’ve yet to be defeated!」

Daigan clenched his fists, this time challenging Shirone with his own fists. He threw his first punch, but his fist ended up only hitting air.

「My bad. Your swordsmanship isn’t bad, but it’s still no match for me.」

Before they realized, Shirone had already moved behind Daigan as she spoke, Daigan then fell forward after Shirone finished speaking.

She didn’t kill him, just knocked him out.

「I-Impossible… for Daigan-sama to be toyed with so easily… You, who the hell are you people…」

Echigos muttered.

The scene unfolding before him was simply too unrealistic. Normal humans shouldn’t be able to defeat a Werewolf. Only now did he realize that the women before them weren’t ordinary humans.

「Now, all of you, throw your weapons and surrender!」

Suddenly, Kaya shouted at them.

「Do you know the identity of this personage? She’s Reiji-sama’s, who is hailed as the Hero of Light, little sister Kyouka-sama! You’re in the presence of Milady! Surrender now!!」

Echigos couldn’t hide his shock upon hearing Kaya’s remark.

Even though they were a closed state, it didn’t mean that there was no information about the outside world coming into their country.

Naturally, they knew about Reiji, the Hero of Light too. He was the one who rushed into Nargol, a place infested with monsters far more terrifying than ogres. It was also a well-known fact that the Hero was a man whose arrogance knew no bounds and was unforgiving toward his enemy.

「ha-HAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA!!」

Echigos prostrated himself toward the woman called Kyouka. His subordinates then followed suit.

The weak should worship the strong, that was Echigos’ raison d’être.

「M-My apologiiiiiiiiiiiiiesss! I-I didn’t know that you were the Hero’s little sister! Please forgive meeeeeeeeeeee!」