CH 17

Oni

“Phew.”

After planting all the seedlings in my hands, I looked up at the sun shining brightly in the sky and breathed a long sigh of relief.

“Hey! Chrono, it’s time to rest!”

“Oh!”

It was still early in the day, but I heard my father’s voice urging me to rest.

Like the Japanese farmhouse back on Earth, I was feeling the healing effects of the lush greenery of the fields and forests as I worked on planting rice seedlings.

Rice planting is good. I was able to keep my mind off things and it was great to sweat it out.

After that incident, I left Hakuto and Lilia to go help out back home.

By the way, the feeling of mud remaining between the toes is really addictive. That crunching feeling.

It’s a little discomfort at first, but once you get used to it, you miss it.

“Chrono, you’ve done enough. You’ve already done more than 60% of it by yourself, so let’s leave the rest to Dad.”

“Okay… Ah? Where is Hae-san?”

Our family’s water fields is the largest in the village. When I returned to my mother, who was opening her lunchbox on the edge of the field, I didn’t know when my brother’s wife, Hae-san, had disappeared.

She was the most popular and mild-mannered girl in our village. Together with my brother, they are good looking couple.

“In Hae-san’s words, she went back to get a change of clothes because Shuu had fallen and soiled her clothes.”

(Note: This kind of reminds me of the agricultural culture in my country, where men hoe the fields and women come to deliver lunch)

“……”

Brother, are you a kid?….. When I turned my eyes to my brother, he quickly looked away.

“You, ah. You’re growing so fast. It’s true you went for years to research rice, but how did you get such body?”

“I became this way by planting rice seedlings, repelling the brats and vermin that came to ruin the fields, harvesting the rice and grinding it. That’s how I was able to defeated the bad guys during my trip.”

Now, in front of my family, I have changed my appearance to that of a 20-year-old, which has made my brother feel a sense of crisis about the dignity of him.

The elves probably still thought that this growth was fast, but the demon race is slow to grow from this point on, so I decided to look like this when I returned home after some consideration.

“…It is fine if you devote yourself to rice, but you must find a wife as soon as possible. It doesn’t matter if she’s a beauty or not, the main thing is to find a gentle one. You can’t have one that is too nagging. You’ll have hard time later.”

“Dad, is that your complaint about mom?”

“Hah? There’s no such thing as that, you idiot. I’ve only got your mum in my heart. Have you ever seen anyone more devoted to your mother than this? There’s no one else but me, you brat.”

Father, he was like a master who was sensitive to line of sight of mother from behind.

“I fine Dad, this is my private matter.”

“We’ll talk about it when we meet the right person.”

“Okay…..”

After listening to my father’s complaints I washed my hands in the river and then enjoyed my mother’s rice balls under the green sky.

….. It was delicious. It is worthy of the rice that I put a lot of effort into making.

……

As I looked out at the birds soaring in the sky, I began to recall the story of the previous day.

It’s great that it went so well.

Although there had been a change of plans, the first contact with Hakuto and the others had gone well.

Meeting up with his companions and forming a party.

They encountered a mysterious enemy that they didn’t know if they could defeat.

The Black Knight will be their target in the future, and they will be aiming for greater heights.

One day, they will defeat the Black Knight and even the Demon King.

Even though I will have to be defeated twice, but I look at the positive side. That’s how I can enjoyed both characters at the same time.

I thought I was overdoing it when I conveyed what I wanted to say to Lilia, but it turned out to be good.

Having the armour on was great. After all, I was shedding tears of sympathy.

I left my address in case Lilia and the beastman girl got into any trouble. I just asked them to keep it a secret and they quickly understood.

So far no problem.

…… Except for the fact that there was absolutely no money left.

Since I have given up on creating a legion of freaks through the use of magic, I’m bound to recruit minions through the proper means.

Form an army of demon king with the goal of having only the evil ones destroyed in their entirety.

To raise those would require a lot of money. The cost of labour is too high.

Also, I would like to get people who can help find the villains and help with the chores. By the way, I would also like to have some guards for my own house.

The salary of these people is also necessary.

…… I have to go over to Capital and work honestly.

♢♢♢

Through the forest and the cliffs, I set off on my way back to the Castle of the Demon King.

The help in the rice fields was also over and I left without any worries after giving some detailed instructions to my mother and them as well.

However, something my mother had said before I left home had caused me some concern.

Recently, on the other side after crossing the two mountains…it said…it seems like an “Oni” appeared.

It looks like the “Oni” was looking for a guy called “Night Walker”, a bandit hunter and started hunting bandits in this area to find that guy.

Let’s talk about it in advance.

The Night Walker is not me.

Even during the time that I was working on the renovation of the Demon King’s Castle, he was actively hunting bandits.

They may be heroes to the good people, but my Demon King Army is in a financial crisis because of these two forces.

That’s why I searched for them for the proposal to divide the hunting grounds.

…. I Found him.

Perhaps because the other side had no intention of hiding at all, after just a little searching …… I sensed a presence that released a huge amount of magic power.

The beeping sound even reached here.

Among the people I have encountered so far, apart from the abnormaly powerful Black Winged man, he is definitely the one who is far ahead in strength.

I imitated the ninja manga I liked back on Earth, jumping from tree to tree and moving towards the magic source …… before finally landing in front of my target.

And there it was ……

“…… It’s suspicious that a little kid would appear in the depths of a forest like this …… Who are you?”

It was a man with a huge, robust body of over 2 meters covered in armor and holding a spear that was even longer than his body.

His three white eyes cast a grim, sharp look, a serious expression on his face.

Then from his forehead towards the sky grew …… two horns.

He’s really worthy of the name-“Oni”.

The Oni was staring at me with a suspicious gaze.

I changed my appearance to that of a 15 year old to make it easier to fly around in the forest here, and that seemed to raise the suspicious level to full.

“You’re the one who’s been looking for the “Night Walker” around here, and you’re called a “Oni”, right? I came here today to talk to you about something.”

Since I’m talking to him as a king, as a demon king, I don’t use honorific language even if it’s the first time I meet him.

“Hmm, so you’ve finally stopped running around and appeared.”

“Huh?… Ah, no. Just so you know, I’m not that ‘Nightwalker’…”

As I was about to tell him that I wasn’t a “Nightwalker”, I quickly leaned my upper body back parallel to the ground.

The blow that was aimed at my body, which is a perfect match for the word “fierce”, passed right in front of my eyes as I looked up at the sky.

A second later than the sweep of the spear, a blast of wind followed, causing the trees around me to shake.

“Hmm, you can avoid that one too. It’s been a long time since I last fought an opponent who didn’t die after taking a single blow. Now I’m getting excited.”

“Hey, didn’t you hear what I said? I’m not ‘NightWalker’!”

I tried to convince him, after I’d put my upper body in the right position.

“I don’t care.”

“Please be care. You’re trying to kill someone.”

After a moment’s hesitation, the Oni immediately swung the spear back into position with a grunt.

“Draw your sword.”

“No. I don’t see the point. After all, there’s no reason to fight you.”

“Who cares about the reason. With that kind of strength. I’m sure you’re disappointed by the lack of opponents too.”

“I wouldn’t say anything like that. So please calm down! “

There’s person who want to fight, and I’m strong enough to take it.

It’s not that I can’t understand that I want to try my own strength that has become stronger. Anyway, it won’t take much effort, so let’s practice with him.

“There is no reason, there is no audience, and no cameraman. But this kind of battle is also very good. It’s like Takayama-san in ‘A Dangerous Detective’, he will kick the opponent into the air first. Fine, I will fight you.”

“……”

With a thump on the stomach, I confronted him with the same mood of an adult practicing sumo wrestling with a child.

This kind of simple and easy to understand provocation does not work for this Oni who looks somewhat like Lu Bu in some way. He is not careless at all …… and starts to turn his spear faster and faster like movement of those spear-dance.

Even though the tip of his spear still hadn’t hit me, the difference in speed and power he poured into his spear was completely different from the first strike.

“You!!”

It was a very beautiful shot, a vertical swing.

Even the atmosphere trembled.

It was a blow that was both fast and heavy, and made full use of the power in his body.

However, the spear missed.

“Un…”

I dodged the spear’s trajectory with ease, and then stepped on the spear that had penetrated the ground with my foot.

“Guh..”

“Hoho!”

Understanding that the spear could not be easily withdrawn, the muscles of the whole body swelled up, exerting all their strength to lift me up.

Just as my body began to float under the force of the arm that was far greater than expected, I moved my foot away.

“Uoo!!”

I took advantage of the gap in his stumbling to step out and draw my sword, stabbing him in the throat.

“…… Aargh!”

After a few seconds of stiffening, the spear swiveled and flew my sword out, and I took advantage of the momentum to retreat backwards.

The sword that he had deliberately sent flying fell off with a few spins, right back into my hand.

“You …. you’re a monster in the skin of a child…..!”

“It’s an honor to be called a monster by an Oni.”

With eyebrows pointing up, the Oni held the spearhead of the huge spear up in front of him.

Then he closed his eyes as if he was thinking about something.

A few seconds later he opened his eyes. At that moment he was already looking like he had cut off his confusion and made a decision.

Then he said.

“…… please forgive me”

“I forgive you.”

“…… I haven’t said anything.”

“I will forgive whatever you want to say. I have the power to say so, so be as self-willed as you like.”

The ghost’s body jolted.

I had intended to provoke him, but it didn’t seem to have much effect.

“Although I want to use the “martial arts” that I have developed to communicate… But it seems that it just makes you feel bored…”

“……”

The tone of his voice was calm, but there was a sense of resentment in it.

“So ……”

The Oni’s body swelled with a murderous aura and magical power several times greater than before, and the forest, which had been silent, shook violently.

The Oni’s body was wrapped in a purple aura, causing its form to change.

He became huge ……

Became thick ……

To a strange shura with purple skin …

“My name is “Asura”. This is my true form, which I am proud of, so let’s fight it out!”