Chapter V47

The Sword and The Dress (Volume 4) – Chapter 7Translator: Nezu

Editor: Daed

***

What’s he doing here…Oh, right. They had said that he had stayed here because he didn’t want to go. The white horse that had kicked the beast down looked around. I think he’s looking for something.

“Snowy!” I said, but his ears merely flickered. When he looked at me, he turned his head away shortly afterwards. He doesn’t recognize me. It’s sad, but it can’t be helped. Thanks to what he did, we were able to buy a bit of time. I grabbed the demon king from behind and dragged him to a nearby tree.

“The thicker, the stronger, right?”

“Kuuk, yeah, ‘cause the compressibility rate is high. Let me go!”

Alright. Then I’ll have to cut the thicker branches at the bottom. When I imbued holy power into the dagger to quickly cut off the branches, Snowy, who was in a confrontation with the beast, suddenly turned around to look at me.

“Huh?”

What now? Did he come to me because he recognized my holy power? His gaze followed the dagger filled with holy power. I think he’s even showing a gesture of joy. So, is it possible to distinguish people by holy power? Is that how it works? Oh well, dogs can recognize people by smell… Anyway, if he can recognize me, then that’s great!

“Snowy!” 

I immediately cut down branches from the tree, threw it to the demon king so he could make me a spear, and called Snowy.

“Do you recognize me? I’ve changed a bit, but it’s still me!”

Neigh.

Snowy snorted and ran towards me. Oooooh, he can really recognize me now? I took the whip and held it out to the demon king.

“Turn this into a rein.”

“What? Rein?”

“Yeah, a rein or a saddle. I need either one.”

It’s better if I can have both, but it will be difficult to make a saddle with the materials we have now.

“The spear has to be sharp and solid. Also, put a dent on the handle so I can grip it properly!”

“You’re asking for a lot!”

The demon king grumbled as he made the spear and the reins. The beast still tried to attack but Snowy drew his attention.

“Here! You damn human!”

“Good job, you rotten demon.”

Both the reins and the spear look quite good, considering how they’re improvised. When you look at this demon king, he seems quite useless, but he’s actually kind of great.

After I placed the reins on Snowy’s body, I held the spear with my right hand and the reins with my left. I know my weapon is not good enough, but at least now I have Snowy with me, so I know we can handle this.

“It’s been a while since we’ve worked together.”

Neigh.

Snowy neighed and bowed his head. The beast flinched as if nervous when it saw us prepare for battle. Though we were much smaller than the beast, Snowy and I both have holy power so the beast couldn’t simply let its guard down. Of course, it’s wary, since even around the area, Holy Knights regularly check and look for wandering beasts and demons. However, it didn’t seem to have any intention of retreating.

It’s going to chase after us if we simply run away. We have no choice now.

“Snowy, let’s go!”

Snowy galloped as soon as I spoke. Snowy’s movements resembled that of a mountain goat rather than a horse. The beast twisted its body, sweeping the ground with its tail. Snowy jumped up a few times to climb on top of the beast’s body.

Kieeek!

The beast writhed like a noble lady with a disgusting bug attached to her body. However, whenever it moved its body, Snowy also moved. He jumped, starting from the tail up to the head. When we approached the head, Snowy bent his front legs slightly, put strength into his hind legs even though I didn’t tell him, and…

Bam!

…rushed towards the beast’s head, kicking it hard and making a crack on the beast’s shell. From the moment Snowy bent down, I infused all of holy power into the spear and stood up. With Snowy’s kick, the strength of my left arm, and the concentrated power on the tip of the spear—

Crack!

—the shell shattered. The spear was pushed so deep that only the handle could be seen. Dark green liquid seeped out from the protruding part of the spear until it overflowed like a waterfall.

Kiiiiiiiii!

The large demonic beast writhed wildly and dug into the ground but Snowy and I had already retreated. In the past, there wouldn’t have been a need to struggle like that just to hit its head. The quality of the weapon was the problem. Even if it was strengthened with holy power, there was a limit to how much it could take…

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The beast was hit in a vital part so it didn’t take long before it collapsed after struggling for a while. Its legs that were raised towards the sky trembled then stopped moving. Seeing that the beast finally turned quiet, the demon king who was hiding behind the tree crept towards me.

“…Is it dead?”

“Isn’t it obvious?”

“Wow, you’re really amazing. Even though you look weak on the outside.”

Snowy looked with displeasure at Av who was grumbling that he had almost died again. He looked like he was wondering why this demon is babbling like that.

“You can’t kill this punk here, Snowy.”

Neigh.

Av was startled by what I said and looked at me then at Snowy.

“…What on earth is this horse saying? What is he fussing about?”

“He’s carnivorous.”

“What?”

“Be careful not to get eaten by him. I think he eats beasts and demons.”

Actually, he spits them out when he tries to eat them because they tasted bad, but this stupid demon king who believed me freaked out and stepped back.

“Tell him not to eat me!”

“I just did.”

“You told him not to kill me! But he can still eat my arms or legs without killing me!”

“Fine, fine. Snowy, don’t eat this bastard.”

Neigh?

Snowy tilted his head to the side as if I was saying nonsense, but this only made Av flinch.

“…Are you sure it’s fine now?”

“It is. If he tries to eat you, I’ll stop him.”

“O-okay…”

Av hesitated but still returned to Snowy’s side. I should be joining the others by now, but it seems like I’ve dropped the flare during the fight. It’s dangerous staying in one place anyway so sending a signal and waiting for them to come fetch us isn’t a good idea.

“Let’s get going before we run into a demonic beast again.”

“Why? You’ve already defeated a large beast, so why worry about other beasts unless it’s another demon king?”

“I can’t use my left arm anymore.”

“…What?!”

The punk freaked out again and yelled.

“Why?!”

“Why not? It gave out. I can’t move my shoulder and my muscles are ruptured. I think I’ve broken my wrist too. My holy power can only relieve the pain now but it can’t heal.”

Healing doesn’t work because my left arm has been overloaded with holy power. Also, I’m only using the holy power on the upper part of my arm to stop the pain from spreading. I won’t be able to use my left arm for the time being.

“T-then, if another beast comes…”

“I still have my right arm, and we also have Snowy now, so we could probably deal with the medium-sized ones. But not the large ones.”

It’s not really impossible since I could just use my mouth to hold the reins and my right arm to hold the spear. Then after that, my right arm becomes unusable too. But that situation should be avoided.

“So hurry and get on. It’ll be fine since Snowy can sense mana. We just ran into that one because it was near. If we’re far from them, we can just escape and run away.”

“O-okay…” Av said but was still hesitant to climb onto the horse. What’s his problem now?

“What’s wrong?”

“…There’s no saddle.”

“Just jump.”

“It’s too high!”

“Then I’ll hold your hand.”

“S-still, it’s too high…”

What the heck, I’m not here to escort some kind of noble lady. This demon king is really getting on my nerves. I had no choice but to ask Snowy to kneel down a bit.

“Now, good enough?”

“…Wouldn’t we be too heavy for the horse…”

“Stop nagging and just get on. My Snowy is strong. Besides, how heavy can the two of us be? It won’t even go over the usual weight he carries.”

Snowy used to wear heavy armor, which weighed twice as much as our combined weight, and even ran around with me, who’d also wear my own set of armor. Av reluctantly climbed up. Whew, dealing with this demon king is such a pain. But at least, it’ll be easier to convince him now.

***

“Witch of Contract?”

I left the scouting to Snowy and asked Av about the Crown Prince’s curse. This punk willingly shared what had happened to him.

“Yeah. There’s a demon queen called that. She collects human souls and uses them when a contract needs one.”

“So you’re not the one who signed the contract with the Count of Epheria. It was that demon queen.”

“I’ve never made a contract with a human being, you know? I’m not interested in increasing my mana. I just want to know how to use it properly.”

“O-okay.”

I think I know now why he’s like this.

“Are you the type of guy who says, ‘I only have friends in books’?”

“N-not really…”

I was right. There were a few people like that among the priests I know: a person who’s smart and knowledgeable, but is actually clueless about the real world. Well, I’m not in a position to talk about things even I don’t know.

“Why the heck did she ask you to curse the Crown Prince?”

“I’m not really sure but I think it’s because of you.”

“What? Me?”

But come to think of it, I think the High Priest said the same thing as well: that it was a trap or something.

“What exactly was the contract about?”

“Cursing the Crown Prince, getting the attention of the Holy Knights of the Holy Church, and capturing the leader of the Holy Knights. I also got a little help with the barrier.”

“…She was really after me? Just why…?”

“No idea. I thought the purpose was to lure the leader of the Holy Knights but then I heard that they wanted to kill you, and even me!” Av yelled. He grumbled resentfully for a while.

“I mean, I did try to kill you at the risk of losing all my mana, but those bastards…”

“So why did you even do something so stupid, stupid. You could have just run away.”

“I… I wanted to try being bad at least once…”

Are you a kid? Just how old is this punk? Since he’s a demon, he shouldn’t be that young.

“You’ve been having a problem with your mana circuit for a hundred years and now you’re saying you at least wanted to try to be bad once.”

“No, it hasn’t really been a hundred years. But I kinda seem cool if you say it’s been a hundred years.”

Say what now? I turned my head back to glare at the demon king behind me.

“How many years has it been then?”

“Uh… more than ten years? 20 years at most? Anyway, I’ve been working on it for a long time now!”

“Yeah, that’s a long time for us humans.”

“It’s been years. I was going to spend my time learning about that thing I got in return…”

“What did you get?”

“An ancient relic made before the goddess drove out the demons that can be used to transmit video—”

“Just say that it’s an ancient relic.”

You don’t have to explain everything, you know? Av was silent for a while as if he was sulking. Then he spoke again.

“…Well, anyway, it seemed like she needed your soul intact.”

“Where was she planning to use it?”

“I’m not sure. Well, aren’t you close to the High Priest? Maybe she was planning to use it as a hostage to lure the High Priest.”

“We’re close, but he’s not the type to fall for such an obvious trap.”

Would the High Priest really go out of his way to save me? I don’t get it. Though it was said that he went to the duchy, it really wasn’t one of the demons’ traps…or was it? Now that I think about it, I’m starting to have some doubts.

“I guess you’re clueless as well.”

“T-that doesn’t mean you’re throwing me away, does it?”

“Don’t worry. Though there’s nothing we can get out of you, we won’t turn a blind eye to demons who want to be in the arms of the Goddess.”

There are only a few cases where demons who have surrendered are rejected by the Holy Church. The biggest reason why the Goddess drove away the demons was because they were extorting human souls. So if a demon were to give that up, they’d be treated like a believer who follows the Goddess’s will.

A demon king’s surrender can even be used sometimes for publicity to show the Goddess’ authority. However, doing so with this punk may actually have the opposite effect. His face shouldn’t even be shown to the public.

“I’ll talk to the High Priest myself. He’s not as bad as you think.” 

“…Thank you.” This punk murmured shyly, as if ashamed.

“Hmm, I also think you’re not as bad as I thought. I was the one who made you like this.”

“That’s only normal. Back then, we met as enemies. Didn’t I also smash in half of your head?”

“Yeah, you did. But you can no longer fight like you used to, right?”

“Well, it’s really not as bad as it seems. If my soul was put into the body of an animal or a beast, it wouldn’t be good. I’m used to this now. I’m not really bothered by it now so it’s fine.”

Exercise and physical training are annoying, but not to the point of making me mad.

Neigh.

Snowy, who was walking towards the edge of the desert, suddenly turned around. He was looking at the desert.

“Did you find something—oh, okay.”

I could faintly sense mana from nearby. If it’s a holy power that could be sensed even without being seen, it’s probably the Saintess.

“I can sense it too, but who is that?” 

“Saintess-nim.”

“Who? Saints usually don’t go out of the Holy Church, though?”

“She sneaked out to help me.”

Anyway, it seems that the other side also noticed us because soon we saw them running towards us. They’re all safe… no, they’re missing someone.

“Leader!”

“Hey, the Captain. Where’s the Captain?” I asked Tess who was coming towards me. Where’s my Jullius? You’re all here, but my fiance is missing!

***

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