51 – A Mother’s Heart
A corridor inside the Demon Castle Kutraunus.
The Lord of Deception, Javiel, and the Lord of Blood, Bloodstain, were having a conversation.
“Now that you’ve tasted it yourself, what do you think, Bloodstain? Humans are not to be underestimated even without heroes.”
Javiel looked at Bloodstain and spoke.
It was shortly after Javiel’s failed attempt to assassinate the hero.
When news spread that the hero had suffered a fatal injury, Bloodstain seized the opportunity and led the demons to attack the human kingdom.
However, the demon army led by Bloodstain could not break through the defense line of the humans stationed in the Horn Canyon and was defeated.
Bloodstain was slightly taken aback by the power of the human woman who had stood in his way.
He couldn’t believe that he, who could rival the top combatants among the demons, was defeated by just one human.
Most of the demons he brought with him were annihilated while he was dealing with that woman.
Even if he could break through the Horn Canyon alone in that situation, it would be difficult to turn the kingdom into ruins and find and kill the hero.
So he had no choice but to retreat.
For Bloodstain, who had experienced destroying a human village in a short time, it was a blow to his pride.
“If you had succeeded in properly killing the hero in the first place, none of this would have happened.”
“Hmph, I suppose you wouldn’t say that if you hadn’t even seen the hero’s face.”
As Javiel complained, Bloodstain let out a snort like an enraged bull.
“Krrr… I’m worried about the Demon King. Lady Bersella is too weak-hearted and fearful. Is it really possible to only choose and kill heroes without destroying the human kingdom?”
“Don’t worry. Lady Bersella is still young. Her fragile spirit will be fixed as the Demon King’s soul awakens. In fact, the power of the Demon King’s soul is steadily growing. Aren’t demons awakening under the influence of the Demon King’s soul in various places?”
“Hmph, even if we give the hero more time like this, it’s obvious that we will lose the Demon King again.”
When Bloodstain sneezed, Javiel chuckled.
Though he had failed in assassinating the hero, he had spent a long time in the human world.
And because of that, he had gathered some information.
“Well, what do you think? This hero seems a bit strange. Do you know what humans call him on the streets? They call him the ‘Trash Hero.’ Chosen as a hero, but he does nothing and instead causes havoc among the people around the Central Church.”
“A weak Demon Lord, they call him Trash Hero. The world is going crazy.”
“The gods have long abandoned this world. Just like an old toy breaking, this world may be breaking too.”
Javiel narrowed his eyes and spoke again.
“I actually see it as an opportunity. The Demon Lord who has always been defeated by heroes, now has a chance to claim victory for the first time.”
***
Following Shari, he endlessly walked the lands of the Demon World.
He cautiously moved, avoiding other demons and monsters as much as possible, making wide detours around the Demon Fortress, Kutranux.
But it wasn’t as dangerous as he had imagined.
Just because it was the Demon World, he had imagined terrifying monsters lurking around and demons like Bloodstain waiting for a chance to take his life with every step, envisioning a nightmarish environment with flames shooting up from the ground and lightning falling from the sky.
Of course, the human lands and environment were very different.
But it was different, far from being frightening and dreadful.
“The environment of the Demon World has changed significantly due to the influence of the Demon Lord’s soul left by the Great Demon Kubat.
Originally, the western part of the continent was a barren land where not a single blade of grass grew, but the flora and fauna here have been influenced by magic power for a long time.
As a result, grass and trees that can grow even on barren land have emerged, creating the current environment.”
The power of magic is truly amazing.
To create such forests and fields even on parched land.
Then are these purple plants growing here all strengthened by magic?
I can’t help but think that they are somewhat similar to adventurers who enhance their physical strength through magic conversion.
Shari, who was leading the way, stopped on top of the hill and pointed below with her little finger.
“We’ve arrived?”
I nodded.
As I looked in the direction Shari was pointing, there was indeed a quite large city.
It wasn’t particularly visually shocking, perhaps because I had already seen the mushroom village of the Karia tribe.
It was a splendid city where houses were built and roads were paved just like humans, although the architectural style was slightly different.
“A pure-blooded vampire… A city where species like Shari gather….”
I quietly observed Shari, who was flying in front of me.
There were very small bat-like wings attached to her back, and she had small horns on her head.
Honestly, in terms of appearance, the lizard-human species, the Lizardmen, that I had seen in the guild were much more repulsive.
Even those Lizardmen were living as adventurers in Kubel, but the vampires…
“Human?! How did a human end up here?”
As soon as I arrived at the entrance, the gatekeeper blocked my way while being wary.
Well, it’s a natural reaction.
Of course, the gatekeeper was also a vampire.
There were large bat wings on his back, and a horn protruded from the center of his forehead like a unicorn.
I immediately tried to initiate a conversation, using Shari as my shield.
However, the gatekeeper didn’t give me a chance and rushed towards me.
“Wait… Hold on!”
“It’s a human! A human has intruded into Einblad!”
“No way!”
“Kill them!”
The gatekeeper approached me closely and drew his sword, swinging it towards me.
Startled by the surprise attack, I swiftly jumped back without even drawing my own sword, evading the attack.
But the gatekeeper didn’t stop there. Without raising his sword, he pointed one hand towards me and conjured a small fireball with magic, hurling it towards me.
“aaah! Are you a dark mage?!”
I narrowly dodged the blazing fireball that flew towards me at an incredible speed.
The fireball that passed by my nose hit the ground, causing a small explosion.
“What?! A human? How dare you think this place is anywhere for you!”
“Kill the human!”
Upon hearing the gatekeeper’s shout, several more demons rushed out from inside, and there were even demons flying in from the sky.
The Karia clan at least listened to reason, so why are they so hostile like this?!
Sharie! Do something about this!
While avoiding the attacks that were coming at me frantically, I looked to see what Sharie was doing.
Sharie seemed just as flustered as I was.
She was zigzagging between me and the gatekeeper demon, waving her hands around in a panicked manner.
“Hey! Can’t you see that flying creature over there? Hey!”
“Kill the humans!”
“Hey! Can you listen to me, kid!”
“Die! Human!”
It was a futile exchange.
I couldn’t tell if Shari hadn’t seen me or if she was pretending not to.
Or maybe she just wanted to kill the humans first and then think about it.
Roar─!
Suddenly, I heard thunder and looked up to see a demon flying in the sky, casting magic at me.
I continued to move sideways to evade, but I abruptly stopped at the ominous energy.
Crash-!
Then lightning struck right in front of me.
If I had taken one more step, I would have been hit by the lightning.
A chill ran down my spine.
Without a moment to catch my breath, the gatekeeper rushed at me with a sword.
Other demons attacked me from all directions, using magic or weapons without hesitation.
“Please! Let’s talk! Talk! Ahhhhh!”
Swish!
Unable to completely dodge the attacks flying from all directions, I had no choice but to draw my sword and strike back.
It was difficult to harm them in front of Shari.
Is running away my only option?
But it seemed too late to escape.
No matter how quickly I tried to run away, they were a flying species over there.
The demons were gathering more inside the city.
Lightning fell from the sky, fireballs flew, and swords, spears, and arrows rained down.
I felt incredibly proud of myself for desperately evading all these attacks.
Wait, where is Shari?
Suddenly, Shari was nowhere to be seen.
Even though Shari had already shown herself, they kept attacking.
But they wouldn’t just abandon me and disappear completely.
“You stubborn human!”
“Did you come here alone? We will never let you go!”
“Everyone, be careful! That guy doesn’t seem like an ordinary human! He might be a warrior!”
The demons attacking me were freely making assumptions about where they should explain from.
Now there was no turning back.
Shari had also disappeared somewhere, and in order to protect my own life, I had no choice but to fight back.
“Back off!”
Clang!
I filled my sword with magic and struck hard against the gatekeeper’s sword charging at me.
The gatekeeper’s sword, which he had missed, flew through the air.
As I made my first counterattack after not retaliating at all until now, the gatekeeper was taken aback.
There was an opening.
If I were to embrace it and plunge the sword into my opponent’s throat, I could surely finish them off.
But I couldn’t shake off the feeling that once I killed them, it would be an irreversible act.
What good would it do to kill all the demons here and meet Shari’s mother?
I would just become a ruthless human invader.
“Grr… What should I do…!”
As I hesitated, the gatekeeper who had missed his sword retreated and escaped my attack range.
It was the moment when the demons were about to focus their attacks on me again.
“Stop the fight!”
A loud voice from a young woman overwhelmed the surroundings, halting the movements of the demons.
Turning towards the source of the sound, I saw a female demon with large wings extending one hand forward.
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And beside that female demon, Shari was floating in the air.
The female demon who appeared with Shari slowly approached me with a seductive stride.
With each step she took, a mist of verdant magic power rose.
She felt different from the other demons nearby.
With long hair flowing down and horns like a mountain goat on both sides of her head, she was incredibly beautiful.
It seemed that Shari had disappeared to bring this woman here.
“This human is not here to harm us.”
As she came closer, I realized that she was a woman much taller than me.
She was even taller than me by a whole head.
“I am Ludmilla, the Queen of Ainblad. Follow me, human.”
After she spoke briefly to me, she turned around and started walking.
Among all the illusions I’ve experienced in my life, this one was the most brutal.
With the gazes of the surrounding demons focused on me, I followed Ludmilla.
* * *
Demon loli to the rescueee