The Humian Assault
“You revealed your name so readily… yet in my haste I committed a grave discourtesy…! I am Nemberg Weakhart, leader of the First Dispatch Investigation Team to Taego Forest!”
“I am Berco, the team’s technical support and Golden Wing pilot.”
More than ten minutes passed before Nemberg, still breathless with shock, finally gathered his wits and introduced himself. The moment clarity returned, he realized with horror that the Demon Lord—whose very existence was the stuff of myth—had graciously introduced herself first, while he had not even offered his own name.
He had devoured the food and drink she had mercifully provided without once revealing who he was, and had instead peppered her with questions. It would not have been strange at all if she had grown furious and struck him down with lightning on the spot.
“This lowly one has shown unforgivable rudeness through ignorance… Please forgive me!!!”
“Such trivial formalities do not concern me. Think nothing of it.”
“B-but…!!”
Nemberg lowered his head as though fearing the Demon Lord’s wrath, and before long he was prostrating himself fully on the ground, forehead pressed to the earth, eyes squeezed shut in terror.
Neromeltia, eager to move on to the main topic, felt her patience fray as Nemberg’s constant panic made any real conversation impossible. She pressed a hand to her forehead in exasperation.
At that moment Berco tapped Nemberg’s shoulder—still fused with the floor—and spoke quietly.
“Listen, Leader. I’m just a young dwarf like you and don’t know much about the world either, but the Demon Lord we’ve seen so far doesn’t seem like the sort to get angry over something like this. If anything, she strikes me as merciful enough to forgive far greater sins. Wouldn’t it be better to answer what she actually wants to know?”
Well said, Berco!
Neromeltia cheered inwardly at the warm, considerate words that both reassured Nemberg and naturally paved the way for proper dialogue.
The few sentences were enough to steady Nemberg’s nerves; the trembling in his body gradually subsided.
In truth, Neromeltia would have been perfectly willing to speak with Berco instead, since he at least seemed capable of coherent conversation, but she had refrained out of consideration for Nemberg’s pride as the team’s leader. She had waited precisely to avoid undermining his authority, yet the delay had worn her patience thin. When Berco stepped in and resolved the situation, she felt nothing but relief.
Berco calmed him, Nemberg regained his composure, and the other team members merely shook their heads as though this scene were all too familiar.
Neromeltia felt a twinge of pity for them.
“…You must be tired of hearing this by now, but I have committed a grave discourtesy! From this moment on I will listen to every word Your Majesty speaks!”
“Good. Then first—how are the dwarves faring? Are they still under pressure from the Humians?”
Neromeltia, who had been waiting for a chance to speak, brushed past Nemberg’s overly polite words and cut straight to the point. She had no intention of giving this coward time to think; he would only spiral back into panic.
“The dwarves’ greatest problem is food. We have no issues with concealment. The Humians do not even know we live in this area.”
“I see. So your reason for seeking out Taego Forest is also the food shortage.”
“Yes. We do have crop-growing facilities inside the mines, so we are not starving, but the yields have never been enough to satisfy everyone. When Taego Forest regained its green light, we decided to seize it before the Humians could discover it and hide it as quickly as possible.”
Neromeltia confirmed that everything she had inferred from her conversation with Hestinia was true. The only surprise was that the dwarves were short on food. She found it strange that a race possessing such advanced technology could not manage satisfactory agriculture when even the Demanians of Under Barkus had maintained stable food production.
“Is old man Rigenhart still alive?”
“…!!!”
Nemberg’s eyes flew wide open again in shock. The expression was almost comical, but Neromeltia could not bring herself to laugh.
Here we go again.
Just when the conversation had seemed to be progressing smoothly, they were back to this. She glanced at Berco for help, but he was absorbed in the screen of a small magical device and did not notice her silent plea.
With a sigh, Neromeltia decided to reassure Nemberg herself.
“Listen, Nemberg… I have lived a very long time, so naturally—”
“Humian attack!!!”
She had been about to explain that, as the Demon Lord, she naturally knew of someone like old man Rigenhart, but Berco’s urgent shout cut her off.
She could not resume the conversation. The news Berco delivered was an emergency that demanded immediate action.
“Where?!”
“Th-the Mackenzie Mine!!! H-how…!!”
At Neromeltia’s sharp question, Berco answered while his face drained of color. He could only stare in confusion, mind racing. Then, as though he had suddenly realized the truth, he turned to her and shouted.
“They must have contacted their main force the moment they began pursuing us!!”
“Explain in detail!!”
“In truth, several of our brethren have been captured near the Mackenzie Mine before… Seeing so many dwarves appear today, they must have pinpointed our location!!”
“You said there were no problems with concealment!!!”
“I-I’m certain the Humians never conducted targeted searches of the Mackenzie Mine until now…!!”
Once Neromeltia grasped the situation, she decided further talk was unnecessary and approached Berco. The screen of the magical device he had been watching displayed feeds from the Golden Wings in sequence. There, unmistakably, was a Humian army—hundreds strong, riding Scavengers and closing in. Among them were magical engineering vehicles fitted with iron cages for transporting captured dwarves. The dust kicked up by their charge rose like a sandstorm, engulfing the area.
Ziing ziing ziing ziing
“Wait! Rewind that last screen!”
“Eh…? Y-yes!!”
While Berco cycled through the Golden Wing feeds at the press of a button, Neromeltia spotted one particular screen and ordered it rewound. Startled by the sudden command, Berco reacted a moment late.
The screen showed nothing but black.
“Th-this one… It’s been outputting only a black screen for three days, so I thought it was broken and left it alone…”
“Suppose the Humians found this Golden Wing, disabled the display, and used it to track your traces. What then?”
“…!! Th-then…!!!”
“By the time they began pursuing you, they had already roughly located the Mackenzie Mine.”
Neromeltia did not need to ask to know which Golden Wing had been lost. They had been leaving the devices behind at regular intervals since leaving the Mackenzie Mine; one of them must have been discovered by the Humians.
The Humians who found the advanced miniature flying golem would have immediately recognized it as a dwarven magical tool. Recalling the places where dwarves had been captured in the past, they would have deduced that a dwarven settlement lay nearby.
“We move at once. Levitation!”
“Uwooooo!!!”
“Uwaa!! Uwaaaah!!!”
At Neromeltia’s Levitation spell, the entire dwarf investigation team rose haphazardly into the air. None of them had ever flown before; they flailed and screamed at the dizzying sensation. Neromeltia had no intention of giving them time to adjust. She shot southward toward the Mackenzie Mine at high speed, dragging the dwarves along whether they suffered motion sickness or not.
The only mercy she showed was casting barrier spells around each of them so they would not suffocate from the speed—an act possible only because she was a Demon Lord of considerable compassion.
She tucked Berco against her side and examined the screen attached to his wrist while flying. On it, the Humian forces were drawing ever closer to the Mackenzie Mine.