The Demon King Expedition's Departure
Early morning. From the training grounds of the Imperial Palace came the ring of steel on steel.
Clang! Shing! Clang—
Yuli and Damian. With the expedition looming, the two of them were sparring.
"Hyaaah!"
With a spirited battle cry, Damian's sword swept toward Yuli's waist.
Shing!
Yuli's blade caught it by a hair's breadth, and in that opening he drew a dagger from inside his coat and set it against Damian's unprotected throat.
"I… I lose."
Damian conceded with a rueful smile. Yuli ruffled the boy's hair.
Honestly, even watching it, the talent was hard to believe. Every single bout, the growth was plain to the eye. Enough, even, to understand why the Holy Sword had chosen a kid like him.
"You've grown quite a bit. Not long ago you were scrambling just to block."
"Thank you!"
"But you've still got a long way to go. So in this war, leave the Demon King to me. You just support from the rear."
Hero or not, the one who takes the Demon King's head has to be me — not you.
Damian looked disappointed, but it was his master's word, so he soon nodded.
"Well then, shall we go grab something to eat?"
"Ah — Master, please go ahead. I'll train a little longer before I join you."
"That so? The operation's right around the corner, so don't overdo it."
"Yes, sir!"
Yuli left Damian at his drills and stepped out of the training grounds first. On his way to the dining hall, he ran into Muni in the corridor.
"Oh. Good morning."
"…"
Yuli offered a greasy greeting. Muni ignored him outright. Undeterred, he fell into step beside her.
"How are the preparations coming, Magical Commander?"
"…Fine."
"Make sure you plan it well so the Demon King doesn't slip away, yeah?"
"I know without you telling me."
Muni answered with a furrowed brow. Then she turned the question back on him.
"Are you really planning to take that Hero along?"
"Hmm? Of course. His Majesty already gave permission."
"A greenhorn like that?"
Greenhorn. There was no better word for him.
Hero Damian. The one the Holy Sword had chosen after Kyle's death. Youngest Hero on record, and with the Demon King subjugation underway, he carried the hopes of every citizen in the Empire.
Muni knew it too — how unprecedented his talent was. In pure sword skill alone, calling him Kyle's equal or better would not have been an exaggeration.
But talent was ultimately nothing more than future and potential. Genius or not, he had only just become a Hero, with almost no real combat experience. What use was he supposed to be?
He had even just lost to Yuli. Losing a straight fight to a thief whose specialties were ambush and assassination meant his skill was still lacking — and Yuli knew it as well as anyone.
"It's fine. That one's just a mascot."
"A mascot?"
Yuli answered while watching Damian swing his sword in the distance.
"Heh heh. A very important role — to make this war and my exploits look even better."
At that sly smile, Muni shook her head. That a man like this was the Empire's hero… Even if they succeeded in subjugating the Demon King, she could not see a bright future for the Empire ahead.
"Hey. Aren't you coming?"
"You go first."
In the end she stopped walking and sent Yuli on ahead. Another minute at his side and she would have thrown up before she ever reached the table.
"Haa… Hero Damian."
She glanced at him, still drilling. His immature skill still drew a sigh from her — but Muni did not know.
That the protagonist of this world had originally been not Kyle, but Hero Damian. That he was meant to defeat the Demon King together with his companions.
Only that was a story ten years in the future. The moment Kyle defeated the Demon King and was betrayed by his companions, that future had already been completely rewritten. He had become a Hero and been thrown straight into a fight with the Demon King, and his companions were not the original ones either, but Kyle's former party.
Nothing of the original story remained.
"Still… it should be fine."
Even so, having seen Damian's skill, Muni chose to think positively. The Demon King. The wound she had taken from Kyle ran terribly deep — not something a mere month or two could heal.
"The Demon King will die anyway."
She and everyone else had no doubt of victory.
Time flowed quickly.
A full month since Hero Kyle's death. Two more days after that, and the day of the Demon King Subjugation Force's departure had arrived.
"Kyaaaaah!! Lord Yuli!! Look over here!"
"Hero! We're counting on you!!"
Citizens had poured into the streets, cheering the expedition on. Dozens of times the crowd of an ordinary departure ceremony — proof of how high expectations ran. That this time, at last, they could wipe the demonkin out for good. That they would live to see the Demon King die in their own generation.
And so the citizens roared with a fervor greater than any before.
"Hmph. Quite the crowd."
Emilia snorted as she looked them over. Unlike the throng gathered here, she had not joined to subjugate the Demon King. She had long since abandoned any such sense of duty. She had only come along to draw closer to Damian on this journey — and, while she was at it, to get in Jain's way.
Jain was of the same mind.
"If you dislike it that much, why not just go home, Emilia?"
"What?"
"Even without you, Damian and I will bring back the Demon King's head."
Emilia's eyebrows twitched. Jain was only standing here because of Damian's earnest request; she had no interest in a dying Demon King. More than anything, Emilia fawning over him simply grated on her nerves.
After Kyle's death, the relationship between the two of them had cooled at a stroke. No — more precisely, it was the same with all the other companions. They no longer thought of one another as comrades at all.
"Jain. You're the one who seems to have joined this operation with some strange idea in mind."
Emilia flicked a glance at Jain's chest.
"Heh heh. I wonder if that scrawny body of yours will manage to get what it wants."
"Ugh!? Emilia, you…!"
When Emilia smiled that lewd little smile, Jain glared as if she meant to kill her. While the two of them needled each other, Yuli climbed onto the plaza platform.
"Beloved citizens of the Empire!"
The moment he spoke, every eye in the crowd fixed on him.
"We have endured for hundreds of years. We and our ancestors lived oppressed beneath the great evil that is the Demon King's army. People — how much have you suffered all this time? How much pain have you borne!"
The plaza that had been roaring with cheers fell silent in an instant. Everyone was listening to the hero's speech.
"But that ends today. Because I am here!"
Thud!
Yuli struck the floor with his scabbard. And he declared:
"So I swear it here and now. I, the hero Yuli — in this war, I will leave not a single demonkin alive, and I will return with the Demon King's head!!"
"Waaaaaaaah!!"
"Yuli! Yuli! Yuli!"
The citizens chanted his name. Drunk on their cheers, Yuli slowly closed his eyes. And he was certain.
If he returned from this war with the Demon King's head, this world would be his. At this rate, marrying the imperial princess would be nothing.
Look, Kyle. This is what a hero is.
Not the likes of you, hanging yourselves over a mere false charge.
Thinking that, Yuli stepped down from the platform and moved to the very front of the formation.
"A magnificent speech, Master!"
Damian beside him spoke with a look of genuine admiration. At those words, Yuli looked back.
Two thousand soldiers. A hundred knights. Fifty mages. And the Hero Damian and his former companions — all of them following him. At that fact, Yuli's lips curled up, drunk on superiority.
The enemy was at best a dying Demon King and a hundred or so remnants. No matter how he looked at it, the chance of defeat was zero.
"Heh heh. Well then — shall we be off."
"Yes, sir! Are we heading straight for the kingdom?"
At Damian's question, Yuli shook his head.
"No. We'll stop by the Holy Kingdom first."
You can't leave out the Saintess when you're going to face demonkin.
The current forces were enough, but with her holy power on hand, things would go much more smoothly. Contact had already been made with the Holy Kingdom.
"Well then. Shall we go become heroes."
Today would be the first step toward leaving a great footprint in history. Thinking that, Yuli set out toward where the Demon King waited.
Today, too, the morning in the Holy Kingdom was clear without a single cloud.
Chirp, chirp. Chirp.
Outside the window came the songs of birds and the sounds of children at play. The breeze was pleasantly cool, and the sunlight warming the bed was just the right degree of warmth.
If someone were to paint a picture of peace, it would be a scene just like this—
"—Ghk, keh-hek. Kek. Guhhk!"
Rattle. Rattle.
Along with the sound of a door shaking came a girl's pained gasps. That voice belonged to the owner of this room — the Saintess who had once been Hero Kyle's companion.
A rope tied to the doorknob hung around the neck of the girl slumped before the door. But there was no one else around. She had done it all herself.
"Ghk, ghhk, ghk!"
Rattle! Rattle!
Every time the Saintess thrashed, the door shook more violently. Before long, the drool flowing from her mouth had soaked her chest. Just as her eyes were nearly rolling back, she cut the rope with the knife in her hand.
Slice.
"Guhhk— Pwah! Haa, haa…"
The moment the rope snapped, the Saintess gasped for air first. She was expelling breath as if in agony — but her mouth was smiling.
"Ehehe, he, hehehehehe."
The Saintess only fondled the rope marks carved into her neck, a look of pure satisfaction on her face.