Prologue
Prologue.
Ssssk.
I struck a match with practiced ease and lit a cigarette grown in the Demon Realm.
How long had it been since my last one? I nodded to myself, shuddering at the sensation as it seeped into my very organs.
"Ahh... ha. Yes. This is it."
One long, deep drag, then a slow, unhurried exhale. I wanted to savor that lingering haze for as long as I possibly could.
"...You filthy bastard."
"Come on, Lieutenant Colonel. You shouldn't talk like that. You know exactly how much I've suffered..."
My name is Jim.
A soldier of His Great Majesty the Demon King, an officer of the Fifth Legion. That was who I was.
And the reason I, of all people, had chased my own tail all the way out of the Demon Realm and into the Human Realm was, well...
"Suffered? You were off having the time of your life playing around with women."
"...I did not have the time of my life. Far from enjoying myself, do you have any idea how much of a tightrope I had to walk just to keep my body in one piece among those women?"
Of all the soldiers in the Demon King's Army, I was one of the ones who looked relatively human. I was half human, half demon — that was why.
Perhaps because of that, our Legion Commander, pondering how best to make use of the rare mixed-blood soldier within her ranks, arrived at a rather cruel decision: to have me infiltrate the Hero's Party.
"Still, it wasn't all bad, was it? They say every one of them was a beauty."
"I used to think that too, once upon a time."
I took another deep drag from my cigarette before answering with a scowl.
"But this 'Hero's Party' business? There wasn't a single sane person among them."
That was what I discovered once I was actually in. As the weeks dragged on, I found myself genuinely wondering whether the army had foisted the half-breed out on purpose. It wasn't an unreasonable suspicion — I'd been despised even within the Legion, so the possibility was there.
"And I worked hard for that cover story, you know? You saw it all yourself."
I figured infiltrating the Hero's Party would require a suitably tragic sob story, so I put on a performance. It was a mission of critical importance, after all — there was no chance they'd refuse my requests.
First, I built a village along the route the Hero was traveling and burned it to the ground. The goal was to make it look as though a village had always stood there. Then I simply sat among the ruins of the rough, tree-assembled wreckage — and sure enough, the Hero came to find me.
"Sob, sob! Monsters from the forest did this to my village! Even if I wanted revenge, I don't have the strength! I'm begging you, Hero — please... please!"
Intelligence had already confirmed that the Hero possessed a righteous, upstanding character. She granted my request without hesitation, and together with her companions, she slew the hydra I'd released into the forest and returned.
As the blood-soaked Hero and her companions came back into view, I played my trump card: a hollow, broken expression, and a single glistening line of tears rolling down my cheek.
"Thank you, Hero. With this, the souls of my villagers can finally rest."
"Oh, no. It was only what anyone would do."
"I see. So to you, it was merely the obvious thing to do."
"N-no, that's not what I meant—"
"I've already lost everything. Hero, I beg you — please, allow me the chance to repay this debt."
The good-hearted Hero found herself utterly unable to refuse an ugly man weeping uncontrollably at his ripe old age.
And so I became the Hero's Party's pack mule. For the record, back then I was stronger than the Hero and all of her companions combined.
I was Jim, proud lieutenant of the Demon King's Fifth Legion. A ragtag bunch of amateurs barely scraping by against a mere hydra? They were nothing.
With that thought in mind, I slipped into the Hero's Party — and before long, I was staring into hell itself.
"Breath! Take cover!"
"Gyaaaaaargh!"
Our enemies were not the Hero alone. In truth, the Hero was merely a wildcard — the real enemy was someone else entirely.
"You vile mortals, how dare you!"
The Dragonkind.
With their signature arrogance and savagery, the dragons were a threat to demons, humans, elves, and dwarves alike. Our Demon King had surely left these rabble alone precisely to keep the Dragonkind in check.
Normally, with a common enemy looming, everyone ought to have banded together and fought. But lo and behold — the mad sons of bitches started spreading propaganda that no alliance with demons was possible. More shocking still, the propaganda worked flawlessly, and the dwarves and elves lined up on the humans' side.
"Hraaaaaaagh!!"
Dragons were terrifying creatures. To defeat one in single combat, even counting demon soldiers, you needed at least a field-grade officer of the elite ranks.
And when I watched the Hero cut down one of those very monsters, I knew, beyond any shadow of a doubt, that something had gone deeply, fundamentally wrong with this world.
"Uwaaaaargh!"
When we fought the demons, everything was fine. They never genuinely tried to kill me, and given the nature of my mission, my act continued even there — they'd wound me, but never fatally.
Of course...
"Where do you think you're going!"
"Guhk! A mere human...!"
"Jim! Are you all right?"
...the humans slaughtered them to the last. The Hero had become far too strong. The Hero herself, yes — but every one of her companions as well.
And I alone had stayed exactly the same. Which is to say: the classic case of the shrimp's back cracking in a whale fight.
The demons were only acting, sure — but the Dragonkind were lunatics who wanted to reduce every soul on the battlefield, no exceptions, to ash.
Surviving in that chaos while concealing my demon blood was... a challenge.
"Hero."
"Yes, Jim! What is it?"
"I'm afraid this is as far as I can go."
"Huh? What do you..."
"I'm simply too weak. I won't be able to travel with you any farther. I'd only ever be dead weight."
"Well, of course you're Jim. How could you possibly become anything more than Jim?"
"That's not what I mean by—"
"Oops, sorry!"
"In any case, I no longer have the confidence to continue this journey. Would you accept my resignation?"
"Nope. I don't accept it."
Skreeeech!
The Hero tore my resignation letter to shreds right in front of my eyes, smiling brightly all the while.
Seeing that, I finally understood. I'd suspected the Hero might be a little... simple. She was so kind, so utterly incapable of suspicion.
But I'd been wrong. What I'd taken for naivety was, in fact, madness.
"You'll be traveling with us forever, Jim."
"..."
"So don't you worry about a thing. No matter what happens, we'll protect you."
She had decided my reason for quitting was an inferiority complex.
It never even crossed her mind that I might be about to die physically. Why? Because I was a proud member of the Hero's Party.
And a member of the Hero's Party begging to quit out of fear? To her, that could only be the noble lie of a pack mule, sacrificing himself once more for the team's sake.
Staring at that sunny smile, I made my decision. I was escaping this place.
The Hero wore the shape of a person, but she was not a being one could reason with.
"...And it still took me three whole months after that to actually get away."
Through the secret channel connecting me to the Demon King's Army, I reported the situation and declared my mission abandoned. Perhaps out of gratitude for what I'd endured, the Legion Commander actually approved it.
And why not? What we'd harvested was more than worth burning through one lieutenant.
Anyway — the communications went back and forth, we fixed a date, and I successfully slipped away from under the Hero's nose. Hence my current situation.
After all that, no wonder the Demon Realm tobacco tasted so sweet.
"You got all of Jim's things, right?"
"Of course. Now all that's left is for you, Lieutenant Colonel, to take responsibility for me."
"Not funny."
"Yes, ma'am."
"Nothing else you've forgotten?"
Maybe because the escape had gone off without a hitch, the Lieutenant Colonel asked this offhandedly as she watched the soldiers pack up. I'd gathered my personal effects and anything that might serve as evidence — and, just as importantly, everything I'd learned about the state of the continent through the Hero's Party.
"By the way, this turned out beautifully. Honestly, this might be exactly what's needed to blow the Hero to absolute pieces."
"Well, if your assessment is right, that's certainly plausible."
I bent down and examined the corpse of the dead doppelgänger. The anguished expression and the blood-soaked body were exquisite work.
If the Hero — the woman who'd rejected my resignation again and again, swearing she'd protect me — were to discover this... what face would she make?
"..."
Thinking about it, I found I didn't actually feel all that great. Two years of traveling together had dyed me after all, it seemed. Still, it was over now.
From here on out, I was going to live my life.
"Oh, by the way, Lieutenant Colonel—"
It was just as I looked up from inspecting the doppelgänger corpse I'd prepared as my stand-in.
"Huh?"
THWAAAAACK!
The head of one of the demon soldiers erasing the surrounding traces went sailing through the air.
I froze at the suddenness of it all — but the Lieutenant Colonel, reading the situation faster than I ever could, was already drawing her blade.
"Ambush!"
"Ah! Found you. Jim, are you all right?"
Brilliant blonde hair, and emerald eyes that caught the light like jewels. In one hand, she held the Holy Sword, radiating a soft golden glow.
The Hero, Esmeralda.
She had appeared, as always, wearing that giggly, airheaded little smile of hers.
"..."
The Hero's power had already soared far beyond anything we'd predicted. Even the Lieutenant Colonel would struggle against her. The Fifth Legion had always been an intelligence unit rather than a fighting force — aside from the Legion Commander herself, there was no one here of any real strength.
Shkk!
The demon soldiers surrounding her — well, "surrounding" was a generous word for it. The Hero wiped them out with a playful flick of her sword.
"So this is as far as you go."
The Lieutenant Colonel clicked her tongue, then seized me roughly by the collar.
"Come one step closer and I'll kill this one! Hero, Esmeralda! Don't you treasure your companions?"
"Lieutenant Colonel—"
"Shut your mouth!"
At the turn of events, I lifted my head to look at her, and she immediately clamped a rough hand over my mouth and shouted.
'You are not one of ours. Not anymore.'
'...!'
Our odds were zero. We'd been a covert extraction squad built to smuggle me out; expecting combat strength from us had always been a fool's hope.
The Hero, Esmeralda, frowned at the sight of me held hostage — then came to a dead stop.
"Heh heh. Well done. Drop the Holy Sword, now. Unless you'd like this one's head and body to part ways, one headed for the sky and the other for the dirt?"
"..."
The Hero let the Holy Sword fall. Her devotion to her companions was one piece of intelligence that was rock-solid fact. If we played this right, perhaps the Lieutenant Colonel could actually bring her down.
"Now, send it over here."
"Wait—!"
"Didn't I tell you to keep your mouth shut?!"
No. She must not send the Holy Sword over here.
Didn't the Lieutenant Colonel know? Didn't she know what the Holy Sword could do? No — that was impossible.
Perhaps to keep my connection to her from being exposed, the Lieutenant Colonel never once let me open my mouth.
Tap.
The Hero kicked the Holy Sword. It tumbled across the ground, rolled — and came to rest directly in front of the Lieutenant Colonel.
And at last, I understood her intent.
"..."
A conflicted gaze — one that had made up its mind.
The Lieutenant Colonel eyed the Holy Sword, her lips moving faintly. Then she spoke, in a voice meant for me alone.
"Survive. On the battlefield, that's what winning is."
Thud.
The instant the words left her mouth, the Holy Sword lying on the ground moved as though it had a will of its own — and drove itself clean through the Lieutenant Colonel's heart.
"Ah..."
The grip holding my collar went slack, and she crumpled to the ground.
She had died to protect my secret.
If I alone were left behind, I might be suspected of conspiring with the demons. So she made certain that could never happen — by making me, beyond any doubt, a victim.
My mouth tasted bitter.
To die for a single subordinate... no. She had been a soldier to the marrow. With everyone doomed to die as things stood, she had simply chosen the path that saved one more life.
"Wow, that was close, huh?"
The Hero, Esmeralda, approached me with her usual, unchanging smile.
Yes — that giggly, airheaded smile of hers.
Drenched from head to toe in blood, still smiling, she sent a chill crawling down my spine.
"But all the demons are dealt with, so don't you worry. Let's head back to the tent now, shall we, Jim?"
A bloodstained hand reached out toward me.
And I had no choice but to take it.