Chapter 78
Chapter 78
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Translator: penny
Chapter: 78
Chapter Title: Journey to the Demon Realm (2)
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Demon King's Castle.
The deepest chamber.
A handsome man with a bored expression sat upon a massive jade throne.
His attendant demons, lined up to either side, couldn't bring themselves to look at the man's face. They kept their heads bowed, trembling in fear.
The handsome man—Demon King Darikan—glanced at the quivering demons and tapped the arm of his throne idly before speaking.
“Intelligence Director.”
“Y-Yes… Yes, my lord Demon King.”
An elderly demon with a completely blank look on his face stumbled forward.
He was the Intelligence Director, Airen, responsible for gathering information and devising the Demon Realm's grand strategies.
He was the one who had proposed deploying the Four Heavenly Kings, and with the plans failing one after another, he had been feeling a mounting sense of crisis lately.
“Hmm… Still no word from the Church?”
“W-We’re… trying hard to make contact.”
“Dead again, I suppose? Daniel, the one we sent to the Church, was at least somewhat competent compared to the other idiots.”
Airen rubbed his sweat-soaked hands together and replied.
“W-Well, contact with the Church tends to get cut off whenever surveillance tightens up. So we were just waiting a bit…”
“Hah.”
Until now, Darikan had worn a faint smile, but he tore off that mask, slammed his fist on the throne, and shot to his feet.
“Do I look like an idiot to you?”
Airen’s legs shook violently at Darikan’s roar, and he dropped to his knees, prostrating himself.
“I-I’m sorry!”
“How the hell can you screw up this badly?!”
In his rage, Darikan snatched up the ashtray on the throne and hurled it.
Crash!
The crystal ashtray shattered into pieces, and a gash opened on Airen’s shiny bald head, blood trickling down.
Even so, Airen could do nothing but take it.
“Do the job right this time.”
“Y-Yes…”
Darikan had no idea.
That his sworn enemies, the hero party, were already closing in on his doorstep.
***
Western border of the Demon King's Castle territory.
Our hero party was advancing smoothly through the dense jungle here.
Squeeeal.
A monster with a pig’s head and a human body collapsed to the ground, and a sandstorm kicked up.
“Ugh…”
As the sandstorm blew in, Rainy immediately ducked behind my back.
“Comfy.”
Marey had already anticipated it and slipped into the loose opening at the top of my shirt.
“…”
I wanted to dodge the sandstorm too, but there was no helping it. I stood there taking the brunt of it, acting as a human shield.
Sigh. Gotta hurry up, beat the Demon King, and call it quits.
The Demon King's Castle had a surprisingly textbook layout.
The outer areas teemed with low-level monsters, growing stronger the deeper you went.
Our party was currently around the midpoint.
The monsters showing up so far were ones we could handle with ease.
“Hmm… Can’t we cook this somehow?”
“Calm down…”
I held back Laura, who was eyeing the orc corpse and smacking her lips.
Maybe because I’d been wolfing down everything she cooked lately, she’d gotten all excited and kept bringing back weird new ingredients to experiment with. Dealing with it all was wearing me out.
“Why? I’ll make you some pig feet.”
“No way, that’s a hard pass. You’ll get sick if you eat it.”
“Hmph…”
I soothed the sulky Laura and finally got her into the carriage.
I was about to head to the next area when—
“Huff, Raden! Raden!”
Nania, who had been lounging in the carriage watching the orc raid idly, came running up with a pale face.
“What?”
Whenever Nania got this worked up, something bad always happened, so I tensed up.
“Raden! Big trouble! Huge trouble!”
“Calm down. What’s wrong?”
“There’s powerful demonic energy coming from ahead!”
“Powerful? How powerful?”
“Stronger than the Four Heavenly Kings!”
The Four Heavenly Kings were the top elites even in the demon world.
Stronger than them? Could the Demon King himself be out on patrol? I panicked.
“Any guesses who?”
“Hmm… There is one possibility.”
“Who?”
“Airen. Demon Realm Intelligence Director.”
“…”
I’d never heard the name before, so it didn’t really sink in.
But seeing Rainy and Daisy go pale, he must be a real heavy hitter.
Laura scurried over and grabbed my sleeve.
“What do we do? Should we run?”
Hard to believe this was the same bold, haughty Laura from before.
“Why run? What have we done wrong?”
“Well… We’re invading the Demon Realm in secret, aren’t we?”
“According to imperial law, whose land is the Demon Realm?”
“The Empire’s.”
“And the demons?”
“Illegal occupiers of imperial territory… an anti-state force…”
I patted her head like she’d given the perfect answer.
“We’re here to exterminate an anti-state force. We need to be bold about it. No compromising with criminals. It’s the Mastain ducal family’s motto too.”
“Right!”
Having smoothly convinced Laura, we immediately prepared an ambush.
At first, the idea of something stronger than the Four Heavenly Kings showing up made me worry our position had been compromised, which was scary.
But think about it—our party was the one agonizing over how to beat the Demon King easily. What was there to fear?
At my signal, my party members moved in perfect unison to take their positions.
Our only trace was the plant carriage, making it easy to hide.
Moments like this really drove home how convenient Vine’s plant carriage was.
Ziiing.
Vine gritted through the pain and drew back her bowstring.
“Whew…”
Laura, who’d been whining just moments ago, formed ice crystals and prepared her magic.
“Heavenly Demon Death…”
Marey chanted fully this time, skipping only the “final beam” part, readying her ultimate move.
“May the Lord’s blessings be with you!”
Rainy’s holy power enveloped the women.
“F-Fight… fighting!”
Worried her face might get hurt again, Nania just gave a cute little cheer and hid behind a nearby tree.
Tweet tweet tweet.
In the silence broken only by birdsong.
Clop clop.
Clop clop.
The sound of hooves approached from the distance.
“…”
“…”
We exchanged glances and signals.
Neigh!
The moment the weirdly neighing horse came into view.
“Ice Age!”
Laura’s clear voice rang out, kicking off the battle.
Whoooosh!
Her blizzard, far more powerful from all her growth, swept over the unsuspecting demons on the move.
I’d figured since it was Airen or whoever, it’d be a small group, but when they appeared, there were easily hundreds.
And they were all heavily armed with sharp, fierce eyes—clearly elites.
But what did numbers matter?
Laura’s magic was AOE, so all it did was turn more of them into frozen statues.
“Damn it!”
Laura’s Ice Age froze two-thirds of the hundreds of demon soldiers in an instant.
The rest had some real skill—they somehow resisted her Ice Age.
“Gah… my legs!”
“Magic user! Mage!”
Except for the bald guy who seemed to be the leader, they couldn’t fully shake it off, their movements slowed.
With Laura’s AOE debuff successfully applied, we unleashed our prepared attacks just like we’d practiced.
Bang!
Vine’s mana-infused arrow exploded on impact, shattering the frozen demon soldiers.
“Heavenly Demon Death Beam!”
Marey’s Heavenly Demon Death Beam pierced straight through the sluggish demons.
“Damn it, a hero?! Fire!”
Airen seemed to finally grasp the situation and desperately spat out fire magic to thaw his frozen soldiers and rally them for a counterattack.
Clang clang!
Yumi, who had melted into the shadows, timed it perfectly—springing out to slit the throats of demons trying to form a defensive line, disrupting their formation.
“Take this!”
Daisy, brimming with demonic energy and full of vigor, cackled like a madwoman as she leaped into the heart of their formation, tearing through the demons.
“Damn it, why is the hero party this strong?!”
Airen was stunned, feeling our party’s power firsthand.
“A hero party’s gotta be strong.”
“No, shouldn’t there at least be some balance?”
“Who made that rule?”
“W-Well… The world strives to maintain balance, and both the Demon God and Goddess prioritize equilibrium…”
“Sorry, but your Demon God’s on my side.”
“W-What? What nonsense is that?”
Even with death breathing down his neck, Airen fixated more on the news that the Demon God was on our side.
Fitting for an intelligence director—obsessed with rumors like that.
“I went to where the Goddess resides and met the Demon God too. He said he supports me.”
“Ha! Not even a stray dog would believe that drivel. How could a human meet the Goddess?!”
Tsk tsk. Even when I tell the truth straight, he won’t believe it.
“Believe it or don’t.”
While Airen was sweating bullets fending off the women swarming from all sides.
I raised my sword, determined not to let anyone steal the finishing blow this time.
Pure white holy power surged fiercely from the blade.