Chapter 87: A Vacation That's No Vacation (3)
Chapter 87: A Vacation That's No Vacation (3)
Because he was well aware of the threads' positions, his actions held no hesitation. Rather than simply avoiding them, he even used the installed threads.
He flexibly moved between the threads, sometimes guiding the demonic beasts to be sliced apart, sometimes personally hacking them down, and managed his stamina. Once he grew somewhat accustomed to it, he occasionally shoved demonic beasts into the threads just as the nearby 2nd Legion members swung them.
Ben, who had been hugging his medical bag tightly and observing the situation, gradually had his expression change in an odd way.
'The tide had turned.'
The demonic beasts, which had been recklessly charging without regard for what was in front of or behind them, now became passive. Given Lord Demon's nature, such an attitude from those creatures was practically giving him a wider stage to rampage.
'But it wasn't enough.'
Even so, it was insufficient. Despite killing so many, the number of demonic beasts didn't seem to have significantly decreased.
'When is the backup coming? Has fifteen minutes always been this long?'
"Cough!"
"Lord Demon!"
"Don't come!"
As he stopped Ben from rushing over in a fluster, Deon stepped on the dagger lodged in the demonic beast's forehead to drive it deeper, and using that recoil, threw himself backward into the interior of the threads.
A demonic beast that couldn't overcome its charging speed was sliced apart by the threads and fell with a thud. Amid the shower of debris, Deon quietly wiped his mouth with the back of his hand. Something—whether it was demonic beast blood or his own—was smeared thickly.
"A-Are you all right...?"
"It's nothing."
He had avoided head-on collisions as much as possible, but in the end, the accumulated shocks had built up inside and finally burst like this.
Cough. Deon spat out the blood pooled inside once more, then abruptly stopped moving as a thought crossed his mind. 'Damn it.' A curse slipped out on its own.
'Just a little more and I could have lasted.'
The atmosphere he had barely managed to steer had shifted. The most powerful-looking being had shed blood. As the demonic beasts' momentarily faltered assault resumed... no, grew fiercer than before, Deon gritted his teeth.
'Fifteen minutes... feels like it's almost up.'
He roughly composed himself, drew a new dagger, and walked out beyond the threads. He grabbed a nearby demonic beast and stabbed his dagger in wildly, as if venting his anger.
He seemed to be hacking at random, but he deliberately kept it alive. He had to act more, more cruelly to make them falter as well. Only then could he steer the momentum back.
"But... Lord Demon, you don't look well...!"
"......."
"Even the time it would take for an examination... The 2nd Legion Commander and the 2nd Legion could hold out long enough for you to be examined and then move..."
"......."
"Lord Demon!"
Without hesitation, Deon turned and hurled his dagger. Thunk! The dagger grazed Ben's cheek and embedded itself in the carriage wall.
Blood trickled down his cheek, and Ben hastily shut his mouth.
It wasn't simply because of the dagger, but because those red eyes glaring at him were shining with a sinister, viscous murderous intent.
"Shut your mouth. You're getting in the way."
"......."
"I clearly said it's nothing."
Though there was distance, a low, growling voice struck his eardrums clearly.
His narrowed eyes, as if his vision was obscured by the demonic beast blood drenching his face, were fixed on him without hiding the overflowing madness even in that state.
"Wasn't this what you anticipated and did in the first place?"
"......!"
The arms holding the medical bag flinched. Ben's eyes shook violently as if an earthquake had struck.
Deon, who had been watching him with a cold expression as he couldn't bring himself to reply and only his lips trembled, quietly began to speak.
More than anger, a feeling close to contempt—as if he wasn't even worth getting angry at—permeated his voice.
"Behave yourself properly."
And don't act half-assed.
"......."
"......."
A brief silence passed against the noisy backdrop, and then Deon was the first to avert his gaze.
With an expression of flawless satisfaction at the disappearance of an irritating voice, he began to move again, but it didn't last long.
"Lord Demon!!"
Now he didn't even respond. Deon turned back, taking a posture as though he would throw his dagger, truly intending to kill this time, and raised one eyebrow.
Behind!! Behind you!
Ben was rushing toward him, crying out as if screaming.
Whatever was so urgent, he dashed forward using his medical bag as a shield, batting aside and assessing the threads as he went, but before he could reach Deon—
Shrrrk—
Blood sprayed.
Having just reduced a demonic beast to rags, Deon slowly turned around. There, another demonic beast stood frozen with a dagger stabbed in its vital spot.
Noticing that the demonic beast's hand had been reaching for his head, Deon tilted his head as if intrigued, then soon smiled brightly and stepped back. Soon after, cuts appeared all over the demonic beast's body, and blood began to spray.
"......Ha."
In an instant, the demonic beast became a tattered mess.
It clearly resembled his handiwork, but it absolutely wasn't his doing. Realizing who had arrived, Deon put on a cryptic smile and called the person's name.
"Silua."
"Greetings, Lord Demon! It's been a while, hasn't it!"
* * *
I was startled awake by the shocking sight. I dazedly looked back and forth between the mangled demonic beast corpse and the woman in front of me.
Short, crisp bobbed hair. Daggers in both hands. Vertically slit pupils that highlighted an already crazed mind, and on top of that, such brutal handiwork!
The voice in my head screaming that I must never get involved with that demon-race was, sadly, already acquainted with her.
The 7th Legion Commander, Silua.
A Legion Commander who uses daggers and is responsible for the border between the human world and the Demon Realm along with the 9th Legion Commander... was it okay for her to be here right now?
"I heard that Lord Demon was enjoying a party all alone in a place like this, so I rushed over, I say!"
"......Where did you hear something like that."
"His Majesty the Demon King told me, I say!"
"......."
I quietly looked around.
Threads arranged in a specific pattern forming a space. A horde of demonic beasts endlessly pressing into it.
A trap. And one using us as bait.
I could be sure, even if the alcohol had momentarily erased my memory, that this was no party.
'Demon King...!'
'We're fighting tooth and nail to survive, and you call this a party...?'
'No, that's not it. It's more likely that Silua just arbitrarily decided it was a party.'
Not knowing how that crazy demon-race might react, I couldn't even get angry, let alone sigh; I just muttered as if lamenting, suppressing even my sighs.
"How did you get in here...?"
"Ah, it's nothing. Like this—"
Silua swung her daggers to gauge the positions of the threads, then pressed one of them hard with a dagger to pry open a gap. The dagger cracked with a creeeak, but unfazed, she pushed her body through the opening, escaped the trap, and stood outside, looking this way with a broad grin.
"That's how you do it, I say."
"......I'll have to install them more tautly next time."
Does it even make sense for threads meant to imprison and cut enemies to stretch even a little?
Dvelania, who had been watching from a short distance away, glared at her own legion members.
Regardless, I belatedly realized my unsettling physical condition and began peeling off the unidentified chunks of flesh stuck to me. Silua, who had come back in and was watching my shabby, blood-soaked figure with gleaming eyes, carefully spoke up.
"Ah, by the way, Lord Demon. Behind you... a beast..."
WHAM!!
Thud, thud.
"......?!"
"......was there, I say."
'Aaaah! What the hell is this?!'
Putting aside Silua's oddly disappointed voice, I hurriedly turned around.
From the back left, I heard something get smashed, and then debris of something came pouring down! Without even the time to shake off the red chunks of flesh clinging to me, I turned to see Ben, pale as a sheet, enter my field of vision.
He was desperately avoiding my gaze, as if something weighed heavily on him.
I looked at him quizzically, then lowered my gaze slightly... and saw the blood-soaked medical bag.
I was pretty sure that thing had been clean earlier...
'Right, this guy's a nutcase too.'
Given the circumstances, it seemed he'd bashed in a demonic beast's head with that sturdy medical bag. Probably for my sake.
I'm grateful, but... it's terrifying.
"S-Sorry, Lord Demon, that's..."
I still hadn't said anything.
I only looked at him silently, but Ben, pale as death, was watching my reaction and rambling on, then eventually clamped his mouth shut. His pressed lips were trembling faintly.
'Why is he apologizing after going out of his way to protect me?'
The question couldn't leave my mouth. Because earlier, Silua had grabbed him by the scruff.
Those vertically slit pupils glared fiercely at Ben.
"If you know you've done wrong, you should kneel. How dare the likes of you disregard Lord Demon?"
"......."
"Do you think Lord Demon wouldn't have known that?"
'Why is she suddenly throwing a fit? So scary.'
'And disregarding? It wasn't disregard. I survived thanks to him.'
'If I'd known there was a demonic beast behind me, I'd have thrown myself out of the way immediately; there's no way I'd be standing there dumbly.'
It was a murderous pressure befitting a Legion Commander that would make anyone involuntarily flinch, but Ben was no pushover either. After a momentary startle, he raised his hand, grabbed the wrist of Silua that was twisting his collar, and stared straight into her eyes.
"The person I apologized to is Lord Demon, not the 7th Legion Commander."
"......How insolent. Is it because you were once His Majesty the Demon King's personal physician? At this rate, you'll act insolently toward Lord Demon too."
"......That is precisely why I was apologizing for the rudeness. Release me."
"Stubborn to the end. What are you going to do if I really get angry and kill you?"
"Would you break the restrictions? My charge is the 0th Legion Commander. That means only His Majesty the Demon King and Lord Demon, the 0th Legion Commander, have the right to punish me."
Fundamentally, there is a restriction that personal physicians cannot be killed indiscriminately unless they fail to properly perform their duties. The judgment of whether the duty was fulfilled or not, and if not, whether the failure justifies death, rests with the affected patient in charge.
This was the basis that allowed Ben to talk back to other Legion Commanders.
Because I, as the patient in charge, didn't have the guts to treat him recklessly, and the other Legion Commanders couldn't kill him due to the restriction.
'.......'
If I got involved in their power struggle, I'd be crushed without a trace. I quietly kept my mouth shut.
Silua, who had been raising her dagger in a fit of anger, glanced at me, then lowered her hand and began fuming. It was plainly visible that she was trying to swallow her irritation, but Ben wouldn't leave it alone and ran his mouth.
"In the first place, you got angry not because 'I disregarded Lord Demon,' but because 'you couldn't see Lord Demon rip demonic beasts to shreds,' isn't that right?"
'S-Stop it. What are you two doing in the middle of this beast-infested area?'
Even while those two were having their power struggle, Dvelania and the 2nd Legion were moving diligently, but for some reason the demonic beasts' momentum was reviving again.
It seemed Dvelania had sensed that too. She threw a severed demonic beast chunk between the two of them and spat out an irritated voice.
"Will you cut it out?! What about the border, you come all this way just to have a power struggle? Did you come to hinder us?"
"Ah, Dvelania, you were here too? I left the border to my adjutant, I say. His Majesty the Demon King said it would probably be fine. He said the Empire has no leisure to attack this place."
"So you came because the Demon King sent you?"
"Yes! I kept pestering His Majesty with communications for days whining that I was bored, and he sent me here."
'Whining to the Demon King...'
'Anyway, is this really okay? I heard that the 9th Legion Commander, who also handles the border like her, had come to the Demon Castle before I arrived and just settled in.'
'In other words, right now there isn't a single Legion Commander on the border with the human world. What if a human of "Hero" caliber attacks?'
Dvelania seemed at a loss for words, her lips twitching briefly before letting out a deep sigh and sweeping her hair up.
"Anyway, if you're not going to help, why not just go back?"
"Of course I'll help, I say! Ah, but before that, I'll just watch Lord Demon tenderize one demonic beast and then help!"
"......What?"
'Why me all of a sudden...?'
Startled, I reflexively looked at Silua, and my eyes met hers.
And I could witness in real time how the eyes that had been sparkling with insane excitement gradually dulled and died.
Instantly losing vitality and drooping, Silua muttered in a voice full of disappointment.
"......It's not Lord Demon..."
"......?"