Chapter 90: A Vacation That's No Vacation (6)
Chapter 90: A Vacation That's No Vacation (6)
Gaisitel, who seemed quite shaken, opened and closed his mouth several times before slowly kneeling. A thin red line that hadn't been there just moments ago now stretched across his neck.
Trickle— Blood that had beaded along the line pooled and streamed down.
Only then was I able to spot the thread touching Gaisitel's throat.
"......If I have offended you in any way, I apologize. I am sorry."
Dvelaniaaaaa!! What the hell are you doing to a fellow Legion Commander!
And for some reason, instead of getting angry, Gaisitel was apologizing! Why are you the one apologizing!
His inability to even suspect the palanquin was the cause was a little baffling, but my bewilderment took precedence.
Dvelania, who had placed the thread around Gaisitel's neck, was poised as if ready to yank it at any moment—
"What shall we do, Demon-nim?"
—and smiling.
Wait, weren't you guys proper Legion Commanders? I was under the impression that killing among Legion Commanders was something they refrained from?
Or maybe──
'They did say Gaisitel's treatment was strange. Don't tell me.'
Had he been judged to be useless in battle? A Legion Commander better off replaced?
The Demon King was like a parent to all demons. Since they were born from the Demon King's power, they wouldn't normally do anything to harm him.
So there had to be a reason they were treating a 'Legion Commander,' a vital military asset, like this.
Or, just as not all children obey their parents and grow up straight, maybe there were simply some slightly crooked demons, and one of them happened to be Dvelania.
Whichever was the answer, the thought that crossed my mind in that moment was none other than 'I'm fucked.'
'That means they can kill me whenever they want too!'
The tension that had eased slightly as I grew accustomed to things snapped taut again.
I thought there were at least some safeguards. Finding out I was completely exposed was a shock. It was like I'd been tightrope-walking naked over a cliff this whole time.
I took in Dvelania's smiling face once more. If I pissed her off, she'd cut my throat with that same expression.
I needed to win her over before that. My mind raced at full speed in that brief instant.
And then, Gaisitel, whose neck looked ready to come off at any second, entered my field of vision.
Ah, there was the answer.
"Let's go out."
Confirming that Ben's hands, which had been adjusting my attire, had fallen away, I hurriedly stepped toward the door.
It must have been completely unexpected, because Dvelania loosened her grip on the thread and asked again. Her usual slack expression was nowhere to be seen, and the way her eyes blinked innocently as if she'd misheard was creepier instead.
"......Excuse me?"
"You shouldn't kill a fellow Legion Commander. Gaisitel has done nothing wrong, so put away that thread and let's go out quickly."
A way to raise Dvelania's favorability toward me, and a way to avoid earning Gaisitel's grudge.
'Going out' under the pretext of 'buying clothes.'
It would be rough, but if I could secure a better future with it, then I'd just have to sacrifice my one and only body. What else could I do?
Everyone froze for a moment at the sudden topic change, and as expected, the first to act was Gaisitel.
Using social maneuvering skills honed who-knows-where, he seized the moment Dvelania's thread slackened and dashed over to open the door and stand by.
Dvelania, who had been blinking at him for a moment, smirked and withdrew the thread.
"If Demon-nim says so."
"......."
"More than that, Demon-nim, you are indeed humble. Knowing your own position, yet still calling yourself a 'fellow' Legion Commander~."
Well, a lower position than that is actually more accurate. ...Huh? Wait a minute, 'humble'? Not 'arrogant'?
I'm human, the '0th Legion Commander' position I barely got was created out of thin air, so it's clearly an honorary post, and I don't even have any properly assigned role....
And yet I said I was 'the same' as the other Legion Commanders, and that's humility, not arrogance?
"Demon-nim's status implicitly belongs in a position similar to the 1st Legion Commander, you know."
"That's only said because there is no 1st Legion Commander, but since everyone gets more tense dealing with Demon-nim than with the 1st Legion Commander, shouldn't we consider Demon-nim effectively higher? His Majesty the Demon King is also more cautious with Demon-nim than he would be with the 1st Legion Commander."
I didn't know that. I just thought everyone was being respectful because I was a parachute personally brought in by the Demon King.
So no matter how low you estimate my current position....
Demon King > 1st Legion Commander = Me > The rest of the Legion Commanders
Is that it? That's insane.
The 1st Legion Commander is the position that also acts as the Demon King's proxy. I'm considered on a similar level as a guy like that? And that's supposedly the lowest estimate.
But even so, there was nothing I could say.
"......Let's go out."
I had no choice but to repeat what I'd already said.
.......
Feeling like a dress-up doll was dreadful, but sightseeing in the city was quite interesting.
As befitting a trade city, the variety of fruits was great, and so was the variety of weapons. Even the types of fish spread out in the market were diverse. I noticed a lot of southern goods among them, but I figured it was just a trend and moved on.
I accepted and ate a sweet fruit Gaisitel offered me while looking around.
"Demon-nim! Shall we head over there this time?"
"Demon-nim, this fruit here is called a mango, it grows in the southern part of the human world. Would you like to try one?"
Demon-nim, Demon-nim, Demon-nim... That damned Demon-nim! I wanted to look around a bit, but the two Legion Commanders wouldn't leave me alone.
If Ben had been like that too, I would've really had a headache, but fortunately, he seemed to have noticed my condition and followed along quietly, silent as if he was both there and not there.
Ah, and Gaisitel's recovery was fast. At least until I left, I thought he'd be drooping in gloom or burning with rage, but as if nothing had ever happened, he was full of energy, rubbing his hands together eagerly and volunteering to guide us through the city.
Following his guidance around and around until we reached near the city gate, I looked at the people passing through and murmured absentmindedly.
"The demonic beast attacks should have intensified, but the gates are still open."
It held a question, but this was clearly me talking to myself.
After talking with the gatekeepers, the sight of demons casually heading outside just didn't fit the current situation, so I'd just muttered it.
"Ah, actually, this city originally kept its gates closed too. But then a boundary line to the human world was discovered not far away, so... Hup!"
"......?!"
Gaisitel gave an answer I never expected.
No way....
The hypothesis that had been occupying one corner of my mind swelled its presence, as if it had been waiting.
"The southern part of the human world?"
"H-how did you...! I mean, n-no, that's not it, you see...."
It was real?!
Gaisitel belatedly tried to deny it, but the sight of him dropping the southern fruits he'd been holding and waving his hands didn't seem very credible.
I wasn't the only one who didn't know this, right?
I turned around to see if Ben and Dvelania had known. Dvelania was shaking her head side to side with her hand on her forehead, and Ben's eyes were wide with shock.
At least Ben didn't seem to have known.
'Thank goodness. I wasn't the only one in the dark.'
At that moment, Ben, who had been gaping blankly, suddenly scowled deeply and threw out a question as if snapping at him.
"Does His Majesty the Demon King know about this?"
"Of course, I was going to report it! ......That was the plan...."
"That means you haven't."
"......The demons who have to stay in the city, when would they ever get to go to the human world? It just so happened that a boundary line was discovered right nearby, so I thought we could enjoy ourselves just a little...."
They'd even established rules among themselves for secretly coming and going, strictly forbidding causing any trouble there, but....
Gaisitel's voice grew smaller and smaller. His head gradually lowered, and the bat wings on his back folded tightly against his body.
And at that exact moment, the people who had just exited the gate came running back.
With a cloud of dust trailing behind them, in a desperate hurry.
"C-close the gate! Close the gate, quickly!!"
"Demonic beasts!!"
Wow, good heavens. At this rate, am I going to get trapped in this city?
They were hard to see clearly past the dust, but just the scale of the dust cloud made it immediately clear that their numbers were no joke.
Unlike me, who flinched inwardly, the gatekeepers were calm.
Though flustered for a moment, they soon skillfully took out a communication stone and contacted someone. Immediately after, an alarm sounded, and the massive gate began to slowly close.
'Wait, it looks like those guys aren't going to make it in?'
The gate was almost completely closed, but there was still a fair distance between the running figures and the gate.
Wondering if this was okay, my gaze naturally drifted over, and right then, the two kicked off the ground. And then a sliding dive!
They made it in! They jumped that distance and came in all at once!
'But why did the demonic beasts suddenly... Ah.'
My thought, which had been flowing along its stream of consciousness, bumped into something and stopped. At the same time, a cold sweat trickled down my spine.
Come to think of it, after we'd fought that one battle on the way here, we'd driven every demonic beast we encountered toward the inside of the boundary line. We hadn't actually meant to drive them away on purpose. We had no choice; after killing a certain amount, the ones that sensed a threat to their lives would flee first.
'But doing that again would have been too wasteful....'
Setting up threads again and luring demonic beasts to fight them wouldn't be efficient since their numbers were insufficient.
They weren't the massive swarm like in the beginning, so I'd thought letting that many escape wouldn't matter much....
My thinking was short-sighted. Where would the chased-off demonic beasts go? The only place nearby where living creatures resided was here, this second city.
'This... no matter who looks at it, is clearly our fault.'
But didn't these guys feel any guilt?
I glanced sidelong at Dvelania, whose attitude remained utterly consistent, and Ben, who only seemed to care about my condition.
Dvelania, who didn't miss my gaze, gave a slight nod of her head before calling out to Gaisitel.
"It would be troublesome if we couldn't leave the city. Shouldn't we fulfill our duties, 10th Legion Commander-nim?"
"The 10th Legion is always prepared to protect the city."
Gaisitel appeared, leading one of those demonic horses typical of the Demon Realm, which scattered black energy currents around it. When had he finished preparing?
Likewise, the members of the 10th Legion stood behind him, each fully prepared and gripping their horse's reins.
If the 2nd Legion's specialty under Dvelania was thread-based attacks and trap installation, the 10th Legion's was 'cavalry.'
A Legion Commander with wings having cavalry as a specialty was a slightly odd combination, but it was none of my business.
Knowing that the demonic horses they led were carnivorous, I quietly took a step back instead of saying anything.
Then Ben stepped forward as if to speak for me.
"Ha, so this is how you evade questioning."
"......For a mere personal physician, you're persistent. I don't think this is something for you to step into."
"Well, that's because I heard something from the adjutant of the 0th Legion Commander who isn't present here. Demon-nim is normally a man of few words, so I was told never to take my eyes off him for a moment, to read his cues, and to quickly discern what he wants to say."
......Huh? Me?
"In that sense, I will speak on Demon-nim's behalf. Given the situation, we will let you send us off quietly, but regardless of how Gaisitel-nim comes out of this, the matter of the boundary line will be reported to His Majesty the Demon King."
Why are you speaking on my behalf? Can't you just say you're saying it yourself?
As expected, Gaisitel's sharp gaze darted toward Ben before landing on me. The way he looked at me felt more like he was gauging my reaction than glaring, but that was probably just my imagination.
His hand gripping the reins tightened, and he bowed once toward me before mounting his horse. Likewise, the 10th Legion members mounted their horses and stood before the gate behind Gaisitel.
Then, a voice strained with tension dropped.
"Open the gate."
The 10th Legion Commander's duty was to protect the city. The gate opened without a word of protest.
Through the gap of the half-opened gate, prepared for the possibility of demonic beasts entering, the 10th Legion on their black horses charged out.
Boom-boom-boom-boom-boom!!
'Oh... quite impressive, actually...?'
I was blankly watching the scene of the black energy currents streaming from the horses, stretching out like tails before scattering belatedly. Then I glanced fleetingly at the gate closing once more.
And I doubted my eyes.
It wasn't because a demonic beast came in. Fortunately, no demonic beasts got in. It was just....
Boom-boom-boom-boom-boom!!
'What are these guys doing....'
The 10th Legion, which had just gone out, came back.
The last legionnaire slipped in just barely before the gate closed, and with a boom— as the gate slammed shut, the shrieks of demonic beasts echoed from beyond.
Gaisitel, who had been gasping for breath with a pale face, suddenly grabbed Dvelania by the collar.
"There are way too many of them!"