Chapter 112
Chapter 112
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Translator: uly
Chapter: 112
Chapter Title: The Demon King's Legacies #3
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〈 Chapter 111 〉 The Demon King's Legacies #3
Monday morning lecture was Introduction to Combat Studies, taken alongside Elga.
We usually paired up for sparring practice.
Though calling it sparring practice was generous—it was more like one-sided beatings from Elga, a time of abuse where I built up my endurance by taking hits.
"Up your guard properly. Like this—cover all the way up to your chin with both hands."
To correct my sloppy guard, Elga grabbed my hands and positioned them in front of my chin. Which inevitably created a problem.
"Won't that leave my stomach wide open?"
My arms had a limited reach, so guarding my chin naturally exposed my midsection. But Elga snapped at me like I'd said something ridiculous.
"Your gut can take a few hits! Your chin wears down, but your abs get tougher. So in bare-knuckle fights, protect your jaw first and foremost. Got it?"
Whoosh.
In that instant, I felt something flying toward my stomach.
At the same time—thwack—something slammed into my gut, the impact lifting my body about a centimeter off the ground.
"Guaack...!"
I ended up expelling all my air and collapsing in a heap on the floor. My vision tinting yellow told me just how devastating that strike had been.
If my max HP was 100, at least 60 had vanished in a flash.
Elga, meanwhile, squatted down and looked at me pityingly.
"Hey, that wasn't even a hard hit. Don't be such a baby. This is all because your abs aren't trained enough."
"Grrooo..."
I wanted to protest, but no words came out. That's when someone nearby piped up on my behalf toward Elga.
"What a brutish training method. That won't toughen you up—it'll just break you, Lady Lioness."
It was Mirna.
She was chiding Elga's crude sparring tactics from my side.
Elga's forehead vein throbbed as she growled back at her.
"Mind your own business. And aren't you even in this class? Why are you hanging around here? You're not even enrolled."
"Don't Single Numbers students have the right to attend any lecture they want, anytime? Not knowing your own privileges—such a waste of a rank."
Mirna scolded Elga while extending a hand to me.
It seemed like an offer to help me up, but if I took it, Elga's head might boil over and explode. So I stood on my own without grabbing it.
"I can get up by myself."
"You're covered in dust!"
Like a nosy kindergarten teacher, Mirna brushed the dirt off me with her bare hands. Elga sneered at the sight.
"Go on, suck face already. Since when did you two get so chummy? Huh? You her mom or something?"
Elga was fuming.
In a tone like a grade-school boy teasing a girl he liked, she added,
"What, did you two do something over the weekend? Go on a date? Why are you suddenly besties?"
"Why are you getting all pissy no matter what I do?"
"Who's pissy?"
Elga and Mirna started sniping at each other. Even the other students paused their free sparring to watch us.
─Looks like the Single Numbers are at it again.
─Didn't those two go at it last time too without holding back?
With eyes turning my way too, I felt the urgent need to defuse the situation.
This was my and Elga's class, after all. Mirna was the outsider here, so siding with Elga seemed right.
"Miss Mirna, I appreciate the help, but this is sparring time with Miss Elga. You could get hurt standing nearby—please step back behind the safety line."
"You're serious?"
Mirna sounded incredulous. But Elga beamed like an excited kid.
"Yeah, scram already. Interfering in a spar isn't proper. Against all those rules you love so much. Got it?"
"......"
The Draco family prized doctrine, discipline, and all manner of rules.
For necromancers and black mages, such constraints and taboos were vital principles and foundations.
So Mirna had no choice but to retreat far away. A win for Elga in their spat.
"Disgusting bitch!"
Only after Mirna was too far to hear did Elga hawk a loogie onto the floor.
Then she yanked my nape toward her with a long reach.
"Eek—."
Caught in her iron grip, I tumbled toward Elga like a deer dragged into the river by a crocodile, unable to resist. Best described as burying into her massive chest.
Squish squish.
The dizzying apple scent and soft give against my face lasted only a moment. Then my arms and legs twisted in an unnatural hold.
That's when I realized Elga had locked me in a joint lock.
"Mmmph—."
My face happily smothered in soft breasts, but my arms screaming in agony.
Slither—whoosh, her legs then coiled around my waist, pinning me tight to prevent escape.
"Hey, Theo. What'd you two do over the weekend? Spill the truth. Do that, and I'll let go."
"Mmmph."
"Tell me quick...! What'd you do...!"
Was this a woman's jealousy?
Elga's siege trapped me physically and mentally.
I'd planned to tell her about Mirna's conquest someday, but in her current state, she might snap my arms clean off.
Not just arms—my body could end up in pieces, half-fairy style.
So I wriggled desperately to break free. But Elga's hold was ironclad; my puny strength stood no chance.
Right then—
—That's it for today's lecture.
The instructor rang the bell, and Mirna—who'd been watching us like a hawk—swooped in, slapping Elga's arms.
"Let him go already! An engaged couple or not, a man and woman tangled up in broad daylight—what indecency!"
"Tch."
Elga finally released me. My aching joints stopped their silent screams.
"Huuuuh..."
"Lunchtime. Let's eat, Theo. Tonkatsu's on me."
Elga hauled me up by the arm, acting like nothing happened as she suggested lunch. But Mirna tugged my other arm.
"I packed a bento. Let's eat together. It's too much for me alone."
Squeeeze.
The two yanked me from either side. My overworked arms wailed anew.
Stuck between them, I might literally get torn apart. So I shook myself off and put distance between us.
"Sorry, but I have a lunch engagement with Her Majesty the Queen and the Saintess today. I'll take my leave."
* * *
"I thought I was done for."
Only after rounding a corner out of sight of Mirna and Elga could I finally exhale in relief.
Women fighting over me, with me in the middle? Never saw that coming.
Elga aside, I hadn't expected Mirna to show such fervent affection.
How did this happen?
No—more importantly, what now?
If this kept up, Mirna and Elga would eventually clash big time, and I'd end up shredded to bits in the crossfire.
Unless I reined them in somehow, my Angmar revival plan was doomed.
So what to do going forward?
If only I had someone to ask about women's hearts. To me, they were a maze without a map—baffling.
Lady Karira the assassin might help? Older than me, experienced in romance—could offer insights.
Lost in thought, I arrived at the apartment complex "Fairy's Paradise."
A new flower bed had sprouted, and there was oddball imp nun Marmar watering the flowers with a can, humming "Hm hm hmm~."
"Marmar, what's with the flower bed?"
"If it isn't my comrade!"
Marmar set down the watering can and waved both hands wildly at me.
After dealing with predator types like Mirna and Elga, seeing a harmless small-animal girl like Marmar soothed my nerves a bit.
As I approached, she dropped a bombshell.
"I've become the manager of 'Fairy's Paradise'!"
"No kidding?"
Marmar, manager of this rundown apartment? I asked for the full story behind this absurd leap.
She explained recent events.
"That broker who managed the place? Turns out he owned it—and died horribly!"
"I see."
The broker killed by a hunter party must've been the one I knew.
Knowing someone I'd met was dead felt weird, but selling windowless rooms? Good riddance crept into my thoughts.
"So everyone got compensation for the scams and left. I used mine to buy the place!"
"Wait, you got that much?"
Marmar a landlord?
Amazed genuinely, she added a bit more.
"The Nymph Relief Foundation heard my story and showered me with donations! Tonkatsu's stuffed in the fridge!"
"Wow, you even have a fridge."
Marmar showed me the one in her room.
Magic-powered by cold mana—pricey stuff, rare even in noble or rich merchant homes. And Marmar had one.
Packed with frozen tonkatsu. Candies and ice cream too—she'd clearly gotten loads of aid.
Didn't know the Nymph Relief Foundation had that kind of pull. Suspicious.
But Marmar beamed proudly.
"It's secondhand, so it glitches a bit! But now I can have cool water anytime I want!"
"Nice, Marmar—you've made it."
"Gonna spruce up the rooms and rent to homeless imps! There are more imp comrades in this ark. Heh heh heh~."
Her shadowed grin looked downright villainous.
"Gonna gather imps who worship the great Angmar Demon King's sovereign will—and turn this into a revolutionary imp secret outpost."
"Other imps in the ark besides you?"
"A couple more! So about that money you gave me—I was gonna pay it back quick, but... could I use it to hire them first?"
I recalled the money I'd given her. Ten million coins? Or the 12 gold to free her? Unclear.
But I wasn't hurting for cash, so I approved the little imp's scheme readily.
"Go ahead. Pay me back slowly."
"Yes! The other imps wanna meet you too! They're all good kids—you'll like 'em!"
Watching joyful Marmar, I pondered briefly. Gathering Angmar-worshipping imps en masse.
In the old days, that fearsome name would've tensed me up. But more like Marmar? Could be useful.
If they revered Demon King Angmar, I could reveal myself someday and turn them into agents.
Then Marmar piped up like she'd noticed something.
"Oh—comrade, you're wearing some weird clothes!"
"Oh, this?"
Had she spotted the Angmar robe? She circled me excitedly. I explained how I'd gotten it.
"From Demon King-sama's ruins!"
"Yeah."
I'd wondered how an imp subordinate might react to Angmar's robe. But briefly.
"Hmm, I think I saw someone wearing something similar recently..."