Chapter 134
Chapter 134
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Translator: uly
Chapter: 134
Chapter Title: Imps and the Time of Trials #2
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"Comrade—!"
Marmar was overjoyed to see me.
But that joy was short-lived. A shadow of fear based on dread crept over Marmar's face, and she even began trembling like someone gripped by terror.
"…We might get overheard if we talk here!"
Whoosh.
She grabbed my arm and headed behind the building.
I couldn't help feeling puzzled by the sudden transformation of this "Fairy Paradise" and Marmar's attitude.
With so little information, the only guess I could make right away was that whatever Marmar had been planning had probably gone badly off the rails.
In the end, I had no choice but to ask Marmar about the situation.
"Marmar, I came back after so long, but what the hell happened? Why is the flower bed wrecked like this?"
"Those guys, it's those guys' doing…!"
"Those guys?"
"They did it! They wrecked the flower bed I tended so carefully…! They called me a hornless freak…!"
Marmar was practically half-insane.
She couldn't give a proper explanation and just vented her rage and fear toward "those guys." But I quickly pieced together what had happened.
Because the very guys Marmar feared soon revealed themselves.
━Today was fun too…! The whole world is trembling at our uprising…!
"They're back—!"
Marmar nervously raised her tail on end and said to me, "Comrade, hide here for a bit! Who knows what they'll do if they see you!" Then she headed alone toward the source of the noise.
I did as Marmar said and hid in the corner behind the house, peeking out just my head.
There, I saw women with various hair colors clustered together, chattering away. One, two, three. Three of them.
━The Ark Church bastards…. They signed the 1 Household 1 Imp policy, so now they have no choice but to hire us into their organizations…!
━Muhuhu, that's right…! They have no idea we're infiltrating their organizations, plotting divisions in society, organizations, and families—what utter fools…!
They were each wearing plain gray robes. Their small, skinny frames made the robes look baggy.
The curious thing was the holes near their hips, through which tails poked out—poof—and wagged around.
Swish swish.
Those tails were similar to the one on Marmar's rear, but unlike Marmar's diamond-tipped one, theirs came in all shapes: stars, triangles, circles, and more.
Imps, no doubt.
They definitely resembled Marmar.
The main difference was the pair of bizarre horns sprouting from their foreheads. They were about the length of my finger—short, but unmistakable horns.
Did imps grow horns?
That's when Marmar spoke to the imps.
"Come on, sisters, come on in…! How'd it go today?"
Marmar's greeting was incredibly awkward. It was like a friendless loner forcing their way into the popular crowd—I felt secondhand embarrassment just watching.
In response, the red bobbed imp with the star-shaped tail scowled fiercely. She flaunted the armband on her left arm, raised both arms high, and shouted.
"Marmar…! We always told you to have dinner ready before we get back…! But today, there's no dinner prepared again…!"
"But Tartar, we have no money left for dinner. You all said you'd cover rent and food costs, but you haven't paid once. With three of you, every meal adds up, and the money's already—"
The armband-wearing imp cut Marmar off immediately.
"Money, money, money…! Marmar, you're talking like some non-imp…! The great Angmar imps must never be attached to money or wealth…!"
"A hornless imp really is useless…! At this rate, you can never enlist in Great Demon King Angmar's propaganda brigade…!"
"Uuuuh…, s-sorry."
Marmar was surrounded by the two imps and thoroughly bullied.
From what I overheard, they seemed to be imps freeloading in Marmar's apartment building.
Not only did they not pay rent, they were tyrannizing Marmar by demanding she prepare meals and such.
It was right then.
"Heehee—! Chaos—! Destruction—!"
One imp with a triangular tail and honey-blonde hair grabbed soil from the flower bed and started scattering it everywhere wildly.
Rustle rustle.
"Heehee, terror…! Defilement…! Pulverize…!"
"Ahh…! Gargarr…! I planted lettuce seeds there…!"
Even Marmar, who had been exhausted from the bullying up to that point, apparently couldn't tolerate the sight.
Marmar grabbed the waist of the honey-blonde imp called Gargarr and desperately tried to stop the flower bed's destruction.
"Stop it…! I planted lettuce there…!"
"Garrgrrr, garrgrrr…!"
The imp Gargarr frothed at the mouth and trembled violently in response. But there was no way frail Marmar could handle a mad imp's strength alone.
Now I understood why the garden and flower beds Marmar had carefully tended were torn to shreds.
"Garrgrruk…!"
"Don't just stand there watching—help me…!"
At Marmar's cry, I couldn't just stay put. I stepped out from the corner and approached the imps.
"What exactly is going on here?"
The imps stopped what they were doing and turned to stare at me. The pressure of all those gazes hitting me at once sent a chill down my spine.
"What a weird guy…!"
The red-haired imp with the red armband—Tartar—approached me.
"Hmm…?"
She started circling around me, like a pack of wild beasts warily scouting a strange outsider. It probably was just that.
She soon stopped in front of me, scowled fiercely, and demanded.
"I'm asking who you are…! For reference, I am Tartar of the great star tail, squad leader of Angmar's Crimson Propaganda Brigade…!"
I had no idea what that meant, but it sounded like she was some big-shot imp.
She brimmed with confidence and had an overbearing attitude—this one was probably the leader of the imp group. The star-tailed Tartar declared.
"You reek of imp. No tail, no horns…! Just like some lowly nymph with nothing in her head but licking candy…!"
She instantly pegged me as an imp, nymph, or some similar kin.
Just like how the nymph Biernoi I'd met at the tavern before had sniffed out my half-fairy nature, this one seemed to have some keen senses too.
But one thing caught my attention.
"You're calling nymphs a lowly species?"
At my question, Tartar's thin eyebrows arched in an odd twitch.
"Nymphs are a lowly species, while imps are superior to any other race…! This is proven historically…!"
"Historical proof?"
When I asked back, Tartar shot me a look like I'd seen the dumbest fool alive. Then, as if granting me mercy, she explained.
"The imps' superiority is clearly depicted in the ancient Angmar mural, the Imp Painting, drawn 2,000 years ago…! That's explanation enough…!"
"……"
From what I'd heard, imps were a new race created just about fifty years ago when Demon King Angmar personally corrupted and remade nymphs.
I couldn't fathom how a 2,000-year-old ancient mural could depict imp superiority.
What strange creatures.
Were all imps like this?
I'd assumed imps were like Marmar, but now I couldn't tell if Marmar was the weird one or if this Tartar and her crew were.
If only I had more samples to compare.
"C-Comrade—! Let's go scrounge up dinner together—!"
That's when Marmar suddenly grabbed my arm.
She started dragging me off somewhere, and the surprising strength carried a sense of resolve, so I had no choice but to leave with her.
* * *
Marmar didn't let out a big sigh of relief until we reached a distant corner where the imps' gazes couldn't reach.
"They're gone now, right?"
She scanned the surroundings furtively, as if searching for the imps. She looked so pitiful and pathetic.
"Marmar, what the hell happened? Why are the imps bullying you?"
I demanded a full explanation from Marmar about the situation. She immediately began pouring out her grievances to me, as if she'd been waiting for this moment.
"I recruited some imps…! At first, they promised they'd help me out a ton. They said all that. But the moment they moved into the house, their attitudes flipped…!"
"So you're saying the imps changed their tune and started tormenting you?"
Marmar said she'd met the three imps while working as a teaching assistant.
They'd been kind to her, and once Marmar acquired the building, she generously invited the homeless ones to stay in her apartment.
At first, they acted like decent tenants, but after settling in, they started making all sorts of demands on Marmar as if they owned the place.
"It started small, like asking for a prayer room. Then they started complaining about the side dishes I made—'Do you despise us?'—and raising their voices…."
"Raising their voices?"
"They held their own tenant convention in my apartment building without asking, and Tartar ended up as the housing secretary!"
A guest starts demanding rights bit by bit, then aims for the host's seat—this was classic spy and infiltrator behavior, something you see everywhere.
Fitting for beings called little demons.
But weren't imps supposed to be comrades to each other? Scheming to screw over their own kin—they were nasty pieces of work.
Marmar just rubbed her round forehead with her hand.
"Maybe it's because I still don't have horns."
"Hm…. Horns, huh."
I had no clear idea what role horns played among imps. But I didn't like seeing Marmar—someone I could call a comrade—attacked by strange imps.
"Why not just kick them out?"
If you don't like someone, boot them to the curb. Could there be a simpler solution? But Marmar shook her head.
"This is all a test. They're trying my patience and endurance."
"What test?"
"You can't tell anyone about this. I'm only telling you because you're my comrade—."
Marmar leaned in close to me like she was sharing some huge secret. Then she whispered right into my half-fairy ear.
"Those guys are members of Demon King Angmar's army. If I can just get through this test, I might even get officially promoted in the Demon King's forces."
"Is that for real?"
"Yeah…! Especially Tartar—she was squad leader in the Crimson Propaganda Brigade, personally founded by His Majesty…! Isn't that amazing…?"
Tartar must be the red-haired imp with the star tail and armband from earlier.
If Marmar was telling the truth, that Tartar probably knew a ton about the Demon King.
"And the black-haired imp is Parpar. She's Tartar's twin sister, and she used to serve drinks for His Majesty. She even talked with him!"
"Hm. What about Gargarr?"
I recalled the honey-blonde imp who'd been digging up the flower bed. Did she have some position too?
"Gargarr, well…, she's got some mental issues."
"Yeah, she seemed it."
"Word is, she saw something she wasn't supposed to. That's why her head's a bit… off."
Sounds familiar. I'd heard Sir Peltor the black mage from the Sage Council was in a similar state. Maybe there's a connection between Gargarr's madness and Sir Peltor's.
Anyway.
Parpar, Tartar, Gargarr, Marmar.
The ogre's name was Gorgor, right.
Seemed like monsters had a trend of half-assed names. The Demon King's preference? Makes sense—with tons of imps around, it'd be a pain to painstakingly name them all.
I'd casually named my pet squirrel Kungkung too.
That's when Marmar hesitantly spoke up to me.
"Um, so here's the thing, Comrade. I'm out of money. But I have to prepare dinner for the sisters today."
Marmar approached me all timid-like. I instantly realized she was asking to borrow money.
I didn't have any particular use for my cash anyway, so I pulled what I had from my pouch and handed it to her.
"Wha—f-five hundred thousand coins? You can give me this much?"
"That's all I have on me for now. If you need more later, just tell me. I can withdraw from my account."
"This should be plenty! Comrade, I'll make dinner tonight! Let's eat together!"
We bought a ton of tonkatsu—the imps' favorite—and headed back home. But the garden was engulfed in roaring flames.
"M-My furniture…!"
Marmar's face drained of color in shock. The burning logs must have been her furniture.
"Hieeek…! My furniture…! That's my dresser…!"
"Muhuhuhu."
Regardless of Marmar's screams, the armband-wearing imp Tartar let out a sinister muhuhu laugh.
"Hornless Marmar, don't be sad…! In recognition of your hard work so far, His Majesty has personally sent you a message…!"
Then the blue-haired imp Furfur chimed in from the side.
"Kneel and bow your head at once…!"