Fake Upon Fake
With a fake layered upon another fake, perhaps it was finally safe to breathe easy? The figure in red armor spoke words I had not anticipated at all. Yet the instant I heard the voice and tone coming from within that armor, I knew exactly who she was. Not a person—a woman.
“Y-Your Majesty the Demon King?”
I stood there, awash in deep bewilderment and, strangely, a faint sense of relief at the Demon King’s appearance in a place and manner no one could have predicted. That was when it happened.
-Whoosh!
“Huh?”
The next moment, a single figure shot past us where we stood at the center of the arena and raced straight for the VIP seats. The sight of Legion Commander Shamyuel moving like that jolted both the Demon King and me to full alertness. We looked at each other, and then—
“It seems I must go.”
“Yes, I will accompany you.”
There was no real danger to the Demon King’s safety, but the undeniable fact remained: someone had attacked this place. Without another word we set off after Shamyuel to apprehend the culprit.
A short while later the three of us reached the VIP room. The sudden explosion had filled the chamber with thick smoke, turning the entire space into chaos. Demons lay collapsed everywhere, nursing injuries.
“Damn it….”
“Are you all right?”
“Yes. Fortunately, aside from light wounds, there is no serious damage.”
Belzebeuty rose from her seat with a slight frown in answer to Shamyuel’s question. The other demons who had been sprawled on the floor followed her lead and began to stand. All of them had suffered minor injuries, yet none appeared to have taken any truly heavy blows.
And among them was one figure in particular. A demon wearing a veil and the Demon King’s own robes brushed dust from her clothes and straightened her posture, once more radiating the dignity of a sovereign.
“Your Majesty, are you unharmed?”
“We are fine. It appears the only thing that reached this place was a small explosion.”
The Demon King answered Belzebeuty’s worried question as though it were nothing. Behind me, the real Demon King let out a quiet sigh of relief. I, too, relaxed a little. The uproar had sounded far worse than the actual damage suggested.
But then—
“Wait. Then what was that sound we heard just now?”
“Huh?”
“What do you mean?”
Shamyuel’s voice had turned unusually grave, quite at odds with the usual (●△●) expression on her face. The rest of us automatically voiced our confusion.
“I am referring to the words we all heard moments ago. The scream that an intruder had entered the VIP room. Who spoke those words?”
“Now that you mention it…”
“I heard it too, but…”
At Shamyuel’s sharp observation, Belzebeuty and I scanned the surrounding demons with sudden doubt. Yet not one of them claimed to have said such a thing. All anyone offered was testimony that they had heard the shout.
The moment that fact became clear—
“…I see.”
“!?”
“Sha… Shamyuel?”
With a short grunt, Shamyuel dashed straight out the window. I still did not fully grasp the situation, but I moved after her just as before. Right behind me, the Demon King in red armor followed as well.
“! W-wait, Your Majes—urk…”
Belzebeuty tried to stop the real Demon King from her abrupt departure. But with a proxy already in place, she could not act too openly. In that fleeting gap the Demon King slipped out of the VIP room, trailing the hero.
“All right! Operation successful!”
“We did it! Honestly, I was nervous right up until the end.”
Bless and Dagon raced across the rooftop, voices bright with joy. Watching them from a step behind, Pompey and Hector frowned.
“Quiet down and keep moving. We’re not safe until we’re out of Jerusalem!”
“I agree. I’m grateful for the rescue, but celebration should wait until the situation is truly over, is what it is.”
“Yeah, yeah, got it.”
The two warnings sharpened their tension again as they continued onward. Yet beneath that tension, all four hearts carried the same quiet relief at having safely passed a truly dangerous moment.
The current hero, Hector, had infiltrated the heart of the Demon Kingdom’s capital, Jerusalem, in human guise and been captured. Luckily, the fact that he had attempted to assassinate the Demon King had not yet come to light. Still, hiding his identity and appearing here so soon after the war’s end was more than enough to invite suspicion of impure motives. Interrogation was inevitable, and the chance of torture during questioning was extremely high.
Worse, if he were moved from the temporary solitary cell to the underground prison beneath the Demon King’s Castle, rescuing him would become nearly impossible. The remaining members of the Hero Party had therefore devised the fastest possible method to free him, adapting the plan they had originally prepared for an assault on the Demon King.
The original scheme had been for Dagon to create a magical disturbance the moment Hector—who was supposed to reach the semifinals—entered the arena, drawing everyone’s attention. In the resulting gap, Hector, Pompey, and Bless would converge and slay the Demon King. Hector’s early elimination in the first round of the main tournament had rendered that plan unusable, but the core tactic of causing a distraction could still create an opening to rescue him from solitary confinement.
First they triggered a commotion far from Hector’s cell. Then they detonated the magic they had planted near the Demon King, producing an explosion that sowed chaos. At the same time, Bless bluffed that the Demon King was under attack. The double deception was meant to shatter the heightened security that had been put in place after Hector’s capture—especially to distract the gaze of Legion Commander Shamyuel, the monstrous woman who had seen through Hector’s identity and defeated him.
If we’ve gone this far, even that monster of a woman shouldn’t be able to do anything.
She saw through the magical disguise… but after falling for two consecutive fakes, there’s no way she’ll catch on this time.
In the end the Hero Party had achieved its objective while evading Shamyuel’s eyes. They had failed to take the Demon King’s head, but simply escaping alive from the heart of enemy territory was comfort enough. The four of them successfully reached the outskirts of Jerusalem.
Just a little farther and they would reach the forest where they could hide. Once there, they could finally relax. The taut bowstring of tension in their hearts began to loosen.
That was when—
-Whoosh!
“!”
“D-danger…!”
-Boom!
A massive boulder suddenly flew toward them. They barely dodged it and were forced to land in the clearing directly ahead.
“Urk!”
“How did she get here so fast…?”
“Damn it! We were almost there.”
“…Hmm…”
With their destination right before their eyes, their feet were now pinned. And standing before them was the legion commander in gauntlets, her (●△●) face on full display.
Shamyuel had caught up.
“I have found you, humans. And your comrades. This time I will not let you escape, is what it is.”
Her monotone voice carried an unmistakable threat. At the same time, her perfectly sculpted features radiated a beauty so complete it could not be hidden. The four of them could not help feeling momentarily overwhelmed.
Yet they had not lost their fighting spirit, nor had despair taken root.
“Tsk. There’s only one of her here anyway.”
“Four against one. We’ve already analyzed her combat style. There is no reason we should lose.”
With those words Bless and Dagon immediately assumed combat stances. Objectively their side held more than enough power to handle the woman who had fought nearly evenly with Hector.
Of course, that assessment held only under the premise that she was alone.
“Huh?”
“! W-what is this?”
The moment they finished preparing, another powerful presence appeared. Shamyuel glanced at the figure who had emerged behind her and spoke quietly.
“You are a little late.”
“It could not be helped. You set out first, and in that situation only you could determine the proper direction.”
The newcomer adjusted his black greatsword and settled into a combat stance. The instant they recognized him, Pompey frowned deeply and muttered in a cold voice.
“The black hero… That guy came all the way here…”