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Parade outside the village, last day.
The parade is being held in the royal capital of the Demon King’s Kingdom.
Many spectators gather on both sides of the parade route and the atmosphere is quite enthusiastic.
I thought the parades in Village Five and Shashaato City were already amazing but the one in Royal Capital was on a different level.
I wondered how many people were there.
There were also a wide variety of races.
I saw a few I didn’t know.
I will ask someone to tell me about them later.
Also, taller races such as minotaurs and centaurs are not in the front of the crowd but are watching from the back.
Conversely, shorter races are often in the front row.
Is someone instructing them about it?
Or are these things learned as a matter of etiquette?
I’ll ask Frau or someone else to tell me about this later.
At the back of the crowd, I can see…..several stalls lined up.
They are selling all kinds of things.
French fries…..no, they’re not.
Are those grissinis?
Perhaps pretzel or bread sticks.
I’m curious about how they taste.
Next to it is…..
Is that meat on the skewer?
What kind of meat is it?
It should be written somewhere but I can’t find it since I’m too far away.
It looks delicious.
Next to it is a small kind of fruit sold in a cup.
I don’t know what kind of fruit it is but most of the customers are males.
That’s surprising.
Fruit is normally popular among females…..is it not sweet?
Is it very popular?
Hmmm, I guess I’ll ask someone about that later too.
Fufufu.
Laughing at how I’m being taken in by the festive atmosphere, I realized that I’m enjoying the parade for what it is.
I feel a little sad thinking that the parade will be over soon.
While I was slightly surprised at how I was reacting, I heard a loud explosion in the direction where the parade was going.
-0-
It was the night of the final day of the parade outside the village.
I was in a room in the royal castle in the center of the royal capital of the Demon King’s Kingdom.
There are other people in the room like the demon king.
Beezel, Randan, and Glatts, who were officials of the kingdom, are here too.
Dors, the representative of the dragons.
Malbit and Reginleif, representatives of the angels.
Prada, representative of the ancient devils.
Gulf, representative of the beastkins.
Ria, representative of the high elves.
Ireh, representative of the film crew.
Including me, there were twelve of us.
There are a few others waiting in another room too.
What’s taking place here is an informal evening party.
Ah, it’s not an evaluation meeting.
For some reason, a few people look like defendants awaiting judgment but it’s not a condemnation meeting either.
This evening meeting is…..basically, a parade impression.
A place to give each other feedback on what was good here and what was bad there.
I was told that I could leave immediately without participating in this kind of thing but given what happened, I can’t leave.
A lot has happened.
I’ll at least stay with them for today.
And for some reason, I was the facilitator of this evening party.
Is it alright for it to be me?
It seems like they are fine with it.
Then, please don’t hold back.
Now, first of all, thanks for the parade.
Outside, there is currently an evening banquet happening which is called, recognition of service party. When I heard that the demon king, who should play the leading role there, being not there would cause a lot of trouble and they even requested this to end fast…..I thought, that means this evening party should be held later….
It’s not that simple?
You want to finish this first?
If that’s what the demon king himself says, I guess we should.
Then, let’s start.
This parade.
I think it went a little overboard at the end.
-0-
The most important part of the parade is the end.
The parade needs to end in a way that everyone acknowledges that it’s over.
Otherwise, it will be trouble.
The atmosphere will continue until it’s sluggish.
I learned this from the village parade.
So, at the end of the village parade, I usually give a closing speech and hold a banquet.
I make it so that the parade starts with my speech and ends with me speaking again. With that, the people will acknowledge that it has ended and drink and eat.
It’s not my idea but that of the civil servant girls.
We could have ended it with a flashy explosion but that is not well received by some.
Mainly by the chickens, cows, horses, and goats of the village.
They said it was too loud.
Dangerous too for those who are not used to it.
The pegasuses, who are not used to it yet, were so frightened by the explosions.
-0-
Of course, the ending of the parade outside the village was also prepared.
By the way, I was not informed what it was.
I was just told that at the end of the parade, Swan and Black Swan would make the swords they were holding explode and it would be a signal for something fun to start.
Since I was not the overseer of the parade, I was honestly looking forward to it.
Though I would have never guessed that they were going to hold military exercises.
And the participants were not just a part but almost the entire royal capital.
Of course, a safe zone had been set aside for non-combatants and the children.
However, for a military exercise, the attackers were quite few in comparison.
Well, I guess since it was only us, Big Tree Village, including the kuros and angels…..
It was a very flashy way to end a parade.
What can I say? As expected of the Demon King’s Kingdom.
I heard that there were a lot of people injured but at least no one died.
The level of skill of the soldiers of the kingdom and the ability of the residents of the Royal Capital to deal with trouble is evident.
「V-village chief….i-if I may.」
The demon king seemed to want to say something.
I don’t mind.
「My apologies, in the last part, there was an accident……」
Yeah, I heard of it.
Swan and Black Swan’s swords exploded unscheduled due to a pickpocket, right?
I think it was amazing that you didn’t get confused because of the explosion. It’s your cue and it just happened ahead of schedule.
「Ah, no, that’s……I had village chief acted as my squire……」
Squire?
You mean like a subordinate?
After the military exercises started, I worked with the demon king.
As expected, I can’t participate in an armed military exercise.
It’s due to my ability.
All I did was chase after the kuros whenever I saw one and instructed them to move to the waiting area on the outskirts of the city.
Even though I was chasing them, the kuros weren’t really running away, so I caught up with them right away.
I didn’t do much.
And I don’t think that’s a very squire-like thing……
From the perspective of the people around, do I look like the demon king’s squire?
I checked with Ireh, who was shooting around the demon king and he said that I was less shadowy than a squire.
Well, even if I am, I wouldn’t mind.
「I-is that so? No, I mean, that’s great. Thank you for accommodating an unscheduled performance.」
No no, that’s normal since I’m also a parade participant.
Right right.
「Also, we have succeeded in exposing the shady organization that existed between the royal capital and Shashaato City.」
Good to hear.
That’s the main purpose of the parade.
If we failed to complete that objective, what was the point of the parade?
However, is it okay to talk about that here?
No, everyone here is a familiar face. It’s okay.
-0-
Speaking of which, Dors.
You went to the royal capital for the military exercise but you only wandered around for a bit and left, right?
What was that all about?
「The carriage that village chief is using combined at an unscheduled place, right? We thought something had happened so we went there to ensure village chief’s safety. However, the wide roads are already being used by the parade. We can only land on narrow roads which caused damage to some buildings. When we were thinking what to do next, a high elf girl said that village chief was safe so we left that royal capital. Demon king, are you sure money is enough to apologize for the damaged buildings?」
「Money is fine desu」
When the demon king and Dors were talking like that, I told them that I would pay for it since they only did that in order to help me but they didn’t take it up.
Ah, right.
What about the three impure dragons in dragon form? They were surrounded by Hakuran, Grafaloon, and Guronde in their dragon forms.
It looked like a cutthroat scene.
Though I won’t say that.
「T-they’re disciplining them.」
What?
「A dragon must not bow and beg to let them off the hook to an opponent even though you know you can’t win against them.」
Ah.
The three impure dragons fought on the side of the defenders of the royal capital during the military exercises.
They were said to have been actively protecting the soldiers on the defending side, acting like the soldiers’ support. However, when they encountered the kuros, they bowed immediately to let them off the hook.
Yeah, I can’t say anything against that.
Even I would hesitate if I’m asked to stand up against someone I’m no match for.
Well, I heard that the soldiers on the defense side gave three impure dragons high marks even though they avoided battling so I guess all is well.
-0-
Ah, right, that reminds me of something……
I heard that the high elves and the beastkins rampaged quite well.
I heard that they occupied several facilities in the royal capital.
You did a great job.
When I praised them for that, Ria answered with a slightly troubled expression on her face.
「Ahaha. We just got a little carried away……」
Gulf has a similar expression.
「I think so too. We may have gone a little overboard.」
-0-
I heard that Prada and her team were with the royal capital defenders.
「We are. However, we were not directly involved in the battle. We did not take part in direct combat. We just distributed weapons to the residents of the royal capital.」
That seems to be the case.
Where did those weapons come from?
「From the armory in the royal capital. We were told where they were beforehand.」
So, it was all according to plan?
「Yes. And please praise the spiderlings more than us.」
Yeah, I know.
The spiderlings rescued the residents who weren’t able to evacuate due to the sudden start of the military exercise.
I’m grateful for their rescue efforts. They were even prepared to be scolded by Zabuton.
I’ll tell Zabuton to not scold them for me.
-0-
Well, I have some details to reflect on and things to say to those who were not here.
Especially the mountain elves.
I didn’t know that the combined transforming carriage was armed.
To be precise, I did not know about the existence of an additional carriage that transforms into a ballista.
Well, that additional carriage transformed and combined beautifully but I didn’t know that it was a genuine ballista and not just a decoration.
……
They didn’t have to combine it to the carriage, right?
Just deploying it on the spot would be enough to turn the carriage into a ballista shooter.
Or not.
Is there a reason to arm it?
It is often said that Big Tree Village is safe but the others are not.
Even in Village Five, I heard that the place around it is dangerous.
Even so, I still think that adding a ballista as a self defense weapon is too much.
I would like to discuss it with them.
-0-
Ah, right.
We also have to talk to Tiselle.
Should I talk about this to Malbit and Reginleif?
What’s this I heard about Tiselle building a country?