Outside the city walls of the royal capital, Fall Flat, in the vast grasslands, there was currently a crowd of over a thousand monsters â a battalion of the Demon Kingâs army summoned by Lionetta.
In addition to lower-grade subhuman monsters such as lizardmen and ghouls, there were also a number of nasty monsters such as the winged demon beast, Pazuzu, and the giant viper, basilisk, and you could tell at first glance that they were serious about conquering the capital.
However, the demons that were supposed to have received Lionettaâs signal earlier and started marching towards the royal capital had stopped in their tracks.
(Who the hell are these?)
The leader of the battalion, Vieira, a half-human, half-snake monster with the upper body of a beautiful woman and the lower body of a snake, was now puzzled.
This was because a strange duo suddenly showed up in front of them and blocked their path.
âNo way⊠so a battalion was actually on its way here. So these guys have been hiding out in the woods. I donât know how much you can see, Brad von PistelâŠâŠ but even I couldnât see the monsters lurking in the forest.â
One, the elf boy who seemed to be a magician floating in the air with natural magic manipulation technique as easily breathing, was muttering in disbelief.
âFeeling sleepyâŠâ§â
And the other was a swordsman who was drowsy and yawning while holding a sword that was taller than him in one hand.
ââŠâ
There are only two opponents.
For this army of 1000 they seemed insignificant. They would normally have ignored them and marched on.
In spite of this, the moment they appeared in front of them, the monsters surprisingly stopped their march at once and stood still.
It wasnât Vieira who had ordered it.
(Why âŠâŠ are my legs not moving?)
The monsters including Vieira stopped by their own will⊠No, rather it was their instinct.
They must have sensed it.
The strange presence of the duo in front of them. A monster-like magic pressure that makes one think it was comparable to that of the highest executives of the Demon Kingâs Army, the âFour Demon Generalsâ
(How could I think that⊠that canât be the case.)
Itâs impossible, Vieira shakes her head.
In the Demon kingâs army, the âFour Demon Generalsâ are overwhelming beings whose powers are on a different dimension entirely. There can be no human who is equivalent to their existence.
MoreoverâŠ
âGlace who is that Prince really? Is he truly a son of man?â
ââŠâŠâ
âThat overwhelming fighting prowess he showed when the Cyclops was subdued and then in the arena. That insight that seems to see through everything⊠I donât think heâs a child of a human. I just canât believe it. I donât think one can achieve that with natural talent alone.â
ââŠâŠâŠâŠâ
âIâve lived for quite some time now and Iâve never seen such a non-standard person. Hey Glace, what do you think?â
âFeeling Sleepyââ§
âDonât just naturally ignore me!â
The two of them, as if they had forgotten that Vieira and the others were right in front of them, were engaged in a carefree, comic dialogue.
There wasnât even a hint of tension.
The elf boy was mumbling something incomprehensible, and the swordsman was yawning. With such a large group of demons in front of them, they looked like they were having tea in the afternoon.
Thereâs no way that these people are comparable to the âFour Demon Generalsâ
(But did he just call the sword guy Glace?)
The elf boy certainly called the swordman that.
Itâs the same name as the Demon Slayer.
And Iâve heard rumors that that man often stays in Pistel.
(That canât be trueâŠ)
But Vieira shook her head.
âEven if the Demon Slayer is here, Iâll make sure heâs restrained. Iâll make the kingdom fall into chaos with magic, so you guys trample down the people during that time. Itâs an easy job.â
Thatâs what Lionetta had said when she approached me.
The woman may be unpredictable, but there was no doubting her abilities. Iâm sure sheâs doing what she said she would do and she would definitely hold them back.
âSorry, sorry, I didnât notice you at all, youâre so smallâ§.â
âWho are you calling small? Whether my body is small or not, ignoring my voice is another matter.â
â Nn? When I said small I meant your voice obviously? Itâs a fact that youâre so small I can pick you up with my fingers thoughâ§.â
ââŠâŠ Oh, you mean my voice?â
âYes, please stop being paranoid and taking it out on me. Youâre not just small in body, but also in capacityâ§.â
âGunununu, maybe youâre right⊠but, that doesnât change the fact that youâre making fun of me, youâre ready for the payback right!?!â
The two of them continued to engage in the same dull, comic dialogue.
(Thereâs no way that these idiots are the âSeven Heroes,â the ones whose stories are used to silence a crying child.)
The children of wise demons grow up with the horror of the Seven Heroes instilled in them by their parents, who threaten them from an early age that theyâll be eaten by the Seven Heroes if they donât go to bed early, or that the Seven Heroes will kidnap bad children. Thereâs no way that such mythical monsters are this stupid.
Perhaps this duo are either drunk or pitiful ones who have come to the battlefield without being able to make rational judgements because of Lionettaâs illusion magic. That has to be the case.
âIâm not sure if it matters, but Iâm sleepy, so can I go back to sleep?ââ§
âArgh! Show a little motivation! When the prince asked you to do something, you confidently said something like, âI wonât let any of them into the capital, so leave it to me!â Donât you ever do what you say youâre going to do?â
âI know I said that, but to be honest youâre probably enough on your own. Iâm not interested in small fry, to begin withâ§.â
Vieira frowns at the interaction between the two of them.
(Did he just call us small fry?)
I had no choice but to listen to them.
Iâm still a demon leader.
The Demon Commander is a position that an incompetent person would never be able to attain in the Demon Kingâs army of the weak and the strong. Itâs a position where the leader is entrusted with a battalion of a thousand monsters and the demons she brought with her were all bloodthirsty and elite.
There was no reason to be fooled by the two men in front of her who couldnât even tell the situation.
(Hmm⊠It was stupid of me to read too much meaning from this encounter. Weâll see who the small fries are)
Iâm not sure why I was so afraid of these two punks.
Vieira, annoyed with herself, concluded that the duo were reckless idiots and shouted to the demons that stopped advancing.
âDonât panic, itâs just a couple of idiots! All troops, advance!â
As soon as Vieira gave the order, the monsters, as if they had remembered their task, took up their weapons and with a battle cry resumed their vigorous march towards the capital.
On the other hand, when the elf boy noticed thisâŠ
âOops, Iâve got some work to doâ âSummon Servantâ.â
He chanted it briefly.
It was chanted as casually as if it were first-level life magic, but it had power to interfere with the atmosphere like I had never seen before.
Just after the overwhelming magic vibration that made me tremble. A huge magic circle appeared on the ground right below the elf.
And from that huge magic circle, which looked like ritual magic performed by a hundred magicians, a single monster soon appeared.
As if tearing the space apart, what appeared was a god-like giant.
It was different from the trolls and ogres whose giant blood was said to be diluted by the other bloodlines. It boasted a massive physique that rivaled that of the Cyclops, a single-eyed giant that ranked high even among demon leaders, and its body was clad in an overwhelmingly blue and divine magic that surpassed that of the single-eyed giant.
âFrost Giant?â
Vieira recognized it at a glance.
Itâs the upper spirit of ice that the giants of the Icicle Mountains revere as their guardian god.
âIâm sorry to call you out here in such a noisy place, but I need you to neutralize them for a moment. Can you do that for me?â
âAs the Lord commands.â
When the elf sits on the giantâs shoulder and orders it. The giant grins and smiles turning to the hordes of monsters that were advancing.
And thenâ
ââŠâ
For starters, the giant dropped to its haunches and swung with a speed that was unthinkable for its huge body. Then, with a single swing, dozens of monsters were cleaved off and slammed into the ground in an interesting swoop.
The giant then swung his arm two or three times, and as he swept through the frontline monsters, the monsters in the rear began to flinch away from advancing.
Then the giant took a deep breath.
âIcicle Breath.â
He exhaled an icy breath of air.
As soon as the monsters get hit by the breath, they become frozen and even if they werenât frozen, they get robbed of their physical freedom and fall down one after another.
(I canât believe he summoned and used a Frost Giant so easily! I thought they were just idiots!)
Vieira was upset, but the situation would not wait. Iâm the head of this squad.
âDonât be frightened! Ignore the giant and push on to the capital!â
She tried to motivate the monsters who were beginning to run left and right because of the giant.
Itâs too much of a hassle to deal with the giant now even if they took extra measures with special equipment, including cold-resistant armor.
The royal capital should be in turmoil now. Once they enter the capital, the giant wonât be able to bypass them because of the large number of people there. Since that was the case, they had no choice but to ignore the giant as much as possible and go in.
However, when Vieira, along with some of the monsters, passed through the onslaught of the Frost Giant and arrived at the gates of the royal capital.
âFwaaaaah! Youâre missing out a few of them. This is annoying.ââ§
The swordsman was waiting for them holding a stick, standing while yawning.
(hmph⊠just like summer insects that fly into the fire.)
Vieira grins fearlessly and rushes to the gate with the monsters.
Aside from the giant, thereâs no need to stop or get nervous because of the swordsman. The monsters running in front of her showed no signs of fear, and they attacked the swordsman while shouting vigorously.
But right after thatâŠ
âAbsolute Territory.â
The swordsman muttered a single word.
At that moment, a large blood-colored magic line was drawn around the swordsman.
âItâs better for you to turn back, monsters. Or itâll be too lateâŠâ
The elf on the giant shoulder starts to say but shrugs as the monsters on the frontline have already flooded towards the swordsman.
A group of monsters invaded the swordsmanâs territory and thenâŠ
ââŠâ
The moment they stepped over the magic line, countless flashes of sword slashes ran through Vieiraâs vision. It came at such a speed that her eyes couldnât follow.
The elite monsters who had raised their voices while dashing forward a while ago were cut up to the extent that there was no trace of them as they got reduced to a pile of meat.
All of the higher monsters such as Pazuzu and Basilisk that are said to be able to destroy a village in one go were also destroyed.
âWhat!?â
Viera who managed to stop before crossing the line after witnessing the massacre, collapsed to the ground
âYou managed to stop at the last minuteâ§.â
The swordsman smiled at her while licking the blood with his tongue.
It should have been the same smile as she had seen before, but now after witnessing the devastation he caused, it could only be seen as the smile of the death god.
If she had taken even a step further and crossed that line, she would have become a shredded mass of meat just like the monsters in front of her. Just thinking about it made her whole body tremble from the core.
(Or⊠it wasnât a misunderstanding.)
Her whole body trembling when she saw the duo earlier, it didnât seem to be a mistake at all.
These two men areâ
âYou are the Demon Slayer⊠arenât you?â
âHmm⊠thatâs right.ââ§
âThen that elf over there⊠is the Great Sage?â
The swordsman, âDemon Slayerâ Glace Strassman nodded.
âMore than that, Iâm greatly annoyed. Itâs because of you guys that my fun time with Brad-kun is hindered. Thinking about it now, I wonder if I should kill all of you.ââ§
Glace said with a frivolous smile, but his eyes werenât smiling at all.
Heâs serious.
Those are the eyes of a predator looking down from an overwhelming height. The eyes of one who is determined to kill all 1000 monsters in the battalion.
âI⊠surrender!â
When Vieira stood up quickly and said this, Glace frowned.
âSurrenderâ§?â
âYou just said something quite amusing to hear. Think about it. For example, letâs say you come across a pest that makes you uncomfortable on the roadside and when you try to get rid of it, the pest starts begging for its life. Will you listen to itâ§?â
Viera gulped down her spit..
A spiky and outrageous murderous intent emanates from Glaceâs entire body and instantly spreads to the entire battalion, including Vieira.
Death! Death! Death!
Like Vieira, all the monsters in the battalion probably sensed it instinctively. The overwhelming difference between them and the man in front of them. They also knew the unwavering fact that they were going to be killed by the man.
Howeverâ
The expected tragedy did not occur.
âGlace-san! Please wait!â
A voice came which controlled the actions of the mad warrior.
Glace stopped moving and brought out the magic stone from his pocket.
âBrad-kun⊠why are you stopping me? As far as monsters and humans go, itâs kill or be killed. Eat or be eaten.ââ§
âTheyâre worth using. Can you keep them alive as much as possible?â
From the magic stone, Bradâs voice says so. Glace stops moving for a while and then takes a deep breath as if to calm his mind and then with a bit of frustration he says.
âI understand. Iâm not interested in hunting down small fry anyway. But If I may ask, Brad kun. What are you going to do with them?ââ§
âThank you. Iâll explain everything as soon as this crisis is taken care of.â
Glace shrugs and looks at Vieira âIt seems as though your lives have been sparedâ§.â
While Merlin laughed, Vieira was finally freed from the tension and collapsed on the spot.
Even the hundreds of monsters who still had energy at the time also caved in.
(It was a close oneâŠ)
Itâs unclear what kind of treatment they will receive from now on, but as long as the man in front of them does not change his mind, they wonât be killed in this place.
In addition to being relieved, Vieira begins to wonder who the Lord that spoke through the magic stone was.
Brad von Pistal⊠just who the hell is he?
At the time of the meeting at the Dream Castle, I had obtained the minimum information that he was the prince of Pistel who subdued the Cyclops, but honestly I was wondering whether he was a threat great enough for them to send out one of the âFour Demon Generalsâ I thought it was no big deal and I thought Lionetta would easily kill him.
However, if he was to bring the âSeven Heroic monstersâ in front of her to his side and become a presence that can call them anytime he wants, then they must have greatly underestimated him.
âThatâs what I want to know tooâ.â
âHey⊠I donât know too much about him, but I think itâs more personally convincing to say heâs a God or something close to it.â
The âDemon Slayerâ and âGreat Sageâ say such things In such a way that you canât tell if itâs a joke or something serious.
The man named Brad was able to make these monsters who emit the same intimidating feeling as the Demon Generals say such things. If heâs an existence greater than the âSeven Heroesâ, itâs safe to say heâs comparable to the âDemon Kingâ himself who is now dormant. But heâs still a boy.
(I want to meet this Brad⊠he may be the true one who we should give everything.)
While instructing the monsters to surrender, Vieira was in deep awe of Brad, whom she had never met.