Chapter 1 — Mokomoko, I’ve Been Thinking This for a While, But You’ve Really Started to Sound Like a Demon Lord
Tomochika and Yogiri continued their journey in the carriage. Their first objective was to reach a port in the Kingdom of Brea. It bordered the Kingdom of Lindy, where the City of the War God was located, so by following the highway, they would be able to reach it in just a few days.
Things had been going smoothly, and just as Tomochika began to think they were safe, the carriage suddenly came to a stop. She immediately feared that something had happened. They’d just finished their lunch break and had made no plans to stop again for a while.
Well, this is a problem, Mokomoko said, floating through the wall. She had been operating the Enju-type robot outside.
“What’s wrong?”
Take a look.
As instructed, Tomochika stuck her head out the window and glanced around. There were giant spikes in front of them—large stone pillars with tapered points, sticking up from the middle of the road. They looked like they had fallen from the sky, with the impact of their landing having done significant damage to the highway they were on.
“Oh, that is kind of a problem. Can we not go around them?”
The carriage is only really designed to work on paved roads.
A number of the spikes were spread across the area. Even if they were able to get around the first one somehow, there were plenty more blocking the way.
“That armored truck we had before was so convenient,” Yogiri sighed, although it was long gone by now. “I’m kind of sad we lost it.”
The region they were currently traveling through was a plateau, so the ground beside the road was fairly rocky. The armored truck would have been able to drive over it without issue, but the carriage wasn’t nearly as capable.
“What if you kill the spikes?” Tomochika suggested.
“They wouldn’t be in our way anymore, but the road would still be destroyed. I can’t fix that.”
Furthermore, it seems we’re not the only ones in trouble here, Mokomoko observed.
A short distance away, a number of armed individuals were milling around in confusion. With their attention on the spikes, the teens hadn’t noticed them right away.
The soldiers continued to scream as more objects fell from the sky. Crushing the men underneath, they embedded themselves deep into the rocky ground, kicking up clouds of dirt and debris. When the two teens looked closer, they could see a dark red color covering the base of the spikes. It appeared the pillars were being aimed specifically at the soldiers.
“Shouldn’t we run away?!”
“We should be fine for now. But I guess we can’t just hang around indefinitely.” Yogiri had the power to detect any kind of threat to their safety. According to that ability, they weren’t in any immediate danger, but he didn’t know how long that would last.
A woman’s voice suddenly cut in. I am one who bears the title of Demon Lord. I would never flee and hide, but this resistance is truly futile. Why are you targeting me?
“Mokomoko, I’ve been thinking this for a while, but you’ve really started to sound like a Demon Lord recently,” Tomochika commented.
Why would I suddenly start acting like a Demon Lord?!
“Oh, it’s coming from this,” Yogiri explained, pulling a small jewel from his uniform pocket. It was a magical tool for translation, given to him by the concierge Celestina. It was meant to be a necklace, but Yogiri had found wearing it to be a nuisance, so he had taken it off the string and carried it around instead.
Hm. It seems it’s picking up someone’s voice from a public channel and translating it out loud.
“What do you mean?”
It’s like that cliché: “You want power? Then I’ll give it to you.” You know, that kind of voice always comes from nowhere in particular!
“That’s a weird way of explaining it. You mean like telepathy?”
Sure, if you like.
Those who possessed the Gift could communicate with each other, and this tool translated their communications.
Silence, Demon Lord! You must be punished for the pain you’ve inflicted on the innocent! Accept your fate and be destroyed!
Hm. Isn’t it your own fault for getting in the way of my activities?
What?!
We were simply enjoying some hunting, preying on what was conveniently nearby. You lot do the same thing all the time, do you not?
Humans aren’t just animals!
True, humans are much more intelligent. So if you know you are being hunted, you should move. Why do you refuse to do so? Why do you make such reckless attempts on my life? In the end, I suppose you aren’t so different from the animals you hunt.
They could hear not only the Demon Lord’s voice but also someone who seemed to be a hero. Neither of the speakers were in view, but they were clearly arguing while they fought.
“Can’t you have your final battle at the Demon Lord’s castle or something?!” Tomochika shouted, irritated by the nuisance their fight was causing her own group.
The situation was this: the pair had just happened to pass through the location of the final battle between a hero and a Demon Lord. It was extremely unlikely that they would come across such an event by chance, but technically not impossible. In this case, it was purely coincidence. They hadn’t been looking to witness such a battle, nor were they interested in getting involved.
Demon Lords didn’t present much of a threat to the world as a whole and were only dangerous to the inhabitants of their nearby surroundings. They were the leaders of demonic kingdoms, so if one of them came to blows with a hero, it essentially amounted to a conflict between countries. The battle wouldn’t have much of an effect on anyone else. If the Demon Lord’s side were to win, it would only change the balance of power in the immediate area. There wasn’t much for Tomochika and Yogiri to worry about.
“I guess we should start by assessing the situation,” Yogiri said.
Indeed. At present, we have not been directly harmed, but we can’t sit back and relax.
“Can you have a bit more of a reaction please?!” Tomochika demanded. “This is a hero and a Demon Lord! It’s the most fantasy-like development we’ve seen yet!”
“Wasn’t Hanakawa one of those ‘heroes’? They probably aren’t all that rare.”
“Yeah, last time Hanakawa came to this world, he was part of the heroes’ party, and they defeated a Demon Lord, right?”
There must have been a number of demonic kingdoms, and for the most part they stood in opposition to the human ones. Nearby countries would see them as a threat, so as a means of fighting them, they would occasionally summon warriors from other worlds.
“Speaking of which, why do they bother summoning otherworlders anyway?” Yogiri wondered.
“You’re just asking that now?”
Apparently, those who come from other worlds have a higher likelihood of manifesting a stronger form of the Gift. Even Hanakawa and his companions were reasonably strong compared to the locals.
“Hanakawa isn’t important right now,” Yogiri replied. “What should we do here?”
“Let’s go back,” Tomochika suggested. “It doesn’t look like we can use the road either way.”
“Are there any other routes we can take?”
Our path was more or less a straight shot. Even if we turn back, there may not be another way forward for the carriage.
“So I guess we just have to push ahead somehow? Maybe leave the carriage behind and ride the horse?”
The horse did belong to the Invincible Battalion. It should be able to manage on a damaged road like this, but I thought you couldn’t ride one.
“Can’t we just ride double?”
“It’s not impossible, but it’ll be pretty rough if you’re not used to it.”
“I’m sure it’s better than walking. We just need to get to the port.”
Their luggage was all stored in Yogiri’s pack, so that was all they would have to bring with them. It was a magical bag that could carry far more than its size suggested. It currently contained sufficient camping and food supplies, so even without the carriage, they weren’t likely to have a problem.
What?! The Demon Lord!
You did it, Yoshimasa!
As they got ready to leave the carriage behind, they heard another voice.
“Huh? What was that?” Tomochika asked, immediately getting a bad feeling.
“Oh, the Demon Lord or whatever used an area attack that would have hit us.”
“I figured it was something like that!”
Although they’d had no intention of interfering in the fight, Yogiri had ended up doing so automatically.
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