Chapter 96: Interlude - The Demon Lord’s Adventure

Translator: ShiroiKaze/Soyokaze Translations

“They were quite skilled, your majesty.”

“Hm? Yeah, more or less. Well, they left such a sweet-ass sword for me, so they have my appreciation.”

I said “more or less,” but the battle just then… Those four people on that passing carriage were friggin’ dangerous.

What the hell was that mass of iron?!

It took out the living mail that the lich, Vassago made in one hit?

The thing just felt too dangerous, so I went directly for smashing it, but still.

“That magician; the power and number of [Light Arrows] she loosed was startling. I would have liked to make her my subordinate.”

“Yeah? Well, it is unfortunate about the silver-haired little girl. The other woman was a pretty nice looking thing too. It’s too bad she got away.”

“The loss of Scott and Daniel is also painful. We no longer have anyone to fulfill the scouting role.”

“We can just stomp through any of that nonsense.”

“Your majesty may be fine doing so, but our less capable selves will be incapable.”

“… Tsk!”

Of course I’m gonna click my tongue at this point.

Thanks to “Magic Talent,” I can generally use magic effectively, but that doesn’t mean I have any concept of how it works, or how to put it together.

In magic I’m a jack of all trades, and a master of none.

This guy’s magic will often be important in successfully conquer everything ahead.

The vampire Claudia’s shadow jump and her physical resistances should have their uses too.

Since we can’t detect traps anymore, the skills of these two are going to be necessary.

“Alright then. I’ll take the lead, and you can both follow behind me. You should be be able to deal with the traps after they’ve been activated somehow, right?”

“Is that acceptable?”

“Both of your skills will probably be important further in at some point.”

“As you wish. I shall unquestionably meet the expectations of your majesty.”

Bowing to me is fine and all, but this baggage is getting heavy.

Those damn puppies, Scott and Daniel, were killed like they were nothing. How lame.

“More importantly, we have two more people’s share of bags to carry now. Do something about it.”

“Indeed, I do not have the materials at present to create a new living mail, so a golem will have to do as a replacement.”

Saying that, he pulled a tree branch and a lump of metal from his pouch, and chanted.

Since I only have talent in using magic, I don’t have a clue what he’s saying.

After incomprehensibly muttering for about thirty minutes, the small tree branch and lump of metal became a golem over two meters tall.

I wonder what happened to the law of preservation of mass?

“Eh, oh well. Awright, let’s have that thing hold our bags. I’ll be busy using this sword, after all.”

“I hear and obey.”

It’s the over-two-meters-long sword the kid from before was holding.

This thing’s pretty amazing.

It’s abnormally light compared to how it looks. And yet its mass is all sitting right where it should be.

And its sturdy too.

If I swing a sword seriously, then the grip gets crushed in my hands, and the blade easily bends and breaks.

But that’s absolutely no concern with this thing.

Which means I finally got an appropriate weapon for me.

“Well, I may not have gotten a slave, but considering I got the strongest of weapons instead, I don’t feel too bad about it. Even if it is secondhand.”

And then, with perfect timing, goblin warriors appeared.

Great, guess I’ll give this thing a test drive.

“Oraa!”

I stepped right forward and gave it a light swing.

If it were an ordinary sword, this is when the handle would crumble, and the end of the sword would go flying.

But this thing took my strength just fine. And with the acceleration from the centrifugal force, all of it was sent into the goblin warrior.

With a splat, like I was stomping on a fruit, the enemy was turned to pieces and sent flying.

“Hahah, this is good! Really good!”

There wasn’t even anything left of it. This feels awesome!

“Next. Let me slash at you punks some more!”

Next I put some strength into the swing.

This time turned to pieces would be putting it lightly; he just turned into a fucking spray of blood.

“Hahah, hahahaha… HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA!”

Three more were remaining. I laughed as I smeared the passageway.

~*~

“Splendidly done, your majesty.”

“Yeah, this thing is great! It’s the best!”

“My, in high spirits I see. How unusual.”

“… Where the hell were you?”

Claudia called out to me as I was humming merrily after the battle.

This woman said “I’m hungry” after the fight against those guys from before, then just up and disappeared…

“Oh, you know. Just taking a few bites out of some adventurers.”

“I won’t care if they hunt you down.”

“There’s nobody skilled enough for that in here.”

“We just met some who were.”

How could she forget the silver haired one that nearly blasted her face off just a bit ago.

These vampires are incredibly prideful; she’s probably making it out like she was never in any danger.

“Hmph, I could turn all of them into minced meat on my own if I actually tried.”

“That’s quite the thing to say, considering the danger you would have been in if Vassago hadn’t backed you up.”

“You think that was necessary? That brat couldn’t keep up with my moves.”

“‘Tis foolish to make light of the enemy. Had that girl chosen to burn the entire area to nothing, neither your clever moves nor speed would have mattered.”

“What are you getting at, skeleton? Are you trying to say I’m being petty?”

The two of them disregarded me and began glaring at each other. They get like this the moment I take my eyes off them.

“We don’t need to worry about the dead. Let’s hurry forward; there’s still more than 950 floors left.”

And so I took a step forward… And was turned upside down.

~*~

“PUHAHAAHHAHAHA! Oh, your majesty, you’re too funny!”

“Your majesty, I shall have you down soon; please hold for a moment.”

“… Who’s the bastard that set this up?”

Once I had a chance to realize what was going on, I found it was a simple ankle trap. But we didn’t have anyone who could notice that kind of thing.

Far off in the distance, there are some kobolds laughing their asses off. I will murder them in a second.

Vassago sent a [Wind Blade] to cut the ivy twined around my leg.

Once I hit the ground, I took up my great sword and immediately took off at a dash.

“Don’t you dare move, you damn mutts!”

And then I fell into a pitfall trap.

~*~

“Your majesty, I shall pull you up soon…”

“He, hehehehe… Are you trying to make me die of laughter?! ‘Cause you’re killing me here! AhahHAHAHAHA!”

“Shut up, or I’m going to kill you.”

I was pulled up from the pitfall, and sat on the floor.

The kobolds seem to have fled in that time. I’ll remember this…

“Hey, maybe we really should go back and hire a scout?”

“Except that we have just recently exposed our identities. Considering the many witnesses, it will likely spread throughout the city soon enough. How many would be willing to join hands with us is…”

“I’m sure we’d manage something if we force them to gather together for us.”

“I do not believe we would be able to gather many skilled individuals under such a plan.”

“Sh*t…”

Anyone skilled enough for us would probably hide themselves as soon as they felt threatened.

If they can’t do that, then it means their ability to sense danger is low… In other words, they would be useless.

It’s completely contradictory.

“Ugh, whatever. Hey, actually I want you to make a tough golem to walk ahead of us. I won’t be able to take this forever if I’m in the lead the whole time.”

“I most certainly hear and obey.”

“Claudia, you fly up and watch from above. Don’t overlook anything.”

“What a pain.”

Even though she made her idle complaints, she still gently floated upward.

Somewhere inside this independently tempered vampire, she apparently fell for me and came along, but… I’ve gotten pretty doubtful of that.

“We’ll continue in this formation for now. If we get stuck somewhere, then we’ll deal with it when it happens.”

“As you will.”

“Got iiit.”

And so, with a rough-looking road ahead, our march began.