War Chronicles of the Land of Twilight

——- Three days after the “Battle of Izun Plains”.

Late at night. “Izun Fortress” is on night watch duty.

The vast plains of Izun, drenched in night dew and shrouded in silence, are illuminated by the cold light of a large blue moon. In the Izun Fortress, where only silhouettes are visible under that faint light, there is no other light except for the watchtower torch.

But wait, there is one window with a light on. It is the office of the Dark Knight Gorda.

“Okay, I’m leaving it to you, Berukuto,” said Gorda, fully clad in black armor, to Berukuto, who stood behind him.

“Understood. I’ll take care of the operation of the fortress during your absence, Lord Gorda,” Berukuto replied, standing upright.

“Well, don’t be too tense. It all depends on the mood of King Fuchikami. If nothing happens, I’ll be back tomorrow night,” said Gorda.

(TL: ‘’King Fuchikami’’  can be also translated as ‘’Abyss king’’)

“I heard that the other ‘Four Great Lords’ will also gather together?” asked Berukuto.

“It doesn’t matter. We don’t have much to talk about, and everyone can’t just leave their territory unattended. Only I and the ‘Witch’ can move without difficulty,” Gorda replied.

As he spoke, Gorda reached for the sword leaning against the wall. It was a replacement for the one that broke in the recent battle.

After fastening the sword to his waist, Gorda walked towards the exit of the office. Berukuto silently watched him go.

Gorda stopped about three steps away from the door. The door remained closed.

“Berukuto. I’m sorry, but please arrange for the repair of the door.”

With these words, Gorda casually put his hand on the hilt of his sword and took a stance, drawing his sword towards the closed door.

“Okay, no problem. It’s already been arranged,” replied Berukuto in a flat tone.

“Very well.” Gorda relaxed his lips inside his helmet, impressed by Berukuto’s efficiency.

Silence descended in the office, with the blue moonlight shining in from the window.

“‘Demonic Sword Style: Divine Path Unfolding’”

Gorda unsheathed his sword at a speed too fast for the eye to see and slashed the door of the office. The sound of wood being cut with a muffled noise was heard, and the door was split in half.

Beyond the door was a grand corridor with a different architectural style from that of the castle.

“Have a good trip, Gorda-sama,” said Berukuto.

“Yeah, I’ll be back,” replied Gorda, stepping over the broken door and extending his legs towards the grand corridor. As Gorda’s figure moved completely to the other side, the grand corridor behind him appeared to warp and distort. In an instant, Gorda and the grand corridor disappeared without a trace, and only the usual castle passageway remained beyond the door.

“Enou Castle… have a safe trip back, Gorda-sama,” murmured Berukuto, who was left alone in the office.

＊＊＊＊＊＊

At the heart of the Land of twilight lies the “Enou Castle.” Gorda’s armored boots clicked pleasantly as they struck the gray marble floor of the grand corridor. The sound echoed through the vast space, creating a lonely reverberation that was eventually absorbed.

From the skylight windows, a blue moonlight shone, casting a cold, icy glow on the marble. The grand corridor was an enormous structure, with both width and height reaching 20 meters.

Although the corridor stretched straight towards the depths of En’ou Castle, it seemed to go on endlessly, like looking into a pair of facing mirrors, with the other end appearing as a mere point.

“Oh my, if it isn’t Gorda. How are you feeling?”

Passing through the dimensional distortion created by the “demonic sword,” which sliced through the door, Gorda was greeted by a woman’s voice coming from behind him after instantly traversing several hundred miles.

“Cut the pretentious greeting, Romaria.”

While sheathing his sword, Gorda glanced back but didn’t turn around.

“Knowing you, you probably anticipated my arrival and were lying in wait, weren’t you?”

“Oh, how awful! An ambush? That would make it seem like I’ve been waiting here all this time for you to come.”

The voice returned from behind Gorda.

“Isn’t that the truth?”

“No, no, I wasn’t waiting at all. Yes, not in the least.”

From behind Gorda, the sound of footsteps clicking on the marble floor of the grand corridor could be heard. The footsteps approached Gorda’s back directly, then circled around to his right side. All the while, Gorda kept facing forward, not moving his neck.

Soon, the owner of the footsteps appeared in his field of vision, having passed by Gorda’s side. “I knew you ‘jumped,’ so I followed suit and just arrived here. I ‘jumped’ after you, from farther away, and arrived before you,” said the young woman whom Gorda called Romaria, laughing softly as if teasing him.

Romaria wore a pure white silk robe. The light, soft fabric accentuated her feminine, slender lines by revealing her body’s contours. Her long, straight black hair reached her shoulders, with strands covering her right eye. Through the gaps in her hair, a glimpse of an eyepatch over her right eye could be seen.

The eyepatch’s distortion stood out even more due to her beautiful appearance.

“It’s troublesome when you compete without permission,” Gorda grumbled as Romaria approached him. Romaria looked at him and said, “Oh, please don’t treat me so coldly.” She covered her mouth with her hand and giggled.

“We rarely meet, so we must make our strengths and weaknesses clear in such occasions. It would be disgraceful for a ‘witch’ to be inferior to her ‘disciple’ in teleportation accuracy.” Hearing this, Gorda snorted.

“You’re no longer a ‘master’ or anything, just a heretic.”

Romaria touched her eyepatch and feigned sadness, “Oh, that’s harsh. If ‘they’ heard that, they’d be heartbroken.”

“Besides, aren’t you also deviating from reason, Gorda? There’s no one more heretical than you, who reincarnated with a human soul in a demon’s body.”

“… It’s a waste of time. I didn’t come all the way here just to have a casual conversation with you.”

“Well, well, Gorda, aren’t you also being rude? It’s not just the two of us here, you know? There’s someone else with us over there.”

Romeria points a few meters away at the base of a giant pillar, where a young demon male was indeed standing.