episode_0007

“Don’t make me laugh!”

You said you’d save me and let me join the new warrior party!

“Sister Bell.”

“Gabriel…!!”

Gabriel pressed his face close to my ear and whispered in a voice full of laughter.

“Both of them, Leon and Mr. Smith are just obstacles at this point… So there’s no reason for us to hold them, right? I said the same thing above.”

So, I was a throwaway horse? In the end, I was just like those country bumpkins with bulging bellies, or those skinny, half-illiterate Chinese characters, who played on Gabriel’s hands?

“Oh, I see you noticed.”

“You… You did this and still…!!”

“I hope you’re safe. Better than you. Oh, while you’re at it, should I tell you one more thing?”

“Shut up…”

“Mr. Smith also thought you were annoying because you kept on being a one-night stand. Just like you did with Leon. What a pity… If you had appealed to your childhood friend’s feelings and kept holding on to Leon, things would have been different. You convinced all of the group, right? Anna, Sudo, Nia, and… me too. When you persuaded me, I bet you never thought I would betray Sister Bell.”

“No, no…!!!”

“Bell, this is your karma. You were the one who pulled the trigger for everything. So just accept it. Hehehe… But I cleared up the suspicion that you had a sex party on the street, so shouldn’t you be grateful to me?”

After hearing that, I realized that I was completely abandoned. I realized that I had grabbed the wrong rope from the beginning. The anger I felt towards him was expressed directly at Gabriel, and I grabbed him by the collar without even having time to think…

-Pfft.

…the paladins judged that I was threatening the saint and struck my head down.

Naturally, I passed out, and when I opened my eyes, I had already been branded a slave on my heart and had become a slave who couldn’t even rebel.

“No, no. This can’t be happening!!!”

It was a reality that didn’t change no matter how much I screamed.

*****

And now.

-slap!

“Wake up, slave girl.”

it hurts!

I felt a sharp pain in my arm where the whip had hit me.

“I don’t have any more power to squeeze out, please stop…”

“Shut up, do you think a slave has a say? I didn’t get my quota today.”

“The quota keeps increasing… How can I fill it all up…!”

-slap!

The whip struck me again. If only it hadn’t been for the damned slave brand that had been stamped on me while I was sleeping…!

Eventually, I squeezed out my mana by straining my mana circle to its limit.

It was a task that should have taken just over an hour, but it felt like I had been doing it my entire life. I had to do this every day… without any chance of recovery.

“Haa, haa…”

“Damn, the invasion of the demons has gotten stronger recently, so this isn’t enough… Starting tomorrow, I’ll increase the quota.”

The person in charge muttered something like that and closed the door to the poorly equipped prison and left.

“Ugh, woof, waaa!!”

I couldn’t stand it anymore, and I started to feel nauseous. As a side effect of squeezing out too much magic power, my stomach churned and even the little bit of food I had eaten came back out of my mouth.

“Ugh… Ugh… Why am I like this…”

‘If I had appealed to my childhood friend’s feelings and kept Leon, things would have been different.’

Why did the saint’s words come to mind at that exact moment?

Oh, right. It was all because Leon wasn’t there. So, if only Leon were here… I could go back, to those glorious days…

“If I just seduce Leon again… No, is she a woman now…? No, if I somehow reconnect with her, she might give me a good position on the Demon side… Should I hang on to her? She’s my childhood friend, so I’ll be soft-hearted and accept it! Right? Right…?”

It was a truly unscrupulous thing to say, considering that he had thrown it away. Of course, if he had been smart enough to know that fact, he wouldn’t have thrown it away.

*****

“This is ridiculous!”

Immediately after Belle was taken away, Anna became heated and raised an objection.

“I am a knight of the Imperial Knights. Did you say that you would sentence a knight to slavery?”

“About that, ask someone in the audience, Sister Ena.”

“Audience? Who’s in the audience… Captain? How is the captain here…”

Belle was ready to run to the familiar pomaded-haired, heavily armored man sitting in the stands with a blank expression. That is, if the man hadn’t approached Ena first.

“Ena, thank you for your hard work.”

“…Yes…?”

“You’re fired. All legal procedures have already been completed, and now you’re just an ordinary young lady.”

“Why…! Why! What did I do wrong…!”

“Isn’t it dishonorable to be a commoner, and if you lack skill as well… For the sake of honor, you should completely bury your records. You will also be included in those ‘records to bury’. If you don’t want to tarnish your honor any further, then follow the judgment.”

“Who is that! Isn’t there someone behind this plan! My honor… the years I’ve built up…”

Whisper. Just before Ena grabbed her by the collar, the captain spoke into Ena’s ear.

“You will go to the front lines. Wasn’t that what you wanted so badly? To use the demon tribe. Even though it is a bit harsh, you are the child of a baron, so they took care not to make you a machine that extracts magic power like a commoner.”

-Pfft.

Likewise, Ena’s head was also struck down like a bell, and she began to be dragged out in a pitiful manner. There was no chance for them to object, and since the soundproof curtain was up, the audience present would not have known what was happening.

There was only one thing stuck in their heads, the false information that Leon Nine Saber, a former warrior, had summoned the Demon King out of ugliness and inferiority.

And they would spread the news far and wide, like postmen, just as the saint wished.

The thief and the elf were lucky, because the thief was wanted as soon as he learned of Leon’s death and Smith’s death, and the elf returned to their respective countries to protect the World Tree, so they were able to preserve their honor for a little longer. Of course, the situation there was not good either.

Since Anna was not much different from Belle in terms of skill, it didn’t take long for her to start thinking about clinging to Leah again.

“It’s okay. If Leon doesn’t know that I left my parents to die without sending knights and wizards to the village, then it’s quite possible. He was attracted to me… And, it wasn’t intentional, and the knights that were supposed to be assigned there were used for more honorable places, so he should be grateful to me instead. He said he would do anything for me…”

Maybe the level could have been more severe.

*****

And a few days later, the Empire’s most famous and best-selling newspaper, the Imperial Newspaper No. 1, had this article:

‘Leon, the former hero who lost his power due to lack of qualifications and went berserk by selling his own virgin and summoning the Demon King because he could not acknowledge him, two members of Leon’s party who were sentenced to slavery for failing to protect the ‘hero candidate’, and the church that protected the safety of the empire and its citizens with quick action’

There was a story written that could be dismissed as such.

The reason why this was possible is that Leon, or rather Leah, was inherently good, so he ignored the requests of those in power and went to save the people first, which made him ostracized by almost all those in power.

Secondly, since it was true that Leah was taken by the Demon King, it was easier for the person who wrote the article to manipulate it based on that.

The article written in that way spread like wildfire and affected the people of the empire, and it was embedded in the brains of the common people who had no idea how to filter and accept information. In an instant, Leon became a so-called ‘whore’ to them, and the status of the church rose to the top.

Of course, all of this was planned by the saintess. But there was one thing she didn’t expect…

The reporter who wrote the article and was supposed to have received bribes has disappeared without a trace.

“Hmm… I don’t think it’s true that he ran away thinking he might get eliminated… That’s really strange. ”

Well, even if that one person disappeared, Gabriel’s ambition would not stop.

“Then, shall we start declaring war on the empire? Since we already have a proper justification, Your Majesty?”

“Yes, everything is according to the will of the Goddess of Libra.”

Only Gabriel knows the content of that ambition.

*****

“Do you think that if you type something on a vending machine and print it out with ink, it becomes an article?”

The Demon King poured the coffee he was drinking onto the latest edition of a major newspaper in the human world.

“If this is an article, then even the barking of dogs on the side of the road must be a minstrel’s song. The only thing to take from this article that’s like dog vomit is the fact that it linked me and Leah. And I’m a virgin, and Leah is a virgin, so if you go to the unicorn field right now, the horses will love it and yank you. Sell your body? Sell your virgin-???”

And even though the Demon King said, “Will you be the Four Heavenly King?” and threw the title of the Four Heavenly King to the warrior, the atmosphere in the Demon King’s Castle is said to be light.

In the first place, the fact that he changed the positions of the Four Heavenly Kings to his liking without a word and as quiet as a mouse was possible because of Abel’s overwhelming… and awesome military force, so the reason Abel was filled with anger like this was because Leah, who was outside the sphere of influence of Abel’s anger, and Galvein and the Succubus Queen, who were right next to him and had not been included in the vampire lord who had not even arrived yet, exchanged glances and thought, “Is this fucked up?” They could not help but tremble in fear.

“Galvein. Burn this piece of paper.”

“To Leah…”

“If you show me, the contents of your head will also be revealed to King Yeomra that day, right? Because I will break your head and send you straight to King Yeomra. Oh, is King Yeomra in the East?”

“…I’ll make sure the kids keep their mouths shut.”

There must be some of the users who have already seen the article. Galvein couldn’t stand to see them die since they still had a long life ahead of them… Rather, he didn’t want to die himself since he hadn’t found the truth yet.

That day, in front of the Demon King’s Castle, the 253rd issue of the Imperial Daily newspaper (and the reporter who wrote the article) that had been collected from the workers in the castle were burned and the ashes that remained were all there.

“Demon King, what is that? Fireworks?”

“…The trash must be removed.”

-AAAHHH!!!!!

“Ba, I just heard a scream…”

“Ignore him, Leah. He’s too much of a bother.”

When Leah, who had seen the fireworks late, went to the Demon King to ask him when the Succubus Queen did not answer, the Demon King smiled crookedly and said, “Trash must be eliminated.”, which sounded like a line from Black WarGreymon somewhere, a little later.