Ch.10The Reason He Is Needed (8)

Why He’s Needed (8)

“Lug, I’m sorry. I said I’d protect you… I really am a useless person after all.”

Esmeralda shuddered at the gloomy voice.

Millia, moving through the flames, looked as if she didn’t care what happened to her surroundings.

With each step she took, an amorphous black liquid remained behind, writhing and sticking to everything around it.

Seemingly viscous, this formless substance adhered to building walls and floors, continuously emitting heat that instantly engulfed the surroundings in flames.

She was single-handedly destroying the fortress city with fire.

‘Wow! No need to worry about siege warfare anymore! Now I just need to worry about myself! Damn it!!’

Her mental state appeared incredibly unstable, and if no one stopped her, she seemed ready to bring down the entire fortress city of Senova.

“Esmeralda! Sorry? I must have said something wrong to Millia!”

“Tina?!”

The amorphous substance writhing around Millia. The unquenchable flames sticking to the building’s exterior walls.

And Tina, nimbly dodging those flames.

Esmeralda immediately grasped the situation. Apparently, Tina, being the second fastest after her, had checked Lug’s quarters first.

It would have been fine if it had ended there, but Tina had shared that information with another party member. And with the worst possible person at that.

The result was Millia’s rampage.

“I’m abandoning this position!”

During that brief moment of confusion, Esmeralda ended up losing track of the black-clothed figures.

More precisely, she had no choice but to let them go. She was the only one who could stop Millia now.

“Tsk!”

Should she subdue the rampaging Millia, or search for Lug who had been kidnapped by the black-clothed figures?

It was a difficult choice either way. To others, stopping Millia and abandoning Lug might seem like the correct decision.

But for her, the answer was obvious.

In fact, the two issues were inseparable.

To stop Millia’s rampage, they would need Lug’s presence anyway.

‘What on earth did he do to make her so obsessed?’

Esmeralda shuddered.

With his handsome face, she’d expected him to be a womanizer, but she never imagined it would go this far.

She shouldn’t have scoffed when Lug tried to ingratiate himself with the party members using all sorts of sweet talk.

One party had been destroyed by Lug’s silver tongue alone.

“Tina, go and retrieve Lug. Suspicious people dressed in black took him away in broad daylight… And he couldn’t have gone far because of his injuries.”

Esmeralda had been persistently attacking Lug, while the black-clothed figures suddenly tried to protect him.

She could consider herself lucky.

If they had tried to escape regardless of their hostage, even Esmeralda would have had difficulty stopping the black-clothed figures’ escape.

“Lug?! Wouldn’t it be better to give up? That luggage isn’t worth human lives…”

“Not that luggage.”

“This is serious! Got it!”

Esmeralda gripped her holy sword and thought.

“Sigh… I never liked his name from the start.”

Making people confused and all.

***

I escaped from the hero.

It should have been a joyous occasion, but the atmosphere suggested otherwise.

“Captain, are you really going to do this? You saw the hero earlier. We shouldn’t be concerned about her. Even without doing this, she would surely…”

“You fool. That’s precisely why we must do this.”

I heard a thud followed by the sound of someone collapsing.

Hey, why are you allies fighting each other? Get along, get along.

Of course, there’s military discipline to consider, but he just offered a candid opinion, right?

What’s the problem here?

“We’ll kill this one.”

…So I’m the problem?

My mind snapped to attention at those words.

Are these bastards plotting whether to dispose of me or not?

I thought something was off from the beginning. This isn’t an excuse; it’s the truth.

“Even if the hero is mentally mature, being unable to abandon a burden like this will become her weakness. You all know how toxic an incompetent ally can be on the battlefield, right?”

“…”

Shing!

The sound of swords being drawn echoed from all around. Seems they’re not demons after all.

It appears some unidentified human faction, jealous of me, is trying to cut my throat.

I knew this would happen. This is why I wanted to leave the hero’s party.

Somehow, being in the hero’s party means having three enemies.

The blind swords of demons.

The indiscriminate swords of dragons.

And the cunning, snake-like swords of humans.

It’s a veritable sword festival.

The hero who controls dozens of swords would have enjoyed this. Damn it.

“Untie the sack.”

“Yes!”

While I was contemplating what to do, the sack was untied, letting bright light seep in. These crazy bastards. Come to think of it, they did this in broad daylight.

“…At least you should know who’s killing you before you go.”

What’s with this guy?

I shouldn’t say this, but he’s truly an incomprehensible idiot.

If it were me, I would have stabbed through the sack without opening it, but he seems to have some misplaced heroic sentiment, trying to bestow a final mercy.

These bastards kidnapped someone with the intent to kill, yet they’re acting like this.

Do they think they have some greater cause?

I couldn’t help but sigh.

“Humans are truly frustrating.”

“What are you trying to say?”

I wasn’t referring to being trapped in a sack. What I found frustrating was human nature.

“You’re a species that can’t be honest with yourselves, always making excuses, yet unable to let go of regrets quickly.”

“Heh… That’s true.”

The leader of the black-clothed figures, whom I had mistaken for an execution team, chuckled at my words as if in agreement.

He probably finds his own double standards absurd. And he knows it but can’t change it.

I understand.

That’s just how humans are.

This is why they can’t unite and internal divisions occur.

“I’ll give you a chance. If you can defeat us, then perhaps you have some qualification.”

Why are they so indecisive?

Why can’t they commit fully?

Why do they become fools who can’t lean completely to one side?

“If you were going to kill me, you should have done it from the start. If not, you shouldn’t have done this in the first place.”

What are you trying to achieve?

Are times so prosperous that you can reverse your decisions like this?

Only the strong can afford such luxurious choices.

Be it power or strength.

These mediocre individuals with their half-hearted choices have released me into the sunlight.

“So what I’m saying is, you still don’t have the qualification.”

Black Magic – Six Realms Manifestation

[Hell Realm – Misery]

Hesitation always jumps out of the box.

People don’t understand what calamity lies inside until they experience it.

***

When I used black magic, did they realize I was a demon?

I pondered this as I looked at the corpses of the black-clothed figures, their heads severed before they could speak.

I’m not just a demon soldier; I’m an officer.

Which means these mediocre individuals couldn’t stop me without the hero.

These foolish ones missed their golden opportunity by not recognizing their opponent.

That’s why I didn’t want to exchange words with them. Those who are neither here nor there are always the first to die.

These guys were no exception.

I didn’t listen to their screams or excuses.

Perhaps that’s why?

“Oh shit?”

After posturing over the human corpses for quite some time, I belatedly noticed something shining in the leader’s possession.

“Why is this turned on?”

It was a magical device for situation reporting, connected to somewhere.

As a clever demon, I could deduce who was behind all this.

Since this is human territory, it must be humans who did this. And from what the humans were saying and doing before they died, I could tell they belonged to the military.

Yes, the military. Fellheim Senova.

That one-eyed old hag, I never liked her, and I knew this would happen. Sigh…

“…Anyway, the objective has been achieved. Let’s get out of here.”

I escaped from the hero’s grasp, so it’s a win. The scheme of the great demon Lug, using foolish humans.

Thinking of it that way made me feel better.

“Haha, freedom!”

So I ran through the forest.

Exactly 30 minutes later, I was dragged away with Tina gripping the back of my neck.

***

“Lug, thank goodness. You’re safe.”

“Ah, thank you for your concern, Lady Millia. I survived thanks to Lady Tina’s timely arrival.”

“It was nothing. I just brought you back when I found you frantically running away. But you were lucky, weren’t you? How did you manage to escape that far?”

“Haha, indeed.”

“…”

Esmeralda remained silent, unsure of what to do with Lug.

She wanted to kill him right then and there. But she had just witnessed how the hero’s party would fall apart without him.

Lug had to be kept alive.

‘But this bastard…’

[Note: He’s anxiously wondering if Fellheim Senova discovered that he’s a demon.]

‘How far do I have to clean up after this idiot? What on earth did he do…’

Does this guy have any sense at all?

Esmeralda felt her blood pressure rising at the sight of Lug, who seemed to lack any caution whatsoever. Meanwhile, Lug just kept grinning, oblivious.

Of course, Lug was probably just as anxious inside…

‘But this bastard…’

‘But this bitch…’

Esmeralda pretending to be foolish and Lug pretending to be an innocent porter.

The two looked at each other and thought:

‘How can you laugh in this situation?’

‘How can you smile when your comrade almost died?’

Birds of a feather.