Ch.176Short Break (6)

*

The Demon Lord’s Castle.

That mysterious and evil monstrosity was piercing through us from beyond the hazy veil that concealed its form.

Even though it was obscured, the fact that we hadn’t noticed the Demon Lord’s dwelling despite being right in front of it gave me a slight chill and sense of emptiness. But soon after, a subtle feeling of accomplishment washed over me—the realization that we had actually made it this far.

We did it.

From the carriage accident, no, from much earlier—from the moment Silvia failed to defeat the Demon Lord—this journey, this fate, and this tragedy’s final chapter.

That sense of accomplishment that we had walked all this way.

“Ugh,”

However, at that moment, some overwhelming sensation violently shook my insides, erasing that trivial satisfaction completely.

I unconsciously raised both arms to wrap around my shoulders.

Cold? No, heat?

My body was trembling uncontrollably.

Confused by this sudden physical reaction, I quickly realized what this sensation was.

It was fear.

We had reached the Demon Lord.

Which meant we had entered the Demon Lord’s grasp.

The Demon Lord’s castle, that monstrosity, and the Demon Lord breathing inside it.

It felt as if it was looking straight down at me right now.

A primal and absolute physiological revulsion.

An unpleasantness and chill like sinking into a pit crawling with insects tickled beneath my skin.

Just facing the fact that I was standing near the Demon Lord, my fragile courage was completely torn away.

At that moment, someone firmly grasped my hand.

“Ash.”

“…Pia,”

“It’s okay.”

That small hand, reminiscent of Laila’s, firmly held mine, which was several times larger.

The warm energy transferring from her hand to mine.

That warmth slowly washed away the unsettling sensations crawling through my body.

Pia spoke slowly.

“Breathe.”

“Haah…”

“Well done.”

Pia squeezed my hand even more tightly.

Gradually, night was falling.

*

I told Silvia and Sister Alice everything I had learned.

Including the fact that the Demon Lord’s castle was nearby, and that its true identity was likely a spirit sorcerer.

The two of them stared intently in the direction I pointed and quickly found the hidden castle.

The veil concealing the Demon Lord’s castle seemed to hinder perception rather than completely hiding its appearance.

Once we became aware of it, that monstrosity was revealing itself more and more clearly.

Silvia frowned as she looked up at the night sky.

“Damn it, of all times…”

“…”

Silvia closed her eyes tightly and spoke in a low voice.

“As you probably know, we can’t charge in right now.”

“What’s the problem?”

When Sister Alice questioned, Silvia furrowed her brow and continued.

“It’s night. Unlike demons, we humans have poor night vision. Facing the Demon Lord in the middle of the night would be practically suicide.”

“I can track the flow of demonic energy.”

“That’s just you.”

“You should be able to do that much too. Even if you can’t sense the flow of demonic energy, your abilities won’t be hindered just because your vision is blocked.”

“Ha, don’t you understand what I’m saying?”

Both of their gazes turned to me simultaneously.

Once again, I was the problem.

Sister Alice closed her eyes for a moment, then nodded and said.

“Then I’ll go alone.”

“What?”

“If I hadn’t met you two, or if Ash hadn’t convinced you, I would have gone in alone anyway. Nothing changes.”

“How would that work? Think about it.”

“Why wouldn’t it? Isn’t it actually a good idea? Think about it—how do we know what threats lie inside the Demon Lord’s castle?”

“…”

“There could be traps, there could be ambushes. Even if I can’t behead the Demon Lord, if I can eliminate most of those threats in advance, then you and Ash can finish the job tomorrow morning. It seems like a better strategy than all of us going in at once and being wiped out. Wasn’t that the reason you went ahead first and we followed behind all this time?”

“Yes, there’s nothing wrong with the strategy itself,”

“Then what’s the problem?”

Silvia waved her fingers in the air frustratedly as she spoke.

“Demonic energy, you idiot.”

“…”

“If you rush off to the castle first, what about Ash? He’s fine now because you’re with him, but with this concentration, Ash would die from demonic energy poisoning in 30 minutes.”

That was certainly true.

Until now, I hadn’t been conscious of it because I was recovering thanks to Sister Alice’s holy power, but this was not a place where ordinary humans could enter and survive.

Given that the massive amount of demonic energy contaminating this entire forest was pouring out from the Demon Lord’s castle, the demonic energy here was definitely very dense.

Although I didn’t feel poison building up in my body like before, I could still feel the acrid air stinging my throat with each breath.

If Sister Alice were to move away from me now, I would surely start dying immediately.

Of course, she could share some of her holy power with me, but in the current situation where anything could happen, such a measure alone would certainly be insufficient.

Silvia shouted at Alice.

“That’s why I left ahead of you two! Do you think I left you alone with Ash so you could get friendly? For your benefit? I wanted to walk with Ash too!”

“Hah… alright, I understand.”

Sister Alice sighed once and ruffled her bangs as she spoke.

“But we can’t just wait for morning to come. Setting aside the issue that my heart could stop at any moment,”

Her golden gaze fixed directly on the Demon Lord’s castle.

“I don’t think the Demon Lord has merely hidden his appearance,”

“You think he’s up to something?”

“…We’ve come right up to his doorstep without encountering any significant interference. Just a few demonic beasts. No matter how weakened the Demon Lord might be, he couldn’t possibly be this defenseless.”

“I think you might be getting too nervous, but…”

Silvia nodded.

“The Demon Lord I saw was certainly cunning.”

“Would you stop calling it the Demon Lord?”

At the sudden voice from behind us, we turned around.

It was the peddler boy.

He trudged toward us with weary steps and said.

“Calling that half-breed the Demon Lord is an insult to both the Demon Lord and demonkind.”

“…How much did you hear?”

“Enough of what I needed to.”

The boy slowly approached us.

According to him, the current Demon Lord was a usurper who had killed the original Demon Lord and seized his position.

It’s possible that demons hate the current Demon Lord as much as, or perhaps even more than, humans do.

After all, the current Demon Lord has destroyed not only the human world but the demonic order as well.

As if to prove that this assumption was correct, the boy’s eyes were twisted with anger.

“Take me with you.”

“…What?”

“I know the entire structure of the castle. Unlike you humans, I have good night vision, and being a demon, I can use some magic.”

Sister Alice shook her head.

“A little magic isn’t enough. And I lack the trust to put my back to you.”

“I agree with Alice. We can’t just trust a demon we met today.”

“I don’t trust you either, but I have no reason to betray you,”

“Who knows? How can we tell if you’re not that lizard bastard’s underling?”

“What did you say?”

The boy’s face contorted severely.

It was a threatening face that looked like he might draw his sword at any moment.

However, to Sister Alice and Silvia, such a threat was nothing more than laughably weak posturing.

“Straighten your face if you don’t want to die, demon.”

“…Ha, damn it. What have I become?”

The boy let out a lament.

He looked so pitiful that I almost wanted to comfort him, but I didn’t.

Not only would I be unable to protect that boy from those two, but clumsily trying to console a whimpering child would only make them cry louder.

Besides, he probably wouldn’t welcome my comfort anyway.

Although the boy had introduced himself as a peddler, there was something stiff and arrogant about his demeanor.

“You said you know the castle’s structure.”

“Yes, originally it was my…”

“?”

“Hah… no, never mind.”

The boy stopped mid-sentence with a sigh.

Silvia thought for a moment with her chin in her hand, then slowly spoke.

“Demon.”

“…What.”

“If you know the entire structure of the castle, do you also know if there are any entrances besides the main gate?”

“…I know a few.”

“Silvia!”

Sister Alice shouted at Silvia.

“You want to go with this demon? Are you crazy?”

“Just a moment ago, you were the one arguing to charge in. Why are you angry?”

“The situation is different now. You want to bring him along?”

“I don’t plan to trust him enough to fight alongside us. I just want him to guide us into the castle.”

Silvia pointed at Sister Alice and said.

“Alice, you’re right. The Demon Lord must have made preparations. He might have set traps and ambushes from the front gate to the back door, maybe even things we can’t imagine, all throughout the castle.”

“…”

“But if we infiltrate through a place they haven’t anticipated, it’s a different story. We can bypass most traps, and if there are ambushes, we can surprise them and cut through their middle.”

“Yes, that’s certainly true. If we can trust this demon.”

“Ah shit, honestly I’m a bit uncertain too. Whether this guy is really an enemy of the Demon Lord or just a pawn.”

The boy sneered unpleasantly.

“I told you not to call that lizard bastard the Demon Lord.”

“What,”

Silvia gave the boy a threatening look.

The boy retreated, stepping back hesitantly.

Sister Alice slowly blinked and said.

“Let’s sort out the current situation.”

“Right, first of all…”

Silvia hugged my head tightly.

“Thanks to our Ash, we’ve discovered the Demon Lord’s castle, but the sun is setting.”

“We have two options. Either wait for morning, or charge in right now.”

Common sense dictated that waiting for morning was the right choice.

Daytime is human time, and night is demon time.

It would be foolish for us to pick a fight during a time that disadvantages us.

Moreover, unlike Silvia who was relatively fine, both Sister Alice and I needed to rest from the fatigue accumulated during our journey.

Nevertheless, Sister Alice insisted that charging in immediately was the right thing to do.

Her heart could stop at any moment.

If that happened, not only would Sister Alice die, but I would too.

That’s why she argued we needed to move as quickly as possible.

Besides, she added that since we were essentially already in the Demon Lord’s jaws, taking our time would be tantamount to suicide.

Sister Alice looked somewhat anxious as she made her case.

Perhaps she too was feeling the fear I had felt the moment I recognized the Demon Lord’s castle.

“But the variable is…”

Sister Alice glanced at the peddler boy.

“That demon’s existence.”

“…Yes, this guy definitely complicates things.”

“Should we just kill him now? Then there’d be no complications.”

The peddler boy swallowed hard and said in a trembling voice.

“Humans are truly barbaric.”

“How do you know the castle’s structure so well anyway?”

“…Because I’ve seen it before.”

“You’re saying you know the castle’s structure and infiltration routes just from seeing it?”

“…I saw it for a long time. My father… was a close retainer to His Majesty.”

“Where is your father now?”

“Dead. That lizard bastard killed him.”

“…”

The boy’s face reddened as he spoke.

His tightly clenched fists were trembling.

Do demons also have family bonds?

I felt like I understood where the boy’s hostility toward the current Demon Lord originated.

“…Alright, let’s do this.”

After a long discussion, Silvia and Sister Alice finally reached a conclusion.

.