Ch.20Hero Esmeralda (9)

The Hero Esmeralda (9)

Lilith, a staff officer of the Demon Lord’s Army and advisor to the Demon Lord, was enjoying a cup of coffee while handling her work.

By now, the results of Lug’s escape plan should have arrived. With confidence that this time would be different, Lilith answered the incoming communication with an elegant demeanor.

After a brief exchange of greetings.

It was when they got to the main point.

“It failed?”

“…Excuse me?”

Had they really exchanged pleasantries in such a calm tone?

Lilith was bewildered by her subordinate who seemed not just insensitive but completely devoid of any nerves.

“What exactly went wrong?”

Lilith had put considerable effort into this operation.

First, once they decided to use the background Lug had created, she recruited an excellent actor.

And not a demon, but a human.

So the probability of being discovered as a demon didn’t even exist in the first place.

Even if poor acting raised suspicions, since the actor was human, the hero wouldn’t have been able to blindly doubt them.

“Well, about that…”

***

Suddenly, an unpleasant woman started touching me, claiming I was her son.

Who is this person?

“Um, who are you?”

Who’s calling me her son? I’m an orphan. I came into this world without even knowing what my parents looked like.

“I think you’ve lost your son, but you’ve got the wrong person.”

It’s pitiful, but here, a clean rejection is the best thing for her.

A parent who lost their child, wandering aimlessly until reaching these deep mountains.

Should I escape by accompanying her in her pain? That would make it simple to escape from the hero’s party, but it would leave an indelible wound on someone’s heart.

Such matters become more painful the later one discovers the truth. I don’t want to cause such pain to this pitiful human when I have no grudge against her.

Moreover, haven’t I already experienced something like this once before?

How precarious was my situation when I followed those damn people thinking they were from the operation team?

“But, you are my son…”

“No, I’m not.”

“You’re supposed to say yes… We agreed on this…”

“Ma’am, it’s unfortunate, but please look carefully. I am not your son.”

“Ahaha, is that so? Ma’am, I think you’ve mistaken someone. And be careful. There’s a rumor that many people around here have been bribed by demons to plot heinous schemes.”

“…”

“For instance, accepting large sums of money to act.”

“I-I must have been mistaken. You look exactly like my son… No, now that I look around, this isn’t even my village? Oh my, I came to the wrong place.”

The unidentified woman fled in a hurry. Come to think of it, after what the hero said, I wondered if that woman might have been deployed as part of an operation to help me escape. But probably not.

No, they wouldn’t just bring someone in to act without any prior agreement.

I don’t want to gamble on such an uncertain possibility, nor do I want to involve a pitiful human.

***

Only after hearing her subordinate’s report did Lilith realize.

“Damn, he did this on purpose.”

However, she wasn’t the type to recall that there had been no prior agreement. The biggest problem with her carelessness was assuming others would think like her.

Unfortunately, Lug’s intelligence was far lower than Lilith thought.

‘I should have apologized for General Eleven’s actions first… He deliberately didn’t escape when the opportunity came as a protest.’

Lilith already believed that Lug was fully capable of escaping on his own.

After all, wasn’t he a man evaluated as a potential next Demon Lord by General Eleven?

Subconsciously, Lilith even thought that the need for an escape plan was all just to test her.

In a situation where she failed to realize that, overshadowed by Lug’s prestige, he had absolutely no reason to test her.

She was simply looking at a fragment of the situation and feeling indignant.

“Hic.”

Lilith’s reversed position, having always been the one commanding others.

She privately made a tearful face, lamenting her situation.

Of course, it was Lug who should have been lamenting the misaligned circumstances.

“Apologize, I need to apologize, I must correct my mistake even now.”

Already deeply wounded by repeated failures, Lilith, though no one was watching, knelt down and carefully made a call.

“This is General Lilith…”

Lilith continued the communication, groveling until the threads of her black stockings wore out on the cold stone floor.

***

The communication today had an unusually dejected voice.

I’m not sure what it’s about, but it seems she wants to apologize for last night.

Honestly, I don’t remember exactly what happened since I was unconscious, but it seems the operation team was the culprit behind my fainting.

General Lilith was a superior who knew how to bow her head for her subordinates’ mistakes.

Anyway, it seems the operation failed.

Honestly, judging by the hero’s appearance when I woke up in the morning, even if it failed, it was by a paper-thin margin.

General Lilith is indeed different.

Isn’t she on a completely different level from the operation teams that have been trying to help me escape so far?

Moreover, she even said they returned alive, so I’m looking forward to what’s next.

How far will General Lilith’s capabilities go? I’m really looking forward to it.

So I said I was looking forward to it.

“Since you say so much, I’ll look forward to next time. Haha.”

“…Nyehe.”

The response sounded like someone who had cried until their tongue got twisted, but it should be fine.

My ears must be mistaken.

“Lug! Are you ready?”

“…Yes.”

It was me who insisted on returning to the village. Clearly it was part of the operation, but since the operation failed, I had to pay the price.

“Haha, we’re going to set up tombstones now, won’t that be fulfilling?”

“…Of course.”

For the memorial service, I first had to set up non-existent tombstones for the dead villagers.

I had a bad feeling when the hero brought a large, impressive boulder from nearby, but I never imagined she would give me a hammer and chisel to carve names.

Why didn’t I prepare this before?

It’s just lamentable.

“Ah, looking at the village size and number of houses, at least 7 families must have lived here. About 14 people in total, right?”

Esmeralda asked with a bright smile.

As if she wanted to vent her dissatisfaction with this journey on me.

Of course, considering her personality, she probably said it without thinking.

“…There were 7 people.”

“Are you sure? Really? Only that many? Doesn’t that seem too suspicious, or is it just my feeling?”

“I said there were 7 houses.”

“Right? Then from now on, let’s carve the names of 17 villagers?”

“Huh? It increased…”

“Shall we carve them?”

Esmeralda handed me the chisel and hammer with a sweet smile.

There was a strangely irresistible pressure, so I carved the names of non-existent villagers on the tombstone.

Even thinking of names was a hardship. I couldn’t use demon-style names as that would raise the hero’s suspicions, so I had to painfully come up with plausible human names.

Damn, I’ve never put this much thought into my own name.

“Hmm.”

Esmeralda, who had assigned me this task, sat on a large rock, swinging her legs back and forth, watching.

I might have thought she looked foolish before, but since the bandaging incident, I find such behavior rather cute.

And with her short skirt, if I just tried a little, I could see inside…

“…Lug, shall we focus?”

“Ah, yes.”

I got scolded. Was I staring too obviously?

But I did see. Black, surprisingly sensual.

“Ugh…”

“Hmm?”

Hearing a strange sound, I turned my head again to see the hero modestly adjusting her skirt.

The look in her eyes as she glared at me was ominous. I must have been caught. I quietly turned my head back and continued carving the villagers’ names on the tombstone…

But I felt her glaring gaze on me until the work was finished.

***

The Divine Order.

Eirene Saintess was receiving a report about Esmeralda, who had set out on a journey with Lug.

“Oh my, the hero?”

News of an encounter with someone presumed to be a general.

Eirene furrowed her brow and asked in a cold voice.

“The body? Was it recovered?”

“No, she’s still alive…”

“Oh my, that’s fortunate. Then she must be injured and on her way to the Order now?”

“That’s correct.”

“Yes, thank you for the report. You may leave now. Your complexion doesn’t look good.”

“…Thank you.”

Eirene gave a benevolent smile to the pallid-faced believer.

However, seeing that expression, the believer trembled in fear and fled the room.

“Judging by the inability to manage expressions, they’ll quit soon.”

Eirene turned around.

In the direction she was looking, there was a reddish lump of meat.

“Making such a fuss over just handling vermin.”

She was in a torture chamber.

She had been repeatedly torturing demons.

How much holy power they could withstand. What they knew.

She was inflicting pain to extract each and every bit of information.

It’s something that must be done.

Now that the Order has lost its legitimacy, anything must be done to save it.

The Order lost its god, its symbol, and cannot be free from that responsibility.

That’s why everyone left the Order. To escape responsibility, one must completely abandon faith.

So Eirene chose to become cruel and thus took control of the Order.

“Haah…”

And now, all of it is disgustingly wearisome.

“I miss Lug today. I wonder if he’ll come with the hero.”

She recalled Lug, the only half-demon she had ever met.

Yes, she needs him.

Only his existence can provide comfort to Eirene.