episode_0079

I urged my steps with a bewildered face, accompanied by two children.

“Oh my! My mistake!”

A large flowerpot fell on the street we had just passed. The pot hit the head of another man passing by accurately.

“Ugh!”

The mosaic-treated man began to cool down coldly.

“Oh my, what is this?”

The middle-aged woman who missed the flowerpot came downstairs in a hurry, examined the body for a moment, then brought a mat from the house and covered the man.

“Huh, huhuh..huhuhuh..”

She went into the house singing an awkward nasal song. All sorts of incidents that could only be seen in the world of comedy were pouring out like disasters.

“Let’s quickly go to where the Nest organization is.”

Thinking so, my steps were slowing down. It felt like someone was grabbing my ankle and pulling me down. The slowing steps suddenly stopped.

“…”

I turned around and looked at the chaotic street.

This is the land of the Demon King. The weak are exploited, and the strong enjoy everything in this cruel land.

Those who commit crimes in this land were all sinners.

“But..”

That should only apply to those who have committed wrongdoings. There was no need for such a cruel fate for the weak like Iris or Gesture, who were enslaved.

Because of these few weak ones, I couldn’t move forward.

In the dark fantasy world, ‘guilt’ is something one must never bring. There is no device that triggers guilt as much as sweet potatoes when it’s not one’s own fault.

Therefore, I had to find a rational reason to prevent this disaster.

“…If I leave like this, the residents of the eastern land occupied by the Deviatan organization will be wiped out, leaving the land empty. If that many residents suddenly disappear, Ervone, the right arm of the Demon King, might come looking.”

Ervoan, the Four Kings. He is the chief of the Demon King’s staff and can be considered the strongest among the Four Kings. Unlike the other Four Kings, he was a man who could harbor doubts even about small incidents.

The territory of the Deviathan organization might have been lost in a few days, but if it was Jisuna or Laina, they would have thought, “It seems like an interesting fight!” and passed it off, but there was a high probability that Ervoan would send his subordinates with suspicion.

In terms of the original work, Ervoan is a mid-boss that can be encountered just before meeting the final boss. And it’s tremendously strong at that.

If Iris, who is still at the chirping level, were to encounter Ervoan, or if Ervoan were to have doubts about Iris, she would likely be killed before becoming an official warrior. Or she might be brainwashed and corrupted.

“So, don’t make the incident too big.”

When a plausible excuse came up, my shoulders felt lighter. I said to Jest and Iris, who were standing still like me.

“I think I need to go somewhere for a moment… Wait over there -”

“Am… I going to be left behind?”

“Hmm…”

Iris looked up at me with teary eyes, and Jest, with his ears drooping, filled his eyes with tears.

“Ugh..”

I was helpless against the two’s teary-eyed attack.

“Is… it okay to go to a dangerous place?”

“Yeah!”

“Okay! It’s fine for Juin to go, everything’s fine!”

In an instant, the two, who had stopped crying, nodded vigorously. I had no choice but to take the two with me.

At the headquarters of Deviathan.

***

Finding the headquarters of Deviathan was not difficult.

“Haha.. No matter what you say, I will never open my mouth…”

Clang!

“Ack! Th-that’s a limited edition Elieju 82!”

Crash!

“Nooo! That, that’s a 172-year-old!”

Jest walked past where the alcohol was nicely displayed like a cat, and dropped expensive liquor on the floor. The tightly bound man, with a pale face, said.

“Mom, I’ll tell you! P-please stop -….”

Crash!

“Aaah! 327 years old…?!”

Comedy world special.

Says it’s not worth his life, but sheds tears and suffers when breaking items related to his own hobbies.

“Sob…please, please stop bothering our kids….I’ll…tell you everything…”

He gestured to Jess while looking at the man foaming at the mouth, as if he had bitten his tongue. Then Jess swiftly returned to my side.

“So, what about the headquarters?”

“The headquarters are near the castle wall, in the ‘Dawn Dew Tavern’ underground…there…ugh…”

Suddenly, the man began to suffer, shedding tears. Eventually, he convulsed in shock and died.

After a small sacrifice, we immediately stormed into the discovered headquarters.

Bang!

“I never liked this guy from the beginning!”

“Argh! This bastard!”

Clang, clang!

The Dawn Dew tavern was in a state of chaos, no different from anywhere else. No, it was even more serious than other places. Half-eaten corpses were scattered around, and humans were being devoured by demons and the like.

“It’s probably worse because it’s the headquarters.”

I looked at the hellish sight of the tavern lobby and headed towards the kitchen.

“This is strange? This should be correct, right?”

A pretty woman was flipping through a recipe book, and behind her, something tentacled…was being made.

“Oh well, it’ll be fine!”

She poured something she had sliced and started stirring with a ladle.

Sizzle!

Along with the sound of the ladle melting, the woman’s humming echoed. I gestured to Iris and Jess to keep quiet and quickly passed through the kitchen.

“Here.”

When I pushed the long cabinet behind the kitchen, stairs leading down appeared. But on the stairs… there were lots of banana peels scattered. There were also sporadic bloodstains.

Creak.

As we descended the stairs, the storage cabinet we had left open closed by itself. Swallowing dry saliva, I spoke to Iris and Jess.

“Sit down here and slide down.”

“Hmm?”

“…?”

After seating Iris on the stairs, I gently pushed her down as if she were on a slide.

Thud!

Banana peels flew through the air, and Iris began to descend smoothly as if riding a slide, followed by Jess with a twinkle in his eye.

“Phew… even the good things are the same as in the comedy world for the little girl.”

Usually, it’s common to tumble down the stairs, hitting the head on the ceiling and wall, but when a little girl slips, the gentlemanly response returns.

The banana peel disappeared, and I followed the cleared path downward.

“Miss Juin! Miss Juin! One more time!”

I saw Iris and Jess, who had slid all the way down, sitting on top of a pile of Deviatan organization members, looking like they had safely completed their landing.

“We don’t have time, so no.”

“Aww…”

After comforting the sulking Jess, I passed through the piled-up members and headed inside. Each long corridor was lined with doors, none of which looked like the boss’s room.

I opened the most extravagant-looking door slightly. Rough noises could be heard through the crack.

Bang, clang!

A man presumed to be the boss was roughly pounding the conference table.

“If it’s not a curse or widespread magic, how can you explain what’s happening right now?!”

“W-well…”

“Don’t just keep saying you don’t know, think of a solution!”

Unlike the bloodbath outside, the room presumed to be the meeting place looked quite intact.

The Deviatan executives were raising their voices seriously, seemingly aware that the current situation was artificial.

“As long as those people don’t threaten me, this commotion will end.”

Everything that happened was because of the threat from Deviatan, so if they don’t threaten me, everything will be resolved!

I straightened up and whispered to Iris and Jess as I approached them.

“I think I should talk to the people inside… They might dislike me and threaten me. So, if it seems dangerous for me to hide here, could you help?”

Since it would surely be refused if I just told them to hide because it seemed dangerous, I gave them a plausible reason. The two nodded with stern faces.

“Yeah, I’ll protect you, bro.”

“Me too!”

“Shh.”

When I covered Jess’s lips to quiet her down after she loudly replied, she widened her eyes and perked up her ears.

The two hid their bodies next to the door in a blind spot. After adjusting my clothes, I summoned the magic sword.

[Heh heh heh…]

“…?”

Summoned with a splendid impact, the magic sword let out an oddly unpleasant laugh.

[You also thought ‘Blood Wave’ was cool, right?]

“…”

To be honest… Because the magic sword kept shouting ‘Blood Wave! Blood Wave!’ I got used to the name of the skill. Is that why my ancestors told me to choose my friends carefully?

As I recalled the appearance of my ancestor when we performed the ritual, I snapped out of it at the sound of a crash. When I opened the door a little more and looked inside, a large, ornate vase on one side of the spacious conference room was shattered. On the floor… a baseball was rolling around.

“Enemy, enemy attack!”

“Darn it! How did they get in here!”

The serious atmosphere turned into chaos, and those in the conference room started rushing towards the entrance.

*Kiiing.*

I quickly opened the door before they could escape.

“It’s, it’s Nest! It’s the Nest bastards!”

“The Nest’s killers have appeared!”

The people who were running at the front started screaming and falling over. As a result, those following behind also began to roll on the ground.

Bang, thud! Thump! Crunch!

Amidst all sorts of cruel sounds, about twenty people in the conference room all tumbled over. The elegant tables and chairs collapsed or broke, and the chandelier hanging from the ceiling creaked and swayed ominously.

As I stared blankly at the billowing clouds of dust, pondering what to say…

“It’s all of you!”

“…?”

“It was all part of your plan!”

A man with a bruised face and disheveled hair pointed at me with his index finger and shouted.