５６． Misunderstanding And Blunder

「――What are you doing here?」

Emergias was frowning annoyingly upon hearing my question.

「I should be the one who says that. I’m the one who is supposed to come here. have you lost your way and ended up straying into this kind of place?」

Despite his sarcasm, I shuddered the moment I realized that he was telling the truth.

Two other demon race warriors jumped down from their dragon after Emergias. Though their hair color wasn’t as bright as Emergias, the pair of man and woman demon race had the same light green hair color. They’re armed with fine quality enchanted chainmail and rustic spear. They might be his relatives from the same clan.

「Young master, who are these people?」

「That cheeky brat in the middle is the 7th Demon King’s Child, Jilbagias-kun, he’s five years old this year.」

「That’s…」

「Five… Years old?」 Muttered the male demon race warrior in bewilderment, the female demon race warrior with a big sister-like attitude had shown the same reaction. The same reaction came from those around me, the patriarch of the village who slipped in once he woke up even dug his cat ears as if to say 「Is my ears… Tricking me?」

Maybe I should think of a way to cover up my age soon.

「…」

The awkward silence continued on for a while after that. Emergias opened his mouth as if wanting to say something but, he stopped halfway since he might not want to break the ice, and pursed his mouth instead.

――Should I kill him right here?

That idea suddenly came into my mind. There Are three of them on their side while my side had more people and Verossa on top of that. Mental fatigue aside, everyone on my side was in top notch condition. I could kill the patriarch to prevent anyone from leaking this information.

… Oh forget it, there was another eyewitness, namely the dragons. Though they wouldn’t participate in the fight between the demon race, unlike Faravugi, they could escape from this place.

And even if Emergias had only brought two people with him, instantly killing them was impossible. Not to mention that I had to kill the three dragons right after that――

The current situation was too unfavorable for me to kill him.

――Damn, not to mention that this guy is powerful too.

The 4th Demon King’s Child. His magical power was swirling calmly around him like a huge serpent. Despite being much weaker than the older three, his strength was befitting someone with the demon race’s prince status.

Even if I used all the magical power I kept from comitting taboo, it wasn’t enough to rival him. The gap between us was closer than before alas, he was still stronger than me.

His stronger magical power means that all my intervention by means of magic would be repelled. Though I might be able to do something by using “Alexander” with 【Naming】, using that name means that I had to kill everyone in this place.

I couldn’t afford to do that.

Rather, being the same demon king’s child as me, meaning that Emergias could use 【Naming】 too. I would be in a desperate situation if his power suddenly grew to whole nother level…

Moreover, I still had no idea about Emergias and co’s ace in the hole. Though they also had no idea about Ante’s 【Taboo】, many devil’s magic was quite inconvenient.

『The current you has no weapon on top of that. Attacking him is a stupid idea.』

Said Ante with laugh on her face, albeit she didn’t try to stop me. I clicked my tongue hearing that.

「Oi.」

Maybe because he couldn’t bear the awkward silence anymore, Emergias finally spoke with a rude voice.

「I’ve a mission to clean up that fortress.」

「Clean up mission?」

I unintentionally repeated his remark.

「Yes. It seems the beastfolk village at the feet of the hill sent a reinforcement request.」

Emergias took out a document from his bosom pocket.

「The goblin is multiplying inside the abandoned fortress. Ten beastfolk warriors from that village that headed out to the fortress to subjugate have yet to return. There’s a possibility that a demon beast above intermediate rank is lurking inside the fortress. That’s why I’ll take over from here――」

I send a sidelong glance at the fortress behind us.

「――And then, I saw several strange pillars of light on the way here. Since you’re in this place, you have a duty to report the situation to me, the one responsible for this mission, lesser knight Jilbagias.」

Both of Emergias’ subordinates sneered at me the moment Emergias said those words. I mean, he was right about me being the lesser knight, the lowest rank in the demon kingdom.

I sent a sidelong glance at them. I remember your face.

But still, why did both his sweeping mission and my march training get overlapped in the same place like this?

「――I’m also in the same situation, I come to this fortress for march training.」

Well it couldn’t be helped, I guess I had to explain the situation on my side too.

「There’s a report about the goblins making a nest in the abandoned fortress near Kakao village… But, the matter about the possibility of a demon beast hiding in this place isn’t written in our document, Emergias… Uhm…」

I paused, wondering whether I should tell him or not.

「Your peerage is…」

「Count!」

Emergias snarled at me. By the way, since the rank was as follows, the Demon King→ Archduke→ Duke→Marquis→Count, he had yet to get the qualification to inherit the throne. He might be trying to get some sort of achievement under the guise of a sweeping mission.

By the way, both Aiogias and Rubyfia were archdukes, while Diagias was a duke. Since the patriarch of the Orgi clan was a count, the count peerage was by no means a low rank.

「Wow, that’s awesome big brother, let’s get along with each other.」

Take that, you ba*stard. Emergias clicked his tongue angrily but then, he muttered 「… Damn it, so that’s what happen.」 while looking at the sky.

「Those hobgoblin bastards!… They blundered and made a mistake in the place of our mission.」

「So?」

「I received the mission three days ago. But when I arrived, I only found a ruined fortress, a female human slave, and ten goblins in there.」

Suddenly, I felt a chill running down into my spine.

「Well since there’s no shadow of demon beast, nor there any missing villager, we leave immediately.」

Emergias tapped at the document with an annoyed face.

「So when I reported back to the castle, I found out that I’m not supposed to come to the previous place! Those damn officials mistook the name of the village since they sound the same!」

「In short, the place I’m supposed to go to is…」

The place where the goblins kidnapped the human slave and barricaded themselves inside the fortress――

「Yes. And I AM supposed to come to this place.」

Said Emergias as he heaved a deep sigh.

「… By the way, what did you do to that female human slave?」

「Hah? Killed her of course. She doesn’t seem to be usable either.」

「… I see.」

Honestly I really had no idea how to express my current feeling.

Though it was something akin to regret, was it actually closer to ardor?

「And what about you, have you entered the fortress? And do you know the origin of that pillar of light?」

「… The patriarch of the white dragon, Faravugi who went missing after the demon king castle assault was hiding in the fortress along with goblins. So I went and killed him. That’s all.」

「Patriarch… Of the white dragon?」

The eyes of Emergias’ subordinates opened wide upon hearing my report. Moreover, they who stayed silently behind Emergias looking at each others while muttering 「Oi, did you hear that?」 and 「Seriously」 in turn.

「You said… You kill him?」

「Yes. You came a bit too late.」

Emergias’ lips twitched upon hearing my remark, but he ignored us and stormed into the fortress immediately. Both his subordinates following quickly after him.

「… What a nerve wrecking situation.」

Verossa heaved a sigh while returning his sword into its sheath.

「Your Highness, we ended up in this kind of perilous situation just from a slip in the writing of the official document.」

「Agreed… Let’s return to the fortress for now and see what my big brother will do.」

Faravugi’s corpse was a lump of white dragon’s materials. Since it was too huge, no one would steal it even if I left it alone in this place.

「… Hey, can I use magic of human transformation if I drank Faravugi’s blood?」

I whispered to Verossa as we walked.

「… No. There’s a 『Ceremony』 for handling the lifeblood, only then can the magic of human transformation be taught to the target. That’s why the blood of the corpse won’t do.」

Verossa replied with a rather surprised look on his face.

「But Your Highness, do you really… Want to learn it?」

「Don’t you think that it’s better to know more magic than not? I mean, it might be useful for when I need to hide my presence.」

「Your Highness, if you use human transformation as you are now, your magical power will also be reduced to the level of a human… Like Faravugi did.」

A~h, he became weaker but, Faravugi in his human form was 『Quite powerful for a mere human』.

In the end, hiding my presence was still difficult unless I learnt Verossa’s 『Magical Power Dispersion』 or concealment spell…

「――Dammit!」

Emergias’ cursing voice resounded the moment he entered the fortress.

When I looked at him, that green bast*ard kicking Faravugi’s head angrily.

「I wish you would stop spoiling other people’s prey.」

Even I was quite surprised to hear my own, cold tone. I mean, what in the hell was this bastard angry for?

「This is something that should have become my prey!」

Emergias replied as he glared at me with his bloodshot eyes.

「If you arrived earlier, that’s it…」

「… DAMMIT!!」

Emergias spat on Faravugi’s corpse and then left the fortress with an enraged face.

「You just got lucky… Remember that!」

He spat such a remark as he passed by my side, looking down on me―― And then left with his subordinates.

I ended up feeling dejected by this situation.

But well, subjugating the white dragon was truly a nice achievement to be added under my belt.

I wanted to add the achievement of saving the slave who got caught by the goblins and yet…

――The dragon, ridden by Emergias, quickly became a dot in the night sky.

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