Prologue: Demon

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“Say, Wend. We have forgotten due to the final moments of the enemy’s boss, but…” (Luise)

“Forgot?” (Wendelin)

“Did the demon die?” (Luise)

“Damn! I totally forgot!” (Wendelin)

Being reminded by Luise, I hurriedly order the soldiers to search for the demon in the wreckage of the huge golem.
However, faster than discovering him, the demon appeared from below the wreckage.
Yet, the blisters are terrible and he apparently can’t move well as his body’s functions are seemingly paralyzed.

“It’s not fatal though, is it?”

“I suppose demons are tough…”

Although she examined the demon medically, there’s no danger to his life. I was astonished by the strength of a demon’s vitality.

“If possible, I would like you to heal me.”

“Since we wouldn’t be able to handle you if you went on a rampage after healing you, I’d like you to die just like that, if possible.” (Wendelin)

There’s still a huge amount of mana remaining in this demon.
It would be difficult to disable him once more, if he went ballistic after getting healed.
Since I would hate being killed by an opponent that I already defeated once, I’d like him to pass away here, even though it’s a bit pitiful.

“It might be better to finish him off here.” (Ina)

Everyone agrees with Ina’s opinion.

“Uuh…how brutal of you, Earl Baumeister…”

“That’s not something I want to be told by you, who caused a rebellion and took part in a genocide.” (Wendelin)

I responded cynically to the selfish complaint of the demon.
As I was pondering what to do about this demon, Wilma pulled my robe.

“Wend-sama.” (Wilma)

“Yes?” (Wendelin)

“Won’t it turn into a problem with the Demon Country if you kill this demon?” (Wilma)

“Oooh! There was that, too!” (Therese)

Therese, who should know the most about this whole story among us, agrees with Wilma and her strangely sharp intuition.

“The possibility that the demon country will dispatch its soldiers because one of its citizens was killed certainly exists.” (Therese)

Once it becomes an international issue, I don’t know what excuse to attack they might use. I guess we shouldn’t risk anything.

“Therese-san, this demon has taken part in the civil war…” (Katharina)

“That’s true, but we have no choice but to take an evasion of a war with the Demon Country into consideration…” (Therese)

Emotionally I agree with Katharina’s opinion, but if one considers the risk of a dispute with the demon country, one is compelled to approve of Therese’s thinking.

“Even though the civil war has ended at long last, the Empire would enter a war against the Demon Country. No, in this case it’s also possible that the Kingdom will be targeted as well. There’s a danger that we will be attacked before both countries are able to mend their relationship.” (Therese)

The only one knowledgeable about demons among us is Therese, the former Duchess Philip.
Katharina, who has become a noble suddenly just like me, didn’t possess that knowledge.

“I believe that mana surpassing Wendelin-san’s is terrifying, but…is this person, no, are the demons that much of a threat?” (Katharina)

“It seems that all demons possess a lot of mana. However at most that’s knowledge I obtained from old books…” (Therese)

I guess that means that their entire army consists of powerful magicians.
Even if we defeated some of them by throwing the few magicians we have at them, the soldiers, who can’t use magic, would be simply overrun as soon as we got defeated.
Certainly, we can’t easily choose to kill this demon.

“Doushi, what should we do?” (Wendelin)

“Hey, demon! We can heal you, but I can’t recommend you to oppose us!” (Armstrong)

Doushi doesn’t seem to be very amused about his own way of talking to resemble with the demon, but he probably decided to separate his own feelings and his political deliberations. He chose the option to save him.

“You magicians of the Helmut Kingdom belong to the cautious types. Even if I were to fight you here, allowing me to escape, I will be captured by the imperial soldier on the upper floors and die. This esteemed me prefers to avoid anything pointless.”

“Don’t give me such impudent talk… Elise, please heal him.” (Armstrong)

“Yes, uncle-sama.” (Elise)

Once Elise cast some light healing magic, the demon, who couldn’t move well, recovered and stood up. Even though he had received damage from an overdose of healing magic, it’s not like the healing magic will stay in his body forever. Thus, he easily recovers with light healing magic.
That was one of the reasons why the phenomenon of over-healing couldn’t be utilized readily.
That being the case, it’s more effective to attack with normal magic.

“You have my thanks for the treatment. This esteemed me is called Arnest Blitz. I’m an archaeologist of the Demon Country.” (Arnest)

“Archaeologist?”

The mysterious, middle-aged man with a big, white tuxedo on his head introduces himself as archaeologist.

“Quite so. The object of my life is the investigation and exploration of unknown underground ruins.” (Arnest)

We are immediately told about his circumstances by the demon, but he boasts that he sneaked into this country as illegal immigrant from the western island that is the Demon Country. After smuggling himself in, he heard rumors of many undiscovered ruins within the Nürnberg Dukedom. He accepted to repair the excavated items as compensation for being allowed to investigate those ruins.
In the end it was no more than a give-and-take partnership, he says.

“Give-and-take, eh…?” (Armstrong)

“That’s quite the egoistic view after having caused this many casualties.” (Katharina)

Even Katharina, who endured many things herself as former loner, follows Doushi’s view and seems to be disgusted with this demon.

“As I am an archaeologist, I wanted to investigate and explore underground ruins. The permission of Duke Nürnberg, the feudal lord, was necessary for that.” (Arnest)

The demon had also talent as researcher and artificer.
That’s why the weapons used by Duke Nürnberg’s feudal army were items which had been made usable by this demon repairing the excavated items.

“Even if the owner of a knife, which had been given to them by me after making it usable, commits murder, this esteemed me can not do anything about it.” (Arnest)

“Hey! Don’t screw around with us!” (Erwin)

“Erw-san, please calm down.” (Haruka)

Erw snapped due to the demon’s blunt shirking of any responsibility.
Haruka restrains him in a hurry.

“Even if you get angry over that; that agreement allowed me to freely investigate the ruins located within the Dukedom Nürnberg.” (Arnest)

I could understand and accept it as valid.
He is a scholar with all his heart.
He merely acts for the sake of quenching his thirst for knowledge, and doesn’t consider the problems he creates to others with that.
I won’t go as far as calling him a Mad Archaeologist, but he might be a typical researcher.
And that type of people is actually capable of achieving results because they partially lack morals.
In accordance to the contract with Duke Nürnberg, he repaired the items excavated from underground ruins, allowing those items to exhibit their might on the battlefield. He has assisted in the civil war, but the one who caused that was no other than Duke Nürnberg.
It’s also his way of thinking that he fought in the huge golem to defend himself…and if you consider his birthplace, we can’t simply execute him either.

“Enough of that. Even if you try to harm us or run away, it will turn into a nice story of us all beating you up. Our goal is the investigation of the rooms located on this deepest floor. I will have you guide us.” (Wendelin)

“You can leave that to me. First off, the ornamental crest engraved on this wall is typical for the latter period of the Ancient Magic Civilization’s era…” (Arnest)

“No, not that.” (Wendelin)

The demon was about to start an explanation of the crest on the wall, but since that’s meaningless right now, I directed the talk towards the whereabouts of the excavated items.

“The location of the excavated items? I have already finished their examination and as such can’t see any scientific value in them.” (Arnest)

“Even if that’s the case for you as archaeologist, seeing that the items are indispensable if you live in the real world, there will be people who will try to find them, making it necessary to get rid of them appropriately.” (Wendelin)

“I understand.” (Arnest)

The demon first guides us inside the room behind the wall crushed by the golem.
There we found a device that seemed to be a combination of a huge antenna with a length of around 15 meters and a typewriter.

“Is this the device jamming 『Movement』 and 『Coomunication』?” (Wendelin)

It looks like it was a good idea to fire spells following Therese’s advice.
With a part of the antenna broken, it lost its ability to emit jamming waves.

“I guess it’ll work once repaired?”

“Is there such a magic tool?”

There’s no merit in expressly saving a device that obstructs magic, my sole selling point.

“I do not mind if you break it, but I recommend to set aside the parts that can be used in the future.” (Arnest)

Advanced magic tools are an assembly of many parts. There are also many parts that can be reused in other magic tools.
The demon advises us that we shouldn’t destroy it all of a sudden, but rather do so after salvaging all those parts.

“Especially the magic crystal that has been used in this device is huge.” (Arnest)

“You supplied the mana used in this device, didn’t you?”

“This esteemed me is an expert in investigation and analysis. I also had the task of repairing and maintaining the excavated items because of that. Consequently it’s not like I was next to this device all the time. I activated the device by charging a huge amount of mana into the huge magic crystal.” (Arnest)

The demon opened a hatch on the back side of the device, revealing the magic crystal installed there.

“I guess he readily explained everything…”

Upon my order, soldiers led by Erw begin to collect the magic tools scattered on the lowest floor.
They gather various items such as destroyed breath-emitting devices, the wreckage of the huge golem, spare parts for the golem, a golem that seems to be a prototype I don’t really understand and items that look like weapons.

“As long as it’s explanation and repair of technology, I can handle it.”

“Then it’s fine.”

I put all the collected items into my magic bag.
There’s no issue with that since the handling of the plundered loot is up to us, even if this is imperial territory.
Since there’s the possibility that the Empire will start a war with Kingdom next because the imperial army got too strong after confiscating the magic tools from Nürnberg Dukedom after the civil war, I collect all of them.
What’s left is…

“Arnest Blitz, can’t you disguise yourself?” (Wendelin)

“I am pleased to hear that you have remembered mine name. I am able to do as you say.” (Arnest)

“Change into a human then.” (Wendelin)

There’s no way that I can hand over this demon to Peter.
Given that this guy will be happy as long as he can illegally excavate undiscovered underground ruins, he will join forces with any kind of villain as long as that’s guaranteed.
I will hide him in the Kingdom or the Baumeister Earldom as it’s necessary to learn about demons.
Because the demons haven’t shown up on this Lingaia Continent for close to 10,000 years, it might turn into a scramble to understand their true nature.

“Magic tools for disguising also existed in the Ancient Magic Civilization.” (Arnest)

Arnest takes out a ring from his pocket and puts it on a finger.
He immediately transformed into a middle-aged male soldier one can find anywhere.

“It will be safe with this.” (Arnest)

Having finished cleaning up at the lowest floor, we run through the underground fortress where fierce battles still continue despite Duke Nürnberg having died.
The battle between both armies mainly focused around the military stations and the residential areas still under construction rather than the lower floor.
Especially the retainers and soldiers in the area with Duke Nürnberg household’s mansion struggle bitterly after having set up the remaining breath-emitting devices and suicide-bombing golems. They caused heavy losses among the approaching soldiers of the imperial army.

“Surrender! Your leader died!” (Wendelin)

“Don’t make up such stupid lies! Our Lord went to pick up a new weapon at the lowest floor!”

The vassal in charge of the defense around the mansion reply while exposing his anger at my capitulation demand.
He probably doesn’t want to accept that Duke Nürnberg died at all costs.

“Look at this!”

Duke Nürnberg’s corpse is held up on my instructions.
There was also the option to only hoist up his head, but they might have reacted very emotionally if we had done that.
That’s why we displayed the corpse in such manner.

“Lord!”

“It’s a lie! It’s a well-made fake!”

“As if we would have had time for that! It’s the real Duke Nürnberg! His ambitions came to an end with this. Once the leader’s gone, the accomplishment of their ambitions becomes impossible. I expect an upright attitude from you, who were left behind.” (Wendelin)

“…What are we going to do?”

“Fight to the last soldier!”

“But, is there any sense in doing something like that?”

The remaining officers and soldiers of the rebel army differ in their opinions and start to quarrel amongst each other due to my speech.
And then the highest-ranking person fell a decision.

“Due to the fact that our Lord has passed away, already, at this point…we will surrender…”

Even after this I move to all the places where there are still ongoing battles and persuade the enemies. Eighteen hours after the start of the underground fortress capture all battle has ceased with the rebel army having surrendered.
The imperial army lost 7,857 soldiers. The rebel army has 5,678 casualties.
It was a battle that cost many people their lives, but with this the civil war in the Empire has finally come to an end.

 

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