Leave a comment

–––Ditoner’s viewpoint

“Dammit! I lost to those humans!”

In a fit of anger, I kicked the furniture near me, smashing it to pieces. The underlings that were standing nearby jumped in fear and sent trembling stares towards me. Usually, I didn’t mind those types of stares, but at the moment even those annoyed me.

After fighting those cheeky girls I returned to the headquarters and treated my wounds. Though they were still girls, so the wounds weren’t too deep. I had been injured the most when I had to unleash all my magic power to escape. I hated that, but I was too cornered there. If I didn’t escape, the girl who took down the monsters and men I took with me would’ve turned against me as well.

Thinking about her still made me shudder. Not knowing where she was, only feeling her murderous stare from the sky. Feeling that was so distracting I couldn’t focus on the girls I was talking with. They might think they were handling me at full power, but if I had actually been calm it would’ve ended differently. As long as that girl floating around was gone…

When I returned to Trianf, I received quite an earful for running in such a shameless state and losing so many monsters and men. But I had expected that much, we had to be ready to fight against humans or other demon kings at any moment, but I lost to some nameless girls. I could also feel those in the same rank as me snickering at my failure. My blood was boiling imagining how they were already plotting to use me as a stepping stone to get closer to Trianf.

“The treatment is complete, sir.”
“Thanks.”

I looked over my body, not finding a single wound left open. Healing magic had done its job and I was back to normal. I really wanted to go back out there and twist their little necks, but they had to be gone from there by now. I could only stash away my anger and keep it for the next chance.

“I swear I won’t fail again. As soon as I see them again, I’ll kill them. I’ll do anything to ensure that.”

§　§　§

With Luvias and the others’ training complete, we returned to Surfour. Even if we were a hero’s party, we did not live in a world where we could live and eat without working, Luvias aside as she was a princess. The rest of us were getting close to clearing our accounts, so it was time to resume our daily jobs and earn back what we had spent.

Karin, Ciel, and our latest member Diaria would often go out of town with whatever request they could find. Luvias spent that time training at home, or practicing against the knights in the governor’s residence. Every time she was bored, all she could think about was training, so she was improving at a hasty rate. That was something I truly wished would rub off on Diaria at least a bit. Meanwhile, I was still working as a receptionist at the guild. All the recent events with all the killing and brawling had left my mind quite rifled up, so I needed some time sitting behind a desk relaxing. Working as a receptionist truly made me feel how nice living in peace is.

“Lapis, you look more lax than usual today.”
“Yeah. You’re usually so serious, but you look soft like melted cheese today.”
“…You really think so?”

I was splayed on the desk as I replied to Camille and Miranda. Hearing my reply, they just shrugged. But really, there were no clients and I had finished the paperwork I had left, so it was alright to just let go of things for a bit. I did not have anything else to do, so relaxing a bit was no sin.

Still lying lazily on the desk, I thought about that demon we encountered in the Haunted Lands. He was quite strong. I had kept him in check only with my killing intent to give Luvias and the others some confidence, but it was not enough to fully defeat him. At least I knew better what their limits were now. But I would make sure that they could win next time, we had plenty of time to train for that.

That demon had called himself Ditoner, and referred to his master as Lord Trianf. As far as I remember the demon king I defeated was called Agster, so the most I could infer was that he served one of the other demon kings.

The number of monsters and demons he led made me think he was sent to scout ahead of an attack. The question was, how were they going to react after their scouting troops were defeated? A good leader would proceed with caution, knowing the enemy is stronger than themselves.

First, they would amass stronger troops while investigating their opponents more, and only attempt to make an incursion after it was certain they were strong enough. But those were merely my thoughts, a reckless leader would just increase the number and try again.

“But mm…at the very least we should have some time.”
“Lapis, did you say something?”
“Nothing, sorry for that.”

Apparently, I had started voicing my thoughts. There were adventurers coming to the guild again, so that meant I had more work to do. I still wanted to rest a bit more, but work was more important.

Then I noticed a lone girl that just entered the guild. She warily looked around, hesitantly walking to the reception desk. The girl was still very young, seven or eight years old if I had to guess. Either way, she was clearly not an adventurer, and from her appearance, she came from an average household, maybe slightly below average.

I thought maybe she was related to someone at the guild, but both Camille and Miranda looked puzzled by her. They had worked here for much longer than myself, so if they did not know her either, then it was hard to think she had any connection to the guild either.