| Author: Sasaki Ichiro | Original Source: Syosetu |
| Translator: Mado | English Source: MadoSpicy TL |
| Editor(s): Crash | |
Here is a certain event which occurred in the days prior to Lady Hiyuki’s departure towards the royal capital, accompanied by Mikoto.
In this several day period, a restless air was already flowing within the Scarlet Jade castle. However on this particular day, you could call it day X, the tensions had reached its peak. Since the morning, her retainers, especially the men, couldn’t keep calm. Instead, they became frenzied and looked suspiciously towards their own colleagues, who had the same goddess known as Hiyuki.
Finally, it reached the point where even the Demon Generals of the Round Table began their discussion using meaningless body language. Mikoto and Utsuho of the Four Heavenly Evil Kings who intended to only watch silently at first, as expected, couldn’t ignore it and decided to ask the only one who could end this calamity, the greatest lord, Hiyuki.
◆◇◆◇
I attended the audience room even though I was very-very unwilling because I heard that there was something that the monsters wanted to consult me on. At that place, I found the thirteen Demon Generals already lined up.
Of course everyone knelt down, but they didn’t become any smaller. On top of their sizes being different from the original game, some of them constantly change because of their indeterminate forms. Therefore, although I see them frequently, seeing their changing forms from farther away is confusing since I can’t differentiate them from their size and it confuses me enough to make me dizzy.
By the way, all the members of the thirteen Demon Generals were level 110-130 dungeon bosses. Compared to the maximum player level of 99, they were really strong (Well practically, their stats rose in accordance with the 0→1→2→3 reincarnation stages that increased the stats of players. At the 3rd stage, they have a befitting unwritten real level of around 250. In the first place they were a group of bosses to match max level players, so it’s quite useless to talk about that).
Literally monsters.
Putting it simply, in the case that a mob is the same level as a player, a player can usually solo it. But to solo a boss, a player would want a safety margin of around 20-30 levels.
So, given that these guys can’t be soloed, but had to be beaten the hell out of by a group of players (Because of this I had to ask not only my guild members to help me capture them, but also my acquaintances as well), and assuming I’m soloing against the weakest of them, using the perfect equipment and as many potions as I’d like, can I defeat it by holding out for a few hours? Err…I wonder? Well…for the time being let’s see! …but when I’m halfway through, if other mobs interrupt me, I am absolutely dead!!
With those very real risks, and moreover with their 16×16 instant death area of effect attack, they really were opponents who had an extremely bad compatibility with my glass cannon hit and run playstyle, which shaved their health off little by little.
―Well, there’s actually a freak who invalidates this. Among all the maniacs, he could completely crush bosses solo, and was granted by an admin the title of ‘One Man Army’! As expected, he’s my guild member you see!!
…Therefore, I am very much aware of how risky it is to deal with them~.
No matter how much they called themselves my allies, if I took something like a poke to my forehead from them, I’d be gone in one hit. Substantially, even from their looks they were befitting of dungeon bosses, they were so extravagantly enormous.
The tiniest one had a length of 10 meters (not even overall length!), and the largest ones were up to 50 meters (But as expected, they shrank their bodies since they can’t enter the room). Far from a crowd of monsters, by appearances they were a gang of evil gods who appeared to annihilate humanity. Thank you very much, really.
Or perhaps I should say, even the admins did it on purpose as a joke. Those monsters all had the theme of evil gods or devil myths from various parts of the world. Like the Demogorgon1, a reptile figure with tentacles and two baboon heads, or Pneeph Taal2, a mist that carried tentacles, or Gonggong3, a serpent with a human face and red hair. Them being here in real life is seriously not funny at all.
Rather, if it’s about the Ctulhu myth, my sanity should be whittled down by only seeing them… is my mind all right? Perhaps it’s been broken before I even realized it.
For all those reasons, first of all as I enter the room and sit on the seat several levels above the floor, I check around for the emergency exit.
Just behind my seat, there was an enormous door. It was sometimes used for me to exit and enter the room, but to open it, Tengai and Kokuyou used both of their hands to open each side of the door. ―When I see the door, the phrase ‘Abandon all hope, ye who enter here’ comes to mind― perhaps, at the time when I’m trying to run away, my physical strength won’t make it.
What it comes to are the corridor passages to the left of me, with three being in my field of vision.
To get to the nearest one takes no longer than 2 seconds for me to escape by foot, but too bad I am wearing 5cm high heels today.
It’s impossible for me to run at full speed with unstable footing. The loss of time from taking off my shoes in order to be bare foot would perhaps be the deciding factor between life and death.
In that case, it would’ve been great if I had trained to run in high heels before.
As I am thinking about that, one of the thirteen Demon General representatives, Ikaruga, the Umr-at Tawil (A derivation of Yog-Sothoth4 from the Cthulhu myth), a figure with black skin and a veil on his white hair, stepped forward.
“I offer my worship to Lady Hiyuki’s presence, our lord worthy of the heavens. We, the thirteen Demon Generals all present here, receive the honor in this chamber.”
As he respectfully greeted me, standing in my row was Tengai, Mikoto, myself, Utsuho, and Kokuyou in order― Mikoto opened her mouth.
“Raise your face, you are permitted to talk directly with the princess.”
Huh….? I thought this was usually Tengai’s duty, but for some reason today the person himself stood rock still with a big pouting face.
“Well then, with all due respect, we are in a situation where we need to confirm something with the princess. I, as the demon representative, would like to ask.”
His gaze directed from me to my right side, where he saw Tengai and Mikoto.
“Princess, for the upcoming event, you have already given your favor to only one certain person, is this rumor true?”
Daaarn!! If he’s talking about an event at this time, then it has to be about who I’ll take to visit the royal capital tomorrow as my companion.
This time, after receiving advice from Guild master Collard, I decided to take Mikoto along. I had notified the person herself and the Four Heavenly Evil Kings, but perhaps it’s reasonable if the other Round Table members don’t feel very happy about that. It’s like I have decided to take Mikoto over them.
As you can see, last time I took Tengai alone to be my companion. The seven Beasts of Calamity were very surprised and uttered their complaints…but well, perhaps it’s a good thing that this matter came up now.
And afterwards, I performed a field survey of the dungeon at the outskirts of Alra City, taking a holiday from the seven Beasts of Calamity. However, as I thought, it’s not good to neglect them, so I dispatched them to repair and reform that place, which had been reduced to broken ruins and crushed by us. ―As we captured the first floor, Utsuho whined that it was tiresome, so Kokuyou broke the wall immediately to get to the boss (by the way it’s a five-headed hydra) room on the 10th floor, resulting in this matter―. Therefore, right now they were not inside the castle.
If they were, this uproar would escalate even more.
Even so, how should I deal with these thirteen Demon Generals? This time the one I was looking for was restricted to a ‘Humanoid girl’, so to be honest none of them match that description, so they have to wait their turn.
But frankly, if I told them and they were to grow violent, I would die.
“……..”
What should I do? So I pondered and then Tengai stepped in, relieving me.
“You have too many foolish suspicions! Your worries are entirely off the mark!”
As Tengai said so, for some reason the thirteen Demon Generals’ lines of sight were loaded with hostility.
“―!?”
S-scary…..!! The mass of evil god gazes are loaded with the thirst for blood. Being swallowed by that wave, my consciousness seems to be flying away for a few moments.
When I came back to myself, Tengai and thirteen Demon Generals were having a loud quarrel.
“I told you, that was the blood provision for the princess!!”
“Usually, you don’t have that sloppy face, right?”
“Above all, that was the blood of a medium with high spiritual power! The princess received it gladly so I―”
“Lies! You alone received the princess’ favor right?”
“I said I didn’t receive it, are you listening?”
◆◇◆◇
“…what are they talking about?”
Hearing my question, Mikoto breathed a sigh with all her heart.
“Today is the 14th of February in the demon calendar, it’s Valentine’s Day. After seeing Lord Tengai walk while carrying a box in the morning, beginning from the thirteen Demon Generals, and then males at the castle, they became excited, wondering ‘Will I get chocolate from the princess?’…”
“Good grief, those males. This matter today is developing an idiotic uproar…”
Utsuho with a flabbergasted tone, averted her eyes from the loud scene.
………….huh?
Valentine’s Day? I was thinking of something completely different… is this the real cause? Rather, aren’t you guys all evil gods and devils? You became frenzied over this cross exchange event? Isn’t this some kind of mistake??
Greatly perplexed, I went somewhere else as the dispute grew hotter.
Since that was the reason, eventually I got some help from Mikoto and the others to make a massive amount of chocolate and distribute it. Some way or another, the matter ended.
….The return gift contents on White Day next month will be awfully scary though.
