It wasn’t difficult to deal with the strange men.
One was taken care of with a punch to his face, while the other three stopped struggling after I planted their heads into the ground.
“Thank goodness those guards didn’t die.”
“Indeed.”
I hated seeing others in the same line of work getting hurt.
Fortunately, the guards, though seriously injured, could recover with the healing magic of this world, which put my mind at ease.
They wanted to award me a civic medal for my significant contribution to capturing the criminals, but I politely declined and left.
After all, I’m not even a citizen here.
“Um, your hands seem to be dropping.”
“…Ah, it hurts.”
“You must hold them high to reflect properly. Why did you go out alone in the middle of the night?”
Currently, Arsep is being punished.
Her punishment is to stand with both hands raised for ten minutes.
The reason? She went out late at night alone without informing me and got herself into trouble.
Since this was the first time, I thought I should make it clear – if this behavior becomes a habit, she might end up in more serious trouble next time.
“Ha, but I didn’t want to trouble you. You’re already here to relieve stress, so I didn’t want to burden you with something irrelevant to you…”
“It’s not irrelevant. If it concerns our Demon Lord and employer, then it concerns me as well.”
“You…”
“Your hands are dropping. For every drop, three more minutes get added.”
“…Understood!”
If anything, not telling me was more troublesome.
Honestly, I thought Arsep would eventually tell me about that Dark Elf child, but while I pretended to sleep off a bit of drink, she slipped out of the inn again.
At first, I was at a loss about what to do, but when I went outside, I found her in a difficult situation with some strangers.
“This time, I found you in time, so it wasn’t too much trouble. But next time, make sure to tell me before going.”
“Understood…”
A guard’s job is to watch the gate, not to protect those who step outside it.
***
“Now, it’s your turn.”
I turned to the Dark Elf child huddled in the corner of the room.
I’d brought her into the inn impulsively, but she hadn’t spoken a word and was just watching us nervously.
“So, what’s her name?”
“I don’t know.”
“You didn’t even ask her name yet?”
To think I still didn’t even know her name.
Had Arsep really just been bringing her bread and milk this whole time?
“You, what’s your name?”
I asked the child.
“Flua.”
After a brief pause, the Dark Elf child replied with her name: Flua.
“And your parents?”
“They’re… not here.”
“Then, do you have a place to go or a home?”
“No.”
If she did, she wouldn’t have been wandering the city.
If she was just a lost child, I could’ve taken her back to her home or guardians, but with neither, things got a little more complicated.
I turned back to Arsep, who was watching us with a look that clearly said she had something to say.
I had a pretty good idea of what she wanted to say.
It reminded me of when I used to work as a guard, and some kids in the apartment brought me a stray kitten without a parent, asking what to do.
They had the same expression as Arsep does now.
Back then, after thinking it over, I’d told the apartment representatives and found a family to adopt the kitten.
“The–the child! I can take good care of her! You don’t have to worry. I’ll make sure she’s fed daily, kept clean, and even take her on walks…!”
“Did you pick up an animal somewhere?”
How should I react to this?
This situation felt like when a child brings home a stray puppy or kitten.
With Arsep pleading like this, it was hard to refuse, and I hadn’t really decided on anything from the start.
But the most important thing was her own choice.
“So, Flua… we aren’t strangers, are we? So, I’ll speak casually.”
“Wait, what do you mean by not strangers?”
“The other night, you passed out drunk. I found bread and milk in the basket, so I brought it to you.”
“Wait, you mean you knew?”
“You think I wouldn’t?”
“Ah… uh…”
Blushing deeply, Arsep seemed mortified beyond words, although her hands remained raised.
It’s already been ten minutes; should I tell her?
“Anyway, this person here would like to take you to her castle. It might look shabby, and actually, it is pretty shabby, but she does have a grand castle.”
“What do you mean shabby?! I may feel shabby, but…!”
Ignoring Arsep’s protest, I asked Flua how she felt about it.
After all, I didn’t want to forcibly take her somewhere if she didn’t want to go; her opinion mattered.
“So, if you want, we can take you to the castle. What do you think?”
“I…”
Hearing my question, Flua fell into deep thought.
While waiting, I gently comforted Arsep, who had started to tear up, patting her back.
Somehow, I felt like the self-proclaimed Demon Lord standing before me was more of a child than the Dark Elf girl over there.
“If it’s alright to go with you… I’d like to.”
“Really?!”
Arsep, overjoyed, ran to Flua.
It was a bit hard for me to understand why she was so thrilled about someone she hadn’t known for long, but after all, this was the same person who had saved me from death, even though I was a stranger.
So, it made sense she’d be that enthusiastic.
Fortunately, Flua didn’t seem to dislike her, either.
“Well, then we have a task to do.”
“And what might that be?”
Now that the decision was made, it was time to get things done.
I handed a basket filled with bathing supplies to Arsep.
“You mentioned feeding her well and giving her baths, right? So, take her to the bathhouse downstairs and get her cleaned up. Since it’s early morning, there shouldn’t be anyone there.”
Flua had been living on the streets for quite some time.
Perhaps due to her Elven nature, even though she hadn’t been able to wash properly, there was a faint, plant-like scent about her.
But still, she looked scruffy.
Besides, it wasn’t really my place to give her a bath.
***
A lone demon arrived in front of an unowned castle and pulled out a magic-detecting stone from his pouch.
But true to its name, there was no one inside, or perhaps the place was simply deserted.
No significant magic was detected in the vicinity.
The unknown magic that had been verified through the latest model of familiars… It was a mysterious presence, unidentifiable even through the familiar’s sight.
“Is no one here?”
Coming here in person to find out, he realized it seemed to have been a wasted trip.
‘Or maybe… it wasn’t empty after all.’
Otherwise, this could well have been a trap set by humanity from the beginning.
“Long time no see.”
A voice laced with killing intent resounded as a powerful magic signal emerged.
Blue hair whipped around like a storm.
It was a voice even the demons recognized.
“Daedalus, the demon…!”
Daedalus, head of the Engineering Department of the Demon King’s Army, and one of the rare high-ranking demons in the Demon Realm, had long had encounters with human adventurers, even before the serious war between the human and demon realms began.
Many human adventurers who had entered the Demon Realm had been sacrificed as experiments for his creations.
“Oh…? So, this was your doing, after all. Frost.”
Among those who had been experimented on was Frost, known as the Master of Ice.
She was one of the most powerful magicians in the human world and the only adventurer to survive Daedalus’ experiments.
Both demon and human were quick to assume the other had set a trap, given their deep mutual disdain.
“I expected this to be your doing when I saw the familiars.”
“And it seems you’re still toying with young humans. A pile of trash remains just trash no matter how much you gather.”
Crackle! Zap–!
Their magic began to clash violently.
A giant golem formed under Daedalus’s feet, while an intense cold emanated from Frost’s surroundings, freezing even the air.
“I’ve had enough of pointless battles. Let’s end it here!”
“Yes, I’m tired of cleaning up garbage!”
Mountains of rocks crashed down, and a merciless freezing storm swept everything in its path.
Those who had followed Daedalus and Frost dared not even think of joining the battle.
Eventually, the outcome of the clash of overwhelming magic was mutual retreat – Daedalus with all his summoned creatures destroyed and Frost with her magic depleted.
The battle between a summoner and an ice mage was evenly matched, leaving the battlefield in ruins.
Not only were the paths blocked by broken rocks, but also a bitter, unnatural chill descended over the area.
After half a day of fighting…
An unusual phenomenon occurred where all the magic-detecting stones within 1000 kilometers of the unowned castle were destroyed.
Many mages investigated this bizarre event, yet no cause could be identified.
The prevailing theory was that the intense magic waves from Daedalus and Frost’s clash had led to the anomaly.
Of course, the real cause of this phenomenon…
“Is there any statue around here that allows teleportation to the human world or the Demon King’s castle?”
“And why do you ask that all of a sudden…?”
“Because breaking one of them would feel satisfying.”
“Calm down! Didn’t we just come here for some stress relief?!”
After a long battle, the gatekeeper, upon seeing the devastated scene before him, had reached the end of his patience.