Volume 2, Chapter 1 – The Great Imperial Capital Part 3
On the day when Hiro left for the Great Imperial Capital, something strange was happening in the southernmost part of the Principality of Lichtine―a port city called Ilnis.
The city is crowded with fishermen because of the abundance of seafood, but it also has a bleak atmosphere. The reason for this is that ships carrying slaves come to Ilnis from all over the world.
Away from the many slave ships moored in the harbor, fishermen gather on the shore in small boats.
But in the rocky shore, which is one of the fishermen’s resting place, is occupied not by fishermen but by six mercenaries with a boisterous acquisition in their hands.
“The Prince’s family has lost his eldest son and the third son as a result of picking a fight with the Great Empire.”
“If the Grantz Empire retaliates, even though this is the southernmost point, it might be dangerous.”
“Sigh, it’s the other way around. I heard that the foolish Prince is planning to invade the Empire again to avenge the murder of his heir. Rumor has it that he’s gathering up the troops.”
“Hey, what are you people doing resting so carefree?”
The mercenaries all looked in the direction of the voice that had interrupted the conversation.
A well-dressed, fat man―their employer, a slave trader―was dripping with sweat as he ran along the sandy beach. Out of the corner of their eyes, a brown-skinned girl was running with a desperate look on her face.
The mercenaries cowered their shoulders and let out a collective sigh and said, “Again, huh.” It was not an unusual sight in the Principality of Lichtine. This is because sold-out people and downgraded citizens often run away from the slave traders. The brown-skinned girl must have escaped in the same way.
“Hey, my precious goods have escaped! Get her right away!”
Following those words, the mercenaries turned their attention to a man.
“Leader, what do you think?”
“He’s our client, so get over there and catch her.”
The man lying in the shade stood up and motioned with his chin to the mercenaries around him. Then the mercenaries began to run down the sandy beach with swift movements as if they were used to it.
They overtook the sweating slave trader and caught up with the girl before she could even see them. Surrounded by the strong mercenaries, the girl’s legs stopped, and her face twitched in fear.
“P-please… please let me go.”
“I’m sorry. It’s my life on the line.”
“It’s so wasteful. You’d be so much more beautiful when you grew up.”
Girls who are enslaved never come of age. This is because most of them die without ever reaching adulthood due to the hard life they have to endure. Still, they are treated the same. They are just slaves, and when they die, a new slave can be bought.
“Hah… hah… phew… you damn slave, stop making it so hard for me!”
The slave trader finally caught up with the girl, grabbed the girl’s hair randomly, and pushed her down.
“Ah!”
The slave trader stomped on the girl’s head and pressed her face into the sun-heated sandy beach.
”Uuughh!?”
The girl was struggling desperately to escape the heat. But it was impossible for the helpless girl to escape the heat when a burly, well-built slave trader held her down.
“Next time you run away, I’ll kill you! Remember that! You hear me?”
“Hey, hey, that’s a little too much…”
The mercenary called out for him to stop, but the slave trader sneered.
“Hmph, it’s my goods. You have no right to complain to me.”
“All right, I’m just saying, if you like it, that’s fine.”
The mercenaries distorted their faces in displeasure at the slave trader’s argument.
And then the mercenaries’ leader eyes came from behind them while yawning.
“Looks like you’ve captured the escaped slave.”
“Yeah, if you guys would’ve just chased after her, I wouldn’t have to go through all this trouble.”
“Huh, don’t say that. You’ve caught her, after all.”
The leader snorted at the slave trader’s frustration and flushed it away.
“Then let’s get the hell out of here. It’s too hot in here.”
And when the leader turned around――.
“Huh?”
Suddenly a large shadow appeared in front of him.
“…What is it, you?”
A man who was taller than anyone else in the scene was standing there. The leader reflexively braced himself with his sword in his hand.
(…Fumu. What an imperfect body. Humans, huh?)
“What are you talking about? What language is that?”
(As expected, this is――central continent.)
The man brushed back his bangs depressingly as if to distract himself from the heat. The small purple crystals were exposed to the outside world and reflected the sunlight.
(The central continent was mostly using Grantz language, wasn’t it?)
“…Hey, you big guy, are you listening?”
“I’m sorry. How about this? Do you understand?”
The big man spoke in Grantz with a strong accent.
“You, are you from the empire?”
“Do I look like a human to you?”
The leader knit his brow and observed the man. His mouth tugged up slightly.
“…No way.”
The man is more endowed with pale purple skin and a better physique than humans. More importantly, the small purple crystals embedded in his forehead gave him an answer――.
“A demon!?”
“You’re correct, human.”
“What?!”
It was the slave trader who shouted in surprise.
“Hey, if that’s true, I’ll triple your reward. So, catch this guy!”
A thousand years ago, the demon swept the central continent. In order to fight against the growing demons, the confederation of four races―humans, dwarfs, long ears, and beastmen―fiercely fought and succeeded in destroying the demon country, but they were unable to eradicate the demon blood.
After the war, it is said that the demons crossed over to the southern archipelago, located in the south of the central continent, to escape from persecution. There is no way to know for sure now, as the raging sea makes it inaccessible. However, not all of the demons crossed over to the southern archipelago, and at least a few remained in the central continent.
“Since the Great Grantz Empire now protects them. It’s not easy to find them on the slave market. Even if you can find them, it’s doubtful that they are demons; they look like blood-thin squeezed scum. I think this guy has strong demon blood from the looks of it. If I sell him as a slave, I will be rich in no time!”
In the northeast of the Great Grantz Empire, there is a country called the Levering Kingdom. It is a country of demons founded to save their fellow countrymen from persecution, but now the Great Grantz Empire had made the Levering Kingdom a vassal state under the guise of protection.
“Sir. If you understand, three times is too little. It’s possible that this guy is a pure-blood who has never mingled with any other races. Five times as much or else――boof!?”
Before he could finish, blood spurted out of the leader’s torso. Drops of blood are incessantly pouring out of the cut wound, and with a crunching sound, the guts are scattered on the sandy beach.
“Good grief… slaves, money, and all the other stuff that you can think of. It’s just the same as in any other country. But you don’t even know the difference in strength. Do you think these guys can capture me?”
A great sword was clutched in the hand of the demon race, which was sighing in annoyance.
“L-leader!?”
“You bastard!”
The other mercenaries attacked the demon with their own gains at the ready.
“Huh, the less you know about your own prowess, the more often you bark.”
With a light swing of the great sword―the three mercenaries’ bodies were blown apart, and their entrails were splattered on the beach, killing them. The two remaining mercenaries saw the scene and, perhaps realizing they were no match for him, cast an eye at him and ran away.
“H-hey, wait! Do you people not want your money?”
“No money is better than life! I can’t deal with a monster like that!”
“You’re all mercenaries, aren’t you?”
“Don’t worry. They won’t get away from me.”
The demon got down on one knee on the sandy beach and slammed his hands on the beach. Strangely, the sand rose up and tangled the mercenaries’ feet and rolled them over.
“What!?”
“There’s something in my leg…”
Immediately afterward, a cloud of dust rose in front of the mercenaries, who fell down with a loud sound―a dust cloud rose in front of the mercenaries’ eyes. The greatsword cut through the dust and decapitated the two mercenaries. Massive amounts of blood stained the sandy beach red.
“Humans are really soft, aren’t they? Well, be that as it may, it looks like it’s just you that’s left.”
Stepping over the mercenaries’ corpses, the demon with a great sword on his back walked up to the slave trader.
“I’ll give you ten times more than what these people get paid. Don’t you want to be my mercenary?”
The demon’s hands covered the slave trader’s disgusting face, and his feet were in the air. Underneath his feet is a brown-skinned girl―her face is bright red, and she is unconscious.
After taking a glance at the girl, the demon turned his cold eyes to the slave trader.
“…You are an irredeemable idiot.”
“Ogyuu!?”
Blood gushed out of the slave trader’s eyes, nose, mouth, ears, and every hole. The demon, bathed in the returned blood, didn’t change his face and threw down the slave trader who had turned into a lump of flesh.
“It would be nice to start from scratch again.”
After muttering to himself, the demon kneeled down beside the brown-skinned girl. The demon then holds up the girl as if to tenderly touch her swollen red cheeks as if to help her.
“It’s a life that was lost once. It’s not a bad idea to test here to see how far my power can go.”
The demon holding the girl began to walk on the sandy beach without a destination.
＊＊＊
In the small country of Baum―the Spirit King Temple. The country is represented by a woman of the long-eared race called the Princess Shrine Maiden. There is a spring filled with an azure color with a thin mist drifting in the air in the midst of a dense forest.
This is a sanctuary that only the Princess Shrine Maiden is allowed to enter―the Spirit King’s Temple’s innermost baptismal palace.
The maiden, who had sunk down to her waist in the fountain, quietly opened her eyes. The light floating in her eyes, bluer than ultramarine, scattered in a speck of light and then disappeared.
“…Is the landing of the demon tribe something that you have orchestrated?”
The Princess Shrine Maiden turned her gaze to the shining sphere between the two statues.
“…..”
No reply. As usual, the Spirit King won’t tell her anything.
“Then, I will do what I can to help.”
A large ripple spread across the fountain. Water flowed down from the collarbone of the standing Princess Shrine Maiden and was sucked into her ample bosom. The thin cloth was tightly attached to her body, and her waving limbs took on an enchanting atmosphere. The Princess Shrine Maiden grabbed a kimono from the water’s edge and stepped forward, putting it on as quickly as she could. Hurrying through the lush trees, a familiar passage appears.
After walking silently through the white-walled corridor for a while, she reaches a hall where a group of shrine maiden knights, made up entirely of women, are waiting.
“Bring me a pen and ink and some paper at once.”
Tension appeared on the faces of the waiting shrine maiden knights when they heard the sound of the Princess Shrine Maide’s voice containing anger.
“Have them ready at once.”
When a shrine maiden knight sends a hand signal to her subordinate apprentice knight――.
“Ha! Right away!”
The apprentice knight left a pleasantly good reply and quickly disappeared to the back of the passage.
“Princess Shrine Maiden-sama. What on earth is the matter with you in such a state?”
The captain of the shrine maiden knight complained bitterly.
“It’s an urgent matter.”
“Did you see something?”
“Yes, I must inform the Emperor immediately.”
Then the apprentice knight came back, out of breath.
“I’ve brought it! Hii… Fuu… Fuhee…”
“Fufu, thanks for your hard work.”
The Princess Shrine Maiden smiled at the apprentice knight who was tired after running as fast as she could, along with her exertions. However, the captain of the shrine maiden knight put her hands on her hips and swelled with anger.
“Hey, don’t slack off in front of the Princess Shrine Maiden-sama. That’s why you’re still an apprentice!”
“E-even so, t-that’s…”
“I don’t mind. Let her rest.”
When she said that, the Princess Shrine Maiden looked around, and the shrine maiden knight, recognizing her gesture, held out a wooden chair to her. The Princess Shrine Maiden put down a piece of white paper and opened her mouth as she flipped out a pen.
“Do you hear me? Give this to the spirit knight and tell them to leave for the Great Imperial City as soon as possible.”
After biting her thumb and seeing a ball of blood float away, the Princess Shrine Maiden pressed it against the white paper. As the blood bled, a change came to the white paper. It emitted a faint light and naturally curled up.
She handed it to the shrine maiden knight who was waiting next to her; the shrine maiden knight replied with, “Excuse me!” And then she ran off down the corridor. The Princess Shrine Maiden looked away from her back and muttered quietly.
“That’s as far as I can manage. The rest is up to you, Your Majesty… Schwartz.”
Updat𝒆d fr𝒐m freew𝒆bnov𝒆l.c(o)m