LV999 Villager Volume 1 Chapter 3.03

He then checked out his surroundings. There were four people amongst the surrounding trees, obstructing his view of an easy escape route. At the same time, the group of four were in a position that made it difficult for them to chase if Kagami’s party tried to flee.

“If I may ask, why are you surrounding us?”

“Such a foolish question. We won’t let you guys, who have allied with the Demons, run away.”

Krul returned an answer without appearing in front of them, remaining in her position.

At that moment, with a speed that an ordinary person wouldn’t be able to see, Kagami appeared in front of Krul. It was as if the movement was instantaneous and everyone there had their eyes wide open.

“This time is zero points, though I am only referring to the strategy that princess-sama had thought of.”

As he said this, Kagami lightly chopped Krul’s head, like he had done the other day. Krul blinked, unable to immediately understand what had happened to her.

“Although it’s fine that the Hero’s party has the courage to face a strong opponent, wouldn’t it be better if you showed it only when you knew you had a chance of winning?”

“D-Don’t ignore what I said! Besides, you guys are humans…If you kill us, you will automatically be labeled as criminals!”

“How idiotic. Although, it would certainly be that way if you were killed.”

“Calling someone an idiot is rude!”

Krul responded to Kagami with a angry expression as her face turned bright red.

“It’s pointless for you to act strong when you can’t even be compared to your opponent. How would you overcome that weak-looking monk girl? That child is dangerous, right?”

The moment Kagami muttered this and let out a sigh with a ‘Well, Well’, Krul jumped backwards, as if she had realized something. Immediately afterwards, Kagami was attacked by a radiating Light Edge slash from behind.

However, since Kagami had grasped the direction and position of the sound that was cutting through the air, he easily avoided it by lightly twisting his waist.

“There’s no room to act. It’s not like we came to listen to your sermon!”

Within the brief moment that Kagami had dodged the attack, Rex, who had sent out that slash, closed in on him, as if chasing him. Unable to hit Kagami, Rex swung his sword downwards while shouting and Kagami showed him a troubled expression as he jumped backwards.

“You don’t have to tighten your defence. It’s not like I could run away?”

“You just told us that our formation is meaningless, right?”

Kagami slightly admired Rex for listening to his advice. He was brave and honest. No matter how much strength having the Role of a Hero gave to someone, Kagami felt like he understood that Rex could become stronger.

“Why are you attacking me~. You’ll be a criminal if you carelessly attack me and kill me, right~?”

“This here is the Princess. She’ll pardon me as much as I like this time…Besides, even if I were to kill Demons, I would not be labeled as a criminal!”

As Kagami continued to dodge backwards, he thought ‘he is petty in spirit’ about Rex, who continued his attacks. However, as the assault continued, he concluded that there had to be a limit. He grabbed the sword that was swung down at him with one of his hands and gazed at Rex with killing intent, as if he hated him.

This one glare sent chills down Rex’s spine, so he immediately let go of the sword that was grasped in Kagami’s hand and jumped backwards, lining up besides Krul.

“Tch…! You monster!”

Regardless of it only being an insignificant movement that wasn’t enough to cause any real exhaustion, sweat was dripping down from Rex’s forehead, almost like it was gushing out, and his breathing was haggard. He had already understood that Kagami was overwhelmingly powerful in comparison to him. Despite knowing that, he still thought ‘If I fight any longer, I will die’ towards the opponent, who had no weapons equipped. There was nothing but fear within him.

“A splendid monster. Leaving such a monster alone, would it be enjoyable even if he lets you go with him to defeat the Demon King?”

“The main problem is that the person over there said that he was a subordinate of the Demon King!”

After saying that, Tina walked over to Rex, who was standing there separated from the group, and cast Healing Magic on him, regardless of the fact that he hadn’t received any external wounds.

“Aren’t there victims from yesterday’s attack? They should be overlooked just because the ringleader of the attackers is in front of you. What? I wonder if you are still using the excuse that you thrusted the Blue Devil’s horn into him?”

As Krul said this, she formed a giant magic circle with the size of an adult person, as if she was making up for the two of them that had slipped out of position, and immediately prepared to chant an attack.

Menou, who had seen this a little while ago, moved over to Kagami in a panic, pulled on his clothes with a wrinkled face, and whispered into his ear.

“What does she mean that Kagami-dono will advise them to depart on a trip to defeat Demon King-sama! Was Kagami-dono not an ally of Demon King-sama!?”

“Saying such and such doesn’t really refer to that. I just don’t understand how to refute the humans’ claims. It’s a fact that Demon do harm to humans.”

“B-But…!”

“But, just like the Magician Princess-san over there has said, it’s a fact that the town received a large amount of damage from the rampage yesterday, right? You also seemed to have been worried about it, so for now, go apologize.”

“W-Why must I apologize to the likes of those humans!? Us Demons were humiliated dozens of times by the humans in the attack this time, right!?”

Menou’s words did make sense, and Alice’s expression became slightly cloudy. Whether or not she realized this, Takako also seemingly became saddened. She put her hand onto Alice’s head, as if she was sharing her pain.

Although it was from a long distance, Menou, who was aware of Alice’s expression, also mumbled and avoided looking into her eyes, whether or not something was wrong. If the Demon King and Alice hoped to make peace with the humans, as he had heard from Kagami, he too should surely let that happen, but the fate of humans and Demons wouldn’t let them yield to one another.

“Whether or not you apologize isn’t the problem. There are humans who are cooperating with the Demons that attacked Balman yesterday…this is the biggest problem! You can’t avoid going to prison!”

As Rex yelled this, he pulled out one more sword from a sheath that was hung around his waist and poised it in front of him.

“I laughed because I won’t waste my breath on you, who won’t even attempt to listen to those whom I’m cooperating with.”

“There is no need to listen! Demons are evil! And you are evil for allying with them, you bastard!”

At those words, Kagami instantly moved in front of Rex with the reflexes in his body and grabbed onto the poised sword. Rex couldn’t do anything against Kagami, who had suddenly appeared in front of him, so he tried to jump backwards. That didn’t mean that he couldn’t move his body out of fear. Even if he tried to move the sword in his hand with all his power, it didn’t move in the slightest. Immediately afterwards, he switched his gaze from his sword to Kagami and unexpectedly became bewildered.

Kagami wasn’t glaring nor was he hateful; instead, he seemed rather sad.

Rex would understand if Kagami was angry about it, yet he couldn’t understand the meaning of this expression with this timing.

“Why? Who decided that? How did it become like that? Did you thoroughly think about it?”

Kagami said some words that were difficult to comprehend as he had that expression.

“What do you mean by that?”

“The little sister over there that I pretended was mine…Does she appear to be a bad person?”

“What is it that you want to say!”

“I’ll teach you, because I already know who that Demon is. She is the Demon King’s daughter.”

Everyone in the Hero’s party had their eyes wide open as they stared at Alice’s face. Sweat appeared on their foreheads as doubt mixed in and they muttered, ‘The Demon King’s…daughter?’

“Princess-sama, certainly you had already said that it was fine to embrace the Demon King’s daughter tightly yesterday, right?”

As he said this, Krul instantly had a clear impression of the events that had occurred yesterday in her mind. Certainly, there was an appearance of herself, who tried to relieve a girl who had seemed to be anxious at that point. At that point in time, Krul could only see that she was a girl who was fearful and hopeless upon seeing the Demon King Army.

“Did that girl look like a bad person to you?”

As he said this, Krul hesitated and averted her gaze without saying anything. Although she didn’t want to recognize it, she couldn’t have thought that the girl was bad at all. She had a sign of purity in her eyes, like that of a human girl, and she appeared too weak to do such a sinister thing.

Even if she saw her now, she couldn’t think about it. She couldn’t feel any ill intent at all from the seemingly sad look in the girl’s eyes.

That girl over there was definitely just a simple girl.

“Certainly, Demons have caused harm to humans. However, even if a portion of that harm was removed, it wouldn’t change anything for the humans. Demons are harmful. That’s why I won’t stop you guys from defeating the Demon King. But Demons are not bad. That’s why I won’t let my friends, who aren’t bad Demons, get killed.”

As he declared this, Kagami broke the sword he had grasped onto with a ‘Bakin’.

Chapter end