And currently, there are so many rats in this place.

  My aide, who saw such a scene, couldn’t keep their composure.

  Honestly, I’m also getting annoyed since they’re noisy.

  「Tarabos, they seem to be noisy since a while ago. Do you know what’s causing them to act that way?」


  「My deepest apologies, Ulbard-sama. It seems we have an intruder.」


  Tarabos replied as he bowed to me.

  「Intruder? But they’re just mere humans, right? They’re not supposed to be a big deal.」


  Why are they making a big deal of those humans?

  And then, he replied,

  「About that, it seems that the Hero of Light and his comrades are amongst those intruders.」


  I blanked for a moment upon hearing that completely unexpected answer.

  And then, I stood up as soon as I snapped out of my daze.

  「What’s the meaning of this!!?」


  Tarabos prostrated the moment I shouted at him for confirmation.

  「M-MY DEEPEST APOLOGIES!! I AlSO HAVE NO IDEA WHY THE HERO CAME DOWN TO THIS PLACE!!」


  I smacked my lips.

  I realized that this human was truly useless.

  「Since the hero has come to this place, we should retreat.」


  I started to chant the area teleport magic as soon as I spoke.

  But, I failed to invoke the magic.

  「ULBARD-SAMA!! THERE’S BARRIER THAT SEALS TELEPORTATION FIXED AROUND THIS PLACE!! WE’RE TRAPPED IN THIS PLACE!!」


  My aide told me with a flustered voice.

  What’s the meaning of this?

  I was pondering about this strange turn of events.

  And then, I noticed.

  「ZAND, YOU BASTARD!! HOW DARE YOU TO BETRAY US!!」


  I let my guard down. That bastard said that his goal was to kill both that Hero and Lord Diehart. While in fact, his true goal was to eliminate us.

  But, nothing can be done right now as he had already cornered and trapped us in this place.

  And I couldn’t win against the hero.

  Despite my previous loss against the hero, I was still a Daemon Lord, the aide of Our honored Great Demon King. A lowly god like Zand wouldn’t have a chance to defeat me in frontal combat.

  But, the strength of Hero of Light and co were amongst the top ranks of Gods.

  I recalled the memories when I fought the Hero and co back then.

  I fought a fierce magic combat against the one called Black Haired Sage. The result was my crushing defeat. My confidence in the fact that I wouldn’t lose even to a god when it comes to magic combat was completely shattered on that day.

  In addition, my confidence was shattered in just a moment, not after a long, drawn out battle.

  Their strength had already shot through the roof, it was simply incomprehensible.

  Even that mighty Runfeld was beaten black and blue by the hero.

  We have to escape from this place, otherwise, they’re going to kill us.

  「TARABOS!!」


  I shouted at Tarabos.

  「Yes!! At your command!!」


  「GO AND REVIVE BADON!! NOW!!」


  But, Tarabos only tilted his head, looking at me with a confused look on his face.

  「But, at this rate, our plans will…」


  「JUST DO IT!! THIS IS AN ORDER!!」


  I controlled Tarabos using domination magic.

  Thereupon, Tarabos’ eyes lost its light.

  Domination was successful. Now all that was left was to revive Badon.

  「And then, Zeal, where is that guy?」


  I’m gonna use that guy to stop the hero and co.

  「Ulbard-sama, Zeal already left a while ago. It seems that his female acquaintance is amongst the intruders thus he went to save her.」


  My aide replied to me.

  「What in the hell is that guy doing during such time?」


  I was having a headache due to that one guy’s haphazard action.

  But, it was too late to bring him back now.

  Let’s focus on destroying the barrier used by Zand to trap us in this place. We’re running out of time.

  「DON’T UNDERESTIMATE ME, ZAND!! FOR I AM ONE OF THE DAEMON LORD WHO SERVES UNDER THE DEMON KING!! DON’T THINK I CAN’T SMASH APART THE BARRIER CREATED BY WEAK GOD LIKE YOU!!」


  ***

  ◆Dark Knight; Kuroki

  I, along with Kuna, was riding on Glorious’ back as she flew over the Minon Plains.

  I’d hugely underestimated the Minon Plains’ size- it was almost as big as North India.

  But, Glorious’ flying speed could easily cross over a plain of that size.

  Upon looking down from the air, I found several human countries in the Minon plains. But, the number of those countries seemed to be lacking when compared to the size of the Minon plains itself.

  The main reason might be because of the monsters.

  There were only a small number of monsters in the Minon plains. But, that was only if it was compared to the other regions.

  Despite their small numbers, monsters still exist in the Minon plains.

  Fundamentally, monsters were creatures who hated sunlight. For that reason, monsters rarely appeared during the day in an ultra-sized open field like the Minon plains. That’s why the monster damage around this region was far lower compared to the other regions.

  But, the night aside, monsters such as goblins were active even during rainy or cloudy days. For that reason, aside from sunny days, the humans living in this region stay inside their house within the ramparts.

  We were following the river that flows along the Minon plains from the north.

  Finally, we were arriving in the north of the Minon plains, the Ruhak mountain range.

  The area beyond Ruhak mountain range to the north was outside of the Ariad union. In addition, that place was the living place of many orc tribes.

  In the past, that northern land was the place where orc tribes built their empire to conquer human tribes. It was dubbed the「Northern Empire ruled by orc.」


  Though that empire eventually was overthrown by human’s desperate resistance, the remnants of the empire were still living to this day, tormenting the human tribes.

  In addition, since the orcs of northern lands came to the Minon plain every once in a while, the countries located in the northern part of the Ariad union were always vigilant toward any kind of signs of orcs.

  We were descending in the great forest at the feet of the Ruhak mountain range.

  Though there were many open fields in the Minon plains, a great forest spread in the northern part which is close to the Ruhak mountain range.

  There shouldn’t be a problem if Glorious descended in this place.

  I mean, I could only imagine the uproar humans would make once they saw Glorious descending in the plains. For that reason, we came to the northern part of the Minon plains.

  There was a beautiful, clear fountain near our landing site. It was a perfect place for a short break.

  「Ha~h. We can’t find him after all.」


  I heaved a sigh.

  I wonder where is Ulbard right now?

  Though I used the information networks from the branches of Atlankua’s company which spread in the countries in the Minon plains and even searched for his trace from the air, I still failed to find Ulbard.

  I mean, it’s not like Ulbard or his aides were daemons specialized in covert action either. That’s why I thought that I could find him easily. It might have been an error on my part.

  「It doesn’t really matter, Kuroki. He can take care of himself after all. Kuna is happy enough to be able to enjoy an air trip with Kuroki.」


  I was really happy when Kuna said those words. I mean, I never had a cute girl say something like that to me before.

  And for some reason, I felt like I was going to cry any moment right now.

  Unable to bear her overloaded cuteness, I ended up hugging Kuna.

  But, it doesn’t mean that I had to give up looking for Ulbard.

  「Thanks Kuna. But still, let’s try looking for Ulbard for a while longer.」


  I told her so as I embraced her.

  「But, do you have a clue about his whereabouts, Kuroki?」


  Kuna asked while tilting her head.

  Sure enough, she was right. I had no clue at all about Ulbard’s whereabouts.

  I mean, was he really in the Republic of Ariadya?

  If he is in the Republic of Ariadya, why couldn’t I feel his presence? That’s why I thought that he was simply in another place, but why couldn’t I still find him?

  If I knew this would happen, it might have been far easier for me to go looking for Zeal.

  I could ask for Zeal’s whereabouts from Ainoe before, but the latter ended up being apprehended by Reiji and co. Thus, effectively preventing me from asking her.

  Reiji and co seem to have brought Ainoe along with them into the underground waterway. Thus, Zeal was most likely hiding in the underground waterway. But, he might have a hard time approaching her since she was under constant surveillance by Reiji and co.

  What should I do now that things have become even more complicated than before?

  「Haaah… what should I do now?」


  I heaved a sigh as I muttered those words.

  「If you don’t know what to do, how about taking a break for a while, Kuroki? You might find a solution after a brief rest.」


  Kuna whispered to me with an enchanting smile on her face. Honestly, I almost pounced on her the moment she showed such a smile.

  That’s just how irresistable her smile was.

  But well, Kuna was right. Let’s take a break for now and think of a solution later.

  「You’re right. Let’s take a break.」


  Thus, we took a break.

  I spread the sheet that we brought along today and prepared some tea.

  Due to her size, there was no problem even if we also carried tea utensils on Glorious’ back. On a side note, we also brought a basket containing a light meal along with us.

  The light meal was composed of fresh vegetables sandwiched between bread made from high quality wheat. There was also a cookie made with lots of honey and dried fruit for the sweets.

  The beverage was tea made from a local plant of this region.

  All of this was prepared by Kuna, Regena, me, and Sienna right before our departure.

  Since we made too much, the rest was for Regena and Sienna.

  Nevertheless, I’ve been wondering what Sienna is doing right now.

  She did say that she went to the underground waterway to save her brother. That’s why I gave her my handmade katana.

  Honestly I only knew her for a while but I did feel some compassion for her. Thus, I wished for her safety.

  After finishing all the preparation, we sat on the laid out sheet, enjoying the beautiful scenery and the refreshing wind from the forest.

  「It’s really comfortable, Kuroki.」


  After she ate a sandwich and cookie, Kuna lied down, using my thigh as a lap pillow.

  It didn’t take that long for her to fall asleep.

  Honestly, it was supposed to be the opposite right? I mean, it was usually the man who slept using a woman’s lap pillow right?

  But, seeing Kuna’s innocent sleeping face, I thought that such a thing was a trivial matter.