Tsuyokute New Saga (LN)

While being wary of their surroundings, Kyle’s group carefully moved forward, when they reached another open space. This seemed to be used as a sort-of residential space, equipped with furniture like a table or chairs. What entered their eyes next was Gazas, tied up and lying on the ground. Seeing him bloody all over, not moving an inch, Lieze immediately ran towards him, confirming his condition.

“Thank god, he’s alive.” She sighed in relief.

“Urk…you are…?”

As he had wounds all over his body, his voice was distorted in pain.

“Don’t talk.” Lieze immediately handed him recovery magic medicine.

“You’re alive? Glad to hear that. However, the problem is that guy.” Kyle looked at the man who sat on the chair, calm as ever despite the sudden appearance of Kyle’s group.

He looked thin and old, but his eyes had kept a strong glare, emitting pressure. However, it was only him and Gazas who were present in the room.

“Who…are you people?” The man slowly opened his mouth, and called out to Kyle’s group, sounding bothered. “No, you don’t need to answer me. Whoever you may be, I have no business with you, so leave.” He spoke indifferently, no emotion in his voice.

“Let me just confirm…You are Mayor Bucks, right?” Kyled asked.

“That’s right…But, that doesn’t matter. You have no business here, and I’m busy.” He seemed to hold no interest whatsoever in Kyle’s group, simply mumbling to himself as he stared into the void.

“But, we have business with you. We warned you before that we’d come meet you no matter what it takes. That’s why we’re here,” Kyle said, when Bucks’ face showed a change.

Like he couldn’t hold back anymore, he shot up from his chair, and screamed with blood red eyes.

“I see, so it’s you! You’re the emissaries sent by Zilgus, right!? It’s because of you all!” He emitted clear hostility, glaring at Kyle’s group.

“Honestly speaking, we don’t exactly represent Zilgus…” Kyle scratched his cheek.

Simply standing up made Bucks gasp for air, and his facial color equally didn’t look that healthy. However, him approaching Kyle made it seem like he was possessed by the devil. That being said, all of that felt like it was the last spark of his dying flame.

“Listen! I won’t let you folks do as you please! Neither will I let the Empire, or Zilgus who try to take the long approach! I won’t hand Callan over to anybody! I’ll protect it myself!” It sounded like this roar wasn’t exactly directed at anybody, but rather the mayor himself.

“Protect…What do you mean? All those disappearing, and the sacrifices, it’s your doing, right? What is your goal?”

“My goal!? To bring back glory to Callan! It’s all for the sake of Callan!”

Kyle’s group couldn’t follow what he was saying at all, but it seemed like there was a problem going on with Callan as a whole.

“Soon, they’ll run out…All the mines that act as Callan’s lifeline…” Gazas had taken the healing magic medicine, and explained while coughing. “Especially the mythril, we mostly dug up all of that. The other mines and ores will run out in two, maybe three years as well.”

“I see, so they could only hold out for a thousand years after all.” Shildonia let out a sigh.

“We somehow managed to sweep it under the rug so far, but once we ended up under Zilgus’ rule, we reached that limit…Soon enough, Callan is over.”

Once the mines and ores, the lifeline of a mining city, ran out, Callan would lose its reason to even exist. Even the skilled blacksmiths won’t be able to do anything without materials, losing their jobs and earning no more money.

“I can’t allow that to happen! I’ll return Callan to its former glory! With my own hands! For that, I’ll do anything! Or…have to do anything!” Bucks screamed with blood-shot eyes. “For that, sacrifices are a minor problem…or rather, no problem at all! Rather, they should willingly sacrifice their lives for the greater good! And yet…yet, you get in my way!”

“Hm…You’re sick, yes? A deadly disease. If I had to guess, you probably only have a few more months.” Shildonia spoke up, after calmly observing Mayor Bucks.

“I don’t care about my own life! I simply don’t have much time left!” Bucks staggered forwards, pressing his hand on his chest.

“I see, so the part about you being sick was true. The war between the Empire two years ago, the danger of Callan falling to ruin, and your own impending death…and now, the ones who used that opening in your fragile heart were the demons!” Kyle grumbled, putting as much disgust as he could in his voice.

“Demons? What about them!? I am merely using them!”

“That’s right, you shouldn’t talk badly about others. This is a proper contract.”

Kyle’s group immediately turned towards the calm voice that interrupted their conversation with Bucks. Standing there was the demon with the blue sheep’s horn, possessing somewhat likable facial features, but flashing an eerie grin. Instantly, Kyle’s group moved into fighting formation, their weapons ready, but the male demon was calm despite that.

“We merely brought up this contract to the current mayor. Saying that we may have a method that could bring Callan back to its former glory.”

Seran saw an opening, and was about to attempt a quick attack, but Kyle stopped him with his gaze.

“W-What is this about? Do you know a way of saving Callan!?” Kyle exclaimed, his voice quivering ever so slightly.

“I doubt many members of humanfolk know of this, but Callan is a mountain that has been created with magic. Following that, the veins had been gathered together, and the ores made accessible.” The male demon spoke with confidence and pride in his voice.

“………”

However, as there came no reaction from Kyle’s group, the male demon narrowed his eyes to form a dubious expression. There, Kyle screamed with a purposefully loud and excited voice.

“W-What did you say!? A great magic like that exists!?” His voice was filled with fear and terror.

“Hm? …Yeah, you’re right. If we use that magic, we can gather the veins together again. However, that would require a tremendous amount of magic. For that, we need this forbidden ritual. And, the only ones who can do that are us demons, which is why we brought up the idea of a contract.”

“I-I see! So that’s why you’ve been abducting people…” Kyle wiped his cold sweat away, emitting clear tension. “I-If you call it a contract, then you wanted compensation, yes? W-What’s your goal?”

The male demon seemed to enjoy seeing Kyle’s terror, and nonchalantly answered his question.

“It’s a sword. The sword that struck down our previous Demon Lord-sama. Our current leader has great interest in that sword…Well, as it has stolen the life of their father, I am certain they have their own thoughts about this.”

There, Seran was about to push his body forward in excitement, but Kyle once again stopped him.

“D-Don’t tell me, the Holy Sword Rand is here? I had no idea…” Kyle spoke with shock.

Coming this far, Lieze and the others were giving Kyle a dubious gaze, but the male demon didn’t realize.

“Hehehe, our original goal was to gather information. Starting with Callan, who had brought forth tools that made us demons suffer in the past, we then focused on the power relationships between the various humanfolk races. Through that, we found out about the mayor’s suffering. Since he possessed Rand, we bought up the idea of a trade. Being at this side, we would also be able to gather information, so we were striking two birds with one stone.” The male demon showed a cheerful smile.

“Y-You were doing something like that…”

For a moment, Kyle hesitated to ask something else, but right at that moment, the female demon returned.

“So we have invaders.” The female demon clicked her tongue, to which Kyle clicked his tongue as well.

“Guess this is the limit…Well, it’s fine. I found out everything I needed to.” Kyle pointed his sword at the male demon, showing no signs of his previous terrified and meek attitude, merely provoking the demon. “Hey, sheep horn, I’ll be fighting you.”

“Hm? Quite the abrupt change in attitude, indeed. Is this the so-called desperation?”

“Nah, I just was giving you leisure. Whenever one feels confident, they tend to speak much more easily. Goes for both humanfolk and demons, as you can see.”

There, the male demon realized that maybe he had said too much, and turned red from the shame and anger.

“…I was simply letting you enjoy your last few moments, so don’t act all high and mighty, human.”

“Don’t try to act cool after being embarrassed like that, demon.” Kyle said with an invincible smile.

“It seems as if you won’t understand until I kill you for good.”

This must be the first time the male demon received provocation from a human during such a direct encounter, as his smile disappeared.

“Please wait a moment, we are still in the middle of our mission. We have been ordered to avoid fighting as much as possible.” The female demon shook her head.

“…Having come this far, we need to cancel our mission. Later on, these humans will get in our way. We’ve accomplished the majority of our goals, so let’s leave it at that. Let us retreat.” The male demon said, but the female demon didn’t like that.

“We have yet to retrieve the sword!”

“It cannot be helped, our goal was to gather information, yes? The sword was merely a bonus. Even if the Demon Lord-sama asks for it. If we silence these people, it will be like we never even existed here. On top of that…” The male demon continued before the female one could continue. “I am very much aware that the Demon Lord-sama has taken a great liking to you. However, obtaining that sword is their personal wish, and that doesn’t mean we should ignore everything else for it…Also, I am the one in charge of this mission, do not forget that.”

Being told all that, the female demon could only remain silent.

“W-Wait! What do you mean!? The Holy Sword…do you not need it!?” Bucks pressed one hand on his chest, screaming.

Kyle let out a sigh, and spoke up.

“You’re still saying that? These guys are demons, do you really think they would keep their promise?”

“…What?”

“There’s no way demons would care about any promise they made with a human. Yet here you are, believing their lies…” Kyle let out a sigh.

“That’s quite the misinterpretation. Without this trouble, we would have used the terraforming magic, naturally.” The male demon must have heard Kyle’s words, showing a fiendish smile. “However, it is quite the difficult magic to use, and in the event that it ends in failure, it might grow rampant, which could lead to the entire mountain vanishing from the face of the earth. Sacrificing everything, including their own humanity, and yet still seeing everything fall to ruin…I would have loved to see that expression.” The male demon laughed with an eerie grin, as Bucks froze up.

The moment everything he had heart properly set in, he was about to scream something, only for Seran to move first.

“Guha!?”

He rammed the pommel of his sword into Bucks’ solar plexus, silencing him.

“Can’t have you cause a ruckus now. That being said, dying ain’t an option either…so do that after you’ve taken responsibility.” Seran pushed Bucks’ body onto Gazas, and told him to move away.

After Kyle’s group finished preparing for battle, they faced the demons.

“Now then, you will face that human and that elf woman.”

“However…we cannot kill humanfolk…” The female demon seemed intent on listening to the Demon Lord’s orders, letting out a voice of hesitation, but the male demon just let out an arrogant snort.

“Isn’t it fine? It’s that man, right? The one you tried to silence after he saw you.”

“I was not planning on killing him. Most humanfolk have yet to even encounter a demon, so if I crushed his eyes and throat, he wouldn’t be able to warn the others…”

“What a violent solution you came up with…” Kyle pressed one hand on his eyes and throat, and shook in terror.

“Either way, they seem fully intent on fighting, so we need to erase the sparks before they can catch fire.” The male demon laughed cynically.

“…Hey, Seran. You stay with those two. I’ll take care of that sheep horn guy.”

“You sure? It’ll be one-on-one.”

“Yeah. You said you wanted to fight that female demon, right? I’m more than enough for this guy, so you stay with the girls in case things get too heated.” Kyle said, and added more provocation against the male demon.

“…Very well, I shall grant your wish and play with you a bit…You deal with his group.” The male demon told the female one, his voice riddled with anger.

The female demon seemed to have resigned herself, so she listened to his orders, and the fight began.