Chapter 5

“Unfortunately, it’s the truth,” said Hube. He didn’t mention they’d be excommunicated from the church and continued with a gentle voice. “Arian, you’re the only one who can save our country. Will you defeat the demons?” “……” Arian was silent for a moment and wore a complicated expression, but she raised her head and looked at Tortoise IV. After all, the king carried the burden of governing and guiding this country. Under her serene, saintly gaze, though, Tortoise IV couldn’t help but feel inferior to her. He didn’t have a choice. He had to deliver his order. “Hero Arian, I hereby order you to defeat the Demon King in Dog Valley.” “At your command, even if it takes my life!” Even though she’d just come back from killing the black wolf, Arian showed no indication of fatigue, accepting the king’s orders with a dazzlingly bright smile. She stood, bowed once, and quickly left the audience chamber to start her new journey. Grinning, Hube watched her slim figure depart. “Those despicable demons are as good as dead. Our Goddess has watched over and protected the peace of Boar Kingdom once again,” he said. After Arian defeated the Demon King, her accomplishments would be attributed to him, making him an archbishop—though he obviously didn’t say as much. Watching him, Tortoise IV saw through his ulterior motives and sighed as he stared after the hero as she disappeared. Oh, Arian… You’re too pure and good a child for the blackhearted bishop. He was disgusted at their current circumstances and himself for pushing her to fight the ruthless blue giant. There was only a one-in-a-million chance of defeating him. But if there was anyone who could do so, it was her. That’s precisely why he couldn’t stop her. “But she’s only a young maiden…” Her red hair cascaded down her shoulders as the swordswoman, one of the most powerful magic users in all of Boar Kingdom, walked with pride. The fact that she was so young pained the king’s heart even more. “Ba-ha-ha! Well done, my advisor!” exclaimed the Demon King. At long last, the attacks from the heroes had ended, and peace returned to the castle. To celebrate the occasion, the King held a grand banquet. “It’s all thanks to you, Shinichi. I really can’t thank you enough,” beamed Rino. “I’d also like to thank you from the bottom of my heart,” said Celes, bowing her head deeply to show her gratitude while maintaining her stony expression. “Yeah—! You saved us all, moo!” “Now I can finally get to work on farming, oink.” “Thank you so much!” “Hmm, shall I do something nice to show my appreciation?” At the banquet, Kalbi and Sirloin also offered their praise, alongside many other demons in the human world, including a snake woman and a girl with devil-like wings and a tail. (At least, he thought it was a girl.) All of them thanked Shinichi for managing to chase away the heroes, though he was more uncomfortable receiving so much praise than being surrounded by such a large crowd. “Thanks, but this solution’s only temporary,” he said. To make sure the five heroes would never come back, Celes cast a Gaes spell on them before letting them go. To do so, the other party first had to consent to its conditions, but once cast, it couldn’t be broken, so it was unlikely the heroes would bother them again. Of course, there were ways to break the spell, but finding someone powerful enough to undo Celes’s magic would be tough. She was second only to the King. And on top of that, the heroes had nothing to gain from challenging the King again. However— “That’s enough talk. Drink up! Today, we celebrate!” bellowed the King, letting out a lively burst of laughter to get Shinichi to loosen up. He encouraged him to take a swig. “There’s a bunch of dishes, too,” remarked Rino. “I went into the forest to find ingredients from the human world. I hope you find these foods suit your palate,” said Celes as she and Rino piled food on a plate to pass to him. “Ah, thank you,” he said, expressing his thanks as he took the plate, but his expression was still a bit strained. The food at the “banquet” didn’t live up to its name: It was a somewhat meager spread. They only have water. And is this boar meat and boiled butterbur? The meat hadn’t been properly drained, carrying a strong, gamy smell in its congealed blood. They also neglected to remove the bitterness from the butterbur, rendering them inedible. But— “Wow! Even the water from the human world tastes amazing!” “I can’t believe I get to eat such delicious meat! I’m so glad I came to this world, moo!” “These vegetables are so good, too! I’ll never be able to go back to the demon world, oink!” Raving about the food, the Demon King and his inferiors continued laughing in joy and merriment. Well, I guess it’s a real treat if you compare it to their questionable dishes back home. Out of some perverse curiosity, he’d wanted to sneak into their world to see their food, but he knew he probably wasn’t going to have an opportunity to do so. Especially since I’ll be going back to Earth once this banquet’s over. Lend us your power to defeat the heroes who can indefinitely resurrect. That’s what he’d been asked to do, and now that he’d been successful, there was nothing keeping him here. I know I’m an outsider, and I might cause some problems if I get too involved. But— Even though he could now return to Japan, he wasn’t feeling very happy. He knew the reason why, but he tried to drown his emotions with a glass of water. At that exact moment, he heard the sound of the door to the banquet hall opening. “Your Highness, we have an emergency, woof!” “This situation… It can’t be…!” Shinichi had a bad feeling when he saw the disturbed expression on the dogheaded kobold. “There’s a strong human I’ve never seen before coming this way, woof!” “Of course,” said Shinichi, head in his hands upon hearing the report he feared would come. While they may have defeated the five heroes, there was no guarantee that there weren’t others. “…Maggots. Of course, they’ve come to disrespect me,” muttered the King. He crushed his cup in a murderous rage, angry they’d arrived to ruin the mood. Wind swept around him as he shouted above it, “They certainly have some nerve! If they wish to die so much, I’ll just kill them all!” “Your Highness, please! Only the heroes—” Shinichi tried to ask the King to spare the humans from complete annihilation, but the King left via a Teleport spell halfway through his plea. “Shinichi…,” murmured Rino, peeking at his face uneasily. “Ah well, he causes me trouble, too,” said Shinichi, patting her head with a pained smile. They stood there for five minutes before the King teleported back. Five minutes was definitely not enough time to wipe out all humanity, so Shinichi let out a sigh of relief. Next to him, Rino let out a small shriek. “Daddy, your arm!” “Hmm? Oh, I’m bleeding,” he said, noticing the blue blood trickling down his left arm. “Wh-what the—?!” Shinichi cried out in shock at the sight of the unbelievable scene in front of him. Yes, the cut was so small it could hardly be called an injury, and it disappeared without a trace when the King shook his arm. But this was the same Demon King who’d been completely uninjured by the combined attacks of the five heroes. Something or someone was strong enough to injure him. This was serious enough to make everyone in the room freeze in shock. “The human who arrived today had a really strong backbone. We had a bit of fun before the hero ran away,” laughed the King. His previously sour mood disappeared completely, replaced with a childlike excitement toward his shiny new toy. “Hey, this isn’t something to be happy about!” exclaimed Shinichi. The King was making light of a dangerous situation. Someone could actually hurt him. Shinichi couldn’t contain his worries and fears, but the demons’ reactions were entirely different. “Huh, it’s pretty impressive a human would be able to hurt Your Highness, moo!” “What kind of fighting style did they use, oink? Please tell us, oink!” “Ha-ha-ha, I’ll tell you everything. Now don’t be so hasty,” the King playfully warned the excited pack of demons crowding around him. “No. No, what’s with this reaction?!” interrupted Shinichi, overwhelmed with disbelief. The maid stared at him as if he were the strange one. “Yes, this person is an enemy, strong enough to rival the King. But people of great strength are venerable and virtuous. What’s your problem?” she asked. “Whaaat!” erupted Shinichi in a daze upon hearing Celes was also a muscle-headed warmonger. His last hope lay with Rino, but when he looked over at her, he saw a complicated expression that suggested resignation. “I don’t think it’s right they can do whatever they want just because they’re strong…,” Rino pointed out. But she knew that this was the status quo. Their world had a dog-eat-dog mentality, and she didn’t say it with much force or conviction. We have some things in common, like the desire to eat good food. But they’re a completely different species with completely different customs, after all… Even on Shinichi’s home planet, one could experience culture shock by the simple act of crossing an ocean, and people were up in arms all the time for so-called peace or human rights. But it was always the strongest who resolved these conflicts and became the hero. Perhaps the demons had it easier. At least they didn’t try to save face. As Shinichi was lost in his train of thought, the King finished recounting the story, turning toward him. “Well, that was an unexpected development,” he said, “but let’s continue with the celebration. You’ve done much for us, and it’d reflect poorly on me as the Blue Demon King if I didn’t properly show my gratitude before you left.” “…Huh?” Shinichi found himself at a momentary loss for words. He hadn’t anticipated this. “I’m allowed to leave?” “Well, yes, I originally called you to handle that irritating lot.” “But there’s a new hero now, right?” “There is, but this one was clever enough to withdraw upon realizing the difference in our power. I don’t imagine this human’ll engage in the same idiotic plan as the last ones.” He must have picked up on something during their battle. He seemed certain the new challenger wasn’t going to rely on rapid-succession resurrection. “But…” Shinichi was uncertain if he should even say this aloud. “If this hero gets stronger and comes back, what happens if you lose—or die?” The King was undeniably the most powerful being in this world. But even though he wasn’t capable of aging or dying, he certainly wasn’t invincible. After all, his newest challenger was strong enough to injure him. If that person got stronger and gathered allies of equal strength, he could be defeated once and for all. Could the King really just ignore someone trying to kill him? Any normal human would think of some other way to eliminate the threat, but this was a different world, and Shinichi’s sense of normalcy just didn’t apply here. And to top it all off, he was talking to the King of the demon world. “If I lose—and I honestly cannot imagine that happening—there’s nothing I can do. The strongest wins and takes everything; the weakest is defeated and loses everything. That’s the way of this world,” mused the King without an inkling of fear on his face. Rather, he seemed eager to fight an opponent who could really challenge him. “I see. As expected from the Demon King.” Shinichi admired the straightforwardness of his resolve. I wonder if the Demon Kings in video games feel the same way. He was too weak willed to fully understand the Demon King’s words, but he had no desire to belittle or criticize him. Looking around, he saw not only Celes but also the orcs and minotaurs agreeing with their King. Only Rino’s face looked doubtful, but she expressed no uneasiness or disapproval. No one was trying to keep Shinichi here. The tightness in his chest was his own fears and anxieties. What’ll happen to them if I go home? Would they all end up dead at the hands of stronger heroes? Or would the King be able to keep fending them off? Would they give up and flee back to the demon world? Or would they call another human like Shinichi? There were so many possibilities. And some of them would end in catastrophe. Then again, he couldn’t guarantee he could help them push back and win. If Shinichi were prioritizing his own life, he’d return to Japan, to safety and peace. That was the only certainty. But can I be happy if I leave now? The King, Rino, Celes, all the other demons he’d met and spoken with—they could all die. If he was the only one safe, could he act like it never happened and be happy again? No, that’d be terrible. For a moment, the image of a smiling young girl floated in his mind, and Shinichi slowly shook his head. He didn’t care that much about others. He was simply a selfish human. In fact, there were children on the other side of Earth who were starving to death or thrown onto battlefields with weapons. Yet, he could eat just fine, play his games, and sleep in his warm bed without feeling any sort of guilt, just like any normal human. His feelings weren’t about justice or integrity. Quite the contrary. His motivation was a very egocentric reason: I’d be sad to know my friends died. He knew very well how wrong it was to join forces with the demons to wreak havoc on his own kind. He knew an outsider shouldn’t get so involved in another world. He knew what the established social standards were. But he had no desire to yield to them. He was an average, twisted person, a far cry from some sort of saint. He just wanted to share joy with people he liked and laugh at the misery of those he didn’t, and most of all— It’d be really boring to leave now. Shinichi’s mouth stretched into a big smirk. He’d been summoned to a fantasy world to act as an advisor to the Demon King. There’s no way he’d choose to end such a rare, wonderful experience in just a few days. It’s not like I have any dreams to fulfill back on Earth anyway. He didn’t have grand goals or skills to become someone like an athlete or a chemist. And it went without saying he didn’t have a girlfriend. He was a little concerned his parents might be worried, but they really shouldn’t expect any more from their idiot son. He didn’t need to be told his life would be in danger. People died when their time came. He’d learned that ten years ago. With all this in mind, he began verbalizing his inner desires into existence. “Your Highness, may I request my reward for defeating the heroes?” he asked with grand formality. “Hmm, oh yes. You may have anything you wish—other than my daughter,” the King cautiously warned, sensing a sudden change in Shinichi’s voice. Without a word, the boy put on the mask with the twisted smile to say, “Well then, please command me to defeat the new hero.” “Shinichi, you…,” began the King. “What?!” yelped Rino. Looking at his masked face, the two uttered their surprise. “Is this what you wish for?” asked Celes with a faint shadow of doubt on her normally impassive face. There was a chance this frail human boy would be destroyed beyond resurrection if he chose to accompany them. “Would it not be better for you to go home and drink your little sister’s milk?” “Stop making everything about sex! Also! I’m an only child!” Shinichi laughed with some force. This might have been her way of expressing concern. “I’m staying because my food won’t taste as good tomorrow if I chose to abandon lovely ladies like you and Rino.” “Shinichi…,” said Rino, blushing, almost moved to tears by his sudden compliment. Even the corners of Celes’s mouth twitched ever so slightly. “In other words, you’d like to drink Lady Rino’s milk?” she asked nefariously. “What the—?!” “What?! But I don’t even have breasts yet!” objected Rino. “Shinichi, come over here for a moment,” snarled the King. Looking back at Rino’s bright red face, Shinichi tried to get the conversation back on track. “Anyway! Your Highness, please allow your masked advisor Smile to defeat the hero. I’ll drive away any who dare trouble you and Lady Rino,” Shinichi declared, putting on an air of righteousness as he delivered this line. Following his lead and finally understanding his resolve, the King spoke in a serious voice. “Fine, then. The Blue Demon King, Ludabite Krolow Semah, orders you to use your wisdom and defeat the fool who stands against us demons!” he announced. “Understood!” “Also, get my lovely daughter Rino some really good food!” he added. “Oh, come on! Can’t you just be cool for once?” chided Shinichi as he playfully punched this massive helicopter parent on the shoulder. It went without saying that the only pain was to the back of Shinichi’s hand.