CHAPTER 4 Vs. the Tiger King! 1 The day after the chaos involving Adelie. Having been invited to the palace to discuss yesterday’s events, Alice and I are consulting with Tillis on how to proceed. “Based on Ms. Adelie’s reaction yesterday, there’s a possibility she’ll exaggerate our threat to her leaders, and they’ll be moving to attack us. So I would like to request that Kisaragi serve as reinforcements under that eventuality.” The crystal ball that Adelie gave to Tillis adopted a particularly impressive shade of black. I mean, it was even darker than when the former Demon Lord’s Army leadership or employees of an evil organization touched it. Whatever else she might be, Tillis is a princess. The sight of her freezing in place as the crystal turned a darker shade of black than for anyone else invited some pity. “…Well, a Combat Agent’s only value is in their fighting ability, so we don’t mind the fighting part…” “…What is it? If you have something you wish to say, please don’t hold back.” As I sip the tea poured by the maid, I ask Tillis, “Tillis, were you actually the Demon Lord all along?” “That’s going too far, even for you, Sir Six! Please don’t take what she said seriously!” I don’t know what got into Adelie, but when she saw the crystal turn coal-black, she blurted out an odd remark, “So the true Demon Lord was here… So the saga of the Chosen One defeating the Demon Lord hasn’t started yet…!” After proclaiming Tillis to be the true Demon Lord, she escaped our cordon and fled the Grace Kingdom, but… “I’m already getting comments from the people in the castle. So far I’ve heard, ‘Your Highness, your method of governance isn’t wrong! Even if you are the Demon Lord, Your Highness, we’ll follow you to the bitter end!’ as their attempts at encouragement, so please don’t add to that…!” With that, Tillis looks rather dejected, an unusual sight for her. It seems that being called the scheming princess behind her back is actually bothering her. Alice speaks even as she tries to show some consideration for the deflated Tillis. “Her objective isn’t clear, but she does seem to value the legends surrounding the Demon Lord. If anything, she made it sound like it’d be a problem if the legends didn’t come true.” “Frankly, it’s all quite bothersome! The whole matter of the Demon Lord has already been settled!” True. Even for us, given that we’ve already recruited Vi and accepted the demons into our settlement, we can’t have Adelie messing up our arrangement. Which meant we were fine with being hired as reinforcements, but that still leaves us with a problem. “…She was really strong…” “Ah…” Tillis lets out a sigh at my words. In truth, yesterday we had a bunch of combat-ready people assembled—myself included. And yet Adelie was able to meet our might head-on and then make her escape. “It’s true that the fighting ability on this culturally and technologically backward planet is quite a threat. The Elite Four aside, she was even at the level of Earth’s Heroes.” “Yeah, that’s just it… Heine and Russell’s magic attacks weren’t very effective. And when she grappled with us Combat Agents, not only did she match our strength, but she was actually pushing us back. All that despite the fact that this planet’s residents are supposed to be weak…” “Ahem, I find both your observations a bit rude.” Tillis, a denizen of this planet, protests with a look of displeasure, but there’s definitely something wrong when Adelie can match a technologically enhanced Combat Agent wearing power armor with only her physical abilities. While Viper also has the power to knock over the Sand King with a mere kick, that is a fighting style that utilizes time manipulation and is only usable by the Demon Lord. She accelerates her own body’s speed when attacking while slowing the time of the impact location on contact. In doing this, the objects become due to the stopped time, crash together at high speeds, and impart a substantial amount of kinetic energy. This means that Viper’s fighting style requires magic to use, but it doesn’t look like Adelie needs any magic to fight. To make matters worse, her combat techniques are on par with those from Earth. “I don’t mind sending you our Combat Agents, but this opponent’s a different matter from the usual riffraff. We’ll need you to pay us way more this time around. I mean, the cause of this whole incident is because a corrupt governor from your kingdom went and assumed power in our Hideout City and caused all sorts of problems, then it was sealed by your scheming nature, Princess.” “No, since Snow’s currently been assigned to you, it’s Kisaragi’s responsibility to keep an eye on her. As for the scheming, putting aside the fact that royals need to be schemers to a certain extent, all of Kisaragi’s people seem a bit too corrupt as well, no? It seems she considered Kisaragi with quite a bit of hostility, so I doubt she’ll just stop at making an enemy of us. So our payment would be…” Just as Alice and Tillis start trying to push the blame on each another as part of negotiations… I hear someone dashing down the hallway, and shortly after, there is a loud knock on the door. “Your Highness! We have a problem! Someone has been distributing these throughout the city!” The subject of the conversation, Snow, has burst through the door without waiting for a response. Tillis, elegantly taking a sip from her teacup, furrows her brow. “What is it, Snow? Why are you in such a panic? …And what are you holding?” Snow holds out a piece of paper as she bends over and tries to catch her breath. “Oh, well if it isn’t the corrupt governor who neither the Grace Kingdom nor Kisaragi wants to be responsible for.” “S-Six, how dare you say that! Saying no one wants to be responsible for me is an exaggeration. Sure, I may have gone a little far at times, but that’s what all nobles do in this kingdom. If anything, considering that I’m producing results, I’m probably better than they are… Isn’t that right, Your Highness? And Alice, I’ve been doing pretty well at Kisaragi, haven’t I?” Snow fails to show any remorse for her actions, but I’m more interested in the sheet of paper she was holding. Since I can’t read the language of this Kingdom, I have Alice translate for me. “It seems to be a bounty for ‘Demon Lord Tillis’ issued by the Hiiragi Agency of Order. The reward is fifty thousand gold pieces.” Tillis—who was taking a sip of her tea—does an impressive spit take, prompting Snow to wipe her face with the paper as though nothing out of the ordinary has happened. “I believe this is the spy woman up to her tricks again! No doubt she’s aiming to incite a rebellion by your subordinates by placing a bounty on Your Highness! But I, Snow, though fond of money, really am truly loyal to you, Your Highness! With it being so difficult to know who to trust, now is the time to make me knight commander once again! Please believe me, Your Highness. I love not only money and magic swords but power and authority as well! If anything, during times like this, you can trust a woman like me more than those who ply you with flowery words!” Snow lets loose a litany of reasons that sound both convincing and unconvincing at the same time, but there’s something almost refreshing about her honesty. Tillis’s cheek twitches as she stares at the paper before her expression softens into a small smile at Snow’s insistent pleading. “I trust that no one in this palace, Snow included, will stay loyal to me… However, it’s also true that there are nobles who disagree with my policies. There’s no need to be paranoid about them, but simply leaving them to their devices would also be a problem…” “Curse them! This is why nobles who care only about themselves are lower than dirt! What would they have a problem with, given Your Highness’s perfect public policies?!” “It seems the upper class has a problem with your consistent screwups.” While Alice’s quip causes Snow to avert her gaze, I study the wanted poster… “<Hey, Alice. How much is fifty thousand gold pieces in Earth money?>” “<The gold pieces circulating around here are about thirty grams apiece. So it’s roughly about ten billion yen.>” Alice’s estimate stuns me into silence, prompting Tillis to hide behind Snow’s back. “It rather unnerves me when you go quiet after a conversation in your native tongue…” Just as Tillis voices her concern… …the bells indicating danger ring out across the city of Grace. 2 Doing her best to mask the tremors in her voice, Snow addresses Grace Kingdom’s army. “You may have already heard, but the enemy we face is a giant monster with little in the way of brains! The main weapon of we humans is our intelligence! There’s no need to face it head on! If we attack it with long-range weapons, we should be able to subdue it without suffering a single casualty!” Snow—who has accrued an impressive number of screwups over the past few months, then further sullied her reputation with blatant corruption—puts on a brave face, as if blind to the mountain of chips stacked against her. While I am skeptical about letting this crooked knight take command of the monster-extermination mission, it seems that she actually has a decent reputation as a military commander. According to Tillis, Snow has a finger on the pulse of the everyday soldier’s motivation, perhaps due to her own humble beginnings. She also expanded her network of connections to nobles and knights as she clawed her way up the chain of command, and she is well versed in how to deal with prideful individuals like nobles, so if you willfully ignore her rotten core, she is, in fact, a pretty decent commander. “Hey, Alice, her voice is kinda shaky. Are you sure she can handle this? Do you think she’s scared because she hasn’t seen real combat in a while?” “Meh, let’s pretend she’s just excited. If she can produce results in this mission, she can go back to being the captain of the Royal Guard. This could be the redemption she’s been waiting for.” During our consultation with Tillis, emergency bells chimed, signaling the approach of a giant monster nearing the kingdom’s border. We hadn’t expected Adelie to make a move so quickly. But Snow, who was present when the alarm rang out, was tasked with defeating or capturing the beast. And if, by chance, she is to fail her assignment… “Formally joining Kisaragi as an employee? Kisaragi’s not a dumping ground for screwups.” “Either way, if she can’t pull her weight this time, she’ll be fired. She’s got a lot of flaws, but she’s still half-decent in a fight, so we can probably find a use for her. Besides, corruption is a clear-cut act of villainy. If she worked for us, something like that wouldn’t be a problem.” Well…Snow may have a garbage personality, but she’s still hot as hell and knows her way around the battlefield. She’s morally bankrupt, but we do belong to an evil organization, so… …I guess we can look the other way when it comes to corruption. “…No, I almost went along with it, but Snow’s underhandedness even puts Lady Lilith to shame. I’ve been working for an evil organization for a long time, and I still find Snow’s actions excessive.” She’s more than “a little” corrupt. It wasn’t until after she was caught that we got the full scope of just how bad things were under her watch. “Yep, while corruption is run-of-the-mill in a backward society, she simply has no sense of moderation. Usually, the more money involved, the more the corrupt actor starts pumping the brakes because they’re afraid of just how deep a hole they’ve potentially dug themselves into, but Snow’s greed knows no limits. The amount of assets we seized was enough to buy a private estate in the Grace Kingdom.” What happened to the proud knight I once knew? After Alice confiscated her ill-gotten gains, Snow’s disgraceful crying and pleading made it impossible to reconcile that person with the woman I’d met when I first got here. “What really gets me is that she was able to keep things running despite the fact that she was accepting bribes and skimming off the top. The merchants, the city’s residents, even the laborers considered her a capable governor. How the hell was she able to get such a great price for the construction contracts despite the fact that she still got good work and wasn’t cutting corners on material fees…?” …When it comes to making money, she can be pretty damn terrifying. Since Kisaragi technically benefitted from all her gains, maybe it would’ve been a good idea to let her run the show a little longer… Still, using company funds without permission and then embezzling it is a crime, even if it benefits the company. At Kisaragi, internal embezzling and corruption as forms of villainy are actually strongly discouraged. “All right, we’re nearing the Grace Kingdom’s border! All of you, keep your wits about you and…!” Astride her unicorn at the head of the army, Snow shouts encouragement at the soldiers behind her. Since she’s about to go from a debt-ridden knight to a criminal knight if things keep going the way they are, it is easy to see why she’s so motivated. I am walking a short distance away from the army as the soldiers drag siege weapons like catapults and ballistae along the ground. The reinforcements from Kisaragi consist of me, Alice, and the ex-Elite Four members. Grimm and Rose aren’t here, but that’s because when we woke up this morning, we found Grimm’s corpse sprawled out on the ground. Since there was a voodoo doll and five-inch nails discovered near her body, we assumed she’d accidentally offed herself again. I’m not sure who taught her about Japanese curses, but we can just ask her about that when we revive her for the umpteenth time. Rose had her hands full carrying Grimm’s body to the temple for resurrection, and we left the other Combat Agents back at Hideout City. There’s also a good chance that this giant monster is a decoy. We’d heard from our scouting parties that a giant monster was protecting Toris, so it’s safe to assume that the enemy has a means of controlling giant monsters. Alice has already declared that this giant monster is a living weapon belonging to Hiiragi. As I watch the army trudge along in front of me, I call over to the demon contingent: “You know, that reminds me. Isn’t it usually the job of the Demon Lord’s Army to control monsters and send them off to battle? Come to think of it, I don’t believe I’ve ever seen you guys act like the genuine leaders.” ““?!”” The former members of the Elite Four snap to attention after hearing that. “Wh-what did you just say about us?!” “I can’t let that comment slide. I’m pretty sure I had the airs of an elite demon. Back when I fought you, Six, I used a giant robot that I found in the ruins and almost killed you, remember?” Looks like I struck a nerve. “I mean, the only thing Heine ever did was get dragged into pervy situations at the drop of a hat. And Russell, you just ended up being a weak throwaway character. I think Gadal-whatever of the Earth was the most ‘elite’ of the Elite Four.” At my honest appraisal, Heine and Russell stop dead in their tracks. “…I’ve been thinking this for a while, but you really don’t give us enough credit.” “Yeah, it seems like we’ve been too friendly recently, and you’ve forgotten who we are. Six, you realize that there’s two of us here, don’t you?” The fan-service demon and the chimera maid stare daggers at me. “Vi, Vi, they’re trying to pick a fight with me even though I’m their boss. Could you put them in their place, please? All I said was that it should be the demons going around controlling giant monsters.” “Uh-Umm… Listen, you two. Mr. Six is technically your boss, so you shouldn’t get so up in arms over small matters.” “N-no fair, Six! Don’t hide behind Lady Viper!” “Y-yeah! Picking a fight and then tattling? What are you, five?! Fight like a man!” …I stand in front of Russell and hike up his skirt. “Wai—!! Wh-what are you doing in public…?” When Russell moves in a panic to hold down the hem of his skirt, I take the opportunity to circle around behind him. I then put him in a choke hold… “Hey, Six! Russell’s foaming at the mouth! Okay, okay, we’ll accept you’re stronger than us, so let him go! Let go!” “M-Mr. Six, please stop! It looks really bad when you put someone who looks like a little girl into a choke hold…!” I wipe my brow with satisfaction after I show Russell who’s boss. “Y-you’re still surprisingly ruthless to a childlike Russell… Especially given how cutely he’s dressed…” “I think you should worry more about the fact that Russell seems completely at home dressing that way. He actually gave the appropriate response to having his skirt hiked up.” Viper, unable to abandon her former subject, picks Russell up and puts him on her back. Just then, a buzz travels through the part of the army Snow is leading. And when I look over to see what’s happening… “There’s the giant monster!” …the scouts shout out at the top of their lungs. Snow’s voice rings out over the troops. “All units, take your positions! Show them the determination of the Grace Kingdom’s army!” Even though Snow’s voice is thick with enthusiasm, the soldiers are moving sluggishly. They aren’t fighting an invader that is threatening them but a giant monster. There is no guarantee that the monster will harm the Grace Kingdom if left alone. At the lack of motivation among the soldiers, Snow calls out again: “I know how you feel! I’d probably be unmotivated too if I were you! I understand that you’d be hesitant to fight, especially given that the war with the demons has finally come to an end! But remember! The war is over!” The soldiers tilted their heads curiously at Snow’s desperate plea. “At this rate, the army will stand down and our budget will plummet. If that happens, just how many of you here will end up jobless…?” The soldiers all go pale at her statement, and Snow raises an arm. “But I promise you, brothers! If we defeat this giant monster, I’ll let the kingdom’s leadership know just how much you’re all needed! And even if we cannot defeat it, I promise that I’ll get those of you who fought valiantly off the list of downsizing candidates!”
Chapter 79
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