The two girls began wrestling with each other.
Tsutsumi timidly raised her hands to stop them while Jin and Proto kept watching the restoration work down below, rolling their eyes in exasperation.
“At least I don’t intentionally commit heinous acts!”
“Yeah, well, at least I’m not some idiot with zero self-awareness!”
“What did you just saaay—?!”
“I’ll show you—!!”
The fun and games, however, soon came to a screeching halt.
“I thought you would all be thrown into the dungeons, but instead I find you’ve been given promotions. How inconvenient…”
A man’s voice interrupted them from behind.
Homura spun around, coming face to face with a man who had a sickly-looking complexion. His clothing was refined—there was a sense of pomp about it—yet it looked just as worn and beaten as his face.
“I can’t believe five little girls were all it took to foil my pla—”
“It was yooou—!!”
Homura instantly released a burst of explosive flame from her palm, before the man even had time to finish speaking. He was helplessly consumed in the flames.
“Well, that’s one Dark Army lieutenant down…,” Homura said coldly, her eye brimming with flame.
However…
“Such a fiery temper. That’s the problem with humans…”
The man was suddenly standing in a different spot. To be more accurate, he had just grown from that spot. He had formed himself from the stones of the castle wall in the same way that the colossus had used the earth to repair itself.
“I can understand why you would be angry. I did not care for this plan very much myself.”
“No one asked you.” Jin lopped off the man’s head.
“That won’t kill me,” the man replied, placing his fallen head back onto his shoulders.
Proto smooshed him with her hammer next.
“I just told you! I’m not going to die!” The man sprang up from a different location. “What is wrong with you girls?!”
The man seemed angry, but at least the girls had finally stopped attacking him. He stared at them for a moment and took a deep breath.
“I was responsible for leading the charge. That colossus was created using my magic. But I did not plan it. The commander general, my superior, has…unsavory tastes. I do not always appreciate the situations she puts me in.”
There were cracks in the man’s face, around his eyes, like fissures in dry mud. It was proof that he wasn’t human. The way he sprang from the earth did not seem like the result of magic alone.
“Yeah, we’ve got a pretty unsavory commander general of our own to deal with,” said Homura.
“Quit trying to one-up a demon!” Psycho said, bopping Homura on the head. “In any case, you were with the last Dark Lord’s army, weren’t you?”
“You’ve done your research.”
The man clapped slowly, but there was no spirit in the gesture.
“You can call me the Lord of Sod… I’ve long since given up my old name.”
“The Lord of Sod…?”
“‘Lord’?! Does that mean…?!”
Homura’s eyes went wide.
“Don’t jump to conclusions. I am not the Dark Lord. He was the one who told me to adopt this title… I am one of his top generals, though. His babysitter, I suppose you might say. The Dark Lord is around the same age now as you five are. A very precocious age. He thinks that if we are to rule the world, we must have names to match. Not that I have any interest in such a position.”
The Lord of Sod shrugged in an exaggerated fashion.
“I am only here to exchange a friendly greeting this time. I look forward to our next meeting, though it may not be on such good terms.”
Homura engulfed the man in flames once more.
“Were you raised in a barn?!” the man shouted, sprouting up once more. “Tsk… And here I came to repair your wall for you.”
The man waved his hand, and the broken wall began to return to its original form. The soldiers who had been busy clearing away the rubble stared in awe as their work did itself before their eyes. Those among the crowd who were already familiar with the Lord of Sod’s existence, however, could only grimace instead. What was the demon up to?
“What’s in it for you all to do something like that?” asked Psycho.
“For us all? Nothing at all. But there is something in it for me,” the man said enigmatically. “I’m not invested in which side wins. But I am interested in the character of whoever comes out victorious. I do not personally care for Zhorguan, despite their cooperation this time around. They rely on others to do the work while cowering themselves in safety. As cowardly as they are, however, they would not hesitate to attack again if your wall remained in such a state.”
“Your integrity is heartwarming.”
“Indeed. Though I’m sure the commander general will not be happy about this.” Sod lifted his chin in a noble fashion, as if expecting their gratitude. “Of course, I also came to gather intelligence on our enemy. After seeing you five, though, I have had a change of heart.”
“A change of heart?”
Homura readied her staff again.
“Our plan was foiled in the end. Not by the Holy Protectorates of the Shield, but by ordinary, common soldiers. And new recruits, to boot. By you two, with the glasses and the red hair, who destroyed my puppet. By that little demon girl there, who countered the curse we cast on Falmeyr. And by you other two, the one with the long hair and the other one with the tentacles, whatever you are supposed to be. You caused a lot of trouble for us back in Aurerich.”
Sod pointed to each of them in turn. “The other one with the tentacles” was apparently Proto.
“It is unthinkable that Galdorssia, a place that considers the mere existence of monsters to be a sin, would welcome such girls with open arms. Not with such aberrations. I’m guessing that, despite your great achievements, they still expect the impossible from you?”
The girls tensed. The man had just hit the nail on the head. The enemy seemed to know more about them than they had thought. Now was no time to let their guard down.
“Galdorssia is going to chew you girls up and spit you out when it’s through.”
“What are you trying to say?” Psycho asked, glaring at him.
“Now, now, no need to be angry. Personally, I’m impressed by everything you have done,” Sod said. He furrowed his brows as if he could not understand why the girls should react with such hostility. “What I wish to say is…”
The Lord of Sod’s next words left the girls speechless.
“…have you considered joining the Dark Lord’s army instead?”