Chapter 118 – In the Name of the Father and the Son
As the battle dragged on, it was the Gjallarhorn Mercenary Corps that had been in mind from the beginning that stood out on the side of the Kingdom Army.
The mercenary corps, made up of about a hundred dwarves, mercilessly cut down the demon soldiers in front of them with superpowers comparable to those of beastmen.
“Everybody get out of the way!”
Immediately after, one of the dwarves in the rear came forward carrying a large object.
I looked at it for something, and the muscular Dwarf raised something like a cannon with a handle on top and aimed it at the Iron Golem’s upper body.
“Search!!”
Kwahiaha ─ !!
When the steel awl built into the device was fired with a tremendous roar, the iron golem fell helplessly backwards.
There was a large hole in his chest.
As the golem’s body, which weighed several tons, fell backwards, the soldiers around him scattered in a hurry.
“It’s a pile bunker, that one.”
I felt my heart pounding involuntarily when the pile bunker, which is famous as a dog-fighting man’s weapon, popped out.
I already knew that the dwarves were great warriors and were idiots, but I felt like I was completely attacked for my taste.
One after another, another dwarf threw what appeared to be a grenade and then detonated it in the air with a multiple-shot crossbow.
Hundreds of iron marbles inside burst out in all directions with an explosion and pierced the bodies of the nearby demon soldiers.
From battle axes to pile bunkers to claymore grenades to multi-shot crossbows.
Its fighting power is so good that it deserves the nickname of one of the strongest mercenaries on the continent.
Indeed tactical.
If Gjallarhorn’s mercenaries were active in the Kingdom Army, in the Demon King’s Army, the unemployed corps of Daesoorim were showing tremendous activity.
Beasts, creatures that combine only the strengths of beasts and humans, have innately strong physical abilities and tremendous regenerative abilities.
Even a decent knife cannot scratch their skin, and their teeth and claws wrapped in aura can tear even iron armor like paper.
And even if they were wounded, the shallow wounds quickly healed, so there was no way a normal human could withstand them.
“Quaaaaagh!”
“Fuck! This is crazy!”
“Goddess! Please!”
No matter how much they cried and cried and prayed to God, their God would not save them.
In order to tell you this very obvious fact, the beast soldiers were diligently harvesting human lives.
And the captain who leads all these beastmen, Wear Lion Balter, was showing an activity worthy of the reputation of the demon king’s right hand.
It was because all of them were fighting against the Royal Guard, which was made up of sword expert level Aura users alone.
No, it was rather overwhelming.
Unlike magicians, who specialize in all-out attacks, warriors have no choice but to be at a disadvantage with 1 vs. Many, but he blocks and deflects all attacks as if he had eyes on the back of his head, steadily increasing his damage.
It’s a shame because Helios, the only sword master in the kingdom, was struggling in front of him, but without him, they would have been defeated one by one.
About an hour after the battle started, the human side began to pull back the troops, perhaps because their stamina was running low.
The accumulated damage was the same for both sides, but somehow it was the demon side that was relatively lively.
It was possible because the undead and golems, which accounted for about half of the entire army, did not feel fatigue in the first place.
“Retreat! Retreat!”
“Stand back slowly! If you show your back and run away, he will be the first to die!”
Ridge! Ridge! Ridge! Ridge!
A majestic drum sound echoed across the battlefield.
The humans who were put on the defensive chose a strategic retreat.
Soon after, an order came from the leadership of the Demon King’s Army.
“Don’t overdo the chase, reorganize your lines. We’re not without damage either.”
The words of the commander-in-chief, Demon King, are absolute.
Orders soon spread throughout the squadron.
Boo Woo Woo!
When the whistle sounded, the demons who were hunting the fleeing humans stopped as if they had never done that.
Even Mephisto, who thought he would not follow the control well because he was a true demon, pushed back the undead army without pursuing it to the end.
Thus, the first battle between the Kingdom Army and the Demon King Army ended in an ambiguous state to describe as whose victory.
***
That night, Demon King called me to his barracks.
“Welcome.”
As if his subordinates had already been bitten, only the Demon King was drinking in the barracks.
He had been invited to a meal before, but it was the first time he had been invited to drink in private like this.
“Sit over here.”
Maou-sama patted the seat next to him while saying that.
Perhaps she had already eaten quite a bit by herself, her normally white skin had turned slightly reddish.
Seeing that this kind of thing resembles Ozma, is it still a failure?
I sat next to Demon King-sama with a slightly bewildered feeling.
Then, the Demon King handed me a glass, and he asked me while pouring me a drink.
“How is the life of the Demon King?
“Yeah? Uh… Not bad. No, to be honest, it’s great. I feel more alive than when I was at the warrior’s party.”
“I’m glad you felt that way.”
Demon King nodded his head and sipped the whiskey from his glass.
“It’s nothing else, the reason I called you personally today is because I have something I really want to say and a request.”
“What do you want to say or ask for?”
Then, Maou-nim nodded his head and looked at me, then he closed his eyes slightly and then opened them.
Then he lowered his head.
“I’m sorry I tricked you.”
I woke up in shock at the sudden apology of Maou-sama.
“This, please don’t do this. It’s burdensome.”
“No, this is something that needs to be pointed out. When you signed the contract with me, you wrote the Gears scroll and gave it to me, but I still didn’t fully trust it, so I attached a watcher. Camilla must have heard this story, right?”
I just nodded my head, realizing what he meant.
“Yes. I heard it on the way the other day.”
“Then, the conversation should be fast. No matter how much I am a monarch, I can’t proudly talk about not trusting the loyalty of my subjects. So, I really wanted to apologize for this, even in private.”
In fact, I had already forgiven for a long time, so I didn’t think much of it, but I felt something tickle me while looking down at the back of Lord Maou’s head.
Is this the ideal boss at work?
To be honest, at this point, I wonder if it’s because the story is so good that Lord Maou decided to deceive me, but the evaluations around me were too good to be true, so I couldn’t doubt it.
While I was thinking about something else like that, Demon King asked with her head still lowered.
“I really think I’m shameless, but can you forgive such a foolish monarch?”
“I already forgave you a long time ago. So, keep your head up now.”
Only then did the demon king raise his head.
I asked, scratching my head in an awkward mood.
“Then… Since I received your apology, what is the request you mentioned earlier?”
Then, after a little hesitation, the Demon King brought up the story.
“I really want to break the chains of hatred that have been going on for a very long time.”
“What do you mean by chains of hatred?”
“I’m talking about humans and demons that you hate for no reason.”
After Maou-nim lost his luck, he took a sip of water instead of alcohol, as if he wanted to talk soberly.
“Actually, it wasn’t that long in the long history of demons that the hero came to kill the demon king. It was from the reign of the demon dragon Tiberius that existed 800 years ago.”
The average lifespan of demons is 150 years, and especially long-lived races live comfortably for 300 years. It wasn’t really a long history when it was simply a generation.
“Every story begins when the Goddess of Courage and the Goddess of Strength began to compete, yes. The two goddesses each chose their own representative and made them fight endlessly. To expand their influence on her land.”
“Is that the current hero and demon king?”
“In the end, both humans and demons were just chess pieces. To satisfy the greed of the two goddesses. But as time passed, this fact gradually became forgotten among humans. As a result, only hostility and vague fear toward the demons remained. That’s it. I want to make everything right when I have a chance.”
“…What can I do?”
Demon King was silent for a moment, then he gave an answer.
“We have to make the humans surrender voluntarily. Can we?”
I naturally thought of the etheric magic series, which had unrivaled destructive power.
If that’s the case, it’s clear that something will work out.
“Perhaps it is possible.”
Upon hearing my answer, the Demon King nodded and spread two of his fingers.
“In order to end this meaningless chain of hatred, two conditions are required. The first is not to incur the hatred of humans, and the second is to make their religion disappear naturally.”
“Both are difficult.”
“With the current Demon King’s forces, it’s very easy to trample the remaining human forces. It’s just a matter of time. But if you kill all the soldiers and enter the capital in that way, a lot of resistance will naturally follow. Because they will live. In particular, resentment related to family and friends is very strong, so there will be people who will resist until death.”
“In order to prevent such a situation from happening, you must enter without blood.”
“That’s correct.”
Maou-nim nodded his head, and he looked at me.
“And the second plan is a method that can only be implemented once Oz is occupied. I will tell you about this later. As of now, it’s just table talk.”
I nodded and smiled wryly.
“Suddenly, it feels like my shoulders are heavy.”
“Don’t be burdened. If you’re the strongest mage in the Demon King’s army, you’ll be able to break down the walls of Constantinople.”
“I don’t know what to do with you floating like that.”
“Haha, even though I look at it like this, my eyesight for people is very accurate.”
While Maou-nim said that, he stroked my beard, confirmed that my glass was empty, and held out a bottle.
“Then let’s stop talking about the heavy stuff here, and I’ll have to be this old man’s drinking buddy tonight.”
“Of course it should. This time I’ll raise a drink.”
After receiving the alcohol that Maou-sama pours, I naturally started to make bombshell liquor like a habit.
The time has come to finally perform the hospitality skills learned in the previous life in another world.
