Chapter 15 – Eastern Front
As soon as we returned to the Devil Castle, we headed straight to the office.
As Camilla told me, it was to report the completion of the mission.
“Welcome.”
Beyond the door of the office opened by Seneca, the goat-headed butler, the Demon King, who looked the same as four days ago, was already sitting on the couch waiting for us.
It was quite late, so I had already finished my office work, and I must have been spending my personal time.
As soon as I met his eyes, I bowed deeply and reported.
“The first mission entrusted to me by the Demon King, I returned safely.”
Then, the Demon King smiled kindly and greeted me.
“Yes, good job. Kaldrash. Are there any injuries during the mission?”
“Yes. That didn’t happen thanks to the maid that the Demon King put me on taking care of me wholeheartedly.”
After hearing my words, Maou-sama’s gaze naturally moved to Camilla standing behind me.
“Camilla, you did a good job too.”
“… I apologize.”
As you can see, he seems very happy to have been praised by the Demon King.
When I see you clenching your fists.
‘Well. This should be enough.’
Reporting the mission results seemed like a mere formality anyway, so I decided to move on to another story.
I glanced at Camilla in the back and sat across from me and asked the demon king.
“Then Maou-nim, if you’ll excuse me, may I ask you in advance what the next mission is?”
Surely, it will not be something like rural public assistance.
Then, Maou-nim stopped drinking tea leisurely and blinked his eyes as if he was absurd.
“You’re quick-tempered too. I’ve just returned, so how about resting in peace today?”
“Wouldn’t it be a loss for the Demon King to quietly play with that level of power? I also want to work hard and gain the trust of the Demon King as soon as possible.”
As if my sincerity was conveyed, Maou-nim put down the teacup with a worried expression and touched his beard.
“In fact, it’s not like there aren’t places where you need your strength.”
“Then…”
“But there’s someone who knows your face, so that’s a problem.”
“Does anyone know my face?”
Before I defected to the demon lord army, that is, during the time when I was active as the main dealer of the warrior party, there were not many demons who met me and returned alive.
When I looked at Mawang-sama with eyes asking for more information, he answered with a small sigh.
“He’s the one who bumped into you the most among the officers belonging to our Demon King’s Army. How many people like that are there in the world?”
Only then did I realize who the demon king was talking about.
“You mean Dorothea.”
Witch of the West, Dorothea Gale.
Part of the Demon King’s Four Heavenly Kings.
Another name for her as they called her was ‘Calamity in the form of a girl’.
Wearing red ruby shoes and turning everything she stepped into to ashes, she often clashed with me, the only wizard in the warriors’ party.
It was because the place where she originally belonged was the Ruby Tower, one of the four major magic towers on the continent, so it was just right to form a rivalry between me and her, who are from the Emerald Tower.
I didn’t see her for a while, so I thought she had been hit by a blind arrow, but I thought she was still alive.
“Preparations are being made to withdraw the troops of the Eastern Front, for whom she currently serves as commander-in-chief, to her rear.”
As soon as I heard the demon king’s words, I realized why he wanted to pull the soldiers back.
“I guess it’s winter soon.”
“Right.”
In order to keep the land occupied from humans, it would be necessary to leave some garrison to defend it, but it was better to turn the unnecessarily large surplus troops to the rear.
Even more so, the Vulcan Mountains, where the Eastern Front was formed, are a land of severe cold.
In winter in an already cold place, you will suffer more from supply problems, but if you go to Eoyeongbuyeong for no reason, you will run out of food and oil, and only unfair deaths will appear one after another.
The demon king tapped the armrest of the sofa with his finger and said.
“If we openly defeat the army, the kingdom will launch a full-scale offensive to recover the land lost in the summer. To prevent that, it is necessary to demonstrate force to show that the Demon King’s army is alive and well. But Dorothea, the commander there, is not fit for such a role, as you know.”
As he said, Dorothea, the Four Heavenly Kings, was not suitable for such a role.
Having perfected her flame magic to the limit, her specialty is annihilation.
However, in a land of severe cold like the Eastern Front, the enemy should not be completely annihilated, and the enemy’s baggage should not be burned.
Looting the goods left behind by the enemy was the only way to keep the army a little longer.
Considering that, Dorothea was always wearing invisible shackles whenever she faced the kingdom’s forces.
But I had a different situation with her.
“If you go to support Dorothea, I’ll be able to relax. But since Dorothea hates you so much, I’m worried because I don’t know what will happen if I let her go. Even if I want to mediate between the two, I can’t leave this castle. “
I realized what the demon king wanted to say.
“That means she’s worried that I might get into a fight with her.”
“That’s right. Dorothea is very hot-tempered.”
I thought for a moment.
As I said before, the Demon King was reluctant to let my identity known to the outside world.
However, if there is a fight with Dorothea in any way, the fact that I am in the demon king’s army will be known to the human side, whether they like it or not.
If that happens, Maou-sama will find it difficult in many ways.
But it wasn’t that there was no way.
“Anyway, even when I’m dispatched, I’m going to wear this mask and use the pseudonym Patrasche. So, why don’t you just pretend to Dorothea that you’re a new member of the Demon King’s army?”
“…Are you able to fool me with just that? Dorothea’s discerning eyes would recognize your magic at once.”
“Demon King, there is not one type of magic that I can use.”
In the world of magic, it was possible to double major as long as you had that ability.
It’s a problem because there aren’t many people who openly try to wear octopus feet in a yard where it’s difficult to properly master one attribute.
Perhaps this answer planted confidence in my confused mind, but the Demon Lord eventually allowed me to be dispatched to the Eastern Front.
“Then, I will send you to the Eastern Front in two days.”
“Two days later?”
If you told me to go, I could have gone right away.
I didn’t come from a fight, because I came from a village downstairs to help with harvesting grain.
However, he said he would give me some free time, so when I asked with a question, Lord Maou replied as if asking something very obvious.
“Our Demon Lord Army considers that the working hours do not exceed 60 hours a week. Surely you don’t think that working continuously without days off will improve your work efficiency? If so, that’s a very big mistake. Rest and salary can only be established together.”
“??”
Did I hear right now?
A 60-hour work week in a fantasy world?
“Uh… I’m asking just in case, but does the Demon King’s Army have overtime pay?”
Then, the Demon King tilted his head and asked.
“You’re asking for obvious things. Don’t kingdom bastards take care of such basic things?”
Oh… Ah…
I couldn’t answer yes because I was ashamed.
It was because it seemed that demon king-sama would say that humans are uncivilized.
***
The story was roughly decided that I was going to the eastern front, and since the mission report was over, it was time to go back to the inn to rest.
After I told Camilla to go outside first, she cautiously asked the Demon King.
“How is the condition of the warrior imprisoned in the dungeon?”
Then, Maou-sama secretly raised his eyebrows as if it was an unexpected question, but soon gave me the answer I wanted.
“For now, he’s doing well. As you suggested, I told the warden to pay special attention to take care of the hero in order to keep him alive.”
“Then I’m glad.”
If the hero commits suicide, there will be a big setback in the future cause.
It was more important than anything else to thoroughly manage it to prevent that from happening.
“Didn’t the imprisoned hero rampage?”
Then the demon king shrugged his shoulders.
“I’ve heard that the first day I came here, I had trouble with the guards quite a bit. But not only do I wear shackles that completely block magical power, but I wonder how much a human species would have done to resist, as their physical abilities were clearly superior to those of the demons.”
So, it put my mind at ease.
If the hero escapes from there, the first target to take his life will be me, the traitor, not the demon king.
“Then I’ll just go.”
“It must have been difficult to come here in a hurry, but go in and have a good rest today.”
I once again thanked the Demon King for caring about me and left the office.
Then, Camilla, who was waiting at the door, strode toward me.
“Are you going to go down to the castle town again?”
That’s fine, but there’s something I need to do first.
“Camilla, where is the dungeon?”
“Suddenly, why is that…?”
“Because the hero has a little business to see.”
As I recall, it was the Marshal of Hamburg who was in charge of the Eastern Front on the Kingdom side.
And one of the members of the warrior party, the warrior, was the eldest daughter of the Margrave of Hamburg.
Meeting Dorothea on the eastern front has become a fait accompli anyway, so I intend to bring a present with me on the way.
“Are you sure you’re not trying to betray me again?”
“I wouldn’t have told Camilla if I had meant to.”
No matter how much I thought about it in the first place, the working environment was overwhelmingly better for the Demon King.
The king was the one who forced the hero to pay the passion, but what about the nobles under him?
After hearing my answer, Camilla put on an expression of reluctance, but perhaps because she couldn’t refuse my request, she eventually took the lead in giving her directions.
