Ankoku Kishi Monogatari ~Yuusha wo Taosu Tameni Maou ni Shoukansaremashita~

「NOW! KILL THEM BEFORE THEIR SIGHT RESTORED!」

There are seven people on our side while it’s fifty on the goblin side. We’ll be in trouble if their eyesight recovered.

So, at the same time I sent my order, I also rush toward the goblins with my sword unsheathed.

「DO NOT AIM FOR THEIR HARD SKULL! AIM FOR THEIR BODY!」

「I KNOW THAT!」

Few answers, in the form of retorts, return as responses while I cross swords with the goblins. The goblins are rampaging as they try to dodge my assault.

Due to the hard skull of the goblins, using sword alone would be insufficient to cut them. Thus, we must aim below the neck. It’ll be difficult for a normal human to do so since their height is much taller than a goblin, but it’s not that much of a problem for skilled warriors.

And we’re the warriors of Algore. Thus, this goblin count isn’t that much of a threat for us.

In Algore, which is always exposed to the threat of demons due to it being right next to Nargol, power is highly valued. The men of Algore are fated to become warriors the moment they were born.

All men in Algore are powerful warriors. They’re the best in this region.

That’s why they won’t lose even against this large number of goblins.

The situation is advancing to our advantage. But, as expected, we can’t wipe them out in such a short interval since many of them are still attacking violently.

「GAAAAAAA!」

Having recovered their sense of sight, the goblins raised their club and resumed their attack.

After protecting myself from the goblin club with my shield, I turn around to cleave the body of the attacking goblin.

Then, I kicked the fresh corpse of that goblin toward another goblin who came from my side and finished him off with a stab.

「Not bad, Prince Omiros」

Parish is saying so while smiling at me.

That’s enough, I think. This man has killed far more goblins than me.

Parish isn’t an Algore born. He’s a foreigner who was welcomed by my father due to his skill.

His skill is amazing, no one can beat him one-on-one.

Lately, his fame kept raising in this region and eventually came to be hailed as the brave of Algore.

I couldn’t bring myself to like this man. He’s the worst of the womanizers. Not just the women of our kingdom, his hands won’t spare foreign women, too.

Different from the previous king, I visited the surrounding country since it’s my father’s policy to build a good relationship with our neighboring country. This man had also tagged along with me. It seems his evil hands had even reached the foreign noblewomen during that time.

Parish himself is an extremely beautiful man. There’s no way women will leave him alone.

「Well then, it seems this Parish can’t let himself be defeated by your highness. So, here I come!」

After saying so, Parish rushes toward the flock of goblins. He then cleaves those goblins one after another.

He moved like a gale.

「Amazing….」

「As expected of Parish-sama!」

Everyone is unanimously praising Parish.

As one would expect of a brave, Parish is really powerful. According to the rumors, it seems he can fight against a weak ogre 1 on 1.

I’m astonished by such a display of power. His face is handsome, too. His face might rival that hero of light.

Soon, goblin corpses are scattered around with the majority of them being Parish’s victims.

「We won, but… Are we going to advance even further, prince Omiros?」

Parish is turning around and asking me.

「Yeah, let’s advance a bit more」

I’m saying so with an anxious voice.

「Let’s head back… Young master. We’re bound to die if we advance any further beyond this point」

Balzaza who came along with our group suggests the option of retreat. He’s a subordinate of my father and was assigned as my bodyguard.

「Sorry Balzaza. Let’s advance a bit more」

「Haven’t we entered far enough already, Omiros? The result is already as bright as a day. The princess of Qupius obviously has been killed and is probably being ravaged by goblins」

「MacGius!」

I grab MacGius by his collar. He travelled all the way here with me, and he’s my cousin.

「Goblin don’t always opt to kill humans! Leaving her alive would be more useful!」

「Oi, that life would be worse than death… She’ll become a plaything for those goblins….」

Goblins had no more than one reason to keep a female human alive. And that is what MacGius trying to tell me.

「Even so… Regena will….」

I can’t bring myself to finish my words.

「MacGius-dono. You shouldn’t tease our prince like that, you know」

After Parish saying so, MacGius sighs deeply.

「Sorry, Omiros. I went too far」

MacGius is apologizing to me.

「There was another hole on the way here. Let’s take a break in there」

Everyone agrees to Parish’s proposal. We had come all the way to this place predominantly due to my insistence, after all.

We traced our way back.

We finally arrived at the hole. I can see the cloudy sky from another hole present in there.

Everyone then turned off our handheld lantern.

「Prince Omiros. I won’t say the same as MacGuis, but how far we should advance forward? 」

I’m racking my brain upon hearing those words from Parish.

「My apologies, Parish-dono… At the very least, I want to know what happened to Regena….」

When I say so, silence descended upon our group.

I know what this silence means even without anyone telling me. They might currently be imagining the worst fate that could befall a woman captured by goblins.

「Nevertheless, we should have exterminated the goblins in this area」

I agree with MacGius’s words.

「Yeah, let’s advance a bit more」

When I say so, the warriors display their opposition.

「We must not advance any further! At this rate, we’re going to enter the northern part of the mountain range!」

「Please do forgive him your highness, but the northern goblins are far stronger than the southern goblins! Going there is an act of suicide!」

What they said was reasonable.

The northern goblins are strong. Even in terms of equipment, the southern goblins use nothing but clubs as their weapon, but the northern goblins are capable of manufacturing iron weapons and armors. Everyone but Parish will die if we go there.

Several of my subordinates are complaining. It seems there are no complaints coming from Parish and MacGius.

Parish is just silently looking at the situation.

「Guys, you shouldn’t complain like that. I can understand the feeling of our prince. Princess Regena, is it? She is definitely a beauty. I know why he is being persistent」

Parish is rebuking everyone.

But, I almost spurted my blood after hearing his words.

「Parish-dono! If you can say so, why aren’t you the one saving Regena! Instead of doing so, you…」

「The one who made that decision was the king, your father. What could I do about that?」

I became silent after his response.

It was as he said. The one who exiled Regena to the goblin nest was none other than my own father.

In the first place, there was an internal conflict in Algore.

And the origin for that conflict can be traced back all the way to the inception of Algore.

The beginning of Algore dates back to 400 years ago – a fortress in which various forces on the eastern side of the continent gathered to subjugate the demon king.

At first, it was a stronghold until the fall of Nargol, and then it became a country with its own authority.

And before one knew, the general became a king, the soldiers and various chivalric orders became the clans.

In the beginning, Holy Republic Lenaria’s born would become the king, but it led to the dissatisfaction of other clans. As a result of the meeting, it was then decided that every patriarch of the clan will be taking turns to become the king every 10 years.

But, this decision of taking turns for the kingship wasn’t being protected, especially when a certain powerful clan was monopolizing the kingship. That was the Regena clan.

Though many clans were enraged by their action, Regena clan was powerful. Thus, civil strife had never happened.

But then, a certain incident happened.

Qupis, the king at that time had fallen in love with the fiancee of the prince of Velos, a major power of this region during his stay. The last strand was when they eloped to Algore.

Naturally, the enraged Velos kingdom demanded him to return the fiancee of the king.

But, Qupis-tachi didn’t heed them.

His action enraged the other clans, too. It was like adding fuel to their original hatred toward the royal family.

The other clans didn’t persuade Qupis to return the fiancee, either.

As a result, Algore became the enemy of Velos empire; other kingdoms were also starting to isolate Algore.

And for that reason, almost no merchant wanted to trade in Algore, resulting in the alienation of the kingdom. As a result, the other clans were even more infuriated by the royal family.

Everyone with the same kind of grudge was gathering under the wings of my father, Montas, a patriarch of a powerful clan that was opposing the royal family, who wanted to abdicate Qupis and become the king.

Naturally, Qupis didn’t lend his ears to such a request.

The royal family was powerful; no other clan could fight against their power from the front. The royal family also didn’t possess enough wherewithal to destroy the other family, so a civil war never happened. But, the angst toward the king kept piling up.

Soon time flowed by, and the fiancee who disappeared without a trace then gave birth to a princess for Qupis. That princess was Regena.

I met Regena when we were 5 years old. It happened when my father came to a long clan meeting at the royal palace.

It was the first time I came to the royal palace, so I wandered around, full of excitement. That was when I met Regena who was strolling around the royal palace by chance.

We immediately became good friends since there was no child of similar age around Regena.

Though the adults were having their internal disputes, it had nothing to do with me and Regena who was just a child at that time.

We secretly went out to play sometimes behind our fathers’ backs.

Thus, we grew together.

The grown-up Regena turned up to be a beautiful woman. Though I couldn’t say this in front of her, I wanted to protect her.

That was why I left Algore along with MacGius and Belzaza on a journey to polish our skills.

But, that was my biggest mistake.

And then, the greatest shock in my life welcomed me when I returned to Algore. My father, who for some reason became the new king, banished Regena.

It seemed that king Qupis tried to do something during my absence which caused our clan to get almost annihilated.

My father struck back, won the battle, and became the king.

I couldn’t believe my ears after hearing that for the first time. Even with the internal dispute, I didn’t think that king Qupis was the kind of man who would act recklessly.

But, he betrayed my expectations.

Though it might be true that king Qupis had to pay for his own mistake, there’s no need to go as far as to banish Regena too, right?

But then, I couldn’t condemn my father for doing so.

At the least, I want to know what happened to Regena. Thus, I asked my father to lend me the hero, Parish to look for her in the Akeron mountain range.

I am yet to know of Regena’s fate. I want to save her if possible or bring back her remnants if she’s dead. Being imprisoned inside the gloomy den of the goblins is just too cruel.

「My prince. Though I understand your heartache, we have to go back by night. We should stop the search today」