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

「Could it be that hero-sama is also…」

Rietto said with a slightly frightened voice.

「No, he’s not with us right now. The one who came now is just his honored wife, Shirone-sama, followed by Kaya-dono, and then Kyouka-sama.」

She seemed at ease when Omiros said so. Just how afraid is she of Reiji-kun, I wonder.

「Guys, give your greeting to Kyouka-sama.」

Being urged by Omiros, they straightened themselves in a hurry and replied.

「Hello Kyouka-sama, I’m MacGius.」

「And I’m his little sister, Rietto … Eh?」

As she greeted Kyouka-san, Rietto’s eyes opened wide as she saw a certain person sitting in the carriage.

Her eyes were locked on Regena.

「… WHY?」

The look on her face morphed 180 degrees.

「WHY IS REGENA SITTING THERE!」

Rietto screamed with an undisguised anger in her voice.

I could feel strong resentment residing in her voice. To be honest, it wasn’t a trivial matter.

MacGius also looked at Regena with a surprised look on his face.

「WHAT’S HAPPENING HERE, OMIROS? WHY IS REGENA SITTING THERE?」

In the end, MacGius shouted like his little sister, too.

From the sound of it, he seemed to be somewhat bewildered, instead. And though not as much as I can feel from Rietto, he seemed to not have a good impression of Regena, too.

「It’s been a while, Rietto, MacGius … If possible, I don’t want to meet you guys.」

Regena replied to them with a cold tone from inside the carriage. But I noticed a hint of sadness in her voice.

「HOW DARE YOU SHOW YOUR FACE IN FRONT OF ME, REGENA! IT’S BECAUSE OF YOUR FAMILY, MY DEAR MOTHER WAS…」

I noticed that droplets of tears were forming in her eyes as Rietto said those words.

「…You guys were the ones who murdered my relatives. Aren’t we in a similar position here?」

「IT’S BECAUSE YOUR FAMILY WAS THE ONE WHO STARTED IT!」

「And how was I supposed to know about that?」

「DO NOT RETURN TO ALGORE! SEND HER BACK TO THE GOBLIN NEST!!」

Both of them started quarreling.

「Rietto! THAT’S ENOUGH! That goes for you too, Regena!!」

Omiros tried to pacify them.

「WHY ARE YOU DOING THIS BROTHER OMIROS! WHY ARE YOU PROTECTING THAT WOMAN!!」

Rietto looked at Omiros as if she wanted to cry.

「Rietto…」

Omiros was stupefied being glared at in such a way by his sister.

Silence descended upon this place for a while.

「You’re misunderstanding, Rietto.」

A while later, Regena broke that silence.

「MISUNDERSTANDING WHAT!?」

Now, Rietto was glaring at Regena.

「Omiros isn’t the one who protected me. Think about it, Rietto. Under whose protection do you think I am? If you try to hurt me, you guys will end up like those Myulmidons.」

Regena said while looking at the corpses of the antman.

Riettos’s face turned pale after realizing that fact.

「Right. I’m not under the protection of Omiros, you guys are worried for nothing.」

Regena said while smiling at them. But, it was a dry smile.

「No way, Regena … I just…」

Omiros seemingly wanted to say something to Regena.

But, Regena didn’t seem to care about him and just looked at Kaya-san.

「It’s as she says. Regena-san is currently under our protection. You must consider the act of harming her similar to making an enemy out of us.」

Kaya-san established her position to MacGius and Rietto.

MacGius and Riettos’s expressions were dyed with fear.

The air turned dangerous for some reason. I had to do something about this situation.

「Now, now, hold on a second, everyone.」

I came down from the carriage.

Everyone’s line of sight was focused on me.

「Hey, do tell me, this antman is kinda … You know. This kind of monster wasn’t present when we came before, right? Why did it come out now?」

I asked while walking towards the corpses of the antmen for a change of topic.

「Antmen? Are you talking about the Myulmidons? Come to think of it, why did they appear here?」

The one who replied was Omiros.

「I see, this antmen are called Myulmidons, huh? Come to think of it, it did look like this Myulmidons were chasing after you right? Do you know why that happened?」

Kaya-san asked both of them.

「Uhm, I kno- No, I mean, I don’t know why they’re after us. This is also the first time I’m seeing a Myulmidon.」

Rietto replies so while shaking her head.

「I … No, I did see them once a long time ago, but … Nevertheless, it’s just one or two of them. This is the first time I’ve seen so many at once.」

MacGius responded so. In front of MacGius were the corpses of seven Myulmidons.

「Then, why do you think these Myulmidons suddenly appeared here? Do you know where their natural habitat is?」

Omiros shaked his head in denial.

「I don’t know … But according to legend, you can find a lot of them around the queen’s castle deep inside the Blue Forest.」

「Queen of the Blue Forest? Does that mean that female ogre is somewhere around here?」

The queen of the Blue Forest that Omiros was talking about should be referring to the female ogre who led the raid in Velos.

Anyway, no one knew where that castle was located in this vast Blue Forest. It seems they ate every human who dared come near the castle. The queen should be the one called Kujig.

「Even so, do you know why they were coming after us?」

As if she finally remembered his existence, Kaya-san then turned to look at Echigos.

「WAH! It’s not me!」

Echigos shaked his head in denial.

But, Kaya-san just continued walking in silence towards Echigos.

「HYIII!!」

Echigos got down from the driver’s seat and tried to escape.

But, Kaya-san is several times faster than him.

Kaya-san seized Echigos by his collar.

「Calm down. I won’t kill you.」

Kaya-san checked Echigos’s body.

「Uhm, what are…」

Echigos had a dirty look on his face.

Kaya-san is a top class beauty, after all. He might have felt elated when such a beauty was gently touching his body.

But, that didn’t mean it was going to be that gentle forever.

Kaya-san’s hand stopped around Echigos’s abdomen.

「Huhm!」

Her hand suddenly pressed on Echigos’s stomach.

「Fu-GAAA!!」

Being pressed like that, Echigos started roaring in pain.

「AAARGH…」

Froth and drool incessantly came out from Echigos’s mouth.

「KYAAAAAAAAAAA!!」

It was followed by the screaming Rietto.

Because a huge bug came out from Echigos’s mouth along with the drool and froth.

The bug that came out from his mouth shuddered wildly and then stopped moving the next moment.

Echigos-with drool coming out from his mouth-was still twitching. It looked like he was alive somehow. Recovery, however, might be impossible for him.

「What in the world is that?」

Kyouka-san looked at the messy Echigos and the dead bug with a frown on her face.

「It maybe the deed of that ogre. It seemed like she had a complete grasp of our route.」

Kaya-san said so with an uninterested tone.

It seems that Echigos was under the control of the ogre. He sent the information about us via the bug living in his body.

「Uhm, Kaya-dono … That means…」

Omiros asked with an anxious voice.

「They might be coming after us again. We should strengthen our defenses once we arrive at Algore.」

「That … 」

Omiros’s face turned pale.

Our situation was at a disadvantage.

「What shall we do, Shirone-sama? Shall we exterminate those ogres before Kuroki-san arrives?」

Kaya-san asked me.

「Uhm, I want to do that, but I don’t know when Kuroki will come… I don’t really want to risk it.」

To be honest, I didn’t really want to fight those ogres when Kuroki alone was already far more powerful than any of us. But then, we couldn’t just leave them alone.

I was pondering about that.

「Ha~h … Shirone-san, Kaya-san. Why don’t we think about that after we reach the Algore kingdom? Or rather, after we can get down from this carriage.」

When I pondered about Kyouka-san’s words, I realized that she was tired after sitting for a long time in the carriage.

「You’re right. Let’s prioritize arriving in Algore first, Shirone-sama.」

Maybe because she had also guessed Kyouka-san’s feeling, Kaya-san agreed immediately.

I agreed with Kaya-san.

We might not have found a solution even if we were to think about this matter at that time. Thus, we decided to go to Algore.

I wonder what those ogres and Kuroki are doing right now.

◆ Goblin Prince Goz

The Karon kingdom, a particular kingdom that can only be reached through a deeply bored hole in the north side of the Akeron mountain range.

Regarding its underground location, it’s no different from the other goblin communities.

However, different from the other goblin communities, Karon was a place where there were flat walls with ornaments adoring them.

Though you couldn’t compare those crudely made ornaments with the ones made by human hands, it was considered good enough for a goblin.

Walking along the passage of this Karon kingdom, I kept descending further in. My destination was the innermost part of the Karon kingdom.

When I arrived there, a huge door stood before me.

Two goblins were standing guard in front of that door. They might have been the sentries placed here to protect the thing behind that large door.

「If it isn’t prince Goz, gob. Why are you here, gob?」

One of the goblin sentries questioned me about my visit.

「 I’m going to trouble you guys. I’m here for a specific thing behind that door. Let me in.」

After saying so, those two goblins exchanged a couple of looks.

「You might be our prince, but you must have the queen’s permission to pass through this door, gob.」

After a brief talk amongst themselves, those goblins responded with those words.

Hearing that, I smacked my lips.

「If it’s about her permission, it’s… RIGHT HERE!」

I unsheathe the sword that I carried under my overcoat and decapitated one of those goblins.

「Gooob!」

Subsequently, I pierce through the body of the other one before he got the chance to scream.

「What are you … Gob…」

The goblin whose chest was stabbed by my sword died before he could finish his words.

「Humph, fool. If you were obedient, you wouldn’t have died.」

I kicked the corpses of those fools aside.

Nevertheless, my mother would have still killed them once she found out about this matter. Either way, they were going to die.

I burned the corpses of the sentries to erase the evidence. I could be at ease for a while with no one being able to find the bodies of those sentries.

I looked at the door.

The thing protected by the dead sentries was there, inside the warehouse of the Karon kingdom. Here sleeps the treasure of my mother.

She wouldn’t forgive anyone whose hands reached her treasure, even if it were me. She might even kill me if she knew that I was the one entering inside.

But then, I might have to fight the Dark Knight after this. What should I do, I’m afraid of my mother.

The door was locked with magic, but it was not a problem. I had investigated the keywords to open this gate.

The door opened when I uttered the magic words.

When I entered, the various kinds of treasures lined up inside this vast room fell on my eyes.

Ornaments, gems, various dresses, and cosmetics. Every single one of them a top quality product.

I laughed upon witnessing that collection. None of them were suitable for THAT mother of mine. Even the most beautiful gem would be degraded to become a trash-like product if it was worn by that ugly woman.

I kept walking deeper into the treasure house.

Soon enough, my gait was stopped by another pair of doors. A treasure house inside the treasure house. The thing kept inside was an excellent article belonging to my mother.

I should enter first.

After entering, a certain item inside caught my eyes.

Though this treasure house was sealed with unusual methods, I had already investigated the means to unlock it.

The doors opened when I said the magic words.

「GEH!」

I unintentionally let out such a voice when I entered the room because the walls inside the second treasure house were filled with pictures of naked men.

The men in the pictures, all of them were handsome, even by my own judgment.

Though they were from various races, the ones from the human race were the most numerous amongst them.

It might be one of my mother’s hobby. She has such a lousy taste despite her ugly appearance. [TL: …]

Just when I thought whether these men were my mother’s victims, I changed my mind because I saw the picture of men of the demon race and the angel race amongst them.