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

「I remember when we tamed the demon beasts.」

「Oh yeah, that happened. It was very troublesome.」

Reiji flashed them a refreshing smile, which prompted everyone to laugh loudly.

Capturing them wasn’t that hard, but it took a lot of trial and error to turn the hippogriff and griffon into docile mounts.

The first idea we had was to turn the griffon into our familiar. The familiar would be able to use their master’s power, to a certain extent, becoming more powerful.

The problem lay in the fact that to turn a magical creature into a familiar, the master’s magic and life-force had to be more powerful than that of the creature they wanted to bond with.

Long story short, one couldn’t turn a beast into a familiar if one wasn’t more powerful than the beast. Also, human magicians couldn’t turn something too big into a familiar. At most on the level of a cat or a dog.

In the elves’ case, they seemed to be able to tame bigger creatures. But not even they could turn humans into familiars, despite the huge gap in their magic powers.

The only ones that could turn humans into familiars were those belonging to the Angel race or above, but those humans weren’t referred to as familiars. They were called apostles. However, despite their great magical power, the angels found it difficult to turn a powerful magical beast like griffons into familiars.

It was possible for us, who were more powerful than even angels.

But we scrapped that idea because the creatures that were turned into familiars would love only their master. We had yet to find a way to turn them back into creatures with their own will again.

Once before, there had been a case where Rino turned a prince of a certain country into an apostle. It had caused a great uproar since the prince-turned-apostle couldn’t love anyone other than Rino ever since then.

According to Rino, the prince had been turned into a familiar by his request.

In short, she had made him into an apostle just for fun.

Even if the prince himself was at fault for making such a request even though he had a fiancee, it was also Rino’s fault. Since we couldn’t find a way to undo what she did to the prince, we were postponing acquiring familiars for the time being.

Sooner or later we would have to do something about it. Honestly, it was a pain in the ass for me to clean up her mess. For that very reason, we banned her from creating any more familiars.

Instead, we tamed the griffon and hippogriff and turned them into our mounts by making full use of mine and Rino’s magic. It was the best method since we didn’t need to turn them into familiars this way.

And so we continued heading towards the Republic of Ariadya while engaging in friendly chats. According to Tarabos, something was happening in the Republic, so we were heading there to get more details.

「Come to think of it, I wonder how Shirone and co are doing…」

「I don’t know. Aside from Kyouka-san, Kaya-san is also with them. I think she can restrain Shirone-san from going wild.」

I tried to soothe Sahoko’s worries. I was the one who assigned Kaya-san and Kyouka-san to Shirone after all. I thought it would be too dangerous for Shirone to move around alone. Most importantly, I couldn’t let her go to Nargol by herself.

Rino looked away in the general direction of Nargol.

「Did she manage to bring back her childhood friend?」

「I don’t think it’ll be that easy, Rino.」

「E~h, why? Why do you think so, Reiji-san?」

「Think about it, Rino. He was the subordinate of the Demon King. How long have the people of this world suffered under that monster? Even if, for example, that man didn’t do it consciously, it’s still unforgivable. Look at how he didn’t even dare show his face to Shirone and just disappeared. I’d do the same if I was in his shoes.」

It was rare for Reiji to sound that serious.

Rino and Sahoko sounded very sad once he was done speaking.

「No way… Even though she finally met the one she had missed so much…」

「That’s right, Rei-kun. Shirone finally caught up to her childhood friend.」

「My bad. But that guy needs to take responsibility, even though he might not have wanted to involve Shirone in his mess. She should have just watched from the sidelines.」

[TL: MESS? YOU’RE THE BIGGEST MESSED UP GUY HERE!!!]

Hearing him say so, I thought to myself how that was just his wishful thinking.

The only reason Shirone didn’t want to return to our original world was that her childhood friend appeared in this world, right? Then again, I think I understand Reiji’s words.

The humans in this world were tormented by the demons. That’s why I can’t forgive the Demon King, the ruler of all demons. Shirone swore that her childhood friend was a kindhearted boy, so maybe he felt guilty for becoming the Demon King’s vanguard.

But I think he chose poorly when he left without speaking to Shirone. It might be the reason she felt so restless.

Reiji might hate this idea, but I think we should welcome him as our comrade. After all, the Demon King is the bad guy in the situation.

[TL: FOR GOD’S SAKE, HE ISN’T!!!!!!] [ED: For fuck’s sake!It’s always so frustrating editing about this morons]

Even now, there might be some demons living in a forest beneath us.

I’ve heard that if we defeat the Demon King all demons will disappear.

Maybe then the world will be a better place.

[TL: I’M REALLY DISAPPOINTED IN YOU, CHIYUKI]

Suddenly, Reijji stopped everyone mid-flight.

「Everyone, hold on a second!!」

「What happened, Reiji-kun?」

「I heard a woman screaming.」

Reiji then steered his pegasus toward a new direction.

I turned to Nao.

「What about you, Nao?」

「Reiji-senpai is just amazing… Even this Nao-san just noticed it…」

「Let’s chase after him, everyone!!」

Everyone nodded in agreement with my words.

That was Reiji’s only reliable trait. The woman in danger must surely be a babe.

And so we went after our hero.

◆ Freedom Fighter Girl, Shisufae

I could hear Big Sis Keyna calling my name.

「Shisufae!!」

「I know!!」

I stared at the thing in front of me.

An Orc.

A bipedal pig that was taller than me and had its eyes glued to my body.

「Underestimating me, huh?!」

I glared at the Orc as I readied my sword. I had no other choice but to defeat it since I had no comrade and no one to help me fight.

It also wasn’t the first time I fought an Orc either. But back then I had a comrade and we were fighting only one Orc. At that moment, there were several Orcs and I was alone. I was already losing. I glared at the Orc as I readied my sword. I had no other choice but to defeat it since I had no comrade and no one to help me fight.

It also wasn’t the first time I fought an Orc either. But back then I had my comrades and we were fighting only one Orc. At that moment, there were several Orcs and I was alone. I was already losing.

We had received an escort mission on the way back to the Republic of Ariadya.

This was supposed to be a region without such high-ranking demons. However, the moment we passed along the highway we were ambushed and dragged into a battle with an unknown number of Orcs.

It was the first time I fought against several Orcs at once.

By nature, Orcs weren’t the type to gather in packs. This was more like the behavior of Goblins.

And yet, we were fighting waves of Orcs. Something like this was unprecedented. Half of the freedom fighters who were escorting the coach had been felled by the ambush of the Orcs.

The only one left was the freedom fighter who I regarded as my big sister and comrade, Keyna.

Honestly, it wouldn’t have been strange if I had already died. The only reason these Orcs were keeping me alive was my gender. They wanted me alive.

Those disgusting bastards.

At that moment, I saw my chance of survival.

I deliberately swung my sword much slower than usual.

「YAAHHH!!!」

The Orc laughed at me and flung my sword away with its club.

It wanted to disarm me.

NOW!!

I swung my sword father and made the club miss its mark.

The Orc lost its balance. There was no way I could let such an obvious opening pass. My only strong point was my swordsmanship, after all.

I kicked the ground, closed in on my opponent and stabbed its heart with my sword.

「GUH?!」