Ankoku Kishi Monogatari (WN)

◆Dark Knight; Kuroki

The dwarven capital, Volundr, was a capital located inside Elios mountain, right beneath the heavenly palace.

I visited this capital many times before to visit Totona's library in the Heavenly Palace of Elios.

And since I was officially labeled as an enemy of Elios, I naturally couldn't go from the front gate.

I had to go from Volundr.

Since the reason for my visit this time wasn't to go to Totona's library, I had no reason to visit Elios' Heavenly Palace.

I was currently attending a meeting in the conference room located at the top-most location of Volundr.

The wives and the dwarves were meeting in this place to discuss about various things.

There was a magic image displayed in the conference room.

The thing reflected in that image was part of the forest.

「Uhm, what's that? It seems like it’s withering, Kuroki.」

「Yeah, it does seem like that to me too, Kuna.」

Just as Kuna had said, the forest in the image was all withered.

And the corpses of living beings in the forest were scattered everywhere.

It didn't seem like they were burnt. Most likely they were poisoned.

「That's right, Dark Knight. And look carefully at the image of the withered inner area of the forest.」

Said god Heibos as he pointed at one point in the image.

I could see the head of a huge snake at the place he pointed at.

The reason why I only said the "head of a snake" was simply because the creature wasn't really a snake either. I mean, it had four limbs.

Purple smoke drifted from that snake's mouth.

That snake might be the one that’s spitting poison and killing the trees.

「What is that?」

「That's Mushusshu. A Demon Beast that spit deadly poison. And the one on top of it is…」

Upon a closer look, I realized that Heibos was right, someone had been riding on the Mushusshu.

And it was someone familiar to me.

「Serpent Prince Dahark… And the Princess of Fresh Blood, Zaffrada.」

The man with tanned skin and armed with a long spear was undoubtedly Dahark, the son of the Serpent Queen Diadona.

And the woman wearing a blood-red dress was Zaffrada, the daughter of the Reaper, Zarxis.

Did they come to attack Elios?

As I was pondering about that, I saw an army of angels, whose bodies were covered with armor and helmets, appearing before Dahark.

The one leading them was the Holy Knight Alphos.

Dahark and Mushusshu readily withdrew when Alphos and co had appeared.

Seeing Dahark and co withdraw, Alphos and co didn't blindly follow them more than necessary either.

Upon a closer look, it wasn't just Dahark.

Several grotesque beings were lined up beside Mushusshu, and wolfmen were among them.

No wonder Alphos and co couldn't do anything, the other party brought their comrades.

Dahark alone was troublesome enough.

「They appeared out of nowhere around a few days ago. Since they appeared when the seal of Ferion weakened, their real goal might be to release the seal of Ferion.」

Said god Heibos as he touched his beard.

Ferion had been sealed under Elios mountain.

It was the perfect place since Elios mountain was huge, and the foot of the mountain was vast.

But, Dahark and co seemingly wanted to invade into the forest from the place closest to the seal.

「Does that mean they really are aiming for the seal?」

God Heibos shook his head to answer my question.

「I don't know. But, there'll be opposing sides among their group if some of them really want to release Ferion…」

The wicked beast Ferion was a mad god with vicious powers.

God Heibos explained that many Gods who took the Serpent Queen, Diadona's side, opposed the plan to release Ferion.

That might be the reason why Diadona didn't come in person.

Diadona and co were a gathering of rowdy fellows.

Internal discord would happen among them sooner or later.

Maybe Zarxis was the only decent one among her comrades.

But according to my source of information, Zarxis exhausted his magical power after fighting against me and had yet to recover.

It was an incomplete revival after all, he shouldn't force himself.

In reality, Zarxis didn't make his move. The big shot that infiltrated the forest was only Dahark and Zaffrada.

Naturally, it might simply look like that since their reinforcement had yet to arrive.

「It doesn't look that dangerous. The Serpent Prince might be powerful but, he is no match for Alphos right?」

Said Kuna as she looked at the image.

Yeah, what Kuna just said might be correct.

Dahark was powerful but he was no match for Alphos and co, not to mention that if push comes to shove, the God King Oudith would step forward himself.

It seems there was no need for me to butt in this time.

In fact, Rena didn't do anything either. She didn't even call Reiji and co to help her.

「Sorry, Dark Knight. I contacted Modes just to be safe. That's why I'm truly grateful for you who took the time to come all the way to this place.」

God Heibos bowed his head.

God Heibos contacted Modes so that the latter could do something to prevent the unexpected situation.

But once I arrived, both Diadona and Zarxis didn't come.

Feeling guilty, God Heibos apologized to me for making me come all the way to this place.

「It doesn't really matter, there's nothing wrong with being cautious. And since I've come all the way to this place, I think I can use this opportunity to do some inspection at the foot of Elios mountain.」

Honestly I didn't really mind having to come here even if it was for nothing. I mean, God Heibos had been a really great help for me by creating various tools after all.

So this was the least I could do for him.

There was Volundr and another dwarven settlement at the foot of Elios mountain.

The dwarves in that village were the ones who managed the seal of Ferion.

They were the last line of defense if Alphos and co were defeated.

But I didn't think that they would come that far.

That was the reason why a small inspection along with Kuna around that place should be enough to ensure the situation.

There would be no problem as long as I didn't wear my Dark Knight's armor and had a dwarf as my guide.

Thus, Kuna and I left Volundr.

===

◆Black Haired Sage; Chiyuki

All of us, except Reiji and Sahoko, gathered at the lounge of the palace.

Tea and sweets were prepared on the table in front of us, it had been a long time since we could rest at leisure.

The sweets were fried pastries that were mixed with sesame and honey.

Since it was really sweet, it was the perfect snack for tea.

「You've returned quite early, Chiyuki-san.」

Rino spoke to me while cocking her head in puzzlement.

The elves that came returned the next day, which was today.

Though the Aureiad and the Napaia were left behind, their leader, the high elf princess Luthien decided to return immediately.

It felt rather strange to me since she went back immediately.

For what reason did she come to our country?

「Strange right? I mean, Deer-san had said that the princess is coming to see Reiji-senpai and yet…」

Even Nao felt something was off.

Nao had the ability to communicate with animals.

And just as expected, the elves didn't go as far as forbidding their deer to tell the truth.

The deer told us various things thanks to Nao's ability. According to them, Luthien seems to have gone as far as leaving the forest since she was interested in Reiji.

I was really grateful to the deers who told us this information.

I then recalled the Ceryneia, a deer with four heads that was brought along by the elves.

Ceryneia was a deer the size of a moose with horns that could glow in golden color, and it was really strong.

The elves were raising those Ceryneias as their steeds.

They could move really fast inside the forest.

And their horns that could glow in golden color were really strong.

The elves used various tools such as swords and arrowheads from that horn.

Even the weapon of the Aureiad called Aureola might be something made from Ceryneia's horn.

They were riding a cart pulled by Ceryneias and arrived in this country in a few days.

It was quite fast considering the distance between the Elven Kingdom at the foot of Elios mountain to this country. Definitely not the kind of distance that could be crossed in a few days by normal means.

Considering that fact, it made me really want to have a Ceryneia.

Nevertheless, the matter of her coming was a big deal. Monster aside, the Deers said that the human was particularly troublesome.

Since a carriage being pulled by Ceryneias were pretty rare, they had always been surrounded by many people every time they arrived in a country and chasing those people away was really tiresome.

The same happened even when they came to this country, they had to push away people with magic to be able to move forward.

And yet, it seems the way back was much easier. Luthien was an adept mage, thus they could use teleportation magic to teleport until the vicinity of the forest.

By now, she should be already running in the forest in her hometown.

「Geez, what did they come for then? Why did they come, what’s their motive?」

「What is it really?」

Kyouka and Shirone cocked their heads in puzzlement.

By the way, Kyouka had never spoken to the elves.

Well, I was glad they never spoke to each other since I knew that it was out of the question if we consider the elven princess' personality.

Kyouka and Kaya just happened to be outside back then.

The elven princess was definitely looking down on humans, especially human women.

The handsome Reiji aside, I got this feeling that she was secretly looking down on us.

It was different if it was a fight, we had no choice but to treat them warmly considering their personalities.

That was the reason why we kept Kyouka, who didn't know to hold back away from them.

But thanks to that, Shirone ended up in a pickle.

Sahoko couldn't keep them company either since she had to prepare dinner.

My condolences.

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