Tsuyokute New Saga (LN)

“How perceptive…”

Receiving Kyle’s gaze, Zeurus didn’t deny these words.

“What is this about, Zeurus?! Interacting with the demons…have you gone insane?!” Shildonia’s expression was colored in fury, but Zeurus was ever-calm.

“You seem to be under the wrong impression about something. I was merely meeting the demons, which has but one reason—namely that they sought out a meeting. They were polite and kept their manners while coming to meet me, so naturally, I would give them the chance of a meeting. Exactly as I’ve done with you.”

“P-Polite and with manners? The demons did?” Shildonia doubted her ears.

The demons she knew were far too distanced from these ideas.

“It was different from that time. Three hundred years ago, after the current Demon Lord had been crowned, an ambassador of the demons would come at random intervals. Of course, I had assumed they were plotting something at first and kept my caution…but there were no signs of that.”

“Hmm…what is the goal of the demons?”

“I can’t disclose the details. Our mutual faith rests upon this.”

“You’re too uptight for your own good! No flexibility at all, this was always a bad trait of yours!” Shildonia slammed her hands on the table, yet completely ignoring the part where she said he could be trusted because he was so uptight. “On top of that, you bluntly revealed the story of my love, so what are you saying now?!”

“I told you because you wanted to hear it…But, rest assured, the demons and I had only been meeting here, but we weren’t discussing anything that would deserve your worry.”

Realizing that any further persuasion was pointless, Shildonia sighed, and gave up.

Kyle however pressed on further.

“So…can we believe those words?”

“Foolish brat.” Zeurus glared at him, but Kyle didn’t flinch.

After a fierce battle of stares, Kyle moved his gaze, and lowered his head.

“Apologies. The fate of us humanfolk relies upon this factor, after all.”

“Hmph…” Zeurus let out a displeased snort, but didn’t say any further.

“Still, the peace faction, huh…Is it really under the orders of the Demon Lord. That’s the exact opposite of Negura.”

“Negura?” Kyle asked.

“Negura is the name of the Demon Lord who had been reigning when my main body was still alive.”

“Indeed, they rose to power during the fierce war between humanfolk and demons, in a way the strongest and most Demon Lord-like.” Zeurus narrowed his eyes as he spoke from his memories.

Demon Lord Negura spread destruction and slaughter, but humanfolk flourished further, managing to push back the demons.

“Negura had an abundance of pride and was easy to handle in that regard. Thanks to that, three-quarters of the continent fell under the humanfolk’s reign, but thinking about it now…we might have been better off going all out to completely erase all of the demons.” Shildonia shook her head with a deep sigh, uttering words of regret.

With a shared effort, the utter obliteration of the entire demon race most likely was not impossible. However, that would also result in tremendous sacrifices on the humanfolk’s side, so they couldn’t afford to do the final step.

“Hm?”

There, Zeurus seemingly caught on to something, and looked at the ceiling.

“What’s wrong, did somebody contact you?” Shildonia asked, understanding that dragons would communicate with sounds humans couldn’t pick up.

Zeurus seemed to be thinking about something, and then judged that there was no use hiding it, reporting it to the two.

“…I received information from Irumera. A demon has arrived, and has run into your allies…”

Listening that far, Kyle shot up like a puppet having its strings pulled.

“Rest assured, they are not fighting, and I will not allow them to either…Though let me tell you, if you dare to use this place as a fighting ground, you will make me your enemy.” Zeurus warned Kyle, but even if he accepted this, sitting around while a demon was present was impossible for him, so he ran back to his allies.

“This Kyle human is quite courageous.” Zeurus watched Kyle run off, praising him for not flinching despite being glared at by Zeurus.

Many humans would probably pass out from sheer pressure when dealing with an Ancient Dragon.

“Yeah, he is the one swinging my sword, so that’s the least I expect from him.” Shildonia crossed her arms, nodding.

—She’s taken quite a liking to him, I see.

Zeurus thought to himself, but as old friends, seeing Shildonia’s smile made him swallow his words.

“And it’s not just Kyle. Even his companions are a sight to behold…Quite delightful, if I do say so myself.”

She showed a peaceful smile she never could afford to flash during her time as the [Magic King]. Spurred on by that, Zeurus joined in with a faint smirk of his.

Kyle ran back to his allies as fast as his feet carried him—only to find them the way he had left them.

“Ah, are you finished talking?” Lieze called out to him, with a cup of tea in hand.

“Why are you so out of breath?” Urza tilted her head, holding some sweets in her hand.

“Were you worried about your own share? Already too late for that, buddy.” Seran proclaimed with a relaxed tone of voice, munching up Kyle’s share of sweets.

Kyle felt relief at seeing the group the same way as always, but at the same time, he lost all the strength in his body. Only Erina greeted Kyle with a ‘Welcome back’, sounding relieved at his safe return, which healed Kyle by a great bit.

“I mean, it’s great that you’re safe and all, and that attitude of yours is a relief to see, but…Why are you eating together with that demon?”

At a location a bit further away sat Yuriga, her back towards the wall, glaring at Kyle’s group. In her hand, she had the sweets Lieze made.

“Well, you know…it would have felt weird if we were the only ones eating, so I shared some with her.”

Seeing Lieze’s innocent smile, Kyle massaged his temple to soothe the incoming pain.

“…Listen, she’s a demon. The mortal enemy of all humanfolk, and normally you’d be fighting to the death!” Kyle urged them to have a higher perception of danger, but Lieze just awkwardly scratched her cheek.

“I know that, but…”

“No, you don’t. Not in the slightest,” Kyle let out a deep sigh.

To Kyle, who had fought in the [Great Invasion], the demons are an existence that should receive harsher treatment than just total annihilation. However, in this current timeline where the Great Invasion has yet to happen, the demons have become more of a vague and distant existence, which is why especially Lieze and Urza were far too relaxed. On top of that, the two fought Yuriga with everything they had, so they were plenty aware of how strong she was. Yet, there was no resemblance of tension or sense of danger to be found.

It makes sense that they understood her through their fight…but to think they would feel a sense of closeness towards a demon of all things.

Kyle had his own gripes with the situation, but blaming the others about that would benefit nobody.

“Rest assured, I received orders from the Demon Lord-sama that I am not to kill any humans as much as possible. I don’t plan on doing anything to you.” Yuriga exclaimed while playing with the snack in her hand, not a shed of joy or excitement in her voice.

“Personally, I wouldn’t mind going for a rematch for last time…”

“You will only pile shame on top of shame, so give up.”

Seran tried to lightly provoke her, but she showed no intention of answering, simply averting her face.

“…I was careful, but she really shows no signs of wanting to fight. Not even a provocation gets her to move…At the very least, right now, we should be fine.” Seran whispered into Kyle’s ear.

Luckily, Seran was careful enough for the entire group, but he also didn’t emit more hostility than necessary.

“I don’t plan on asking what you people are doing here. That’s why, don’t bother with me.” Yuriga proclaimed, now fully ignoring Kyle and his group.

When Kyle heard of a demon having arrived, he felt the blood rush to his head, but now he’s calmed down a lot more. Although this was purely a coincidence, he would love to use this meeting to gather as much information as possible. Even if by force—would be an option, but Yuriga showed no intention of fighting, and that would make the dragons his enemy. Right when he wondered what to do, Zeurus and Shildonia returned.

Spotting Zeurus, Yuriga showed a polite greeting. Shildonia saw this, and found reason in what Zeurus said about the demons visiting him being very righteous. Not to mention that Yuriga proceeded under the pretense that Kyle’s group wasn’t even present.

“Dragon King-sama, I have a letter from the Demon Lord-sama.”

“For crying out loud, this time it’s the demons…You stopped by just the other day, so what is it now?” Zeurus complained, but Yuriga showed a reaction.

“What are you referring to?”

“Exactly what I said. Just five days ago, one of your demons came to meet me, and now again…”

Seeing Yuriga bewildered had Zeurus confused himself.

“…The last visit under the Demon Lord-sama’s orders should have been three years ago…And yet, five days prior to today?”

“No mistaking it, five days ago a demon came here to visit me. It was also a face I hadn’t seen before…So, he wasn’t one of your envoys?” Zeurus was starting to get flustered himself, remembering something. “No…that demon never directly stated he was sent by the Demon Lord…Since it was never at a regular interval, I didn’t think much about it…so you don’t know who that was?”

Yuriga didn’t answer at first, simply lost in thought.

“I have no knowledge of this demon…However, there is no other envoy sent here under the Demon Lord-sama’s orders except me.”

“How could this happen…Then I told a random fellow about Ghrud.” Zeurus put his hand on his forehead, shaking his head.