Chapter 8 (6): How NOT to keep a low profile, part 4
"What was that? I felt... like I was staring death in the face. That aura... was stronger than a dragon's, I think. I've never felt anything even remotely similar in intensity" (Ren)
"That was my escape route... give them a scare, kill the general, and GTFO" (Ryuu)
"Gee tea eff oh?" (Ren)
"It means 'get the fuck out'. Still, that's the third demon general I've killed... and so far, the easiest" (Ryuu)
As I was talking, Akatsuki showed up. Neither Ren nor I had noticed her approaching, but I didn't stop because of it.
"Sounds like what Ver said is accurate, if what you said is true. Can you prove that claim?" (Akatsuki)
"Well, here's his badge, not sure if you can tell if it's the real deal, however" (Ryuu)
"It looks real enough. Still, I didn't think you were an assassin. Considering the staff and axe, I figured you're a warrior type. Oh, right. You should have consulted with the leader of the joint party before going off" (Akatsuki)
"Technically, we never set one, and so, in that case, it defaults to the highest-ranked party's leader, in other words, myself. In any case, with Ver, Char, and the others there, I can't think of anything that could be a threat to the principal or his cargo, even with me being away from the group" (Ryuu)
"Well, whatever. We should wipe out the other bandits, unless there's a problem" (A wild Shiroe appeared!)
"None that I can think of. Well, some of us need to guard the merchants, but that can be done by my party as your two parties deal with the rest... no, I'll come with you. There are still several dozen, even though they might be a bit... scared? We should try to capture some of the soldiers" (Ryuu)
"Soldiers? They're soldiers from the demon lands?" (Shiroe)
"Yep. Geez... I just realized... this past year and a half, there've been so many demon generals that've died. Three of them died during the war, then three more died since then, along with about a dozen of their relatives. Now, the only one who might be a radical is the second seat... I don't know what they're like" (Ryuu)
They looked a bit puzzled when I said that, but they didn't waste any time on that and headed out of the forest.
"This is... Dozens are on the ground... without any visible wounds..." (Shiroe)
"Some of them are alive, others are dead. Kill them all, just to be safe" (Ren)
"No, please! We were just following orders! The one giving those orders is dead, and we got new orders, an order to withdraw! We won't hurt anyone on our way back! Just-" (Soldier running from Ren)
"Please, stop it! Your majesty! Why? You said-" (Soldier with a broken leg)
"Why are you fighting with huma-" (Soldier who was silenced by my axe)
"That's all of them save for these two corporals... they will make good PoWs" (Ryuu)
"Your majesty... thank you for sparing my life..." (Corporal A)
I felt a dagger press against my spine, another on my throat, as Akatsuki appeared behind me.
"So... Ryuu... Care to explain why the demons are calling you 'your majesty'?" (Akatsuki)
"Because my party name isn't a joke. Diablo Maou did have an heir, who is now the Demon Lord. I..." (Ryuu)
At that moment, I saw someone familiar running towards us, spear in his hands, horns and wings hidden beneath a helmet and some light armor.
"Oh, hey! Iroh! What are you doing here? Don't mind the dagger at my throat, I'm fine" (Ryuu)
Iroh slowed down, relaxed a bit, and answered warily.
"Well, it's an errand from Lars. He discovered that the new general Gremory was invading the human lands, despite the fact that you'd made it clear that you wanted the demon lands to build friendly ties with the human lands, which implies having the demons not invade the human lands. If I dealt with him, I'd get promoted... sadly, it looks like you got here first" (Iroh)
"Ryuu, who is this? He seems strong, maybe an A rank?" (Shiroe)
"This is Iroh, an S rank adventurer based in the demon lands. Iroh, meet Ren, leader of the B ranked party Juniper, and this is Shiroe and Akatsuki, leader and member of the Debauchery Tea Party, respectively" (Ryuu)
"And based off of what Iroh said, you are th-" (Ren)
"Yes, I'm the only member of my party who won't be marrying the Demon Lord. Again, as Iroh said, I've been trying to build friendly ties between the human and demon lands. I'm not a threat... if I was, I wouldn't have killed the demons invading this area, and instead would have lead you straight into a trap" (Ryuu)
"Actually, if she wanted you dead, you'd be dead. Considering that she beat me every single fucking time we sparred, and she's beaten three demon generals without suffering so much as a single scratch, I doubt you'd be much of a challenge for her" (Iroh)
"I'd like to point out that I wanted all of the radical faction dead a few months ago. Then this happened" (Ryuu)
"They weren't next to y-" (Iroh)
"This fucker was, actually. Did you forget that I was the one to give him this badge?" (Ryuu)
"I... I wasn't there..." (Iroh)
"Oh, that's right. Anyways, Iroh, can you take his corpse back? I'm still technically on a quest to guard someone, and I do have to speak with - no, that's not information I should be speaking of. Basically, I'm unable to do so myself, due to prior engagements, both figurative and literal. Sadly, I can't have you take back the broach of the seventh seat, so it's going to stay with me for the time being, as I can only give it to the next with the title of seventh seat of the demon generals" (Ryuu)
"Of course, I understand. Do you need me to do anything else?" (Iroh)
"Well, I'd love to spar a bit. Care to do so? You don't have to if you don't want to, of course" (Ryuu)
"Eh, why not. I feel like I've improved a fair amount recently, so I might have a chance at not losing badly" (Iroh)
We put the corpses into my storage, save for the general's corpse, which Iroh took. Then, dragging along the two corporals, we went back to where we left the merchant with the rest of our respective parties.
"Ah, you're back. Who are the two in chains, and who's the third one who's free?" (Merchant)
"The two in chains are corporals from the demon lands, and I think they should be taken with us to be given to his majesty as PoWs... well, not really war, but their leader was a demon general. He's dead now, by the way. The third person is Iroh, an old friend and an S rank adventurer nearing SS, from the demon lands. He was here because he had orders to chase down and capture or kill the aforementioned demon general, and so he will return with the corpse soon. Before that, however, I asked to spar with him" (Ryuu)
"Well, you're going to get your ass handed to you, but I'd still like to see that" (Merchant)
Iroh looked at me, and he started laughing at about the same time as my party did, to the confusion of those watching.
"Yeah, someone's going to get their ass handed to them, but it's not going to be her. We've sparred 19 times, and I've lost to her 19 times" (Iroh)
"Eh? How... h-" (Merchant)
"You'll see" (Ryuu)
Iroh and I moved to a clear space on the road, and everyone else watched. The merchants, who didn't know that I was the one to kill the demon general, still seemed to think that it'd be over in a few seconds. Tuare gave the signal, and Iroh lunged at me, though I deflected his spear with the shaft of mine, before sweeping at his legs. He jumped high above it, pulling his spear back, but I easily changed the direction of my sweep to follow him into the air. In response, he knocked it aside with the butt of his spear, before sending some mana into his breastplate. I wasn't sure what would happen, so I retreated a few steps. However, it wasn't an attack, but a slight transformation of his armor, revealing part of his back, from which his wings flared out to allow him to fly higher, out of the range of my spear.
"Hey, that's not fair! I can't fly like that! Also, remember that we're in the human lands, so..." (Ryuu)
"Eh, they probably guessed it before this! As such, I might be able to win this time! Ahahaha!" (Iroh)
"Oh, fuck it. You've ticked me off, just a bit" (Ryuu)
"Eh? Uh oh..." (Iroh and most of my party)
I set down my spear, grabbed my bow, and shot arrow after arrow at him. The bastard dodged the whole barrage, and as he did so, his spear began to glow with a golden hue. Before I had time to think about that, a massive bolt of lightning shot out of the tip and hit my torso, my tunic getting turned to ash that blew away on the wind. I didn't care that I was topless, and as it might give me a bit of an advantage in the fight, I didn't feel like putting on another... well, also because I didn't want another one to get destroyed if he used that again, and another reason.
"And now, I'm actually mad. That was one of my favorite tunics" (Ryuu)
"Oh... fuck" (Iroh)
"Oh fuck is right. You're about to get smacked down to earth. Tuare gave me that tunic, after all" (Ryuu)
"Can I... no, probably not... fuckfuckfuckfuckfuck... I'm dead" (Iroh)
At that, I released my full aura (directed only at him, with a small amount of it leaking towards those watching, and jumped into the air.
"You can't hit me while jumping, I can fly!" (Iroh)
"So can I, remember?" (Ryuu)
At that, I revealed my wings and flew after him, boosting my speed with wind and lightning magics. I quickly surpassed the speed of sound, the shockwaves, made more powerful with wind and explosion magic, quickly tore his wings to ribbons. He fell, and I dove after him to hit him down further with a spinning slam from my spear, which I'd lengthened to about five meters long. Thanks to that, his impact with the ground made a large crater, and I still shoved the butt of my spear deep into his gut, pushing him further into the ground. After that, my anger faded as I turned my limiters back on, put my spear onto my back, and faced the crowd.
"Uh... Ryuu? You're... kinda still topless" (Nora)
"Huh? Oh, right..." (Ryuu)
I put on another tunic, this one backless so as to better accommodate my having wings, and healed the unconscious Iroh before pulling him out of the ground.
"Well, I can see that I was wrong about who would win, but... Is nobody going to comment on how both of them are demons?" (Merchant)
"I mean, my most recent demon ancestor was my father's grandmother. I'm only an eighth demon" (Ryuu)
"And you could have guessed that I'm a demon considering the fact that I was operating on a request to bring back the demon general, dead or alive, which would only come from a higher seat or the Demon Lord. Generally, one would expect that they'd ask a demon to do that" (Iroh)
"We're not bad people, you know" (Ryuu)
"Even despite the fact that the name of your party is accurate, and not a joke?" (Nyanta)
That caused more of a stir than anything else, but it was quickly resolved and we went on our way, taking the corporals with us. Iroh went back to the demon lands, carrying Gremory's corpse, and I dodged questions about the Demon Lord. The rest of my party answered some questions, but avoided others. I think we managed to win over everyone there into knowing that the Demon Lord, and demons in general, are not evil beings to purge from the face of the earth, but I'm not entirely sure. After a two and a half weeks, we made it back to the capital, and the first thing we did (after handing the corporals to the castle guard to handle) was head to the adventurer's guild to hand in the quest completion tag. Juniper and the Tea Party planned to find an inn to stay at first, so they didn't go with us.