The Demon King awoke from his slumber late in the afternoon after returning in the morning.
“Well then, I’m off to work. Ririan, come with me, and you stay here to guard this place.”
The Demon King instructed Tenji to keep watch over the hotel room.
“Isn’t it better for me to go as well?”
“Then there’d be no one to guard here. I can’t just leave delicate girls behind.”
For some reason, Aila had not yet returned.
Although Isabel had recovered enough to fight if necessary, the Demon King ensured that she could not move at all.
The Demon King left the room after telling Tenji to thoroughly monitor whether Isabel moved or not.
I immediately followed the Demon King.
The place we headed to was the room on the floor below.
“Wait a moment,” the Demon King said before entering the room.
A short while later, a single adult female demon emerged from the room.
Her long blonde hair flowed down to her waist, and the horns on her head had shrunk in size.
She bore no trace of the youthful appearance from before, looking completely like a mature woman.
The outfit she wore also appeared considerably more luxurious than usual.
“So you knew how to transform.”
“Is that strange?”
“No.”
We entered the elevator side by side.
“Ririan is taller than me now.”
Although the Demon King had transformed into an adult, I was a bit taller.
“I was originally a man, after all.”
Suddenly!
The Demon King’s hand began gently squeezing my chest.
“That doesn’t seem right.”
“This is due to a side effect of the transformation potion.”
Ding!
As the elevator arrived at the first floor, the Demon King’s hand slowly slipped away from my chest.
“Ririan is my escort knight for the time being.”
“What?”
“It’s not hard. Just stick by my side and don’t stray.”
I couldn’t help but wonder who was guarding whom.
In fact, I was in a position to be protected by the Demon King.
As we exited the hotel, a car was already waiting at the entrance.
“Welcome back.”
A male demon dressed in a suit bowed politely in front of the car.
After getting in, the driver started the vehicle, and we began to leave Raeden.
“Where are we going?”
“To the emergency response committee headquarters.”
It wasn’t long before we arrived.
The car pulled into a small village a bit away from Raeden.
When we got out of the car, we faced a small building.
The first floor, which appeared to be the entrance, was still under construction.
As we ascended the stairs, the somewhat intact interior of the building revealed itself.
“Has the Demon King arrived?”
“Yeah. Is everything ready?”
“It is finished.”
When I heard that preparations were complete, I thought it must have been for a meeting.
The masses pouring out of the building resembled a violent organization.
Although one shouldn’t judge people by appearances, they did not look like soldiers at all.
They wore a variety of clothing, including military uniforms, suits, casual clothes, and travel attire.
“Who are these people?”
“They are the emergency response committee.”
“We are the Demon King’s personal unit.”
A soldier among the group stepped forward to speak.
“They’re fools.”
“If the Demon King hadn’t been here, we wouldn’t even be able to gather here.”
Each of them seemed to have their own stories.
Now I slightly understood why Solche had asked the Demon King for information.
The emergency response committee consisted of people who worked in various parts of the Empire.
They could probably provide diverse information from each region no matter what happened.
“Today will be tough. Everyone, brace yourselves.”
“Yes. Understood.”
There was a small yet powerful response.
During our movement, everyone engaged in minor chit-chat.
Typically, the conversation consisted of greetings regarding how everyone had been and discussions about when they should have a meal together.
“I guess gatherings like this don’t happen often?”
“Not usually, we’re busy.”
“How come everyone is gathered this time?”
“Because it’s a gathering of the Demon King, the company lets us off.”
In the state sector, it was common for people to refer to their workplace as a company.
“Of course, that means we can’t move up the ladder.”
“Why not?”
“As you know, the Demon King has no influence over the operation of the Empire.”
Following the Demon King meant not following the current Emperor.
For those working in institutions affiliated with the Empire, their paths to advancement were virtually blocked.
“Well, we’re not doing this to climb the social ladder.”
“Right. And the Demon King always needs a royal guard!”
These people were more aptly described as the Demon King’s royal guard than the emergency response committee.
“I don’t need a royal guard.”
“Then we’ll take care of it for you.”
“I told you I don’t need it.”
The Demon King responded bluntly, but it didn’t seem like he disliked it.
After walking for a while, a vast plain came into view.
“I see several groups over there.”
“There are some over there too.”
“Everyone, don’t get hurt, handle them diligently.”
At the Demon King’s command, they dispersed efficiently in all directions.
“They’re good people.”
“Yeah.”
As the Demon King gazed over the plain, he wielded a sword of wind in each hand.
“Shall we start?”
“Yeah.”
I conjured a magic arrow and sent it flying toward the undead swarm.
The sharp arrow buzzed through the air, breaking apart one undead after another.
Although many were on the move, there was no sense of life in them.
It felt as though I was smashing some kind of inanimate figures instead of living beings.
Even after breaking many of them, more and more kept appearing endlessly.
“Break them one by one accurately.”
“I’m breaking them.”
“Aim for the center, keep your eyes wide open.”
As I heard the Demon King’s advice, I immediately stopped the movement of the arrows.
Then I amplified my concentration to unleash mana.
The world before and after releasing mana was completely different.
Mana spilled around the undead’s body, and at the very center was a black dot.
As I guided the arrow toward that point, the undead let out a painful scream before vanishing.
As I shifted my vision, the Demon King’s royal guard was all targeting that black dot.
What had seemed ordinary, their skills were comparable to the squad leaders of the Knight Order.
This time, I decided to target the undead instead of the black dot.
As the body collapsed, the fallen undead was trampled by others and slowly began to rise again.
It seemed that if I didn’t aim accurately for the center, I couldn’t deal with them properly.
As I got used to it with an arrow or two, the appearance of undead finally ceased.
The plain was littered with the remnants of destroyed skeletons as proof of the battle.
“For now, a break.”
“Everyone, you understand?”
At the Demon King’s two words, the royal guard seemed to comprehend immediately and sprang into action.
Some took a rest while the others did not let their fighting stance down.
“Aren’t we being a bit too cautious against the undead?”
“There are many enemies besides the undead here.”
If I had said something like that when I looked like a child, it would have seemed cute.
But now, an undeniable authority of the Demon King radiated.
“If we aim for the core, we can easily take them down. Why did it take so long for you to realize that?”
“I didn’t know until you told me.”
The Demon King had gathered quite a bit of information about undying creatures in that short period.
In fact, he had worked it all out on his own without even receiving an explanation from Tenji.
Curious, I asked how many undead he had taken down to discover their weaknesses.
“I didn’t discover it myself.”
“Then who did?”
“5th Unit informed me.”
Upon hearing “5th Unit”, I widened my eyes in surprise at the Demon King.
To hear the name of the intelligence agent I was supposed to meet in the southern Pilon region from the mouth of the Demon King.
“Is that 5th Unit a member of the royal guard?”
“No, that person isn’t.”
While passing through the Raeden region, they heard that the Demon King was present and stopped by.
It was said that they provided information regarding the weaknesses and habits of the undead.
It wouldn’t just be around the Demon King for no reason.
Clearly, they must have already known each other before that.
Most people usually didn’t show much interest in the Demon King being nearby.
If he had looked like this, the reactions might have been different.
For some reason, most people seemed to accept the Demon King’s current appearance more naturally.
I wondered if perhaps the world knew this appearance, rather than the childlike one.
“Looks like it’s time to end the break.”
As the Demon King surveyed the plain, new undead groups were slowly approaching.
Upon seeing them, the royal guard naturally took up their battle stances.
Ready to fight at any moment, they felt inexhaustible as they charged ahead.
While I was fighting the undead using arrows from the rear, something came flying toward us at high speed.
Thud!
The surrounding ground gently trembled, and what landed was kneeling on one knee.
It seemed to have fallen from quite a height, slightly embedded in the ground.
Bright red light gushed from its hollow eye sockets.
It landed behind me and the Demon King.
Quickly turning around to face it, the sound of its lower and upper teeth clacking echoed.
“Clack. Clack. Clack!”
The eerie noise gradually began to resemble speech.
“Human clack. I’ll kill you. Clack!”
Its entire body was skeletal, but it was different from the ones we had dealt with so far.
Its bones were thicker, and it was much larger.
The skeleton, nearly three meters tall, pulled out a bone staff it had been hiding within its ribcage.
Bam!
As it struck the ground with the staff, a dark bell chimed out loudly in all directions.
“Arise, my minions! Clack!”
“M-Master!”
Scattered, the Demon King’s royal guard all began to gather toward us one by one.
“What’s happening?”
“Their condition seems strange.”
Skulls walked towards us slowly, replicating the same movements from behind the royal guard.
Whereas before they had been bare, they now bore helmets and rusty swords in their hands.
Around the giant skeleton were armed skeletons gathering.
“Shall we deal with those first? Clack.”
“They’re coming!”
As the Demon King swung his sword to create a gust of wind, the skeletons exhibited previously unseen behavior.
They crouched low, swords raised to brace against the wind.
Then, slowly, they began to close the distance.
“Can they withstand the wind?”
“It seems we have to cut them down one by one properly.”
The sword of wind offers the advantage of wide-range attacks, but its power isn’t particularly high.
While there is a method to lower one’s stance to brace against the wind, it isn’t an easy approach.
These skeletons had endured that gust.
