7th Demon Prince Jilbagias’ Chronicle of Demon Kingdom Toppling

55.2  Like Cutting One Own’s Body

I laughed with a cramped smile after replying to the warrior.

Nevertheless, Liliana seems to heal Garounya’s wound too but―― I wouldn’t tell them about this matter. I had to remind her later to prevent unnecessary trouble.

「But still… For Your Highness to do that in person for those lower species is just――」

Are you telling me that a prince shouldn’t worry about people of lower class? I don’t care about such things but, that remark still piss me off.

「… How to handle my subordinates is up to me. Not to mention that they used their own body to protect me from dragon’s breath.」

「Aah… No… I’ve overstep my boundary…」

The face of the young warrior paled, his mouth opened in astonishment before he snapped out and let out a groan. It seems another warrior hit him from an angle that couldn’t be seen from my position.

「So… What are you doing here?」

「Ah… No, about that…」

The most senior warrior replying while chewing his lips.

According to him, it seems Platy gave them the following order.

・They have to protect me from a distance so that they wouldn’t put unnecessary pressure on me.

・Be aware of the surroundings to prevent the other demon king’s child faction interference.

・Don’t show yourself except in emergency situations.

Well… It seems this arrangement was part of her consideration since she wanted to give as much freedom as possible to me.

If there was a flaw in her plan, it was the fact that the demon race wasn’t adept in covert action like the night elf. That’s why they had to stay quite far behind our group. For that, Platy chose the one with the best eyes and adept presence detection among the Reiju clan’s warriors.

In order to hide themselves from me, they always split themselves to scout our surroundings to prevent any interference from my sibling’s faction. The same goes in today’s case, they also split up and scouted the area around the fortress while watching me from afar.

Since they had already been informed beforehand that there were only goblins in this ruined fortress, the thick blazing beam of light that was fired by Faravugi was enough proof for them to feel that there was something wrong with the situation, thus they rushed in hurry.

Their honor should’ve at least been preserved if they arrived during the battle but alas, by the time they had arrived, I had already turned the table and killed Faravugi…

Rather, if it was replaced with my other sibling under the assumption that we’re in the same age, forget about honor, the prince they’re supposed to protect would die for sure…

「…」

The warriors of the Reiju clan had a grim look on their faces. In the culture of demon race, excuses were something shameful to the point that they would rather die than make up some excuse.

Though I had no idea whether they would be spared from Platy’s wrath or not, she was truly terrifying once she was pissed off after all. You have my condolences dudes…

「Guh…」

Around the time I finished treating my subordinates―― Who was about to die―― Verossa had finally regained his consciousness.

「… YOUR HIGHNESS!?」

He sprung up immediately, his hand was groping around his surroundings. It seems he was looking for his weapon.

「Here the thing you’re looking for, I borrowed it for a while.」

When I returned his sharp sword, already sheathed into its sheath, he looked at me with his eyes open wide, then he looked around, trying to understand the current situation―― And groveling before me. And five warriors of Reiju clan  around me with 『Sorrowful』 faces.

「My apologies… This incident is caused due to my blunder…」

Well, what a way to break the ice.

「Verossa. In your opinion, what is the blunder that caused this incident?」

「… Your Highness, it’s our fault as the scouting troops. We ended up concluding that the incident is caused by a human spellcaster, we made a blunder since we’re not considering other possibilities, that’s why…」

I heard him grit his teeth as he paused for a moment.

「Even if other people hadn’t noticed the unusual situation, I as the user of human transformation art is…!」

That’s―― Wait, that makes sense. I did feel something was amiss since there was a human spellcaster deep inside the demon kingdom territory and yet, no one-including me- realized the possibility that it might be another race who transformed into a human.

「Surely, I can’t deny that fact. Then Verossa, the plan aside, what will you do to avoid this situation?」

「… We should have infiltrated into the fortress, and saw the spellca――」

「Correct. The one who gave the order for the scouting team to see the situation of the fortress from the outside is me.」

Verossa’s shoulders twitched when I heaved a sigh while correcting his misconception.

「Though I’m not as strong as you, the reason for this disastrous result is because I’m not making the full use of the night elves forte.」

「…」

「That’s why if there’s someone who has to lower his head, it should be myself.」

「Your Highness, such a thing is――」

「There’s no next time.」

I returned Verossa’s sword with a wide grin on my face.

「Next time, make sure to tell me there’s something that I forgot to say within my order. I don’t want to become an idiot who repeats his blunder… That’s why I need to rely on your sword next time too.」

「… Understood. I shall offer my utmost support.」

Said Verossa, bowing his head as he received his sword back from me.

Let’s ignore murmurs such as 「… Is he really 5 years old? He’s not 15 years old right?」, 「He’s too mature for his age」 which came from behind.

「But then Verossa, I was truly saved by your sword’s sharpness during the fight.」

After the tense air eased out a bit, I spoke to Verossa again while pointing at Faravugi’s head.

「We were going to die for sure if it was not for the sharpness of your sword.」

「… That’s a splendid cross-section. Your Highness, you really…」

Verossa shut his mouth, taking care not to disturb Reiju clan warriors’ mood by saying “Want to learn swordcraft”.

Yeah, I still wanted to use a sword…

But, after combining swordcraft with spearcraft, I saw a brand new world available only for me.

Instead of insisting on learning swordcraft, I could still insist 「This is my personal spearcraft style」 to the other demon race. Since the knife that I used as the speartip had already broken, I might be as well look for new weapon――

「――! Something approaching this place!!」

Suddenly, one of the Reiju clan’s warriors shouted loudly while looking outside of the fortress.

「The owner of a magical power stronger than the current His Highness is coming from the sky!」

Everyone’s face stiffened upon hearing that.

His magical power was as strong as the current me―― Moreover, speaking of the sky…

I couldn’t think of anything but a dragon.

「… It’s an ambush. Bring everyone out of this fortress!」

We were led by the Reiju clan’s warriors out of the fortress.

Then I heard the heavy sound of flapping wings.

When I looked up, it was indeed the silhouette of a flying dragon. On top of that, there were three of them and they landed before us.

Everyone readied their combat stance at once, Verossa also unsheathed his sword. His face looked as if he was prepared to kill any enemy. The warrior of the Reiju clan took a look at Verossa again.

「… Wait, let see who riding on those dragon for now.」

「The rider?」

「The owner of that powerful magical power isn’t the dragon, it seems to be their rider!」

The dragon then landed with a thud in front of the fortress.

It was the dragon with green scales and brown scales, and had a saddle on its back. So they really are a transportation dragon――

In addition, the one who jumped down nimbly from the saddle was…

A demon race’s warrior with powerful magical power―― Green hair and the kind of face that made me want to kill him――

「――What are you doing here?」

The 4th Demon King’s child, Emergias.