Chapter 2
"...You're awake."
Waking up the Hero, who would sleep until noon if left alone, was as much a part of my routine as anything else.
I felt a small shock when this routine, which I hadn't missed for almost a day in the past three years, collapsed.
'It seems even this guy gets nervous when facing the Demon King's castle.'
I must have seen him as too much of a degenerate due to my personal feelings all this time.
As I approached him with this reflection, I noticed his weary expression that wasn't visible from afar.
"...Did you perhaps not sleep, rather than wake up early?"
"...Yeah. They wouldn't let me sleep."
The Hero chuckled and pointed to the tent behind him.
Inside, the soft breathing of three people who hadn't yet woken up could be heard.
I want to stab my worthless eyes which had just seen the Hero in a slightly better light moments ago.
I knew what kind of person he was, so why did I harbor such vain expectations?
"Then shall we rest today and go tomorrow...?"
"No, let's just go now."
"Now?"
"No matter who the opponent is, I'll win anyway. There's no difference whether we go today or tomorrow."
This confident statement wasn't born from baseless self-assurance.
While this Hero had major character flaws, everyone who had met him agreed that his strength was unmatched by anyone.
If he wants to go now, I have no particular reason to stop him.
After all, I too want to end this adventure that doesn't even feel like an adventure as soon as possible.
"Ladies! Wake up!"
The Hero urged them to hurry as he woke up the three who probably didn’t sleep properly last night.
The reason he's so enthusiastic is unlikely to be for ending the suffering of humanity.
It's just a rumor, but there's talk that the Demon King might be a woman.
Such rumors were naturally accompanied by claims that the Demon King was an incredible beauty.
It seems the prospect of an unseen beauty has ignited this sex maniac’s passion.
It's all the same to me.
My compassion and magnanimity aren't deep enough to sympathize with the leader of the enemy forces that have tormented us until now.
The Hero's lovers all gathered their clothes and slowly crawled out of the tent.
Ironically, the first to emerge was Princess Meria, the Duke's eldest daughter, who would have taken the longest to prepare.
As the daughter of a Knight Family, she always wore thick armor, but never actually went to the frontlines.
"Elang. You're up early again today."
"Yes. Because today is the last day."
"Hmm. Today is an important day that will go down in the Kingdom's history. Serve the Hero well."
Her tone is commanding and blunt, but among the Hero's lovers, she's relatively better.
She occasionally makes requests of me, but she at least doesn't ask for things I can't do.
"Yes, I will. Princess, please guard the rear as usual."
Here, 'guarding' meant watching from a distance while we fought.
Either not noticing my small sarcasm or choosing to ignore it, Meria said,
"...Right. I'll do my duty."
As Meria was nodding, the Holy Saint sluggishly emerged from the tent.
A robe deeply cut at the chest and thighs.
I remember once seeing a prostitute in a demon town brothel wearing similar clothes.
She claims it's a disguise to infiltrate demon towns, but, given her usual behaviour, anyone could see through that lie.
Holy Saint Alencia hates demons.
Not just ordinary hate, but to an uncontrollable level.
Once, when a child in a village clung to her, she mercilessly beat the child.
Because of that, we nearly had our identities exposed and had to spend a tough time in hiding for a while.
"You're awake, Holy Saint."
"Yes. Did you sleep well, Sir Elang? Today seems like a good day, full of God's grace. By the way, about what I asked you yesterday..."
"It's all dried and packed away."
"Excellent. If other magicians were half as good as you, Sir Elang, the coming of God's Kingdom would have been a thousand years earlier. What a shame."
It sounds like I did her some great favor, but all I did yesterday was laundry.
Since there's no magic to perfectly clean clothes during prayer, I usually washed their clothes and underwear directly with magic.
Alencia's underwear were all lewd items that had lost their function as underwear, and naturally, their durability was as poor as their appearance.
So when washing them, I had to be more careful and put in even more effort than with other clothes.
...Yesterday too, that was on it.
Just thinking about it makes my body shudder.
But she's relatively better among them.
If Meria is the best in terms of character among the Hero's lovers, Alencia is undoubtedly the most capable.
She didn't directly participate in the frontlines, but that's natural considering the original role of a Holy Saint.
It seems she didn't obtain her position as Holy Saint in bed, as her healing powers were indeed outstanding.
Meria with her relatively better character, and Holy Saint Alencia with her relatively better personality.
And then...
"Yawn~"
Speaking of the Devil, Karin, who was mediocre in both aspects, came out of the room yawning.
In the capital and academy, Karin was known as a knowledgeable talent, but her knowledge was of no use in the demon realm or on the battlefield.
She wasn't particularly skilled in magic either, so she was honestly surplus personnel.
The reason she came all this way was just one.
The Hero.
She probably forced herself to come out of concern that Meria or Alencia might get closer to the Hero.
[Secretly help Lady Karin.]
When it was decided that I would go to the demon realm with the Hero, I received such a message from home.
I felt a slight despair once again at the fact that even my family, who should support and understand me, wasn't on my side.
"You're awake."
"...Yeah."
Karin responded halfheartedly and passed by me to approach the Hero.
Three years have passed since our journey began, but I haven't done anything special for her.
I didn't want to, but more importantly, there was nothing I could do for her.
"Hero."
I called out to the Hero after tidying up the tent.
The Hero, now flanked by the Holy Saint and Karin, turned to me with an arrogant expression.
"What?"
"Shall we go now?"
"Yeah, we should... By the way, is today the last day?"
The Hero looked up at the sky with melancholic eyes.
Despite all his complaints, now that it's ending, is he feeling sentimental?
"Finally, this fucking primitive land is coming to an end."
"......"
Guess not.
With those vulgar words closing the curtain on our adventure, we began our march towards the Demon King's castle.
*****
"How many enemies are there?"
"...Many."
I gave a vague answer to the Hero's question about the number of enemies.
Centered around the massive castle visible even from afar, a force of over a hundred thousand surrounded it.
This isn't just a meat shield.
Even now, with unprecedented development in large-scale attack magic during the long war period, there's a reason why countless soldiers are still deployed.
The Hero's sword can cleave the sky and his body is impervious to the swords and spears of common soldiers.
However, we can't wage war relying solely on one Hero.
The reason for this is the strategic magic that developed alongside large-scale attack magic during the long war.
Chain magic that used soldiers' lives as collateral.
High-level magic that links soldiers' lives, strengthening even conscripted farmers to the level of quasi-knights.
Just as many grains of dust can form a mountain, many small forces combined can overcome a great power.
Especially the demon race, with their disregard for human life, freely used magic that cost soldiers' lives.
"...Should we choose another day?"
If it's just soldiers, even if someone uses strategic magic, I can handle it alone.
The problem is the Demon King waiting in the castle.
And the rumored subordinate who received power from the Demon King.
At the highest point of the castle.
A massive power swirled, darkening the surroundings as if the Sun had descended to earth.
And below it, a smaller but still clearly larger than Commander-level light flickered.
That must be the rumored Demon King’s subordinate.
There are two, but gathering so many soldiers means there's definitely someone skilled in strategic magic.
It might be possible to face them one-on-one, but with so many sacrificial pawns, it's too much for me to face two high-ranking demons alone.
"...Can you hold out at least?"
"Not for long."
Even if I put everything into defense, given who we're up against, it would be thirty minutes at most.
However, knowing he would charge right in if I said that, I deliberately reduced it to about ten minutes.
"Ten minutes? That's enough."
"No..."
I made a mistake.
I should have exaggerated that I could only hold out for about a minute.
"Hero, we should be cautious..."
"Let's go!!"
Before I could add anything, the Hero's body, which had struck the ground, was already right in front of the castle.
The Hero's charge raised a huge cloud of dust, and the two massive lights, belatedly grasping the situation, flashed their eyes.
"Damn bastard..."
I, too, took flight, following him.
Perhaps lacking the courage to interfere in the fight between the Hero and the Demon King, the two lights on the ground approached me.
A pink-haired succubus and an armored knight easily over 2 meters tall.
The knight remained silent while the succubus, looking as if she'd been hit on the back of the head, spoke with a dumbfounded expression.
"...Don't tell me you two came alone?"
"We came as five."
"Then why are there only two of you?"
"The other three are just for show."
"What?"
Come to think of it, our party seems to have more of the Hero's women than actual combat personnel.
What kind of Hero's party is this?
It's just a sex party.
Suppressing the urge to shout out loud, I activated the magic I had prepared for this day.
Its power, fully manifested through pre-incantation, divided the castle and everything else.
With this, the castle is a perfectly isolated space.
Until the mana runs out, no one can enter or leave it.
They both seem to have noticed.
However, they showed no signs of attacking, as if they didn't care about this situation at all.
"...Aren't you going to attack?"
Having secretly activated dozens of layers of defensive magic and prepared to attack, the lukewarm attitude of the two demons was highly suspicious.
The armored knight remained silent, while the pink-haired succubus scratched her head with an awkward smile.
What's with this reaction?
My curiosity was answered the next moment.
"We're not going to fight, you know?"
"...What?"
"You came to kill that bastard, right? Why should we fight? We're just going to watch."
"...?"
This is unexpected.