LIGHTNOVELWORLD Chapter 55
Chapter 55: A Painful Dilemma
Well… it’s Zilbagias, the Demon Lord’s Prince, completely worn out from the fight with the White Dragon.
When I say “completely worn out,” I’m not exaggerating.
Before my eyes—lying on the floor is Virosa. Her whole body is in a terrible state, with broken bones protruding from various places, but she’s transforming into a flawless body without a single scar thanks to the Teleportation Spell.
You get it, right?
I’m the one who took all the damage, only to end up in pieces instead.
“Gah… ha…!!”
I can only roll over and spit blood from the unbearable pain. My upper body feels like it’s been sanded down, but I have an eerie lack of sensation in my lower half. That bastard Virosa must have shattered her waist bone…!
“Kuuuun! Kuuuun!!”
Liliana’s pained voice rises as she tenderly licks me to heal. She looks as if she wants to shout, “I’ve been healing you this whole time, why do you keep falling apart again?! This makes no sense!!”
I’m sorry, Liliana… don’t worry…
There are about ten more injured, so keep it up like this, will ya…?
With all that, I’m attending to my subordinates. Due to Faravgi being incredibly stubborn, Viene, who was completely charred, was barely holding on to life. If I had delayed just another minute or two, she would have died.
Well, I almost died taking those injuries myself!!
For now, aside from my maid uniform being burnt to shreds, I’m lying on the floor fully healed. She doesn’t seem to have regained consciousness yet.
Even though she’s a hated Night Elf, she took the brunt of that White Dragon’s light breath for me. If she were to die now, I wouldn’t feel right about it—
-isn’t this the moment where I should be laughing maniacally, saying something about how foolish it is to throw away one’s life for me, and that they’ll chew on regrets in the afterlife?
……
Ante, if you have time to babble uselessly, why don’t you help? Line up the injured, explain the situation to anyone who wakes up.
“I’ve done plenty of work already~. I think I’ll just lounge around, observing your pathetic state from my soul vessel. Oh, but I might throw in some encouragement if it strikes my fancy.”
How kind of you, Ante, to appear as a fantasy and lay there grinning at me while dangling your legs, saying, “Go on, do your best♪ Do your best♪.”
I’d rather not see you at all, you lazy Demon God…!
…By the way, what do I do about Sophia? She’s charred and not moving. Are demons not considered living beings? The Teleportation Spell doesn’t work on her.
“Oh, she’s probably badly injured and entered a dormant state. In this world, our bodies and souls are two sides of the same coin.”
According to Ante. If a demon’s limbs get blown off from physical shock, they heal quickly, but if they’re heavily wounded by magic or magical power interference, they have to wait for natural recovery. In many cases, that means entering a dormant state—losing consciousness to recover.
“As a Hero, you’ve fought demons many times, haven’t you? Didn’t you know?”
When a demon goes down, you usually deliver the finishing blow right away…
“Ah… I never had the luxury of leaving them unconscious and unattended…”
—As I was discussing this…
“Your Highness! Zilbagias-sama!!”
“Young master, are you safe?!”
“Whoa, what is that, a Dragon?!”
From outside the fort, there were hurried footsteps.
Looking out, I could see Demon warriors standing dumbfounded in front of the crumbling entrance.
Five of them. Wearing inconspicuous leather armor and carrying portable magical spears. They must have sprinted here with all their might, as they were drenched in sweat and gasping for breath. Some had simple war paint made of black paint on their cheeks.
“Your Highness… it is you, right?”
“What a magical presence…”
“He looks completely different from before…”
They whispered to each other.
I realized—aah, these guys must be the Reiju tribe’s guards and watchers that Platy talked about.
“You’re late. It’s already over.”
Having regained some strength from Liliana’s licking, I propped myself up and pointed to the slain White Dragon behind me.
“I just want to confirm, are you indeed the watchers my mother mentioned?”
I didn’t refer to them as guards out of consideration.
“…Yes, that is indeed correct….”
The oldest-looking one, appearing to be around 40 in human years, straightened his posture and answered. While gazing at the corpse of Faravgi, he was sweating in a way that indicated he was quite shaken.
They were late for their guard duty, the target was attacked by a dragon, and when they finally arrived, it was already dealt with—if I were in their shoes, I wouldn’t want to imagine what they must be feeling. Just thinking about it makes my stomach ache.
“My subordinates have been injured. We’re in the middle of treatment, so help us line up the injured.”
“Yes!”
Desperate to avoid any further blunders, the Reiju warriors obeyed without a word.
“—Nugaaaah!”
“Your Highness is taking the injuries for them?”
When I took on the injuries of the burnt Night Elf mercenary, the young Reiju warrior let out a ridiculous voice.
“That’s right… if I’m the one injured, the Saint will heal me… it’s convenient not needing a substitute slave, right?”
I replied with a strained smile.
Though, it seemed Liliana was treating Garunya’s injuries—better not mention that. I need to make sure to tell her to keep quiet about it later; it might lead to a complicated situation.
“But… why would you sacrifice yourself for a lowly creature like that, Your Highness—”
Do you mean a prince doesn’t need to put himself at risk for commoners? For some reason, that made me angry.
“…How I handle my subordinates is up to me. Besides, at the very least, these individuals risked their lives to protect me.”
“Ah… no, I apologize for speaking out of turn…”
The young warrior turned pale and closed his mouth, but then I heard a thud and a groan from an angle where I couldn’t see, suggesting he was hit by the other guards.
“Now then… what were you all doing and where?”
“Yes… that is…”
The older warrior answered with a face like he had bitten into a sour fruit.
Apparently, they had received these instructions from Platy.
– To avoid becoming a burden to my son, maintain a distant guard.
– To avoid interference from other prince factions, conduct thorough surveillance of the surroundings.
– Aside from emergencies, do not show yourselves as much as possible.
Well… it seems they were trying to let me do as I please.
However, the problem is, Demon warriors aren’t as skilled in stealth as Night Elves. So, they needed to keep their distance. Apparently, they were chosen for their keen eyesight and proficiency in detecting magical powers.
Since they didn’t show themselves to me and prioritized monitoring while being wary of other factions, they’ve likely been keeping their distance and watching over the fort loosely.
Then, from what should have been a place with only goblins, thick beams of scorching light flew out, leading them to rush over in a panic.
Had there still been a battle going on, they might have saved face, but since I had already taken care of things personally…
I mean, if I had been a normal Demon Prince, I might have died, and there wouldn’t have been any face-saving to speak of…
“…….”
The Reiju warriors wore solemn expressions. In general, in the culture of demons, making excuses is seen as extremely disgraceful.
It remains uncertain how much leeway they’ll be given to apologize to Platy. She’s scary when angry. I truly pity them…
“Guh…”
Just as I was about done with treating my subordinates—damn, that was tough—Virosa regained consciousness.
“…Your Highness?!”
She shot upright, searching around with her hands. It seemed she was looking for a weapon.
“I borrowed this.”
As I handed back the refined sword sheathed in its scabbard, she stared at me wide-eyed, surveyed her surroundings to comprehend the situation—and then fell to the ground with a crushed expression. It was a face “more serious” than even the Reiju warriors’.
“This failure… I have no excuses…”
Yeah, I figured you would say that.
“Virosa, what do you think went wrong this time?”
“…There was a lapse in our reconnaissance, Your Highness. I only discerned the presence and rashly concluded it was a human mage, failing to consider other possibilities… that was the root of it all…”
I could hear the sound of her grinding her teeth.
“If it weren’t for others, I should’ve been able to use transformation magic myself…!”
That might be true. While it was strange for a human mage to be around, we had discussed the possibility of other races disguising themselves—but no one ever thought about that.
“Surely, that may be the case. Now, Virosa, aside from ideas, how could we have avoided this situation?”
“…If we had conducted reconnaissance even inside the fort and visually confirmed the mage—”
“That’s right. And it was I who instructed you to just peek outside the fort.”
As I sighed and stated this, Virosa’s shoulders twitched.
“You may have had some shortcomings, but the fundamental reason for our defeat lies in my failure to fully utilize your abilities.”
“…………”
“Thus, if you continue to bow your head further, I will have to bow even lower.”
“No way! But, Your Highness—”
“There will not be a next time.”
As I corrected myself, returning the sword to Virosa while grinning.
“Next time, if you find any shortcomings in my instructions, no matter how trivial, feel free to point it out. I don’t want to be a fool who repeats the same mistakes… So, I’ll be relying on your sword from here on.”
“………… Yes! I will do my utmost!”
Virosa bowed deeply and accepted the sword from my hand.
From behind, I heard whispers like, “…Is she really five? Isn’t she fifteen?” “Even then, she’s too young” and I chose to ignore them.
“Still, Virosa, I’m glad your sword is a refined one.”
Relaxing my shoulders, I pointed to Faravgi’s head.
“Without it, I might not have been able to deliver the finishing blow.”
“…It has a magnificent blade. Truly, Your Highness…”
Just as she was about to say she wanted to learn swordsmanship from me, Virosa paused, glancing at the Reiju warriors.
Yeah, I wanted to practice swordsmanship too…
However, I was fortunate to have caught a glimpse of a new realm that combines spear and sword.
With that, I could probably pass it off to the demons as, “This is just a bit of a strange spear.” Since the knife I used as the tip was broken, it might be time to procure a new weapon—
“—! Something’s approaching!!”
Suddenly, one of the Reiju warriors shouted, glancing back outside the fort.
“Magical power equal to or greater than the current Your Highness’s! From above!”
Tension spread among everyone.
If it has a magical power level similar to mine—and coming from the sky—
It can only be a dragon, nothing else.
“…We’ll meet it head-on. This fort could collapse at any moment. Everyone who can move, out!”
Leading the Reiju warriors, we dashed outside.
Meanwhile, the heavy sound of flapping wings echoed.
Looking up, I could indeed see the shadows of dragons—three of them, descending toward us.
Everyone entered a battle-ready stance, and Virosa transformed into her human form, drawing her sword. Her expression was fierce, ready to take down the next one. The Reiju warriors did a double-take at Virosa.
“…Wait, someone’s riding them.”
“A dragon rider?”
“It seems the one with strong magical power is a rider, not a dragon!”
The dragons landed with a heavy thud right in front of the fort.
Each one was adorned with reddish-brown and green scales, equipped with saddles. Dragon Riders—
And leaping deftly from the saddles, a Demon warrior descended—revealed to be a strong magical presence, with green hair and a decidedly wicked look in their eyes—
“—Why are you here?”
It was the Fourth Demon Prince, Emelgias.