I’d Even Defeat a Demon Lord Page 12

  Apparently, there had been a rainbow in the sky when Dale was born, too. It was said that it wasn’t at all uncommon for such a thing to occur when it came to those with high-ranking divine protection. But even so, Dale never heard of this many rainbows appearing.

  Outside the window, he could see the especially devout bowing down in prayer or trembling in fear. Half-unconsciously, Dale embraced Latina, who was by his side, and she snuggled her head up against his shoulder.

  “*******, ****,” she whispered, muttering words Dale didn’t recognize.

  “Latina?”

  “A king... A new king has been born,” she responded, her grey eyes clouded over like they often did lately when she was drifting off.

  “Huh?”

  “That’s what this denotes...”

  “Latina!” he shouted firmly, and grasped her shoulders.

  Seeing her act so clearly off stirred up an unspeakable concern inside him. He felt like he needed to call her back to her senses right away.

  “Wha...?” She gave a big blink of her eyes and then looked at Dale, seeming like she’d been startled by his loud voice.

  He felt relieved from the depths of his heart to see her looking like her normal self once more. “Are you alright, Latina?”

  “What? What is it, Dale? You surprised me...”

  “I’m the one who was surprised. Seriously... why were you spacing out like that?”

  Latina titled her head in response.

  Swallowing down the concern Latina’s reaction was evoking, Dale tried asking her in a calm voice, “What ‘king’ did you mean?”

  “Huh? These rainbows indicate that a new demon lord has appeared,” Latina responded, as if it was obvious.

  Dale knit his brows. “Do the devils have a legend like that?”

  “I don’t know...” Latina responded, tilting her head again. “It... wasn’t Rag... Was it Mov...? Who told me that... It wasn’t you, right, Dale?”

  “I’ve never heard that before.”

  “I see... Just who told me, then...?”

  Latina pondered the matter as she stared up at the sky by Dale’s side, but she never figured out the answer.

  †

  When the sixth month next arrived, Latina would turn sixteen.

  Over a year and a half had passed since Dale had come to see Latina as a member of the opposite sex, but a strange distance had been maintained between them. It was as if their relationship had changed, but also as if it hadn’t.

  Dale had recognized Latina as a special woman to him, but at the same time, he still thought of her as a young girl. He could clearly see that she had been growing, but at the same time, he couldn’t bring himself to make a move so soon. He got the feeling that that would somehow make him a failure as a person. As a result, he’d chosen to use whatever excuses he could to maintain the status quo.

  Latina herself hadn’t said anything that made it sound like she wanted such a thing, either. She simply believed in Dale’s words and smiled gently back at him. Thinking about it, it wouldn’t be incorrect to say that Dale had been thoroughly spoiled by the younger girl.

  However, it wasn’t exactly as if Dale had a ton of leeway. When she started puberty, Latina had said that her development was behind compared to other girls her age. Apparently, that turned out to be the truth. She hadn’t grown all that much taller, but other parts of her had gotten rather large. Apparently her mother’s genes, which had worried her so greatly, hadn’t had that much of an effect after all. Perhaps she’d gotten her curves from her father’s side.

  Latina got quite a bit of exercise while running around at work, so her arms and legs weren’t so thin that they looked like they could easily snap. They had also grown long and slender. Thanks to all that exercise, her waist was rather thin too, giving her rather enchanting, womanly curves.

  To put it bluntly, she’d grown up to have quite the nice figure. Her face still looked a bit childish, but that was likely due to the innocent expression she always wore. Sometimes, when she was lost in thought, Latina’s appearance was enough to shock even an older man like Dale. It would only be natural to call her “beautiful” or “pretty.”

  In fact, now that she’d grown, it was hard to imagine calling her anything but a beauty. And yet she was still as unguarded as she ever was, and Dale still pampered her. Looking totally at ease, she’d snuggle up to Dale like a kitten and happily gaze up at him.

  It was powerful enough to make Dale try to distract himself from the moment, and he wondered just how much of a seductress she’d be if she were doing it intentionally. It’s not exactly as if Dale was a saint. With such a beautiful girl who adored him so close, there was no way he wouldn’t feel something.

  Realizing that it was all his fault for not making things clear, Dale spent his days in this sort of occasional anguish.

  †

  “If he’s never going to get intimate with you, then you should get together with me.”

  “I’m fine with Dale. He said he’d wait till I’m an adult, so we’re just waiting for now.”

  “I’d be ready to go for it right away.”

  “I’m fine with Dale!”

  Over the past year and a half, this sort of exchange between Latina and Rudolph had become a normal sight in the Dancing Ocelot.

  He had declared that he wouldn’t give up on Latina, and just as he’d claimed, he hadn’t stopped his daily visits to the shop. Immediately after his confession, things were awkward between the two of them, but it didn’t take too long for Rudolph to shake that off and start begging Latina every day, only for her to bluntly turn him down.

  For the time being, Rudolph had been harshly ridiculed by the frightening old men who made up the regulars. But he didn’t let that discourage him, and since Latina hadn’t clearly stopped talking to him, the old men’s attitudes had gradually softened.

  Rudolph had taken the initiative because he was aware of the group swarming around Latina. Part of the reason was because he wanted to show her that he hadn’t given up on her. But if that were all, then there was no need to keep doing that in front of everyone. Rudolph made sure to have such exchanges in the Ocelot, which made them the center of attention, in order to keep the other men aiming for her in check.

  The people around him assessed Rudolph as a young guardsman who had potential and was doted on by his superiors. They couldn’t help but wonder if they could get close to Latina despite her stating that she loved Dale more than anyone else, like Rudy had. The flood of confessions Latina’s guardians had feared was being more or less held in check because Rudolph had been able to secure his current position.

  He’d tried hard.

  “By the way, Latina...” Rudolph called out to the girl while sipping some liquor, having grown accustomed to alcohol other than sweet ciders in the past year.

  “What is it?”

  “There are some traveling devils in town right now.”

  “Huh?” Latina tilted her head in response. “I’m surprised you could tell they were devils. I’ve never really heard of devils walking around human towns with their horns showing...”

  Including their country of Vassilios, devils were known to have an insular society and didn’t interact much with other races. They also made up more of the demons that served demon lords than the other races, so it wasn’t rare for other races to see them as a threat. Because of that, many devils hid their horns when visiting the lands of other races, wanting to avoid unnecessary trouble. The only clear visual difference between them and humans, the race with the highest population, was their horns. So those circumstances were also part of the reason why devils were rarely ever seen elsewhere.

  “No, their horns were hidden. All three of them wore southern-styled hats.”

  “Then how did you know?”

  “They reacted to this,” Rudolph responded, pointing to the black shard dangling from his neck. “They knew that this was a horn.”

  What Rudolph had pointed to ha
d been Latina’s horn, which she had once broken off herself. At a glance, it looked like a precious black stone, but Latina herself had recognized it as hers.

  “My horn?”

  “They had a thick accent, to start with, and they seemed to be foreigners, so we got a request for assistance from the eastern gate.”

  Kreuz was known as being much more welcoming to travelers than other towns, but it wasn’t as if they unconditionally let all outsiders in. The jobs of the gatekeepers who watched the outer walls involved collecting tolls from the people who wanted to come inside, while also keeping an eye out for anyone suspicious.

  And so, the gatekeeper had suspicions about these foreigners, with their trouble speaking the language. They wouldn’t be regarded as suspicious just because they were foreigners. Kreuz had developed around travelers and merchants, so they welcomed foreign visitors and saw them as people to do business with. Rather, the problem in this case was their trouble speaking. The official language of Laband was known as Western Continental. It was the language spoken by the most people in the world, so people who couldn’t speak it fluently naturally stood out.

  As a result, an inquiry was sent to guard headquarters, and in turn Rudolph was ordered to the eastern gate.

  When they saw Rudolph, their expressions shifted. One of the three looked clearly enraged, while another’s expression displayed a hatred that he couldn’t suppress. The last of the three stared at a single point—the small shard hanging from Rudolph’s neck—and appeared lost in thought.

  Because of those reactions, Rudolph realized that they were devils.

  “You had told me that the devils use a different language, and it’s only natural that they’d have such an uncomfortable reaction to your horn.”

  “Huh?” Latina looked puzzled.

  Surprised by her reaction, Rudolph in turn appeared astounded. “I mean, it’s the result of having broken a horn.”

  “Ah, that’s true.”

  The devil culture regarded their distinguishing trait, their horns, as sacred, and breaking one was considered the greatest slight against one of them. Just as had once happened to Latina, those who committed a crime were punished by having one horn broken and being exiled. And as an insult, a victor would at times take the horn of his opponent. To a warrior, that meant living in disgrace, so many would choose to take their own lives if it happened to them.

  “One of them reined in his companions, so nothing happened.”

  Age differences between devils couldn’t be seen by the naked eye. Devils aged slowly and had exceptionally long adulthoods. However, from the reactions of the others, Rudolph could tell that the one staring at the horn lost in thought was the mediator of the group.

  “Little lady, you gave away your horn?” Sylvester, sipping away at cheap booze at the next table as always, interjected into Latina and Rudolph’s conversation. He looked clearly surprised and had apparently spoken up without thinking.

  “Mr. Syl?”

  “If you have something like that on you, it’s like picking a fight with any devils you come across, so we humans treat them as cursed items.”

  “Really?”

  “From what I’ve heard from experts on the matter, horns also get imbued with grudges and curses. When you consider how they get broken, though, that’s not exactly surprising.”

  Hearing Sylvester’s explanation, Latina looked like she at last understood. She was fairly out of touch with the customs and thinking of devils, having left her home village when she was young and growing up in Kreuz, so even if she was talking about herself, it felt kind of like talking about a stranger.

  “I’m not a human, so I can’t enchant things, but...” Latina whispered, touching the shard of her own horn hanging from Rudolph’s neck.

  Among the seven races, the technique called “enchantment” was exclusive to humans. Using that power, they crafted magical devices that allowed even those who couldn’t cast magic to make use of mana.

  “This is a part of me... so my mana still remains in it.”

  “Really?”

  “Yeah. The ‘curses’ are probably because normally when a horn is broken, the mana remaining in it is full of suffering, hate, and despair...” After saying that, Latina smiled at Rudolph. “But this one should be fine. Chloe said that it was pretty, and that made me so happy that it wiped all those negative feelings away.”

  “I-I’m not worried about that sort of stuff.” There was no way that Rudolph would be upset that there was something like a lingering essence of Latina’s about it.

  “What I’ve imbued in this are my feelings of joy at having a precious friend by my side. It’s probably more like a protective amulet. Maybe the person who looked at it closely understood that.”

  The way that devils could see all sorts of things that humans couldn’t was one of the reasons they were known to be a race with great capabilities by nature. Since they could see the lingering mana, it would have been possible for them to clearly identify the shard of Latina’s horn.

  Rudolph hurriedly tucked away the necklace. This precious protective charm from Latina was clearly seen differently by those around him: as a “cursed item.”

  “It’d probably be good to keep things low-key for a while when you go out, right? That’s... I mean, I think... it’d be better if you didn’t meet up with anyone from your home village.” Rudolph said that because after joining the guards, he’d learned of the devils’ custom of breaking one of a criminal’s horns and exiling them.

  In addition to Rudolph, all the regulars of the Dancing Ocelot knew that Latina had been driven out of her home village, but they didn’t see her as a criminal. Especially when it came to those who knew Latina when she was young, if such a well-behaved girl was a “criminal,” then nearly everyone the world over would be a great sinner. However, there also must have been some reason behind that exile. They couldn’t see anything but trouble coming from it, so the people around her all hoped that she didn’t run into anyone from her home village.

  “When I was little, I really only ever spent time with a limited number of people, so... I really think there are only a handful of people who would recognize me. Although a lot of people may have heard that I was exiled ...” Latina responded, smiling at Rudolph. “But thank you for worrying about me, Rudy.”

  “R-Right...” Having taken Latina’s stunning smile head-on, Rudolph gulped down the contents of his glass as if trying to hide his blush.

  At night, when Dale and Latina were alone in their room in the attic, Latina reported what Rudolph had told her to Dale.

  During the night festival incident, they had temporarily separated their living quarters, but due to the slope of the Dancing Ocelot’s roof, there wasn’t exactly enough space for two rooms in the attic. Originally, the space was just used for storage, and there was a lot of luggage there that couldn’t be moved. As a result, the space that Latina had created to get away from Dale was ultimately small and just meant to be temporary. When they returned from the capital, they were closer than before, and Latina naturally returned to Dale’s side. The adventurer had regained the soothing presence that he often held in his arms.

  Dressed in a light, comfortable dress as her nightgown, Latina approached the desk set up near the window for writing. She had placed a small mirror with a stand on top of it and used it as a simple dressing table. Facing the mirror, she diligently ran a wooden comb through her hair, which was her nightly ritual. She soaked the comb’s rough teeth in a sweet-smelling perfume and then carefully ran it through her hair, starting at the tips. It was also part of her daily routine to tell Dale what had happened that day as she did so.

  And every night, Dale carried out the maintenance and inspection of his weapons and tools while idly chatting away with Latina. Ever since Latina was little, such gentle, calm moments had only been natural for the two of them.

  “That’s what Rudy told me.”

  Having heard everything from Latina, Dale looked a
little surprised. “More importantly... you didn’t keep your horn for yourself?”

  Dale knew that in devil culture, horns were treated as sacred. That’s why he thought that even if she had broken it off herself, Latina would still treat her horn as something precious. Even if they were talking about her best friend, Dale never imagined she’d hand it over to someone else so easily.

  And why did that kid, who wasn’t her best friend, have a shard of her horn? It wouldn’t be wrong for him to get into trouble with some devils and get beaten to a pulp. And why was Latina so carefree around someone with ulterior motives, like him? She really wasn’t good at sensing danger, was she?

  Dale’s thought patterns had hardly changed from since when he was still a doting, idiot parent.

  “Is there something wrong with that? I didn’t need it. And Chloe and Rudy said they wanted it, so that made me happy.”

  “If you say so, then it’s fine, but...” There was no extra meaning behind Latina’s gaze, which was fixed straight at him. Rather, he was probably being too suspicious. While thinking that, Dale sighed. “Is there anyone looking for you in Vassilios?” That was what Dale was wondering after hearing of the devil travelers.

  Dale hardly knew anything about Latina’s home village. She had been young when she was exiled, but that act of being cast out, combined with the prophecy that led to it, had left deep scars in her heart.

  She apparently had too many painful memories of her home village. Persistently asking her about such things would only hurt his precious, adorable Latina, so Dale didn’t even think of doing it.

  Latina wore a lonesome smile in response. “I don’t know. But... I can never go back.” Rather than resignation, there was a ring of determination to those words. “My existence can be nothing but a calamity for Vassilios. That country has finally received a new First Demon Lord, which everyone had been awaiting for so long... I’m sure it’ll become a good country, like everyone hopes...”