Summoned Slaughterer - Book 6

by Ido Masayoshi

  “… Got it. Let’s stop while matching our timing. Please dispose of him somehow after I have restrained that guy.”

  “Roger.”

  “Let’s start right away as long as we have stamina remaining”, the soldiers implement their idea immediately.

  “Let’s go… now!”

  The soldier next to him drew his sword while turning around while the soldier, who made the suggestion to intercept, released a fireball.

  The soldier fixed his grip of the sword while judging I will aim at the chance of him faltering due to the fire, huh?, but far from faltering Hifumi raises his speed even more.

  “What!?”

  “Too slow.” (Hifumi)

  Avoiding the fireball by jumping, Hifumi hit each of the two’s faces, who are dumbfounded, with both hands.

  Making a muffled sound, one each of both’s eyeballs rupture due to the impact.

  “Gyaaa!”

  “Guu!”

  The soldier, who cast the magic, moreover received a kick at the moment of landing and his right leg was roughly torn to pieces.

  The soldier, who barely resisted by not releasing his sword, desperately swings his sword within his narrow field of vision.

  “Okay, it would have been great if you had done so from the beginning if you are able to fight.” (Hifumi)

  While avoiding the sword, which is repeatedly swung vertically and horizontally, with movements similar to swaying left and right, Hifumi smiled slightly delightfully.

  Deciding to ignore the pain of his eye for the time being, the soldier focussed on dealing with the danger currently in front of his eye.

  Although he is tired from having run, he still plants his legs and loins firmly. Kicking off the hard ground, he stepped forward to overpower Hifumi with strength.

  During that time the other soldier ran away while moaning in pain and limping, but without turning his eyes that way, Hifumi stands in front of the soldier who displayed his ability and intent to fight.

  The demon soldier, who is one head taller, swings down the sword he held over his head with all his might and moreover wields it sideways even when his previous strike has been avoided.

  Letting that slash go past by lowering his stance, Hifumi chased the hand holding the sword while straightening his body and struck it.

  “Unu?”

  With the brandished sword’s speed being raised, the body of the soldier, who missed his chance to stop the sword, makes a full turn.

  Grabbing the exposed back of his neck, Hifumi pulled him with the soldier being in a state of looking up.

  “See you.” (Hifumi)

  Hifumi, who just saw that the soldier’s head was at a place littered with stones, trampled down on the demon’s forehead with all his strength and smashed his head.

  Scattering grey matter, the soldier died after several convulsions.

  “Well then, there’s one left, but… mm?” (Hifumi)

  The ears of Hifumi, who tried to go searching for the survivor while wondering whether he is still alive, heard the sound of a horse’s hooves hitting the ground.

  “Haa, that was nice. They caught up…” (Hifumi)

  Aren’t they used to mounting a horse? It was Pheres, who had a worn-out expression, and the one who was riding while clinging to her hips was Nyal who had the katana thrust in front of her eyes before by Hifumi.

  “Hey, get off.” (Pheres)

  “My butt hurts~…” (Njal)

  Continuing after Nyal who descended from the horse while complaining incessantly, Pheres got off the horse as well and bowed her head towards Hifumi.

  “We came to deliver a message from Captain… Vepar-sama.” (Pheres)

  “T-This…” (Njal)

  Receiving the parchment timidly held out by Njal, Hifumi checked its contents on the spot.

  It contained thanks mixed with sarcasm for the matter of him having cooperated at the time of her ascension to the throne and for the situation where she was going to be killed by her subordinates who had temporarily become hostile towards Vepar, like Pheres and Njal.

  And it continues with her recommendation for him to depart from the demons’ territory in the following sentence.

  “*Sigh* A thank-you-letter and a recommendation for departure has been lumped together.” (Hifumi)

  The two girls waited patiently even while being scared until Hifumi finished reading.

  Folding the document, he tosses it into his darkness storage.

  The girls stare in wonder due to the rare darkness attribute and his speed in invoking the spell.

  “I understood Vepar’s point. Since I planned to leave anyway, there’s no particular problem with that.” (Hifumi)

  Nyal showed an easily understandable expression of relief due to Hifumi’s words while Pheres assessed Hifumi with a yet still tense expression.

  “Let me tell you something nice. The barrier imprisoning you lot doesn’t exist anymore.” (Hifumi)

  As she has a honest nature, Njal floats an expression full of joy, but Pheres’ is still stiff.

  “Why do you know that?” (Pheres)

  “I heard it in the elven village. If you ponder about it normally, it’s probably because they have escaped while taking the lot, who maintains the barrier, along… The wind is blowing from the forest. The barrier likely doesn’t function anymore.” (Hifumi)

  “Are you a friend of the elves? Because you are a pawn of the elves, you have killed this many demons…” (Pheres)

  Pheres gaze is restinng on the demon soldier who had been killed before.

  “I have nothing to do with them. Demons, elves, beastmen and humans, if they become my enemies, they will be killed. You too, will you also draw your weapons in front of me? Will you aim for my life with magic if you are able to use magic besides healing magic?” (Hifumi)

  “… I will pass on that. I don’t want to square off against a person who seems to be laughing even while making an enemy out of the world. However, I will express my gratitude for the matter of you having rescued Vepar-sama. Thank you very much.” (Pheres)

  “You were also in the group who ambushed her though.” (Hifumi)

  “I wasn’t aware that she was the target. Although I was unable to do anything at that time, I have the intention to properly serve Vepar-sama from now on.” (Pheres)

  Bowing once, Pheres matched her sight with Hifumi’s.

  “I have no other talent but healing magic. Thus I’m unable to fight with you. However, I’m capable of saving my comrades.” (Pheres)

  “I see, that’s something valuable. Go for it, it will be fine if you help Vepar.” (Hifumi)

  “There’s something I don’t understand. What’s your reason for assisting the rise of Vepar-sama while having killed the king and this many demons?” (Pheres)

  Voicing out her question, Pheres looks at him properly and trembles only a bit.

  In her back Njal clutched Pheres clothes with an obviously frightened expression.

  “It’s tuning.” (Hifumi)

  “Tuning?” (Pheres)

  “The one called Agathion? That guy was strong. He was a fellow who was able to give permission to a plan, which put the life of his subordinate at risk, without a single change in his expression. If that person appeared on the world’s stage, he would probably finish off the elves, beastmen and humans one-sidedly. But, if it’s Vepar, who considers her comrades, including her own strength as well, it will become the best balance if she forms an alliance with the beastmen considering the number if it’s the humans, the size of the group if it’s the beastmen lot and the wisdom of the elves, but… anyway, I was able to tune things for the sake of a long battle with this.” (Hifumi)

  “It was difficult, you know”, with Hifumi looking in the far distance, Pheres began to tremble for a different reason.

  “Long battle, you say? You don’t mean…” (Pheres)

  “I thought that I’d like you to go to war with the guys who are able to fight. It’s no good if the f
ighting strength is too overwhelmingly biased. It will somehow finish with all of it being occupied and that’s boring.” (Hifumi)

  He places the katana, he took out from his storage, at his waist and adjusts its position.

  “The demons won’t be able to suppress their desire of wanting to leave once they learn that the barrier vanished. Humans seem to instinctively have feelings of fear and rejection towards demons, elves and beastmen. Beastmen like to fight to begin with. If there are still cities of elves and beastmen, they have to fight the foreign enemies and win to keep that fragile relationship.” (Hifumi)

  “I was able to prepare the stage”, Hifumi nodded in satisfaction.

  “W-Why are you doing such thing…?” (Pheres)

  “Hmm? I have no particular reason. However, it’s because I will be able to enjoy the battles if it turns out like this. If everyone is fighting for dear life, this world will develop as result, too. If it develops, the battles will become even fiercer. That feels pleasant, right?” (Hifumi)

  Pheres can’t say anything anymore due to Hifumi’s reply.

  “If someone somewhere pulls the trigger hereafter, the battles will probably spread slowly from there. I have moved in order for it to turn out like this. That means, from here on it’s the preparatory phase. I don’t know how long it will last though.” (Hifumi)

  Swallowing her saliva with a gulping sound, Pheres bid farewell in a hurry, mounted the horse in panic, pulled up Njal placing her in the back and galloped towards the castle.

  “Well then, let’s get ready myself as well, I guess?” (Hifumi)

  He headed in the opposite direction of Pheres. Facing the residence of the elves, Hifumi set out.

  Chapter 118 – Candle In The Wind

  When the elves who remained in the forest returned with arms to the site where the demon was, the corpse of the demon, which should have been there, had vanished.

  “E-Eh…?”

  “Oy, there’s nothing like a demon around here, is there?”

  Hearing the story that a demon appeared and moreover that it was defeated by merely two elves, the elves, who braced themselves and came along, glared at the two who previously met it.

  “No, no! It’s the truth! Right?”

  “Yeah, it was without a doubt a demon. We killed it with our magic. There’s no mistake in the location either. Look, there are still bloodstains remaining, right?”

  At the place, he pointed at, black remains, which can certainly be considered bloodstains, were scattered on the path which was evened roughly.

  If one looked closely, the bloodstains indistinctly extended towards the forest as if the corpse had been dragged along.

  “… It’s continuing over there.”

  “Let’s check it out. It will spell troubles if the demon is still alive and has escaped. Since there’s no doubt that it’s wounded seriously, we will finish it off with everyone launching their magic at it once we find it.”

  The eight elves who were at this place agreed to that suggestion.

  They advance while being cautious of the surroundings and covering for each other.

  With the remaining elves being specialised in magic, they had confidence in being able to resist even if the demon came. However, there’s actually none among them who has real experience in fighting. Cornering the demons, the elves locked them up in that place is a story from long before they had been born.

  “That is…!”

  When they advanced for around 5 minutes, one of them pointed at the dim vicinity where the space between the forest’s trees became fairly narrow.

  There they saw the back of someone doing something while squatting and squirming.

  “No, the blood has…”

  The leading elf tried to tell them that it was different from the demon he had seen for himself, but three elves immediately invoked magic misunderstanding it as enemy approach.

  “Take this!”

  “Demon! Come out!”

  While throwing abusive language at it, they released wind blades, a lightning attack and a stone pellet spell.

  All of the spells hit something and burst with a fierce sound.

  “Alright!”

  One of them yells while clenching their fists.

  In the next moment they hear a voice different from their comrades.

  “What’s “alright”? Idiot.”

  No sooner than the voice finished, the head of one of the elves, who released the spells, fell down with a “plop.”

  The cut elf himself had his life ended while wearing a surprised expression wondering about his sight suddenly spinning around.

  “U-Uwaaah!”

  Surprised by the abrupt death of his comrade, the one who raised his voice into a scream is a young elf who released a spell just like the beheaded and fallen elf.

  A katana pierces the chest of the young man, who looks at the tumbling head, as if being sucked into it.

  “Ue…?”

  As the katana is pulled out with a short sliding sound, the young elf presses his hands on his gaping wide chest, however large amounts of blood ooze out between his fingers.

  Once the young man collapsed due to blood loss, the remaining six took distance in panic.

  “A-A human…?”

  The one who attacked wasn’t a demon but Hifumi. (T/N: In other words, the worse option of the two)

  Wiping his katana with a paper, Hifumi stands up openly while being displeased.

  “On top of interrupting someone’s experiment, you even destroy the experiment’s body.” (Hifumi)

  What was held up by the katana was the corpse of the demon which had turned into a ragged dust cloth due to serving as shield against the magic attacks.

  “Experiment, you say?”

  Hifumi, who discovered a fresh demon corpse at the wayside, noticed that the trees in the surroundings were different from the demon’s area as they had the peculiarity of the elven forest and apparently decided to test whether there’s an influence by those trees on the blood of the demon whose ancestors are similar to the elves.

  Pulling the corpse along, he threw it down at a place dense with trees.

  Since the one he was working on while squatting hadn’t much blood remaining anymore, he tried to cut open the body’s front in order to make the change easier to understand.

  However, since the elves, who turned up in a group, suddenly fired spells at him, he ended up throwing the corpse as shield out of reflex.

  “Even though I went as far as operating on it at great troubles, this happened. The wind blades and stone pellet were still alright but the lightning attack burned it. Like this it ain’t usable anymore.” (Hifumi)

  Once the elves looked properly at the corpse, they saw that the skin had been cut open, the breastbones had been snapped off and the abdomen had also been cut open crosswise as the internal organs were smoldering and raising smoke due to being burnt by the lightning attack.

  “Uegeeeeeehh!”

  Someone vomited unable to endure it any longer and triggered two more to spurt out the contents of their stomachs.

  “Something like that…”

  “There had been three spells. Who’s the last one?” (Hifumi)

  “Judging by the direction of bloodthirst, it’s either you or you”, he points at them one after the other.

  The gazes of the remaining elves gathered on the man who released the lightning attack.

  “You, eh?” (Hifumi)

  “Please wait! I-It wasn’t me but someone else!”

  The man’s words weren’t able to stop Hifumi’s motion.

  Entrusting himself to his anger, the katana, which swooped down like lightning from a stance of being held above his head, cleaved open the lips and nose starting from the middle forehead, slid through the breastbones and tore open the abdomen in a single vertical stroke.

  “Aaah…”

  Although he has a bloody face and eagerly picks up the spilling intestines, Hifumi looks down on the man i
n front of him, who is looking with a face full of desperation as his guts are slipping out between his arm, with cold eyes.

  “The experiment has ended due to you elves. You wasted my time pointlessly.” (Hifumi)

  Once he cut apart the trachea and carotid artery by thrusting only the point of his katana into the throat of the man, Hifumi wiped the katana with a paper and threw that paper away.

  Even the remaining elves decided to abandon the forest at this moment.

  ☻

  There are unexpectedly many people who want to meet with Origa, who is staying in the capital, as she is called the wife of the hero. Every day written invitations to evening parties and such arrived at the inn she is staying at from nobles and merchants.

  Although she has sent a reply to pretty much all of them, each and every one was refused by Origa. Just showing up at the evening parties carried out by the royal palace, she finished the greetings without dancing and left in the middle of those.

  From the standpoints of genuine nobles they were targets of contempt as noble, who had risen from commoner status, and his wife, who was formerly a slave, but with them being close to the queen and having this many military achievements, there existed a definite number of people who highly evaluated her stance as wife even amongst the nobles, since she stuck to her reason for refusing which was 「I want to refrain from participating until my husband returns safely」.

  “Honestly said, it’s just because it will be annoying.” (Origa)

  “… You have described it quite frankly.” (Imeraria)

  Sitting opposite of Imeraria, Origa, who was tilting her cup with tea in it, wore a light blue dress which carried plenty of elegance for a noble of the kingdom if going by appearance. It even happened twice, thrice that she had been stopped by the surroundings as they greeted her wondering whether she was the daughter of some noble household or the heir of some unknown noble.

  “I have decided to use my time for the sake of my husband. Something like forming deep connections with nobles all around isn’t what my husband wishes for. Besides, it looks like there are also many unpleasant fellows who look at me with filthy eyes.” (Origa)