If It’s for My Daughter, I’d Even Defeat a Demon Lord: Volume 8

by CHIROLU

  “Well, I guess I’d call it a mix of angry and astonished,” Kenneth replied.

  Latina looked around at the regulars, pouting a bit.

  From looking at her, it seemed she really hadn’t expected Dale to have suddenly departed for his home village.

  “I was told to keep all sorts of stuff secret from Dale, but... Even so, I at least wanted to discuss with him as much as I could. I never expected him to just leave like that...” Latina said, her shoulders slumping.

  It seemed that she was taken away by the regulars without any explanation, but then was told that she could go back to the Ocelot for work, where she figured she could talk things over with Dale. She had been rather optimistic, thinking that if she at least made it clear where she would be, he wouldn’t worry all that much.

  Normally Latina’s understanding of things wasn’t that far divorced from common sense. But she actually didn’t know that the regulars had sent a letter declaring their crime to Dale. As far as she knew, they were setting up to surprise Dale, and she was just helping. Plus she was told that Kenneth and Dale had been told in advance that she would be sleeping overnight elsewhere.

  It was more than a small misunderstanding of the matter, but still, something far beyond what Latina expected was now unfolding.

  “So what are those idiots planning, anyway?”

  “I was told they wanted to persuade Dale. I don’t really know of what or how, though...”

  She had gotten wrapped up in something she didn’t properly understand, but Latina somehow looked like she was enjoying herself.

  Seemingly noticing Kenneth’s quizzical look, Latina shot him a troubled looking smile.

  “They just seemed like they were having so much fun that I just couldn’t tell them no...”

  “Well, I’m sure their knowledge of that personality of yours is part of the reason they were willing to go ahead with it.”

  “If they were putting Dale in danger I’d definitely be opposed, but... it doesn’t seem like that. When I see the customers having so much fun, I can’t help but think Dale would enjoy himself, too...”

  “And so you let yourself get taken?”

  Latina’s strained smile grew just a little bit wicked.

  “And also, I started enjoying myself a bit, too.”

  In that manner, the prank continued to grow in scope.

  †

  At this point the weather in Kreuz was often hot enough to leave any pedestrian a sweaty mess, but it was still mid-spring in Tislow, where the seasons were slow to change.

  Gentle sunlight streamed in upon the complex patterns on the rug. The little old lady whose room it was drew over the tobacco tray and stuffed her pipe in a practiced motion.

  “It’s not that hot here compared to how it is over there. If we start preparing now, we could hold the wedding ceremony before summer hit its peak.”

  Wendelgard had already lived longer than most, but she treated Dale in just as aloof and easygoing a manner as always.

  Dale was aware that his grandmother was in all likelihood offering the regulars support for their big dumb plan. After all, she found such things a source of personal amusement. It would really be stranger for her not to be involved.

  She was acting too normally, as she puffed away at her pipe, for him to be entirely sure though.

  “Just what are you plotting, calling me out here all of a sudden?”

  “How accusatory. Rather than making such claims, perhaps you should dedicate that energy to wedding preparations already?”

  “I’ve been thinking about that, too...”

  “If I left it all up to you, I’d kick the bucket long before I got to see Latina dressed as a bride,” Granny Wen said, pointing to a Tislow bridal outfit that had been passed down through generations and was now sitting in the corner of her room. “It’ll take more than just a day or two to get that fixed up for her. It took some time for you to work up your nerves, too, and then you’ve been dragging your heels ever since.”

  “I have not been dragging my heels.”

  He may have been the hero of an epic, but it seemed he was still just a cheeky grandchild as far as Wendelgard was concerned.

  “Dale, just a rough estimate is fine, but do you know Latina’s height?”

  “Huh...? I guess she’s a bit shorter than Frida.”

  “What about her shoulder width?”

  “She’s got a smaller build...” Dale replied, getting caught up a little in his mother Magda’s momentum as she measured the outfit and thought on the matter.

  She seemed to be getting the idea from the way that Dale’s hands were moving all around as he talked about Latina.

  “It seems like it would be good to bring this part in quite a bit, doesn’t it? She seems rather slender, after all.”

  “What about here?”

  “Shall we try trimming it a bit? Ah, but I believe we need to be careful about bringing the bodice in too much.”

  The plan was to boldly pull in the skirt around her waistline, while only shortening the shoulder width of the upper portion.

  Perhaps it was just what one should expect of Dale’s mother, but Magda sensed from her son’s hand motions alone just what a stylish girl Latina had grown to become. She realized not only was the girl slim overall, but also that certain parts of her had indeed grown quite thoroughly.

  “Mother, I’ll handle this part, so could you take care of the sash?”

  “Alright. And then, could you talk to Yorck about making arrangements?”

  Dale’s sister-in-law, Frida, wasn’t born in Tislow. As a result she didn’t know about the traditions related to such attire, so she ultimately left the tricky parts up to Magda.

  When he thought on how his mother and sister-in-law were doing that needlework for his bride to be, a look of embarrassment flashed across Dale’s face.

  “Looks like we’ll need some adjustments for you, too. I didn’t think you could get any bigger,” Magda said with a bit of an astonished sigh as she looked at Dale’s upper arms. Dale’s height was still the same as when he had brought Latina to visit back home, but his overall build had grown even more robust. She also got the feeling that he had come to resemble his father, which was a bit of a strange feeling.

  “You don’t need to do all that for me...” Dale stated bluntly, trying to cover up his embarrassment.

  “You always say stuff like that. But you don’t want to look shabby in front of your own bride, right?” Magda cut him off, seeing right through him.

  He had taken advantage of his title of the most fearsome of heroes in the past, but even his confidence wavered when faced with the women of his family.

  “We’ll take care of preparations on our end, so make sure the bride is good and ready, too,” Granny Wen said with a grin and a thin puff of smoke, looking just like a mischievous child.

  With that Dale’s exchange with his grandmother had concluded, and his mother had taken charge of adjusting the outfit, plus his measurements had been taken, so Dale wanted to head right on back to Kreuz, but he couldn’t.

  “So, how did it go?”

  Those brief words had come from Dale’s father, who was the effective clan head despite Granny Wen still holding the title on paper.

  The letter to Dale had also said that if he was coming home, he should also bring back the magical devices presented to Vassilios as examples. Randolph’s brief question referred to that matter.

  “Right... Well I already let you know via my letter, but I presented her with a magical device decorated with zoisite. Apparently over there the general process is to just polish things into spheres and then line them up. And so, she had an interest in the cutting process itself.”

  “I see.”

  “I also asked about the minerals naturally present in Vassilios, but... Well, I’ll write it all out in a report, later. I’m busy with some stuff myself right now.”

  “Hmm... By the way...” Randolph started, turning his attention back a
way from the magic devices. “I figured you would say you were going to buy them all up as presents for the little miss, but did none of them catch her eye?”

  Dale looked annoyed at his father’s words.

  It felt like his old man had seen right through him, but that was no real surprise, as Dale was incredibly easy to read where Latina was involved.

  Dale had figured buying it all up would be a good plan, but true to her exceptionally frugal view of money, Latina refused.

  She was well aware of Dale’s personality, and knew full well that her adopted father/fiance doted on her so greatly that any question of price flew out the window. Plus ever since she was little, she was never the type to ask for unnecessary gifts. And so, this time around she ultimately just accepted one of them, in order to form a matching pair with her sister.

  “She’ll be your daughter-in-law soon, so isn’t it a little odd to be calling her ‘little miss’?” Dale asked to annoy his father, getting revenge for how all-knowing the man had just been acting.

  “Hrmm... Would it be alright to just call her by her name...?” Randolph questioned, looking troubled.

  She may have been his daughter-in-law to be, but Latina was still a good bit younger than his son. It already made him feel somehow bashful, referring to her as “daughter.” And he had already sensed a portion of it to some degree when she was young, but she had an elegant beauty about her fitting to her position as the princess of a neighboring country. It was no surprise someone living out in the sticks like him would feel somehow intimidated.

  Even ignoring the fact that his son was a country boy, the idea of him marrying a princess seemed unimaginable, so he had been ignoring it for the time being. He really was Dale’s father and Granny Wen’s son, to have taken such a route.

  “If you go acting weirdly nervous, it’ll make Latina nervous too...”

  His father and bride nervously talking formally to one another... It was definitely easy to imagine that happening. Well, he actually did kind of want to see it a little, though...

  Those were the thoughts running through Dale’s head at the moment.

  “...If I said I wanted to buy them all, would you have offered me a discount as a wedding gift?”

  “With your finances, I figured you wouldn’t mind adding a little extra on for the sake of your folks.”

  “That’s what I thought you’d say,” Dale replied with his usual awkward smile, seeing that his father’s response had been just as expected.

  By the way, the magical device presented to Chrysos was given as a gift from Tislow, but the matching one for Latina was paid for out of Dale’s pocket. If Latina had known that she would have flatly refused, so Dale sent the payment back home on the sly.

  But with that said, it was also a very simple matter, as Dale just wanted the gift for the girl he loved most of all to be from him. That was all there was to it.

  †

  “Now then...”

  Ultimately, Dale’s stay in his home village exceeded his expectations, so by the time he made it back to Kreuz, nearly half a month had passed.

  In addition to writing up a report, he also had to take care of various preparations for the wedding ceremony, which certainly added up. He also had a feeling he may have been taking on some responsibilities involved with leading the clan, but he opted to write that off as just his imagination.

  Thanks to his pilgrimage to annihilate the demon lords the chaos in neighboring countries was dying down, so he went ahead and took it easy-assuming the duke wouldn’t be calling on him anytime soon.

  He still chose to force his way through the mountains on the way back, though.

  He certainly couldn’t take the same path there with Latina in tow, but another leisurely trip back to his home village with her certainly sounded nice. In fact, he thought taking a while to travel around with her might not be half bad.

  “First I’ll have to go get Latina back, though,” Dale muttered, turning his attention towards his left hand.

  His name as a retainer of the Eighth Demon Lord was displayed there, serving as proof of his bond with his beloved “master.”

  “They’ll know that I’m looking for Latina, but they won’t know how...”

  They would probably set up diversions and also spread false information throughout Kreuz. Normally, such methods would be very effective.

  As he was now, though, Dale didn’t need to gather information, as he could more or less sense where she was through their connection.

  With that said, a surprise attack could still prove tricky... Dale thought to himself while walking in the direction he sensed Latina’s presence from.

  A certain high-powered radar of a pup was assuredly helping out on their side like it was only obvious to do so. They must have known by now that Dale had left his home village and was heading their way.

  “Well, it’ll be a big dumb mess. It’s only polite to crush them fair and square,” Dale said, giving his arm a preparatory spin as he headed to rescue the captured princess in the western district.

  It was a little bit distorted, but Kreuz was built in the shape of a cross, just as its name implied. And the districts in each of the four cardinal directions had their own unique traits. The eastern district was a crafting district with shops and homes for craftsmen, while the southern district where the Dancing Ocelot was located was a rougher part of town with many facilities aimed at travelers. The center of town held temples as well as the local lord’s manor and other buildings that served to govern, and the northern district contained residences for nobles and other elites.

  And then there was the eastern district, which held high class residences second only to those of the northern district.

  That wasn’t to say that the district held no relevance to professional adventurers like Dale. There were a number of successful adventurers, such as the famous Sylvester, who owned residences there.

  And those successful adventurers were also regulars of the Ocelot. That was a fact, even if they just looked like old timers drinking cheap booze and gambling with cards in the middle of the day. It certainly wasn’t something you could tell at a glance.

  Dale figured that meant that this big dumb mess was set to unfold at one of their homes. After all, those old timers doted endlessly on Latina, so there was no chance they would make Latina stay in some filthy deserted house.

  I get the feeling Latina would end up enjoying that, though...

  Knowing Latina, she would have probably spent the last half month polishing up and renovating the place. He could easily see her diligently pushing around a mop and painting away at the walls. And that image in his mind looked a whole lot happier than when she was living as a princess. As those thoughts ran through his head, a grin broke out across Dale’s face.

  There wasn’t any sense of urgency about him in the least.

  He ended up stopping in front of one such residence.

  It was a real manor, far larger than anything from the southern or eastern districts. It had a vast front garden beyond the high walls surrounding the grounds, and a brilliant large red roof could be seen further in, hinting at the size of the place.

  More than all that, though, Dale’s focus was on the large number of presences he sensed from the other side of the wall.

  From the wry laughing he could hear, it would seem that his opponents had no intention of trying to hide.

  As he had predicted, they were there laying in wait for him.

  He didn’t reach for his blade, as this was ultimately still just a “game.”

  Dale passed through the gate and set foot into the vast garden.

  He may have been the unannounced intruder here, but even so, a large mass of masked men with ferocious smiles leapt at him. The group all had on sacks over their heads, with holes only cut out for the eyes. And in each of their hands, they held a long pole or club. They may not have had any blades on them, but they seemed plenty capable of killing.

  “Hold on...! T
his is just way too much!” Dale yelled out. That wasn’t because his opponents were wielding deadly weapons while he was unarmed, though. “What sort of suspicious characters are you supposed to be?!”

  Dale (the actual intruder here) was unable to hold back that quip because nearly half of those “suspicious characters” were wearing the uniforms of the guards, who were supposed to be the ones cracking down on suspicious characters in the first place.

  The other half had a mishmash of different outfits and gear, but it was easy to assume that they were adventurers.

  It had already been plenty simple to guess at their members just from the name they had sent the notice of their crime under.

  It was hard to tell if they were better described as having their faces hidden, or as having all but their faces plain to see. But at any rate, it sure did make them look awful suspicious.

  Meanwhile, the side who had launched the attack was now hesitating.

  The instant Dale stepped onto the grounds, the group waiting off to the side threw a net at him, just as they had planned. At the same time, the first unit struck out at him with their weapons. Even if he knew they were there, it simply wouldn’t be possible to avoid such an all-out assault with such a limited choice of ingress.

  Or at least, that was how it was supposed to be.

  And yet, they had lost sight of Dale. The net which had lost its target fell upon the earth completely empty, and the swung weapons smacked into the hard ground.

  They all specialized in combat, too. But that skill of theirs was precisely what told them that they had misjudged their opponent’s strength this time around.

  A normal human could never easily jump more than the height of a grown man without so much as a run-up.

  They had been unable to properly predict this deplorable hero’s movements precisely because they had been operating under the assumption that their opponent was a human.

  The attackers only realized their mistake when Dale counterattacked, kicking them down from outside of their encirclement.

  Dale had realized they were laying in wait, so after entering into the grounds and confirming what course of action they were taking, he moved to evade the net before it was even thrown. The extraordinary power he had obtained by becoming a demon had a huge effect on his jumping power and the instantaneous force he could produce. Just a single step of run-up to go flying with his dominant foot was enough to get him around behind his opponents. He then landed safely, and wrapped it up by landing a kick on the masked man at the end of the line.