TERNLF Vol. 3 Chapter 1 Part 3

We proceeded deeper and deeper along the broad corridors of the Demon King’s Castle.

Compared to the royal castle in the capital where I was born, or the castle of the dwarven nation, these passageways were far wider, and the ceilings much higher.

It was not as though the Demon King had designed them that way to display his own grandeur.

The reason was much simpler. Just as with the oversized bed, it was simply due to the racial traits of demons.

We had already passed several individuals, and demons, being an especially diverse race, varied enormously even in build alone.

Some were even smaller than Faura, whom we had met outside the castle, while others were more than twice my height and width.

If beings like that were going to move about inside the castle, it naturally had to be built with sufficient space, and the result was corridors wide enough for large vehicles to roll through with ease.

“Toa really is amazing. He can do just about anything.”

“Totally.”

“You two, be careful not to look away and stray out of range. That’d be dangerous.”

The only reason we were able to walk through such corridors without anyone stopping us was because we were using a barrier magic tool that concealed all of us, our presence, and even our footsteps. In other words, it had an effect similar to Faura’s ability.

It was something used at the Border Fortress for stealth operations, and while extremely powerful, it had many drawbacks unlike Faura’s power, which was why I had avoided relying on it until now.

The first drawback was its effective range.

The barrier generated by the magic tool only extended to a space less than two meters in diameter centered around the user.

So it posed no problem if one person used it alone, but when several people tried to share it like this, it became incredibly cramped.

“Hey, don’t push!”

“Wah, careful!”

“Everyone, please make sure you’re holding on to Mr. Toa’s arms properly!”

As a result, I was currently walking with two of the three girls hanging from my left and right arms, while the remaining one clung to my back.

At first I had thought it was a lucky break, but after walking like this for a while, the hassle had begun to outweigh any foolish excitement.

The next drawback was its duration.

This magic tool consumed a great deal of magic power, and on top of that, it could not be recharged externally.

Apparently, because it had been built to activate multiple barriers simultaneously, the structure of its magic circuits had become too complex, and forcibly replenishing its magic power would break it.

As a result, its duration was limited to roughly thirty minutes.

Worse still, it took more than five days for that magic power to recover on its own, making it an extremely inefficient magic tool.

At the Border Fortress, several of these had always been kept on hand, so they were used almost like disposable items, but…

And finally—

“Hm?”

Chichichichi.

The bird-shaped magic tool perched on my shoulder let out an adorable chirping sound.

I quickly tapped it on the head to stop the noise.

“Mr. Toa, if we go behind that pillar over there, it looks like we’ll be able to hide.”

“Perfect. Let’s use that spot.”

“The Demon King’s Castle is nice. Even the pillars are huge, so they’re easy to hide behind.”

There was one final flaw.

Well, whether it counted as a flaw or not depended on how it was used.

“All right, I’m going to drop the barrier for a moment.”

“Yes.”

“Got it.”

“Whenever you’re ready.”

Once we crammed ourselves behind a nearby gigantic pillar like people packed together in a shoving match, I checked with the three of them and temporarily released the barrier.

The instant I did, fresh air rushed in all at once from around us.

“Inhale, exhale, inhale, exhale. Ahh, the taste of oxygen.”

“Phew. That was getting a little hard to breathe.”

“I thought it would last a little longer than that.”

“Wasn’t it because Cheki and Grassa were making so much noise?”

The greatest weakness of this barrier magic tool was that because it blocked not only our visibility but also sound, scent, and anything else from leaking outside, it also prevented air from circulating.

Thanks to that, it could hide us even from monsters with a keen sense of smell, and it could also perfectly block toxic gas and miasma, so it was a tradeoff. Besides, under normal operation it was only meant for one person, so that aspect had never mattered much.

That was why I had chosen to use it the same way I always did, but…

“With four people packed inside, the oxygen runs out faster than I expected.”

“I’m sorry for forcing my way into coming with you.”

Nikka lowered her head apologetically.

“We wanted to see the Demon King too, so it’s your fault for trying to leave us behind.”

Beside her, Grassa jutted out her lips.

“Well, I’m the guide, so it’s not like I could stay behind.”

“That’s true.”

As I said that, I took out the barrier magic tool and checked how much magic power it had left.

Had we been walking for about ten minutes since leaving the room?

There was no helping the fact that we could not move very fast while squeezed together so tightly.

Still, I doubted it would take another twenty minutes to reach the Demon King’s room.

Even so, it was better to confirm.

“Cheki. About how much farther is it to the Demon King’s room?”

“Let’s see… You saw that big door at the very end of this corridor, right?”

I certainly had seen a door far ahead down the corridor.

“Once we go through that, head left, keep going about as far as we came from our room to here, and then after the next corner, it’ll be right there.”

“I see. Then ten minutes should be enough.”

With that answer, I beckoned the three of them over.

Then I tapped the little bird-shaped magic tool on my shoulder to activate that one as well.

It was nothing more than a magic tool that gave a soft chirp if the oxygen level dropped or if it detected carbon monoxide, but I had never thought I would end up using it anywhere other than a dungeon.

“Ready? All three of you, don’t let go.”

After confirming that the three of them had latched onto my arms and waist, I activated the barrier magic tool once more and stepped out from behind the pillar.

—

“—Something’s wrong.”

I stopped just after turning the final corner leading to the throne room.

According to Cheki, the throne room should have been directly ahead down this corridor.

And sure enough, about fifty meters away, I could see a massive set of doors adorned with lavish ornamentation, each standing at least six meters high.

But that was not the problem.

“The doors are open.”

Nikka, peeking out from behind my back, murmured in puzzlement.

There should have been guards posted to keep word of the Demon King’s condition from spreading, yet not only was there no one standing before the wide-open doors, several demons were hurrying in and out of them in a flurry.

“Something must’ve happened.”

“Maybe Faura woke the Demon King?”

“Woke him? Oh right, that girl you met said something like that, didn’t she?”

“I had my doubts, but if that’s true, then does that mean it really was true that the Demon King was only sleeping?”

Faura definitely had said that she could wake the Demon King herself.

To tell the truth, I had not fully believed her either, just like Nikka… but once I connected what Cheki had shown me in that room, what I remembered afterward, and Faura’s words, I could understand what she had meant.

“Seeing is believing. We need to find out whether the Demon King really woke up.”

With that, I broke into a run.

“Hey—”

“Toa! At this rate we’re completely exposed!”

“Wait for us!”

Leaving the panicked cries of the three girls, who had slipped outside the range of the barrier magic tool, behind me, I passed through the doors.

This was the throne room.

The ceiling was even higher than the corridor we had just come through, easily twenty meters, perhaps more.

Compared to the splendor of the doors, the throne room itself was not particularly gaudy.

Even so, elegant carvings had been etched in fine detail across the floor of the chamber, illuminated by the light pouring in through the high windows above, and the subtle interplay of light and shadow created a beauty of exquisite refinement.

“…”

In that throne room stood around ten well-dressed demons who appeared to be high-ranking dignitaries, all kneeling on one knee with their heads bowed before the throne directly ahead.

“So that’s… the Demon King…”

There could be no one else those dignitaries would all be bowing to but the Demon King seated upon the throne.

I stared at the massive figure sitting there.

“So it really was true.”

Three short legs.

Two long, thick, powerful arms extending from its shoulders.

And beyond those, four more thin arms that looked capable of delicate movement spread fanlike from its back, flaunting its grotesque form.

The flattened, hemispherical structure atop its torso was presumably its face.

In the center of that face sat one large eye, with two smaller eyes on either side of it.

Those five eyes reflected the light streaming in, giving off a dull gleam.

If my memory was correct, it had around ten more “eyes” besides those. But from the outside, there was no way to tell where they were.

Its squat, lumbering body stood eight meters tall and about six meters wide.

From our point of view, it looked enormous, but among demons were races that exceeded ten meters in height, so it was not exceptionally large.

Judging by appearances alone, some of the demons kneeling before it looked far more like what one would expect of a Demon King.

If anything, the Demon King itself did not seem to possess much of an aura of overwhelming strength.

But I knew that its body was covered in a metal of extreme hardness, one that could repel even the searing heat of magma and the chill of absolute zero.

Its resistance to physical attacks was also extraordinarily high, and it could even repair moderate damage on its own.

Still forgetting to dispel the barrier from the magic tool, I looked up at the Demon King and muttered,

“How can something like this exist in another world?”

At the same time, memories surged up, and I clutched my head with both hands.

“And what exactly are these memories of mine…?”

As I stood there rooted to the spot, I heard soldiers behind me trying to stop someone.

“Hey, you lot, stop right there!”

“We’re with the Dwarf Kingdom. We have an urgent matter concerning His Majesty the Demon King that we need to inquire about.”

“You don’t look like dwarves at all… and you lot can’t just barge in there either.”

“Hey! Where do you think you’re touching?!”

“I only grabbed your arm.”

The dignitaries who had been kneeling were turning toward the commotion at the doors, but I had no room to care about any of that.

Like a sleepwalker, I staggered forward toward the Demon King on the throne.

“We’ll hold them here, so go on ahead!”

“Take care of Toa!”

“Yes!”

There was no mistake.

That thing being called the Demon King was a machine made in my original world, in Japan.

The name Cheki had seen, “MPPRD,” was this machine’s code name, and for some reason, I knew that.

If I remembered correctly, the purpose it had been built for was—

“Urgh…!”

A fragment of memory resurfaced.

The instant I tried to use it as a clue and grope farther into what lay beyond it, a violent pain shot through my head, and I collapsed to the floor.

“I remembered that it was a machine built in my original world… and yet I still can’t remember anything beyond that…”

In my previous life, I had definitely seen that machine.

And yet something like that should not have been here, in this other world of swords and magic.

“Could it be that just as I was reincarnated into another world, that machine was transported here from another world too?”

If so, it would make sense.

Something as incomprehensible as reincarnation into another world had already happened.

Interworld transfer would hardly be impossible as well.

“Did it get dragged here because of my reincarnation? Or was it the other way around, and my soul got swept up in its transfer to another world?”

I tried to remember the moment of my death.

I was sure I had died at 22, collapsing suddenly on my way home from a part-time job…

And yet why?

Now my memories of it were covered in a haze, and I could not recall them clearly.

“What the hell? What the hell is this?!”

I shouted, clutching my head.

If not for the barrier, everyone in the room would surely have turned their eyes toward me.

Beyond that faint haze clouding my memories, I found myself unconsciously searching for someone.

“…”

Who?

I did not know.

“What exactly have I forgotten… who am I searching for?!”

Even while enduring the pain, I reached deeper into my memories.

Just a little more.

I felt like I was almost there.

Beyond the haze.

I could dimly make out a human figure.

It was the silhouette of a girl with long hair.

“Se… lene…”

Selene.

I was certain that was the name of the girl rising into my memory.

“Selene—gghaaah!”

I reached even deeper into my memories, trying to recall Selene’s face, and at that same moment, a pain more intense than anything before struck me.

“Gaaahhhhhh!”

The agony was so overwhelming that I rolled on the floor and vomited.

But neither my screams nor my writhing reached anyone.

“Mr. Toa!!”

That is, no one except Nikka, who had burst in from outside the barrier.

“Please hold on! I’ll heal you right now!!”

The barrier should have had a people-warding effect as well, but apparently it did not work on someone who already knew I was there.

“Nikka…”

“Yes, as long as I’m here, you’ll be all right now!”

I felt warm magic flow into my body.

So this was Nikka’s 【Resurrection】.

“Thank… you…”

Wrapped in Nikka’s gentle magic, the pain in my head began to fade.

But at the same time, the image of the girl I had been on the verge of grasping vanished as well—

“H-Hey! Where did you all come from?!”

“Ugh, this one’s vomiting!”

“Get a soldier! No, get a medic!!”

It seemed the magic tool had finally run out of power, because the demons had spotted us.

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