TERNLF Vol. 3 Chapter 1 Part 1

◆Chapter 1◆

“…Still, everywhere we go is full. Even in the royal capital, if you looked around enough, you could usually find at least one vacant room.”

In the end, we still had not managed to find a place to stay for the night.

“I had heard it was lively, but I never imagined it would be this crowded.”

“Do you think everyone came rushing here after hearing the Demon King died?”

Grassa muttered that under her breath so no one around us could hear, and I answered in the same hushed tone.

“No. The news of the Demon King’s death still hasn’t been made public, so that’s not it.”

The Volga Empire is a nation that the Demon King, a man of overwhelming power, had built in a single generation by uniting the demons.

If that Demon King had truly died all of a sudden, there was every chance the Empire, which had been held together by his charisma, would collapse all at once.

I had heard the Demon King was unmarried, with no heir.

And there was apparently no outstanding number two who could truly be called a successor, so those inside the castle were still in the middle of discussing what to do next.

“If Luchimada were still around, he might’ve been able to hold things together to some extent.”

Luchimada had won the Demon King’s trust and been allowed to act on his own authority in all sorts of matters.

He had not merely thrown the present-day Dwarf Kingdom into chaos.

He had also been the chief culprit behind the destruction of the Eldwa Autonomous District, the nation Cheki had come from, which had been built in the hope that elves and dwarves could join hands, and he was the one who had driven both races into all-out war.

Luchimada had spent years operating behind the scenes in order to take revenge on the dwarves and elves who had once attacked the village where he lived and taken everything from him.

From our perspective, he was an unforgivable criminal who had schemed in the shadows and hurt our companions, but it seemed the demons had held him in very high esteem.

Some even said that in the Volga Empire, he had wielded more power than anyone except the Demon King, and there had apparently been voices claiming he might eventually become the successor.

“But he’s gone now, so what’s going to happen to this country?”

Saying that, Grassa kicked a small pebble lying near her feet.

The stone traced a neat arc through the air and flew straight toward an empty patch of ground—

“Ow! Who was it that hit me with a stone?!”

Before it could fall, it struck something and bounced back.

“No way! I kicked it where nobody was!”

Up until that very moment, there had been nothing at the spot where Grassa had sent the stone flying.

And yet now, standing in the place where no one should have been, was a little girl with tears in her eyes, holding the pebble in one hand while rubbing her head with the other.

“Grr… Unforgivable. How dare you hit someone with a stone. What were you planning to do if I ended up with a bump on my head?”

The girl fixed us with a sharp glare full of anger.

“You there! Was it you who threw a stone at me?!”

“S-Sorry. But I didn’t throw it…”

Grassa apologized to the girl, who was marching straight toward us with the pebble still in one hand.

“I really thought no one was there…”

“Gah! But I was right there, wasn’t I?!”

The girl stamped her feet and shouted in outrage.

“More importantly, don’t you even understand that if you kick a stone around in the middle of town, it might hit someone?!”

“But, I mean, there really wasn’t anyone there just a moment ago.”

She was right. I had been watching too, and there had been no one where Grassa kicked it.

…Or at least there shouldn’t have been.

In fact, I had been watching closely enough that when I saw Grassa’s perfect form as she kicked that little stone off the ground, I almost blurted out that she had the makings of a women’s soccer national team player.

And I was certain that where her stone had flown, there had been nothing but paving stones.

And yet, here she was, a teary-eyed little girl standing right in front of us.

Which meant there was only one answer.

“Could it be that you were invisible?”

Demons came in all kinds, and their abilities were just as varied.

If you thought about it that way, it was hardly strange that there might be demons with the power to turn invisible.

“Wha?!”

The moment she heard my offhand question, the girl, who had been glaring at us with an angry symbol practically written across her forehead, stopped dead in her tracks.

More than that, her face instantly turned pale, and she slowly began backing away.

“I-I-I have no idea what you are talking about, not in the slightest!”

Now acting blatantly suspicious, the girl spun around and turned her back on us.

“I-I shall let you off with this for today!!”

And with that parting line, like some third-rate villain, she suddenly took off running.

Amid the bustle of the city, her little back vanished into the crowd almost at once.

We could do nothing but stare blankly after her, stunned by the demon girl’s sudden reaction.

“…Is asking a demon about their abilities taboo or something?”

I asked Nikka at my side.

But she gave a small shake of her head.

“I’ve never heard of any such rule… but abilities are the sort of thing people generally do not want others knowing about.”

“So maybe that’s why she ran off.”

“That may well be.”

Telling someone about your own abilities could, depending on the circumstances, amount to suicide.

Nikka and Grassa themselves had ended up fleeing the royal capital out of fear that once their skills were exposed, people would exploit them.

And in fact, back in the royal capital, that very thing had dragged them into all sorts of trouble.

“Still, an ability that can completely erase even its presence without letting me notice a thing…”

Ever since entering Kazaria, this city also known as the Demon Capital, I had kept myself on guard.

It was my first time here, for one thing, and even if none of them were on Luchimada’s level, demons who radiated enough presence to mark them as truly formidable walked these streets everywhere you looked.

More importantly, this was his territory, Luchimada’s.

We had defeated him, but there was no way I could believe none of his allies or followers remained in this Demon Capital. If they learned what had happened in the Dwarf Kingdom, they would surely come after me as the one who had slain the man they revered.

That was why I had kept both presence detection and magic detection active the entire time, maintaining my vigilance without pause… yet that girl had slipped past all of it.

“Demons really are impossible to measure.”

If there were many demons with stealth skills on that level, even I had no confidence I could stop a surprise attack.

I did not want to make Nikka and the others anxious, but it would probably be best if they stayed at least somewhat on guard as well.

“Just learning that there are demons with powers even I can’t detect was worth something.”

“If even you couldn’t notice her, Mr. Toa, then there’s no way we could have.”

“Exactly. Sure, kicking the stone was my fault, but nobody would expect someone to be hiding in such a weird place. If she was going to hide, she should’ve done it somewhere more out of the way.”

It seemed Grassa was still a little sore about the way the girl had scolded her without listening first.

“That may be true, but we should probably be more careful from now on.”

I could not say I did not understand how Grassa felt.

Still, when I considered how that demon girl must have felt having a stone suddenly hit her, I could not really blame her either.

“Anyway, if we don’t get back to looking for an inn soon, the sun’s going to set.”

With an awkward smile, I lightly pressed my palm against the girls’ backs to urge them onward.

—

“It was a relief we managed to find a place to stay somehow, wasn’t it, Mr. Toa?”

“Yeah. It really was.”

By the time we finally managed to secure a room, the sun had already begun to dip toward the horizon.

But we had only been able to get a single room.

And on top of that, the only one available had been a cramped little room with just one double bed.

“So they really didn’t have an extra bed, huh?”

To begin with, I had no idea whether this world even had such a concept as an extra bed, but when I asked just in case, I was flatly told, “We don’t have anything like that.”

Naturally, Nikka and Grassa would be the ones using the double bed, which meant I would be sleeping alone on the floor.

I did at least have a sleeping bag, so I planned to wrap myself up in that… but even so, it felt a little lonely.

In any case, there we were in that tiny room, resting our tired legs while eating the food we had bought in town.

Since this was our first time in the city, and such a lively one at that, several shops carried goods we had never seen anywhere else.

Wandering through those shops while searching for an inn had only made us more tired, but that had been enjoyable in its own way too, and you could say it was part of the true charm of traveling.

“As expected of a country of demons. I was surprised that every shop had things made from monster materials.”

“And since the prices were less than half of what they’d be in the Kingdom of Preasole, I ended up buying all sorts of stuff.”

The two young maidens happily chatted away atop the double bed as they lined up their spoils.

If this had been my previous life, what would have been laid out there would probably have been designer bags, clothes, and accessories.

“I can’t wait to try out this knife made from a Curse Wolf fang.”

“I wonder if these Earth Gator gauntlets could block even that knife.”

“Those gauntlets were nice. I wanted them too, but I thought they’d be a little too heavy for me to wear. You know, I’m all about speed, so I need something lighter.”

But this was a world of girls who were, first and foremost, adventurers.

Everything they had bought was chosen purely for practicality, and I had to admit it left me with some rather mixed feelings.

“Yeah, that makes sense. In your case, Grassa, you’ve got to slip behind a monster, strike, and then get away immediately, so those might be too heavy.”

“Exactly. I can’t use attack magic or anything, so I have to get in close to attack. And I’m not strong enough to take something down in a single hit.”

“And if you mess up, you might get hit back.”

“That’s why I want something as light and durable as possible.”

“But in that case, wouldn’t that breastplate made from Flau Bird bones have been a good option? It was light.”

“Mmm, the size was the problem… It might’ve fit your chest just right, Nikka, but it was a little too big for me.”

And yet the subject matter was so brutal you would never have guessed this was supposed to be a maidenly conversation.

Girls who could laugh while talking about circling behind monsters and getting counterattacked were terrifying.

Also, I really wished they would save conversations about breastplate sizing for when I was not around.

As I sat there thinking that while sipping some mysterious drink from a street stall that tasted like nonalcoholic beer, Grassa suddenly fell silent.

“Toa. Cheki sent a message.”

After being quiet for a while, Grassa turned toward me and raised her arm.

On it was the Bracelet of Oath.

Originally, it had been a magic tool known as the Oath Ring, something dwarves crafted when they married, allowing bonded dwarves to communicate their thoughts to one another even from afar. But because Luchimada, being a demon, had tried to imitate it without possessing the necessary technique, the result had ended up bracelet-sized instead. Even so, since it was a magic tool that could not be used by anyone except dwarves, there was no longer any way of knowing why he had wanted to make it in the first place.

For Grassa, who was not a dwarf, it should have been nothing more than a useless accessory. However, it had been discovered that, while one-way only, Cheki, who carried dwarven blood, could use it to contact Grassa as long as she was wearing the bracelet. So we had asked her to keep it on.

And it had already proved useful.

“What did she say?”

“Hang on.”

Grassa stared into midair for a few seconds, then turned toward me.

“She says we’ve been granted permission to enter the castle, and that she wants us to come to the Demon King’s Castle right away.”

“Got it. Then let’s head over at once.”

Apparently, we were going to be allowed into the Demon King’s Castle after all.

“She also says they’ve prepared rooms for us to stay in.”

Well, that meant I would not have to sleep on the floor after all.

“Then what should we do about this inn?”

Nikka tilted her head as she asked.

We had gone through all that trouble to find this place, but if we could stay at the castle, then we no longer needed it.

“It’s a waste, but let’s just pay and leave.”

“Understood. Then I’ll clean up our things and get ready to go right away.”

Once we settled on that, we immediately started putting away the trash and the things we had spread out across the bed and table.

Then we paid the innkeeper for the room, told him only that we would be staying at an acquaintance’s house instead, and stepped outside.

“It’s evening, but there are still so many people out.”

“Yeah.”

Just as Nikka said, even though sunset was fast approaching, it did not feel as though the number of people on the streets had decreased at all.

The children we had seen running around during the day were gone at last, but that was about the only difference.

“There seem to be plenty of taverns and places like that too. Looks like from here on out, it’s the adults’ turn.”

As we made our way toward the Demon King’s Castle, we kept glancing around at the lively Demon Capital.

Before long, we emerged onto the main avenue from which the Demon King’s Castle could be seen.

Food stalls lined both sides of the street, and unlike during the day, adults could now be seen everywhere enjoying their drinks with tankards in hand.

“That smells amazing. Which stall is it coming from?”

Grassa’s nose twitched at the scent drifting from the stalls, and Nikka’s eyes lit up as well.

“It looks like the nighttime stalls sell all sorts of things we’ve never seen in the Kingdom either. I’m curious.”

“We just ate, remember?”

I grabbed Grassa and Nikka by the scruffs of their necks as they began drifting toward the stalls and hauled them back.

I understood the temptation. Mouthwatering smells I had never encountered before were wafting in from every direction.

But this was no time for detours.

“Are you planning to keep Cheki waiting forever?”

“R-Right, that’s true.”

After all, communication through the Bracelet of Oath only worked one way.

In other words, we had no means of informing Cheki from our side when we were likely to arrive.

“We’re going to be here for a while anyway, so we can always come tomorrow night.”

“Yeah, good point.”

“Then let’s hurry.”

The three of us nodded to one another, then quickened our pace toward the Demon King’s Castle, even as the rows of stalls tugged at us from behind.

—

However, what awaited us there was an unexpected sight.

“What the hell is this?”

When I reached the square before the main gate of the Demon King’s Castle, my eyes widened at the crowd of demons filling it from end to end.

There had already been plenty of people when we came by carriage with Cheki earlier that day, but this was on an entirely different level.

“Are they holding some kind of festival in the square?”

Trying to see past the crowd, Nikka began hopping up and down on the spot.

But no matter how much a short girl like her bounced, she could not see beyond the sea of people.

That was only natural. There were so many tall demons around that even I could only see a few meters ahead at most.

“Even so, the mood feels strange for a festival, doesn’t it?”

“Yeah.”

If there really were some kind of event drawing this many people into the square, the atmosphere should have been far more cheerful and lively.

But the expressions on people’s faces were not joyous. If anything, they looked bewildered.

Some were even crying in grief.

There was no way this was normal.

“Excuse me a moment.”

Growing uneasy, I called out to a nearby female demon with a solid build and a height of around two meters.

With a single horn growing from her head and blue skin, she looked like a blue ogre out of an old folktale.

“What is it?”

“Why is everyone gathered here?”

“Hm? I see. You’re not from the Empire, are you?”

“No, we came from the Kingdom of Preasole.”

“Ah, that human country. Then I suppose it can’t be helped that you don’t know. The truth is…”

The woman bent her knees a little to bring herself down to my eye level, then told me in a low voice.

And what she said was exactly what I had expected.

“The Demon King passed away?!”

“Shh. We don’t know if it’s really true yet, so keep your voice down, would you?”

“Sorry.”

I reflected that I might have overacted a little, but I still put on a grave expression and listened to the rest.

“Word started spreading among the demons around evening. That’s why everyone naturally gathered here in front of the royal castle like this.”

“I see. And has the castle announced anything yet?”

“No. If they had, I wouldn’t be saying we don’t know whether it’s true or not, would I?”

“That’s true. Thank you very much for telling me.”

After thanking the demon woman, I turned back to Nikka and the others and gave a small shrug.

Then I quietly relayed what she had told me so the people around us would not hear.

“Looks like news about the Demon King leaked from somewhere.”

“So that was it. That’s why so many people gathered here out of worry… the Demon King really was deeply loved, wasn’t he?”

“In this country, for better or worse, the Demon King was everything. If the rumor that he passed away is true, everyone knows the whole nation could start to crumble.”

Looking around again, I could now see the anxiety lurking beneath the faces of the people gathered in the square.

“But like this, we can’t get near the castle.”

Grassa, who had been trying to jump up like Nikka to catch a glimpse of the main gate, knit her brows in frustration.

She was right. In this situation, even getting close to the Demon King’s Castle would be difficult.

The square was packed with powerful demons as it was.

Pushing through that crowd to reach the main gate would be no easy feat.

Of course, if I got serious, it would not be impossible, but stirring up a commotion was the last thing I wanted.

And even if we somehow made it to the gate, there was little chance they would open it while demons were swarming the place like this.

“If only there were some other entrance.”

“Should we circle around and look? There might be a back gate or something.”

“Wouldn’t there be people over there too? Besides, maybe the only guards Cheki spoke to were the ones at the front gate.”

We had not heard from Cheki again since that earlier message.

Even if she had arranged for us to be allowed in, it seemed unlikely that word had reached the guards at a back gate we were never meant to use.

And maybe Cheki was waiting for us just inside the gate, but as things stood, we had no way to tell her what was happening.

“We need to get in through the main gate somehow without causing a scene, but… hm?”

I was still thinking about a peaceful way to reach the gate when I noticed a small demon girl pass by beside us.

She plunged straight into the crowd.

But there was no way someone as small as her could break through a human wall that even we could not get past.

She kept throwing herself at the crowd, getting pushed back again and again, yet she still did not give up.

“Let me through, I say!”

But her voice was swallowed by the noise and failed to reach anyone.

At last, either her strength or her spirit gave out, and she dropped to the ground and burst into tears.

“Ugh… what is going on? At this rate I can’t even get home… sniff…”

As she sniffled and scrubbed away her tears with her arm, I recognized her face.

“That girl…”

The moment I murmured that, Nikka and Grassa seemed to recognize her too.

“She’s the girl Grassa hit with the stone.”

“You’re right. What’s she doing?”

Eventually, the girl trudged away from the crowd and crouched beneath a streetlamp standing off to the side of the square.

Curious about her, I stepped forward to call out to her and then stopped short at what happened next.

“Huh?”

Strangely enough, the girl who had definitely been under the streetlamp a moment before suddenly vanished.

“She just disappeared.”

“Huh…? What?!”

Judging by the fact that Grassa and the others were staring in shock too, it was clear I had not imagined it.

Had she moved somewhere in that instant?

No, that made no sense. She had crouched down only a moment ago.

“So her ability really is to erase her form.”

I tried using magic detection, but just like before, I could not sense the slightest trace of her from the place where she had vanished.

“So that’s what happened earlier too. Grassa’s stone hit her while she was hiding with that power.”

“See? I knew it. I checked where I was kicking.”

But what should we do now?

Should we walk over to the spot where she vanished and speak to her?

Judging from how she acted earlier, she clearly did not want others knowing about that power.

“Maybe we should just leave her alone.”

“Maybe… but there’s something she said earlier that’s bothering me.”

“What is it?”

Grassa urged Nikka to continue.

“It was what she said a moment ago.”

“Hm? She said something about not being able to get home, right? What about it?”

“I was thinking… maybe she meant she can’t get back into the Demon King’s Castle.”

Certainly, the front of the main gate was jammed with people, making it impossible to get close.

But the entrances to the ordinary buildings around the square were not blocked.

Which meant that, at the moment, the only place someone could not “go home” to was the Demon King’s Castle.

“If that’s the case, then does that mean she lives in the Demon King’s Castle?”

Inside that vast castle, there were surely many people who lived there while working.

There were probably dormitories or quarters for them too.

I had no idea what the employment system in the Demon King’s Castle was like, but I would not have found it strange if some of the staff had children with them.

Even in my previous life, there had been workplaces with childcare facilities attached.

“Could she be the Demon King’s daughter… or something?”

“You mean an imperial princess? No, that’s a little too much, isn’t it?”

“But the way she talked and all… I mean, no offense, but she did sound kind of haughty, didn’t she?”

“Now that you mention it, she did keep saying ‘I’ like that. Wait, no way. Seriously?”

At Nikka’s theory, Grassa’s face turned pale.

If that girl really were the Demon King’s daughter, then Grassa had thrown a stone at someone of that rank.

“Let’s ask her ourselves. Come on.”

“Huh? I have to come too?”

“If it looks like they’re about to execute you for lèse-majesté or something, I’ll save you.”

“Don’t say such terrifying things!”

Grassa trembled with tears in her eyes.

But I laughed and told her it was not going to come to that.

“It’ll be fine. Going by how she acted earlier, she didn’t seem like the kind of girl who’d throw her authority around.”

“B-But still…”

Seeing how worried Grassa looked, I decided to offer one more suggestion.

“If you’re that worried, then why not help her out here and have her call it even for hitting her with the stone?”

“Y-Yeah, you’re right. Okay. Let’s do that.”

She must have found some hope in my suggestion, because Grassa clenched a small fist and steeled herself.

“Then let’s go.”

As I remembered Nikka making the exact same gesture before, the three of us headed for the streetlamp beneath which the demon girl had disappeared.

—