< Evade the Hero and Flee! 192 #22. Well, this is merely the beginning (7) >

#6 Their circumstance: Aggreahrt’s circumstance

The castle began rumbling and shaking as loud explosions went off. The rocking of the building was so bad that even Aggreahrt boasting extensive training under his belt could barely stand upright.

Judging from how the castle rumbled at a fixed interval, this couldn’t have been a natural disaster like an earthquake but something artificial, an attack of some kind – that’s what Aggreahrt perceived.

“Can it be? But that can’t.. be..”

Once he realised it, a soft gasp left his lips.

Currently, there were three factions hostile towards him.

The first faction was the moderates led by Belegrea. This group was probably most hostile out of the three towards Aggreahrt, but without their core, Belegrea, to lead them right now, it’d be hard for them to work together.

The second faction was a group within Aggreahrt’s own clique opposing his actions. Several chieftains disappointed by Aggreahrt’s attack on Belegrea came together to form their own small faction. Although not large, they weren’t a clear enemy to him like the moderates, making their group rather difficult to deal with.

But this faction didn’t have a clear pretext to physically attack Aggreahrt other than throw around some disparaging remarks in his way.

Since that was the case, only one faction remained.

“No, it surely cannot be..”

The most cumbersome enemy out of the three factions.. The largest and most influential religious sect in the entire demon continent, the Demon God’s temple! The sect that the entirety of the demon race believed in!

This faction was built around the demon king allegedly chosen by the Demon God herself, and it wished for Aggreahrt’s death from the get-go.

This faction attacking Aggreahrt’s camp was a foregone conclusion. However, he was still taken aback, and there was a good reason for that.

“Didn’t that happen not too long ago?!”

The messenger from the Demon God’s temple only left Aggreahrt’s office not too long ago, and that’s why he was so shocked.

Indeed, it couldn’t have been more than ten minutes. That wouldn’t be enough to reach the nearest city, no, the nearest village from the castle even if it was Aggreahrt moving at full speed.

Unless an army centred around an archmage was outside the castle, this level of continuous attack wouldn’t be possible unless the enemy had been preparing their armaments for quite some time.

“It can’t be..?”

[But the moment you suspect the sincerity of my declaration, I swear to attack you without mercy.]

Right at that moment, Aggreahrt began recalling the last chilling words written on the letter from the demon king allegedly chosen by the Demon God.

“He already finished his preparation when he sent that letter?!”

Aggreahrt suddenly realised how scary his enemy actually was.

There was no such thing as ‘negotiation’ to the demon king. He would simply punish those rejecting his hands of mercy right there and then, that’s all.

That was shockingly decisive. And it shook Aggreahrt all the way down to his core once more.

“Is he really following the will of the Demon God, then?”

Not even the terms, daring and bold, were enough to describe such decisiveness. To think that that man would start bombarding the symbol of the demon continent, the demon king’s castle, just because of a single rejection!

Aggreahrt couldn’t help but start thinking, ‘He must be this bold in his decisions because he can hear the Demon God’s voice!’

Too bad for him, though, since Aggreahrt had already crossed a river that couldn’t be uncrossed.

#7 Their circumstance: A certain hero’s circumstance

Who am I, really? And why am I even here?

Such philosophical questions danced around in my head nonstop, but then..

“..Kuh-huk!”

I no longer had the leeway to harbour distracting thoughts once I tried to defend against the incoming attack.

“Die!”

I tried to slip past the incoming attack and counterattack from the side but my plan ended in failure when the opponent’s greatsword came down unbelievably quickly.

This guy.. he was easily one of the strongest I’ve ever fought. I had a feeling that out of everyone I ran into recently, only the Sword Star could rival this hulking demon!

“There was a talented individual like you among the human-like demons? Which village are you from?”

My opponent seemed to evaluate me quite highly, too. Although, there was this one thing that made me sigh in disappointment.

“I’m Swinn of Raina.”

“Raina? There was a city of the human-like tribe like that?”

And that was.. This big guy’s eyesight didn’t seem to be good at all. At this point, I had to assume that poor eyesight was a race-specific trait for all demons.

“Yeah, well, there is.”

I nodded while touching the fake horn. What a miracle it was for this dang thing to not fall off during this intense battle. But then again, it was apparently manufactured by the absolute ‘worst’ race in the whole world, dwarves, so I had no choice but to accept my defeat here.

Dwarves were the absolute worst since they were the best race for manufacturing evil things capable of threatening this world’s existence, you see!

“Could it be a new settlement? But to think that such a place managed to raise a warrior of your calibre!”

“We have a pretty deep history and tradition, though?”

I ended up grumbling a bit at the demon’s ignorance for turning the historic Raina house into a newly-established village. Even though my family had its roots from the founding of the empire and all! Honestly speaking, though? I kind of understood where he was coming from.

If I was a real demon, even I would never imagine that the enemy in front of me was a human hero.

“Stop lying to me. There exists a village of human-like demons that I’m not aware of? One with history and tradition?”

The demon frowned a little and glared at me, but I had no obligation to resolve his misunderstanding.

#8 Their circumstance: A certain demon’s circumstance

The bombardment continued on, followed by a seemingly unending stream of wretched screams. I watched this nightmare unfold and shuddered in terror, but then, our sovereign finally stepped forward.

As he has always done, our sovereign stood at the front of the battle. And as usual, he rescued us from the danger.

“Lord Aggreahrt..!”

Watching the gallant back of our sovereign, I.. No, we finally regained our courage.

He always brought us victory. If we follow his gallant back as he leads from the front, then, as usual, we should emerge victorious once more.

“Let’s go!”

The magic bombardment still came flying in overhead, but we roused up our courage and began advancing. Even though our comrades next to me evaporated from the magic projectiles, none of us looked back and continued to march forward.

One by one..

We didn’t pay any attention to the gradually decreasing number of our comrades and chose to simply run forward to catch up to our sovereign. And when we finally reached the nearest source of the bombardment, we got to see ‘it’.

“Die, you bastard!”

We witnessed our sovereign unleashing his strongest final attack on a blonde-haired human-like demon.. and said blonde demon grinning mockingly at the incoming attack!

“You should be more careful with where you step.”

The moment the smirking blonde demon said that, I used all my strength to cry out at the top of my lungs. “My loooooooord!”

My sovereign had failed to notice it, but from where I was, that thing was clearly visible. I could see a pool of silver liquid wiggling right below my sovereign’s feet!

“Rising Dragon of Salvaaaaaaation!”

A small fist emerged from the pool of silver something as a yell exploded forth. My sovereign tried to withdraw his sword in panic, but the blonde demon didn’t permit that.

The golden sword light wrapped around and entrapped the sovereign’s powerful materialised aura. The sovereign couldn’t withdraw his weapon in time because of that and allowed a silver-haired girl to smack him in the chin.

“Kkkuwaaaaaaaaahk?!”

And we were given the opportunity to hear a primal scream exploding out of my sovereign’s mouth just then. A scream that none of us thought was possible to come out of him!

That one attack decided the victor of this battle.