Chapter 40: Self-Proclaimed Demon King

In the afternoon of this day when Nell had left, Haru and I went out to the city again. Leave aside the target of the subjugation, since we are going to leave Adelheit the day after tomorrow, we came to the city to prepare for that. Considering the usual tour, it’s obvious that the food provided for Haru will be insufficient. Due to the circumstances of our home, there are surprisingly many things that we have to prepare. It won’t be a problem since we can put them in my bag or Haru’s pouch. Also, it’s better to have a well-balanced food that can fill the stomach rather than long-lasting food. If we don’t stock up as much as possible, I don’t know when Haru will run out of gas. That small body of hers really has a great fuel consumption.

「What? Subjugation of self-proclaimed Demon King? Haru-chan, will you be okay?」

「I think it’s okay since Shishō allowed it. What I need to do is to live up to his expectations.」

「You sure trust him so much…. Well, anything is fine as long we can make a profit!」

At the Bristly Beard armor shop, Anita cheerfully said so when Haru talked about our plan.

Yeah, sure. You are more interested in making money than the Demon King, right?

「But, I’ve heard about the Demon King before. As I recall, the Demon King is like the president of a company, and it seems that there’s one Demon King for each company. I heard that there’s a Demon King who has a big company in this continent, you know?

「What, ain’t that means they are my business rival!?」

「No, no. Haru, that’s a bit different.」

Where did she hear such a story? Thus, I tell her that there are monsters who make a faction or organization, and Demon King is the one who stands on the top of that organization. Also, there is a Demon King who can be a threat to humans on this continent.

「Ah, there’s no problem then. Rather, I can smell profit.」

「You are not wavering at all, huh…」

「Erm, Shishō. If you said it like that, then the boss from a small group of monsters, such as the ash kobold boss that I defeated before, can be called a Demon King too if they claim to be one, right?

「Hmm, generally speaking, they can be called so. But, if I had to say, such Demon King will be called as ‘self-proclaimed’.」

If taking an example from Haru’s story from before, it’s like a president of a small business or small town workshop. On the other hand, the one who can threaten the continent is that of a large company.

「The most famous ones are the highest-ranking Demon Kings called ‘Great Eight Demons’. They are the King of Demon Kings, or can be called the Great Demon Kings. They are powerful people who always win in ‘The Amazing Demon King Ranking’ every year.」

「’The Amazing Demon King Ranking’!?」

「Haru-chan, there is no such thing you know~」

Anita, you spoiled it too fast.

「If there are so many Demon Kings, the world will be in trouble….」

「Ahh, don’t worry. Not all of the Demon Kings are enemies. It’s humans who lumped them together with monsters. Just like humans, there are bad guys and good guys. There are even Demon Kings who are hostile to each other. Also, there is a Demon King within the Great Eight Demons who created a country and made a tourism business for huma――」

「After all, they are my business rival!」

「…… Yeah, that might be so for you.」

「Hee~. I thought that the Demon Kings are all enemies, but there are various circumstances, huh?」

「Well, the target of the expedition this time seems to be a self-proclaimed Demon King, so it’s not a big deal. Probably.」

It might be an extermination of a nest or a group of overflowing wild monsters. Well, it must have some intelligence since it calls itself Demon King. It’s just right for Haru’s training since it will be a bit tough. While we are at it, we can see Nell’s disciple as well. Fuhaha.

「Yo, Haruna, Deris. I’ve finished the things you requested.」

Gan-san’s rough voice came from inside of the workshop. He finished them already, huh? He sure did a good job as usual.

「I’m sorry for the sudden request, Gan-san.」

「There were leftovers of the black magic stone that Haruna brought before after all. I was just killing time, don’t mind it.」

「He’s right. Besides, you properly pay for it. It also works for Boss’s killing time since we don’t have any customers!」

「Anita, I’m thinking of reducing your salary since we don’t have any customers.」

「No way!?」

They sure are energetic today too. Leave aside the comedy act between those two, the things I ordered came out just as I hoped. Yeah, this size should be good.

「Shishō, what are these?」

「Your throwing tools.」

I had Gan-san made them hastily. They are balls exclusively for Haru. Their size is about the size of a baseball ball and made from the black magic stone, the same material as Haru’s black staff. In short, they are very heavy and sturdy. For Haru, who does stone throwing as a means of attack, they are weapons that can show power incomparable to ordinary stones. Hmm, rather than baseball balls, they are cannonballs.

「Don’t you carelessly drop them, okay? If things go bad, they can break the floor.」

「I-I’ll be careful!」

Haru is putting them into her pouch nervously. Beside her, Anita is desperately trying to lift one with a red face. However, it doesn’t move at all.

「Things made from the black magic stone have a special characteristic that magic power can’t flow through them except for the first magic power that touches them. You should let your magic power flow through them before you put them away.」

「Is that so?」

「Before I could tell you, you seemed to have flowed your magic power through the black staff you received from Gan-san before. So, I forgot to tell you.」

Black magic stone is not just heavy and sturdy. Well, I’ll tell her more about this later.

「So, I heard that you’re going to defeat a Demon King. You sure do something bold again.」

「No, it’s a self-proclaimed Demon King. We were invited by Nell.」

「Nell Lemure, huh? That’s nostalgic. You used to come here with her to fix weapons and armor in the past.」

「That was more than ten years ago, though. We were reckless adventurers back then.」

「W-What… Deris-danna, you have been the boss’s customer from that long…?」

Anita, who completely gave up on lifting the cannonball, asked me so while out of breath. It was only a year ago that Anita started working at Bristly Beard. Also, Gan-san isn’t the type who arbitrarily talk about the old days, so I’m sure that she hasn’t asked about it.

「Well, yeah. I was about the same age as Haru and Nell was about this much.」

While saying so, I showed her height at that time with my hand that’s lower than Haru’s height. I guess she was about ten years old? At that time, she always messing with me in some way or another. Well, she was being honest more than she is now and she had a little girl body. But, she was growing year by year and now she has a glamorous body. Puberty is scary.

「Haa, that knight leader? Come to think of it, I heard that she often go to Deris-danna’s house on her days off. I thought that you are in ‘that’ kind of relationship, but you were former companions, huh? I guess that makes sense.」

「Anita, that’s rude… Deris is, more or less, a customer even if he’s like this.」

「That’s right~. I asked them about it before, but they denied it while blushing.」

「……Hou?」

Hey, Haru, you bastard. There are things you can say and things you can’t say even if you tilt your head cutely. Especially in front of Anita.

「Anita, it’s better if you stop right there. A lot of things happened in their past. Within adventurers, there are those who find love and those who part with their friends. You should be careful not to meddle in others’ relationships. ……If you go too far, ‘that’ knight leader will come to you.」

「Ah, that’s bad. I’m sorry, Deris-danna. I will pretend I didn’t hear that story.」

Nell, just how much fear did you spread?