Master and Slaves

The true enemy we should defeat... Mateus...

I took one step forward.

Beside me Helene should have been there...

However...

"Ah... aah..."

Helene looked at the floor in a daze and stood frozen.

I also, while watching the throne, turned my gaze to where Helene was looking.

There a corpse was rolled.

Probably the true form of the shadow Helene had flashed her sword at a moment ago.

However would Helene be shaken looking at the corpse of a person she herself cut?

Helene slowly collapsed onto the floor.

At the tip of Helene’s knees was a part of the shadow Helene had cut.

It was a person’s... Mateus’s head.

The one who attacked us when we opened the door had been Mateus.

Helene lifted Mateus’s head with both hands and hugged it gently.

"U... uuu..."

Helene, who until now had never shown tears, was leaking sobs.

I gently tapped Helene’s shoulder and glared at the front.

"Hahhaa, with this it’s checkmate."

"No, because the king was taken out it isn’t even checkmate."

"Gaa! Why did we lose!"

At the back raised several steps where the throne was placed, three shadows were talking while ignoring us.

Between the two shadows sitting facing each other a board was placed.

There was a shadow standing beyond that looking at that board.

"You guys are at fault!"

Suddenly the shadow sitting on the left from my view, speaking Osaka dialect, turned this way and shouted.

"Really... the pieces are all useless too..."

"That’s how it is. The bishop took the knight and pawns and went on an expedition on his own, and of the rooks one died and the other defected to the enemy."

"The queen was completely useless."

"The king too."

"That’s your fault, right. You charged him in without thinking anything."

The three shadows got lively ignoring us.

At that impossible situation I forgot myself for an instant.

"Enough already. You die too."

When the shadow who had been sitting on the left stood up he pointed his left hand at us.

"Uryaa!"

Together with a call that could not be thought a spell at all, flame burst from the shadow’s left hand.

Bad!

I went as far forward as I could and drew the greatsword Destroyer from my back with my left hand.

Then I readied it like a shield.

"Ku!"

Normally magic that hits a greatsword immediately has its power scatter.

However the flame the shadow released did not lose momentum at all even after hitting the greatsword.

I braced my feet and endured.

I tried to kill the power by swinging the sword left and right, but the flame clung to me and would not leave as if recognizing me as prey.

"Hoh, not bad for a human. Then how about this?"

A voice different from the shadow who released the flame could be heard.

Probably the shadow who had been sitting on the right?

That voice was heard, and immediately after an impact ran.

Unable to endure I was blown backward... no, upward, and slammed into the ceiling.

"Gua!"

Then when the flame’s power vanished I fell to the ground just like that.

I can’t... breathe...

My stomach is... hot...

""""""""""Ma... ter...!"""""""""" "Hi... ki...!"

Someone approached me.

There was ringing in my ears and I could not hear well.

My eyes were hazy and out of focus so I could not see, but it was probably the Dules.

Something warm touched around my stomach.

Was Tiria healing my burns?

...Wait a moment.

This is... bad.

Probably everyone is around me.

They become good targets for magic.

Besides Muriel and Sara are...

"Ku!"

"You mustn’t! Please don’t move!"

The ringing in my ears settled and at last voices became clearly audible.

The one speaking at my ear was Tiria after all.

"I’m... fine..."

I pushed Tiria away with my arm, grabbed the sword that had fallen beside me, and stood up.

My knees seemed about to collapse so I stood using the sword in place of a staff.

"Hey hey, Asmode. Don’t hold back."

"No, I didn’t mean to..."

While saying that the shadow called Asmode clenched and opened his left hand.

"Well whatever. Still, why do I have to treat you, Beelzebute, to lunch."

"Because you lost, right?"

"Because you lost."

"Abaddon, this has nothing to do with you!"

The three shadows went into a round shadow that had formed beside them at some point.

"W-wait... gu!"

I tried to chase them... and collapsed on the spot.

"Tiria! Treat him quickly!"

Muriel cried in a falsetto.

Hearing that voice I lost consciousness.

...

...

Three days had passed since the battle in the throne room.

This was the entrance hall lobby of the royal castle of the royal capital Torrestia.

Now I was attending a coronation.

Julius, son of Mateus and Helene, was receiving the crown as king of the Tres Kingdom.

Beside him Helene was standing.

Apparently she would serve as Julius’s assistant as the king’s mother.

Originally they would hold a gorgeous coronation for the birth of a new king, but the participants were few.

Most nobles were held to have been subordinate to the demon tribe, and their territories, private property, and titles were confiscated.

Therefore those here were Baldo as duke, Bastian as marquis, and Marcel as count, each the only one of their title.

The titles of viscount and baron were given to the knights who participated in this war, and territories were also given from those confiscated.

However that was all.

Also from the previous misgovernment the population of the royal capital Torrestia had decreased to one hundredth.

Epidemic also spread and people starving to death did not cease.

Therefore Rosina and the others were also running east and west treating them.

My Dules were also not present.

They were waiting outside.

It was a coronation in such circumstances.

Naturally the people of the royal capital were in no position to celebrate.

Compared to when I attended a banquet the number of participants was incomparable.

And as for me...

"Hiroyuki Asahi-dono, who distinguished himself in this war, will serve as sword instructor to this country’s knights."

Julius said that to me at the coronation.

A sword instructor is a teacher who teaches knights how to handle swords.

In other words I was told to teach the knights the sword.

I, who have never even learned swordsmanship, do not know how I should teach, but according to Helene this is an official role.

Well, they do not want to send me out of the country.

"Understood."

I took an insolent attitude the same as I had toward the king here before.

However this time there was not a single person who threw anger at me.

...

The coronation ended safely, and the after-party, which stayed only at a small meal gathering because supplies were lacking, also ended.

I and my Dules were being guided under moonlight by Helene herself to the house that would become mine.

"Are you all right? Aren’t you busy?"

I asked Helene.

Helene, assistant to the king, should be so busy rebuilding a country that is almost in a state of annihilation that she should begrudge even sleep.

"Yes, I am busy. Tonight is another all-nighter."

"Then..."

"Sometimes you need a break too."

"...Well, that’s right."

I nodded at Helene’s words after a little pause.

"..."

"..."

After that both I and Helene were silent.

Because of that the Dules also did not say a single word.

"...About Lord Mateus..."

After a little Helene began speaking quietly.

In this country now Mateus is a forbidden word.

After all he is the ringleader who carried out the previous misgovernment.

Whether because of that or because she remembered Mateus, she continued speaking little by little in a small voice.

"Lord Mateus had already passed away at that time. No, he passed away fifteen years ago, they say."

"...I see."

I did not know how I should speak so I at least gave a short reply.

"And one of those three was controlling that corpse, they say."

This time Helene began speaking matter-of-factly.

"Also those three... Asmode, Beelzebute, Abaddon. All of them are infamous Demon Kings."

"Demon Kings. As I thought, both Mateus and this country were being controlled by Demon Kings."

"...Yes."

Helene nodded slowly.

"I see... Helene, can’t we send Mateus off just among ourselves?"

Helene had probably wanted to tell me this.

She might have wanted to appeal Mateus’s innocence to me.

Of course I had known that.

At least I thought it was not Mateus’s will.

However other people are not like that.

Mateus is a villain who laid down misgovernment.

Because of that they cannot even hold Mateus’s funeral.

Mateus’s corpse is still exposed and has become wretched from the people of the royal capital throwing stones.

That is why I asked Helene whether we could recover the corpse and then hold a funeral just among ourselves.

However Helene shook her head.

"Thank you for your consideration. However I cannot afford to be suspected now. I am a woman discarded by Mateus, and Julius is a son unrelated to Mateus. I rose together with Julius to save the people of the country from the tyrant Mateus. I must not be suspected there."

"...I see."

Again I could say nothing and only gave a short reply.

At that moment Helene hung her head and rubbed her eyes with her hand.

She had probably wiped tears.

"...Hahaha, sorry. Ah, this is Hiroyuki-sama’s mansion."

It was a splendid building worthy of being called a mansion.

From today I would live here.

Together with the Dules.

When I turned around I met the eyes of ten Dules.

"Once again, please treat us well. Master."

Muriel, at the head of the Dules, said that to me.

"Ah, likewise, please treat me well."

I also answered the Dules.

"Somehow you look like newlyweds."

Helene laughed.

It was the first smile I had seen from Helene since then.

The weather was clear without a single cloud.

I hope this country, and above all the future of me and my Dules, will be like this weather.

—-

[A/N: This marks the end of the 4th arc — Black-and-White Demihumans and Otherworlders Who Crossed Worlds. New arc will start from the next Chapter!]