Chapter 149
“Now then, it’s time for us to dress up as well . ”
Ellis let out a suggestive laugh . Standing beside her, Claire’s lips twisted into something slightly disturbing as well .
Today was the carnival .
Frau and Fe-rin had been cosplaying as chefs since the early morning, having fun selling their loin steak sandwiches alongside all the other street vendors .
Reeve and Su-chan were wearing some showy yet intimidating light soldier uniforms while running patrols, on the lookout for any unsavory characters looking to cause problems .
Katie and Ah-nyan were wearing matching dresses with a long slits down the side . Ah-nyan was also wearing a pair of pants underneath resulting in the two looking like a pair of beautiful ghosts who were supposed to only aimlessly roam around town without saying anything .
And then there was Ellis and Claire . To start, Ellis and Ra-chin had dressed up as two members of a military police unit . Ellis carried a small whip in one hand and having a grand time cracking it in the air . Claire and Pi-tan were also wearing military uniforms but with a white coat draped overtop . They were a pair of military doctors .
“Ufufufufu”
“Ehehehehe”
The two girls and their dragons seemed to be thinking something strange, laughing the whole while as they walked back out into town .
“Oh Ellis, you’re dressed up kind of scarily today . ”
“Claire feels a little dangerous too . ”
Everyone in town called out to Ellis and Claire, complimenting them on their costumes . In reverse, the two girls would always reply back with a large smile on their faces, saying things like, “If you make me angry, I’ll arrest you,” or, “I’m going to turn you into materials for my experiments” . Seeing them act like that, everybody in town thought they were just having a grand time with their cosplaying .
The two girls and their male-form counterparts continued roaming the city acting like a couple members of the secret police and some mad-scientist military physicians, having admiration and praise rained down upon them from all the citizens and tourists they brought a smile to . The city had a good atmosphere going, and everybody was enjoying the revelry .
But then, Ra-chin sent Ellis a message .
“Him”
At the same time, Ellis gave Claire and Pi-tan a signal with her eyes . The four of them then slowly began to surround one man who looked like a tourist, and when they were all in position, Ellis suddenly started shouting .
“You! You’re under arrest!”
Suddenly being yelled at, the tourist-looking man jumped . Before the man could say anything, a gag was shoved into his mouth while Ra-chin and Pi-tan took a piece of cloth, quickly wrapping it round and around the man until he was completely unable to move .
“There we go!”
Ra-chin then easily tossed the man onto his shoulder .
Everyone who had seen the scene began to murmur, and that part of the city started to get noisy, but when Ellis turned to all of them, smiled, and did a little bow, everyone was convinced this was all just part of the act, laughing about it before giving a round of applause . Ellis and the others left the crowd behind, waving farewell as the applause and laughter continued . And so they headed straight to the Thieves’ Guild .
Welcome to the Thieves’ Guild exclusive torture room . This was a special room Baltis had given Ellis permission to use beforehand after she had explained what it was she was planning .
“Now then, let’s get started . ”
Ellis slowly removed the gag on the man who had been tied down to a magic torture chair . As soon as it came off the man started to scream .
“What is this!? Do you just suddenly abduct tourists in this city!? I want to file a complaint!”
“Ufufufu . What a good voice . Let’s test that out to start . ”
“Hehehehe . Let’s start out forceful . ”
Claire took something out of her bag .
It looked something like a large folding fan . It was the so-called ‘harisen’, and while it did make a loud, flashy sound, it didn’t do much for damage .
“Now, how about this? Haaah!”
Claire slapped the man’s head with the harisen with an excited expression .
“GYYAAAAA!” and the man screamed, obviously in far more pain that what you’d guess .
“Ehehehe . So it was effective after all . Then next would be this . ”
The next thing Claire pulled out from her bag was a small mallet . If you were hit by this, it’d probably hurt, but it’d be pretty hard to kill someone with it . Claire squatted down in front of the man and lightly struck his knee with the mallet .
“GYYAAAAA!” and the man once again let out a shriek as the hit leg jumped up from the hit .
“Ufufufu, well it doesn’t look like you have beriberi at least . ”¹
“You all, what is with that harisen and mallet!? Why do they hurt so much!?”
Ellis gave the man an evil smile while answering his shriek .
“Well you see, this harisen and mallet are equipped with the Exorcism ability . Do you understand, Mis-ter De-mon?”
A cold sweat formed over the man’s whole body when he heard Ellis’s words .
Yes, in the girls’ morning patrol, they had already noticed that several demons had infiltrated the city disguised as tourists . This man’s true identity, it had been leaked since the very beginning .
As for Exorcism, it was a magical ability that could be said to be the bane for demons since it does double damage to both them and undead . However, such a deadly ability being attached to something as silly as a harisen or a small mallet had never been heard of before .
Next Ellis took out a crop whip for horses . And then with a lovely smile, she poked the tip of the man’s nose .
“Now this is my personal Flying Phoenix and Exorcism crop whip . It should deal five times as much damage to demons . How does it taste?”
Ellis continued to hit just the tip of the man’s nose . It was really not much more than a simple tap . And yet the man was screaming as if it were a hot iron searing his flesh .
“Hey, are you going to show yourself soon? Mister Demon”
“I get it, I get it so please stop!”
While begging for the pain to end, the demon revealed his true form . It was a figure Ellis had seen before . It was the so-called Zabinas-class high demon, similar to the one that had been disguised and worked with the Durkfienance family in Wheat Grace . As he transformed, he tried to make himself larger and break free, but the magic torture chair kept him held down to a manageable size .
“Good boy . So then let’s now have a nice little chat about why you came to this town . ”
The demon was completely overwhelmed by these two little girls with their mallet and crop whip, and so he answered any questions they had while being slapped around a bit here and there .
“It’s surprising to hear that the Demon Lord has been drawing away from his minions . ”
“It’s even more surprising to hear that Berunal governs over all the other demons . ”
“Rather than that, it’s putting that always smiling face of hers in a very suspicious light . ”
“But that, I really don’t think she’s acting . She’s so happy and earnest . ”
After finishing their little round of torturing demons, Ellis, Claire, Ra-chin, and Pi-tan were all gathered around and sharing their impressions with each other .
“I just want the demons to quit their plundering . ”
“Perhaps it would be best if we had Reeve try and manipulate Berunal . ”
“That’s too heavy a burden for someone so clueless . ”
“You’re right . It’s be wiser to have us do something ourselves . ”
They were saying some pretty awful things about Reeve, but when you have a certain track record, it just can’t be helped .
“Hey……… Are you still not going to release me?”
The demon who had been left on his own for a bit crawled his way into the conversation . And in response, Claire gave him a smile reminiscent of a mad scientist that would make you question which one of them exactly was the demon .
“Mister Demon, we’re not monsters . Of course we aren’t going to kill you . ”
That’s what she was saying, but as Claire touched the demon’s forehead, using the spell {Distraction Needle} to completely do away with any magic resistance he had, she slowly began to recite her next spell . A spell that made the demon turn pale . Because inside that long chant, he clearly heard the spell {Explosion} embedded inside .
“DON’T!” the demon cried . But Claire’s smile only deepened as she continued her chant .
After half a minute, Claire finally finished casting her spell . No change could be seen in the demon’s body, but that only made the demon’s fear grow as Claire kept her sunny smile on show .
“Mister Demon, this spell is something I like to call {Keyword Explosion} . Simply put, this spell only activates when you say the keyword . As soon as you say it, you can expect a BOOM! But it’s fine . So long as you never say that word, you’ll be able to live a normal life . Hey, you’re kind of blessed in a way . ”
Ellis continued acting worried for the poor demon .
“Oh whatever could that keyword be? Could it be Warren? Little girl? Dragons? Or maybe even something like Demon Lord? Ohh, I’m so worried . ”
“I got it, I got it! I won’t tell anyone about you, so please just forgive me already!” the demon continued his begging .
“All right, we forgive you . Thank you for all the information you’ve given us Mister Demon . Now have a nice day . ”
Thus the demon was released from the tortures of hell and scurried back home to the Demon Lord’s castle as fast as he could .
“Now then, let’s go catch the next one . ”
Once again Ellis and the others went back into the city to run their patrols with playful smiles on their faces .
The special stage in Freedom Promenade .
On stage, different couples were acting out various different types of improv based on the cosplay they were wearing . The event on the stage wasn’t a contest this time, but everyone who participated did receive a small prize like some specially made whale beast meat bacon from the Pot and Kettle, a special whale leather hat from the western fishing village, or other such accessories like mufflers which could be given away as a present .
Currently standing on stage was Katie and a Katie-lookalike Ah-nyan . Their program was a ‘catfighter performance’ with their claw gauntlets and greaves already equipped .
The two bowed to each other at center stage before taking an upright fighting position . Both of them took a strong step forward as the audience watched in bated anticipation .
Ah-nyan abruptly took a crouching stance, pushing off his back legs and lunging right into Katie . It was the standard posture for a catfighter punch . Katie avoided the attack by pulling a back step . Thereupon Ah-nyan took a position even lower than he already had and tried to tackle Katie right from the front . Katie read through the attack, stepping to the side and dropping her elbow right on Ah-nyan’s head . However Ah-nyan was able to lower his head, avoiding the hit and then jumping off of one foot to spin around to his left . Katie tried to intercept his movement with a low kick straight to his gut, but this time Ah-nyan was the one to pull off a back step, grabbing Katie’s foot in midair and tossing it away . However Katie used the momentum from Ah-nyan’s throw to her advantage, pulling a full rotation slightly above the ground, she managed to kick his legs out from under him . She then quickly mounted him, and the air stood still for a moment .
With things finished, the two fighters stood back up in the center of the stage and bowed once again . The two then turned to face the crowd, and everyone in the audience rose out of their seats, applauding and singing their praises .
“Hey Katie”
“Nyat Ah-nyan?”
“Do you know a riddle?”
“Does it take a Dad to bridge nyan with nyan nya?”²
And so the two started a small comedy routine up on stage, inevitably having to be dragged off to the sound of a couple laughs here and there, but for the most part it was a cacophony of boo’s .
Inside the Demon Lord’s castle .
Having scurried back as fast as he could, the Zabinas-class high demon that Claire and Ellis had caught rushed to a nearby magic circle in an attempt to return to the demon realm . He thought for sure that the spell would be canceled there .
But before he could make it, he was stopped by a couple of other demons calling out to him .
“Hey you, what’s the hurry?”
“I can’t talk . ”
“What are you, you went with the others to infiltrate Warren right? Tell us what you found out . ”
“No! I can’t talk . ”
“What are you even saying?”
“Me talking about not talking is still me talking! It’s fine to say you don’t care, but I don’t know anything”
BOOM!!
The demon who had so quickly scurried home had his head split open like a watermelon on the beach . Without a head, his lifeless corpse collapsed onto the ground as all the other demons were left unable to understand what had just happened .
“What was that!?”
“That was an {Explosion}!”
“Who cast the spell!?”
And just like that the demons grew to suspect even those they called allies .
Ellis and Claire had designated ‘I don’t know’³ as the demon’s keyword . They had thought that someone would surely use it when the demon was confronted by his allies .
In other words, from the very beginning they had no plans to let him live . From then on, the two girls continued to apprehend several more demons and subjected them to the {Keyword Explosion} treatment before sending them back to the Demon Lord’s castle .
One of the demon’s they captured was able to leave behind just one bit of information before he popped .
“They were more like demons than actual demons . I don’t know anymore”
And then
BAM!!
The demons were left horrified by the words he left behind that somehow echoed louder than any explosion .
1 . A disease that affects your nerves losing the ability to use certain muscles .
2 . I hate their jokes so much . So this is meant to be a tongue twister-like joke that goes like “Nyan toka to kakete nyan toka toto kutte yatsuda nya” . I had a hard time reading this, but the joke here is that nyannyan as one word is slang for making out . So once again, it’s a dirty, stupid pun .
3 . Just a friendly reminder that I don’t know is one word in Japanese .
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