Kuro no Maou - Chapter 425

Chapter 425

“Then you should work even harder to protect that person, huh?”

“Yep, I will definitely protect them . ”

I could finally think of Farkius’ smile as beautiful as he answered reassuringly . Fighting for love—that’s quite a cool motive .

“Kurono, the Crusaders’ army has become visible . ”

As I quietly turned to face towards the direction Fiona had pointed, I could definitely spot the large white army closing in .

Thinking that it’s finally time, I let Lily down and stood facing the enemy as they marched with momentum . And the Spada army lined up here was also making a small commotion seeing the enemy right in front .

“…They really are removing the snow with Doltos . ”

After they came this close, finally the rumored Doltos could be seen .

The Doltos looked like a white bulldozer . They were easily pushing aside the piled up snow on the mountain road and were slowly making their way here .

With the help of modding, I could see their soldiers on top of mammoths even without a strengthening magic on my eyes .

Their white robes with hoods on looked somewhat different from the Crusader soldiers I remember . They are probably the monster-users of the Crusader army . I guess calling them ‘tamer’ would be more appropriate, seeing how they are handling the monster as is without summoning .

Behind the forceful Doltos squad was the fire magician squad, wearing red robes . Although they weren’t using powerful flame magic from their staff, they were probably using heat magic to melt the snow .

Strangely enough, the snow pushed aside by the Doltos was not piling up . By melting the snow which was pushed aside, they were getting rid of the obstacle .

And behind them were the unpleasant white troops which we faced half a year ago on Alsace’s river beach .

Even today, they had numerous flags with the cross, fluttering in the strong wind . Underneath those flags were the troops wearing white surcoats, equipped with long spears . They looked like white ants from here, making me want to instantly crush them .

“Hmm, that’s weird . This is different from what I heard . ”

While I glared at them with bloodlust, Farkius said in a somewhat stale voice .

When I looked at him with a side glance, his beautiful face had a wry expression on, looking like he as if he was drafting up a plan or something . It doesn’t seem like he was overwhelmed by the Crusaders’ numbers .

“What is it?”

“I had heard that the Crusaders’ was formed with only humans but—”

The source of that info is me . To be more precise, the Element Masters and Shimon—the survivors of Daidaros .

Well, the Spada army has also researched on the Crusaders as they built a nest in Daidaros . And of course, naturally, all the Spada soldiers including the adventurers were told that the Crusaders consisted only of humans .

“The ones lined up there aren’t human, no matter how I look at it . ”

Farkius was pointing at ‘them’ .

A squad line, similar to the familiar Crusader squad .

They were wearing similar robes as the Tamers and when looked closely, their sizes differed from the human soldiers who were beside them .

Especially the cyclops, golems, minotaurs’ big bodies stood out . If one pays attention, they can notice the goblins’ small bodies mixed with them as well .

“… . What, are they…”

Even I, who had fought with the Crusaders before, could not understand right away .

This is weird . To them, who believe in the Cross, think that any race other than human is demonic . There’s no way they can be joining the fight as fellow Crusaders . In the first place, there shouldn’t be any other races in Sinclair republic .

However, it was Farkius himself who easily gave an answer to this rising doubt .

“Hmm, there’s no doubt about it . They are people from Daidaros . ”

Before I could ask ‘what do you mean?’, Fiona answered this time .

“Kurono-san, they are probably war slaves . ”

War slaves .

“Don’t tell me, they are enlisting the people of Daidaros and are going to use them as meat shields?!”

“If it was a priest, they would never walk alongside demons but… if they are lead by Sinclair’s nobles, then it is possible . ”

It is said the war slave system was frequently seen in use by the Sinclair republic when they were subjugating the west half of Ark continent .

In short, it’s a system where they make the believers of a different religion into war slaves and use them as disposable force .

Their logic is that they are doing what must be done to bring the heretics to the right religion .

A shitty logic .

And because of that, the heretics were called ‘second class citizens’ and were clearly treated as lower beings .

“Even though they are demons, they can be understood . And so, they are probably using them in the same way as they used the heretics . ”

In other words, they are using the demons’ families or something as hostage to make them participate in the war . Although words have no meaning towards a wild monster, they do work against demons who understand human language . And so they can be threatened similarly as well .

Fiona continued, saying that if it’s the Sinclair nobles who have fought against the heretics, they are probably well aware of that method .

“Wait, then, we are—”

“Yes, we will probably have to fight against the sacrificial war slaves—the Daidaros people who have become slaves . ”

A particularly strong wind blew across the valley . And with that sudden gust, the white robes of the war slaves were taken off .

And what lied there was a strong-faced orc and a lizardman . And as I thought, the small shadows belonged to the goblins .

Elf or dwarf—being which are more similar to humans couldn’t be seen . I can’t help but think that the races which are further away from humans were intentionally picked .

“D-don’t joke around with me… I . . I have come this far, to kill the Crusaders…”

Why do I have to fight against the people of Daidaros who have done nothing wrong? For what purpose am I dying my hand with blood then?

“No, Kurono . They are also ‘Crusaders’ . ”

Fiona declared, looking into my face . There was no hesitation in her golden eyes .

“… . Kurono, here they come . ”

Lily said with an expressionless face, again standing on the castle wall edge . Sound of trumpets came along a gust of wind from underneath . In front of me, the Crusaders slowly marched forward, making high-pitched noises with their trumpets .

Although it is quite a spectacle—seeing countless people wriggling just below, I felt a chill run down my spine as the war slaves were pushed forward .

Their white robes looked like prison uniform . They are slaves, criminals who might rebel . And as such, they were probably not given any weapon . They didn’t have any sword or spear with them—not even a small knife .

Instead, what they were given was a large ladder to climb the 15 meter castle wall . The reason why they were also carrying fat pillars and large boulders was probably to use them as a base for the ladder .

The defenseless war slaves were put up against the impregnable Galahad fort .

And then, suddenly, the trumpet was blown, indicating the signal to ‘charge’ .

“Damn it… . ”

And like this, the fight had started .

Month of Gloom, day 16 . Early morning . 5th Galahad war—begins .