Chapter 3
Whether they pushed or pulled on it, the iron bars didn’t move an inch.
His voice wouldn’t reach from here, but Murata still called out his friend’s name.
“Shibuya! No you can’t, it’s too dangerous! Hurry up and figure it out!”
“What? What can’t he do?” Lord von Bielefelt was much calmer than Murata and didn’t seem to be particularly disturbed. He’s likely unaffected because he has experienced Yuuri’s explosive magic many times over. “It’s his usual high-and-mighty form. Of course it is powerful… and inconvenient magic, but if we keep our heads down for a little bit and stay put, he’ll come back to himself all on his own. I’m worried about him being totally exhausted after he collapses, but he’s somehow worked things out with that condition so far. You could call it something like a small-scale typhoon. It’s nothing for us to get worked up about.”
“No, this is different than before.”
Wolfram’s expression darkened like the way his mother’s does and looked back and forth between Yuuri standing on the stage and Murata.
“What’s different?”
“It’s just different. The quality of the magic and the circumstances are different… First of all, he hasn’t been back to Earth in a long time. This might have happened in the past, but he hasn’t kept repeatedly using magic without going back. And then you saw it, didn’t you? On the boat? It was as if he said something un-Shibuya… I’m worried about that… Hopefully something unstoppable isn’t happening inside Shibuya… And then…”
“Your Highness, shall I break this?”
Taking notice of Murata’s unease, Josak tries to bend the iron bars. Realizing the gaps wouldn’t widen with just the strength of an ordinary man, he starts hacking away at the metal with the axe.
“… And then I’m here… that’s the most dangerous.”
“What?”
“I amplify his power. Twice over. If things go bad, several times over. The nature of the magic might change as well. It’ll become more aggressive, more devastating, probably. Our relationship was created for destruction, after all. A skilled practitioner might be able to control it with their own will, but he’s just recently become king. On the contrary, it hasn’t even been a while since his magic was awakened so it will be difficult for Shibuya to control.”
For a split second, Wolfram made quite an unpleasant face. However, he quickly recovers his faith as a close friend of the king and respectfully gazes at the Twin Black Great Sage as if he was a novice.
“If we get close to Yuuri, can he be controlled?”
“You? But Lord von Bielefelt, your back.”
“Who cares about my back!? If we get close to Yuuri, can we help control his rampage?”
“It’s not certain, but probably a little.”
“Come!”
He kicked open the entrance. While the guards standing on both sides were taken by surprise, he takes them down with one hit from the somewhat-supplied weapon.
“There must be a side entrance somewhere. It’ll be faster than waiting for Gurrier.”
“You wound me, Young Master.”
After joking that it wouldn’t be his fault if Wolfram blew out his back and lost all his popularity, Josak followed after them.
*.*.*.*.*
All of the men packed into the stands were all looking up. Some of them carelessly had their mouths hanging open. For humans who had not went to the battlefield, there were no opportunities to see magic.
The snow drawing figures in the black sky slinked about according to its master’s will as if it were alive. First was a bird, then a dog, then a mou-… no, a red squirrel.
It was a bit of a one-man snow festival.
Before the spectators had the chance to yell ‘Adalbert, behind you,’ the mass of snow shaped like a bucket took a nosedive and attacked the man standing on the round stage.
“Ugh!”
It was a hard blow to the back of the head.
The arms that had a tight hold of Yuuri slackened. His body instantly slipped down as he escaped from the muscle hell and tumbled onto the wet ground.
“… Hey, what gives…? Wasn’t this match normal combat? If magic without any sense of art is allowed then you should have said so from the beginning… Ah, the shape of my head is going to change.”
Adalbert was touching the lump as if to check it.
When Yuuri brought his hand to his neck, his fingers were wet by something that wasn’t sweat or water. It was blood. He gazed silently at his palm, but before long the snow rubbed against it.
Bit by bit, the white turned crimson.
By the time he slowly raised his head, the light in his eyes was different than usual. He was standing with his arms crossed and a cynical look on his face, his chin slightly lifted as if to look down on others. His fiery, glittering black eyes were focused on one target: Adalbert.
“… To not only go against your birthplace but to shake the resolve formed from a pure soul in younger days and to throw away the vow of loyalty to the demons you made as an adult…”
A low and resonant voice with a roundabout, hard to understand way speaking. Expressions you would only hear in period dramas in a halfway literary style.
It’s undeniably the first Super Demon King Mode in a long while.
“You make fallacious arguments with your selfish grudge and turned your back on your homeland to wander. As if that was not enough, you wish for chaos in your native land because of a foolish reasoning that can only be thought of as resentment! How foolish and lacking is your soul? My nose cannot stop dripping at the shamefulness.”
He’s the type whose nose starts running before his eyes tear up.
“However!”
The huge sumo wrestler snow sculpture floating in the air swung an arm around to match his speech. It spread out all five figures and stood in a Stop the Back Talk trademark pose. The cold, sleet-filled wind that sprung forth collided relentlessly across the entire audience.
It stopped right when Adalbert got tired of listening to the lecture and was thinking if he should just attack already. Nice timing.
“… You do nothing but advocate for your own rights and do not know what it is to turn those over to another… Ah, where have the good old customs of compromise and sharing with others gone?”
As if he was beset by an earth-shattering tragedy, he places a hand to his brow and gazes up at the sky. The snow sculpture in the night sky accompanied that move by twisting its body as if it was wailing. How ghastly.
“What is the meaning of attacking the next opponent after being unsatisfied with one victory? Von Grantz, you enemy of equal opportunity! An insolent man like you should listen to these words well. Are you listening? Jam your fingers up those gigantic nostrils of yours and listen well. Engrave it in your heart! Modest virtue!”
Several people in the arena cocked their heads to the side as if to say ‘eh?’ That’s unreasonable. And unsanitary. However, most of the people were admiring the somewhat dignified string of words. It felt like mass hypnotism.
“You are no longer one of our brethren. Even the previous Demon King said ‘even if he tries to come back I won’t forgive him, ehe!”
He didn’t have to say that one part just like she did.
“Hey, Your Majesty.” Adalbert slapped his shoulder with the belly of the scabbard fish sword and his neck made popping sounds as he stretched it. “When will this lecture putting me to sleep end?”
Left out of all the goings on and just watching his master from afar, Conrad was taken aback by the man’s boldness, although the spectators and the judges who knew nothing of Yuuri’s social status and position were as well. He was defiant even in front of the Super Demon King. It was to the extent that it seemed like he would start digging around i-… brushing off his nose.
Yuuri’s clenched fists were trembling slightly, perhaps in anger.
“… Ugh, there is no medicine for muscles… So your muscles have eroded your brain?”
“You say that, Your Majesty, but muscles are nice. Flexing them is a way to pass the time.”
“Quiet! You are a treasonous man who wishes to overthrow my authority and spread useless chaos in the kingdom! Von Grantz, your existence is a large obstacle in the way of my flawless and absolute reign which I’ve named ‘My Bronze Statue’ Plan. Even though we are of the same race, fleeing the country is a serious crime. On this occasion, even spilling blood is not disagreeable…!”
He showily swings down the left arm he had been pointing to the sky and points his index finger directly at Adalbert. Three seconds to the death sentence.
“You leave me no choice. I’ll cut you down! Throw yourself upon the sword of justice and fall just like Seizou Fukumoto!” (1)
“Who’s that?”
“Judgement!”
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