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Tate no Yuusha no Nariagari (LN) - Volume 19 - Chapter 6




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Chapter Six: A New Heavenly King 

“This reminds me of something. I’ve heard that bears don’t kill their prey before eating it. They eat it alive, toy with it, which is what makes an attack so horrible,” I said. Glass, who was just returning, placed her hand over her mouth at these words. 

“What’s with the general knowledge?!” Kizuna interjected. Raphtalia nodded in agreement—she had just been a beat too slow. 

“Just seeing that fight, it made me think of that,” I said. Their bodies were scattered across the floor, looking pretty much intact. That was their bodies though. The Demon Dragon had dragged out their souls and eaten them alive. She had done it before. I had only ordered her to remove a soul in order to check something. Eating it had just been a little bonus for her. Normally, a shikigami like Raph-chan was required to see souls, but for some reason we had been able to see them when observing them through the mirror. 

Glass, a spirit herself, had therefore been forced to watch the Demon Dragon feasting on one, live and uncut. 

“Well, Shield Hero! Are you not impressed?” the dragon asked. 

“You certainly are a beast,” I replied. 

“One of my best features!” she enthused. 

“You’ve been saying that a lot recently. Are you trying to force a catchphrase? I’m not going to allow that,” I warned her. I didn’t see that as an appealing feature either! 

“They were nothing but scum, in any case. Having creatures like that crawling in this world makes me sick,” the dragon said. 

“I can’t disagree with that,” I replied. I understood not wanting to die—who didn’t?—but I would never understand trying to survive by sacrificing one’s allies. Immediately after I was framed, if no one had believed in me at all, I might have done the same thing . . . but I’d like to think otherwise. I would certainly never turn my back on all my friends now, people with whom I’d come through so much. 

There was something I needed to ask. “One thing you said back there, Demon Dragon . . .” 

“Ah. You mean when I praised those who helped in my defeat? From among them, I give the highest regard to the blind tigress,” the dragon replied. As I suspected, she had been talking about Atla. For all her bluster, she seemed to acknowledge the strength of Kizuna and her allies too. 

“I don’t think Atla would be especially moved by praise from you,” I reported. 

“I wouldn’t be so sure. As two who have been inside your shield, I think we share the same feelings. In fact, my feelings for you may have originated with her,” the dragon mused. 

“You’re saying it’s Atla’s fault you turned out like this? Just be quiet, please!” I was getting sick of talking to the creature. 

“Anyway.” The Demon Dragon finished talking with me and then incanted some magic in the direction of the corpses. Moments later all of them stood back up, vacant expressions on their faces. Rishia gave a high-pitched scream, and for once I agreed with her. 

Fresh Zombie 

They even had monster names. As we marveled at this gross spectacle, Kizuna frowned. 

“Any adventurers unlucky enough to be defeated by the Demon Dragon become zombies and go on the attack,” she explained. One might call that “recycling,” but it seemed a little much. 

“Fear not. I have not instructed them to attack intruders. Rather, they will begin repairing my castle,” the dragon informed us. So they would be working on construction until their zombie bodies failed them. Lovely. I was really starting to wonder if we had made the right decision by adding the Demon Dragon to our forces. “Fear not,” she said, but that only had the opposite effect. 

“Naofumi, this is the Demon Dragon,” Glass said. “Do you understand that?” I pondered for a moment. She was definitely more dangerous than Gaelion, in all sorts of ways. Even if she was in love with me, she was still a demon king. 

“This is simply a form of the ‘survival of the fittest’ that they themselves subscribed to. Why worry about what happens to reckless fools who don’t know their place?” the dragon asked. That made sense to me. Defeat would always mean losing everything. Whether monsters and humans were different or not, we were humans and so would generally side with our own kind. But with the world in crisis, it was impossible to sympathize with the Vanguards of the Waves, who believed they were justice and kept trying to kill the heroes. 

“Humans can use that kind of magic too, right?” I asked. I’d seen Necromancer as a job in various games. 

“You know your stuff, Shield Hero,” the dragon replied. 

“Kyo did something similar too,” I recalled. The previous holder of the mirror vassal weapon had manipulated bodies in a similar way—and now it was getting harder to justify us doing it too. 

“You can leave corpses lying around here, and if they fall in a place with especially powerful magic, they will turn into zombies of their own accord,” the dragon revealed. “Even if you bury them, the same thing will happen. All will follow my orders, the one true ruler of this land.” So zombies could just spring up from the ground. It was just another bizarre natural phenomenon from another world. 

“That doesn’t make it okay to play around with bodies,” Kizuna retorted. 

“Hah. I never expected you to understand anyway,” the dragon shot back. The two of them started to glare at each other. 

“We can deal with such problems once the waves are resolved. Okay?” I said. 

“Well said, Shield Hero. I love how much you can just overlook,” the dragon purred. 

“Sure, whatever. You were sad to see the castle like this too, Kizuna. So, both of you, just give up for now please,” I told them. After the Demon Dragon had been defeated, humans had been in here, fighting and pillaging. Neither side was in the clear. Humans were more than capable of fighting amongst themselves too. Everyone just made up their own rules, and anyone who disagreed with them got a show of strength. It was up to those living in such times to decide whether they wanted to abide by such rules or fight back. Like how Melromarc, who had hated the Shield Hero, came to accept me as a hero. 

“I really just have to let this go?” Kizuna moaned. 

“We can simply seek to make the world a better place, a little at a time,” Glass told her consolingly. Itsuki often used a similar approach . . . but it didn’t get much of a response from Glass. I looked over at Itsuki, and he had a weird expression on his face. 

“Where does true justice lie? A difficult topic, eh, Rishia?” he said quietly. I already knew the noise Rishia would make and just blocked it out—she wasn’t ready to engage in any meaningful discussion, still shocked by the zombies. 

“Well then. An interesting interlude, but shall we get back to what we originally came here for?” the Demon Dragon asked, looking over at the three Four Heavenly Kings. Of course, we needed to find the Demon Dragon’s treasure trove and investigate similarities with Q’ten Lo. The three of the Four Heavenly Kings who had shown up all saluted the Demon Dragon. “These visitors might be human, but do you recognize them as my guests?” the Demon Dragon asked them. All responded in the affirmative. “You may not like it, but the world faces destruction if we do not join forces with the heroes. You must accept the severity of this situation.” 

“As you command!” all three replied. From where I was standing, it looked like all three of the heavenly kings were practically shaking in their (figurative) boots. 

“Well then. Perhaps you can explain yourselves. Why did you not answer my call the moment I returned to this land?” the Demon Dragon asked. The grotesque faces of each of the heavenly kings twisted into expressions of fear. 

“That was because . . . we sensed your presence from multiple places, and were unable to determine which was actually you,” one of them said. Multiple Demon Dragons might be explained by her being the Dragon Emperor, her broken core passing to Kizuna, then using that core to waken the Dragon Emperor. Kizuna had kept a number of them around too. 

“I see. You do make some good points, but—” The Demon Dragon raised a claw and lightning arched out to hit the three heavenly kings, making them scream and roar in pain. With disgust in her eyes, the Demon Dragon started to incant magic toward the twisting three heavenly kings. “I think this generation of Four Heavenly Kings underestimates me. Feel for yourselves just where your power comes from!” There were veins popping in her forehead. She looked so angry. I wasn’t scared of her anger so much as the sparks it caused in the air all around us. “Kuflika of the Wind didn’t even bother to show up! Do you actively seek to disappoint me?” the dragon asked. 

“Mistress Demon Dragon! Please, mercy!” one of them begged. The others joined in, pleading for their lives. They weren’t hostile toward us, however, and the Earth one had greeted me civilly when we first met, so I decided to try and offer them a lifeline. 

“Multiple Demon Dragons, they said. Maybe the harpoon vassal weapon holder has some Demon Dragon fragments and is running experiments on them? If that’s the case, it would be a big problem,” I mused from the sidelines. My worst-case-scenario theory made the Demon Dragon stop torturing the heavenly kings and look at me. 

“I see. They did create that twisted creature, didn’t they? Maybe they are doing something similar with my fragments. That does sound possible,” the Demon Dragon mused. 

“It’s just one possibility,” I said. 

“Always best to be prepared for the worst. Very well. I will overlook any transgressions this time,” the Demon Dragon concluded. 

“Mistress Demon Dragon, we are indebted to your mercy.” The heavenly kings stood straight and saluted again. 

“Kuflika of the Wind, however, is an entirely different story. Any who fail to even show their face will be punished. Even in death it should still be possible to at least respond. Intentionally failing to appear can only mean I have been forsaken. I am stripping the current Kuflika of the Wind of her title as one of the Four Heavenly Kings,” the Demon Dragon proclaimed. She incanted some magic in the throne room and one of the four sparkling magic circles shattered, causing a large crystal to appear in the claw of the Demon Dragon. 

“As you command!” The three heavenly kings all bowed their heads. 

“I felt some resistance, but I am the one who assembled this power. Any attempt to resist me will be quickly put down. I am the Dragon Emperor, master of all magic! You cannot hope to escape from me,” the Demon Dragon stated. I wondered exactly what she meant and what had happened to the Kuflika creature. 

The Demon Dragon looked happy with the proceedings, anyway, and turned to the crystal in her claw. 

“Hmmm . . . what to do with this . . . I know.” She drummed her claws on her chin for a few moments and then turned to look . . . at Filo! 

“Filolial of the Shield Her—ah, you are a humming fairy now—by the name of Filo,” the dragon said. Filo made a surprised exclamation, sensing what was happening and going on guard . . . or, rather, hiding behind me. “After you were taken by the Demon Dragon in your world, you fought him, didn’t you?” the Demon Dragon said. 

“Sure. So what?” Filo asked. I wasn’t liking the direction this was taking either. 

“This is the perfect opportunity for me to repay that debt, with interest,” the Demon Dragon replied and proceeded to throw the crystal at Filo. “Now you shall command the mighty power of one of the Demon Dragon’s Four Heavenly Kings! Filo of the Wind, rise to glory!” 

“No! Master, save me!” Filo squawked. 

“Stop, stop, stop! You can’t just—” I started, then stopped talking and acted in order to use a mirror and prevent the speeding crystal from hitting Filo. The crystal shattered into mist and hit me . . . and then something passed inside me. In the next moment, Filo—who had been behind me—arched over backward! 

“There you go! I have delivered it to you through the blessings of the Shield Hero! Is there nothing I cannot do, truly?” the Demon Dragon exclaimed. Filo let out a shout, crouching down with a glimmer around her . . . and then she stood back up. 

“Boo!” Filo shouted. 

“Filo! Are you okay?” I asked. 

“Boo! It doesn’t hurt, but it feels like it’s swelling up inside me!” she replied. 

“You see, my dear Shield Hero, there is nothing to worry about. This is an expression of my true feelings for you. Take a closer look,” the Demon Dragon suggested. I did as I was told, checking Filo’s status. First, I noticed that her race had changed from humming cockatrice to heavenly king of the wind. So “heavenly king” was a race? All her stats had more than doubled too. Filo wasn’t receiving the filolial adjustment or cowlick blessing here in this world, so I had been a little worried about her stats; now she looked like I could really rely on her. 

“It’s like your cowlick has been powered up,” I said. 

“Boo! I don’t like it,” Filo replied, as disgruntled with her hairstyle as ever. I thought the cute cowlick she had received from Fitoria was quite charming. 

“I wouldn’t turn into a monster yet,” the Demon Dragon cautioned. “Let things settle a little first.” 

“Boo!” Filo retorted. 

“Shield Hero. Fear not. I may have appointed her as one of the Four Heavenly Kings, but she cannot be punished like you have already seen me punish the others. That is another mark of my feelings for you. My mercy, and a fine gift,” the Demon Dragon said. 

“Boo!” Filo continued. 

“If you can make that power your own, you will be able to fly like me with everyone on your back. They have been too heavy for you until now, haven’t they?” the Demon Dragon said. 

“Really?” Filo smiled for a moment. “Boo!” Then she was angry again. I wished she would just pick one! 

“Hey . . . are we sure this is okay?” Raphtalia asked. I was right there with her, of course. Sadeena and Shildina were watching the proceedings with caution on their faces, while Itsuki and Rishia were frozen in place in surprise. Ethnobalt’s eyes were narrow, and he was clearly ready to fight at any moment. 

“Demon Dragon, if you keep pulling stuff like this, then you’re really going to make us mad!” Kizuna threatened. 

“What do you mean by ‘pulling stuff’? I am simply making myself useful to you, that is all,” the Demon Dragon replied innocently. 

“If you could be a little more objective about it . . . Well, no matter,” I said, giving up. 

“Boo! Yes matter!” Filo retorted. All that booing from her, this was getting us nowhere. 

“Why did you do that?” I asked the dragon. 

“It’s something you will need to face the challenges ahead, surely. When we have the time, I also intend to teach the heroes some of the magic I have developed,” the Demon Dragon explained. 

“Is that the ‘disposition awakened’ thing on the enhanced Demon Dragon weapons?” I asked. 

“Correct,” the Demon Dragon explained. The True Demon Dragon Mirror had an unlock bonus called “dragon magic disposition awakened.” It sounded like the Demon Dragon was planning on teaching us some magic. “You will awaken to my own magical formula. To put it in terms you will understand, Shield Hero, it is like the Way of the Dragon Vein. But you will be able to draw power from it no matter how far away you are. Forming a contract with a powerful monster will allow more powerful magic to be used,” the Demon Dragon explained. 

“There are mentions of this in ancient texts,” Glass said. “Talk of a form of magic originating with the Demon Dragon that only certain monsters are allowed to use.” 

“Correct. It’s a type of magic that one of the past Dragon Emperors sealed away in order to prevent foolish humans from using it. I have simply broken that seal,” the Demon Dragon said. It sounded like some kind of ancient magic. Ethnobalt had quite a jealous look on his face. There was no need to worry—we’d get the dragon to teach it to everyone. 

“It sounds something like black magic,” Kizuna commented. “Like making a deal with the devil.” 

“Indeed,” I replied, not sure I liked that much either. 

“You must learn it too, Hunting Hero. I will permit you to use the Four Heavenly Kings. Form powerful contracts with them all.” It was like the Demon Dragon was giving Kizuna and her allies their own unique magic. 

“What about us?” I asked. It might be a different magic system, but I should still be able to learn it. 

“Think of it as an extension of the Way of the Dragon Vein. It feels very similar. Ask for the minions you share your blessings with to lend you their strength, and you should be able to do it,” the Demon Dragon said. That sounded pretty promising. Once I got back to our world, I’d have to sit down and give it a try. “I will aid you, of course. I can support your incanting, Shield Hero.” 

“I’m sure you can,” I said dismissively. No need to pay any mind to her continued attempts to allure me. 

“It sounds like we just got some very important information in a very offhand manner,” Kizuna pondered, looking a little perplexed. 

“I bet Therese will be able to use it right away,” I said. 

“Indeed. She should have no trouble. I hope everyone will be able to keep up too,” the Demon Dragon replied. 

“Uwah . . . this sounds like a good thing, but also pretty hard,” Kizuna said. She sounded like a schoolkid who didn’t want to study. All sorts of homework piling up—but this was homework that could get you killed if you didn’t finish it. 

“Now then . . . as we originally planned, we must search everywhere to find if anything remains of my treasure trove,” the Demon Dragon said. We began the search right away, following her lead into the castle. The Four Heavenly Kings seemed to have got the message and were obeying the Demon Dragon completely. The fact they didn’t rise up against her was proof of the dragon’s charisma. But I still wasn’t sure she had any of that, to say how she treated me. Maybe they just couldn’t refuse her at all. 

As I was pondering all of this, I decided to try talking to one of them—Dainbulg of the Earth, if I recalled correctly—as we headed toward the treasure trove. 

“Hey, why do you follow her orders? You must have seen some pretty nasty stuff,” I said. 

“No, not at all . . .” Although Dainbulg of the Earth didn’t seem very keen on doing so, they had been ordered to answer all of my questions, apparently. “You do not seem to fully understand, so allow me to explain. Mistress Demon Dragon has been revived with powers far in excess of her past form. So much more power, I tremble to consider where it might have come from.” Okay. Maybe it was the result of my power-up methods. I looked over at the Demon Dragon for some kind of confirmation, but she looked away and struck a silly pose. She really didn’t look like a demon king to me. “That is why we kings have no intention of disobeying anything Mistress Demon Dragon asks of us. This is just another move toward the inevitable, conclusive war that must come with the humans. In order to achieve that, we must first overcome the waves.” He seemed like a pretty loyal goat-like thing, I’d give him that. “Still, hero from another world who has won the heart of Mistress Demon Dragon . . . I sense something in common with you. You are worthy of being among us,” the king concluded. I had no idea what he was sensing. It must have just been a casual compliment. 

That did remind me of something people had told me in Siltvelt though—that I had a strange presence about me. I remembered some of them noticing it as soon as they looked at me. Was this some other facet of the power of the shield as a holy weapon—something that helped make monsters and animals like me? Even Ethnobalt was a bit like that around me. Maybe there was something there. 

“Okay. Here we are,” the Demon Dragon said. We had reached the end of a very twisty corridor, and there the Demon Dragon used magic to blow away collapsed rubble to reveal secret stairs leading downward. She headed down them and then opened a large door at the bottom. 





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