"Hah…… huff, huff…."
Leaf was out of breath. When was the last time he'd run like this? He had to dig back decades — to that moldy memory of fleeing for his life from a wolf in a mountain valley as a child chopping wood — just to find the last time he'd pushed himself this hard. Deeper into the forest. Even deeper.
"This should be about enough."
In contrast to Leaf, the mage was perfectly composed. She'd even handled the few goblins that had been chasing after them.
"Huff!"
The moment he heard that, Leaf collapsed into the undergrowth. He practically rolled onto the ground. The surface was rough with tree roots and stones mixed in, but he was in no state to care. His heart felt like it would burst. His lower abdomen stung as though sliced by a knife. He'd pushed past his running rhythm.
"Tsk, tsk, tsk. A man can't even hold himself together. This is exactly why women are superior to men."
"Khic…… huff, huff…"
"Love between a man and a woman is the lowest, and love between two women is the noblest. Love between two men falls somewhere in between — but at least they don't burden women with it, so it's far better than love between a man and a woman. Here."
The woman held out her staff over Leaf's face as if dangling a fishing rod. She murmured something softly, and a stream of water dripped from the tip.
"Ah. Open your mouth. Ah."
"Pffphh…… glrk."
"There we go, good job. The way you're gaping, you look just like a little crucian carp."
Leaf waved his hand weakly. The woman understood what the gesture meant but deliberately kept pouring water for about five more seconds. When she got no reaction beyond that, she seemed to lose interest and, with a "tch," pulled the staff away.
— Chrrr, chrrr, chrrrrrrr.
The last of the cicadas' cries echoed through the forest. Leaf's consciousness was hazy. His sense of balance was blurred, and his head felt like it was filled with scalding steam, making him dizzy. The woman beside him kept chattering excitedly, but he couldn't quite make out what she was saying.
Maybe it was the cold water he'd drunk, but his mind slowly began to return. Along with that, the woman's babbling finally registered.
"From the very beginning. From the start, you judged the whole thing wrong. Hey, boss man. You only ever saw the Demon Lord's Castle as a target to be besieged and conquered, didn't you?"
"Huff…… well, of course…."
"Yeah. I guess so."
The woman nodded.
"Because to an adventure party, the Demon Lord's Castle was always just that kind of thing from the start. Same goes for the other side. To the Demon Lord, the Demon Lord's Castle was something to be defended and never conquered—something along those lines, anyway. But here's the thing. That bastard Dantalion was different!"
She whispered quickly, getting excited.
"While the adventure party was fixated on the Demon Lord's Castle, Dantalion was looking past it—straight at the adventure party. He figured out that as long as he could take down the adventure party, it didn't really matter where they fought. Heh heh, you might call it a difference in perception. A difference in the level of thinking. He was never an opponent a lumberjack could hope to match in the first place."
"That bitch..."
Leaf gritted his teeth weakly.
"Oh, big talk about 'level of thinking.' Damn it, the Demon Lord prick was just a coward who ran away from a battlefield that didn't suit him."
"Oh ho."
"See? Thanks to that, we were able to clean out the Demon Lord prick's gold. Sure, everyone except my share ended up dying, so it all went up in smoke... but anyway, that guy's a dumbass coward."
"My my."
The woman stared down at Leaf with cold, bored eyes, as if looking at a fat fly.
"This is why men are useless. You don't think you lost because the other side was better—you think you lost because you made a mistake. Hey, you washbasin-headed food bucket. It's not that you ran away from an unfavorable battlefield—you chose a favorable one. Don't you even get that? Tsk tsk. And here you are running your mouth when you couldn't have opened the Demon Lord's Castle vault without my magic."
The woman sighed. She'd lost all interest in Leaf.
She stretched luxuriously, like a spruce tree extending its branches.
"Yeah. It's nice to get some fresh air after so long. At least for today, I feel like speaking only pleasant, honest words. I know it sounds crazy, but I've always wanted to live speaking only elegant, truthful words. Honestly, it's true. Seeing such a brilliant strategy for the first time in a while put me in a good mood."
"......"
Until now, Leaf had considered mages to be wide-eyed suckers with their heads full of flowers. He had no choice but to correct that assumption. The person before him was constantly, ceaselessly chattering away, and what was more serious, she spoke as if muttering to herself even though she had no real conversation partner.
"The adventure party's fatal flaw, if you trace it back, was pillaging other villages for no reason. Trace it back further, and it's because they didn't expect the villages to become the main battlegrounds in this fight. And that all stems from their preconceived notion of the Demon Lord's Castle. Hmm, now that I think about it, I think I have a rough idea why they made Goblins their main force."
"Ugh ugh."
Leaf struggled to his feet. Left to her own devices, the woman would probably keep rambling on about her analysis for as long as she pleased. His head had more or less cleared, and he needed to put some distance between himself and any pursuers that might be on their way.
"Once this battle's over, the human settlements in the mountain range will be down to about seven. And all seven have submitted to Dantalion—so to speak, they're all on Dantalion's side. That means the Goblin population far outstrips the humans. Even if you lump all seven villages together, there can't be more than three hundred people, but the Goblins number at least four hundred just in warriors alone. There's no contest."
Dantalion had deliberately tried to cull the Goblin numbers. That was what the mage had said.
"While the adventure party was stuck looking at the immediate battle with tunnel vision, Dantalion was thinking one move, two moves ahead. He was even accounting for the ecosystem between monsters and humans! Ha, honestly. As if a mere adventurer could stand a chance against him…"
"Right, right. The Demon Lord's a real big shot, and you're an even bigger one. Why don't you two big shots go kiss each other's asses? I'm heading out."
"Hm?"
Leaf trudged down the forest path. His plan was to climb a fairly high ridge and get his bearings on his position. From the summit, he could survey the terrain and use the stars to guide his way—he'd reach the city within a few days.
'Shit. Am I starting all over from scratch?'
This battle had cost Leaf every last one of his fellow adventurers from the east. As that thought sank in, a burning desire for revenge welled up from deep in his gut, darkening his innards and spreading upward.
'No. Not yet. For now, stop thinking about anything else and focus on getting back to the city.'
The mountain range was not the kind of place where you could afford to let your mind wander and still walk out alive. Leaf the woodcutter knew that better than anyone. First, be grateful for surviving this hell of a battlefield. Then deal with the rest later—it wouldn't be too late. With that resolve, Leaf kept walking.
"Hey. Where are you going?"
The woman's whining voice came from behind him. Leaf spat into the bushes.
"Where do you think I'm going, damn it? I'm getting the hell out of this godforsaken mountain range."
"Oh? You can't leave, you know."
The woman drew out a long, nasal hum.
"Fine. I'm feeling generous. I'm in a good mood today, and it's not like we haven't traveled together for a few days… Hey. You ignorant woodcutter. Don't take more than five steps from where you are."
"Yeah, yeah. You sure are something. If you want to follow, suit yourself…"
"I said don't take more than five steps."
That was when it happened.
— Snip.
Riph's ankle was severed by "something" as he walked on, ignoring the woman's words.
"...Huh?"
Riph collapsed without a fight. Not in some ugly, graceless way — he simply lost all strength in his right leg below the ankle. Using his left foot and both hands, he deftly pulled off a breakfall.
"Huh? Hmph? What is this strength..."
Riph scowled, wondering if the fatigue of the battlefield had finally caught up. He tried to stand back up several times. But no strength whatsoever would go into his right ankle and sole. No — he couldn't feel anything at all. The sensation of his sole pressing firmly into the earth to support his weight, the muscle tension traveling from his heel up through his calf — nothing.
"Shit, what the hell."
"I warned you, didn't I?"
A giggling sound came from behind him.
Riph turned around. The woman was leaning on her cane, grinning.
"Most humans have ears, but strangely, few of those ears actually connect all the way to the brain."
"You bitch, was this your little trick?"
Riph snarled, still sitting on the ground.
"Fix it back right now. Otherwise, your pretty little head's going to get acquainted with an axe blade."
"Hmph. I do like a man with backbone, but that doesn't mean I'm fond of brats too dumb to know their place and too cocky for their own good. Seeing a defeated dog whine and whimper just puts me in a foul mood. Well, it's a matter of mood. I'll be kind enough to tell you in advance this time — use polite language."
"You filthy whore, where do you get off pulling this cheap stunt—"
The woman smiled faintly, then lightly flicked her right index finger.
— Snip.
Riph felt something pass through his waist — that was the instant it registered. He suddenly went tumbling across the floor. From his calves to his thighs to his waist — sensation vanished from his entire lower body.
"Huh? Huh?"
There was no pain or agony.
He simply couldn't feel anything.
As though his lower body had vanished entirely.
"Oh, see, I told you this was right up my alley. Spent my whole life busting my skull over four-elements magic I'd never even learned before. Fuck the four-elements magic! Kids these days don't understand romance, they just don't. Huh? Back in my day, four-elements magic wasn't even considered real magic."
"……You goddamn scamming whore. What the hell did you just do?"
"I cut your soul."
The woman hummed a little tune.
"No point explaining it in detail — with that rice-grain brain of yours, you'd never get it. Just know this: your lower body is dead. A half-living corpse, that's what you are."
"You bitch, what on earth…"
"Yeah, yeah. Got a lot of questions, don't you, kid? You're dying anyway, so what the hell — I'll tell you everything."
The woman leaned over Riph, who lay sprawled on the ground. She'd been in high spirits for a while now, grinning from ear to ear.
"I'm only going to say this once, so listen up. Before you croak, nobody's gotten as much kindness out of me as you have, you little shit. Ahem. I am Barbatos, ranked eighth among the Demon Lords. I noticed that brainless Paimon fanboy doing stupid shit to Dantalion, and I was worried Dantalion might get screwed, so I decided to help in secret. I disguised myself as a human and deliberately got close to you — and lucky for me, you took the bait like the gullible fool you are."
"What? Demon Lord? What are you—"
"Surprisingly, Dantalion fought well enough that I never got my chance to step in. It's been a while since I met a proper junior Demon Lord, so I'm in a great mood. I'm thinking of tossing you off a cliff the way you'd put a lion cub out to toughen it up. And while I'm at it, I plan to ask Dantalion to clean up all those garbage pseudo-Demon Lords. That enough? I've said everything."
"Wait—" Riph raised his hand.
The woman — Barbatos, ranked eighth among the Demon Lords — smiled.
She said:
"No. I told you to address me politely, you bastard."
Barbatos's index finger twitched playfully.
Riph felt something like a faint breeze pierce through his forehead. That was the end. He couldn't feel anything, couldn't think of anything, and simply collapsed. A death without the slightest pain.
"Ughhhhh."
Barbatos stood up and stretched her back. After finishing her neck stretches as well, she gazed down at Rip's corpse.
"Hmm. How should I give little Dantalion a hint?"
She propped her chin on her hand and pondered.
After a long while, she slapped her fist into her palm. The woman praised herself as a genius as she engraved some kind of pattern onto Rip's chest. Once she confirmed the pattern was correct, she cast a spell around the corpse to drive away beasts and insects.
"Good. Perfect. Today's just one good thing after another, huh. Would be nice if days like this came around even once a year, damn it."
She grinned. Then, with a satisfied stride, she walked off into the forest. Silent, without even the sound of a footstep. The woman's figure soon vanished beyond the darkness of the woods.
— Buzzzzzz, buzz, buzzzzzz.
In the fir forest surrounding the corpse, only the droning of cicadas filled the air.