Kuro no Maou

As long as she remains silent, her tall height and well proportioned face would give an impression of a gallant young woman but her slackened expression was spoiling her own atmosphere.

*yawn* Estel who opened her mouth large as she yawned didn’t even feel the tension of the situation where she might need to go into the battlefield at any moment.

“Cover your mouth with your hand when yawning, it’s immodest.”

The one reprimanded her was the eldest member of the squad, Flan.

She had been also officially appointed as the vice-commander of the Pegasus Knights.

“She enjoyed a lot yesterday!”

“So it can’t be helped!”

The two who said that with indecent smiles on their faces were the sisters, Camy and Cathy.

“Shut up, be silent stupid sisters.”(estel)

She glared towards the two sisters with an even sharper gaze than her usual, but the sisters seemed unaffected probably because they had gotten used to it.

“Um, what do you mean by ‘enjoyed’?”

The one who asked that innocently was the youngest of the squad, Maty.

“You don’t need to know yet.”

Flan who decided that it was not something to be told to a child, drove Maty away to the other side.

With a question mark floating above her head, Maty shook her redhair side tail and left obediently.

“But still, aren’t you a bit too relaxed? If we get an order to attack, our opponent will definitely be that Fairy, we’ll need to—“(flan)

“That’s exactly why, Flan. That cheeky fairy bitch won’t come out from such a shabby bombardment.”(estel)

Also that black box (building) doesn’t seem like it’ll get destroyed either, explained Estel.

“But our opponents are demons, you know?”(flan)

“They aren’t ‘stupid’ as we think. At least they have better brains than Camy and Cathy.”(estel)

What’s that supposed to mean!?—-voices of protest came from her side, but Estel ignored it and spoke further.

“Probably, she’s the strongest demon with a DP inside Alsace, then she’ll be the boss, or something close to that position. If those guys with proper intelligent minds are at the top, they won’t take any stupid actions.”(estel)

The Pegasus Knights were currently acting as the escort for the magician squad conducting the bombardment on the Alsace village.

Although only one, if the enemy has a strong enough fighter that can fly, there was a need to protect the magicians from any attacks from the air. And the only one who could do that was these girls’ squad.

Conversely speaking, as long as Lily doesn’t appear, they have no job to do. They just have to stay on standby inside the forest till the bombardment ends.

If Estel’s words were correct, not just Lily, even other demons would probably not come out. And considering that not a single demon was seen even after some time had passed after the start of the bombardment, it was atleast half correct.

“Well, let’s rest as much as we can while we have the chance. My crotch hurts, I don’t wan’t to sit on a horse right now.”(estel)

Ahaha, Estel laughed vulgarly as Flan showed fed up face and gave a sigh.

“I don’t think anyone would like being forced into it you know? Even if the other party is a man.”

Inside Flan’s head, the scene from last night came to her mind. Estel went and invited one of the medic boy to her tent, no, kidnapped him and took him inside her tent.

“Then I’ll be gentler tonight.”(estel)

“......um, this is still a battlefield in case you have forgotten.”(flan)

“It’s fine. I’ll make sure nobody finds out.”

Flan really had no choice but to sigh again. Although not to the levels of Camy and Cathy, Estel was also a problem child back when they were in the military academy as well. She wasn’t the type that’ll obediently listen to what other say.

“I’m might die next. I’ll have as much fun as I can in the time being.”(estel)

“You’re speaking timidly unusually. Did you get attached to the man?”

“That might be so.”

Estel answered Flan’s sarcastic question with a serious face and without any anger. Then her sight moved towards her wounded left arm.

As a Pegasus Knight she had received preferential treatment and thus it had healed enough to be able to move freely again but the scars had still remained.

“But, I need to pay back the debt to that bitch for my comrades and this arm as well.”

.

.

.

At the camp of the Cyprus mercenary group built a bit away from the Vato village, the 87 members were currently standing in the central vacant area.

Since they were not an army, they stood without any order or lines and were simply standing however they pleased.

“Say, he isn’t going to suddenly say that he is dismissing us all here right?”

Ai who was hugging Tsumiki, talked with another one of the merc that was standing near her.

“No way. We haven’t even done anything like an actual job after coming here even once. Maybe we are finally getting to do something?”

A man much larger than Ai and had a face very typical of a mercenary, answered.

“Those guys from Crusaders weren’t able to capture that whatever village, right? Hehe this is a chance to quickly earn a name for ourselves!”

The one who said that energetically was a young boy mercenary, no he was an adventurer to be exact, but had joined with the Cyprus mercs for the Pandora expedition just like Ai.

“Chance, is it? But I feel that we won’t really get to do something like that. I feel that there’s a wall between the original members and us adventurers who joined later.”

“Well that’s true. They look like normal mercs at a glance but they’re somehow very obedient. It’s really uncanny.”

“Ah, I felt the same! I haven’t even been able to even talk to them properly. They’re definitely hiding something!”

They looked towards the original members of the group with eyes of suspicion.

The group was originally made of around 30 people but for the Pandora expedition, they recruited members from the guilds and as a result 50 adventurers like Ai also participated with them.

However although they were an 87 man mercenary group travelling together, but from the adventurer’s pov the members who were already a part of the group felt a bit weird to them.

It was just as how the man or the boy had said. They rarely spoke and were too obedient for mercenaries who used violence to control everything.

Although, due to that there were no disputes or troubles among the adventurers and the mercs and it was always the adventurer side that started a quarrel.

“It’s a rumour but apparently they are a slave army.”

“That commander Cyprus sure loves to throw money but it still seems a bit unbelievable. But I guess a young man from a rich family leading a ‘brainwashed’ slave army fits quite well as well.”

If that’s true, then it seemed more plausible if he was forcefully leading them through the use of authority.

“Well, does it even matter? We’ll make do even if that flippant leader ran away. We are adventurers after all!”

“That’s true, well, even then, it might be good to be dismissed earlier.”

“Oi, he came out.”

As Ai raised her eyes on the man’s words, Cyprus came and stood over a wooden box-like stand with his usual listless expression.

As usual he wasn’t wearing any armour either and his clothes left his chest bare and his tone was still the same joking-like even when he was in front of all his members.

“Ah, has everyone gathered? It’s troublesome so I’ll keep this short. We are going to attack that whatever village where those demons are.”

A commotion rose among the members, but, it wasn’t really too surprising either.

Since they were unable to defeat the enemy yesterday, this time they were going to use the mercenary group to try and corner those demons. Since they had brought these mercs along, they needed to use them as well.

“We’ll depart tomorrow and attack them just like that. Well, everyone prepare suitably as you wish, that’s it, dismissed.”

Without taking even a single question or doubt, Cyprus quickly left the place.

“Uoohh!! A proper job finally!!”

Starting with the boy, most of the adventurers were happy that their turn had come.

But Ai’s expression wasn’t very good.

“haah, I really have a bad feeling about this.”