A call reporting the operation’s failure came from the captain’s mana radio.
And not just that—the iron-like captain was screaming brutally, shouting for them to flee.
“Orders are in. Escape through the west gate. Move quickly.”
However, upon receiving that transmission.
While half of them were about to immediately follow the captain’s words and move out,
“No, don’t judge rashly. If the captain was taken down and the radio was seized, anyone could pull a stunt like this.”
The other half felt a definite sense that something was off.
They stopped the others from fleeing and urged caution.
Because no matter how urgent the situation was, wasn’t this far too incoherent?
The reason the Demon King’s assassins were so deadly was not only their outstanding individual combat power, but the fact that whatever they did, they moved cautiously and meticulously.
Their operation to slaughter everyone in the Tarke Domain as ordered had been planned from entry to retreat.
Considering that,
Even if the voice they had just heard over the radio truly was the captain’s, ordering a retreat that strayed so far from the existing operation plan was, no matter how one looked at it, not a sound judgment.
So if they thought of it more favorably,
It was also something that gave more weight to the possibility that the voice was not the captain’s.
However.
They could not call those who had decided to flee cowards.
To begin with, this operation was an annihilation mission in which all of the Demon King’s assassins had gathered together for the first time.
Just who was the target that their lord was so wary of?
When none of them even had the slightest idea.
The moment it became clear that the captain had been taken down, stubbornly continuing the operation was a rash judgment ignorant of danger.
That was probably something every assassin would agree with.
In a special operation like this, even a trivial threat could naturally lead to total annihilation.
“Deputy commander. Your orders.”
“…Right.”
Thus, after taking all circumstances into account, the deputy commander spoke through the radio.
“Retreat. However, use the original route.”
As the captain had said,
They would ignore the retreat through the west gate.
Instead, they would flee safely and reliably by the method they had already prepared.
If there truly was a reason they had to go to the west gate, the captain would soon add an explanation.
And if the radio had been seized, then the one who had done so would not learn their true method of retreat.
“…Tch.”
And as expected.
Valter clicked his tongue as he listened.
Honestly, they should have just done as they were told.
He did not like the sight of them making things complicated by being so needlessly wary.
He had not thought it would work from the start.
Still, from his perspective, the best outcome would have been for them to gather at the west gate on their own and die all at once.
But.
Valter, knowing that the situation had already become a complete mess,
Picked up the radio again and spoke.
“—You lot have made this easier, thanks to how quick you are on the uptake.”
Without the screaming voice he had used just moments ago.
Only with his usual tone, as if his mouth were full of foul, flowing blood.
“But even if you decide to retreat now, it doesn’t matter to me in the slightest. If you have eyes, look at the being standing atop the central bell tower.”
If he went that far, then as intelligent lifeforms, their gazes would naturally have no choice but to turn there.
And standing there like a gargoyle, wings flapping, was an evil spirit with the scent of suspicious miasmic poison.
It was Jade.
“You can see it, can’t you? That evil spirit is my minion, and it is placing a curse on you lot. In about five minutes, your blood will boil and you’ll die in agony from that terrible curse.”
“…Damn it, everyone cut the radio!”
The moment the word curse came out,
The deputy commander, belatedly sensing that something was strange, could only hurriedly shout for them to cut off the radio.
But Valter paid no heed and shouted.
“So, for the next five minutes or so, struggle as hard as you can. That one you called captain died in agony from that curse too. You heard it yourselves, so you should know very well, shouldn’t you?”
“—Damn it!”
“And even if you don’t die, don’t worry. While you’re suffering from the curse, I’ll personally come and take all your heads.”
Crash—!
After saying that.
Valter hurled the mana radio in his hand to the ground and shattered it.
“Heh, go on and rack your brains like you always do. Your heads will ache for the next five minutes.”
In truth.
The information Valter had given them was false.
To begin with, Jade had not cast any such curse.
And above all, turning boiling blood into the form of a curse was something even he, its originator, had never created or heard of.
However, since ancient times, lies have always become far more effective when a little truth is mixed in.
Jade had simply been up there since earlier, thoroughly searching for those moving around while emitting the scent of blood magic.
Just as Valter did not know the assassins’ retreat routes,
How could those little bastards possibly know what Jade was doing?
Naturally, they could not.
Believing that curse to be real,
They would spend the five minutes Valter mentioned in desperate fear, searching every possible way to diagnose and dispel it.
However.
By doing so, they would fall right into Valter’s intentions.
“They’ll be too busy trying to diagnose and dispel it. They won’t be able to harm the subjects. Back when I was the Sword Demon, it wouldn’t have mattered much if they all died, but the duty of blue blood is a painful thing.”
「My lord. Is it time?」
“Mark them.”
And.
For Valter, five minutes was more than enough.
When he gave the signal, Jade, who had been standing atop the spire, writhed as if lava were surging up within him.
Flaaash—!!
He unfurled red wings from his back.
Drawing the eyes of everyone who had come to watch the festival.
It was truly the shape of a devil.
“Kyaaaaaah—!!”
“What is that, guard…!!”
However.
It was a devil on humanity’s side.
“Lord Valter, grant me faith.”
And Jade, making full use of the power of an evil spirit that he had thoroughly unleashed,
Spurt—.
Pierced his own belly with his claws and spewed blood.
The blood he spewed rode along his wings and spread into the sky,
Creating a cloud.
The ominous cloud expanded its might and spread out, and before long, its domain covered the entire county.
Just as everyone was fearing what kind of calamity it might be,
The blood cloud extended tendrils,
And drove rays of blood into the ground.
Kwaaaaang—!!
However, those rays, though they fell indiscriminately,
Did not devour the subjects as they had feared.
Rather, with precise and delicate movements,
They struck directly above the heads of the assassins carrying the scent of blood,
Who had hidden among the crowds gathered close together to watch the festival.
Still, the subjects’ worries had not been entirely unfounded.
“Ghk, ggeeeegh—.”
The assassin struck directly by the ray
Burned red as if his body were melting down,
Then became a complete liquid and rose along the ray of blood.
Gurgle—.
And.
He became one with the blood cloud.
In an instant, the cloud had taken in more blood than could be counted on two hands, and its entire body heaved as if smacking its lips after a satisfying meal.
“Ha, splendid. To think you could use blood magic of such high power! It seems truly many things happened during the three hundred years I was gone, Jade.”
「The sword of yours I once beheld was capable of even greater feats. This Jade is merely a specter of the past who could not forget those footsteps, so please do not praise me too highly.」
“To be honest, I hadn’t expected much, but rewards and punishments must be made clear, must they not?”
「Hu, huhu……. Huhu………. L-Lord Valter…….」
Valter had given them a generous estimate of five minutes.
But for Jade, who had already used the time he had bought to accurately index the enemy and lock their coordinates, it was a simple task that ended in just thirty seconds.
Three hundred years after the Sword Demon Valter had died,
The assassin unit personally raised by the Demon King with the thought that she ought to cultivate a useful special force was annihilated just like that.
Without being able to properly do a single thing.
They disappeared into the back alleys of history.
However.
To be honest, the Demon King had not expected much either.
So even if she received news of their annihilation, she would not feel all that disappointed.
Rather, she would probably say roughly….
‘I see. A pity. But I thought as much. It cannot be helped.’
After all, even if she sent some army against Valter,
The result would be either his survival,
Or the army’s annihilation—one of the two.
That had been something passed down like an age-old tradition.
Having been born a long-lived race, she could accept it calmly, as if it were an event from only a few years ago.
Of course.
The future subjects shaped within
「The Three Hundred Years of Decline」, who were watching all of this,
Could not possibly be as indifferent as the Demon King.
“V-V-V-Valter!!”
“Mother, please tell everyone to come out from behind cover. How long has it been since the situation ended? Why are they still in such chaos?”
“Ah, aah…. As I thought, that cloud was yours….”
At the center of the platform where the ceremony was being conducted
According to the festival ritual.
Valter, having wrapped everything up and walked there,
Saw his family and subjects before him, their legs gone weak after witnessing a bizarre miracle right before their eyes.
But this was not something worth being flustered over in the slightest.
He explained calmly.
“Luck followed me quite diligently, but I have properly dealt with the assassins the Demon King sent. You may continue with what you were doing.”
“Y-Young lord…?”
He swiftly picked up a cup of liquor that may or may not have been prepared as his share, held it appropriately in his hand, and raised it toward the sky.
“I don’t want to create a reason to be dragged off to the royal castle again, so I’d like this to remain a secret known only to our domain. Well, I doubt that will happen.”
That was his toast.
Sure enough.
A fortnight later.
A messenger from the royal castle entered the Tarke Domain, panting heavily.
“We are looking for the young patriarch, Valter!! Please open the gate at once!!”
This time, overturning the arrogant attitude he had shown before.
He was merely servile and desperate.