Welcome to the Impregnable Demon King Castle

67 – Failed Clear, the Demon King Army Chief of Staff, and the Prince Who is a Fan of Lem

「Phil got defeated! What? Black Magic?! That means that those with a wand cast the debuff, while timing it with the arrow?!」

Leila keenly and nimbly approached one of the Goblin wand holders and slit his throat.

Following that, she tried to jump on the two nearby Goblins wand holders, but then her stance got broken.

This is not like her.

At that time, the wand holders jumped on that opportunity. Unexpectedly, they threw out their wand and pulled out a knife from their waist.

They’re not Sorcerers!

Their movements are equal to those of the Goblins I had just solidified. They actually had battle stances.

「My body…heavy. This is…bad.」

Leila got stabbed by knives from both her front and back and fell down.

「…Healing ma-」

Mark tried to cast the magic, but he wasn’t able to make it in time.

「Protect yourself. I’ll take care of the enemy. 」

I brought out silver from the ground. It took the form of a human’s hand wielding a sword, then it swung the sword toward the wand holders.

The Goblins chose to evade it, but it was useless.

Because the arm…extended.

The slash cut them in half.

Then there was the sound of something running.

「Nicola.」

When I looked, I saw that Mark, along with his shield, was being crushed under the front legs of the Centaur who had jumped at him.

「Welcome, Heroes. My name is Orobas. 」

A masked, Centaur woman.

「You were the one who defeated our allies, right? Sorry, but I’ll have to avenge them. 」

「I refuse. After all, I don’t want my Avatar to be destroyed. 」

Then, she just turned back.

I couldn’t go after her.

Because, for a moment, my body couldn’t move, as if I’d been turned into stone.

Using that short moment, she created distance between us.

In the direction she ran off, there was a Majin.

It seemed that the archer wasn’t the only monster to deal with in Level 4.

But I was surprised after seeing him.

A one-horned Majin.

「…Lemegeton? Wh-why are you here? 」

He was looking at me.

I felt a strong sense of déjà vu when I looked into his eyes.

「Do you think that we’re cheating, Silver Hero?」

After hearing him talk to me, I quickly recovered my Hero persona.

「…You came out because we’re in the Advanced Level, right? I can’t imagine someone as good as you showing up for those who are at the Intermediate Level. 」

「That’s right. This is the first time I’ve had to come out to defend this Dungeon. 」

「Is this a Level 4 because you show up?」

「That’s just so, since the battle was left to the others.」

If that’s the case, then this might just barely be inside the boundary of a Level 4.

Since he also seemed to be excellent in Black Magic.

「Why did you show yourself?」

「Why do you think?」

Which meant you did this on purpose.

「I’ll come again. Next time, we’ll perfectly clear this Dungeon. 」

「Well then, we shall wait for you at the deepest Stratum. 」

And so, I gave up, just like what my older brother had instructed me to do.

I was tempted to challenge him here, but I didn’t do it.

◇

After the defense.

「Wh-why did you make an appearance?」

Thor continued with a worried look on his face.

「If they distribute this video, there might be a lot of Adventurers that’ll aim for you. 」

「I don’t think that’ll happen. 」

「Do you really think so…? Would you please explain it to me…」

「It seemed like they came here already expecting that the degree of difficulty can change. A Dungeon that can change its degree of difficulty and the Demon King Army Chief of Staff. If they post the video of their defeat, it would definitely attract attention, but it wouldn’t lead to the party’s popularity. On the contrary, they would be spreading valuable information.」

「Wh-which means…uhm, because they would want to clear this Dungeon by themselves, they won’t do something like sharing the video to the world because it would just increase their rivals?」

「Yes.」

「But wouldn’t the change in the degree of difficulty be enough?」

「If you can be patient enough to wait for them to try again, then yes.」

「Hm? Certainly, we are in a rush to earn money, but how is it connected to why the Chief of Staff showed……ah, perhaps, is it because of your horn?」

Thor seemed to have noticed as well.

「Yes. Even though no one knows how I was able to beat Fenix, everyone had guesses about it. They thought that I was hiding a tremendous amount of Magical Energy in my horn. Well, actually, it really was that.」

「But it’s not hard for them to imagine that there are several times the amount of Magical Energy needed to clash and have a tie against Spirit Magic in full throttle gathered in the horn.」

「In other words, it means that now is the perfect moment if they want to defeat me. They think that the Magical Energy in the horn was depleted after the battle with Fenix, so now is their chance.」

「And if they can defeat the Demon King Army Chief of Staff, who defeated the Flame Hero, it would become quite a hot topic. I see, this information is something that they can’t share with the other Adventurers. All the more so if they’re aiming for the top.」

「Yes. Without fail, they will definitely try to have a rematch with me before I return to the Demon King Castle.」

「Even if they fail, they’ll definitely try to do it several times. The Avatar regeneration for an upper-rank Party can be quite expensive…I see, indeed…」

The concept remained the same, but I can use my presence effectively toward certain people.

「After all, we have to earn money in a short period of time, 」

It might even be okay to do the same thing with an Upper Intermediate Level opponent.

What we need to be careful about is the party’s ability.

If I appeared in front of people who think that they won’t be able to win because the Demon King Army Chief of Staff is here, rumors will quickly spread.

I must choose people who would not leak this information to other people and who think that they can defeat the Chief of Staff.

「They will come again. It won’t go the same way as this time. We have to figure out how to defeat them.」

Thor was watching me closely as I thought about what I should do.

◇

On the way home that day, when I went out of the Dungeon site together with Cashew.

「It’s just as I thought…」

The voice that muttered that sounded familiar to me.

At the same time, I understood that the Black Magic of recognition inhibition that I had cast on the people around me was resisted.

…If someone with the Hero Job was wrapped in Magical Energy with the intention of resisting the magic from the beginning, then this level of magic will not work on them.

It’s not so much of a problem though, since those who can predict my Magic are rare.

She had…long hair, glasses, a mole under her eye, and extremely ample…breasts, the Hero that I knew was there.

Cashew was tilting her head, but eventually, her eyes blinked in surprise as if she noticed something.

「Ah, Are you a Hero?」

Cashew shouted happily.

「Oh my, it’s amazing how quickly you noticed that. Yeah, I’m a Hero. I hope you enjoyed the show, young lady.」

「Yeah.」

「Thank you. If I can make a cute little girl like you smile, then it’s worth it to be on the stage. 」

She smiled refreshingly as if it was ingrained into her skin.

「…Nicola, right?」

I somehow managed to smile at her.

「Yes. Nicola or Nico, just call me whichever you like. Sir Lem, right? 」

When I called out to her, for some reason, the Prince smiled like a girl.

「Y-yeah. Ah, you can ease up on the Sir part. That’ll make it easier for me to talk to you, yeah.」

「Thank you. Then, I’ll call you Lem.」

「And I’ll call you Nicola.」

「I’m a fan of yours, Lem.」

「Eh?」

「That’s why I was so surprised. When I looked at Lemegeton’s eyes earlier, they were still passionate, just like Lem’s, it was like a flame. But what’s going on? You’ve always wanted to be a hero, right? But, your eyes aren’t dead. You haven’t given up on your dream. Lem, I’m sorry to ask you this in our first meeting. But, I’m concerned. What happened to you?」