Chapter 166 - Volume 8 (1/2)

Volume 8, Chapter 24: The Demon’s Trap, Part 4

As the hero of earth, Kanzo, was being held by the Demon, the other hero Minkichi was being pursued by a “Nightmare”.

“……What?”

Her party members stopped as she muttered.

“Minkichi-sama, what’s the matter?”

“I have a bad feeling about this…… Fia.”

Minkichi called out to the female knight that looked like a sumo wrestler as she slapped her own flabby belly.

Minkichi’s external appearance was…… well, her hair and skin were dirty, her usual behavior was enough to make someone frown, and she was even a craven who wouldn’t bat an eyelid doing terrible things, but only as a [Hero], she had surpassed the others in ability.

The other party members who had been scouted by Minkichi all shared her sympathies, which helped her to feel comfortable about being unpopular with the opposite sex. They trusted in Miyukichi’s senses and began to warily observe the dark corners of the cave.

Minkichi’s current party only numbered 4 women.

A musclehead that applied so much perfume to mask her orc-like body odor, Chi-chan.

The sumo-sized one who could hide an entire roast and a wheel of cheese on herself, Fia-tan.

The skeletal one with sunken eyes, Rena-chan.

The one who looked normal at first glance but was actually a massive pervert that liked molesting young boys, Miss Coco.

Of course, these weren’t their real names, but the nicknames Minkichi had given them.

Minkichi had personally trained these four [Hero Class] people, along with some other companions, but those that could not survive the chaotic battlefield that they had passed through had not been brought along.

And, despite their dishonorable behavior, both their skills and combat ability as a party was higher than that of Kanzo’s and Kyoji’s.

Thanks to Kyoji’s ploy – or rather, since she actually had tried to kill Kyoji and Nefertia by colluding with the beastmen army, it wasn’t entirely untrue – she had been branded a traitor to humanity and was being pursued.

If she had been given the chance to explain herself, there would have been many people defending her because of the fact that she had been doing the dirty work for many nobles and royals from other nations.

Minkichi had no intention of divulging her past sins without being pressed into a corner, but her accomplice, Kanzo, who feared being tarnished by the same brush had pursued Minkichi to silence her.

“Gyeeeeeeeeeeehhhhhhhhhhhhh!!!!!!”

Suddenly, someone screamed, and the members of the party all turned to look at her, leaping back in shock.

“Chi-chan!?”

The muscle-headed knight looked confused and afraid, the heavy greataxe in her hands began to shake violently as she gripped it tighter.

“Hey, what are you doing, oooff!”

“Rena-chan”, who had impatiently approached her, was struck by the wild swing of the axe that lashed out as she had gotten closer.

“Rena-chan!”

“Bleugh”

Thanks to either her armor, or maybe the fact that she too was “hero-class”, she hadn’t suffered too serious an injury, but she was still unable to stand.

“Damn it! Coco, we’ll suppress her!”

“Fufufu, I understand.”

At Minkichi’s instruction, “Miss Coco” approached the front of “Chi-chan”.

In reality, they needed the magician “Rena-chan” to help deal with her deranged vanguard, but she was in no condition to move.

In the party, the only person with recovery magic was Minkichi, who could use the [Hero’s Secret Arts] to cast recovery magic, but with “Fia-tan” acting aggressively and taking such a huge berth in the cave, “Rena-chin” was taking potions to heal up.

“What’s wrong with you, Chi-chan!”

“You monster! Dieeeeeeee!!!”

“Minkichi-sama!”

“Miss Coco”, who was the party tank, took a heavy blow from the greataxe.

“ugh”

This time, the wild swing didn’t find its mark, but “Miss Coco” grimaced at the brutal blow filled with killing intent.

“Chi-chan…… come back to us”

“KYaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaa!!!”

““!?”“

Suddenly, an explosion of fire and a scream resounded from behind them.

While they had kept their eyes on “Chi-chan” in front of them, “Rena-chin” had crawled over and then trampled down on “Fia-tan”.

“GYAHHHHHHHHH!HHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH!!”

Frothing at the mouth with blood and staring with bloodshot eyes, “Fia-tan” seemed unable to move at all after taking a blow from that fire magic.

“Wh-what is that!?”

Minkichi’s mental state was shaken by this situation.

If this had been someone else, Minkichi would have been overwhelmed by the power of the hero, and thrown down without caring about her opponent’s life. But everyone here was Minkichi’s “friend”, or even her only family, the only people who she could be patient with.

How could she do something so terrible to her own friends?

“DIEDIEDIEDIEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEE!!!”

“GGYAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA!!!!”

If seems that her comrades who had lost their sanity now saw each other as their “enemies”, and began to murder each other with the full power of their [Hero-class] strength.

“Stop…… stop iiiit!!!!”

“M-Minkichi-sama, I will stop those two. The cause of this…”

“…… I’m sorry, Coco-san.”

That “unpleasantness” that she had felt at first…… she didn’t know if this was the reason why things were doing the way they were now, but she had no choice but the move upon the assumption that it was. Thus, she would go off to deliver the iron hammer of justice after overcoming this trap.

“……………”

Minkichi felt the presence of [Evil] as a [Hero].

“……There!”

Turning all of her accumulated magic power into fire, she shot it forth with full power.

As a person who was formerly from the modern era, she should well have known about the dangers of carbon monoxide poisoning from using so much flame in a cave, but Minkichi’s anger at having her comrades hurt blew all of her concerns away.

SWOOOOOOOSH, the flame burned brightly up the passage.

Whether it was a normal magic beast, or some sort of monster, the magic flames would devour them. The only thing that could possibly defend against it was the “hero of the earth”, but that’s because Kanzo is a [Hero] as well. There was no way that he could have been giving off this evil presence.

“!”

In those hellfire-like flames, a shadow slowly moved towards her, one step at a time.

“Wh-what……”

Coming out of the flame, It wore a unscarred [Clown’s] mask, even though its dress had been burned and their entire body was coated with the flames.

As the harlequin swung its arm, the burning dress disappeared, and she saw a glimpse of white arm for a moment, before a brand new black and white apron dress covered her.

“……Y-you!”

“Heyo~”

She was wearing a strange mask, but that excellently-made, old-fashioned dress and that white hair could not have been anyone else but the attendant of that hateful saint that Minkichi had previously fought.

“You brat…… you were the one who did this horrible thing!?”

She didn’t know why the attendant of a saint would have such a malevolent presence and do such inhumane things, but thought that it might have been the influence of that little girl who had been taken in by evil and turned into the [Demon Lord].

“……Horrible?”

Fannie, the attendant maid wearing a harlequin’s mask, tilted her head to the side cutely as if she didn’t understand what was being said.

“Stop playing dumb! You’re clearly the one who deprived them of their sanity, you brat!”

“Aah~”

As she was spoken to, Fannie clapped her hands together with a *poff*, and the clown mask twisted into a rictus grin as if it were her face.

“What’s so funny!!!!”

“Well, you know…… You’re the hero of flame, who takes advantage of others’ human weakness, treats the young knights and their handmaiden lovers as slaves, right? That still hasn’t changed?”

“Y-you brat………”

To Minkichi, Fannie looked nothing like a “human” right now, but more like a fundamentally different existence, and she instinctively took a step back.

Was this maid always like this……? Although she hadn’t been serious before, Minkichi understood that this maid was capable of going head to head with them. But when she was with that Yurushia, or rather, the [Saint], the atmosphere was a lot more laid-back.

“……You are,”

“Don’t you think it fine to do whatever you wish? Then again, it seems we’re running out of time.”

“Minkichi-sama!”

Minkichi heard the voice of “Miss Coco” screaming.

“Miss Coco!”

It seemed that in the meantime, “Miss Coco,” who was supposed to be stopping the two members who had gone mad, had been simultaneously attacked by both and put into a bad position.

“I’m coming!”

“Where?”

In an instant. Even while she turned towards her companions for those few seconds, she could hear the maid’s voice breathing at her ear.

“You c***!”

Minkichi boosted her body with physical strengthening, slamming her flamberge towards the clown masked girl.

“Stop that~”

Fannie evaded the blade by centimeters even as it was being swung from right in front of her.

At the same time, she felt it graze the frills of her dress apron, probably because of her “chest armor” that wasn’t quite in line with a twelve-year old’s.

“There!!”

“Hmm~, no.”

As Minkichi tried to get her with the backswing from where she’d avoided the blade, magic power struck her, ruining her attempt.

Since she wasn’t being directly struck, Minkichi wasn’t taking damage either.