It has already been decades since the Demon King’s Army began clashing with Humanity.
Although it’s true that Humanity has united against the Demon King’s Army, isn’t there a saying that out of five normal people, one is always a little strange?
If you scale that up to all of Humanity, that means at least one-fifth are abnormal.
Some of those become cultist groups that worship the Demon King’s Army.
These groups are much larger than you’d expect, and since they operate in secret, it’s nearly impossible to identify, capture, or root out individuals.
However, thanks to events from my previous life, I can predict their movements.
There is the unprecedented variable that the Sacred Land has fallen to the Demon King’s Army.
But the cultists’ actions aren’t affected by things like that.
On the contrary, they might even think, ‘The Demon King has given us an opportunity!’ and try to push their plans even harder.
“Let them clash.”
At my answer, Laila muttered in a shocked voice.
[Are you serious? Those guys seem barely manageable for the Special Task Force as it is.]
“They’re not more dangerous than the Demon King’s Army, anyway.”
The cultists are neither necromancers nor mages.
Still, if there’s one thing Laila the dragon has accurately sensed, it’s that their ominous aura is real.
After all, to join the Demon King’s Army, they’ve fused their own bodies with monsters, turning themselves into chimeras. No wonder they’re so disturbing.
However…
“The monsters bred by the Demon King’s Army are faster, more persistent, and tougher than those guys. If you can’t even handle some cultists like them, you can forget about fighting the Demon King’s Army at all.”
Laila looked dumbfounded.
[…Wait, are you saying they’re on the same level as the Demon King’s Army in the Realm of Demons? I heard from the other adults that those in the Realm of Demons are at least ten times stronger. Is that even a fair comparison?]
“It is.”
I nodded confidently.
“If you were going to be scared of the Demon King’s Army in the Realm of Demons, you’d have given up on the idea of killing the Demon King before you even started.”
And the Special Task Force is made up of those who will fight alongside me, right from the Realm of Demons.
If they can’t even handle a bunch of cultists, their future is nothing but bleak.
“Well, you don’t need to worry.”
But such worries are even more unfounded than hearing that the Kingdom of Lumin has collapsed.
Murfin, Beatrice, Thrall.
They each gave me a hard time when they were part of the Demon King’s Army.
Back then, they even made the Great Sage Ryuk break out in a cold sweat, not just me.
There’s no way that those who troubled the Hero who killed the Demon King and the Great Sage could be ordinary.
‘And Elena is no ordinary person, either.’
Elena, sister of the Desolator and currently a mage.
She’s not quite at the level of the Great Sage, but she possesses magical skills that are far from ordinary.
After all, mages aren’t supposed to be able to use Divine Arts.
Yet she reconstructed ‘Divine Arts’, the exclusive realm of priests, into a form usable by mages.
Aside from Ryuk, I’d never seen any other mage able to do such a thing.
But Elena managed it.
‘…If she’d been alive in my previous life, she might have become Ryuk’s rival.’
Anyway, contrary to Laila’s concerns, my conclusion is that the current Special Task Force can handle the cultists just fine.
The problem is…
‘The one backing them.’
There have always been clever minds within the Demon King’s Army.
Naturally, those brains would hide among the cultists, steering them to achieve their own goals.
And the timing of these cultists’ appearance means only one thing.
‘The Capital Terror Incident that happened in the Kingdom of Lumin.’
In my previous life, back when Ryuk and I were still greenhorns, the Capital Terror Incident struck the Kingdom of Lumin.
Because of this, half the people in the slums became undead who burned to death, and they massacred civilians. The knights in the Royal Family couldn’t move because they were bound by the nobles’ orders.
To make matters worse, it all happened when the King of Lumin was absent, inflicting a grievous wound on the entire kingdom.
‘But things are different this time.’
The King is still with the Royal Family, the Captain of the First Knights’ Order—who would have left a hole in the capital’s defenses—is already dead, and most importantly… the Special Task Force and I are here.
Whatever the cultists’ goal is, they’ll be stopped here.
Because I intend to make it so.
“Laila, watch the fight between the Special Task Force and the cultists, and step in at the right moment.”
[At the right moment?]
“Yes. But even if you intervene, limit it to sniping support only. There’s one more thing you must remember.”
[What is it?]
“I’m going to leave for a while to go after whoever is behind those cultists.”
Laila was silent for a moment, then sent me a telepathic message with a shocked expression.
[You’re telling me to make sure the Special Task Force doesn’t get killed by the cultists?]
“Exactly.”
That was the whole reason I brought Laila along to the Special Task Force’s training.
She had to supervise and manage things when I wasn’t around.
Even though Laila is a young dragon, the current Special Task Force wouldn’t stand a chance against her, even if they all charged her together.
She was even directly appointed as a diplomat by Lord, so in terms of personality and reliability, I’d say she passes with flying colors.
“Don’t tell me, you’re not up for it?”
[…Of course not.]
At my provocation, Laila snorted.
[Even if I don’t help the Special Task Force, I can handle those cultists on my own.]
Among the five cultists making their way to the center of the Special Task Force’s training grounds, one of them muttered.
“El. Are we really on the right path?”
The boy at the very front answered.
“Yeah. So snap out of it. It wouldn’t be strange if we were ambushed at any time.”
“Mmm, I guess that’s true~”
Still rubbing her eyes as if she’d been dozing while walking, a woman let out a long yawn.
“Hey, Jun. You’re keeping watch around us, right? Be honest, were you really dozing the whole way here?”
“Don’t worry~ Even if I’m dozing, my detection skills are better than yours.”
“That just means you weren’t paying attention. Do you want me to suffer if we get ambushed?”
El turned his head toward the annoyed cultist.
“Ray, don’t get so worked up. You’re just adding to your stress, you know? Stress causes all sorts of illnesses. This big brother really worries you’ll end up a shortie forever.”
“El, are you trying to pick a fight with me right now?”
As sparks threatened to fly elsewhere, the biggest man among them tried to mediate with a soothing tone.
“This isn’t the time for us to be fighting. I sensed people ahead.”
At those words, the cultists’ eyes sharpened.
“Are they from the Kingdom of Lumin?”
“We’ll find out soon enough.”
With a belligerent air, they advanced. Ray asked,
“What’s this about? Are you looking for a fight? Can’t we just ignore them and move on?”
“Our objective is the Kingdom of Lumin.”
El answered with a crazed glint in his eyes.
“If they’re not related to the kingdom, it doesn’t matter… but if they are, we’ll have to face them. Better to deal with them now.”
“…Haa.”
Ray sighed, rubbing her forehead.
“All we can do is hope things go smoothly.”
“It’s decided, then.”
The cultists each gripped their bone staves and walked in a straight line.
At the end of their march, the Special Task Force members—who were in the middle of training—were waiting.
“The traps have eased up. We haven’t had any ambushes for a while.”
At Murfin’s comment, Beatrice frowned.
“Strange. They were harassing us so persistently before—why stop now?”
“Isn’t it a good thing? We get to rest a bit.”
Having endured ambushes from nightfall until the sun rose high in the sky, the exhausted Special Task Force members rubbed their bleary eyes as they took a break.
No matter how talented and well-trained you are, after a night of endless attacks, you’d be left drained—your strength sapped, your nerves fried.
“By the way, Beatrice, you seem much livelier than us.”
“Hmm. I did a lot of all-nighter training in the past. For personal reasons.”
“Personal reasons?”
“It’s nothing much. If you want to bake high-quality bread and sell it to nobles, you have to work really hard. Of course, even then I wasn’t running around like this all night.”
As she spoke, Beatrice’s expression darkened a little.
“Tch, thinking about old times now…”
“…Was something wrong?”
“I just remembered my memories weren’t exactly reliable. There aren’t many things I remember clearly about myself.”
“Heh.”
Just as Elena was about to show a curious look, Thrall spoke.
“Something’s coming from up ahead.”
Immediately, Beatrice and Elena separated and focused in the direction Thrall indicated.
Murfin drew his axe and dagger, gripping one in each hand.
“Five people. They’re coming straight for us—do they know we’re here?”
“They could be opponents the captain set up for our training. Let’s stay alert just in case.”
“Maybe. But we should keep our guard up in case this isn’t training.”
Elena looked bewildered.
“Still, would that guy really let outsiders into the training grounds without warning?”
Murfin scoffed at her question.
“From what I’ve seen of him up close, he’d absolutely do something like that.”
“…What in the world happened while I was gone?”
As Elena murmured, the grass ahead rustled.
Hooded figures soon appeared.
Their physiques were all different, and their outfits were odd, but as soon as Murfin and Elena saw their bone staves, their guard went up.
“Necromancers?!”
With Elena’s shout, Murfin narrowed his eyes and charged forward.
If they were the targets the captain had prepared for training, there was no reason to hesitate. If they were connected to the Demon King’s Army, there was even less reason to wait.
“Some lively friends we’ve got. Jack?”
“Hmph.”
The largest of them swung his bone staff at the charging Murfin.
Kaang!
“Urgh?!”
As Murfin was knocked back, Elena finished her incantation.
“Slash!”
A line shot from her hand, flying straight toward the cultists’ waists.
As it traveled, the air seemed to crack open along its path.
A cultist in the middle thrust out his bone staff and spoke.
“Sever.”
The space in front of the cultist split horizontally, turning pitch black.
It expanded like a wall, swallowing Elena’s line as if absorbing it into a bottomless void.
Elena looked shocked.
“Was that just…?”
“This is interesting.”
As Elena tried to process what she saw, the man who blocked her ancient magic pulled back his hood.
Contrary to his snow-white hair, his crimson eyes glowed. He looked at Elena with a fascinated expression.
“Spatial magic, huh? Does the Magic Tower have any mages who can use that these days?”
Elena gritted her teeth and shouted with a deeply furrowed brow.
“…How can you use that?!”
“Hmm, getting angry now. They really are lively friends.”
“El, stop teasing them. We’ve got enough to do already.”
The man called Jack bowed his head.
“Sorry about this. We look pretty suspicious, but we’re not as bad as we look.”
“Hmm.”
Beatrice snorted.
“Looking like necromancers, huh. If you walk around like that, you’ll get attacked sooner or later, whether by us or someone else.”
“That’s not really your concern.”
Next to Jack, the woman snapped sharply, only for the one called El to smack her on the head with his bone staff.
Kaang!
…The sound hardly matched the idea of someone being hit on the head.
“Ray, you damn Ray. How many times have I told you not to show your nasty temper to strangers?”
“Ugh, says the big brother. Disgusting bastard.”
Despite the blow, the woman called Ray just scrunched her face in a mocking, retching gesture.
“Don’t mind them. They talk nonsense half the time. The captain’s the same.”
“…You’re quite mature.”
“I’m an adult, after all. Maybe I can’t act as captain, but I’m good at talking.”
Murfin narrowed his eyes, carefully observing the five hooded figures.
For now, it didn’t seem necessary to treat them as hostile.
“This is the Special Task Force’s training ground. Did you just get lost?”
“No, that’s not it. It’s just, the way we need to go happens to cross this mountain.”
Cross the mountain?
‘So their destination is the Kingdom of Lumin.’
Still suspicious, Murfin asked lightly,
“Do you have some business in the Kingdom of Lumin?”
“We do.”
El, the leader, answered.
“There’s something we absolutely have to take care of.”
“Something you have to take care of?”
“More importantly…”
El cut off Murfin’s question, narrowing his eyes.
“You said this was the Special Task Force’s training ground. Are you all affiliated with the Kingdom of Lumin?”
With those words, the mood changed instantly.
El’s playful look was gone, replaced by a kind of madness in his eyes as he looked at the Special Task Force.
Beatrice, standing next to Murfin, replied in a bored tone.
“And if we are?”