Chapter 43

The occupied city of Elden was burning.

Wrapped in thick black smoke, with gunfire and the savage shouts of demons echoing everywhere, Colonel Yakov Schwizen of the Kingdom’s Intelligence Corps was running through the battlefield, intent on escaping with the squad serving as his guard.

“Damn it… why? Why has it come to this?!”

Early this morning, a squad of thirty-six heroes, along with two other battalions, were scheduled to launch a surprise attack. Their target was the next city of the Demon Kingdom, Kirose. Compared to Elden, it was much smaller, but its location in the mountains made it ill-suited for large-scale assault.

Therefore, the mission was supposed to primarily serve as a reconnaissance-in-force to gauge enemy strength and survey the terrain, with an option to advance if conditions allowed… or at least, that was the plan.

“And yet, why are we the ones being invaded?!”

Moreover, the situation was at its absolute worst.

“How dare you humans harm our city of Elden!!!”

“Eeek?!”

A malevolent voice echoed from behind, followed by a loud, ground-shaking impact that reverberated underfoot.

…This couldn’t be worse. The voice belonged to a high-ranking demon officer Schwizen himself had once incarcerated in a prison camp.

Even with a thousand Kingdom soldiers stationed in Elden, they would likely be unable to stop him with firearms alone. Only the hero squad, with their exceptional individual strength, had any hope of standing against him.

Fortunately, a distress flare had already been fired earlier. Additionally, some quick-thinking Kingdom soldiers had aimed cannons at buildings storing spare explosives, setting off fiery explosions as a signal for the hero squad.

…Hurry, please, hurry and get here, hero squad!

If they failed to retake the city of Elden after allowing the demon officer to escape from the Kingdom’s prison, Schwizen’s position would be untenable. After all, it was Schwizen himself who had advocated for this mission, claiming, “Now’s our chance!”

“Damn it, damn it… at this rate, we’re finished!”

Schwizen cursed at his own hesitation.

Retreating from Elden wasn’t an option; he needed to break the deadlock.

It would be nearly impossible to buy time by facing that demon officer head-on. In that case, he would need to find a way to win without a fight!

Turning on his heels, Schwizen made his way toward the demon prisoners’ camp in the center of Elden.

“…Bring the children out of their cages. All of them!”

He ordered the soldiers guarding the camp and those from his squad. Though the soldiers looked bewildered at the sudden command, they readied their rifles, entered each cage, and began roughly dragging out the demon children.

…If they had their kin as hostages, even that cold-blooded demon officer wouldn’t be able to rampage at will.

If they could stall long enough, the hero squad might arrive and turn the tide!

Just as Schwizen smirked at the thought—

“Papa, Papa!”

“Stop it! Take me instead, but leave my son alone!”

He heard shouting. Looking over, he saw a large demon shielding a small demon child—likely a father trying to protect his son from being taken outside.

A soldier looked back at Schwizen, seeking permission.

“Do it. Shoot him.”

At Schwizen’s command, the muzzle of the rifle erupted in a flash, and the bullet pierced the demon father’s shoulder. Though he fell, his groans indicated he was still alive.

The soldier then pulled the child from under him, now spattered with his father’s blood as though wearing a crimson hood.

“Two, four, six… twelve of them? Tch. A small number, but it will do.”

He planned to quickly bring these demon children to the front lines and have his soldiers hold them as shields.

Schwizen bound the demon children with handcuffs and ropes, pulling them along as he led them out of the camp.

Outside the gate, he saw one of the guards patrolling the perimeter and shouted over to him.

“Hey, is there a vehicle with keys still in it? Preferably with a bed for loading these—”

It was then that—

“…Huh?”

A dumbfounded sound escaped Schwizen.

In his line of sight, he saw what looked like a red spider lily. No, it was different; it was the blood spraying from the severed neck of the guard he had just spoken to.

In other words, the guard’s head had disappeared in an instant.

“What… the…?”

As the headless guard collapsed to his knees, a towering zombie soldier, well over two meters tall, appeared at the scene.

And from behind it—

“Well, I only told you to ‘neutralize’ him… but I suppose this does count as neutralizing, in a way. Words can be tricky…”

A slender man with lifeless eyes and a white coat strolled into view, making Schwizen’s eyes widen in recognition.

“You… you’re…!”

The man in the white coat cast a brief glance at Schwizen, then looked down at the blood-soaked demon child Schwizen was holding.

“Oh my, covered in blood, aren’t you? Need a healer, young man?”

The white-coated man—Kiwi Alaya —shrugged as he began to approach.