“Alright, everyone hold on tight… Shukuchi!”
We grasped the general direction of the Demon Lord’s castle and used Shukuchi to get there. Isn’t Shukuchi a little too convenient?
I’ve never been to the Demon Lord’s castle before, so I teleported to a spot a little shorter than the estimated distance.
The scenery completely changed, and the surroundings were all red.
“This is the Demon Lord’s territory…”
“It feels ominous,” Elena said.
“Hey! There are humans over there…”
We were immediately discovered, so I beat up the Goblin and silenced him.
“Hey, tell me the layout of this place.”
“Who would tell you! I’d rather die…”
“…You’d rather die? So, no matter how much I torture you, you won’t talk, right?”
“Uh, no, that’s…”
“You see… up until now, whenever I took someone’s life, I at least made sure they didn’t suffer and could go to the afterlife quickly…”
“What… what are you trying to say?”
“But that’s over… I’ve decided to make you suffer as much as possible. I’ll let you choose whether you want to be burned at the stake, waterboarded, or have your nails slowly peeled off. You won’t talk even if you die, right?”
Usually, Elena would stop me, but not this time. She seemed angry too.
“I-I understand! I’ll tell you! Let go of me…”
I reluctantly let go.
“Ha! You fool, you fell for it! Die!”
He attacked.
“I thought you’d do that. Too bad.”
I punched him. He seemed to have fainted, but I didn’t care.
“Einima, make some ice.”
“Mm.”
I forcibly woke him up with ice.
“I-It hurts! It hurts!”
“Listen, I’ll say it one more time. Tell me the layout of this castle right now… You know you won’t get another chance like that, right?”
“H-Hii, I’ll tell you, I’ll tell you!”
The Goblin readily told us the layout of the castle.
“So… I’ve given you the information, so release me…”
“Like I’d do that. I’ll at least give you an easy death.”
“S-Stop… No!”
I cut his head off with my Sword.
He died without saying another word.
It seems I don’t need to hesitate.
“If what that Goblin said is true, this place is four stories tall, and each floor has a manager, right?”
“That’s right. What should we do? Break through?”
“If we wanted to, we could use Shukuchi to go up, but… we don’t know where Tect is, so we can’t do anything.”
“Um… I was thinking, isn’t it possible that Tect isn’t here yet?” Cliff asked.
“Why? Cliff.”
“Because it’s only been one day since we went to YSK. No matter how fast Tect is, it would take him about a week to get here from the Royal Capital, so he won’t be here for another six days.”
“Ah!”
“That’s right… so much has happened in a short time that I forgot, but we left for YSK just this morning.”
“I guess we have no choice. We’ll have to wait here for Tect to come…”
“In the meantime, let’s try to conquer this place. It’s dangerous to fight while being wary of both the front and the back.”
“But it’s impossible to defeat the Demon Lord, right? What should we do…”
“It can’t be helped. We’ll hide for the next four days, damage this castle as much as possible, and then walk towards the Royal Capital for the remaining three days. We should run into Tect somewhere along the way, so let’s fight him there.”
We decided to conquer this castle.