A resounding cheer that was much louder than the one inside the Game Center reached their ears when they stepped outside. The people who were walking in the streets ran off towards the main street, and the people who were holding goods bought from the stalls watched excitedly, smiling as if their hearts were floating with happiness.
“Papa! Hurry, hurry!”
Groups of parents and children, couples, and other such people had all headed off towards the main street. Seeing this, Alice, who didn’t know about activities like parades, restlessly stared at Kagami and lightly tugged at the hem of his clothes. She had strong feelings against being pushy and troubling him.
Kagami, who understood this from seeing her, burst out laughing as he said “It’s alright to act like a brat,” and then headed towards the main street while holding Alice’s hand.
“Am…azingggg!”
As they had expected, there were plenty of festivities taking place as they arrived at the main street. People in the main street Square formed a long line around a giant, slow moving object that was carrying various people. The townspeople who walked along the road threw their hands up as they enthusiastically cheered for the warriors that were mixed into theparade.While walking down the main street, children performed a dance, as if to guide the object used to transport the warriors in the parade. Their performance filled the hearts of those watching in the vicinity with great vigor.
Even though all they did was stand, their spirits were uplifted by the completely noisy atmosphere, as if an order had descended from the heavens. Influenced by the atmosphere and buried in the crowd of people, Alice pranced around with a ‘pyon, pyon’, like a rabbit, and yelled.
“Amazing! It’s amazing Kagami-san!”
“Although you’re bouncing around with a ‘pyon pyon’, can you even see it?”
“I can’t see it at all! But, somehow, that big thing they’re riding is moving, it’s, um… amazing!”
As she said that, Alice continued to gaze at the large object that was carrying people while feeling something that couldn’t be put into words. Even so, Kagami, who didn’t want to get irritated by her constant ‘pyon pyon’ bouncing in order to see everything, lifted her up onto his shoulders with a grunt.
Although Alice blushed in embarrassment at being picked up, she immediately and obediently spoke her gratitude, “Thank you, Kagami-san!”
“Still, just how many Adventurers are going to try and fight.”
“But…it’s not as many as I had thought. I had thought there would be several thousands.”
“The guys who were invited to the Parade are just a small portion of them, right? Whether or not the others are spectating, aren’t the truly powerful guys gathering their spirits in a quiet place right now?”
When Kagami said this, the parade line suddenly halted, the performers switched to rhythmical music, and the children who had been dancing to the previous rhythm began another dance. Beside them, carried in the hands of the Adventurers, a big reinforced wooden box was mixed in with the parade.
After the box was placed in the center of the wide space between the performers and the large object, everyone except for two Adventurers immediately scattered to the left and right.
“What’s about to begin?”
Not replying to Alice’s question, Kagami, who could generally predict the outcome, only looked at the movements of the two adventurers, who reeked of idiocy.
Immediately after, one of the two Adventurers who was left near the wooden box broke the seal and slid the key inside the box’s lock. A four-legged Monster with a green shell and skin that emitted a pale light similar to iron armor appeared from inside. The yellow light of its eyes penetrated the darkness of the box and a strange roar filled the air, as if it wished to make others cover their ears as it came out.
What came out was a Monster, a Grapple Blogger around Level 24 that was worthless even to the active Adventurers in the area, since its size couldn’t even compare to that of a domesticated pig.
The other Adventurer, who had been on stand-by, drew out a sword from the sheath on his waist and took a stance against the Monster. Immediately afterwards, the Monster charged at the sword wielding Adventurer.
Rather than avoiding the charge, the Adventurer used his sword to parry from the front and shook off the Monster, knocking it away. After that, he swung his sword downward without flinching and stabbed the Monster, transforming it into gold.
After reaching the climax, the observers standing at the side of the road were in a craze, shouting cheers of joy. There were even those who shouted “Nice, Nice!” and “The Demon King’s Army is such a worthless opponent!” and the like.
Then, after the Adventurer that had opened the wooden box collected the gold, the child dancers and performers that had scattered gathered together again, and the parade began to advance.
“W-what was that just now Kagami-san? Everyone was making a racket, yet it looks like the parade has done it in multiples spots…”
“That was a demonstration that relieves the audience by asserting power, but it indirectly says that we will win against the Demon King’s Army. Although it isn’t something bad, it leaves a bad taste.”
A trembling Alice replied with an “I-is that so,” to Kagami. Although it wasn’t Demons who were being killed, she couldn’t help but be perplexed by such a scene. It was as if they were indirectly baring their teeth against Demons in hostility. Kagami sighed.
Immediately after, the parade stopped advancing once again, and just like before, the child dancers and the performers scattered.
After a while, a sound sliced through the air around them, , then with a ‘Zudo!,’ a dull sound rang out as the concrete ground was destroyed. A Monster with a giant body, several times larger than the Grabble Blogger from earlier, leapt out from the concrete fragments and then fell back down from the sky.
Although it walked on four legs just like the Grapple Blogger did, it was extremely scary to look at. Its overwhelming power was evident by the size of its fully-grown mane, which resembled the mane of more than half of the Beasts in the main street, its tough jaw that could easily pulverize a lump of iron, the giant fangs protruding from its jaw, and its jet black body which was reflecting light.
Since its appearance was too sudden, there were those who fled, screaming out in alarm, after seeing its large body.
“It’s fine, it’s fine! Beat its ass, Adventurer-samas!”
“Haah~…So far the monsters have all been killed. The Adventurers right now are amazing to be able to defeat such a scary Monster. But, is it normal for it to come falling from the sky?”
“Well, it’s not a problem, even if this was an attack from the Demon King’s Army. At best, this is just a normal confrontation to them.”
This, too, was just one of the events to them, and because there were those who thought that the Adventurers would handle it somehow, even if someone thought it was dangerous, they wouldn’t try to run away. Instead, just like earlier, they cheered enthusiastically for the Adventurers that were lining up in the middle.
“Hey, hey…Ain’t this bad?”
Amongst the crowd, only Kagami had understood the danger and abnormality of the situation. The dancers and performers, rather than scattering to the sides, went down the middle of the road and ran away as far as their legs could carry them. The Adventurers who had formed a line wore a looks of surprise as they wielded their weapons; just as one of the commonfolk had said earlier, this situation was outside of their expectations and they understood that the possibility of it being a Demon attack was high.
Even if it was an attack, Kagami could instantly conclude that it would be useless to try and defeat it while trying to protect the cheering audience. This was because Kagami knew about the jet-black Beast that fell down.
It was one of the Spawn Blockers that existed deep inside the Demon King’s Castle. They were Monsters that could only be spawned from the Spawn Block placed by the Demon King in that one specific area within the castle and would only be used under special circumstances.
It was the Berserker Beast. With its prided Level of 213, it was a genuine Monster.
“Hey, run away you guys!”
Kagami yelled out too late. The Berserker Beast moved instantly, with a speed unimaginable for its size, towards the line of Adventurers wielding their weapons, and blew away the adventurers standing beside the Object with a slash from its giant forelegs.
When the Object and the Adventurers who were blown away crashed into the wall of a house, the adventurers spat out blood, lost consciousness, and dropped their weapons onto the ground.
In an instant, several Adventurers had been knocked unconscious. The other Adventurers that had been holding themselves back ran away as fast as they could.
“””””UWAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAH!“””””
It wasn’t just the Adventurers that fled. The part of the audience that was still there also fled. The crowd fell into a state of pandemonium with people rushing out of the main street one by one. They pushed their way out without caring for others, crashed into others without apologizing and prioritized themselves while running away.
Except for Kagami, who had anticipated the confusion created by the Monster invading in the middle of the town, the people ran in different directions. Kagami stood in place like a large tree, dividing the flow of people and shouting, “Pull yourself together!” as he tried to calm down the flow of escaping people.
“H-…Hii!! Don’t come over here!”
While people desperately tried to escape, the Adventurers who had put on a show of defeating the Grapple Bloggers were paralyzed with fear and impulsively swung their swords at the Berserker Beast that stood before them.
Kagami, who had finally managed to somewhat calm the flow of people, hurriedly took Alice off of his shoulders and placed her on the ground.
However, the Adventurers who quicker to react grazed the base of the Berserker Beast’s nose with their wildly swinging swords, and, at that moment, the Berserker Beast let out a howl before moving to slash at one of the Adventurers.
“Divine Shield!”
The forelegs that had slashed out towards the Adventurers who had avoided being slammed into the wall earlier stopped abruptly after colliding with an Adventurer who was emitting a pale light. A metallic clang reverberated through the surroundings.
“Haah…Ku, a-are you alright?”
“You are?”
“This isn’t the time for self-introductions. Hurry up and flee!”
It wasn’t an Adventurer who had stopped that slash, but Krul, a woman wrapped in a white robe that exposed her azure-colored hair. She roared that out towards the Adventurer with a pained look as a 【Divine Shield】,which formed a Magic Shield from light, expanded around her.
In exchange for consuming a large amount of magic power, 【Divine Shield】 was an omnipotent shield with enough endurance to protect against anything, regardless of the attack. This endurance, depending on the timing and attack, was reduced over time.
“K…k-k-kyaaa!”
Sure enough, the 【Divine Shield】 broke after stopping the slash, and the Adventurer and Krul were blown back by the attack. However, Krul’s stance wasn’t ruined and she held her Staff with both hands as she prepared to promptly attack the Berserker Beast before her.
“Y-…You won’t run away? It’s fine to abandon someone like me and run away yourself!”
The Adventurer, whose stance had been destroyed by the attack, yelled when he saw her brave appearance.
“I won’t run away! Of course…It’s frightening enough to make me want to run away…but! It’s my duty as royalty to defend the people! I will never abandon my people!”
The Berserker Beast didn’t wait for Krul as she yelled that out and charged at her, widening its mouth as it tried to crush her with its tough jaw. It’s mouth was covered with saliva, it’s sharp eyes seized Krul with a glare, and a tremor resounded as it continued to advance step by step.
“Divine Shield!”
Krul, whose legs trembled as she faced the approaching Berserker Beast, once again cast a Magic Shield in front of her. However, the moment the Berserker Beast stood in front of her very eyes, she collapsed onto the ground with a ‘petan’. At that moment,
“Yoo, nice of you to hold out! Thanks to you, I stored enough power to defeat this guy in one…blow!”
The Berserker Beast suddenly stopped in front of Krul without touching the Divine Shield and someone who could only be seen as a commoner in Villager garments spoke, in an unworried voice, before suddenly appearing in front of Krul with a gust of wind.
The Villager stopped the Berserker Beast’s movement by firmly grasping its fang in his left hand, and whether or not he had stored power like he’d said, an orange-colored aura coiled around his right arm as he launched it upwards, hitting the Beast’s strong jaw.
The shockwave that generated around him split the Berserker Beast’s skin with a roar, and the its whole body was blasted into the air at a blistering speed before changing into gold along the way.
“You…aren’t angry today, right?”
Although Krul was, for a moment, too dumbfounded by the spectacle, she soon recognized the person who had saved her and put on a smile, tears forming in her eyes as she muttered to Kagami.
“…Though I really could have come to save you a lot earlier, these guys were so annoying as they were running away. You helped me by luring it out. Sorry about that, this time you got a perfect score.”
Kagami held out his hand to Krul as he said that.
When Krul saw Kagami hold out his hand while he unreservedly declaring that she was a decoy with a smile, his confidence, and the fact that he was certain to rescue her with his true abilities, made her smile back and she grabbed his hand, realizing that she had been used as a decoy in his place.
A resounding cheer that was much louder than the one inside the Game Center reached their ears when they stepped outside. The people who were walking in the streets ran off towards the main street, and the people who were holding goods bought from the stalls watched excitedly, smiling as if their hearts were floating with happiness.
“Papa! Hurry, hurry!”
Groups of parents and children, couples, and other such people had all headed off towards the main street. Seeing this, Alice, who didn’t know about activities like parades, restlessly stared at Kagami and lightly tugged at the hem of his clothes. She had strong feelings against being pushy and troubling him.
Kagami, who understood this from seeing her, burst out laughing as he said “It’s alright to act like a brat,” and then headed towards the main street while holding Alice’s hand.
“Am…azingggg!”
As they had expected, there were plenty of festivities taking place as they arrived at the main street. People in the main street Square formed a long line around a giant, slow moving object that was carrying various people. The townspeople who walked along the road threw their hands up as they enthusiastically cheered for the warriors that were mixed into theparade.While walking down the main street, children performed a dance, as if to guide the object used to transport the warriors in the parade. Their performance filled the hearts of those watching in the vicinity with great vigor.
Even though all they did was stand, their spirits were uplifted by the completely noisy atmosphere, as if an order had descended from the heavens. Influenced by the atmosphere and buried in the crowd of people, Alice pranced around with a ‘pyon, pyon’, like a rabbit, and yelled.
“Amazing! It’s amazing Kagami-san!”
“Although you’re bouncing around with a ‘pyon pyon’, can you even see it?”
“I can’t see it at all! But, somehow, that big thing they’re riding is moving, it’s, um… amazing!”
As she said that, Alice continued to gaze at the large object that was carrying people while feeling something that couldn’t be put into words. Even so, Kagami, who didn’t want to get irritated by her constant ‘pyon pyon’ bouncing in order to see everything, lifted her up onto his shoulders with a grunt.
Although Alice blushed in embarrassment at being picked up, she immediately and obediently spoke her gratitude, “Thank you, Kagami-san!”
“Still, just how many Adventurers are going to try and fight.”
“But…it’s not as many as I had thought. I had thought there would be several thousands.”
“The guys who were invited to the Parade are just a small portion of them, right? Whether or not the others are spectating, aren’t the truly powerful guys gathering their spirits in a quiet place right now?”
When Kagami said this, the parade line suddenly halted, the performers switched to rhythmical music, and the children who had been dancing to the previous rhythm began another dance. Beside them, carried in the hands of the Adventurers, a big reinforced wooden box was mixed in with the parade.
After the box was placed in the center of the wide space between the performers and the large object, everyone except for two Adventurers immediately scattered to the left and right.
“What’s about to begin?”
Not replying to Alice’s question, Kagami, who could generally predict the outcome, only looked at the movements of the two adventurers, who reeked of idiocy.
Immediately after, one of the two Adventurers who was left near the wooden box broke the seal and slid the key inside the box’s lock. A four-legged Monster with a green shell and skin that emitted a pale light similar to iron armor appeared from inside. The yellow light of its eyes penetrated the darkness of the box and a strange roar filled the air, as if it wished to make others cover their ears as it came out.
What came out was a Monster, a Grapple Blogger around Level 24 that was worthless even to the active Adventurers in the area, since its size couldn’t even compare to that of a domesticated pig.
The other Adventurer, who had been on stand-by, drew out a sword from the sheath on his waist and took a stance against the Monster. Immediately afterwards, the Monster charged at the sword wielding Adventurer.
Rather than avoiding the charge, the Adventurer used his sword to parry from the front and shook off the Monster, knocking it away. After that, he swung his sword downward without flinching and stabbed the Monster, transforming it into gold.
After reaching the climax, the observers standing at the side of the road were in a craze, shouting cheers of joy. There were even those who shouted “Nice, Nice!” and “The Demon King’s Army is such a worthless opponent!” and the like.
Then, after the Adventurer that had opened the wooden box collected the gold, the child dancers and performers that had scattered gathered together again, and the parade began to advance.
“W-what was that just now Kagami-san? Everyone was making a racket, yet it looks like the parade has done it in multiples spots…”
“That was a demonstration that relieves the audience by asserting power, but it indirectly says that we will win against the Demon King’s Army. Although it isn’t something bad, it leaves a bad taste.”
A trembling Alice replied with an “I-is that so,” to Kagami. Although it wasn’t Demons who were being killed, she couldn’t help but be perplexed by such a scene. It was as if they were indirectly baring their teeth against Demons in hostility. Kagami sighed.
Immediately after, the parade stopped advancing once again, and just like before, the child dancers and the performers scattered.
After a while, a sound sliced through the air around them, , then with a ‘Zudo!,’ a dull sound rang out as the concrete ground was destroyed. A Monster with a giant body, several times larger than the Grabble Blogger from earlier, leapt out from the concrete fragments and then fell back down from the sky.
Although it walked on four legs just like the Grapple Blogger did, it was extremely scary to look at. Its overwhelming power was evident by the size of its fully-grown mane, which resembled the mane of more than half of the Beasts in the main street, its tough jaw that could easily pulverize a lump of iron, the giant fangs protruding from its jaw, and its jet black body which was reflecting light.
Since its appearance was too sudden, there were those who fled, screaming out in alarm, after seeing its large body.
“It’s fine, it’s fine! Beat its ass, Adventurer-samas!”
“Haah~…So far the monsters have all been killed. The Adventurers right now are amazing to be able to defeat such a scary Monster. But, is it normal for it to come falling from the sky?”
“Well, it’s not a problem, even if this was an attack from the Demon King’s Army. At best, this is just a normal confrontation to them.”
This, too, was just one of the events to them, and because there were those who thought that the Adventurers would handle it somehow, even if someone thought it was dangerous, they wouldn’t try to run away. Instead, just like earlier, they cheered enthusiastically for the Adventurers that were lining up in the middle.
“Hey, hey…Ain’t this bad?”
Amongst the crowd, only Kagami had understood the danger and abnormality of the situation. The dancers and performers, rather than scattering to the sides, went down the middle of the road and ran away as far as their legs could carry them. The Adventurers who had formed a line wore a looks of surprise as they wielded their weapons; just as one of the commonfolk had said earlier, this situation was outside of their expectations and they understood that the possibility of it being a Demon attack was high.
Even if it was an attack, Kagami could instantly conclude that it would be useless to try and defeat it while trying to protect the cheering audience. This was because Kagami knew about the jet-black Beast that fell down.
It was one of the Spawn Blockers that existed deep inside the Demon King’s Castle. They were Monsters that could only be spawned from the Spawn Block placed by the Demon King in that one specific area within the castle and would only be used under special circumstances.
It was the Berserker Beast. With its prided Level of 213, it was a genuine Monster.
“Hey, run away you guys!”
Kagami yelled out too late. The Berserker Beast moved instantly, with a speed unimaginable for its size, towards the line of Adventurers wielding their weapons, and blew away the adventurers standing beside the Object with a slash from its giant forelegs.
When the Object and the Adventurers who were blown away crashed into the wall of a house, the adventurers spat out blood, lost consciousness, and dropped their weapons onto the ground.
In an instant, several Adventurers had been knocked unconscious. The other Adventurers that had been holding themselves back ran away as fast as they could.
“””””UWAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAH!“””””
It wasn’t just the Adventurers that fled. The part of the audience that was still there also fled. The crowd fell into a state of pandemonium with people rushing out of the main street one by one. They pushed their way out without caring for others, crashed into others without apologizing and prioritized themselves while running away.
Except for Kagami, who had anticipated the confusion created by the Monster invading in the middle of the town, the people ran in different directions. Kagami stood in place like a large tree, dividing the flow of people and shouting, “Pull yourself together!” as he tried to calm down the flow of escaping people.
“H-…Hii!! Don’t come over here!”
While people desperately tried to escape, the Adventurers who had put on a show of defeating the Grapple Bloggers were paralyzed with fear and impulsively swung their swords at the Berserker Beast that stood before them.
Kagami, who had finally managed to somewhat calm the flow of people, hurriedly took Alice off of his shoulders and placed her on the ground.
However, the Adventurers who quicker to react grazed the base of the Berserker Beast’s nose with their wildly swinging swords, and, at that moment, the Berserker Beast let out a howl before moving to slash at one of the Adventurers.
“Divine Shield!”
The forelegs that had slashed out towards the Adventurers who had avoided being slammed into the wall earlier stopped abruptly after colliding with an Adventurer who was emitting a pale light. A metallic clang reverberated through the surroundings.
“Haah…Ku, a-are you alright?”
“You are?”
“This isn’t the time for self-introductions. Hurry up and flee!”
It wasn’t an Adventurer who had stopped that slash, but Krul, a woman wrapped in a white robe that exposed her azure-colored hair. She roared that out towards the Adventurer with a pained look as a 【Divine Shield】,which formed a Magic Shield from light, expanded around her.
In exchange for consuming a large amount of magic power, 【Divine Shield】 was an omnipotent shield with enough endurance to protect against anything, regardless of the attack. This endurance, depending on the timing and attack, was reduced over time.
“K…k-k-kyaaa!”
Sure enough, the 【Divine Shield】 broke after stopping the slash, and the Adventurer and Krul were blown back by the attack. However, Krul’s stance wasn’t ruined and she held her Staff with both hands as she prepared to promptly attack the Berserker Beast before her.
“Y-…You won’t run away? It’s fine to abandon someone like me and run away yourself!”
The Adventurer, whose stance had been destroyed by the attack, yelled when he saw her brave appearance.
“I won’t run away! Of course…It’s frightening enough to make me want to run away…but! It’s my duty as royalty to defend the people! I will never abandon my people!”
The Berserker Beast didn’t wait for Krul as she yelled that out and charged at her, widening its mouth as it tried to crush her with its tough jaw. It’s mouth was covered with saliva, it’s sharp eyes seized Krul with a glare, and a tremor resounded as it continued to advance step by step.
“Divine Shield!”
Krul, whose legs trembled as she faced the approaching Berserker Beast, once again cast a Magic Shield in front of her. However, the moment the Berserker Beast stood in front of her very eyes, she collapsed onto the ground with a ‘petan’. At that moment,
“Yoo, nice of you to hold out! Thanks to you, I stored enough power to defeat this guy in one…blow!”
The Berserker Beast suddenly stopped in front of Krul without touching the Divine Shield and someone who could only be seen as a commoner in Villager garments spoke, in an unworried voice, before suddenly appearing in front of Krul with a gust of wind.
The Villager stopped the Berserker Beast’s movement by firmly grasping its fang in his left hand, and whether or not he had stored power like he’d said, an orange-colored aura coiled around his right arm as he launched it upwards, hitting the Beast’s strong jaw.
The shockwave that generated around him split the Berserker Beast’s skin with a roar, and the its whole body was blasted into the air at a blistering speed before changing into gold along the way.
“You…aren’t angry today, right?”
Although Krul was, for a moment, too dumbfounded by the spectacle, she soon recognized the person who had saved her and put on a smile, tears forming in her eyes as she muttered to Kagami.
“…Though I really could have come to save you a lot earlier, these guys were so annoying as they were running away. You helped me by luring it out. Sorry about that, this time you got a perfect score.”
Kagami held out his hand to Krul as he said that.
When Krul saw Kagami hold out his hand while he unreservedly declaring that she was a decoy with a smile, his confidence, and the fact that he was certain to rescue her with his true abilities, made her smile back and she grabbed his hand, realizing that she had been used as a decoy in his place.
