Kuro no Maou

It is a three storey building in which the first floor (or ground floor for some guys) was used as a public space for meetings etc., and the 2nd and 3rd floor was used as the residence.

Currently on the first floor, numerous troubled villagers are standing who are being consulted by the village head, vigilante corps leader and the guild master of Kuar, in the centre of the area.

“An army made of numbers is no trouble! Those bastards ran away after just looking at our brave vigilante corps! Cowards like those will be no trouble no matter how many come!!”

The person giving this fervent speech was the leader of the vigilante corps and son of the village head, a man named Nachim.

After hearing the report that rescue team sent to Irz village had easily driven the enemy army away, he was suggesting resisting while staying in the Kuar village.

During the morning, when refugees started appearing, everyone was suggesting to evacuate since they only knew that the enemy was an army of humans.

And so, the villagers of Kuar were ready to evacuate whenever required.

But, after learning that the rescue team had easily won, and the enemy army wasn’t very tough, at least Nachim came to this decision.

The villagers could evacuate quickly, but that didn’t mean that they had no problems in leaving their homes and living the lives of refugees.

Nachim, while emphasizing that ‘he will lead’, was against the evacuation while shouting about how the rescue team brilliantly won as if he himself had done it.

But in fact, most of the rescue team was made of adventurers and there were few members of vigilante corps.

Obviously, Nachim himself didn’t even take part in the rescue team and stayed in Kuar village to ‘watch over the changes in the situation’.

“Is there any need to run away against a band of thieves?!”(nachim)

“uuu~hm.....”

The village head, Nahad, pondered over it with a bitter face. He was reluctant to accept his son’s decision to stay and fight and was unsure of victory.

Although he was young compared to Shione who was an elf, Nahad was still a 60 yr old human and was much more experienced. He probably will not take a rash decision.

But Nachim could only think of his father as someone who has become a coward with age.

“Hmm, what does the Guild Master think? After hearing the reports, is there a threat from the enemy army?”(Nahad)

“From just the reports, there were 3 magicians and soldiers with spears and bows. A hundred man army is certainly formidable but with just humans who have neither special strength nor any Extra magic, and no one who could use martial arts even, we’ll be fine even if they attack us with twice the numbers.”

“Indeed. We even defeated the three magicians. An army of just humans are the same as goblins no matter what the number.”

The three magicians, Kievan and the others, who must have been recognised as magicians from their clothes were not even defeated by the rescue team either.

But, since it was unclear as to who did it, they decided to make it their own achievement.

“The Kuar village has much more adventurers and vigilante corps than Irz. We drove off an army of more than 100 with just a rescue squad, this Kuar village that is protected by a stone wall will not fall even if a thousand come!!”

Due to his over confident speech, the people here are changing their minds from evacuating to resisting.

Even the village head was shifting towards that idea.

“Village head, an adventurer of Irz village named Kurono would like to talk.”

A villager spoke to the Head.

“I thought the adventurers of Irz had all perished?”

“It seems he was away on a different quest. He came to Kuar this morning and instantly ran towars Irz after hearing the situation.”

“Oh, I did hear something like that. I see, so he survived and returned. It seems the rescue team made it in time.”

It was about an unknown adventurer yet he seemed relived on hearing that.

“So, what should we do?”(villager)

“Yes, let him through. I want to hear from someone who actually saw what happened.”(Head)

Acknowledging, the messenger left the room.

“Everyone, it seems an adventurer from Irz wants to talk so let’s hear more about what happened at the actual place.”(Head)

The room became a bit noisy but no one openly opposed it.

“Adventurer of Irz, Kurono, come inside.”

With the Head’s words, the doors opened, and Kurono who was dressed in full black along with Lily came in.

“Pardon the intrusion. I am a rank 1 adventurer from Irz village, Kurono.”(kurono)

“fu, rank 1? A total newbie?”

It was just a village meeting, but Nachim was acting like some feudal lord.

Kurono clearly heard those discriminatory words but without even reacting he cut straight to the point.

“Firstly, I’ll tell what I have seen in Daedalus directly.”(kurono)

“Daedalus? Wasn’t it supposed to be sealed right now?”

The Head asked.

“I felt unrest so I decided to enter illegally.”(kurono)

“I see. I can’t find faults in your actions right now either. So, what did you see?”

Kurono spoke in a single breath.

“The Dragon King Gaevinal is dead and Daedalus has been captured.”

“Impossible?!?”

Nachim shouted in surprise. But everyone else here were also surprised. Even the Head and the Guild master had widened their eyes.

“Don’t go around saying something so improper!! Do you even understand the current situation——“

Nachim angrily drew his sword from his waist towards Kurono but,

“Calm down Nachim, everyone else as well. First let us hear the details.”

The Head somehow calmed the surroundings and urged Kurono to continue.

“The ones who have captured Daedalus is an army of humans that came from the Arc continent called the Crusaders. They are the same people that had built up Virginia on the cost around a year back.”(kurono)

The Head was of course aware of the town called Virginia.

But he had also heard that it was a worthless existence when compared to the army of Daedalus and the Dragon King.

“As you say, the army of Daedalus had completely stopped the humans of Virginia, but a few months back a large scale reinforcement army was dispatched. I don’t know the exact numbers but the Crusaders certainly defeated the army of Daedalus and the Dragon King Gaevinal was killed in battle. The order to seal off highways was probably sent soon after they had captured Daedalus.”(kurono)

“umumu, to think something like that had happened is truly unbelievable.......”

Even if they can’t reject it clearly but they can’t accept it easily as well.

“But, the Crusaders came to Irz Village. It was only a minor part of their true army. Even if we drove them back now, they’ll soon come back with a new force to capture the village.

It’ll be too late if you don’t start evacuating now, please.”

Kurono pleaded them seriously but the fact that the dragon king had died and daedalus had been captured was not something these people, who lived under the dragon king and sang his praises, could easily accept.

Even the Village Head could not accept this type of fact so suddenly.

So would the short tempered Nachim accept something said by a rank 1 adventurer?

“It’s a lie. It’s definitely a lie! All this talk is just bullshit. This man has gone mad due to his home being attacked!! He is thinking the band of thieves is a part of an army!!”

Even Kurono got pissed on being treated as a mad man, but he somehow bared with it, and spoke the truth.

“I clearly saw the flag of Cross emblem in Daedalus royal castle.”(kurono)

“You just saw weong! That dragon king was killed? Daedalus has fallen? That’s impossible until and unless the old Demon King has appeared!!!”

Kurono also replied while raising his voice.

“If you don’t believe it then try interrogating one of the captured soldiers!”

“fun, truly a pitiful guy, but be relieved. We will protect this village. You can go sleep on the bed of the guild while shivering and praying to your god.”

In front of Nachim who was clearly scorning him, rather than getting angry, Kurono instead became impatient.

If they don’t believe him here, then the evacuation to Spada will not start.

And to top it off, this guys is actually thinking of fighting by themselves.

Certainly, Kuar has many times the number of vigilantes and adventurers when compared to Irz but no way can they stop the Crusaders who number in ten thousands.

If they are surrounded, all the villagers will definitely be massacred.

Kurono started sweating from his forehead. He had to start evacuation by any means possible.

“Believe me! It’s all true!! It’ll be too late if we don’t start evacuating now!!”

“ugh silence you madman! We have no time to go along with tour farce! Oi, someone throw this man out!!”

It can’t be helped that the villagers could not decide who was right without proper information.

Even the village head, was doubting Kurono’s words.

The room was filled with noise. Did the dragon king really die? What about Daedalus? Is it all a lie? Isn’t he just a mad adventurer?

And inside that noise,

“Filthy pig who made fun of my Kurono, I’ll kill you.”

Lily who quietly murmured was not heard but anyone, even Kurono.

As Kurono was thinking hard how to convince the villagers, Lily pulled Kurono’s robe.

“What is it Lily? Right now——-“

“Kurono, leave this place to me.”

As Lily gave a smile, Kurono realized that an intelligent light was shining in her eyes.

“Lily—-“

He called, but Lily left from near his feet and moved towards the seat where the Head and others were.

And with the flapping of the 7-coloured wings she rose in mid air and floated in front of the Head.

“It has been a long time, Village Head Nahad.”(lily)

The Head raised a voice in surprise on seeing her.

“Li, Lily-san, why are you here........”

“ufufu, it’s a good thing to see you in high spirits. You won’t need the miracle drug for some time like this.”

In his head, the small figure of the fairy that appeared near his pillow when he had fallen ill and resolved for death a few decades ago, appeared.

After that, he took Lily’s miracle drug once in a year and had been fit ever since.

But, the lily who had an attitude as per her appearance and was always naked like a normal fairy, was currently showing fluent speech as well as was dressed in a black dress, this made the Head feel very unusual.

Lily quickly sensed the unease in his emotions.

“aa, this is the true me, so don’t worry too much about it Head-san.”

“So, what could be the matter? As you can see we are currently in an extremely complicated situation–“

“It’s alright. I understand everything. And I am also saying that whatever Kurono is saying is also true.”

“True, you say?”

Looking at Lily who was serious for the first time, the Head gulped in.

“Ee, the dragon king is dead, Daedalus has been captured, and the ones who did it were truly the fearsome army of humans called Crusaders. It’s all true.”

“No, no way.......”

“You should know as well, fairies can never lie.”

The room had gotten completely silent.

The villagers, even Nachim, could only believe it if Lily who was a fairy said ‘it is true’.

That’s because fairies ‘cannot lie’, thus they can only accept it even without any proof.

In actuality, Lily who was a half-fairy, especially now where she had her intelligence as well, could easily lie if she wanted to but the people here didn’t know that.

Thus, no one doubted that Lily’s words were true or not.

“I had gone with Kurono to Daedalus myself and I clearly saw it with my own eyes. The flag that flew in the royal castle as well as the monster human that has the power to kill the dragon king.”

“oh..oo......how can this be.......”

This time the village head was truly grieving from the truth thrusted in front of him by Lily.

“Hear me. The country known as Daedalus has fallen. The territory will be ruled by the Crusaders. If you don’t run away now, you will face the same end as Irz. It’s impossible to negotiate with them. The human believers of the Cross call us as demons and are truly trying to kill us all. There is only one way to live, quickly start evacuating towards Spada.”

“Sp, to Spada?!?!”

The one who raised his voice was not the Head but Nachim.

The two countries saw each other as enemies. Nachim had been dreaming of entering the army when the time to attack Spada came.

To evacuate to there was somewhat difficult to accept even for the villagers as well.

“You have been loud from the start. Will you shut up already!?” (lily)

On being looked upon as trash by the small girl Lily, Nachim got angry,

“o,oooo.........ii.......”

Or he was about to but Nachim somehow felt a sense of pleasure. He got ‘charmed’ by Lily’s cold expression.

The magic of charming existed in beautiful beings of this world. It activated at a pretty amazing timing, but anyway Nachim who had been [charmed], looked at Lily like a girl smitten in love and didn’t raise any voice.

As if forgetting his existence altogether, Lily looked back towards the Head.

“Head-san, I understand that it’ll be tough but you have no choice but to abandon the Kuar village. Even we fairies have already abandoned our home—“

And Lily brought out the Artifact, Queen Beryl.

“This, this is, no way.........”

In front of the dense magical energy, even village head who had no real knowledge of magic, understood what it was.

“That’s right. This is the jewel that brought about the divine protection in the fountain of light. But due to the coming of Crusaders, the divine protection of the fairy queen has been lost. ‘We’ fought hard against them but the fountain of light will never return to what it was.”

With Lily’s sad words, the village head could understand what might have happened to that sacred place.

At the same time, Kurono also heard about this for the first time but didn’t show much surprise since he probably might have guessed it already.

“Now you understand right? What you people are supposed to do now?”

Saying that, Lily returned to Kurono’s side and left while pulling his arm with her.

“.......Let’s run away. To Spada.”(nahad)

And thus, the bell of evacuation of Kuar village rang inside the village.