Kuro no Maou

「Fumu, then we will take the heavy responsibility of being Nighthawk Searcher」

In simple words, Wilhart offers to change the duty of guarding during night with another member of the team.

「N-no, we cannot let Wilhart-sama do something like that――」

The male student tried to gently reject the offer of Wilhart with an annoyed expression, but

「Fuahahaha! You don’t have to fear, with me guarding, no monster will come near use. I will let you people sleep without any worries till tomorrow morning!」

The male member was not able to retort that ‘If you make that much noise, the sleeping members will wake up and monsters will come near’

Though he is like this, he is a prince.

Because both are students he hadn’t said that it is noisy, but he still hesitates to snap.

If he showed any rude behaviour, then after others would distance themselves, of course, the opposite can also happen,

「Go and sleep nicely, like a baby being held by its mother」

THis prince with a personality this painful wouldn’t become center of state power in future, this is something that had been predicted several years before among the nobles.

The Spada royal family which respects martial ways has a child like WIlhart who has failing marks in both magic and martial skills, no one thinks he would be able to surpass his brother Aisenhart to become the successor, in the first place no one would want it to happen.

The next generation of Spada would be lead by Aisenhart, Wilhart only needs to live as a spare inside a neat inner palace with women so that royal lineage doesn’t end and also that he doesn’t become a hindrance to Aisenhart.

In short, there is no one who would try to court Wilhart even when he has no chance of standing on the big stage in history neither has any power, and among the elite cadets that trend is strikingly obvious.

「Sigh......well then I will leave it to you」

The second prince Wolhart is a really displeasing existence to elite cadets with no advantage and courting and a great disadvantage upon acting rude with him.

Frankly put, they were all annoyed.

「Fumu, leave it to us, Fuhahahahaha!」

This tone only increased the annoyance.

Still everyone would be somewhat respectful and no one would bully him.

And the person himself doesn’t do anything about this behaviour, that’s why he is able to laugh it off today too. Wilhart is the only happy-go-lucky man in this world.

「......」

Upon becoming alone, even Wilhart becomes quiet.

The little bonfire illuminates the surroundings slightly.

The brook is flowing quietly, the tent is placed on the riverside, so with no obstructions within surroundings it is easy to stand guard there.

Of course, there is a thickly grown forest some metres forward, but it is much better to not put the tent there.

But, the bodyguard maid, Seria is hiding somewhere within that dark thick forest.

Though Wilhart has become 17 years old, an adult, but because of his low fighting power he is not allowed to be alone without a bodyguard.

However getting help of bodyguard within this outdoor training would not be good.

Hence, she is treated as ‘not present there’, and she is in hiding while watching over her master

「......Hm」

At that time, the sound of rustling is heard from the forest in front.

The guard needs to be more aware of disturbances in forest because if they monster would approach that wouldn’t be the brook side but forest side.

It doesn’t need to be said, within the overgrown forest it is difficult someone approaching, so it is easy to approach without being found out.

Wilhart takes out the normal『Mithril Rapier』which he has named『Vaiceschveato』from his waist and at the same time glared inside the forest where the sound is coming out from.

「Who is there, I know you are there」

Though he knows there is someone, but he doesn’t know if it’s a wild animal,or monster or a human.

And he doesn’t know the numbers, Wilhart has no sixth sense or magic to know it or even skill to sense presence.

Though his tone says that already knows the opponent is there, but until he confirms it is a monster, there is no need to wake up the members, he judged.

If he kept waking them up hearing every sound, then they won’t be able to take rest.

「You can come out」

The sounds from inside the forest grow more loud, and deliberately emphasize that someone is hiding there.

But he still doesn’t what is there, hence, he imagines the worst case scenario of a dangerous monster coming out and in a second the feeling of stress increases for Wilhart.

「Y-You can c-come out......」

The wariness and tension rises, though he said the same line from before, but the nuance has become a lot weak.

In the endless feeling time, Wilhart keeps his whole attention to the forest,

SFX: Bashari (*splash)

But the reason he could respond to that sound of water can only be said due to good luck.

Hearing sound of water means that something has appeared in the river behind him.

Before reaching that conclusion, Wilhart, reflectively turned back.

「What!?」

There were 2 bears――no, it was rank 1 monster Punpun with rabbit ears growing on head, and small and stout body, a figure which nobody would forget upon seeing once.

The 2 Punpun reach the riverside and now the distance between Wilhart and them is only 4 metres.

He understood that these two came from behind while he was completely paying attention to forest and at the same time he noticed these two throwing ‘something’ towards him.

The thing thrown was about the size of a human head, without knowing it what it was it had landed on the ground.

「Waaah!?」

The place it landed was the bonfire, the only light source in the dark night.

The sound of water splashing, and sizzle sound from the cooling of fire reaches his ears.

It didn’t land on the bonfire by coincidence, but it was aimed there.

But before reaching that conclusion, he falls into panic due to the sudden blackout.

His eyes had gotten used to the light of bonfire, so if the light gets lost suddenly it’s natural he won’t be able to see anything.

After some time, under this cloudless night sky with full moon out, he might be able to see somewhat, but

SFX: GAaaaoooo!

The monster which has already approached in front won’t wait for the eyes to be used to black.

「U-Uaaaawwwaaaaaaaahhhh!?」

reflexively he swings the sword in his hand.

Naturally, he isn’t able to feel the sensation of cutting something down and only cuts through empty space.

Within the ignorant night, Wilhart had been prepared for death, but

「ضوء شمعة تضيء ثلاثاء――『Torch』」

With the sudden dazzling light appearing, he perceived that his fate has yet to exhaust.

「Is it you Seria!?」

「Yes, Wil-sama you Seria is here」

Before he knew it, the maid with beautiful face and green ponytail wearing an apron dress stood besides him.

The『Torch』’s fireball shining in the night sky equally illuminates the figure of Seria holding somewhat large dagger knives in both her hands and the figure of several Punpun.

「T-These many were here......」

「Not only numbers, they are also pretty regulated and disciplined, no doubt, they are being led by a powerful boss」

Wilhart recalled the lecture about the territories of monsters he took really seriously.

Even among rank 1 monsters, the ones who form a group means the one leading is boss and is strong, or they are special individuals with intelligence due to that the difficulty level is also increased by a rank.

This group of Punpun who diverted the attention of Wilhart, let a detached force approach him from behind and closed the only light source for stopping his movements, makes them a rank 2 equal monster.

「They’re not the opponent the current Wil-sama can stand against」

「Guu......」

The strength of Wilhart is on the level of somehow winning against rank 1 monster, Goblin only in one-on-one battles.

Even without a boss, if they attack in group he wouldn’t stand a chance.

「No, but, right now we have comrades we can rely on! Wake up the brave comrades, the time for battle has come!!」

When Wilhart raises his voice, the 4 camp members who have already waken up from the sounds jump out of tent as if there asses had caught fire.

「Waaaah, this is gonna be bad!?」

「Don’t fucking kid with me!」

「Run!」

「Oi come on fast, this way!」

The 4 reliable comrades, run with only their clothes on, and plotted an escape plan.

Due to the dazzling running style, even the Punpun surrounding the camp ignore them.

「Huh, Eh, Oo~ii, You guys......」

Wilhart raised his voice to stop them with an astonished expression, but the 4 had already disappeared on the other side of dark night.

「Great teamwork this is」

「Y-You people......you’re losers who leave the captain of your team and plot to escape before me, you guys don’t deserve to be knights of Spada!!」

Wilhart shouts while holding sword in a bent back posture seeming he would fall at any time.

「It was unfortunate you had to meet with strong Punpun, now it is decided for you to take supplementary classes for outdoor training, Wil-sama」

The Punpun encircle Wilhart and Seria, but they only show vigilance while maintaining a distance and don’t attack.

Wilhart is having cold sweat on his face without knowing when the curtain to battle would drop, but on the contrast, Seria is keeping her cool expressionless face.

After glaring at each other for sometime, the sound of rustling comes from the forest and a bigger Punpun appears on the riverside.

「Mu, so he’s the boss? 」

This Punpun has a large body both vertically and horizontally, its height reaching 3 metres and its one eye is injured making it a perfect one-eyed boss.

The boss starts glaring contest with Seria.

But that is soon concluded, the boss then raises its voice as if to order its subordinates.

Then taking distance Seria won’t be able to reach them, they start taking out the items and everything from camp.

「Ah, the food is......」

「The outdoor training is already a fail for you, there’s no harm in letting them take it」

The Punpun took each and everything like food, or items that won’t help monsters at all.

During the time everything was being plundered, it only stared at Seria paying attention to her movements and it didn’t even move a single step.

The next moment when he thought it would take back the crows of Punpun,

SFX: GaaOOOooooOOOOooo!!

A loud roar resounded.

That howl is that would let people far away shake in fear, a really sinister and fiendish howl.

「O-Oi, what is it this t-time!?」

Wilhart jumped to cling to Seria due to fear, even the Punpun working diligently showed clear fear.

They dropped down everything they were carrying and froze on the spot.

SFX: Gaooo—nnn!

The boss cries, then the Punpun threw everything they had plundered and ran away deep into forest in full speed.

「H-Hey, Seria......doesn’t it feel dangerous?」

Wilhart returned to his previous state and asked something miserable, but Seria didn’t make fun of it.

「Wil-sama, let’s make a run for it, right now」

Seria gripped Wilhart’s hand and ran with the same force the Punpun ran.

Seeing Seria serious after many years, Wilhart understood the danger of things.

Apparently, the owner of that fiendish howl is the strong monster who can even make this Seria choose the option to run.

But however, because of that, Wilhart stopped moving in his tracks.

「Wait! If we run away what will happen to them!?」

Them is the 4 members who got scared of attack of monsters and ran away.

Although he hates them somewhat, but not to the extent that he wants them dead.

On the contrary, forgiving them while smiling would be the right thing to do as a royalty.

[ET: I can’t believe there are good people like him. *sob*]

「I cannot leave them alone」

Please, save them.

Wilhart bows his head down like he did when he found an adventurer whom he named as Nightmare Berserker.

But, the answer this time,

「I’m sorry, Wil-sama, but I won’t listen to that order」

Were the clear words of rejection.

He couldn’t speak foolish things like You dare defy your master’s order.

The live of her master second prince of Spada, or the lives of 4 who ran on their own accord, it is obvious she took the first one.

Wilhart understood it, and could only run while his hand is being gripped by Seria.

For running away from the owner of that fiendish howl within the Galahad Mountains.