Kuro no Maou

After crossing the escape route, we were greeted by Vulcan ready to depart on his Bicorn.

“Yeah, I also buried those bastards alive with the guild as well.”

“hehehe, then, let’s hurry up and go.”

On the rear gate, numerous carriages for the purpose of our retreat had been prepared.

Using the horses used by the adventurers, we were pulling the hurriedly constructed carriages.

They were pretty big as well though they were not really magnificent. But it was just barely enough to transport everyone.

It’d be nice if it doesn’t break during the travel though. I could only hope that it at least holds till we reach the foot of the Gallahad mountain ranges.

“Well, before that there is also the problem whether we can break through the heavy knight squad or not.”

At the horizon of the flat road, numerous human figures could be seen.

While hoisting a flag with the emblem of the cross, that detestable heavy knight squad was the main reason behind why I decided to abandon Alsace.

“Let’s go! We’ll charge through at full speed!!”

This was the only way to break through them.

As the sound of whips striking the horses resounded, the carriage began to move forward while swaying.

While leaving behind the prints of hooves on the ground, the line of carriages sped out of the rear gate.

First we needed to cross over the wooden bridge that was built over the Reen river on this side.

Both Rone and Reen rivers were of similar sizes so the Crusaders would have trouble to cross the river on this side as well without the bridge.

“Are the explosives ready?”

“No problems there. We can start whenever!”

I was at the lead of the line. Using Lily’s telepathy I contacted with the magician on the last carriange in the line.

“Alright. Do it!”

“Roger—-[Ignis Kris Sagitta].”

Just as how we had destroyed the bridge on the Rone river 5 days back, using the magic item infused with fire attack magic, we blew up the bridge.

If there was no bridge, only the Pegasus Knights would be able to chase after us instantly. And with Lily still in good health, the Pegasus Knights won’t try and attack us very rashly.

With this, we have reduced the chances of them chasing us for now.

“All that’s left is to cut across the squad in front of us.”

The carriage which was already at top speed steadily reduced the distance between us and the enemy squad.

The carriage I’m on is the leading one. It was originally used by Vulcan’s party but right now, except for the beastman driver, the rest aren’t riding with us.

This carriage that will break through the enemy squad first is ridden by members with the max explosive power to open up a gap in the enemy squad lines.

I, Lily and Fiona of [Element Master], the three sisters of the [Three Hunting Princesses] and Mossan with the machinegun were currently riding this carriage.

On the right of the driver, I was sitting, and on his left was Fiona. On the roof of the carriage was Mossan with his machinegun along with Lily, who had already activated her DP at max power and was in her girl form. And Irina-san and the other were positioned on both the windows on the side with their magic bows.

Running parallel to this carriage were Vulcan on his Bicorn and many other high ranked adventurers who were brandishing their weapons, ready to clash with the enemy forces.

“Fiona, is it alright for you to fight? Both in terms of magical energy and the range in which you attack.”(kurono)

I asked Fiona, who was holding a red wand that I had never seen before.

“I’m fine in both senses. This [FireBall] is wand that will only release a set amount of firepower no matter how much magical energy is poured into it after all.”(Fiona)

“.......you had something convenient like that as well.”

Then, wouldn’t it been fine to have used just that when entering an adventurer party before? But Fiona soon rejected my thoughts.

“It’s something an amateur magician uses who can’t even properly use a low level magic.”

“Aah, because it will still fire the same amount of power even then, I see.”

And, once the magician becomes able to use magic stronger that this [FireBall], it would signify that the magician has graduated from this wand.

“Then isn’t the fire produced by it weak?”(kurono)

“It’ll be alright. I have customised it to rapid fire attacks. It’ll be useless against high ranked monsters but it’ll still be effective to stop the heavy knights.”

“I see. Then I’ll be counting on you.”

“If you say that much, then it was worth it to have shamefully mixed up as a first year student even though I was a third year just to but this staff.”

Ah, I feel like I read another page of her Black History.(T/N: black history=embarrassing/sad past)

“Hey, don’t have fun talking while excluding me. I’ll feel lonely!”(lily)

Lily’s complaining voice came from above.

“Sorry, that wasn’t really the intention.”(kurono)

“GaHaHa, to be jealous even at such a time, you really are cute little fairy!”(Mossan)

“Stop talking in that manner to me, will you?”(lily)

“St, stop! Please stop! That light is really bad for a skeleton like me! I’ll be purified, really—-“

I couldn’t really see from here but I could see something shinging above.

“They sure do get along.”(kurono)

“Oh, is Kurono-san also envious?”(Fiona)

“nn, yeah, that might be true.”(kurono)

“—-too bad Lily-san, it seems there’s no hope.”

Fiona muttered something. What the hell does she mean by hope?

“You bastards, stop playing around while the enemy is in front of you! Show some damn fighting spirit, will ya!!”

Vulcan shouted at us from the side.

“Sorry, my bad.”(kurono)

Pulling myself back together, I began pouring magical energy inside my [Black Ballista Replica] and began attack preparations.

The heavy knights were already close enough to see them clearly.

“Is everyone ready?—–“

And finally, the carriage entered the attack range.

We fired our strongest magics to open up a gap inside the line of heavy knights in front of us.

.

.

.

A group with silver armour, halberd and tower shield, similar to the heavy knights Kurono had fought not some time ago, were moving through the highway.

In front of them, a line of carriages was approaching towards them at full speed.

The moment when the distance between them reached 100m, an immense wave of magical energy was generated from the carriages.

But even in front of such a clear attack from the carriages, the heavy knights kept on moving forward without speaking a single word.

“Magic Bullet Arts- Gatling Burst.”

The first attack that reached the heavy Knights was two streams of black bullets.

The black bullets fired by Kurono’s baton and Mozrun’s machinegun directly hit this wall of steel.

With a violent metallic sound, a huge dust of cloud was raised from the bullets that dug into the ground.

After the fast bullets, a bunch of fist sized fireballs and ligtnings attacked.

The fireballs were [Ignis Sagitta] fired by Fiona using [Custom FireBall].

Although not as fast as Kurono’s bullets, those fireballs attacked at a speed that could overturn common sense, and exploded as soon as they came into contact with the steel armours and stopped their advance.

With a electrifying shrill sound, the members of the [Three Hunting Princesses] fired an intermediate level wide range attack magci, [Line OverBlast] with their bows.

Passing through the metal armour, the lightning attacked with an even bigger effect and range.

They had been struck pretty hard by the bullets, fireballs and lightning, but the strongest attack had yet to come.

“—–[Meteor Strike].”

A light magic circle appeared over the heavy knights and a mass of rainbow coloured light fell down from it.

So that the carriage could pass through, Kurono had warned Lily to not create a crater so Lily had held back quite a lot but,

*DOGOGOGOGOO!!*

It still had enough firepower to blow away the heavy knights on the highway.

A seven coloured explosion and shock waves covered the area but Kurono and the others’ carriages kept on moving without paying it any mind.

Their formation had already been disrupted due to the [Meteor Strike] but the heavy knights once again began to move with their halberds to seal the highway.

But by that moment, the leading carriages had already thrust into the group of heavy knights.

“[Air Slash]!!”

Vulcan, under the DP of Wolfegand, attacked the heavy knights with his large blade enveloped in wind.

And, Kurono, who had shifted from long range magic bullets to his cursed hatchet in his hand, released his martial art towards the knights coming towards him with their halberds.

“Kuronagi—-!?!”

The jet black slash cleanly split the heavy knight’s halberd and armour together.

But, at that moment, Kurono realized the ‘abnormality’ in that heavy knight squad.

.

.

.

“Kuronagi—-“

I released my martial art skill to block against the halberd aimed towards us.

The blades clashed for a second, and the ominous edge of the [grudge hatchet- Hararetsu] cut apart the steel handle of the halberd without any resistance at all and futher moved on to split the full plate armour as well.

“—!?!”

But, it’s weird.

This feeling was definitely weird.

I had felt something was strange when they didn’t use any defensive martial arts nor any defensive magics even though we had started to attack them from a long range but, now I’m sure.

“These guys aren’t heavy knights......”

“”Eh??””

As I muttered so, both Lily and Fiona reacted to my words without stopping their attacks.

I once again released a martial art towards another one of these ‘fake’ heavy knights.

As expected, there was no resistance from their armours even though they are supposed to be heavily sturdy due to defensive enchantments. I remembered this feeling of cutting through, also, no blood spewed out from the place that I had cut either. Now I was perfectly sure.

“These are light golems!!”

Movements that are so monotone that they could never be called an ‘elite’ squad, also extremely weak armour.

They were the light golems, that I had once fought against during the maneuvering experiments.

“What’s going on......then are these just dolls for show—-“

Could it be that they had been deployed behind us to intentionally make us retreat, meaning, it was fake/decoy troops!!

When I thought that,

“Oi, this is dangerous! Stop!!”

Vulcan’s loud voice resounded.

“What, is that—–barbed wires!?”

As I looked towards it, black thorn-like arrangements had been spread all over as if to seal the highway.

They were exactly the same as the barbed wires used on the main gate of Alsace to stop the soldiers.

And I remembered that barbed wires could also be used to stop not just soldiers but horses as well.

Vulcan pulled the reins of his Bicorn and somehow stopped before it stepped on the barbed wires.

But this was a carriage with 8 people on it, without any way to stop suddenly nor decelerating much, we crashed into the barbed wires.

“Shit—-“

The moment I realized that this carriage would definitely overturn and resolved myself to jump down,

“Uoh, What now!?”

The hood of my robe was suddenly grabbed and my body was thrown in mid-air.

Why? The carriage hasn’t toppled yet—-or rather, right now, I saw the wheels of the carriage getting stuck in the barbed wires.

I hadn’t realized what had happened instantly, but after I landed on the other side of the barbed wires, I finally realized what happened.

“......Lily, is it?”

“Sorry, I could just barely save Kurono only.”

As her wings flashed as they flickered, the girl Lily looked towards me from my side with upturned eyes.

“No, thanks for the help.”

“ufufu, you’re welcome.”

Foreseeing that the carriage was about to topple sideways, Lily, who was on the roof, quickly grabbed me and rescued me.

“Everyone else is—-“(kurono)

“They’re adventurers, they won’t die so easily.”(lily)

As I looked, various figures stood up from within the barbed wires and from inside the fallen carriage.

“Oi! You guys alright!?”(kurono)

“.......Lily-san you’re so cruel, you abandoned me.”(Fiona)

“Sorry, it happened all to quick so I only had time to save just one person.”

As Fiona appeared from the barbed wires, she protested against Lily as she straightened her fallen hat.

Well I also feel sorry that only I had been saved by Lily but at least I’m glad that they aren’t injured.

As a silver lining, only our carriage had toppled from the barbed wires. Rest of them that were behind us had been able to stop just in time.

“No, this isn’t the time to be relieved yet.”

But still, since we had been surrounded by quite a big number, not to mention that the highway had been sealed by the barbed wires, it doesn’t look like we’ll be able to break through very easily.

In the end, our advance had been perfectly stopped here.

If we stay slow, they might use this chance to attack with the Pegasus Knights and even soldiers might cross the Reen river as well.

“No other choice, we’ll defeat all of them right here and now!! The enemy might look like heavyknights but were actually light golems. They aren’t much stronger than your average soldier, we can defeat them easily!!”

On the other side of the barbed wires, the adventurers climbed down from the carriages and quickly drew their weapons.

As expected of adventurers, they were able to quickly deal with the changing situation without panicking.

“Ora Kurono! Don’t be lazy and come over here as well!”

Vulcan brandished his large sword as he shouted towards me.

“Ou, I’ll be there soon——“

“nono, you have to stay here.”

Suddenly a man’s voice came from my side.

“......who is it.”

As I looked towards the source of that voice, I saw a young man leaning on one of the trees of the forest on the side of the highway.

With ruffled long, light brown hair and loose clothes that exposed his bare body. On his trained muscled chest, a necklace with an emblem of a cross was shining.

His appearance felt like a delinquent yankee even in this world.

But, the long sword hanging on his waist and the short wand in his wand that was of a type I had never seen, clearly proved that this man was a mercenary trained in fighting.

I can’t sense any killing intent but there was still an unspeakable unpleasant atmosphere.

“Oi Oi, you’re not supposed to ask ‘who is it?’ now, right? Even though I had ‘looked after you’ back then, How cruel of you! Oh but, maybe you don’t remember me cuz I was wearing a mask back then? Hiyahahaha!!”

He laughed in an irritating way, but I didn’t really care about that. But what the fuck did he say just now?

“You can’t be......”

“hehehe, even though you had gone through all the trouble to run away to Pandora. Too bad, but I’ve come to take you back, No. 49!!”