Demon King Daimaou: Volume 1

by Shoutarou Mizuki

  Be that as it may, it seemed likely that Junko would find him quickly if he stayed there. Akuto checked that his wounds weren’t too severe and then moved farther into the bamboo grove.

  —Jeez. This sure escalated quickly. It’s so frustrating that I’m stuck until the observer arrives.

  Inwardly complaining, Akuto continued wandering aimlessly.

  Suddenly, he noticed a human figure in the grove. The setting sun was almost out of sight, so all Akuto could see was a silhouette. He braced himself for a moment, but the silhouette didn’t charge toward him to attack, so it probably wasn’t Junko. Akuto sighed with relief, and it seemed that the figure had heard him and noticed his presence.

  “Who has come to visit me?” It was a young girl’s voice. The voice was exuberant and carefree.

  “Who are you? You aren’t my observer, are you?” Akuto said, thinking that shouldn’t be the case, but he was met with an affirmation.

  “Yes. I’m an observer.”

  “Phew, that’s great. You came to me, right?” Akuto said, and then a lively voice echoed through the bamboo grove.

  “That’s right. We don’t know if you came to me, or if I came to you, do we? Yes, it must be fate! Are you the prince? Could the wounds on your lovely face and body be from the thorn forest you crossed to come and see me?”

  —Observers certainly have an interesting way of saying things. I guess she’s right, for me, that school is quite like a forest of thorns.

  “Yes, you could say that. I’m in a huge mess, and I was waiting for you. From your voice you seem to be a girl, but since you’re an observer that means that you’ll protect me, right?”

  “You want me to protect you? That’s true, protecting the prince has started to become the girl’s duty, hasn’t it? Besides, I’m an observer, right? I watch over this school and this world! The changing of the seasons, the changes in people! Yes... Isn’t the flow of history beautiful enough to leave you spellbound?”

  “Does an observer need to be so poetic?”

  —She’s somewhat strange...

  “Yes, I’m an observer. I am your observer,” she said in a sing-song voice, or rather, she actually sang these words. Then the observer stepped forward in front of Akuto.

  Long hair flowed through the wind in front of him. Akuto thought that she had stepped directly out of the evening sun. She had beautiful red hair, with several tufts on top of her head that were swaying back and forth as if her hair was a flickering flame.

  “Okay prince, what should we do now?” She was wearing the Academy’s uniform. She slightly lifted her skirt, greeting Akuto.

  “Er, can you stop with the prince stuff? Besides, it’s kind of dangerous right now. You know the situation, right?”

  “There are quite a lot of situations at hand, you know. What I know is that you came here covered in wounds. Just from that alone, I know that there is danger.” Clenching her fist tightly, she raised her head.

  Her face looked unusually calm despite how fired up she was. Despite her well-defined and strong features, she had a gentle air about her. She wasn’t drop-dead gorgeous, but her appearance gave off positive and comforting vibes. Her face made you feel sleepy just looking at it.

  “Well it’s fine as long as you realize I’m in danger, but—” An echoing shout interrupted Akuto mid-sentence.

  “I found you, bastard!”

  Akuto braced himself.

  “Oh my...” The red-haired girl raised a calm voice and looked back and forth between Akuto’s face and Junko, who had appeared in the bamboo grove. Then she turned to Akuto with a very soft smile.

  “That’s the danger, isn’t it? If that’s the case, then I will protect you.”

  —Wow, she seems pretty calm.

  Up until then, Akuto had thought that she was somewhat strange, but with her attitude, he started to believe that she was an observer after all.

  The girl stepped out in front of Junko, full of confidence. Courageously, she stood ready to defend with her magic wand.

  “Out of the way! Idiot! What are you doing?!” Junko hurled insults at the girl.

  The red-haired girl spread her arms out wide and replied with dauntless resolve.

  “I won’t move! This person is precious to me!” It was a serious voice, as if she was about to protect her lover.

  The color in Junko’s face changed from the original frenzied and enraged blood-red into a dark, hateful look. She looked towards Akuto and yelled.

  “Bastard! Do you make a move on every woman you meet?!”

  “You misunderstand, we just met each other for the first time!”

  “Exactly! You would make a pass even at women you’ve met for the first time?!” Junko took up a fighting stance and brandished her wooden sword, then advanced towards Akuto. But the red-haired girl forced herself in Junko’s path.

  “Move!”

  “I won’t!”

  Junko tried moving left and right, but no matter what, the girl stood in front of her. Looking impatient, Junko jumped backwards and took up a stance with her sword held at the ready in front of her.

  “In that case I’ll slip past you!” Junko closed her eyes in concentration for a moment, and when she opened her eyes, it happened. Shockingly, Junko somehow split her body in two.

  Akuto couldn’t believe what he was seeing. The only thing he could think was that there was a second Junko in front of him. Each of their movements were separate from each other, and it looked as if twins were moving in front of his eyes.

  “This is the magic that has been passed down through my family! One of these bodies is fake, but even the fake still has the same power as my real body!” The two Junkos split up, one going right and one going left, and tried to run around the red-haired girl.

  Akuto didn’t know what to do. He had no idea what the red-haired girl planned to do next. One of the two Junkos was sure to slip past her, but since Akuto didn’t know which one that would be, he couldn’t ready himself for the attack. He tried to keep his eyes on the two Junkos, while also keeping the red-haired girl in his sights.

  —An observer should be a pro in combat, so she should make her move before me... Wait, huh?

  The girl was turning her head from right to left, looking unsure what to do.

  Both of the Junkos slipped past the girl in the blink of an eye. Then the two of them both sidestepped at the same time and fanned out in an equal distance on either side of Akuto. They intended to launch an attack at Akuto at the exact same time so he wouldn’t be able to dodge.

  “Hyaaaaah!”

  “Haaaaa!”

  Yelling, they leapt at Akuto.

  —Huh? Does this mean she isn’t my observer after all? That means I’m on my own. In that case, if I dodge the right...and block the left with my arm!

  Coming to a decision, Akuto braced himself for the simultaneous attacks. As expected, due to her overwhelming rage, Junko’s movements were simple enough that Akuto was be able to predict the trajectory of her attacks.

  —If I can just estimate the timing, I’ll be able to evad—

  “Augh!”

  As Akuto was trying to time the attacks, he suddenly lost his balance as he felt a yank at his legs. It was an “attack” from an unexpected angle, from the red-haired girl. She nearly bowled Akuto over as she suddenly clung to him.

  “I’ll protect you!”

  “Whaaat?!”

  Akuto was caught off guard by the unexpected move. He couldn’t do anything about it in the moment, so he was pushed to the ground and tumbled down along with the red-haired girl.

  Junko’s swords relentlessly swung down from the right and left as the two remained collapsed on the ground, looking as if they were embracing one another. It was already too late to try and evade the attacks. Akuto tried to tear himself away from the red-haired girl, but she was desperately clinging to him.

  —All I can do is stop the blow... But, if I can’t block it, then it’s going to hit this girl, so... In or
der to completely stop the attack... I have to break the swords.

  Akuto made his decision. He would break the swords with his arms. He remembered the sensation in his arm from when he had gripped the sword in the classroom, the mass of heat he’d felt radiating into the sword. That sensation was still there, and he had a feeling he could do it even without holding a sword of his own.

  —If I can control the power and cause an explosion...

  Akuto took a moment to focus his mind.

  —This time, I’ll use the same kind of power that entered my arm from the wooden sword before, and take it directly out of the empty air!

  The swords came down at the same time on either side of him.

  “Hah!” Akuto let out a shout and he raised both his arms up. He could feel a mass of heat and power begin to flow through his arms. He trapped the sensation and made it erupt from the center of his arms. A violent flow of power poured outward.

  “Ah?!”

  “Eh?!”

  Both of the Junkos let out yelps of surprise as the light radiating from Akuto’s arms forced the swords back. Exerting even more power, the light grew exponentially brighter and smashed the wooden swords, and for a second he broke out into a smile.

  —I did it...

  But...

  —Huh?! It won’t stop!

  Akuto panicked, realizing that he had lost control of his power.

  An explosion just as powerful at the one back in the classroom — no, even more powerful — burst forth from Akuto’s arms.

  “Aaaahhh!” The real Junko let out a scream while her clone disintegrated into pieces and disappeared in the blast.

  There was a swelling sphere of light, and then a loud, explosive bang. The cloud kicked up by the explosion was so huge that it could definitely be seen from far off in the distance.

  When the flash of pure white had faded, Akuto looked upon a disastrous scene. It was like he was in a war zone, or at the impact point of a meteorite.

  With Akuto at its center, a crater around ten meters in diameter had formed, and the surrounding bamboo had been cut down at the crater’s edge. Junko lay unconscious on the ground. Her uniform was torn to shreds, and she had clearly been injured in the blast.

  “Crap...” Akuto muttered. It appeared that, unlike last time, he had been so completely focused on breaking the swords that he ended up engulfing Junko in the explosion. Regret surged through him.

  As he tried to get up, Akuto realized that the red-haired girl was still sitting on top of him. It seemed she was dazed from the impact, but it appeared that Akuto’s movements had woken her. With a start, she surveyed the surrounding area.

  “Th-This must be...!” The red-haired girl looked frightened.

  “Yeah, s-sor—” Akuto opened his mouth to try and calm the red-haired girl down for the time being, but her reaction was completely unexpected.

  “I’m sorry! Oh my! Goodness gracious! The power sleeping inside of me must have awakened! Faced with a crisis, my savage and ferocious power revealed itself!” As if she was the main character in a tragedy, she placed her hands on her cheeks and shook her head back in forth in lamentation. Dumbfounded, Akuto looked up at her.

  “Uh... Um... That’s not quite...”

  “Oh! Thank you, you gentle soul, for trying to console me! But it looks like I’ve hurt someone! My only choice is to live out my life as a priestess of Ko-Roh... It would take me the rest of my life to make up for this sin.”

  “Sh-She isn’t dead yet... Hey, we have to go help her!” Akuto said in a fluster. At that moment, there was a strange phenomenon.

  A few meters from where the two of them were lying, Akuto thought he saw the air shimmer like you would see on hot summer’s day. Then right before his eyes, the fluctuation began to take shape. It appeared that the air was solidifying into a transparent, four-sided object of some sort, like a sheet of glass.

  Then, that sheet of glass opened like a door. As it opened, in a particularly surprising turn of events, a hand appeared and poked itself out from the door.

  The hand was a girl’s hand — small and delicate-looking. Then, continuing after the hand, a lovely and petite young girl squeezed through the narrow door and appeared before Akuto.

  It was as if the transparent space had forcefully materialized the girl. In other words, the girl had appeared out of thin air.

  She seemed to be around the same age as Akuto and the others. Her slim body was wrapped in the Academy’s uniform. She had eye-catching green hair with matching green eyes. Her symmetrical features made her beautiful, but he couldn’t make out any sort of expression from her face. Akuto immediately recognized that she wasn’t human.

  —A Liradan!

  Akuto was amazed. She was an android known as a Liradan, rumored to only be owned by the rich and powerful of society. With bodies constructed from mana, they can act like humans and hold a will of their own, but the one thing they were incapable of was having emotions and feelings.

  “Akuto Sai, correct? I am your observer, my identifier is ‘Korone.’ I was assigned this task by the god Markt three minutes ago.” Korone bowed to Akuto. Both her movements and the way her rich hair swayed was exactly the same as a human. But as she raised her head, her expression was still blank like a doll’s. Akuto wasn’t sure how to react.

  —So THIS is the real observer...

  As Akuto sat there dumbfounded, Korone looked to her left and right.

  “Verifying that within the last three minutes an incident has occurred. In which case, I carry responsibility for this situation. With regards to your dispute with Junko Hattori, I will begin questioning the both of you, after she has recovered,” Korone said, and then she thrust a hand into the small purse that hung at the waist of her school uniform. From her purse, she took out a white implement that was shaped like a pistol.

  “Although I have not received consent, based on medical law, I will begin administering treatment.” Korone walked over to Junko, who was groaning in pain, and pressed the tip of her gun-shaped tool against her. The instrument began to emit a light as it used mana to heal her. The stains of blood and dirt didn’t go away, but the wounds on Junko’s body gradually began to disappear.

  “Treatment complete. I have observed trace amounts of foreign bodies and bacteria that have invaded your body. Moving forward, I predict that you will experience a sudden onset of fever and feelings of fatigue. I recommend that you rest,” Korone said as she stood up.

  It appeared that somehow Junko had returned to consciousness. But when she looked towards Akuto, the attitude she had up until then changed completely. She had an anguished look on her face. Rivers of tears fell from her almond-shaped eyes.

  “Oh...!” Akuto tried to call out to Junko, but she quickly covered up her shredded clothes with her hands and ran off crying.

  “W-Wait!” Akuto tried to stand up, but the red-haired girl was still on top of his stomach. He lay down on the ground again, and remaining in this foolish position, looked up at the sky.

  “I will question her about the events at a later time. First, I will start with you.” Korone peered into Akuto’s face from above.

  “You’re the observer...?”

  “Please call me Korone. I will be attending school as your classmate starting tomorrow, and I will defend you from situations like today’s. As I mentioned previously, I will be questioning you about this dispute. The understanding that I have of the situation is as follows: Junko Hattori became agitated from coming in contact with you, a quarrel ensued, you fled here, after which there was a struggle where you caused slight injury to Junko Hattori. Now, I would like to verify your intentions at the time of the struggle. Did you purposely intend to cause Junko Hattori harm? Please answer yes or no,” Korone said in a dispassionate tone of voice.

  Akuto was annoyed by the overly business-like tone of her responses, but he resigned himself to the fact that this must just be how Liradans are.

  “I had no intentions of harming her. I
tried to break the sword and—” Akuto opened his mouth and began to talk, but suddenly from his side — or more precisely, from right on top of him — his words were cut short.

  “You’re wrong! It was because my power awakened!” The red-haired girl, in the same tone of voice as before, again asserted her prior declaration.

  “H-Hold on...” Akuto tried to interrupt her, but the girl wasn’t listening.

  “I’m the one who caused that explosion! Oh no, what should I do? This is a sin, right? Yes, it’s definitely a sin! Hey, what do I have to do to be forgiven?”

  “I will investigate fault after I receive witness testimony. While limited, I am able to communicate with the gods, and as such, I have limited special executive privilege.”

  “Communicating with the gods! Oh no, that’s serious! That means that what you’re saying has to be true, doesn’t it? Can you forgive me for my mistake?”

  “As noted, I will investigate fault after receiving witness testimony,” Korone replied solemnly. Apparently Korone simply wasn’t capable of having any attitude outside of her normal seriousness.

  “That’s right! I tried to protect him, the prince, as his observer! Please believe me!” the red-haired girl pleaded.

  “Th-That’s what I mean, wait a minute! You latch onto something and just don’t let go, do you...” Akuto tried to get a word in, but in the end it was a fruitless endeavor.

  “He acknowledged me as his observer, and I protected him!”

  “I can see an inconsistency between the situation and your testimony. In addition, it is inconsistent with Akuto Sai’s testimony. Testimonies given to me are recorded as formal statements. As such, they can be considered perjuries, so be careful,” Korone warned the girl. Then, the insides of Korone’s eyes flickered with light, and she spoke.

  “Inquiry complete. Identity: First-Year High School Student, Class A, Keena Soga.”

  “P-Perjury?! I’ve gone that far?! Oh no, what should I do, I have no idea! On top of injuring the class rep in that explosion, now I’ve committed yet another sin?! And how did you know my name?!”