Kuro no Maou

“Shit, they set the village on fire!”(kurono)

Although I couldn’t actually see whether the village was really burning or not, but there was no other reason for such a black cloud that I could think of.

Seeing that abnormality, I put more strength in my legs to run even faster.

At that time, I heard the sound of flock of birds flying away from within the forest on my left.

Lots of birds lived in the forest and it was very natural for a flock to fly together but, the number of birds I was currently seeing was a bit too big to be natural.

“Kurono!”(lily)

Lily who was in my hood, pulled on my robe.

“What happened, Lily?”

“It’s trouble, the fountain is——“

Stopping my legs, I tried to listen carefully to what she was saying.

Before I could hear what she was trying to say, I instantly understood it the moment I saw a cloud of smoke rise from the forest as well.

“Shit, have the Crusaders approached the fountain of light as well!?”

Why would they go there? Are they thinking that place has some treasure?

Lily jumped out from the hood, and starts running towards the forest.

“Ah, wait!!”

Even if Lily had been banished from the fountain of light, I know she still treasures it.

I don’t exactly know what does the words ‘Divine protection of the Queen’ means for the fairies except that it makes the land dense with magical energy. But considering that fairies had disallowed any other race to come in, I can somewhat understand it.

The fountain of light, if it any other race comes in there or destroys it, the magical effect of the ‘Divine protection of the Queen’ would most likely disappear from that land.

Anyway, it’s true that Lily and other fairies have to somehow prevent the invasion in some way or the other.

The Crusaders must have invaded the fountain of light with some objective and must have battled with fairies there. That should be the reason behind that smoke.

I don’t have any reason to stop Lily from going; in fact I want to go assist her instead.

But, the smoke of battle is rising not just from the fountain of light but also from the village as well. I can’t just leave that either.

“Lily will go to the fountain of light. Kurono should go towards the village.”(lily)

“......is that fine?”(kurono)

The most important thing for me is the safety of Lily after all.

I realized just now, but I was pushing myself due to anger and impatience from the fact that the village was under attack but in the process I was exposing not just myself but also Lily to danger.

Of course, I’m not going to step back now, I’ll definitely protect Lily.

But, letting Lily face the Crusaders alone is——

“It’s fine! Believe in Lily!”(lily)

Lily is my partner, not someone I have to one-sidedly protect.

If she is asking me to believe in her, then I’ll do what she says.

“Got it. But don’t do anything rash.”(kurono)

“Yes, Kurono too.”(lily)

“n......yeah, I know.”(kurono)

That’s right, I promised Lily that I won’t do something reckless like challenging Sariel again after all.

“I don’t know how many Crusaders are there but considering they are moving as an army, it won’t be a number we can deal with alone. The moment we are done with our work, retreat quickly and we’ll regroup at Kuar village’s guild.”(kurono)

“Un!”

Without exchanging anymore words, we ran towards our objectives.

Just what kind of hell was waiting for me, at that time I didn’t even have the composure to think about it.

All the houses built a bit separated from the village were either burnt down to ashes or were still being swallowed by fire.

On the highway, a large amount of blood was splashed here and there but not a single body could be seen. ‘The people who had bled so much had been carried away and were being treated right now’—I tried to cling on such wishful thinking.

But, the putrid smell of corpses in the surrounding utterly destroyed my wish.

The smell of corpses was coming from beyond the gate, from the centre of the village.

It proved to me that what was waiting for me beyond that fence was an unchangeable fact that a lot of lives had been taken.

“hah.........hah.........”

My legs finally stopped running at full speed, and I was walking unsteadily like a feeble patient on the highway.

Until now, I had seen a lot of deaths, in fact, I myself had killed many.

In front of the dragon, in front of Sariel, my legs would shiver with fear always. But then what is this that I feel in front of this scenery of the village painted in blood and flames? What kind of fear is this?

“What, the hell.......”

This village, this Irz village was, my only place of rest not connected to any fighting.

Why has that turned into this blood reeking place now?

I can’t think. Something like this, I won’t acknowledge, I won’t believe it——- as I stood there dumbfounded, I wonder how much time had passed.

Suddenly, seeing a certain scene, my legs stopped. It was a white soldier coming out of a house that had miraculously not caught fire.

That soldier was happily humming while holding something shining, probably silver coins, in his left hand.

After him, 2 more soldiers carrying a filled box also came out, again with happy faces.

The soldiers placed the box in the carriage like vehicle that was standing in front of the house. At that moment, a weirdly big *dosun* sound resounded from it.

The three soldiers were saying something to each other about the small door of the house which couldn’t be entered without bending, and the 3 of them entered the house once again.

And the moment they came out again, inside my head that was dumbfounded and could not recognize reality, I felt something break and something snapped.

I finally became aware of the scene in front of me.

The three soldiers were carrying the corpses of goblins that were wearing plain clothes.

My ears caught some fragments of what the soldiers were saying.

“This was a miss—- only the child of a filthy goblin is here.”

“—–if it was an elf woman then at least I could have enjoyed more.”

“We got money so whatever——-“

And, even roughly than the box, they threw the corpses on the wagon.

Those corpses belonged to Vats-san who greeted me every morning and his family.

“aaa.....”

The Irz village I wanted to protect, seeing the deaths of the people living there,

“uooooaoaaaaaaaaaaa!!!!”

I went into a mad rage.

Yes, I went completely mad.

After all, I finally realized that I had been too late.

In my left hand, the cursed hatchet [tsujigiri] had already appeared.

The feelings of hatred that I had suppressed with my blackening were flowing inside my head like a surging wave.

Normally, I would have reflexively resisted against that torrent of twisted feelings, but surprisingly it felt comfortable right now instead.

I couldn’t differentiate whether this was my hatred or the hatchet’s curse anymore.

But it ordered my body to move.

To kill every ‘enemy’ within my sight.

.

.

.

Lily sprinted towards the fountain of light located in the depths of fairy garden.

The term sprinting might be a little incorrect though. After all Lily who had the body like that of an infant, even if she enhanced her legs with magic like Kurono, she still would not be able to produce an effect like him.

Currently, Lily’s body was covered with a sphere of light. With Fairy barrier – Oracle Shield activated, Lily was jumping like a grasshopper in high speed.

Jumping and crossing obstacles like fallen trees and rocks with ease, Lily looked like a white ball bouncing around.

And with a speed much faster than any human, Lily could feel the magical energy around her body getting denser with her body as she moved closer towards the fountain of light.

Normally, sensing Lily come this close, the other fairies would come to stop her but right now the figure of those shining small girls was nowhere to be seen.

Just a while back, the distant thunder like sound generated due to the use of an attack magic was the reason behind this.

The Crusaders that were advancing towards the fountain had been intercepted by the fairies.

In case, humans are allowed to invade to the ‘centre’ of the fountain, as Kurono had expected, the forest would lose the [Divine Protection of the Fairy Queen].

In that case, fairies will no longer be born here, and it would be similar to lose their hometown for fairies.

They must protect their home, the place where they were born, and the sacred land that has the divine protection of the queen.

Thus Lily ran, flew, hurriedly.

Quickly run towards her fellow fairies, and use her Extra magic, that was even stronger than normal fairies, and drive the humans away to protect this place.——Lily was thinking only about that.

But, the moment the density of magical energy crossed a certain level, that is, when Lily stepped into the place where the queen’s divine protection was strongest, a change occurred in Lily.

“Protect........”

Lily who had been moving like a bullet instantly decelerated.

“...........this place?”

Lily who was now only walking, the fairy barrier around her had already disappeared. Instead her body itself began to shine stronger.

“fufu......how foolish.”

With every step she took, she literally became ‘bigger’.

Her limbs became longer, her chest swelled and became bigger, from the baby like body, it turned into a slender, curved, feminine body.

From a ‘cute’ child, she turned, no, grew into a ‘beautiful’ girl.

But, rather than her body, what changed more was her mind.

Lily took another step, her body growth had stopped but the change in her mind continued.

Her thoughts became clearer, but became more complex and at the same time her emotions, present situation, its advantages and disadvantages, what she could do, what she couldn’t, what should she do and what she shouldn’t——- When she finally stopped walking, the changes in Lily had all finally ended.

That was the true body of the girl that possessed flawless and absolute beauty as well as overwhelming magical energy and knowledge about her Extra magic.

An environment so rich with magical energy, that it allowed Lily to attain this form. This was also a part of the [Divine Protection of the Fairy Queen] that the fountain of light possessed.

As long as she was inside this ‘divine protection’, Lily could stay in this form forever.

“fufufu——-“

Outside she could only attain this body once during every full moon. Beauty that could make any man’s breath away. She had only shown her pretty expression to even Kurono as well but,

“ahahahaha!!”

The current Lily had an extremely violent smile.

“What kind of idiot would protect this place and those little bastards!?”

Something cruel like this could never be thought by the child like Lily but the current her definitely would.

The baby Lily, as her appearance, only had a pure heart, but returning to her original form, having the emotions, heart and thinking ability returned back to her, she had a cunning brain like that of a human and even had her own greed and desires unlike a fairy.

“ahaha, this is the best chance. With this opportunity, —–“

Kurono had not realized that the most fearsome thing about Lily in her adult form was not her use of incredible magic but her heart that possessed both good and evil.

“–let the fountain of light be completely destroyed.”