The Demon King Seems to Conquer the World

Delaro was in a position to be entrusted with one of the large groups of forty cavalrymen. Considering that the cost of one cavalryman wasn’t the ratio of the infantry, it could be said that a big role of the middle rank.

However, Delaro was currently heading far north with only seven horses. There were eight horses including his. Although he was in the leader position of the forty cavalrymen, he was leading only seven of them, but that didn’t mean that his men had died or he had been demoted.

This was because the large group had been reduced and reorganized in this strange landing operation. Therefore, the other 32 people were left on the front line where the large army was.

He was unwilling to divide the large group that had been trained together for more than ten years since being appointed as the leader of a 40-men group, but it was unavoidable since this was a life of a grand marshal.

—

At the moment, Delaro was looking for enemies ahead of him as a scout.

His horse didn’t sped up that much and it ran at the speed of about walking at a fast pace. He was ordered to scout at full speed, but he couldn’t hurry any further.

Since this was a strategy of protruding into the enemy territory, he wasn’t given sufficient provision. To make matters worse, the road was a long way uphill. If he made it in a hurry, the horse would collapse.

While watching the condition of the horse, Delaro was carefully watching and observing the surroundings.

Originally, the job of scout was to always keep the ear open and open eyes wide. It was important to maintain a sense of tension. However, Delaro, who had a taste in writing poetry, couldn’t help feeling something from the scenery that he saw.

The appearance of vegetation sprouting in early summer from the land that froze in winter and the signs of life disappeared was reminiscent of the pure origin where life was born from the pure land.

The clear air and the good visibility of the distant landscape might have helped to foster that image.

A forest of flora that was different from his hometown. As he walked his horse, he had an illusion that he had lost himself in another world.

The time was close to noon, and the cold air that had accumulated during the night had been exhausted, so even though Delaro was in the middle of the enemy territory, he felt refreshed.

In the air, there was something that smelled.

The smell of charcoal… the smell of smoke.

“Do you smell smoke?” (Delaro)

Delaro asked

“Yes.” (??)

“A little bit.” (??)

His subordinates replied verbally. As expected, it wasn’t a mistake.

“It might be that the refugees’ asses are nearby.” (??)

An older subordinate said so. Certainly, in this situation, it was the bonfire of the refugees, who had taken a long time to depart until this moment. Perhaps, they might forget to erase it. Or there was a possibility that they were cooking lunch.

“Be wary.” (Delaro)

Without slowing down his horse, Delaro tightened his mind. He hadn’t actually done a full-time reconnaissance mission, but he knew the vital points.

For reconnaissance, especially in such scout missions, it was most desirable to discover first without being noticed by the enemy, but in some cases, there might be an encounter battle. It was a failure in a sense since this place wasn’t a plain with a good view, and in such a forest, it was still possible that they would end up in an encounter battle.

The most dangerous and must be avoided was when the enemy anticipated a reconnaissance attack in advance, and they intended not to make the other side return alive. In other words, it was an ambush.

If he entered the trap herself, like a beast caught in a trap, the enemy, who intended to ambush them, would enclose their rear and annihilate the scout. Delaro knew how many people couldn’t return because of that.

“Yes, sir! Understood.” (??)

His subordinates replied so.

After that, the party went further.

From the place where he smelled it, he arrived at that place before making much progress.

—

The place was a straight road along the river and it went to a dangerous cliff at a moderate angle.

Of course, there was no choice but to plunge into the cliff as it was, so the road turned into a shape of ‘く’ character. On the right side, there was a forest with poor visibility, hiding the way ahead, but it wasn’t there where Delora was paying attention to.

The road to the cliff had a wide view, and beyond that there was a cliff carved by the river. It looked like an observatory in a scenic spot, and he could see the valleys and mountains far away. The valley was deep enough that it was more correct to call it a ravine.

And the bridge where it was an important element of the strategy was seen ahead. Perhaps, that was the bridge built upstream, which was explained in detail at the strategy meeting.

It was burning.

The entire bridge was on fire, spitting smoke. A whitish gray smoke was blown by a gentle breeze, and currently, the trail of the smoke was heading to the east.

The smell was probably due to a slight change in the wind direction and it was temporarily going downstream. Delora was fascinated by the shocking situation that destroyed the scenic scenery.

‘Is there no one on this side anymore that the bridge is on fire?’

He thought.

Since the enemy came, they destroyed the bridge. Up to this point, the battlefield was done all over the place.

If it was the dry wooden bridge, it would be quicker to burn it than to smash it with an ax.

However, that was only after the enemy had arrived. The enemy hadn’t arrived yet. To be exact, they were just in contact.

At that point, they should drop the bridge, but… There were many ruthless commanders who didn’t care for the people, but it was too cowardly to burn down the bridge and make it impossible to pass even though the threat wasn’t imminent.

Thinking in very common sense, they should wait for the enemy to attack. After that even, the threat was imminent. In other words, this meant that the enemy had already crossed, and even if he went to the bridge from here on, there would be no one.

Since the river crossing was completed, the enemy destroyed the bridge since it had served the purpose. That was the most likely case.

While having such a thought, Delaro indiscriminately advanced his horse.

“Enemy to the right!” (??)

It was his subordinate who shouted so.

Delaro, who was distracted by the thought and the burning bridge, had advanced to the inflection point of the ‘く’ character.

He became flustered, and when he looked at the curved road, there was something like a simple barrier made of wood about twenty meters ahead.

Over there, there were a small number of people, probably around thirty people. They were long-eared boys and girls of good age, and they were looking at them while sticking out their spears. How could he explain it… they were like bandits, who had control on a small area. They made a homemade barrier and tried to pretend to have a defense battle.

However, they didn’t seem to shoot arrows or guns. Plus, it didn’t seem that they were trying to attack based on how they set up the encampment.

Since there was no attack for the time being, he rode the horse in a circle to listen to what they were doing. The reason he moved in a circle motion was to avoid an arrow. As expected, they didn’t have a single bow or arrow.

It was no wonder that the enemy was visible but didn’t shoot even a single arrow, as it was common in passive enemies. Arrows were surprisingly expensive, and there weren’t many supplies when it was needed.

With that small group, they probably wouldn’t have more than a hundred arrows. People wouldn’t use precious arrows on those who were known to be scouts. It wouldn’t be strange to feel loss when people have that intention.

What was more worrisome was that the voice of instruction heard from that small group was a female-like voice.

“…That’s a female voice. But that is…” (Delaro)

Delaro squinted.

A blonde woman was generously exposing her hair and riding a flightless bird. Then, she gave instructions in a loud voice. The voice heard was intermittent, but of course, Delaro couldn’t understand the content of the words.

“Oi, Dice. Can you see that rare-looking woman?” (Delaro)

Dice was the youngest person in the party.

“She’s definitely blonde… or rather, there’s another one. Are there two blondes?” (Dice)

Since it was only twenty meters away, Delaro could see it as well. The other girl, who was somewhat stooped, was weakly straddling a horse and doing nothing.

“How can it be…” (??)

One of the party members said. Certainly, it was impossible to think that there were two blondes.

Even if he saw what was called a unicorn in a market, he still couldn’t believe that he was seeing the existence of a long-eared blonde. It felt as if there were two mystical beasts in front of him. That was the feeling.

The enemy didn’t appear to prepare during this time. They might have already set up the battle preparation, but if that was the case, he should take out a telescope and take a closer look. If he used a telescope at this distance, he would be able to see the facial expression clearly.

“What should we do now? Should we head out?” (??)

The voice of the subordinate sounded enthusiastic.

If they caught the blonde princesses here, they would get fame that was far worth more than money. Delaro didn’t think about it for a moment.

“…No, our mission is to scout. Besides, they have numbers. So, there’s no chance.” (Delaro)

“Understood.” (??)

And when a subordinate said that…

“Guhh–!” (??)

Delaro heard a strange voice. When he turned toward it, Dice, who was near the forest, was stabbed. He was stabbed with a long spear. The spear holder had rotting and wet leaves all over his body, and had now emerged from the ground, trusting the spear up against the flank of Dice who was on a horse.

The man, who stabbed him, had only a spear. He had no armor, and his body was still wet with the ground’s water. He was lying in the soil and lying down.

“xxx!!!” (??)

When the order of unknown meaning was shouted, people, who dressed similarly, appeared from the surrounding all at once, set up a spear and thrust it.

“Withdraw!!!” (Delaro)

While yelling, Delaro turned the horse’s head around.

‘Damn, this is bad.’

He looked ahead and bit his teeth.

The road was slightly curved in front of him. Since it was a downhill, horses should be able to shake off the people on foot as fast as their legs could carry. However, due to the curved road, it would take a bit more time to gain speed.

That was the difference between life and death.

“Ugh!” (??)

Next to him, he heard the voice of the older soldier, whom he used to hear. He looked at him while turning his horse.

A spear was growing through the gap on the side of the armor. His subordinate seemed to be a fierce warrior since he immediately grabbed the spear.

It was to prevent the wound from spreading, and to prevent the spear from being pulled out.

“Damn it!” (??)

The handle of the spear was cut off immediately while pulling out a curved sword.

However, a few seconds to take that action was fatal. Spear attack came one after another outside the range of the blade, and it stabbed all over the man’s body.

Delaro took his eyes off the horrific scene, turned a curve, steered the horse and speeding it.

‘At the end of the curved road, there’s probably a guy hiding with rotten leaves all over his body.’

There were similar people holding spears here as well.

“Withdraw, withdraw!” (Delaro)

Delaro screamed and slammed into the gap between spears.

It was nothing but luck for him to be able to slip away from this place. Then, he gained full speed without giving a single glance behind.