13 — Chapter 13

And so, Angelica and I began our ascent, but—

The moment we started climbing, I realized there were several problems.

“Mm, such refreshing air! It feels like it’s cleansing my soul!”

“No, it’s clearly stagnant. The demon lands are seriously gloomy…”

“Oh, look, there are even flowers blooming by the roadside.”

“Ugh, those flowers are gross and creepy… And the bugs crawling on them are huge and disgusting…”

Angelica’s values—or rather, the values of a young human woman—didn’t quite mesh with a demon mountain.

No, we were still at the beginning. The real thrill of mountain climbing comes after walking for a while. If someone said, “I finally understand the appeal!” after only five or ten minutes, that would be suspicious in its own right.

I had to be patient. Eventually, I’d have a chance to talk with my stepdaughter—

With a loud buzzing of wings, several giant flies roughly the size of humans flew toward us.

“Hmph. These are Styx Flies. Monsters that inhabit this area.”

“Wah! They’re attacking! What’s the big idea?! Didn’t the demon race and the Kingdom sign a non-aggression pact?!”

“Now, now, that only applies to the demon race. Monsters are a separate matter. These are essentially wild animals. It’s the same as how it would be pointless to order wild animals in the human lands not to attack demons.”

“So that means we have to fight… Fine, bring it on!”

Angelica drew her sword and slashed at a Styx Fly.

She managed to cleave one of them in two with a magnificent stroke. For someone her age, her swordplay was quite good, though still a bit green in places.

“Alright! This is a piece of cake! They picked the wrong Hero to mess with!”

“Don’t let your guard down. Styx Flies always act in swarms. Expect at least ten of them.”

The buzzing hadn’t stopped. A swarm of Styx Flies was closing in on Angelica.

“Gah! I can’t wipe them all out at once since Selene isn’t here with her attack magic… This is such a drag…”

“Just make sure to take them down one by one. The flies’ actual attack power is low, though humans apparently get poisoned by them sometimes.”

“Then I can’t exactly take my time, can I?! Ugh, so annoying, so annoying!”

Angelica swatted down the Styx Flies one after another. This looked like it would be good experience point grinding.

“Wait a second… It looks like the flies aren’t even going near the Demon King.”

“Monsters instinctively sense the terror of the demon race. Because of that, a Demon King is rarely attacked by monsters.”

“Hold on… Does that mean I’m the only one who’s going to be targeted from now on…?”

Angelica looked at me with cold, judgmental eyes.

I felt like our relationship of trust had actually decreased.

“I hope I’m wrong, but are you planning to take me to a deserted mountain and get rid of me…? So you can live alone with Mama…?”

She was imagining something incredibly rude!

“No, that’s not it! You are my daughter too! I would never lay a hand on my own child!”

“Don’t call me your daughter! I still haven’t accepted you as my father!”

“Even if you say that, you’d be even angrier if I didn’t recognize you as my daughter and treated you poorly! What on earth am I supposed to do?”

“Well, that’s true, but… anyway, help me kill these flies! You’ve got your hands free, so do something!”

“…Fine.”

I began swatting the flies out of the air. There was nothing here capable of withstanding the attack power of a Demon King.

“Hmph. Small fry, after all. Now, Angelica, shall we press on?”

—Angelica was surrounded by even more Styx Flies than before.

“They just keep coming! It’s like I’m the first prey they’ve spotted in ages!”

In fact, that might actually be the case. It was almost unheard of for a human to set foot in a place like this.

“Damn it! I can use a little bit of offensive magic, but… I want to save my strength here.”

“Ah, no fire-based spells. Under the National Park Act, using magic that could cause a forest fire is prohibited.”

“Why do you have such a high sense of legal compliance?! You’re the Demon King!”

“Listen, it would be a bigger problem if the King didn’t follow the law at all.”

“Then help me more with these flies! Seriously, there’s no end to them! Fighting without a party is rough!”

Well, that was because the attacks weren’t being dispersed and were concentrating on a single person.

Still, it didn’t look like I could afford to just watch leisurely. Even for small fry, monsters living in demon lands had reasonably high attack power.

I joined in the attack on the Styx Flies, thinning out their numbers.

After about five minutes of combat, we finally managed to exterminate them.

“Huff… puff… That was a pretty grueling fight… I’ve truly rediscovered the importance of a party. I’ll have to be nicer to everyone…”

“That’s right. A battle that’s painful alone becomes much easier with four people.”

“Hearing that from a demon is somehow irritating…”

However, that unpleasant buzzing sound could be heard once again.

“Wait! Just how many of those flies are there?! There are too many!”

I thought to myself.

Choosing a mountain in the demon lands… was that a mistake?

Angelica was being targeted so relentlessly by monsters that this was hardly a mountain climb anymore. It felt more like we were breaking into a high-difficulty dungeon.

At the very least, there was none of that relaxed atmosphere where a father and daughter might open up to each other.

It felt like constant combat; the air was thick with bloodlust…

“Alright! I killed them! I killed every last one! Come on, Demon King, let’s move! I’m not staying in a place like this!”

“O-Oh… right…”

While thinking that this was quite different from my original plan, I decided to move forward.

“But, I feel like I can trust you a little more now.”

“Trust? About what?”

“It wouldn’t be strange for a legendary-class weapon to be on a mountain like this. There aren’t many adventurers who could conquer this place. Let’s do this!”

I couldn’t exactly suggest turning back now… If I told her the whole thing was a made-up story, she might not just disown me—she’d probably try to kill me right then and there…

Wondering what to do next, I continued along the mountain trail with Angelica.