The Dream Demon Princess

I was holding Stella in my arms.

Her slender frame wouldn’t stop trembling. Her breathing was heavy; she was clearly quite shaken. I said nothing and simply waited for her to calm down. We must have stayed like that for about ten minutes.

“…M-my apologies.”

Stella eventually raised her face again.

“I—no, I am, well…”

“Have you calmed down a bit?”

When I asked, she gave a small nod. Her face was a bit red, and she kept stealing glances at me.

“Are you sure you’re okay? Your face is still flushed.”

“Ah…! Y-yes, um… I-I’m fine!”

For some reason, Stella’s face turned even redder.

The next morning, the crystals that had encased the manor had vanished without a trace. In fact, the moment we stepped outside, the manor itself disappeared. Before we knew it, we were back at our original location. It was as if the night spent in the Duchy had been nothing more than a dream.

Why on earth had Feria gone through the trouble of locking us up for the night? Why had she lured us to the Duchy? I didn’t know the reason, but we couldn’t afford to stand still. We set out again toward the outer rim of the western Demon Realm where she was said to be.

After traveling for a while, massive shadows appeared ahead.

“Those are… Golems again!” Rilim shouted.

And there were many of them. At a glance, there must have been at least thirty. Apparently, they were tangible illusions once again.

“We can’t just keep relying on the Demon Lord. Everyone, let’s go!”

Rilim gave the order to the soldiers.

“Yeah!”

“This time we’ll show them—Formation Zamato Mark II!”

The aerial demons took flight, unleashing flames and lightning from above. Some took advantage of their flight speed to perform head-on rams. Rilim also transformed her arms into slime, attacking like whips.

“Kyaaaaa…!”

However, the punches thrown by the Golems created shockwaves that blew Rilim and the others away in a single group.

“What incredible power…!”

Rilim seemed to have softened the impact by turning her body into slime. The other demons managed to regain their footing in mid-air, escaping disaster. The Golems pressed their attack further. The difference in strength was obvious; faced with the Golems’ overwhelming raw power, Rilim and the others were forced entirely onto the defensive.

“If they’re going to come with brute force, then I’ll—”

I thrust my right hand straight out.

“Storm!”

A lower-tier wind spell. The raging gale swept through and pulverized the thirty-plus Golems all at once.

“Whoa… amazing,” Rilim gasped. “We aren’t being helpful at all… and we’re supposed to be guards.”

“No, the spirit to face the enemy is important. When an enemy appears that you can handle, I’ll leave it to you,” I said, offering some support.

In reality, my mana isn’t infinite. If enemies were to swarm us without limit, the possibility of running out of mana isn’t zero.

That said, almost every enemy that appeared on the road was essentially an instant kill. Every time a group of dozens appeared, I blew them away with lower-tier magic. Since they weren’t real demons or monsters but illusions, there was no need to hold back at all. I simply burned, swept, crushed, and erased everything in our path.

“Are you alright, my Lord?” Stella asked. “Even if you defeat every enemy in one hit, it is a fact that you are fighting continuous battles. If your exhaustion is great, please rest early.”

“Yeah, I’m not tired yet. I’m fine,” I nodded. “I’m only using lower-tier spells, after all.”

“I apologize for being unable to be of more help.”

“Stella, you’re handling the scouting. You’re helping plenty.”

“…Thank you.” Stella smiled.

It might have been my imagination, but her expression felt softer than usual. Her basic coolness was still there, but…

A few days later, we reached the outer rim of the Western Region. The area was overgrown with trees with strange silhouettes that looked like screaming humans. A pale red mist drifted about, making visibility quite poor.

“The ‘Forest of Apparitions’ that spreads across the western rim. It is home to many trees with poisonous or paralyzing effects. Please be careful,” Stella warned.

For the record, the “Frozen Plain of Death” where I fought Bel is the northern rim.

“I will find a safe path with my ‘Eyes,’ so please follow exactly as I lead.”

“I’m counting on you.”

Following her Clairvoyance, we proceeded through the forest. We must have traveled several kilometers like that when—

“Hey, look at that~” Rilim pointed ahead.

Beyond the pale red mist was a massive crystal that was exceptionally red—the color of blood. Inside it, a slender silhouette was visible.

“Feria…!”

She looked exactly like the demon woman I had seen at the Duchy yesterday.

“We finally found you.”

One of the Demon Lord’s inner circle, the Seven Great Demon Commanders. Holding the title of “Dream Demon Princess,” she is of the Succubus kin. A powerful demon who manipulates dreams and dominates the mind.

“She looks like she’s fast asleep.”

She didn’t speak to us like she did when we met before.

“If we wake her up, the dream world will be deactivated,” Stella explained.

“How should we wake her? If I break that crystal, everyone takes damage, right?”

“Most likely…”

“Alright, everyone! This is the part where we can finally be useful~!” Rilim shouted energetically.

“Yeah!” The demon soldiers cheered.

Did she actually have a plan to wake her up?

“Watch this, Lady Feria~! I’m going to do my special slime trick, the one I almost never show anyone—!”

Rilim’s arms and legs turned into slime, stretching in every direction. She even tied her arms into a bow and twisted her legs into various shapes—an absolute parade of tricks.

“Wh-what are you doing…?”

“If I do a fun trick like this, I’m sure Lady Feria will wake right up!” Rilim answered confidently to my dumbfounded question.

“I-is that so…?”

I hate to say it, but I don’t feel like that plan is going to work. Sure enough, Feria didn’t react at all. She remained fast asleep.

“Hmm, I guess tricks are no good~”

“Captain, I suggest the plan to lure her out with food!” one of the soldiers said.

“I see! She might wake up to the delicious smell of a meal… Alright, plan adopted!” Rilim nodded with a grin. “Everyone, prepare the food!”

No, no, no… that plan isn’t going to work either. Then—

“…You lot. You aren’t just playing around, are you?” Stella glared slightly at Rilim and the others.

“Oh, come on, we’re being totally serious.”

“That’s right, that’s right!”

“We have a chance of success!”

“Mu… is that so? My apologies.” Stella apologized honestly, though she still looked perplexed. “However, I do not think this will wake Feria—”

It was a reasonable opinion. …Or so I thought, until—

“Wait.”

I stared intently at Feria inside the crystal.

“Her eyebrow just twitched.”

Did Rilim’s plan actually work? Was Feria finally waking up—?

The next instant, a powerful light burst forth in front of us. And then—it appeared.

It wasn’t Feria.

It was a knight clad in black atop a steed, radiating an abnormal level of killing intent.

“N-no way—” Stella groaned, her face turning pale.

“Do you know them?”

“I have only ever seen records, but…” Stella spoke with a trembling voice. All the color had drained from her face. “That is—no, that person is Lady Vrisera. The former Demon Lord who bore the alias ‘The Knight-King of Massacre’.”