The Porter Has No Interest in the Hero’s Party

“This kind of thing should have spikes at the end, but this doesn’t have any? Hitting with something like this would just cause slight pain.”

“And what’s this candle for? Looking at it, it says ‘aroma scent.’ What are we supposed to do with this?”

“And where would you use this ball gag? We need to extract the location of money from her mouth, what use is gagging her for torture? What fool would do that.”

Lena was grumbling as she examined the equipment. I stood a little distance away with my arms folded, nodding. I could understand her frustration, but I didn’t think it was my fault. Wasn’t it the fault of whichever party member had such a lewd hobby?

“S-stop it…! Urgh…!”

Lena clicked her tongue as she hung Halifa from the tent ceiling. Following her leisurely movements, as if hanging Christmas decorations, the limp body swung like a pendulum. The legs fluttering in the breeze looked somewhat like squid or jellyfish.

“Kuh…!”

“Are you impressed? Because I hung you so well?”

“Sh-shut up…!”

Halifa was desperate to scream, but her body wouldn’t obey. This was because Lena had stabbed her body in various places, breaking it. According to her theory, the human body is like a precisely made wind-up doll, and it breaks down if even one wheel is damaged.

“I’ll shut up if you tell us where to find something valuable.”

Lena said this as she swept the desk. Following her sweeping hands, piles of documents scattered, revealing their contents to us. Halifa said:

“Soon my subordinates will burst in and you’ll…!”

Lena paid no attention to Halifa’s threats. She pointed at her as if watching a playful puppy, then looked at me and smiled. Looking at my reflection in the glass, I saw that I was smiling too.

“You think we just snuck in here unnoticed? Huh?”

Lena said this as she picked up a scented candle. Then she gripped the candle tightly and smashed her fist into Halifa’s stomach.

“Gah…!”

Halifa’s eyes rolled back as she drooled white saliva, unable to even scream. She gasped for breath, squirming, then trembling her chin, she said to Lena:

“T-this won’t make me…!”

“If you don’t talk, we’ll just kill you and take your head.”

The broken candle fell to the floor. In Lena’s hand was a frame that had fallen on the desk. When she flipped it over, there was a photo of Halifa and some male demon posing amicably. I approached Lena’s side, then asked Halifa:

“Is that your lover?”

“……”

She didn’t answer. But her eyes were wavering, and desperate light occasionally revealed itself. She shouted at us to kill her, but she was hoping we would spare her. The motivation was in the frame.

Lena smiled and said:

“No useful information in this tent? Think carefully. Isn’t there some information that could save your life?”

Halifa’s face trembled. Lena smiled and brought her face closer.

“There must be some useful information somewhere. Where would you keep such things?”

“Ptui!”

Spit flew into Lena’s face. Halifa saw Lena frozen after being hit with saliva and cackled, saying:

“…Do you think I would tell you that? Just kill me.”

Lena nodded. Halifa’s spit dripped down her face. Unfazed, Lena walked toward a box beside the desk. Halifa, who had been sneering, lost her expression when she saw Lena reach for the box. Lena wiped her face with a piece of tent cloth and said:

“People and demons are all the same. They unconsciously look for ways to survive. Moving these eyeballs is something you can’t easily control. Especially not a maniac who just sprays poison in desperation.”

Lena’s finger pointed to her own eyes. Then she nodded at Halifa and sneered.

“Ah, that…!”

When Lena pushed the box with her foot, letters rolled out from inside. The white dust rising looked like a special effect in a play. Halifa, turning pale, shook her head.

“Y-you’re wasting your time. Those are useless. Futile effort.”

“We’ll decide that. Mister, what’s the content of what’s inside?”

I followed Lena’s direction and opened the documents.

[Halifa. Our army is now preparing for the next operation.
Some humans who have received bribes from us have agreed to side with us.
If you happen to meet people called Count Meindal and Baron Luke on the battlefield,
try to contact them secretly.]

It felt like catching a big fish while fishing.

Unwittingly, a laugh escaped my lips.

“Oh my.”

[Halifa. I heard you’re struggling with your advance, even spraying poison.
Due to such reckless operations, there are complaints from the higher-ups.
I’ll send you reliable soldiers with my authority,
and I hope you succeed in this operation. The soldiers will come via the valley path.
They are elite troops, so you can win the battle using these soldiers.]

“This letter arrived today.”

Some stupid demon who loved an officer had packed high-level information in a letter and sent it, and this demon had neatly collected her lover’s letters. I had thought we might at best find valuable items or the locations of other units, but this was a significant harvest.

“This is amazing. This will have a big impact on the front line.”

“S-stop it…! N-no…! Q-quickly, someone…!”

Halifa screamed and struggled, but her body, already broken from Lena’s hits, couldn’t even scream properly. Each time she spoke, a whistling sound mixed in, and the guards and soldiers in the tent were leisurely doing their own work or lounging around.

The prolonged confrontation had also loosened the morale of the demons. Lena stuffed all the letters into the bag that had contained the rope, then patted my shoulder and walked out of the tent. I took matches from my pocket and lit a fire, and Lena threw an oil bottle against the wall, shattering it.

Halifa shouted:

“W-what are you going to do with me…!”

Lena and I turned around simultaneously. Through the heat haze and white dust, her seductively bound figure was truly ridiculous. Her lewd appearance, like a desert stripper or a courtesan of a fallen nation, was perfect for soldiers to mock.

Like those magic stones the demon soldiers outside the tent were rolling with their feet.

Lena twirled her dagger and said:

“I told you. I’ll spare you. I’m a person who keeps promises.”

“Ah, ahhh…!”

She cannot commit suicide. A demon’s tenacious life force won’t end from biting one’s tongue, and limbs with shattered nerves will never return. She was destined to hang in the middle of the tent like a signpost, watching the camp she had established burn miserably.

I threw the match. It flew like a firefly in the night scenery, and as soon as it touched the cloth, hot heat rose. We walked out of the tent with both hands raised high, and soldiers who smelled the oil from the tent turned their bodies to look at us.

Lena said:

“Hello?”

Words have a stronger power than swords. When one’s identity isn’t revealed, that power works fatally on cowards. Me with a sword and Lena with a dagger. Despite us not displaying our force, the soldiers sweated coldly with all sorts of imaginations.

“W-who are you! What have you done to our commander!”

“C-catch them first!”

A soldier on the watchtower aimed his bow at us. Lena stretched her arm toward the watchtower, pretending to shoot an arrow.

“Pew!”

At the same time as she flicked her hand while making the sound of drawing a bowstring, the body of the soldier on the watchtower twisted in midair. Like a petal flying in the wind, it whirled and floated in the air, then made a strange sound as it tumbled to the ground.

The tent was engulfed in flames, spewing black smoke.

“An archer! There’s an archer!”

“Where!”

Lena stepped forward, keeping me behind her, and said:

“Hurry up. Quick. Your boss is burning to death. Right?”

No sooner had Lena finished speaking than another soldier’s head flew off. Seeing it stuck on an arrow like a large candy sold at an event venue, bouncing on the ground, one could only describe it as surreal rather than frightening.

“K-kill them! Kill!”

The confused soldiers were rushing in to try to catch Lena somehow. Lena took out daggers in both hands, winked at me, then leaped forward, slicing the arm of a spearman who was charging at her neck.

I swung my scabbard at a soldier who missed Lena and stumbled, and the face of the soldier who was hit in the cheekbone crumbled like a sculpture and crashed into the fence.

Simultaneously with snatching the spearman’s weapon, I kicked his vital point, and when a gap appeared due to the pain, I struck his temple with my sword, killing him.

The soldiers who had been standing on the watchtowers were falling one after another like rain.

Soldiers who belatedly realized the situation tried to rush at us as they emerged from the tents, but Lena, her body thoroughly soaked in blood, was running toward me like a squirrel, dodging attacks nimbly.

“Mister! Let’s escape now!”

“Yes, understood!”

Just as we turned our bodies, an explosion sounded from the front of the outpost. A golden flash rose high like lightning, and soldiers were screaming and scattering in all directions. Lena shouted at the magnificent sword energy that made her eyes gleam ecstatically:

“The hero is here!”

“Waaaaaah!”

“Kill them! Kill those demon bastards!”

It wasn’t just the hero. Soldiers who had been waiting nearby, as per the message sent in advance, were also trampling the enemy with the hero. Soldiers without a commander were busy fleeing with wails or begging for their lives.

And the human-like appearance of the demons was rather stimulating our anger and cruelty, leading them to a terrible death.

A scene of one-sided slaughter continued. Soldiers without weapons and warriors with weapons were all equally butchered. The end of the demons who had polluted the land with poison and mocked the dead was filled with inevitable tragedy.

We ran toward the fence, breathing in the mud stained with blood and the acrid air.

In the distance, Mille and Ashuria were waving their hands. We waved once to let them know we were fine, then fled beyond the fence to retrieve our luggage.

The hero would handle the rest.