V4.C1 The war in Heiligh Kingdom (I)

The rays of sunlight fell on Eri's face as she gazed into the distance. Squinting her eyes, she glanced at the Top Brass of Heiligh Kingdom with fifteen students standing beside her on Castle walls. Yes, only fifteen of them were brave enough to come, the rest just chickened out.

If she were to be honest, a part of her also wanted to leave, but the thought of letting her friends die pained her heart.

Irene thought the same, if not for her friends who had to fight this war, she might have gone somewhere. Her individual strength was more than enough to cross the Raisen Gorge.

"Eririn~ Please stay behind my barrier when the fight starts, chant your spells from there."

Suzu said, trying to lighten up the heavy mood. But her shaking voice fooled no one. Despite that, none had the courage to point it out, they were all dealing with the same issue here. This war was not some joke, just a mistake and your life will be forfeited forever.

An army of nearly fifteen thousand soldiers stood before the giant gate of the Heiligh Kingdom, all of them were equipped with top-class armor and weapons. Meld, the Knight Commander, stood at forefront with his hands resting on the greatsword planted in the ground.

The commoners stood in front of their home afar, anxiously watching the back of soldiers. Most of them had already fled the city. The rest believed in the Royal Family to solve this crisis or just couldn't bear to leave their home.

Kouki donned in his shining armor stood at the top spot on the wall, a fire of courage burned within his gaze.

The heavy silence despite the crowd of thousands gathered here showed how serious this war will be.

Kouki looked at the crowd from above as a brief look of hesitation flashed on his face. He took a deep breath and declared, "Don't worry, O people of the Heiligh Kingdom. We, the Heroes shall win this war and protect everyone with all our power."

His brilliant smile and cheat-level charisma added with the confidence in his voice brightened up the depressing atmosphere. The people unconsciously relaxed as the worries left their body.

"Hero-sama!"

"""You have to win, Hero-sama!!!"""

The commoners and soldiers all cheered for him, while girls had a smitten expression on their face.

Shizuku smiled wryly at Kouki's attitude before she straightened her back with a solemn gaze. Scouts reported nearly 50000 monsters, with some dragons leading them. Only one scout could make it back while others stayed back to buy time for him.

She closed her eyes and brushed her fingers over the cold blade of the sword.

'I won't fall here… This sword is all I need to… kill. Otou-san and Okaa-san will be sad, Ji-san too. Besides, without me who will take care of this idiot Kouki and the airhead Kaori?'

After fifteen minutes passed, Eri noticed a black dot in the distance. She narrowed her gaze, her eyesight beyond normal humans locked on the black dot and a look of fear surfaced on her usually calm face.

The black dot was a giant dragon. Just a glance at its jet-black body accelerated her heartbeat. Nearly a hundred ash-gray dragons followed behind it.

Roaaar!!!

The explosive roar ensued by the black dragon forced everyone on the wall to take a step back.

"W-What is that? It's a joke, right?"

"How do we even fight that thing?"

Asked the students as they started to escape from reality.

But this was just the opening. Accompanying the black dragon were a hundred of ash grey dragons. If that was not horrifying enough, a wave of endless monsters trampling everything in their way followed behind.

As the vast ocean made up of all kinds of monsters drew near the wall. The earth quaked from the weight of monsters marching together. The sheer size of the monster army was enough to be described as the end of Mankind.

"The barrier won't last more than two days against these monsters."

Irene calmly said her opinion, making everyone turn their heads toward her. She continued,

"Nagumo, your artifact will be the most useful here, you understand that?"

"Y-Yes," answered Hajime in a tense voice.

"Go and try to create as much ammunition as you can. The outcome of this war might rest in your hands."

Hajime flinched hearing such grand words, he never thought him creating a gun would be such a big deal. He just created it on his otaku whims and not to be called as an incompetent. Now, the lives of everyone in the Heiligh Kingdom depended on him, this burden was a bit too heavy for his weak shoulders.

He straightened his posture and ran back to his tent to transmute bullets. Kaori gave a last look at the monsters and followed behind him.

Booom!!!

The black and aurora colored breath of dragons clashed against the sky blue barrier of Castle, causing a deafening boom that nearly ruptured the eardrums of people standing nearby. Chaos descended in the Castle and a figure took this chance to silently slip away in the disturbance.

"Stand your ground like a knight!"

Meld yelled to organize the disarrayed soldiers and students.

"Graaaaaawrrrr!!!"

Another attack hit the barrier and sent ripples through the layers of the barrier. They calmed down after seeing the scary attack having no effect on the barrier.

"Meld-san, we'll take down the dragons first while your soldiers fight the monsters. Everyone else will shoot down the flying monsters with your gun."

Shizuku calmly stated her strategy, drops of sweat dripped down her cheeks. The aura of dragons was scary enough to terrify them even with the barrier standing between them.

The attacks stopped suddenly, the dragons parted ways and two black eagles came forward with a pair of man and woman riding on it. They both had long pointed ears and tanned brown skin.

The man had long blonde hair with an average face while the woman had a beautiful face with fiery red hair and crimson eyes.

Silence spread through the area as all gazes firmly locked on the demons.

"Inferior creatures! Surrender now, we might think about giving you a quick death!"

The man shouted as a vicious grin etched on his face, his gaze looking at them as if they were already dead people.

"Honey, you are so kind. Offering quick death to these creatures. As expected of my fiancé, you are the best man."

Her flirtatious voice echoed in the now quiet area, some students wanted to vomit sugar at their interaction.

Eri's brows turned into a deep frown. 'Something is not right here. That demon is way too confident in his victory, that is not the face of someone who is acting.'

Her training from Maria also included reading and analyzing expressions of different kinds of people. Her intuition told her she was overlooking something important in this war.

She started looking around but was unable to find anything.

"Shizuku, you see something fishy going around here?"

Shizuku turned to Eri and nodded her head.

"I feel this is their plan for something big or they just want to break our mentality for the future battles."

Surroundings turned noisier as people started cursing the demons.

"What balls do you have to say things like that?"

"You mob demons will never win against us."

"Heroes always win in the end and slay the demon king."

Some students took this opportunity to burn some stress and boost their morale. The single students took out all their grievances by this.

The male demon shook his head. "As expected of mongrels your mind is so slow. Do you know what our goal is here today?"

'Attack on Ur Town and the monsters coming here instead of the closest nation Hoelscher Empire… It's…'

"You demons…" Eri's eyes opened wide in realization. "...In spite of all the risks, you will only come here for us heroes or... Ai-chan sensei."

"Bingo! At least one of you can think with their shitty brain. That woman called 'Goddess of Fertility' can tilt the balance of this war with her magic for farming. So we'll claim her today as our own or simply kill her."

Cattleya added, "Heroes from another world, won't you join our demon kingdom? We can give you some preferential treatment if you agree now, right Mikhail?"

The male demon, Mikhail also nodded his head. "You just have to nod your head, don't worry about anything else."

Every classmate unconsciously swiveled their heads to Kouki, he was the pillar of their group. Only he could make decisions like this. Some of them wanted to nod their head in fear of the army of monsters but they also didn't want to be the first to betray.

Kouki looked at the demon couple with a face full of hatred and disgust.

"As I thought, Demons are an evil race, I'll never betray the human race. Me and my comrades are people of this kingdom. You are being foolish if you expect us to join you."

"The hero is such a dense fool, forget about him, I'll ask the smartest one here. You black haired girl with glasses, what do you think about our offer?"

Everyone gazes fixed on Eri, she took off her glasses and raised her right hand in the air.

Mikhail smirked and nodded his head, but his expression cramped seeing the middle finger pointed his way.

He sighed with a tinge of regret. "I did not expect that from such a clever woman. Cattleya, we'll have to break their spirits by 'that' first."

Cattleya grinned with eyes full of contempt. "Come forward, Hero of the Glorious Demon Kingdom, Garland!"

Everyone thought they heard wrong, from when did the Demon race have a hero?

Their confusion didn't last long before a figure garbed in all black walked out of the sea of monsters. Two voluptuous demon race women hugged his arms with fervent looks on their faces.

The youth shook off the girls and removed his hood and revealed an average face. But it was enough to shake the hearts of all students including Kouki.