Lyla’s eyes turned round.
“Zich Brave’s companion?”
“Yeah.”
Zich thought of the dream he had before. “He is the one who came out in my dream with Aine Primel Lubella, Leona Pearl in Draud, and Walwiss Dwayne.”
“…It’s startling to hear the names of the group like that.” They were all astounding names: Karuwiman’s Saint, the elf princess from the Adrowon Forest, and the master of the magical tower. Although the giant man was the boss of the mercenaries, he was less established than the rest of the group. Of course, Lyla had no intention to undervalue the giant man because of his comparably less fame in any way. The other three people in the group weren’t simply famous, but their skills were nothing short but incredible. Just the fact that the giant man belonged to such a group indicated his skills.
“Hmph! That Brave bastard. How could a hero choose people by their status?”
“…There’s no way a hero like him would do that. They were all people who didn’t lack in skills in any way. He must have gathered his companions according to their skills for sure.”
“Who knows? Even when he is called a hero, Glen Zenard had all kinds of schemes in his mind. How can you be so sure that Brave wasn’t like that?”
“Why are you acting like a seven-year-old?”
Zich always assessed the situation calmly to the point it was sickening, but he became an immature child whenever the topic of Zich Brave came up. This trait hadn’t changed even after he decided that he would start playing the role of a hero.
“Anyways, I gathered a bit of that person’s information,” Zich said, seemingly curious about Brave’s companion even if he hated Brave. “His name is Til, no last name. It’s just one syllable.”
“He’s certainly not from a high-class family.”
“It’s rare for a group of mercenaries to have someone from a high-class family. Even if there were some from a good family, there would be a complicated story and they wouldn’t go around giving their last names. Still, he has quite a large number of men in his mercenary group.”
“How large?”
“500.”
“That’s a lot.”
It was a size much larger than what Lyla had expected. “I suppose it’s expected of Zich Brave’s companion. He’s capable.” Zich groaned at Lyla’s admiration.
“No need to praise him so much for just 500…”
“So, is that all?” As Zich began to grumble again, Lyla skillfully cut his words and directed the conversation to get more information.
Zich continued disgruntledly, “I don’t have much besides the fact that his mercenary group’s skills are highly valued. There were good rumors about them too.”
“Isn’t it strange that there are good rumors circulating about them? I mean, if you think about the guys you fought, it’s strange people think well of them.” Lyla was right. Usually, when mercenaries stayed in a city like this one, they tended to cause a considerable number of incidents. Zich thought the same but added, “Even if I ignore that fact, there’s a sense that the public’s view of them is a bit too favorable.”
“Really?” Lyla’s expression became more serious. If anyone else said this, she would have thought they were worrying needlessly, but these words belonged to Zich. Considering his chillingly adept sensing skills, the story was highly plausible. His intuition wasn’t as insignificant as other people’s and had been honed and created with the overwhelming experience he had as the Demon Lord of Strength.
“However, Til doesn’t look like someone who would run his mercenary group violently and immorally,” Lyla said. They couldn’t be completely sure of this since they had only met Til briefly, but Zich’s next words questioned her statement.
“Would Brave’s companion be a person like that?”
“There was the case with Walwiss Dwayne.”
“That guy was also not a bad person although he had a problem with child-rearing.”
“Although we can’t call him a bad person, we can’t call him a good person either.”
“Well, I mean you said Walwiss joined Brave’s group as a way of atoning his sins. Then, would Til’s case be the same?”
“I don’t know. We have to find out more.”
Lyla looked at him in surprise. “You are going to find out more? As expected, is it because he is Brave’s companion?” She smiled slightly as she said these words teasingly.
“Of course, since the robed figures might have marked him as a target,” Zich said calmly, which made Lyla disappointed. However, his next words surprised her. “Besides, he could be the other Demon Lord.”
“…Demon Lord?”
“Think about it. The hero party was made up of Zich Brave, Aine Primel Lubella, Leona Pearl In Draud, Walwiss Dwayne, and Til,” Zich said while stretching out his fingers. “From the group, Lubella and Leona changed into Glen Zenard’s companions. Zich Brave and Walwiss Dwayne both became Demon Lords. If there’s an external force that changed the destinies of Brave’s party, they wouldn’t have left Til alone.”
“…The Demon Lord of Strength was you while the Demon Lord of Magic was Walwiss Dwayne. Then, there’s only one Demon Lord left.”
“Yeah, the Demon Lord of Disaster.” Zich tapped his fingers on the table.
“What kind of person was he?”
“You also don’t have any memories about him?”
“I do. Thanks to the memories I awakened recently, I learned more in depth, but I’m sure it can’t compare to someone who actually met the Demon Lord in person.”
“I also didn’t come face to face with him much…” Zich crossed his arms and organized his thoughts. “If I had to describe him with one word, his identity was mysterious.” Zich continued to say everything he knew about the Demon Lord of Disaster. “I don’t know his face since he went around with his long hair down and left his beard to grow to absurd lengths. He also only wore a simple piece of fabric.” Yet, there was one noticeable part about his physique. “He was extremely large.”
“Like Til then?”
“Yeah, like Til.”
Even though they couldn’t say Til was the Demon Lord of Disaster with just this similarity, it was better than having no information.
“Even though it was a small number, I led a group made up of four subordinates, and the Demon Lord of Magic also managed a group of evil mages. Thus, we all had our forces. However, that guy was by himself. Nobody ever saw him with another person.”
Of course, there was a possibility that anyone who saw him with another person died, but Zich didn’t think this was true.
“That guy just suddenly appears, and then he causes all kinds of destruction and massacre and leaves his surroundings in a waste. Then he disappears. A person tried to figure out the pattern of his appearances, but in the end, they failed.”
Lyla intently listened to Zich’s words and continued to match his information with hers.
“That’s the reason why he’s called ‘Disaster’. At least people could try to predict where I or the Demon Lord of Magic was and where we were heading, but that guy didn’t have anything like that. That’s why people began to call him the Demon Lord of Disaster. His behavior pattern was the definition of disaster to people.”
“Did you fight against him before?”
“Like I said, he comes and leaves whenever he wants. So, the number of times I met him could be counted on one hand. It’s not like I searched the whole world to kill him either.”
Rather than searching the world for him, Zich had no interest in him.
“Even then, there was a time I fought with him. About two times. It was when he appeared in the same territory as me and…”
“How was he?”
“Well, as someone who was also called a Demon Lord like me, he was strong.” The Demon Lord of Disaster did not use systematic techniques. This was in complete contrast with Zich’s method which expertly used his overpowering amount of mana and let it out like a fountain. Meanwhile, the Demon Lord of Magic’s method was to let out a storm of magic spells utilizing his long history of studying magic.
“His attacks are simple. He attacks by moving fast and landing a hard hit. He defends by quickly moving away or blocking attacks with his hard skin.”
“…That’s brainless fighting.”
Even though Lyla had this knowledge inside her mind, she was flabbergasted by the Demon Lord of Distaster’s method of fighting.
“Yep. It was brainless fighting. Even with this fighting method, he was able to receive the Demon Lord title. The fists he recklessly swings are full of mana, and they were enough to completely crush swords. With minimal movement, he can evade all attacks. Even if you land an attack on him, it doesn’t get through his skin. The more annoying thing is that even if you barely manage to injure him, his healing ability is extraordinary. So, he heals his wounds instantly.”
Thinking back to their fights, Zich clicked his tongue. “Even though I’m confident about winning regardless of whatever weapon or skill my opponent uses, I was honestly a bit startled by his fighting method. It was the only battle that I realized how scary it was to fight someone who recklessly fought while only trusting his body.”
“You still won, right?”
“Of course!” Zich replied pridefully. He lifted his chin and nose in the air; it seemed as if he was very proud of himself that he could beat the Demon Lord of Disaster. “After fighting all day, I won both times.”
“But even then, you weren’t able to kill him?”
“Well, yeah.” Zich seemed a bit regretful about this as he slightly lowered his chin that was pointed towards the sky. “As I said before, he wasn’t an ordinary foe. Moreover, whenever the situation became unfavorable for him, he withdrew as if he didn’t have any pride as a Demon Lord. Both times, I wasn’t able to capture him when he ran away.”
“Oh my? Did you also say that you don’t have any pride as a Demon Lord?”
“Kuhaha! Yeah, that’s also right. The only one who had such a useless thing was that old fart, the Demon Lord of Magic. No, honestly, that old fart would have also immediately run away if he was in danger.”
“I can’t believe this is how Demon Lords were really like.”
Even while Lyla looked at him with a pathetic gaze, Zich laughed harder instead. “Demon Lords were just the best among evil and despicable people anyway! It’s hilarious for people like that to talk about pride!”
“Okay. It’s good to see that you admit this.”
“Of course! I’m the type of person who admits facts!”
Lyla did not continue this conversation. Even if she continued, her head would just hurt instead at Zich’s shamelessness.
“Then, we’re going to investigate Til’s surroundings from now on, right?”
“Yep. We’re going to get busy. We need to also check where Windur is pointing towards, and we need to scan Til’s surroundings to see if the robed figures are nearby.”
“Yeah, but they’re things we need to do, right?”
“Yep.” Zich leaned deeply into the chair’s back. “We also have a lot of experience. We already found three trees, and we fucked over a lot of robed figures. We also helped that Walwiss Dwayne guy as well. Even though we have to investigate the tree and a Demon Lord at the same time, I don’t think it’s an impossible feat.”
Then, Zich added one more line. “It’s not like we’ll have another super troublesome thing to worry about.”
However, Zich realized that he shouldn’t have said that additional sentence the very next day.
* * *
“You are…”
“Hm?”
‘What the hell? Why is Glen Zenard here?’