Volume 1 - CH 27

Act 1-27: Even I Will Angry if You Say That You Know

I see now. I’ve finally found the answer. I have finally understood the reason Ashburn Gastrea entrusted the Sword Emperor title to Signiel. It’s simply because his grandson has something that I lack. That something is the so-called talent in swordsmanship, an overwhelming one at that. I realized this after swinging my sword for a really long time. Unlike the talentless me, this man was loved by the sword.

In the end, Signiel broke into a cry. This was by no means a miserable sight. It showed just how much swordsmanship meant to him; it was his path of life.

「You should stop doing this kind of foolish thing. Your time is finite. Try to remember why  your grandfather, Ashburn Gastrea, entrusted the title of the Sword Emperor to you.」

After I said all I had to say to Signiel, who was crying like a child, I turned around to face the grey-haired man, Enzu.

「Take the Sword Emperor back to the empire. I shall overlook your foolishness today in honour of the Sword Emperor.」

You could say that this was my ego talking. However, I was a selfish person to begin with. Therefore, I decided to see it to the end.

「A summoner beat the Sword Emperor with a sword, huh. Dangerous! You’re way too dangerous!」

Enzu assumed a stance. He showed his muscular body as he looked at me with a gaze full of interest.

It seems things have become even more troublesome in another sense.

「If I’m really that dangerous, what are you going to do then? Let me say this! Signiel is the only one who has gained my recognition amongst you lot. The fact that I pardoned such vulgar and ostentatious people like you is a miracle itself, you know?」

「Prattle as much as you want! But, I finally understand that you’re not the kind of person who will allow himself to be domesticated by someone else. If I let you off this time, you’ll definitely turn into a threat to the Empire. That’s why you… have to die in this place.」

Enzu retreated and chanted an aria. A magic circle suddenly appeared in front of him. Finally, a majin with bright red skin and covered in fire walked out from the magic circle. The majin had a muscular body and a pair of horns on his forehead.

The majin seemed to be quite hot. Even though he was floating in the air, the ground beneath him turned into molten lava.

『I came in accordance to our contract. Now, what do you wish from me?』

「Kill that person!」

The fire majin crossed his arms and looked at me for a while as if he were trying to evaluate me. Then, he changed his line of sight to Astaroth and Fafnir.

『Those three over there are quite strong. Do you have the necessary sacrifice?』

He looked at Enzu without turning his head.

Hearing that remark, Astaroth gritted his teeth with a devilish smile while Fafnir just tilted her head with a dumbfounded expression as if she didn’t care about it.

Still, why did this fire majin make such a bold declaration despite being far weaker than the weakest monster in my picture book, the Battaman?

Well, that’s strange indeed. I mean, this fella should be the trump card of one of the six generals, the spirit king. Despite those thoughts, I was used to this kind of situation since some monster in that dungeon could hide their strength. I assumed that this fire majin was one of those kinds of monsters.

However, even if that were the case, his remarks contradicted that. From his words, I assumed that he had a way to measure our abilities and strength. Currently, I had set the average of my stats to 100 with 【Glove of Sealing God】. Astaroth and Fafnir were the same. They had each equipped an item that limited their average stats to 100. The reason we did this was simple. It was to deceive our opponents and lower their vigilance against us. Yet, this fire majin said that we were quite strong. An average of 100 is quite strong? Since that’s the case, this guy must be―

「I understand. I offer my subordinates’ life force(mana). That should be enough.」

「W-Wait a minute!」

One of Enzu’s subordinates tried to interrupt this scene in a hurry, but…

「Just accept your fate! It’s for the sake of our motherland.」

Enzu swiftly cut off his subordinate’s plea and told him to die.

The men in black robes flinched. Despair took over their face as they fell to their knees.

「Astaroth, our items are working properly, right?」

「Yes, they are supposed to be working properly. At least, these fools can’t see through our real strength.」

Fuhahaha! I see! So that is the case! This man called Enzu isn’t one of the six generals. He‘s a mere attendant of the Sword Emperor. I almost mistook him for one of the six generals since he was too haughty. And that fire monster(?), it’s definitely a small-time spirit, not the spirit king himself. No wonder he smells like a small fry. Our fake stats alone were enough for him to say that we’re quite strong.

Well, my source of information was the empire’s soldier after all. I shouldn’t have expected him to tell the truth. I guess it’s my fault for taking information without even considering the option that the other party might feed me some fake information.

Knowing that, I can guess that this fire guy is a mere evil spirit. He’s too weak to be called the spirit king. I mean, like hell a supreme spirit king would demand something like life force.

「No need to take your compensation. You can’t escape anymore after all.」

I pointed my wooden sword toward the evil fire spirit.

『I can’t escape, you say? Quite a big mouth you got there, human!』

The evil fire spirit was sneering as he looked down at me. He was smiling, but his eyes were anything but smiling. He was irritated right now.

「Yeah. That’s only natural. I can’t let an evil spirit like you roam around causing disasters left and right. That’s why I’m gonna exterminate you right here.」

『E-Evil spirit? Me?』

His voice is trembling. I guess he’s pissed off now. Yup, this feels great. Anyhow, I did say that I wouldn’t let him escape, but it’s not like there are no other means.

「Hou, am I wrong then? What are you then? A monster? No, the heat you possess is even weaker than that of those flame-type monsters on the upper floor of that dungeon. Since you’re neither a monster nor a spirit king, you must be an evil spirit. Isn’t that right?」

He was so weak that I couldn’t decide which one was weaker between him and those black beasts I had slain before. They both were literally as weak as those flies flying around in this area.

『I’M THE SPIRIT KING; IFRIT!!』

「Blablablabla. That’s what all evil spirits say. Shouldn’t you at least admit it yourself while you’re still alive?」

I couldn’t convince him since this was my first time meeting an evil spirit.

The self-proclaimed spirit king trembled non-stop from head to toe. Blue veins bulged on his forehead.

『Fine then! I shall take no compensation this time! I shall tear them apa―』

「A~~~A! You’re far too weak to do that. I suggest you give up on such a wild delusion, evil spirit! I mean, you almost made me die from laug―」

The self-proclaimed spirit king breathed in. He then blew a scorching red flame at me before I could even finish my sentence. Naturally, since I had fire and heat assimilation skill, this flame was like a reward for me. By the way, the reason my accessories and clothes didn’t get burned was that my assimilation skill affected them too.

『H-How can this be!?』

The self-proclaimed evil spirit couldn’t hide his shock when he saw me safe and sound.

「Your boring flame isn’t even enough to warm my feet.」

『IMPOSSIBLE!! You feeble human should have burned till not even your bones were left after receiving the flame of this Spirit King Ifrit!!』

This fake spirit king is still denying reality, huh! Come to think of it, something like this has happened before. Yeah, THAT case! The self-proclaimed evil god, Girimekhala. He was such a rebellious dude when I first summoned him from the 【Subjugation Picture Book】, but then, he turned into a better person after I beat out his rotten guts.

Maybe, I should just leave this self-proclaimed spirit king to the former self-proclaimed evil god. Let Girimekhala straighten this fella’s rotten guts.

I took out 【Subjugation Picture Book】 from my item box and opened Girimekhala’s page.

「Your flame doesn’t work! That guy isn’t your average Joey! Ifrit, go all out!」

When Enzu saw the flame not working on me, he spoke in a flustered voice. However, I ignored the noisy man as I chanted 【Release】.

『I-I know that! Take this strongest fla— HIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIII?』

The self-proclaimed spirit king suddenly screamed like an idiot. The reason was the giant, bipedal monster with a long nose kneeling in front of me.

『OOH! Praise the supreme master! Thank you very much for calling a humble bug like me, Master!』

The (former)self-proclaimed evil god was kneeling in front of me. Well, he had now regressed into calling himself a bug since I had gone over the top with his re-education.

「I’ll leave the re-education of the evil spirit over there to you. It’s really troublesome since he keeps proclaiming himself as the spirit king.」

The (former)self-proclaimed evil god, Girimekhala, glared at the evil spirit with his three eyes. That glare alone was enough to startle the self-proclaimed spirit king just like a rabbit being stared at by a lion.

『HOW DARE… A mere evil spirit is denying our supreme ruler’s words! Unforgivable! Unforgivable! There’s no way I’ll overlook such transgression!!』

Girimekhala screamed at the top of his lungs in anger. However, toward the last part of his scream, with bloodshot eyes, he strode toward the trembling lamb(the self-proclaimed spirit king), who had lost his fighting spirit.

….

….

Thus, the situation was immediately resolved with Girimekhala’s victory. Rather, it couldn’t even be regarded as a match in the first place.

Girimekhala had beaten the crap out of the evil spirit proclaiming to be a spirit king inside the dome-shaped black cloud barrier that prevented anyone from escaping. The scene was too much for an ordinary human to handle. Therefore, I made a part of Rose and co’s group, who had delicate hearts, sleep for the time being.

『You’re a maggot. Understand?』

Girimekhala asked the evil fire spirit while grabbing his head.

『Yes. I’m(watashi) just a lowly maggot!!』

Girimekhala, who was apparently satisfied with the answer of the evil spirit proclaiming to be the spirit king, turned around and kneeled in front of me.

『Supreme Ruler, may you grant this bug the permission to take care of this maggot? This humble bug feels that this maggot is in the need of further education.』

Entrusting this guy to Girimekhala, huh! Personally, I want to quickly eradicate this trash evil spirit that feeds on humans’ life force. But yeah, I think this is the right time for me to test the newly added function of the 【Subjugation Picture Book】.

「I understand. Beat his rotten guts into shape.」

After seizing the nape of the evil spirit, who was crying at the top of his lungs, Girimekhala returned to the 【Subjugation Picture Book】.

When I opened Girimekhala’s page in the 【Subjugation Picture Book】 again, now there was the word “Ifrit” written in the entry of 【Kin】.

That evil spirit has the same name as the spirit king, huh! Good grief! That idiot should know that having the same name doesn’t mean that he has the same strength as the spirit king. His name might sound strong and all, but at the end of the day, he’s only a paper tiger.

Now, I only have to take care of the Sword Emperor’s attendant, the grey-haired man. This small fry was acting like one of the six generals. He makes me furious.

「W-W-WAIT! I mean, p-please wait a minute! I’m sure that you―」

Enzu kneeled on all fours, desperately pleading for his life.

「I refuse. You went too far.」

Despite his pleas, I beheaded him with my wooden sword before he could finish his sentence. Then, I looked at the black-robed men who were trembling non-stop like a little lamb being glared at by its predator.

「Take the Sword Emperor back to the Empire. That’ll be your duty. If something goes wrong with him mid-way…」

The moment I pointed at the Sword Emperor with my wooden sword, the man who seemed to be an aide of Enzu came forward and propped the Sword Emperor’s body. Then, all of them escaped into the forest as fast as they could.