Kuro no Maou

Of course the public was confused. Who are these Crusaders? What happened to Dragon King Garvinal? Such questions were on everyone’s minds. But that didn’t delay their preparations. Spada, the long standing shield of the city-states of Pandora, was all but used to war by now.

Be it Daidalos or this new army of Crusaders, Spada as a whole rallied itself on the sole intent of giving no leeway to any invading army. No enemy shall step one foot on Spada soil.

This fiery rapture was reflected perfectly within the guild building located inside the noble echelon of the Capital.

For it was on this day that an emergency quest had been issued.

⚔ Emergency Quest ⚔

Join Gladiator in the War for Spada

︎ Reward: Temporary wages of a Knight. Bonuses granted, based on exploits.

︎ Duration: Unfixed

︎ Client: 52nd Ruler of Spada. King Leonhart Tristan Spada

⧗ Details: Gather, adventurers, brave and mighty. For glory, for victory, for Spada!

The contents were the same as with the regular wars with Daidalos.

The details were left sparse, but any adventurer knew the gravity of a quest offered by a king.

In other words, once they agree to join and are made members of the Gladiator regiment, only then will they receive the full details. Adventurers knew that this was the norm for emergency quests petitioned by the state, and so didn’t question it.

But the rush was indeed real.

“Yes! Next please!” Cried Erina, having finally been transferred to the main guild branch and cementing her position as a true elite receptionist, the elven woman was busy frantically processing her own endless line of adventure-seeking clients.

But even this storm-like influx of work could be called meager. After all, she need only deal with adventurers of rank 4 and above. She imagined that at her previous post, at the academy branch, it must be total chaos.

“I’m here for the emer――”

“You’ll be taking the emergency quest, yes!” She easily cut off the man, with her usual business smile, and unusually fast pace of work. “I’ll need your guild card, please!”

What did it matter that the man before her had his face hidden behind an iron mask and looked unquestionably dubious with his all black garb? She didn’t have time for that, she had work to do. Normally, she’d at least do a once or twice over on such a suspicious individual, but now she only cared if the card he gave her was forged or not. No? Then on to the next one.

While fiddling with the specialized card reading ball, she confirmed the man’s basic info. Rank 4, Class is Samurai, Name, Rud―― the rest she didn’t care to put into memory.

“―― Alright, there you have it. For further details, please head to the meeting room on the 2nd floor. They’re holding sessions every hour, please do attend. And that’s it. Good luck, and fight the good fight!”

Yes, next please―― she’d settled into a flow. Bidding sayonara to the masked samurai, Erina was determined to blitz through all her clients.

But the adventurer that stepped forth next all but derailed that perfect pace of hers.

“Hey there, Erina. I’m back from Asbel.” Large, broad, and wearing the devil’s black coat. A face that could send chills all over Spada. But on the inside, he was a simple, kind young man. A man that Erina recognized. A man she always waited for. A man she was awfully fond of.

“Kurono-kun!!?” But how―― she quickly swallowed back the question that held not one ounce of importance. Kurono was a rank 5 adventurer, he had taken on the quest to subjugate the Lust Rose, and having accomplished that, he had returned to the guild, that being the apt thing to do. Actually, with the new emergency quest out, any and every adventurer was bound to turn up, so he would too, obviously.

“We Element Masters will take the emergency quest.” Her black-garbed beloved said rather coldly, with a tone sharper than his usual. He presented three guild cards, one for each member in his party.

With his too serious demeanor, Erina could only comply. She speedily completed her task as a receptionist without any mistake. Processing took no time at all.

“There, all done, you have the quest.”

“Thanks.”

Erina couldn’t help but have her eyes be stolen by his dark smile. He, Kurono, seemed dashing as ever in her eyes.

Captivated, she felt her heart, deep within her rather ample (for an elf) chest, beat more aggressively.

“Er, Erina, I know you’re busy, but would you be willing to...”

Wait, eh, is what I think is happening, really happening right now―― Erina had already began panicking to no end. His serious stare, his red and black dichromatic eyes held her in place. She could only stare back and nothing else.

Was it finally her time? Her hopes were rising boundlessly.

A brief silence. Kurono, for the smallest of moments, shut his eyes in consideration before reopening them to continue his words: “... go on a date, with me.”

“Happy to oblige!” She saw the chance and jumped for it. Instantly leaving her seat, Erina grasped Kurono’s hand with both of hers.

And seeing him dumbfounded just as instantly, her mood sank in regret. She’d messed up, she was so happy, she’d messed up big time.

“Uh great, thanks.”

Joy, utter bliss. The soft, warm smile on Kurono’s chiseled visage made her rejoice in victory inside her heart. Glory to the Black Gods! Yes! Yes! Yesss!! She appeared an elf, but her heart was as excitable as a beastkin in breeding season.

“C-can we go, now?” In her bottomless elation, Elite Receptionist Erina had splendidly stuttered her words. And that would be the height of embarrassment for one such as her, if not for the fact that her fervor didn’t even allow the courtesy.

“Yeah, I was thinking the sooner the better, but can you really go right now?”

“Sure I can! No problem here, I’m all set!” She was out of control. Was she really any different from the many charmed male students who came to her to quests and always left beet red?

“G-got it... then I’ll be right outside.”

“Okay! I’ll be right there, Kurono-kun! You have to wait, okay, Kurono-kun!”

And now her manner of speaking had become childlike. But that didn’t stop Erina from finishing her work with the force of a gale.

The moment Kurono left her counter, Erina pinned up a sign that read : This counter is closed for the day, leaving the pitiful fellow next in line going ‘Oh man, and just when it was finally my turn!’ She dashed for the back room, heading directly for her boss.

She barged into the guildmaster’s office as if to almost break down the door and she proclaimed: “Sir, I shall now head off to capture (rope in) the infamous Nightmare Berserker!”

The aged guildmaster, for his part, answered the rude and excitable young receptionist, rather jovially: “Splendid, fight the good fight now, Erina-kun!”

The agreeable old man readily signed off on Erina’s request for early leave, and as a bonus, he even handed her a dubious vial containing a potion of morjura extract.

Lily and Fiona had reached Spada 3 days after Kurono’s expedited arrival, that is to say, on the 4th of Gloom.

They’d been worried about Kurono, worried if he’d do something reckless. But upon their return, they’d found him steadily making preparations for the war; he welcomed them calmly. They figured that Prince Wilhart played a large role in convincing him to not act rashly.

And after Kurono finished relaying the news, they too were convinced that the situation wasn’t as dire as Crusader troops marching into Spada immediately or having done so already.

Both girls felt relief at the fact that it wasn’t like Alzas at least. They still had time.

While the Crusaders kept busy thawing their path of approach, they would have time to sharpen their weapons, replenish their potions, they would have that time to do what needed to be done.

Which was why Kurono was able to remain calm. It was also why Lily made a peculiar suggestion: “―― Hey Kurono, this might be a good time to go greet your friends, we could be gone for a while.”

Lily wasn’t being snide, not in the least. Kurono didn’t have many friends. For that matter, he also had very few acquaintances. But he did have some.

He had in fact spent more than three months attending the Royal Academy. He was acquainted with his teachers and even a few people he got to know at the cafeteria and canteen. There were also those like Eddie and Sienna, a pair of trainee knights he’d met while taking care of bandits.

“... I guess that’s true.” Kurono made a vague, gloomy expression as he agreed.

Both Alzas and Iskia had happened so suddenly, he never got to consider the little things. He had been ready to fight to the end in either case, and he was ready this time too.

But this difference in the level of urgency, in knowing that it was, not immediately, but in a near future, that he’d have to brave his deathly battles, even Kurono felt a bit sentimental. And Lily understood that. Looking at him, for once, not impatient, but in a melancholic calm, even without her telepathy, Lily could recognize how Kurono felt.

Thus, she proposed that he go make the rounds to his friends and companions, give his thanks and goodbyes before their departure, bring closure to the low rumbling emotions.

Fiona, who begrudgingly kept quiet as Kurono talked to the elf receptionist, also understood that he needed this closure――

“Er, Erina, I know you’re busy, but would you be willing to... go on a date, with me.”

Right up until he voiced those words.

“حرق أ عد ائ نا ، سحقت ، ميتز، ضربة قاسية ا لح ار قة (Rise O Hammer of Scorch, char, rend, obliterate my foe) ――Ignis Brea――”

“Stooop, right there, Fiona.” Lily barely managed to stop the enraged witch as she had abruptly began reciting a dangerous aria while simultaneously withdrawing Spitfire from her sub-space handbag with the skill of a veteran samurai.

It helped that Fiona, who looked like a lovely young lass in her white, ultra-high class one-piece dress (a gift from Kurono), and Lily, who also looked like a lovely little girl hugging said lass from the side, didn’t at all seem like the type of people who had almost reduced a beautiful guild receptionist to ashes.

“Lily-san,” Fiona intoned dangerously, “did you not hear what Kurono-san said just now?”

Her hand still inside her sub-dimensional handbag, Fiona looked down at Lily with glazed, golden eyes. It was the same face she displayed to a certain foolish brat in an Avalon city alleyway as she beat his face in with her staff.

“I did. What of it?” Lily replied simply.

“It means we must――”

“Fiona,” Lily, who was physically being looked down on, looked back at the witch mockingly, as if the woman had lost her marbles, “How about you trust our Kurono a little bit more?”

“What... what, are you saying...”

“Fufu, forgive me.” Lily giggled, deciding that she had no more cause to hold Fiona back, she retreated a step back. “I suppose that was a bit mean of me, with how I can use telepathy and all.”

Gracefully landing a few small steps away, Lily’s own one-piece dress, this one of ancient velvet, was set aflutter.

“Trust in him, Fiona.” Lily spoke with such a bold confidence that Fiona, who in contrast had blown her fuse, couldn’t help but blink confoundedly. “You don’t need to fear about anything happening.”

“But, but he... Kurono-san, with another girl, he...” asked her on a date, Fiona refused to let those accursed words out of her lips.

The small fairy regarded the panicking witch with eyes that belied kindness, perhaps even a hint of affection. Lily spoke the revelation Fiona very much needed: “If you’re that worried, you only need to secretly follow them.”

“Of course. I will do that.” Fiona accepted the fairy’s guidance that deemed stalking a couple on their date as the ideal course of action. She could keep an eye on them, and forcefully put an end to things if the situation was to turn sour. The meager but very real sense of control gave her peace of mind. This really was the ideal plan, she thought.

“Just, don’t do anything rash? I don’t think that girl will try anything funny, and we’ll only have more problems if you intervene for no good reason.” Lily gave her a last stern warning, before returning to her usual cheer, “anyway, just trust him, alright? Stay quiet and let them do their thing. You do that, and I assure you, it’ll be for the best.”

A smile so sweet and lovely, anyone would be charmed at first sight. And yet, looking back at that same smile, Fiona felt a faint chill on her back as she thought: Yep, that’s Lily-san for you. She’s one hell of a woman to reckon with.