“Hm-hmm~ hm-hmm~♪”
Cornelia led the vanguard, humming in supreme spirits.
So, one way or another, here we are… marching along the edge of the Forest of No Return.
Destination: the village near the sage’s cottage where Mayu used to live.
More precisely: the mountain hideout of the bandits operating around it.
“‘Tis so~♪ ‘Tis so~♪ A PICNIC it is~♪”
Cornelia is in ludicrously high spirits.
Ah… I see why.
She’s helping herself to the devil boar katsu sandwiches Maria packed us for lunch. Without asking.
THAT’S the source of the mood… also, oi — eating while walking? Where are your Demon Lord manners, madam.
The sandwiches have curry roux spread on the bread, incidentally. Curry katsu sandwiches. Know your audience.
“So… who exactly is that tiny child?”
A completely reasonable question, from Mayu’s seat.
—She is, after all, a loli-baba.
Mayu probably doesn’t watch anime; odds are she doesn’t even know the WORD loli-baba.
Meanwhile Cornelia acts imperially self-important, and Ouroboros and Maria treat her one notch short of full prostration.
She looks like a grade-schooler. Of COURSE Mayu’s curious.
—Now, how to explain this to her.
Honesty is probably the best policy here.
“A Demon Lord.”
”…A Demon Lord?”
Mayu processed for a moment, head tilting.
“‘Demon Lord’ as in… THE Demon Lord?”
“Whatever you’re imagining — yes, that one.”
”…Seriously?”
“Dead seriously.”
Another processing pause — and then Mayu’s knees buckled like a case of acute anemia.
“Oi, you okay?”
I caught her shoulder; she looked up at me, ashen.
“This is… completely insane. What is your social circle even MADE of, mister? How is any of this possible?”
Look, I have no answer for that.
I don’t understand how any of this happened EITHER.
“Well — a lot of things occurred.”
“Ugh… I haven’t nearly fainted like that since the principal’s endless morning assemblies.”
“Haha! I dropped a couple times in middle school myself.”
“Eh? You too, mister?”
“Yeah. Our principal was a legendarily long talker.”
“Right?! Ours too, honestly, he would just go ON and—”
And there Mayu caught herself with a small gasp — then smiled, just a little, like it surprised her.
“What is it?”
“It’s just… been so long since I got to talk about Japan with someone. And enjoy it.”
“Ah — same here, come to think of it.”
“Honestly, I really am… sorry we left you behind that night.”
“Water under the bridge.”
And then — Cornelia stopped walking.
“What’s up, Cornelia?”
“We are mid-picnic, granted… but formally speaking, this IS a military march, is it not?”
“I suppose it is, technically.”
“For a DEMON LORD’S army… is this not a touch… sparse?”
・Me
・Cornelia
・Sonya
・Ouroboros
・Mayu
Plus ten palm-top rabbits. Fifteen souls, all told.
As Demon Lord hosts go — fine, yes, numerically modest.
“I mean — this is everyone we HAVE, so…”
Cornelia puffed out her flat chest and grinned.
“Whom exactly dost thou take me for?! The DARK EVIL DRAGON, am I not?!”
”…Meaning what?”
Cornelia snapped her fingers.
“MEANING THIS!”
A magic circle a hundred meters across raced over the ground, the world went white—
—and when my vision cleared, the air was thick with the stench of rot.
“Ah… aah… uwah…”
At the sight around us, Mayu’s legs gave out completely.
Ouroboros clutched her head: “A FORBIDDEN ART… against BANDITS…?!”
“Ufufu~ it’s smelly~♪ It’s SO very smelly~♪”
“Hahaha~! These things are HUGE, right? Dragon zombies… legit HUGE, right?!”
“Ho. Not merely a loli-baba, it seems.”
The palm-top rabbits’ collective hype meter shot through the ceiling.
As for what happened…
“If the Dark Evil Dragon marches to war — a retinue of AT LEAST this size is required for basic dignity!”
Which is to say: roughly one hundred dragon zombies — each about triple the size of a zoo elephant — had joined the picnic.