Chapter 77

Here’s a riddle.
What’s something you have too much of when you’re young, but have too little of when you get old?

—It’s time.

Or not.
I’m still young, but I don’t have enough time at all.

Apparently, even Vampires felt the same, in spite of living much longer than humans.
They too were bound by time.

“We have no time. We must hold a council at once!”

General Farneze was still quite young(at least in appearance), but she knew the importance of time.

She conjured up the same members as yesterday, like some magic trick. And then we began.

There were two matters to discuss. The messenger and Nehyor.
And so time was more important than anything now.

I had only intended on being a bystander…but I suppose I forgot myself a little. I went too far.
It was too late now, though. And I had to go all out.

—If we want to defeat Lesser Demon King Leninoth, it has to be a brief, decisive battle!

I declared this in a loud voice.
I might regret it later, but I would deal with the consequences.

Of course, they talked about the lack of soldiers and made other such arguments. But I refuted each and every one of them.

Yes, I went too far. Much too far.
I had humiliated the powerful residents of the town, including the vampires.

And since Corps Commander Felicia had already left, there was no one to keep them in check.

And so they stormed off, red-faced at having lost an argument to a meathead ogre.
After all, I had obliterated them so thoroughly, that every time they opened their mouths, the situation became more unfavorable to them.

I would have to be careful when I slept tonight.

“Golan. Even I think you went too far.”
Said General Farneze.

I know. I know it. But it was as if I had suddenly been possessed.
But it wasn’t the god of comedy, that’s for sure.

It was like being drunk.
In any case, my passion for dealing with the Nehyor situation had made me lose any sense of caution.

However, it was in the past now. Not that that made things better.
Besides, it was all Nehyor’s fault.

And so we met with Miralda on the following day, in order to discuss what we had agreed upon(I had forced everyone to agree on).
And without any further trouble, the agreement was settled.

But while I had been the one to suggest it, I was starting to have doubts.

“Are you really an Ogre?”

Miralda asked me before she left.
But I wasn’t sure how to answer something like that.

“I know that I’m an Ogre. That’s all that matters.”

In other words, my stance was that the opinions of others did not matter. ‘How very philosophical’ she muttered. And then she left.

Now I would be able to return to the village…is what I thought. However, I still hadn’t received the sword yet.

“You really are amusing, Golan. If you leave now, what was the point in even coming here?”
She was right.

“I’m going after you give me the sword.”

In any case, I needed to return to the village once and tell the others about Nehyor.
I hoped that Rig didn’t get a heart attack. But even if he did, it wouldn’t be my fault.
He would have to complain to Nehyor. Though, he would have trouble doing that.

That’s when it came to me. I wasn’t a Commander anymore. Had I been demoted?
It wasn’t that I wanted to go up in the world, but it didn’t really seem right. I had worked so hard.

“The Deep Sea Dragon sword was your reward, wasn’t it? …Wait here. I will go and fetch it.”
So, she was not going to let me enter the treasure room.

And so I waited patiently outside.
After a while, General Farneze returned with a bundle in her arms.

“This is the Deep Sea Dragon sword. The strongest monsters lurk at the bottom of the sea. Especially in these ‘deep sea’ places. They say that the most unbelievable monsters can be found there. And this sword was made with their bones.”

“Thank you. I will take good care of it.”
“It was rather expensive.”

She said with a little annoyance as I grabbed it casually.
I guess she was rather skeptical.

“But how did they manage to kill a dragon that lived deep in the sea?”
This world did not have submarines. And I very much doubted anyone could have dove that deep.

“Because it attacked them, of course. Yes, it’s true that they are usually in the waters that are so deep the light doesn’t reach them, but sometimes they will suddenly rise to the surface if they detect a ship.”

Wait a minute!
I thought these dragons would be like deep sea fish.
But if they could easily move back and forth like that… They would have to have features that were equivalent to submarines.

Their skin would have to be very tough.
It was amazing that people were able to kill such a creature. But this was the Demon World.
Yes. In the future, I would be more careful about antagonizing people that looked strong.

As for the bundle, I unwrapped it to reveal a long, Japanese sword.
Compared to my old one…the one that had broken during my fight with General Farneze…it was longer and thicker.

But it was still a katana.
“The blade is…white.”
Was it because it was made of bone? It was nice.

“Do you like it?”
“Yes…very much.

There is something called ‘Bone China’ that is made by mixing cow bones with porcelain. It had a similar, white luster to it.
I liked it a lot. But there was no sheath.

As for performance…well, I would have to test it out next time.
By the way, there were several things in the Demon World that were stronger than steel.

Bones like these from powerful monsters was one of them.
They tended to be hard and tough. They could probably cut through steel.

“Thank you for such a great gift.”
“It’s your reward.”

Now that I thought about it, Nehyor’s reward had been a look into the underground library.
I didn’t know what he had been trying to do there, but I now had something to cut him in half with the next time we met.

“Well, I’ll be going now.”
“You really don’t compromise, Golan.”

I wanted to return to the village as soon as possible.

“I will continue to search for Nehyor. Depending on what I find, I may need to speak with you again.”
“I understand. Please tell me if you do find him. I intend to give him a taste of this blade.”

“Very well. I will let you know.”

And like that, I left the town of Elstabia behind me.

It took me five days of walking to return to the village.

Regardless, I had finally been able to return.

Next Chapter

Makai Hongi