The Melancholy of the Demon Army Officer
Translator: Tsukii
Editor: Ink
Read at Watashi Wa Sugoi Desu!
Chapter 26 – Labyrinth and Maou’s Cooking 3 [A]
—Northern region of the continent
“…”
Majin Leonhart stopped at the entrance of the stone passage and gave a sharp gaze at the end of it.
He looked at the corridor for some time and eventually turned his gaze to the girl beside him.
The girl beside Leonhart was his apostle, Carol. She felt Leonhart’s gaze and perhaps thought it was some sort of reminder, therefore she smiled and raised her hand.
“—Well then, let’s conquer this labyrinth!”
She declared loudly.
Carol’s loud voice echoed in the corridor. As Leonhart heard, he sighed and looked at the ceiling.
“Why am I in such a place again…?”
“It was because Leonhart-sama approved of my opinion!”
“…Well, that’s true, but I’ve never gone to a labyrinth after all.”
Leonhart was now in a labyrinth underneath a certain ruin.
What Carol suggested to her master when asked about a new hobby was exploring labyrinths.
Labyrinth.
Sites scattered across the continent, better known as dungeons.
They came in various forms like caves or ruins, but they have a common point where they were a dangerous zone where many demons lurked and many traps were placed, and also a treasure spot where treasures awaited explorers to claim.
These locations were a mass of romance for adventurers, martial artists, and treasure hunters.
“There were many dangerous demons here, so they should serve well as Leonhart-sama punching bags!”
“…I also thought of that at first, but—“
Carol emphasized that strongly.
However, Leonhart gave his disapproval by speaking out logical facts.
“…If we think about it, weren’t we on the side who was supposed to protect the labyrinth?”
“…”
As she heard Leonhart’s opinion, Carol stopped moving.
“We’re obviously the most dangerous demon here… will the demon here even fight us…?”
“I, it should be okay! …maybe.”
Carol’s reply was lacking confidence. Now that she thought about it, majin and apostle also belonged to demonkind, and extremely powerful ones at that. They were supposed to be the boss-like existence who awaited intruders in the deepest room.
Leaving the aggressive and ferocious demons aside, most demons would escape if they encountered them.
“If we change the perspective, the Maou Castle we lived in can be considered as the world’s most dangerous dungeon, though…”
“…Now that you mentioned it…”
There were many demon soldiers constantly protecting the castle along with numbers of demon captains and demon generals. That castle also had a number of majins and their apostle, with maou reigning over them. Indeed, if they look at it from a humans perspective, that place was without a doubt, the most dangerous dungeon in the world.
Therefore, would there be any danger even if they were to enter the dungeon? Carol tilted her head at this thought and became confused.
“…E, err, then what should we do…?”
“…”
“…Ah! Then I have a good idea!”
“…Just tell me about it for the time being.”
As she received her master’s wordless gaze, Carol raised her voice as if she was reminded of a good idea.
Leonhart urged her to continue, despite inwardly thinking I doubt I can expect much, though.
Then Carol blushed a little and,
“How about my initial suggestion… I’m always ready anytime you want me… in a sense, this was our first outing together, so having my first time here won’t be…”
As Leonhart saw Carol trip to her imagination mid-sentence, he felt a little irritated as he held onto his eyebrow with his fingers.
—Should I really violate her here…?
A dangerous idea came to mind, but he quickly shook it off since he could easily imagine how it would only please Carol.
Leonhart took a light breath, regained his temper, and called out to Carol.
“…Well, we already came all this way. It’s true that it is the first time I’ive co, so let’s enter for now.”
“Ah, yes! Certainly!”
“…This might be a good opportunity as well.”
Carol regained her spirit at Leonhart’s words. Seeing this, Leonhart came up with a little experiment.
“What opportunity?”
Leonhart spoke out to Carol as he saw she tilted her head.
“If we end up fighting a demon, you’ll fight the first battle alone.”
“I am to fight alone, is it?”
“That’s right. I need to see how much you are capable of ever since becoming an apostle.”
Indeed. Leonhart thought he could use the dungeon exploration to check Carol’s ability.
He had tested her ability before she became an apostle, but he did not confirm her power after she became one. As her master, he needed to know the exact capability of his apostle, otherwise, he wouldn’t know what they were capable of and might end up asking them to act beyond their abilities, which would likely fail instead.
Leonhart gazed at Carol as he thought to check her ability for once to avoid such a series of events.
“…I understand! I will show Leonhart-sama my ability which have become even more perfect after turning into Leonhart-sama’s apostle!”
Carol might interpret Leonhart’s gaze as a look of expectation, which made her take a pose with a confident expression as she shouted.
“Aah, do your best.”
“I’ll do my best! I’ll work hard to be praised by Leonhart-sama…!”
…This worries me…
As he saw Carol loose smile, Leonhart sighed with a slightly turbulent expression.
“Yaah—!”
“Ooo—?!”
Along with Carol’s shout, the scream of agony of a yankee echoed as their shadow became one.
Yankee was a guy demon with the appearance of a brown, muscular human-like figure, and they were quite popular among demons. That yankee was cut down by the sword in Carol’s hand.
“And that is the last enemy on this floor. That sure felt anti-climatic.”
“Leonhart-sama! It dropped experience bread!”
“Eat it, that’s valuable experience.”
“I understand! Crunch crunch…”
The demon dropped an item — it was a bread that grants its consumer experience, was picked up by Carol, then eaten by the order of Leonhart. He then looked at the edge of his vision, where there were blood clots of the demons she defeated.
There were various corpses of demons like ikaman, ruronta, akame, hanny, meatball, and okayu fever rolled down within the corridor.
Leonhart saw Carol’s combat behavior, which was enough for him to judge his capability to some extent.
What he found out was that she wasn’t weak enough to be defeated by a random demon.
The weapons she got as she turned into apostle — the little gun-like weapon on her waist and a slender sword.
Unlike her time as a commander when she was unable to use anything but her command baton for combat, she could now make use of those weapons she had.
And Carol was happy about that. Especially regarding the sword, where she went “I got the same weapon as Leonhart-sama!” and swung her sword around to express her happiness. It was dangerous, so he stopped her though.
And according to Leonhart’s evaluation, she might be able to use it, however— how to say it, she just turned from being unable to use it at all to being able to, her skill with the sword itself was still immature.
If anything, she was better at using that gun-like weapon in comparison. Once she pulled the trigger, the bullet shot from it possessed enough power to pierce through the demon’s body, and it was more useful than her sword.
Also, this gun seemingly had limitless ammunition. Rather, they had no idea where the ammunition was inserted or supplied from. It might seem illogical, but it should be a similar principle as how the gal demon chiha could shoot limitless bullets. Therefore, he decided to not think deeply too about it.
Overall, she wasn’t weak, but she was also not strong — that would be his judgment. All the demons she defeated until now weren’t particularly strong. Most majin including Leonhart could reduce those demons into lump of flesh in an instant. As for the apostle who was also known for their strength — like Shichisei could also take care of all of these demons without a dent on his teeth.
To be honest, he wished she would be a little stronger than this. Leonhart looked at Carol who finished eating her experience bread.
As Carol noticed his gaze, she screamed proudly.
“Leonhart-sama! How is my capability?!”
“…Well, I’d give you a passing grade, at least.”
“Reall—“
“However.”
Leonhart’s sharp voice interrupted Carol who was almost happy.
“—I can’t have you be satisfied with just this much. If you want to make me happy, be stronger. I won’t take the fact that you were formerly a commander as an excuse, okay?”
She merely turned from a commander who was considerably weak into an apostle who could fight to some extent. Leonhart personally wanted his apostle to be able to hold themselves in combat to some extent. He was still a majin with a standing after all. Therefore, he might have given them some expectation, but he wanted them to continue to aim for greater heights.
“…Of course I will! I am the most perfect apostle in the demon realm and Leonhart-sama’s apostle! I will become even stronger!”
“That’s good… here, it’s daborabebe and manga meat I picked up earlier. Eat it.” [Tsukii Note: I dunno about daborabebe’s appearance; it was just used in game to increase experience. As for manga meat, it increases the max hp of its consumer (in game at least)]
“Yes! Thanks for the food! Bite…crunch crunch…!”
Leonhart leaked out a wry smile as he saw her apostle vigorously eat the food that could increase the experience and physical strength he gave to her. It seemed her aspiration to become better was first rate, at least.
—Fumu, it might be interesting to raise my apostle.
Leonhart had such thoughts as he saw Carol. Her lifespan was removed as she turned into apostle, and her talent limit was also extended. Also, it seemed she was quite sturdy as well. Perhaps she might achieve interesting growth if she trained long enough.
—Should I teach her how to use a sword later… no, I guess I should have her train her physical strength first. Should I make her run without rest? Maybe I should also add climbing to the mix—
“…? I felt a chill for some reason.”
Carol wondered as she tilted her head, looking around whether there was a surviving demon that might ambush her. She had no idea the source of her chill would be her own master.
Leonhart’s expression returned to a serious one and told Carol as she stood up.
“Let’s get going.”
“I understand!”
Then they proceed deeper into the dungeon.
As for what happened to Carol and Leonhart as they proceed deeper were—
“Leonhart-sama! How about this?!”
“Hn… Ooh, this is a pretty good sword.”
Sometimes they were happy or sad due to items they got from the treasure chests—
“Le, Leonhart-sama~…”
“You splendidly got caught in a trap… just hurry and recover yourself.”
Sometimes, they got caught by various traps installed inside the dungeon—
“Wha, what’s with this tentacle—?!”
“Curse A, huh. That’s quite rare of a demon… move away, Carol. I’ll take care of this.”
“Uuh… what a humiliation…!”
They also met a dangerous demon who was capable of destroying a town on their own, which Leonhart took over the battle. After two hours.
The two of them finally reached the end of the dungeon.
Tsukii Note
Back to term illustration! Most of things would be Illustration of guy demon, and due the wiki didn’t explain much as well, I’ll skip explanation and straight to image
Yankee: https://i.ibb.co/hdpT9nK/Yankee-TT2.png
Ruronta: https://i.ibb.co/GR5qXLR/Dungeons-Dolls-Ruronta.png
If ruronta is not too clear, it is basically a starfish-like creature with shape of + instead of star, standing with its bottom leg, and using its “arms” to attack.
Akame: https://i.ibb.co/MVtpPBX/Akame-Persiom.png
Technically save, but I won’t take a chance and declare that Akame illustration is NSFW, due to reference to penis.
Meatball: https://i.ibb.co/RvmZvJq/Meat-Ball.png
Unlike its look, it taste horrible, still edible though
Okayu Fever: https://i.ibb.co/zfTStRR/Okayu-Fever-03.png
Unexpectedly, this demon could be cooked into exquisite meals by hand of the professional.
Curse A: https://i.ibb.co/zmwKF9d/Monsters-Curse-A.png
As for it, well, sorry to fail to secure anything decent but this pictures
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