The Melancholy of the Demon Army Officer
Translator: Tsukii
Editor: Millinia
Read at Watashi wa Sugoi Desu!
Chapter 34 – Hunty Kalar [B]
“Bleeeuuurrrggghh!!”
At the corner of the town, the elder sister put her hand on the wall while expelling the contents of her stomach through her mouth.
“…I never thought you would really vomit…”
“Onee-chan… that’s nasty…”
Carol and the little sister slightly backed away as they watched the elder sister.
She must have heard those words, as the elder sister stopped for a moment and indignantly blurted an excuse.
“Ugh… I… I can’t help it, you know! I’m a pregnant woman! So the morning sickness has doubled and the nausea has multiplied, you know?! If I were to say how hard it is… Ugh, again—”
She must have felt sick mid-sentence, because the elder sister put her hand on the wall again. The other two watched with a disgusted expression.
“Don’t vomit anymore, Onee-chan… I might end up vomiting as well.”
“…Somehow, I also feel nauseated right now…”
The elder sister’s vomiting not only affected the little sister, but it even affected Carol, who was supposed to be an apostle. What a scary thing, this “infectious vomiting.”
Carol held her mouth with her hand with a pale expression.
“Huh…?”
Carol noticed that there was a woman who suddenly appeared behind the elder sister who was busy vomiting.
“When did she…” was the thought that Carol had for a moment. The woman suddenly called out to the elder sister.
“…Hey.”
“Urughughugh —Uh?”
Her vomiting impulse subsided for a bit as she reacted. There was the person she considered her best friend, Hunty Kalar.
As the elder sister noticed her she beamed,
“Is… isn’t that Hunty? You came at the right time… can you, rub my back for a bit…? I still feel like vomiting…”
“…”
Hunty gave an amazed expression from the bottom of her heart as she rubbed the back of the pregnant woman who felt uncomfortable.
Then after a while, she raised her arm. Her hand was in the form of a slap.
“Why are you still alive?!”
“Ouch?!”
She smacked her back with all her might.1
Leonhart looked toward the existence that suddenly appeared in front of him.
It was Hunty, who was now his apostle. It seemed she returned after she confirmed his words. He called out to her, as he looked at her expression,
“…Hm, you’ve retu— what happened?”
“What? No… there’s… nothing…”
“Your expression says otherwise though…”
Unlike before she went to confirm, Hunty’s expression was sunk in a frown.
“No way,” thought Leonhart as he spoke out the possibility of what might happen.
“…I doubt that it’s the case, but perhaps you couldn’t find them?”
“No, they are both fine… they’re way too energetic even… haah.”
…You seemed too depressed despite that though…
Did she actually not come for the purpose of rescuing those two? “Perhaps they actually don’t get along well,” was what Leonhart thought as he examined Hunty to ascertain such a possibility. After all, even now Hunty kept muttering things like, “Why did I go through all that trouble for…” and, “It’s all that vomiting woman’s fault…” with an empty gaze in her eyes. So there was a possibility they were actually on bad terms with each other. As for the term ‘vomiting woman’, he couldn’t understand what she meant by that.
As he contemplated, Hunty’s gaze shifted toward him.
“Rather, you could’ve told me that beforehand…”
“…Ah, aah. I’m sorry about that. I also have a position to keep, you see… not only could I not say anything during that moment, I got heated up afterward so I kind of neglected to mention it.”
“…I see.”
“…”
He looked away from Hunty’s blaming glare. Leonhart felt like he had done something bad to her.
…Well, that is my fault though…
Even so, he felt something more than criticism from Hunty. Perhaps it was something close to feeling helpless? Since those two were alive, all that fighting earlier might’ve been a waste of time and effort for her. He did feel responsible for that.
However, he wasn’t senile enough to apologize to his apostle for such a thing. Otherwise, the topic would become, “he might as well never have done it to begin with.”
Leonhart took a light breath. While it had felt awkward, he did think about mentioning it. As he opened his mouth to speak,
“Well, anyway—“
“Okay.”
“…What?”
Hunty suddenly interrupted his words. It seemed she had finally recovered.
Then the words she uttered were phrases of approval.
“Since I’ve already turned into an apostle, I can’t change what happened anyway… At least, I’m convinced by the fact that it happened… it’s not like I completely trust you yet, though.”
“…Then that’s okay, but—”
“Also,“ Hunty took a breath before continuing her words. “I heard from both of them; it seems you have some sort of circumstances as well.”
“…!”
Leonhart’s face stiffened as a result of his efforts to try to avoid any changes in his expression.
He began to consider whether he should tell her about it when Hunty spoke up,
“Someday, I’ll ask you about it.”
“Fuhn?”
Hunty seemed to read something from the situation, but gave up on prying further in the middle of bringing it up; she relaxed her expression. Leonhart didn’t know whether she failed to read the situation or not, or perhaps she managed to glean his circumstances to some extent but wasn’t convinced due to lack of evidence.
Then she continued to speak casually.
“Well, so can I go now? What about your command? Is it okay if I just visit you once a month?”
“Let’s see… I guess that’ll be enough for now. I am basically in Maou Castle most of the time, so visit me there after a month. If I’m not there, either do it on another day or search for me somehow. As for the rest, do what you like.”
“Uwah, that’s so random… Hah, that makes it easier for me so it’s okay though.”
As Hunty said that, she hurriedly looked at Leonhart,
“…Well then, as reluctant as I am, please take care of me… Leonhart-sama?”
“…Somehow, that felt disgusting. Just call me normally — except in front of demon soldiers. I doubt there’ll be such an occasion though.”
“I’ll do just that. I got goosebumps despite saying it myself.”
Hunty reluctantly gave her greeting, before giving him a wry smile and laugh.
“Well then, see ya!”
“Aaah, do your best to get strong.”
After that last exchange, she disappeared from the scene.
While in front of Leonhart, Hunty used Instant Movement and returned to the town once again.
As people came and went, someone opened their mouth in the shadows with less traffic.
“Aah, that felt refreshing. Rather… Hunty, wasn’t it cruel of you to suddenly smack me? Did you forget that I’m a pregnant woman?”
“Well, sorry about that. I just felt so miserable that I couldn’t help but do so…”
The person she chattered with was her best friend. She brought up the topic about what happened earlier to tease her, so she apologized as she made up her excuse. As for the little sister, it seems she went along with the blonde woman to search for some water. Perhaps that person was the one that Leonhart referred to as his apostle? In that case, should she at least greet her? No, she should give her gratitude before that. As she was lost in thought she heard,
“And, how is it?”
“Eh?”
The woman asked her. She didn’t understand what she asked her about. Therefore, she tilted her head.
“No, you’re not supposed to go ‘Eh?’ It’s about that majin, didn’t you meet Leonhart-san?”
“Ah…”
“He’s a good human — or rather, I guess he’s not a human. He’s a good majin, right?”
She finally got the meaning of her question as she explained. Then she looked away.
…Even if you say that…
Hunty thought for a bit, before speaking out her honest feelings.
“…I don’t understand him, I guess.”
“Eeh… what does that mean?”
She seemed to be dissatisfied with Hunty’s reply. Hunty continued to spin her words without minding that.
“Well, I’m sure he isn’t a normal majin, and perhaps he isn’t that bad of a person… but we only talked for a bit, so I can’t judge just yet.”
“…I see.”
“Are you convinced with that?”
“For the time being.”
It seemed she was convinced for the time being and nodded, but her placid smile stayed on her face.
Hunty asked her what her smile meant with her gaze.
And the response was really like her.
“If you will keep meeting him in the future, then you can eventually understand each other. Please tell me a lot about it, okay?”
“!… You never seem to change…”
The pregnant woman was so simpleminded that it made Hunty think it made her look foolish for thinking so hard about it.
However, even after she told her friend that she was turned into an apostle, as expected, her attitude didn’t change. Leonhart did tell her to not reveal her identity, but her best friend should be okay. Despite her attitude, she wasn’t someone who would reveal someone’s secret.
Hunty felt a little better and lowered her eyes.
“Anyway, please take care of me from now on. Since you’ll be living in the town from now on, I might need some tricks to visit you, though.”
“Ah! You mustn’t disappear for a long time after what you told me, okay. I’ll have you properly present during the day of childbirth!”
“Yes, yes. I know.”
Hunty smiled as she had recalled a similar exchange like this before.
Then she thought, because both of them were still alive, they could feel this way.
It was an obvious thing, but it was a daily life that could collapse with just a few missteps.
If the person who led the attack wasn’t Majin Leonhart, perhaps neither of them would be alive.
However, if only it wasn’t Leonhart, perhaps she wouldn’t have ended up as an apostle. Despite having such complaints Hunty thought, ”…Well, I guess I should be grateful for this at least.”
Eventually, both of them would part by death. This didn’t change anything even before she was turned into an apostle, since she originally possessed an eternal lifespan.
However, that farewell wouldn’t be a sudden one.
Just for a little bit, for that reason — Hunty gave her thanks toward the majin, who was now her master.
“…Fuhn.”
Leonhart was watching for a while where Hunty had left.
However, he eventually looked away.
…To think I made my second apostle this way…
He suddenly had such a thought.
She was the sole dragon kalar, the sole survivor of that race, Hunty Kalar.
And she was probably — one of the few major characters to the story of this world.
Regarding the fact he turned her into his apostle, he didn’t regret it. As for the effect such action would bring he thought, “—I don’t give a damn about that.”
Leonhart thought about himself in the future. As he thought about the consequence of having Hunty with him, he smiled.
“I guess it won’t be boring,” was the expectation he had. As Leonhart was about to leave the place…
“!”
Suddenly, his eyes went wide as he noticed something. Leonhart’s face distorted around his eyebrow and showed a serious expression. It was the most severe expression he had today.
Leonhart looked around with this pair of red eyes. His heart beat hard, his pulse ran strong, and cold sweat flowed from his forehead.
There was nothing around him; there were no buildings in the village, no materials that the Demon Army brought with them, or even the trees around him.
As he saw such tragedy — Leonhart looked up to the sky.
“…Regarding the base, what should I do?”
In the center of a collapsed, abandoned village, Leonhart couldn’t help but fall to his knees.
That day, Leonhart gained his second apostle, Hunty Kalar.
T/N:
2nd Divergence to Main Plot: Hunty Kalar became an apostle.
Well, there are ways around it, considering there was a major nation during the Rance era where the apostle is one of its founders, and still enjoyed their right as “permanent VIP” there despite the knowledge that said person is apostle. So I guess Hunty will become something around that role, so as to be in line with her original role in the main story.
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