“Demons? Are you certain?”
“I’m certain. I can feel demonic energy from the village direction.”
Jake urgently turned back to check the village direction. He couldn’t see or feel anything.
“This isn’t a demon outbreak risk area. Until the Demon King becomes fully active, demons don’t leave certain regions. Now that the Demon King has disappeared, the demons are…”
Jake trailed off and swallowed dryly.
Though he rambled in confusion, there was no way he didn’t know the reason demons appeared here.
“…Has Father made his move?”
He had thought the mercenaries rushed straight here because they had no time, but that was just speculation.
While they rushed with effort to secure the wanted criminal with their own hands, they probably spread information to their affiliated mercenary guild or other colleagues in case they failed to catch the Hero.
Considering how much the villagers were after money, they might have spread information everywhere to receive payment for the information.
If the Duke’s people were mixed in among those who bought the information, the news would have reached the Duke immediately. For the Duke, obtaining a magic scroll to travel to this area wouldn’t be difficult. It wouldn’t be strange even if the Duke came here leading demons in just a few hours.
‘This is most likely a trap.’
That’s what Klad thought.
The Duke who wanted to become the Hero wouldn’t have thoughtlessly brought demons. He intended to lure out Jake by releasing demons, but that wouldn’t be all of it.
He probably planned to show Jake struggling without properly catching even a single demon in front of the villagers, then defeat the demons in his place to insist he was the Hero.
Since it would be a tremendous loss if only the villagers witnessed this scene after going through the trouble of bringing demons, he might have brought other spectators hanging on as well.
Even if the Duke didn’t intend to put on a show, it was certain Jake would be captured the moment he returned to the village.
‘I have to go to the village alone.’
Just because this was a trap didn’t mean he could leave the village being attacked by demons as is. Klad planned to send Jake to the city and return to the village alone to deal with the demons.
If he encountered the Duke, a slightly troublesome situation might arise, but he could at least manage to escape alone.
“This is a trap. I’ll take care of the demons myself, so you go to the city and wait. Wait at an inn and…”
“Klad.”
Klad, who was about to hand over a money pouch along with telling him to hide at a nearby city inn since he’d find him on his own, stopped his movement right there.
“How can you try to go alone to a place where there’s an opponent you can’t even attack? I can’t let you go alone.”
“Just because you’re standing by my side doesn’t mean I’ll be able to attack the Duke.”
“But I can attack him, can’t I!”
It wasn’t wrong, but that didn’t mean Jake would be helpful.
Rather, if the Duke concentrated his attacks on Jake, Klad’s feet might get tied down.
‘That definitely won’t work.’
He needed to be firm here. In the current situation, the best option was for Klad to eliminate the demons alone while Jake went to the city to wait. He needed to answer firmly that if Jake threw a tantrum, he couldn’t help with any matter from now on.
Klad steeled his resolve and looked at Jake.
Anxiety dwelled in those blue eyes that still hadn’t been changed to a different color.
‘…Is he afraid?’
What was he afraid of?
Being left alone? Facing the Duke? Or… that his only companion might fall at the Duke’s hands while he’s not there?
Perhaps among his worries, he chose to receive the Duke’s attacks together with Klad rather than tremble not knowing anything.
“……”
But even so, nothing changed. Klad had to make the best choice for the situation.
Klad answered firmly.
“Right. Let’s go.”
As soon as Klad’s agreement fell, Jake turned his horse toward the village without hesitation.
Neighhh.
Just as Klad said, several demons were prowling around the village entrance. It seemed they hadn’t yet fully entered the village. Fortunately.
Jake drew his sword while still sitting on the running horse.
Shing-
It would have been really great if he could swing it splendidly and behead a demon, but for Jake who struggled even with the act of drawing his sword on the swaying horse, it was impossible.
‘However, I can draw attention.’
The demons with belligerent tendencies would rush toward Jake instead of attacking the villagers who had fallen as if asleep.
Then he could buy time.
Time for Klad to rush toward the demons.
“You’re fearless.”
While Jake drew attention to prevent the demons from entering the village, Klad began casting.
To hide his identity from the Duke who might be somewhere around here, he had to at least cast and pretend to recite spells like an ordinary mage.
Lies like ‘magic is originally like this’ wouldn’t work on him.
Kwaang-!
A fireball of appropriate size rose from Klad’s hand and struck the shoulder of a demon rushing toward Jake.
“Kuaaaaaak!”
Due to their racial characteristic of having cold skin and cold blood flowing in their bodies, making them vulnerable to heat, the demon suffered several times more pain than the damage received and rolled on the ground.
Even though their companion was in pain, the other demons didn’t care and rushed at Jake.
“Whoa!”
Neighhh-!
The horse nimbly dodged instead of the slow Jake.
“This is strange, Klad! Demons should have the habit of attacking the strongest among a group first, so why are they attacking me?”
“Fall back.”
As Jake retreated, the demons’ gazes all turned in that direction.
It was definitely strange. Even if they didn’t attack the stronger one, they should at least be wary when Klad was casting magic right before their eyes, but the demons acted as if Klad didn’t exist to them.
Their gazes were fixed solely on Jake.
As if they had been programmed to attack Jake.
‘…No way.’
The hypothesis that flashed through his mind for a moment was absurd.
But just because it was absurd didn’t mean he could ignore the small possibility. Klad forgot about showing himself casting magic to pretend to be an ordinary mage and layered protective magic on top of Jake.
“Don’t get far from me!”
“B-but… if we stay close while on horses, it becomes inconvenient to move smoothly. Both of us might become endangered.”
Then he just needed to not stay close while on horseback.
Klad threw fire arrows toward a nearby demon while driving his horse toward Jake. Then he embraced Jake’s waist and pulled him sharply toward himself.
“Ah!”
Because of that, Jake naturally slid down from the horse he was riding and ended up in Klad’s arms, frantically reaching out his arms to grab whatever he could to avoid falling.
Not even realizing he had ended up clinging to Klad, Jake scolded him for the rudeness just now.
“I-I almost fell, didn’t I, Klad!”
“There’s no way I’d let you fall.”
“That’s…”
Instead of getting angry that he would have been seriously hurt if he had fallen even by mistake, Jake struggled to settle into position on the horse.
Having barely sat in front of Klad, Jake turned his head to find the horse he had been riding. The horse was fleeing with its tail between its legs.
With this, it was confirmed that he had to sit obediently in front of Klad at least until the battle ended.
“What on earth was that action just now for, Klad?”
“It’s inconvenient.”
“A longer explanation is needed.”
Kwaaang-!
One demon got hit by Klad’s fire arrow and flew far away.
Klad explained quickly without stopping his attacks.
“See how those bastards have been chasing only you without even glancing at me since earlier? The farther apart we are, the more inconvenient it becomes to protect you and attack them. If we’re like this, they rush toward my side, so both defense and attack become easier.”
Just as he said, the demons didn’t take their eyes off Jake even while receiving Klad’s attacks.
“But the demons are… Huk!”
The moment a demon jumped high and reached its arms toward Jake, Klad urgently pulled the horse’s reins. Because of that, when Jake swayed, Klad wrapped his left hand around Jake’s stomach with his hand that wasn’t holding the reins.
“Hold onto me.”
“Wh-what?”
“I can’t use both hands so it’s inconvenient to cast, so you hold onto me.”
Jake flailed his hands in the air in confusion.
With him sitting in front, where and how was he supposed to hold on? In this position, he couldn’t embrace either Klad’s back or stomach. Embrace, the nuance felt somehow strange, but anyway, the point was he couldn’t hold on.
After struggling, Jake pondered for a long while before tightly embracing Klad’s right arm that was holding the reins with both arms like a sloth hanging from a tree.
Klad stretched out his left arm forward as if he had been waiting.
Then lightning bolts fell upon the heads of the demons rushing toward Jake.
Kwaaaaaaang-!
