Kuro no Maou

e used to be into some shady business using that ‘Eternity’ spell, which was about the only thing he could do.”

It seemed that he would use that spell to make a living for himself.

However, not everyone is a first-class magic user, or perhaps should I say that there’s only a handful of them in the entire world.
But those who can only master one or two spells, regardless of how weak they are, will find it useful in both their daily lives and work.
And since there were so many of these kinds of magic users, magic is pervading in this world even at the level of daily routines.

“Well then, thanks for this sword.
I’ll put it to good use.”

“If something goes wrong, tell me immediately.
I’ll try to adjust it, but if it doesn’t work, I’ll just throw them all away.”

“Hehe, I’m sure it’ll be fine.
Besides, it’s much cooler than fighting with a torch in one hand.”

Then, the sudden rattling noise of armored infantry running interrupted our conversation.

It was a metallic sound that repeated itself over and over again.
This meant that the heavy knights had started marching in groups.

“Good morning, people of the 202nd Colony.”

A group of heavy knights crossed the central square and walked straight to us.
Seeing that there were about ten of them, this seemed to be the platoon for base defense that Sariel was talking about earlier.

The knight at the very lead of the group greeted us.
I wondered if he was the captain of this platoon.

However, rather than looking like that of a rugged gorilla, his face was rather fair, and he had the looks of an aristocratic young man.
He wasn’t wearing his helmet yet, so I could clearly see his face, which was adorned by a beautifully arranged side-parted golden hair, and a pair of glassed that gave him an intellectual look.

He somehow reminded me of Will.

“Sorry for the sudden request, but… you over there, could I take a look at your face?”

My heart started racing all of a sudden.
It seemed that the cat was out of the bag already.

Well, after all, they were going to get suspicious of me sooner or later.

The knight captain with the side-parted golden hair and smart glasses had already seen my true identity! Or at least that’s what I gathered by his confident looks and fearless smile.

Well, there was nothing I could do about it at this point.
I reached for my face guard, but before I had actually opened it…

“Y-You… You’re Cliff!”

“I knew it, it’s really you, Ryan!”

Ryan had turned around to meet this aristocratic knight with a rather unpleasant expression on his face, which soon turned into an ironic smile after having recognized him.

So he wasn’t trying to take a look at my face after all.

“Whoa, it’s been quite a long time, hasn’t it, Ryan? I never thought I would meet you again in a place like this.”

“Hmph, what are you doing in a place like this?”

“Well, I’m officially a knight.
So it’s only natural that I’d take part in this expedition, this holy war all over Pandora.”

More than a Crusader fanatic, he sounded like he was bragging about his own accomplishments.
While the average Crusader would believe that the invasion of Pandora was a holy duty they had to fulfill for their God, many like Cliff here would see it as an opportunity to attain glory and profit.

“What about you, Ryan? You came from the 202nd Colony, right? Don’t tell me you’ve become a simple farmer! Because that’d mean you’ve really fallen from grace.”

“Shaddup, stop blabbering about things you know nothing about.”

“No way, for real? Haha, that’s a shame, a real shame.
I pity you from the bottom of my heart —Are you wearing that armor to reminisce on the good old days? Hahahah!”

Cliff pointed at the Crusaders’ heavy knight armor that Ryan was wearing while forcing a laugh.

“Oh yeah? What about you, then? You probably bought that armor dirt cheap from some cowardly deserter.
I’m sure that’s the only way you could have turned into a knight.
Looks like the Crusaders will take any armored fool to fill their ranks.”

“Y-You, how dare you insult an honorable knight!”

“Haha, but your very existence is an insult to honorable knights.”

I have never seen a scene that called for the expression “like cats and dogs” more accurately than this one.
The air between them had become extremely tense.

“Pull out your sword! I challenge you to a duel!!”

“You fool, you know that using our weapons for private stuff is off limits.”

“Ah, so you do feel intimidated when you have to face a real knight in battle, huh?”

“Come on, can’t you see I’m being considerate here? I’m just trying to help an old friend like you to save some face.
Besides, I’d feel awfully bad if I ended up beating you with a single strike… again.”

“T-That was ages ago! Y-You keep running your mouth as usual, I see…! I can’t take this anymore, I’ll punish you for your impudence right here and right now!”

I thought about asking Ryan to consider not taunting him any further, as Cliff was already so heated up that he looked like he was about to pop, but I changed my mind.

“Stop it, Ryan.”

“Oh, come on, Priest, this is between this poor fool and me–”

The sentiment of wanting him to stop hadn’t changed.
But the words I used were different.
Rather than asking him to stop, it came out more like a warning of sorts.

After all, we had no time for silly disputes.

“Look over there.
The fog is coming out.”

A thin, white mist started to drift in, as if crawling on the ground.

It was so thin, so close to the ground, that no one would have taken notice of it.
But this was probably just a portent of what was to come.
This now insidious fog would surely gain momentum and grow big enough to swallow all of this 203rd Colony under our very noses.

It seemed that those things were already reaching out towards this place.

“Hurry up, the enemy is coming.”