Shinmai Maou no Keiyakusha:Volume 5 Chapter 1

Status: Incomplete

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Being with You in the Demon Realm

Part 1

Midnight came around, and Lucia appeared on time.

Jumping through space and appearing before Basara and the rest—

“Thank you for waiting…is everyone ready?”

Her tone and liveliness were completely from Maria’s – relatively cold.

“—We’re ready, please begin.”

Toujou Basara nodded his head and replied. For the past month, everyone had been preparing for this journey.

Other than Maria, they were all wearing their school uniform, including Kurumi who had changed into the uniform she had worn to attend Hijirigasaka Academy’s Sports Festival. Although Yuki and Kurumi had their Hero battle clothes, they decided not to wear clothes that could stimulate the Demons.

Because -- including Basara, their positions today are not Heroes -- but instead just purely Mio’s family and friends.

For their clothes and daily necessities, they had gone with packing for a short trip overseas. According to Maria, their clothes could be washed anywhere and their weapons could be summoned anytime, to there isn’t any personal concerns; both Yuki and Kurumi only needed to prepare the medicinal items needed for the Heroes.

Thus, Basara and Mio each packed a single luggage case, and Yuki and Kurumi two each, each and every one being of a different size; Maria has her own residence within the Demon Realm, so she didn’t pack anything.

“Alright, we will now depart.”

With that, a large magic circle appeared in the space beside Lucia and slowly merged into the space, turning into a pitch-black hole.

“My god…”

Kurumi became amazed.

Of course Kurumi would be amazed. Normally, humans needed to fulfil some conditions before they are able to proceed to the Demon Realm. The Demon Race are beings in a higher class than Humans, and that the dimension the Demon Realm was higher than the dimension Humans are in; the principles in constructing a tunnel from a higher to lower dimension are complete different from that of from a lower to higher dimension.

One of the ways for to construct a tunnel was to make use of the overlapping between the Demon Realm and the Human Realm with its lessor numbers, to create space instability in some places and the natural phenomena -- The 「Dimensional Boundary」. Japan has some places where the Dimensional Boundary has occurred that are currently strictly controlled by the Hero [Village] – without their authorization, those like the exiled Basara and Mio who has Demon blood within her are not allowed to use it. Jin who had pretended to be going to Dubai when in truth going to the Demon Realm when Mio and the rest started living together had probably used a Dimensional Boundary overseas.

…My dad has got many connections after all.

Even if Jin has been blacklisted by the Heroes in Japan, the Hero of the Great War is still very popular overseas, so finding a way to the Demon Realm wouldn’t be something difficult for him.

And right now, Lucia who is a pure Demon had just created a very stable Dimensional Boundary that even Humans like Basara can cross, showing a glimpse of her power to them.

…But since Lucia is the Right-Hand Man of the leader of the Moderates Faction, such power was to be expected.

Amongst the Heroes, there were some specialising in creating spells that manipulate space, but Basara had never seen one that are as stable as the one before him right now. Of course, being able to construct barriers or manipulate space does not equate to strong battle power. Just then—

“There’s nothing to be surprised about. Mio-sama has Demon blood, Basara uses a cursed sword, some of Kurumi’s contracted spirits relations to the Demon Realm; just by taking advantage of those demonic fluctuations, creating a Dimensional Boundary that you all can pass through isn’t that hard.”

Lucia said, as if seeing through why they were so surprised.

“…What about me? My [Sakuya] shouldn’t have any demonic fluctuations.”

“—Affirmative, Yuki’s spirit sword doesn’t contain any demonic fluctuations.”

Lucia slightly nodded in response to Yuki’s question.

“That’s why, I’ve used those demonic fluctuations within your body.”

“Within my body…?”

“The fluctuations from the Master-Servant Contract you had made with Basara. Yuki sis and Mio-sama are both linked to Basara with my demonic power.”

The intermediary Maria, explained to Yuki who was frowning from being unable to understand.

“So, it doesn’t really matter even if Mio-sama doesn’t have Demon blood; as for Kurumi, she recently has been through my succubus baptism a lot, so its fine even if she doesn’t have any demonic spirits, they all would be able to pass through one-sama’s Dimensional Boundary.”

“ ! …T-That was why you had done all those things?”

Upon seeing the red-faced Kurumi coyly ask, Maria replied all smiles:

“You’re wrong. I was unable to hold back my succubus instincts, and vented my libido on you.”

“Y-You idiot! Why do I have to handle your libido!?”

“C-Calm down, Kurumi. If you start to Maria’s tone, you’ll fall into her trap.”

“ ! ….Big sis~”

Kurumi immediately plunged into Yuki’s arms after being warned by Mio, and Yuki began patting her head to placate her.

Yuki is showing such a happy face…such glaring big-sister’s-love radiance.

「…………」

Lucia quietly watched all this, her eyebrows not wrinkling even once. Even while standing still in a very natural way, she didn’t show any sign of any flaws or struggles, while maintaining the Dimensional Boundary. Her outer-appearances are similar to Maria’s adult form, and she could very well be a S-Class expert.

“……Is anything wrong?”

Seeing Lucia sense Basara’s gaze, she replied [Nothing] and turned to Mio and the rest.

As if seeing what this meant, they became serious and stopped making a ruckus.

Toujou Basara thus said to the four of them:

「——Let’s go.」

They nodded -- and walked towards the Dimensional Boundary in a single file.

Part 2

They were immediately enveloped by an abyss-like darkness, and they suddenly lost their orientation.

As if like they were in outer space.

--However, that sensation was short-lived.

In the next moment -– they were all standing within an unfamiliar forest with the sweet smell of grass; as the wind blew, the rays of sunlight scattered on the ground also underwent some changes.

It’s just as Maria said, there was a time difference from Japan.

“This place is—“

“--Adola Forset.”

Lucia turned to face Basara, and answered his uncertainty. Just then—

“Adola Forset…is this place?”

Kurumi asked while shrinking her body away, making Mio surprised.

“You know this place?”

“Yes. Although our knowledge of the terrain in the Demon Realm is limited – everyone will definitely know about Adola Forest.”

For Basara, Yuki, and Kurumi, all of their knowledge of this place came from their elders who had participated in the previous war. In the past, the Moderates Faction controlled majority of the Demon Realm, but then rapidly lost power and influence with the death of Wilbert, ending up in today’s state. Comparing from fifteen years ago during the war, the current power map must have already changed a lot. But the Moderates Faction probably never accounted for this forest, since after all—

“—This place is the forest closest to the Demon Lord Wilbert’s castle.”

This might have been a suitable place for Basara and the rest to land, having been invited by the Moderates Faction after all. However—

“Lucia-oneesama – why didn’t you directly bring us into Vereda City?”

Maria asked while frowning. The term Maria just said was also one that Basara and the other Heroes often heard – The city of the Demon Lord’s Capital back when Wilbert was still on the throne.

As the ones who were invited by the current leader of the Moderate Faction Ramusas and other high-class Demons, it would usually be done as Maria said, sending them directly into the city to save trouble and simplify matters.

“From the viewpoint of crisis management, we have made the decision to try to avoid the areas near and within the city, to prevent any involvement and manipulation of a third party and be mistaken as an enemy invasion.”

“You might be right, but do remember that the Current Demon Lord Faction is also after Mio-sama’s life—“

“I am well aware of that, and that is why I had chosen Adola Forest. This place is not far away from the city, it’s difficult to observe anything from outside, and it would be difficult for anyone in the surrounding areas to feel any Dimensional Linking.”

After Lucia replied without any change in her expression to the complaining Maria—

“Let us walk for a short distance, and there will be a horse carriage to bring up into the city – Please follow me.”

And proceeded to walk off in another direction into the forest.

“I’m sorry, everyone…”

Maria lowered her eyes while feeling bad, and Basara patted her shoulder and said:

“No need to say it like it’s your fault… I guess we better get moving then.”

“…Alright.”

Maria nodded, and Basara began following Lucia.

Much less a pavement, there wasn’t even an exposed path on the forest floor. Everyone walked in a single file slowly through the grass, and soon—

“Eh… When I had first about the Demon Realm, I had thought that it would be a dark and scary place; but in the end it was just as Maria said, it wasn’t much different from our world, and there’s even a sun… There’s so many different types of plants here, giving the forest so much fresh air, it just feels no different from the mountains in the countryside.”

Mio expressed her feelings to the view of the natural forest before her. As it’s their first visit, Basara consulted Maria on a few matters to gain some knowledge on things like cultures and customs; but upon seeing a view completely contrary to his expectations, everything felt fresh. It’s just—

“What fresh air… Really, you just don’t understand.”

“What do you mean, Kurumi?”

Behind her, Kurumi sighed, and Mio turned back to ask.

“You have Demon blood, so you might not have noticed… While the views and scenes within the forest are indeed beautiful, the concentration of demonic power within this place is completely shocking. With such strong demonic fluctuations, it really gives people of coming to the Demon Realm.”

Hearing Kurumi say tensely, Mio became surprised.

“Oh… Is it true, Basara?”

“Yes, the demonic concentration within this place are very strong. Remember Zolgear’s house? It’s similar to that.”

Such thick demonic concentrations will probably lower the immunity system of a normal human, but as ones who had underwent the training from the Heroes, that might not be too much of a problem. But as such strong demonic concentrations usually equates to a fairly powerful demon or evil spirit lurking around, they were unable to relax.

“Really…? In such a natural and beautiful place?”

Basara gave a bitter smile to Mio who muttered unbelievably, and turned his sight to another place.

“…Yuki, are you alright?”

“Ah, I’m fine.”

Beside Basara, Yuki nodded and replied, showing no hints of any stress within her expression.

…Probably because she’s the user of [Sakuya].

In short, the spirit sword can purify her body anytime, even weakening the demonic fluctuations from the Master-Servant Contract; it certainly is useful as a Hero, but it presents another problem in the Demon Realm. Being unable to use [Sakuya]’s original amount of power like within Zolgear’s mansion, the one most affected by the demonic concentration is undoubtedly Yuki.

Basara couldn’t see any abnormalities in Yuki right now. But before Yuki manages to get used to the demonic concentration, there would be a burden on her, so any repercussions appearing wouldn’t be strange at all.

“Yuki—“

Basara originally wanted to help Yuki carry one of the two luggage she was carrying, but instead retracted his words.

Yuki probably is already aware that the one most affected by the demonic concentrations in the Demon Realm will be her.

But yet she still agreed to go along with Basara and the rest. Basara’s worries, might be contempt in Yuki’s eyes.

“What is it, Basara?”

Replying, Yuki’s breaths became slightly faster.

Translator Notes and References

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