Um....Makoto-sama?　The Demon King's Castle is beyond this direction, but...
　Momo pulled my sleeve as if frightened.

The Human Farm is located behind the Demon King's Castle and the huge, jet-black castle is clearly visible even from a distance.
　Near the castle, the Demon King's entourage has taken up residence.
　They are strong, and if they are spotted, they will be devoured in the blink of an eye.

　That's why me and Momo have been keeping our distance from the Demon King's Castle.　
　But the story I heard from the boy just now.


　--The brave men are being executed.


　If the brave Abel is among them, the oracle will fail.
　And in my estimation, it's highly likely.
　According to the picture book "The Legend of Abel the Brave", Abel becomes stronger the later in the book.

　He rides his sky-riding holy dragon around the world, defeating demon kings and becoming known as the savior.
　If the legend is true, there should be few people who can beat the stronger Abel.
　So, if they plan to alter the past, they will aim for the heroic Abel before he awakens into a strong man.

　The first one to be defeated by Abel is the (¦) Demon King Bifrons.
　At this time, a brave man who is about to be executed.
　...If I hadn't listened to him, I could have been in danger.

"Momo, I'm going to save the heroes at the Demon King's Castle now.
''Huh?''
　I told him what I wanted, so he would have expected it, but even so, Momo's face pulled wide.

''How...?''
I don't know. Maybe we should get some local info first.
Anybody here with you...?
I'm not here. It's just me.
Oh, no, no...
　He might have been about to say, "Impossible," but Momo looked down and shut up.

''Wow, I........''
　That's right.
　Momo's magic proficiency is at a level where he can't even chantless.
　As a fighting force, it's unwieldy.
　That said, there is no safe place in 'Human Farm' even if I ask you to hide somewhere.

Do you want to come with me?
Are you sure?
　After all, I've been trying to protect you at arm's length.
　Above all, I'm in a hurry myself now.
　Anyway, I want to know the current situation of the brave man who is about to be executed.

Let's go.
Yes, sir.
　Me and Momo held hands and hurried to the Demon King's Castle while using the 'Covert' skill.



　◇



'Hmmm, can we go any further...'
It's hard to tell.
　We are currently on a small hill near the castle of the Demon King's Castle and the town below.
　The castle town is surrounded by moats and walls.

　The wall is not so much to keep out enemies, but rather to distinguish between the two, to say 'this is a special place from here on out'.
　And most of the people in the castle town are demons.
　And then there are elves and dwarves who seem to be slaves of the demon race.
　There are also slaves of the human race.
　All of them have easily recognizable characteristics, such as beautiful looks and fine physiques.

(How hard is it for me and Momo to blend in...?)

　I suppressed my impatience and tried to gather information with my 'clairvoyance' and 'listening ears'.
　The demons are loud, and I was able to easily pick up on their conversations with my "listening ear" skill.
　As a result, I found out a few things.

Currently, the Demon King Bifrons is not here.
The execution of the heroes will take place as soon as the demon king returns.
There are three brave men to be executed.

(It's a blessing that the Demon King is not here....)

　Also, I heard an interesting story.
　It's a conversation between a certain demon tribe.　

''Hey, those brave men held in the square, why don't you execute them immediately?
You don't know?　If you kill a brave man, the next brave man is born. When you kill a hero, the next brave person is born. So it's best to capture the brave and not let them live and not kill them.
But didn't the Great Demon Lord personally give you an order to 'kill the heroes' this time?

Yeah, I heard that the person who has the courage to do it must be killed, but I don't know when, so Master Bifrons has gone to check with the Great Demon Lord.
"Why don't you just take the captured heroes to the Great Demon Lord...?
''You........taking a lowly hero to the great demon king who rarely shows up.... I don't know what kind of anger you'll incur.

Fearful. Well, we've never seen the Great Demon Lord before either.
Just hearing His voice is enough to make me tremble.
''Come to think of it, it's better to keep a brave man alive and not kill him...?
Yeah, I just told you.

''Then why is Master Black Knight Cain so quick to smash a brave man to death?
You........how could Master Cain make such a sensible decision?
That's true. That man has a screw loose in his head.
''Ah........He's terrifying in a different way than the Great Demon Lord.......''

　That was the conversation.

(I see...)
　So that's why they don't carry out the execution quickly.
　But I don't know if Abel is included among the brave men, after all.
　Also, the former Noah-sama's apostle has a bad reputation.
　I wonder what kind of guy he is...?
　As much as I want to see you, as much as I don't want to see you.......

Makoto-sama........how do you feel?
　Momo is next to me, chewing on a fruit that looks like an apple I found on the move.
　Sorry, that's all the food I could find.

I think I'm going to get in tonight.
Hey, is this for tonight?
Yeah, everybody else seems to be sleeping through the night.　
　It was yesterday that we arrived near the Demon King's Castle.
　Then I spent the whole day observing the Demon King's Castle and the castle town.

　There are not many people coming and going at night.
　Let's create a magical fog to blend in with it.
　There are guards, but they are riddled with tension.
　I'm sure there's no one to attack.

　I thought the heroes attacked the demon king's castle, but they didn't even make it to the castle town.
　I'm not sure if they can beat the demon king's army with this kind of situation...?


　I waited anxiously for the night.


"Water magic fog.
　The sun and the moon are obscured by the Cloud of Darkness.
　The time is probably around midnight.

　I cast a spell and covered the entire area with fog.
　Using my covert skills, I slowly approached the city of demons.
　At a time like this, if Freyae was here, I'd ask her to cast the 'Sleeping Beauty Curse' on me.
　Well, it's asking for something that isn't there.

　The gatekeeper finds me when I go through the gate, so I go over the moat and the castle wall.
　I made a water path in the air with water magic, and moved through it with water magic and underwater walking.
　He and Momo have been holding hands the whole time.
　His expression is tense and tense with tension.

(I should have had him learn the 'calm' skill first.)
　A reminder for next time.
　With this in mind, we successfully infiltrated the city.

　In the center of the city, a huge Demon King's Castle stands in the middle of the city, visible even through the fog.
　I heard that the brave man's execution is in the square in front of the demon king's castle.

　The main street of the city of demons is illuminated by magical streetlights.
　Momo and I walked through the back streets as much as possible.

I've been using the "Searching" skill, but the enemies reacted too much and I became afraid of them, so I stopped using it.
Relying on our "danger detection" skills, we headed for the center of the city.　
　Is this what a terrorist feels like after infiltrating enemy territory?　

　On the way, the local demon tribe was walking around, but I got over it with a deep fog and my 'covert' skill, and arrived safely at what looked like a square.


(Momo........are you alright?)
(Yes, yes I am afraid.)
　We hide in the shadows of the building, whispering and conversing as we watch the square.
　Tightly, I squeezed Momo's hand back as she squeezed it.

　The demons on guard are........about ten of them.
　The type of demon is a gargoyle.
　That's nasty.
　And in the center of the square, several cages could be seen.
　I can see a figure inside.

(What do we do...?)
　The gargoyle sits at the top of a large pillar that has been sparsely erected in the square.
　The enemy can see over the entire square, and it looks like it will be difficult to take them by surprise.
　Hmmm, I want to act cautiously, but I don't want to stay for too long either.
　What to do.....



　--The 'listening ear' skill.



　The gargoyles were having a conversation and I asked them.

'Hey, it's foggy today,'
Oh, I hate this day. I'm all wet and nasty.
Oh, I'm gonna go sit by the fire and dry off...
Absolutely. Why don't we take a break?
But hey, you know what?
Hey, it's just an hour or so by the fire, you'll feel better and be able to concentrate on the watch. It'll refresh you and you can concentrate on your work.

　...Gargoyles are stone monsters, right?
　He didn't like the humidity.


　--Water magic, fog


　In the meantime, if they don't like it, we'll do more for them.

'Whoa!　The fog is getting even thicker.
"I don't give a f*ck!　I'm taking a break!
'Oh!　We're slipping!　I want to go too!
Hey!　At least someone should stay behind!
Then you have to stay here, captain!
"Don't mess with me. Seniority is the law!

　The gargoyles have gone.
　Only one of them seems to be left, but it seems that if they take a big turn, they will be able to reach the cage without being noticed.
　The late gargoyles are mumbling their frustrations and not concentrating on keeping watch.
　It's dereliction of duty, but lucky for me.

　I slowly approached the cage with my 'covert' skills through the deep fog.

　Inside the cage was a man whose hands and feet were shackled and whose body was bound with chains.
　He appeared to be asleep, but he woke up as soon as I approached.
　The man gave me a wary look.

''Are you ... a human race?''
　The man looked dubious.

'I'm here to help.'
!
　I stated my purpose briefly and the man's eyes widened.

''Helpful... but this cage was built by the Demon King's confidant 'Shuri' with dark magic and is difficult to open...''
　I didn't wait for the words to be said before I pulled Noah-sama's dagger from my waist.


　--Shallang, there was a small sound and the blade of the dagger cut through the bars of the cage.


''Huh?''
　Ignoring the surprised man, I entered the cage and cut the chains that bound my body and cut the shackles as well.
　I tried not to make a sound, and when I caught it, "Heavy! I almost dropped it by accident and let Momo catch it.

'Are you okay?　Master Makoto.
Thanks for the peaches.
Yes, yes....
　Apparently, I'm less powerful than a peach.
　Sad.

"What are you...?
　To a man who was stunned, I was stunned.
My name is Makoto. I'm here to rescue the brave by the oracle of the Sun Goddess (Althena). You're a brave man, aren't you?
　I asked.
　As soon as he heard that, he turned serious.

'I'm Wolf, the 'brave of the soil'. Thank you, thank you. I have friends in the other cage. I need your help.
　It wasn't Abel.
　But there are others.
　What about you?

All right. Are you a brave man, too?
'Oh, yes the ones trapped in the cage over there are 'Julietta, the wooden brave' and 'A(b)be-r', the 'thunder brave'.
!
　I gutted in my mind.


　-- I've made contact with Abel, the Savior of the world.