My name is Dariel.

　I am a dark soldier in the Army of the Demon King.
　...was.

　It's a long time ago now.
　After being dismissed from the Demon King's Army, I was officially unemployed and wandered to nowhere.

　The Four Heavenly Kings are right.

　I'm an incompetent, defective piece of work.

　I'm a demon, but I can't use magic.
　The only thing that's important to me is that I'm not going to be able to use magic that even children can learn to use if they're a little resourceful.

　I've been a member of the Demon King's army, but I've remained a dark soldier.

　I'm not going to be able to tell you what to do.
　I'm not going to be the only one who's been in a position to do that.

　The reason I was able to assume the position of Assistant to the Four Heavenly Kings is because I was selected by the previous Four Heavenly Kings.
　However, my predecessor was also severely injured in a fierce battle with a brave man and was forced to retire.
　And the new Four Heavenly Kings were those Bashvaza-sama.

　The situation changes from time to time, and they float and sink with the changing circumstances.
　My position was such a precarious and ephemeral one.

　I'm not sure how shallow I am for not realizing that and still reeling from the shock.

　........What should I do now?

　I'm thirty-two years old.
　Until I reached this age, my life was devoted to the Demon King's Army.
　It must be very hard to choose another way of life from now on.

　Do you want to put your faith in Granbaza-sama, the previous Four Heavenly Kings?

　Mr. Grandfather is the one who put me, a mere dark soldier, in charge of assisting him and taking care of me both publicly and privately.
　If I talk to that person, maybe he can at least introduce me to some new employment opportunities.

　........no, no.
　Master Grand Barza told me just before he retired.

''Help my son well,'' he said.

　The current Fourth Heavenly King, Lord Bashbursa, is Lord Grandfather's trueborn son.
　I stayed in the Demon King's army only because I had the purpose of helping the son of a great benefactor.

　Without being able to fulfill a man's promise, how can I go to see him with my face down?
　Otherwise, Lady Granberza is recovering from a deep wound she received from a brave man.
　I can't let you know that I'm worried about him when the wounds that caused him to retire haven't healed.

　In the end, I'm just a man who will disappear quietly and quietly.

　I can't even use magic.
　No power.

　Who would be bothered by my disappearance?

　That's the kind of man I am.
　I'm a meaningless and useless man.

　In that case, I'll just disappear.
　I'll leave the demon tribe's territory and disappear wherever I can.

　And so I kept walking.

　Walk.
　Keep walking.
　Walk...........

　Until despair paralyzes me and I lose my senses.........

◆

　No, we really walked.

　How many days have passed since then?
　I'm not even sure what the days are anymore?

　I found myself in the woods.
　I didn't recognize it at all, and I was even dimly aware of which direction I had come from.

　The point is, I don't even know where I am.
　It doesn't matter where I am, I just want to get away.

　But here's the thing, though.
　I've been able to outrun my hunger a bit by picking wildflowers and such, but is it time to get out of here?

　What should we do now?

　With that in mind.........

''Caaaaaaaah!''

　A scream rang out from deep in the forest. Indeed, it reaches this ear.

"huh!　Scream!

　In the middle of the forest?

　Now that I heard it, I couldn't ignore it.
　I ran off in the direction where the scream had flown.

　We arrived rather quickly.

　In the middle of the dense forest, an elderly young woman was being attacked by someone.
　It seemed to be a real emergency.

''To-u!''

　I immediately jumped into the scene and stood up to defend the woman.

'A vulnerable woman is being attacked, is that understood?
'What?　Ah.........?

　The woman seems to be confused by the intruder, but it's not unreasonable.

　The person attacking you, on the other hand........turns his or her attention to you. At first I thought it was a person, but it wasn't.

''........A monkey?''

　The beast stands on two legs, but the hairy, fang-bared beast grunts and snarls at me.
　Even though it's a monkey, it's almost as big as me.

　In a decent fist fight, the agile beast would have a strong chance of winning.

　I still resent myself for being so useless.

　If this was a decent elite of the Demon King's army, they could burn it all to the ground with a single magic shot.
　You can't even use rudimentary fire magic, what an incompetent person I really am.

''d*mn........!

　I try to at least scare him with a physical attack, but the monkey is as quick as he looks, and he dodges my hefty tackle.

　I'm still hungry. I can't put any strength into my body.

"Oh, my God, at least...!

　Just enough time to buy a woman enough time to get away safely...?

　What do you think?
　Is there any way I, incompetent as I am, could help someone else...?

!

　As I looked around me in a fit of anguish, something caught my eye.

　A glittering metal shine.
　Sharp and pointed.

''A........weapon?''

　It's called a knife.
　It was invented by the humans to fight against us demons.

　They were conveniently dropped in the forest... could they belong to the woman who was attacked?
　You tried to fight the monkeys that attacked you, but you couldn't handle them and dropped them?

　So she's human?

　No, it doesn't matter.

　It's a shame for a Demon King's Army soldier to rely on weapons made by humans, but I'm no longer in the Demon King's Army.
　I'll use whatever I can use to get out of this crisis.

''Daaah!''

　I managed to pick up the knife and point it at the big monkey.
　Is this how you wanted to handle it?
　How did we use the brave party we fought in the past?

'Kiiiiiiiiiiiii!'

　The monkeys jump on me.
　Kokuen!

''Doryaaaahhhh!

　I could feel the horrible response of stabbing and scraping flesh from the outstretched knife.

　The big monkey covered me with the momentum of the assault, but he didn't move any further, and he died.

''It ... worked.''

　I checked and found that the knife had been driven deep into the great monkey's left chest.
　It went through the gap between his ribs and the ribs and hit his heart.

　I was just copying what my brave companion was doing, but I didn't expect it to be so cleanly done.

　Me, at least.
　I beat the monkey.