76.THE SEASON OF THE REDLEAVES

The mountain nearby the royal capital were completely colored in red.

The mountains that used to be shining in green was now colored in the red color, giving it the feeling that autumn was at its pinnacle. After the few days there are left for the leaves to fall off, it would finally become the period of time when the ground would become covered in snow.

Ah, such a beautiful scenery.

A spiritualist muttered.

An army of spiritualists was gathered at the cave system deep into the mountains filled in red. Half of the spiritualists were deep inside the caverns while the remaining ones were standing outside them in guard. This certain spiritualist was part of the latter. Leaning against the entrance of the cave, he looked at the redness in front of his eyes.

Now that I think of it, the young master of the Barusak household had said something about [leaf peeping], that was some kind of banquet that you would look at the autumn leaves. Ah, I want to drink some alcohol.(TL note: Autumn version of that sakura seeing thing I guess?

Hey, dont lower your guard! The Demon Lord army might attack at any time, you know!?

Standing next to the spiritualist who had casually dropped his guard, his colleague urged.

This is the land the Demon Lord is sealed at. You see, now that the princess-sama was captured, they will be attacking here next. It wouldnt be weird even if the enemy attacked any time, you know!?

Hm Well, I guess, but is the Demon Lord army really that strong?

The spiritualist wasnt really feeling any sense of tension.

In these last few years, and in these few months in special, they had suffered many great defeats to the Demon Lord army. However, they killed the commander of Fert, Zerrik, and at a battle from few days ago, Leivein, who could be said to be the core of the Demon Lord army, had been put to the verge of dying. Most likely, they were able to deal an injury that made him close to death when Leivein went to protect the provisional demon lord Charlotte.

Arent all the strong people of the Demon Lord army disabled? In that case, we should be able to deal with them somehow, right?

What are you talking!? Dont you know about that?

In a fit of anger, the colleague grabbed the spiritualist by the collar.

What are you talking about?

The rumor of the red haired demon. A demon of small build that had annihilated a whole army at Karkata. With her red hair dripping blood, he would swung her huge halberd around.

His voice was slightly trembling.

The rumor of the red haired demon had spread among the spiritualist. This spiritualist had heard about that before, but laughed it off as if it didnt matter much.

But you know, isnt it that the rumors are just being exaggerated?

Stupid! Apparently, it is not the case. Ive heard it directly from the survivors of Karkata.

But even though you say it is a demon, isnt its hair red? In that case, should the demon be the [traitor Riku]?

Traitor Riku?

The companion frowned. He inclined his head with the words [traitor Riku] he didnt recall hearing about. And then, the spiritualist spoke in a lowered voice.

Just between us, but it seems that Raimon-samas second daughter had betrayed the spiritualists and had been working to the demons.

Haa!? What do you mean by

Shh, you are being too loud.

The spiritualist hurriedly put his hand at the mouth of his colleague. The colleague was surprised to the point that it looked as if his eyeballs would fall off. With the spiritualist putting up a somewhat serious face, he continued while lowering his voice even more.

My aniki is from the squad Raimon-sama directly controls, you see. It seems that she was thrown away from some cliff and survived. And then, she was picked up by the demons.

Is this true?

Removing the hand from his mouth, the colleague quietly muttered back.

It is known to the spiritualists affiliated to the Barusak household, or rather, even if they are not spiritualists from the Barusak household, it is known that Raimon Barusak had a red haired daughter. How he had dealt with her some years ago is a common knowledge that people usually dont talk about.

Its true. And besides, it seems that Raimon-sama cut off her right arm. So, doesnt it mean that there arent anybody among the demons that could pose a threat.

I-I see. But this isnt a reason for lowering your guard. There is still a chance that they have someone strong that we still dont know of.

Tapping his own cheeks, the companion once again made a serious face. After answering back, he once again looked towards the direction where the mountain range extended to.

But if they are really heading to the [seal], shouldnt the others notice them coming?

The spiritualist muttered while looking at the red leaves fluttering down.

If someone spots the demon army coming to the foot of the mountain, it would be immediately reported. It wasnt possible to think that a small demon army would be able to overpower the elite spiritualists that were protecting the seal, and if a large army barged in, they would definitely be spotted midway. With the spiritualist saying that, his colleague hesitantly nodded.

Well, that makes sense. But you can never be too careful, you know? There is no mistake that the troops protecting the seal are elite-picked. But

The companions words were interrupted.

It wasnt that he had stopped speaking, but that his head had flown to the air together with the sound of air being cut. By sudden occurrence, confused, the spiritualist looked at his companion whose head vanished from sight.

Eh?

The only thing the spiritualist could say was that.

In the next instant, his own neck also ended up getting cut off by the sharp halberd. With the overpowering pain that was impossible to imagine of, while having his consciousness disappearing, what the spiritualist had seen in his last moments was a girl in a red armor with vermillion colored hair that made his cheeks blush (TL note: WTF? Just in case ^^)

For this to be the elite-picked troops. How disappointing.

It was a one-armed girl that blended with the autumn leaves of the mountain.

-

Suppression complete.

Riku Barusak sat down at a rock nearby.

The mountain that was colored by the autumn was now colored even more in red by the blood. Taking out a blood covered paper, Riku gave a small sigh.

Its not here either

The paper she had spread at her things was the map which had the surroundings of the royal capital drawn on it. At the mountains and coastlands, there were some circles and x marks written on them. Conveniently making use of her finger soaked with blood, she wrote an x mark at the circle of the place they were at.

Really, there are too many places where the seal might be. Couldnt they bring down the numbers a bit more?

There is no helping to that. This is the most they could do.

As he said that, Vrustos figure appeared from inside the cave.

By the way, isnt ojou-chan from the Barusak? Shouldnt they have at least taught you about the place the Demon Lord is sealed at?

Unfortunately, I dont know. The real location is only told to the heads of the four spiritualist families and the elite troops. Other than that, everything is [bait] information. But by how they were acting, it seems they didnt let the troops protecting this false location know about it.

Riku looked at her feet. Laying there, there was the bodies of the spiritualists that had believed they were [really protecting the seal]. Without doubt, this too was only false information just so that the real place the seal is at is not discovered.

Immediately after sealing the Demon lord the spiritualists of that era didnt announce the [location of the seal] by probably fearing the counter attack of the demons and the resurrection of the Demon Lord.

In order to carefully hide where the seal is, the spiritualists sent some troops to protect places that had no relation to the seal as [places where the seal could possibility be]. Those places were also kept secret, but after many years of investigation by the Demon Lord army, they had discovered many points that might be the location of the seal

Receiving Gortoberuks orders, Riku went to do a thorough search at those places.

With this one, it is already the fourth. For them to do this kind of thing, they should be very scared of the Demon Lord resurrecting.

Since childhood, Riku had been learning about the threat the Demon Lord was.

The Demon Lord had done every possible act of cruelty in this world, and it seems that he had drown the royal city in the blood of several humans. With that said, there were many points that were different from the reality in the information she had learned about. Riku couldnt get a clue about to what extend the Demon Lords strength was true. (TL note: What would this mean? ->