On The Other Side: I Quit Being Human

Ding!

The pulse I have sent out resonates with Eliseus' Rank Necklace for the seventh time today. I am honestly quite surprised that I have only done it for 7 times; I expected myself to do that more than 20 times by now.

'It turns out, my memory is better than I thought,' I muse inwardly.

We have been traveling for seven hours. The moon has hidden itself, thus the night ends, whereas morning comes to greet the world.

We have only rested once after the last one we had in the middle of the plain. Given our speed, we must be already quite far from the rebel army chasing after us.

Actually, I am not quite sure if they are still chasing after us; because if they are, they are doing half-heartedly.

It is relieving that they can't still catch up to us—don't get me wrong—but the fact that we haven't seen a glimpse of them even after hours of travel seems a little bit suspicious for me.

Haletha is, after all, the Queen that their new King wants to destroy. If they are really loyal to Iorael and his accomplice, they would do their best to catch Haletha, which would, in turn, should make them not that far from us.

There are three possibilities that I can think of: first, Iorael merely ordered them to chase Haletha away while making her think that she is going to be killed; second, the rebel army is still loyal to Haletha; and third, we are just fast.

While the third possibility is the most highly likely situation, I can't bring myself to simply discard the other possibilities.

"Is there some kind of a Barrier that protects Verniculos Kingdom and makes it invisible to the unwanted eyes?"

Turning my eyes to my left, I find Arieda looking at me curiously. I have told her many times that she will find out about what she is curious about in three days, but she still keeps bombarding me with questions.

"No, there is not. We do have a defense mechanism to protect our citizens, but we don't feel the need to hide our Kingdom. In fact our Kingdom's security is intentionally made look lax so many people will come." Regardless, I still answer her.

"By people... You don't mean tourists, do you?"

"Of course not; I mean the Heroes and our enemies. Just imagine their shock when they find how formidable our defense actually is."

"It has never been attacked however, if I am not mistaken," Haletha chimes in.

"Our force is strong enough to always keep our enemies at bay," I say, weirdly feeling proud. "The moment our opponents managed to breakthrough our front line of defense will be the day they can attack our Kingdom, which will never happen."

"That is quite a bold statement," Haletha remarks. "But, I guess you are not wrong. As long as you are there, I believe Verniculos Kingdom will prosper."

"Don't you worry about what will happen to the Dark Elves if that ever happens?"

"I don't care that much." Haletha shrugs. "I am already a part of Verniculos Kingdom the moment I decided to seek asylum there. Besides, I am no longer a Queen, so I have no more obligation to worry about my people's safety."

Certainly, Dark Elves are different from Light Elves. Haletha's nonchalant answer has just made it clear that they behave just like humans, but are still better than them in some aspects.

That aside, her confidence in me is flattering. I don't know whether she was talking about my role as the future Demon King or she was simply praising my capability, but either way gives me an extra boost of confidence.

"Hm?" I quirk my eyebrow the moment I notice presences ahead of us. "These presences... Humans? They are too weak for Magic Practitioners, so they must be a group of merchants."

Turning my head to Haletha, I wonder what her reaction will be if I say I want to raid them. This is a golden opportunity to get richer, no matter how insignificant it is, so I can't just let them go.

"Let us raid them," Haletha says, surprising me. "Due to our lack of preparation, we are running out of supplies. Let us resupply ourselves with the goods they have."

"... Good idea," I say the moment I recovered form my astonishment.

Immediately increasing our speed, we quickly eliminate the distance between us and the group of merchants. None of the merchants are aware of us even when we are already right behind them.

Rumble.

"H-Hey, the ground shaking!"

"An earthquake?!"

"Whip your horses harder, and make them run faster!"

As the goal is to resupply ourselves, we do not want to damage the goods the merchants bring with them. To achieve this, using a simple Spell to immobilize them before raiding them is the best way.

My participation and the Guardians', however, seem to be unneeded. Haletha is already taking care of everything by herself, and she is doing it really good.

With her skillful way of utilizing Earth Magic, she makes the road develop a jagged surface, which is gradually damaging the tire of the carriages. She also makes the ground shake, which increases the damage the carriages receive.

Crash!

After half of a minute running through such a harsh terrain, the carriages eventually give up. The Guardians immediately take out their bow, and shoot their arrow toward the horse harnesses to free the horses.

Everything is executed swiftly and meticulously; in 9 seconds, the 11 carriages of the merchant groups are conquered. The merchants are still alive, but they won't be able to do anything to stop us since they can't even use Magic.

'Hey, look for precious herbs. It may help me regain my original power quicker,' Luxia says telepathically.

"Well, I am not into Alchemy, so please tell me which is and which is not. Also warn me when I am about to do something stupid."

'Ah, the aphrodisiac incident, huh? Don't worry, I won't let that happen again!'

Thinking about that incident made me afraid of burning things up for a quite some time. Although I have recovered from the trauma, I still think twice before committing an arson nowadays.

"W-Why does this happen? Dark Elves? I thought we were allies with Dark Elves," the merchant whose carriage I am raiding mutters. He still can't believe that the people of the race that is considered a good ally of humanity can do something like this.

Haletha and the others, of course, heard what he said, but they turn a deaf ear on him. Although they look unbothered, I can see they still think this is an unsavoury act.

Focusing on the carriage that I am raiding again, I empty it of the precious things it contains, which is everything. My troop mates may not find human made jewelries precious, but I can see when and where I can use them in the future.

When the carriage is emptied, I find my cheap ass Spatial Storage full. The pendant is glowing intensely just as I channel my Mana into it, so I immediately stop storing anything lest I would break it.

"Well, since the others are still busy, I will take care of these bastards," I mutter.

No matter how harmless the merchants are, we can't just let them live. They will definitely tell about what happened to them today—about what the Dark Elves did to them—to their fellow humans, which will end up being a hot topic.

If that happens, it won't take very long for the humans to figure out the internal discord of Lysimork and Haletha's connection with us, Demons. I am still hoping for Haletha to retain her status as the Queen of Lysimork, so I can't let that happen.

Until I become the Demon King, Verniculos Kingdom's alliance with Lysimork Kingdom shall not be known ... That is, if Haletha managed to retain her status.

"W-What are you going to do to me?" One of the merchants whose hands and feet I have tied looks at me in horror.

"You should have said us—you are not going to die alone," I answer nonchalantly.

"D-D-Die? What do you mean? We have given you our goods—please let us go!"

"Y-Yeah, we won't tell a single soul about this!"

Actually, I have a way to keep their mouth shut about what happened to them; however, I find doing it a hassle, so killing them is still better.

... Well, honestly, I just want to kill them.

Telling the 11 merchants and their 13 assistants to lower their head, I take out Rexorem and prepare a Mana Sword as I channel my Mana into it. The people follow my words while exuding extreme fear.

Some of the men wet themselves, meanwhile the five women among the groups have become a complete mess. Their clothes are drenched in their cold sweat and tears, whereas the ground is pooled by their urine.

"Please, let them go..." I hear Winerva mutter behind me.

Her wish, of course, went unanswered. I swiftly swing Rexorem horizontally, cutting the people's head with the Mana Sword Rexorem has generated in one go.

Although sometimes I can sympathize with humans, my sympathy toward humanity has practically died. As long as I deem it necessary, I will never hesitate to cut them even though they do not have a hand in our conflict.