The emotions that arose in the party after encountering Shuten were quite varied.
Loxy, as if feeling something close to awe at the strength radiating from his appearance, collapsed where she stood.
In Jerry's case, he furrowed his brow as if things had just gotten annoyingly complicated, sighing as he looked back at me.
His subtly tilted eyebrows seemed to ask, ‘Do you have something planned this time, too?’
In response to his gaze, I left him a wink instead of an answer and raised a hand to Shuten.
“Long time no see, Shu—”
Thud—
Roll, roll—
…but before I could even finish my friendly greeting, a rather tough reply came back.
【Don't try any tricks. I'll tear you apart and devour you just like that other bastard.】
The one who had rolled the Oni's head he was holding as if throwing it, muttered with his characteristically low, ferocious voice and a deeply scowled face.
Pfft—
Whether it was because I found his unchanging demeanor pleasing, a smile unknowingly formed on my lips.
It was a bit ambiguous to call him a colleague, and there were vague aspects to calling him a friend.
One way or another, Shuten was the one who had been with me at the very end of my past life.
‘…A rival.’
If the word that defined my relationship with Jerry was ‘partner’, then my relationship with Shuten could be summed up as ‘rival’.
Of course, we weren't the kind of rivals you see in certain anime, constantly beating each other up.
It was that we were rivals when it came to ‘hunting Magical Beasts’.
In our past life, he and I had a common goal.
‘…….’
Although our past was a series of back-and-forths as we competed for superiority, it unfortunately seemed difficult to apply the word ‘rival’ to our current state.
Right now, I couldn't even properly gauge the power he possessed.
“I'd like to talk for a bit. There's something I want to propose to you……”
【I believe I told you.】
He cut me off again.
Whoosh—!
This time, it wasn't just with words.
As he spoke, he lightly tossed the mace he was holding in my direction.
…Of course, ‘lightly’ was purely by his standards; for me, it was a fatal attack bordering on the line of life and death.
【I told you not to try any tricks.】
Fwoosh—
I barely managed to move my body out of its trajectory.
This was only possible because I knew Shuten's habits inside and out and had predicted how he would react.
Seeing the attack he just launched and then dodging it was impossible at my current level.
Splat—!
The Oni's head that had been thrown earlier was grazed by the tip of the mace and burst apart.
Sticky blood covered the face of the collapsed Loxy and soaked the sleeve of Jerry's suit.
“……”
While being shocked and freaking out by such a grotesque experience would be the normal reaction, ironically, neither of them showed such a common-sense response.
“…It seems I'll have to throw this suit away.”
Jerry furrowed his brow slightly, took a handkerchief from his breast pocket, and covered his blood-soaked sleeve.
“……”
As for Loxy, whether she had grown somewhat accustomed to such sights, or her brain's circuits simply couldn't keep up with the rapid developments…
…she turned her head without even flinching and blankly wiped the blood from her face.
‘…Definitely.’
Experiencing it firsthand made me realize it more clearly.
Shuten's strength was overwhelming.
To the point where I couldn't even guess how much time it would take to raise my own martial prowess to that level.
…Well, he was a monster who had lived for over hundreds of years, stagnating in his power, while I was a baby(?) Hero candidate who had just left the Gateway Zone, so the weight of time was heavily skewed.
But the Upper Plane wasn't a merciful place that would take such things into consideration.
【You damn insect. You're getting in the way.】
Once again, the low voice echoed as he raised himself onto his heels.
Crrrack—
Simultaneously, the floor beneath his feet screamed and cracked.
A motion preparing for a direct physical leap.
‘…Honestly. Just like someone with the title <Rage>.’
His temper was so short it was beyond impatient; the development was so fast it felt absurd.
Normally, a Titled Demon of Baron rank would have a unique sense of leisure stemming from their strength.
But this guy, as if having no curiosity about the circumstances, tried to kill me straight away.
‘…Well, considering the situation, there are parts I can understand.’
Even I had no confidence I could dodge an attack swung by a Knight-turned-Titled Demon leaping directly at me.
Fwoosh—
Therefore, I spat out a single phrase at the guy rushing towards me.
“Demon King Hunt.”
Flinch—
With that.
His body, which had vanished from its spot, reappeared right in front of my nose and stopped.
“…I can help with that.”
* * *
Grasp—
Shuten, who had stopped his attack at the mention of the ‘Demon King Hunt’, grabbed U-jin's body with his massive hand.
【You.】
And then he lifted U-jin up to his eye level and asked.
【Who sent you?】
“…No one sent me, I came because I have some business……”
Squeeze—
Was that not the answer he wanted?
Shuten's grip on U-jin's body tightened as if it would burst his torso at any moment.
【Don't be ridiculous. Was it that damn Demon King?】
Flinch—
At the words ‘damn Demon King’ coming directly from Shuten's mouth, Loxy's body flinched.
Because it was a rare occurrence.
No, rather than simply ‘rare’, it was closer to something that could not happen.
Inside the Demon King's Army, the authority the Demon King held could be called nothing short of absolute.
Even the Duke-class demons, who were the highest echelon of the demon race and formed a large part of the Demon King's Allied Forces' power, tended to be careful with their words regarding the Demon King.
Moreover, Shuten wasn't just a Baron-titled demon, but a former ‘Dark Knight’, also known by the moniker ‘The Demon King's Hound’.
For him, a member of a direct subordinate unit that took orders from no one and pledged loyalty only to the Demon King, to call the Demon King a ‘bastard’ was a situation that was certainly difficult for Loxy to understand based on her common knowledge of the demon world.
However, from that point, she could at least guess that he hadn't simply ‘gone into hiding of his own free will’.
‘…….’
Shuten's face rapidly flushed with rage the moment the Demon King was mentioned.
U-jin, thinking that if he left him be any longer, Shuten would conclude on his own that he was someone from the ‘Demon King's Army’, shook his head and denied Shuten's question.
“Don't press me when you know that's not it. If I were from the Demon King's Army, I'd have come with wings, not a medal.”
At U-jin's calm reply, Shuten gestured with his chin and said.
【…Then how do you explain that over there.】
The place Shuten pointed to was none other than the direction where Loxy was sitting collapsed, and on Loxy's back was a single Black Wing that had not yet been fully retracted.
“…Ah, this is……”
At Shuten's sudden point, Loxy hurriedly tried to retract her wing and make an excuse, but surprisingly, U-jin's explanation for it was simple.
“…Don't you have them in your faction too? People who switched sides because their ideologies didn't match. Despite appearances, she's decided to be one of the good guys.”
【…A traitor, then.】
“Something like that… And more than anything, you should know best.”
【…….】
“That I don't belong to the ‘Demon King's Army’.”
For a moment, the surroundings fell silent.
Shuten, after staring directly into U-jin's eyes for a few seconds, released his hand as if tossing him aside and growled threateningly.
Thud—
【…You'd better give me a reason to keep you alive, brat.】
“……”
【If I sense even a hint of a trick, I'll start by chewing up your legs and swallowing them.】
Pfft—
“Whether you start chewing from my legs or my head, that's up to you.”
U-jin, who laughed off the threat as if it were familiar, soon sat down on Shuten's mace and began to speak.
“…Well, I suppose you'll need more of an explanation to be convinced.”
【…….】
“To put it simply, let me introduce myself—”
U-jin's subsequent introduction contained quite a surprising piece of information.
“I'm someone who knows you didn't go into hiding from the Demon King's Army on your own, but that you were purged after being framed for plotting a rebellion.”
【…….】
Had he already guessed it from the earlier mention of the ‘Demon King Hunt’?
Shuten didn't show a surprised expression from U-jin's very first sentence.
Rather.
The one who was surprised was Jerry.
…Of course, it was a quiet surprise, so much so that no one but himself would have known he was surprised.
‘…Rebellion?’
The reason Jerry was inwardly surprised was simple.
…It had been quite some time since Jerry was kicked out of his family and since Shuten had vanished, so he didn't know the exact circumstances.
But he clearly remembered a time when the Demon King's Territory was in an uproar about a Titled Demon emerging from the ‘Knights’ for the first time in a long while.
He had even been curious just how outstanding that Knight-turned-leader must be to receive a Baron title while leading a subordinate race as stupid and idiotic as the ‘Oni’.
But in Jerry's memory, the word ‘rebellion’ did not exist.
No.
In the first place, within the Demon King's Allied Forces, the Demon King's authority and power were absolute.
Of course, from his position of having been kicked out of his family and looking at it from a step back, it wasn't as if he could scrutinize the entire atmosphere of the Demon King's Allied Forces' territory.
How should one put it?
It was something you'd have to call impossible by common sense.
‘…A mere Baron?’
Setting aside his personal martial might, even if a Baron were to subdue the Demon King with force, seizing control of the Demon King's Allied Forces' rule was an unimaginable feat.
After all, this was the Demon King's Allied Forces, which, along with The Order's Allied Forces, had divided the entire Upper Plane between them.
Reigning unshakably over such a massive group was not something possible through mere force alone.
Leadership, political power, charisma, personnel management, social skills, and so on—it was accomplished through the combination of countless invisible elements and factors that couldn't all be listed.
Therefore, while surprised by U-jin's mention of ‘rebellion’, Jerry couldn't help but inwardly tilt his head in confusion.
“Also, someone who knows you better than anyone.”
【…….】
“…And finally.”
Shrug—
“I'm someone who knows how to kill the Demon King.”
That was it.
U-jin's self-styled introduction came to an end, and for a moment, the surroundings fell silent.
Shuten's face, which had been full of rage, had subtly changed.
It wasn't a clear change in expression that would allow one to read his emotions immediately, but the subtle twitch of the corners of his eyes and mouth proved that some kind of change of heart had occurred.
Shuten, who was looking into U-jin's eyes for a moment, murmured.
【…Speak.】
“……”
【…I will judge afterward. Whether this ‘Demon King Hunt’ is possible or not.】
And at Shuten's response.
Grin—
U-jin's lips curled up as he muttered.
【…….】
“…Now we can talk.”