Chapter 4: Things of Value
When Trao and his companions arrived at the scene, the entire area had become a hellish landscape strewn with the bodies of adventurers and demon soldiers.
Amidst the carnage where not a soul moved, Rio and the others stood in stunned silence, faced with the reality of the S-rank party’s total annihilation.
However, Trao remained completely unfazed and continued forward.
He casually picked up a weapon from a fallen adventurer nearby and, without hesitation, placed it into his item bag.
“Huh?”
The three voices overlapped.
“What are you doing, guys? Hurry up and collect any weapons or armor that look valuable. The longer we stay here, the more dangerous it becomes, you know?”
Trao calmly instructed the three.
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Trao’s objective was to recover the weapons and equipment left behind by the Demon King subjugation team, who were likely to be wiped out.
The weapons and armor of S-rank adventurers are each worth a fortune. They rival the entire wealth of not just commoners but even lower-ranking nobles. It was clear that if they could recover everything, it would amount to enormous riches.
However, whether there are people who would come all the way to the Demon King’s territory to do this, assuming the team’s annihilation, is another matter entirely.
“Um, senpai? Do you have a human heart?”
Dominique asked, shocked by the action.
“I’m human, aren’t I?”
Trao replied with a puzzled expression.
(“That’s something a non-human would say, right?”)
The three members of Garnet thought the same thing in their hearts.
“Also, collect the weapons and armor from the demon soldiers if they seem usable. They seem to have some pretty good stuff.”
Trao continued to collect the spears, swords, and bows of the enemy demon soldiers. He even stripped off armor if it was minimally damaged.
He gathered anything that looked like it could be sold, feeling no pangs of conscience whatsoever.
Money is certainly important. But aren’t there things more precious to a person than that?
The fallen adventurers and demon soldiers before them were warriors who had fought with all their might.
The three thought that even demons probably wouldn’t steal equipment from corpses like this.
“You came all the way here just to do this?”
Lilith felt anger rising as she watched Trao silently collecting equipment.
While Dominique acknowledged the rationality in terms of making money, even she hesitated to participate in such an act.
However, after closing her eyes tightly for a moment, Rio said,
“…Let’s do as we’re told,”
and began to move. The other two followed suit, albeit reluctantly.
Perhaps because they had experience with Trao assigning them dirty work before, once the three started moving, they carried out the collection of weapons and armor efficiently and without hesitation.
Amidst this, Trao suddenly stopped moving.
It was near the corpse of a giant demon. It seemed to have had four arms, but two were severed, and its head was also cut off. The head lying nearby had four eyes. Judging from its appearance, it was likely the demon Becker.
Nearby lay Rainer with his chest pierced, and Ganon, the golden-fanged leader with blonde hair and brown skin.
These two had probably defeated Becker.
“I see, they managed to defeat Becker,”
Trao said as he picked up Rainer’s sword and put it in his item bag.
“…Then we might be able to defeat the Demon King sooner.”
Trao even took the ring from Rainer’s finger.
“No way! You’re taking even the decorative items!?”
Lilith cried out in a voice close to a scream. Her usually gentle face was contorted, her large eyes brimming with tears.
“It’s meaningless for a corpse to keep them,” Trao replied.
“Even if you were exiled, isn’t this going too far…?”
Lilith felt this was excessive.
“It doesn’t matter. They’re not our comrades anymore.”
Trao wrinkled his brow
Lilith looked at Trao’s face sadly before silently resuming the collection of items.
Trao collected the four great swords that Becker had presumably used, and picked up the battle axe that Ganon had wielded.
Then, upon finding Ciel and Louise lying close together, he mercilessly took their equipment and ornaments. Their cause of death appeared to be arrows.
Noticing that Louise’s black robe had disappeared, Trao muttered,
“I see, Louise used that spell.”
He seemed to regret the loss of the black robe.
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After they had finished collecting most of the weapons and equipment, Rio hesitantly asked,
“Are we going to leave the bodies like this?”
“This is enemy territory. There’s nothing we can do. This is often the end for adventurers,”
Trao said with a grimace.
As Trao said, they didn’t know when the Demon King’s army might arrive. There was no time to bury the bodies.
Rio and the others wore dejected expressions, but Trao quickly left the scene, and they followed.
Meanwhile, the Demon King’s army halted the invasion led by the remaining three of the Four Heavenly Kings.
This was because the Demon King had summoned the Four Heavenly Kings, who were commanding officers, back to their home country.
As a result, the “prevention of the Demon King’s army’s invasion” that various countries had been expecting from the Demon King subjugation team was achieved, and many countries escaped the crisis of annihilation.
At the cost of the adventurers’ lives, that is.
Due to the Demon King subjugation team’s assault, Demon King Bastouza had lost his right-hand man, Becker.
This was a much greater blow to Bastouza than the human side could imagine.
While the Four Heavenly Kings of the Demon King’s army sound impressive, they actually refer to the leaders of the four major factions among monsters.
The demon Becker was a direct subordinate of Bastouza, who was also of demon origin, and was the number two in the demon faction.
Bastouza had ordered the three Heavenly Kings to invade not only for world conquest but also with the intention of weakening the other factions’ forces in the process.
He planned to have his own demon faction guard the home country to preserve their strength, aiming for stable rule after world conquest.
However, this backfired.
The offensive led by the Four Heavenly Kings left the human side with no means to resist, leading them to resort to “directly targeting the Demon King’s life.”
As a result, the Demon King subjugation team, comprising the human side’s elite, was formed and invaded the Demon King’s territory.
Becker’s demon soldier corps met them in battle, but both sides were annihilated. The power of the demon faction directly under the Demon King was significantly weakened.
(“This is bad,”)
Bastouza thought. If he allowed the other Four Heavenly Kings to continue their invasion, there was a risk they might establish bases in the invaded territories and become independent forces.
After all, Bastouza now had no forces he could directly control, so he couldn’t keep them in check.
Of course, while Bastouza was the strongest among monsters, he wasn’t a transcendent being who could do everything by himself.
That wasn’t all.
The equipment of the Demon King subjugation team and the demon soldier corps had disappeared from the battlefield. And in a very short time.
Humans probably wouldn’t do something as inhumane as stealing equipment from the dead.
Humans are fundamentally compassionate and respect the dead. The demons guarding the Demon King’s territory wouldn’t stoop to such a vile act as touching the weapons of their fallen comrades either.
If so, it was highly likely that someone under one of the Four Heavenly Kings had taken them.
To them, neither the Demon King subjugation team nor the demon soldier corps were anything to be revered. They would have no hesitation in taking equipment from the dead.
The equipment carried by the Demon King subjugation team and the demon soldier corps was powerful.
Obtaining this equipment would allow for a significant increase in the strength of their own faction. The aim beyond that would naturally be the Demon King’s throne.
(“Are they planning a rebellion?”)
Now that Becker was gone, there was no one among Bastouza’s direct subordinates strong enough to compete with the Four Heavenly Kings. While Bastouza could easily defeat any one of the Four Heavenly Kings, even he would be in danger if they united in rebellion.
In essence, Bastouza saw the Four Heavenly Kings as a greater threat than humans, the external enemy. He called them back to have them keep an eye on each other.
Little did he know that the culprit who had taken the equipment was actually a human merchant.
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