The Final Boss Approaches!

The Demon Lord had boarded a large carriage in the city of Rookie and was now riding down the travel road. Unsure of what Ren might say upon arriving in Rabbi, he had decided to keep her to himself for a while. There were many other carriages around the Demon Lord’s, a mix of elaborate personal carriages and simpler public transports, with a group of adventurers encircling them all.

Bandits were not a rare occurrence along the dark travel roads of the Northern Nations; at times, entire battalions fled losing wars and turned to robbing travelers, so all transportation was done in caravans of a certain size. Guards were assigned to all public carriages, as well as those of the wealthy, their price fluctuating drastically depending on the number and skill of the guards.

“Do you really need any bodyguard other than me, Master?”

“Don’t dismiss the idea too quickly. It’s worth experiencing things that may seem unnecessary on the surface in order to gain a deeper understanding of this world. There may come a time, for example, when I would want to hire these guards for some reason.”

“As you wish, Akira.”

The Demon Lord, who had been reclining in the carriage seat ever so luxuriously, began choking on his own saliva at Ren referring to him by his real name.

“What is the meaning in calling me that, Ren? It’s completely pointless and unnecessary.”

“It is neither pointless nor unnecessary,” Ren retorted, as if the matter had already been decided.

The Demon Lord failed to find the words to respond. Ren had an incredibly stubborn side when it came to certain things. To paint her in a positive light, she was dedicated, even pure. On the flip side, she would butt heads severely with anyone who let raw efficiency govern their actions.

“We’ll have a good long talk about that another day... I’m going to rest my eyes for a bit.”

The carriage had also just come to a stop for the driving horses to have a break. The Demon Lord stripped his jacket and laid down onto a cot.

Ren swiftly sat on the same cot, gently lifting his head onto her lap. “I will protect your cranium, Master.”

“Cranium...” The Demon Lord was forced to hold back laughter at the uniquely Ren choice of words. At the same time, he saw in her eyes that she was dead set on her proposition, and once again would not take no for an answer. The Demon Lord relinquished, resting his head on her lap.

“Are you comfortable, Master?”

“It’s not so bad...” the Demon Lord mustered as he felt peace and contentment seeping into his brain, fresh air that smelled like cherry blossoms in full bloom filling his lungs. Her armor, Dance of the Cherry Blossom, contributed to this effect, but Ren herself exuded an aura that reminded him of cherry blossoms.

She gently stroked his hair and at times his cheek. Just as the Demon Lord was beginning to drift off in soporific bliss, a knock at the window made him raise his brow; he assumed one of the guards was delivering him a message.

“You can open it. What’s the matter?”

A middle-aged adventurer poked his unremarkable face through the window. “Whoa, looks like you’re having a nice ride... Didn’t mean to intrude.” The adventurer gave a slimy grin. “Your strange clothes caught my eye. That’s what they call a ‘suit’ up in the City States, right?”

“The City States, huh? What do you want?”

“No need to give me the death stare... You’re scary enough as it is. If you’re looking to do business in Euri, I have a piece of information you’ll be interested in buying. Ignorance can get you killed up there.”

Still resting his head in Ren’s lap, the Demon Lord produced a silver coin from his pocket and deftly flicked it straight into the adventurer’s palm.

“Big money in the house! A silver right off the bat. You might just have what it takes. How much do you know about Euri?”

“I’ll hear everything you have to say about it.”

“All right then, let’s have a nice little chat for the rest of the trip, shall we?”

The man went on to provide cursory information about the nation of Euritheis, which mostly corroborated what Yukikaze and Mikan had told him, but gathering intel from multiple sources helped boost its accuracy. The Demon Lord tried to press for details, but the man suddenly clammed up, staring drowsily ahead in a gesture which seemed to request further payment. With the flick of another silver coin, the Demon Lord pried his mouth open.

“You’re the best customer I’ve had in a while. You’re not a run-of-the-mill trader, are you...? What kind of business are you looking to start up there?”

“I’m the one asking questions.”

“Heh heh... Good point. I’ll happily talk your ears off.”

After a number of detailed questions, the Demon Lord dismissed the adventurer, satisfied. The man closed the carriage window with a grin and made his way towards the other high-end carriages. Apparently, he had a side hustle of selling information during his guard shifts.

“He’s got thick skin, for better or worse.”

“Yes...”

“Hm? What’s the matter, Ren?”

“Nothing at all.” A pearly smile spread across Ren’s face, who was visibly overcome with bliss.

In fact, she felt as if she was floating in a pool of liquid that threatened to melt her away; she was so entranced that she wished for time to freeze.

“We need to stay out of trouble when we get there.”

“The Jack of All Trades, it was called? The company that runs the country.” Ren had apparently processed all of the shared information despite her ecstasy, her hand still continuing to tenderly stroke the Demon Lord’s hair.

“Looks like they pay off their central government and military too.”

“They sound like the mafia.”

The Demon Lord furrowed his brow at hearing this. Tahara had mentioned that this company was the one who had “stolen their cargo.” If the Demon Lord had any choice in the matter, he wanted to have nothing to do with them. He had no interest in said cargo, nor did he ever claim it as his.

“Our objective is to acquire a magical item that will protect against magic in the dungeon. No need to get involved with the likes of them.”

Seeing the Demon Lord close his eyes, Ren covered him with a blanket, wrapped another around herself, and shut her eyes as well. “Master... I am incredibly happy right now.”

“G-Good...”

This scene made the pair come across as if they were a couple in their honeymoon phase. A coachman peeked into the carriage and silently scowled.

The carriage started again, en route to Euritheis, where dirty deeds were done dirt cheap and young dreamers flocked, aspiring to emulate the lucky few who’d struck gold. Naturally, most who knocked on its door were taken advantage of and made to learn the lessons of the North the hard way. Worst of all, under the protection of the Jack of All Trades, evil ruled in the streets of Euritheis.

And now, a pair of final bosses were on their way, an ominous omen for anyone involved.

——Border gate of Euritheis.

Oblivious of the approaching catastrophe, the entrance to Euritheis was bustling with traders, adventurers, and other travelers, some of them even napping on makeshift picnic blankets.

“Another day of traffic, Eyze?”

“There’s been a lot of commotion around here lately...” Eyze gave a thoughtful gaze at the horde of people at the gate. Not only had they entered war season, but there had been two disasters nearby in rapid succession: a large-scale Invasion had struck the Republic, and a catastrophic event had left the capital of Suneo in near ruin. It was only natural that Euritheis was met with an influx of asylum seekers.

“We’re stable, for better or worse,” the first guard said.

“It’s a one-man rule here. Guess they thought that’d be less messy than the alternative.” Eyze twirled a blade of grass he held between his teeth. He could vaguely sense some sort of conflict approaching Euritheis.

Concerned, the guard asked, “Why the long face, Eyze? Something wrong?”

“I’ve been thinking of that cargo we apparently nicked.”

“The one the mercenaries had a whole parade about?”

Jack of All Trades had forcefully pilfered the Tzardom bishop’s cargo that had been abandoned in Suneo. As a relatively weak nation, Suneo had no option but to accept this outcome, but Eyze couldn’t help but feel that this fiasco wasn’t over.

“Why’d the guys who finished the fight leave that cargo behind?” he asked. “Who would just walk away from a pile of treasure?”

“Um... They didn’t realize it was there?”

“And the ship that was piled high with it? No one would be dumb enough to miss that.”

Ironically, the guard’s guess had been spot on.

“Th-Then, maybe they feared repercussions from the Tzardom...”

“They cut off anyone who screws up in foreign land. You saw the slaves. The Tzardom can’t claim money that dirty, at least not openly.”

Jack had ordered the robbery for that very reason. Eyze might have also considered the fact that the majority of Trance on the ship had been trafficked by Jack to begin with.

“Speaking of the mercenaries...they were so cool, weren’t they?! I wish I could be like them!”

“Sure, kid...”

“The Five Stars, were they? I wonder what they eat. They could get any girl they wanted, I bet. I’m jealous...” The guard rambled on.

Eyze had mixed feelings about the Five Stars. Before he landed himself on meager guard duty, he had been a member of the mercenary group. Ever since his departure, Eyze felt miserable every time news of the Five Stars’ accomplishments reached him. Sixteen years already... he thought. And I’ve been here wasting away. While his old comrades became the leading force of the best mercenary team on the continent, Eyze had spent his life in the shadows, away from the limelight. When his old team had returned after completing a top-tier gig for the Jack of All Trades company, Eyze made sure to keep out of sight. He could not have tolerated being seen like this.

“Just you watch, Eyze. I’ll make it big like them one day!”

“Oh yeah...? Best of luck, kid.” Just as Eyze chuckled, he heard a voice in his ear—one that he never wanted to hear.

“It is you, Eyze. Been a while, huh?”

Eyze turned around to find one of the chief members of the Five Stars. He cracked a stiff grin and wiped the sweat from his brow. The man had snuck up on Eyze without being noticed.

“I thought I recognized one of the guards before. Had a feeling it was you.”

“Y-Yeah... Good to see you, Lilus...”

The young guard’s face lit up as he realized that Eyze knew one of the very heroes they were speaking of.

“Why didn’t you tell me, Eyze?! You guys know each other?!”

“N-No, I...”

Seeing Eyze trail off and stare at the ground, Lilus’s lips curled into a smirk. He was a man with spiky green hair clad in top-tier armor, a nasty gleam in his eyes. “Come on, Eyze, you don’t tell your friends about us? We’re all from the same village, you know. He was one of the founding members of the group. You can brag now, Eyze.”

“I don’t...”

“After all the crap you put us through... We can all laugh about that now. So, what’ve you been up to nowadays? Watch duty, by the looks of it.” Lilus looked Eyze over from head to toe and snickered. Sensing the storm to come, the rookie guard stood silent and still, abandoning his bubbly disposition. “Watching graves would suit you better. You see death, right? I can’t even count how many times we bought that nonsense... Huh, Eyze?” Lilus burst into laughter, then abruptly stopped as he slugged Eyze in the face, causing him to fly into the crowd. “I told you never to show your sorry ass again. Don’t tell me you became a gatewatch to try and weasel your way back into the group?!”

“N-No... I’ve been working here for years... Rragh!”

Paying no mind to Eyze’s explanation, Lilus kicked him in the stomach. The seemingly ordinary blow left a large dent in Eyze’s steel armor.

“We busted our asses to get this far, unlike you, who’s got nothing better to do than tuck your tail between your legs. Don’t you dare spew crap like we know each other, got it?”

As the muttering of the crowd grew louder, a man with more delicate features arrived, straddling a gigantic horse.

“Now, now...” called Ignatio, leader of the Five Stars. “Starting another scuffle, Lilus? You’re hopeless... Oh? Is that Eyze?” Ignatio’s eyes widened at the sight of the panting Eyze. He seemed stunned for a moment at the sudden reunion, but soon understood the situation upon noticing Eyze’s nosebleed and dented armor. “Hey, Lilus? We’re under Jack’s employment for the time being; you remember that, right? You can’t go beating up a little gatewatch.”

“Heh! Don’t think you can treat me like any old fighter.”

Hearing the conversation of those that were once his friends, Eyze silently wiped the blood from his nose. There was nothing to say. He was steeping in shame, realizing how much he had fallen behind despite starting at the same place as them. He wanted to disappear into thin air.

Ignatio spoke in a nonchalant tone, in contrast to Lilus’s brutality. “Didn’t think I’d see you working here. Let’s grab a meal some time, Eyze, if we can make our schedules work. We’ve been invited to the palace, so we’re a bit busy right now. I’ll contact you again.” Ignatio smiled and prodded his horse to move.

Lilus glared at Eyze and gave a condescending scoff before following his leader away.

Once they were gone, the crowd began to talk.

“So that’s the leader of those mercenaries...”

“I heard the Five Stars can take on most armies around here.”

“That Lilus made a guest appearance at the colosseum and stabbed all the monsters to death.”

“If Jack’s keeping them around, no one could possibly take him down...”

“Damn it... How long are we going to let that bastard run this country?!”

Away from the commotion of the gate, Eyze was wiping his face with a wet cloth. He ran his hand along the dented armor, thinking about how it was now useless.

“Ar-Are you all right, Eyze?”

“Sorry, kid. Not one of my best moments, huh...?” Eyze tried to laugh, but his face remained stiff. He felt even worse knowing that the guard was searching for words to console him with. “It kind of bites when your old friends get too famous...” He managed to force out a chuckle.

“I’m sorry, Eyze. I don’t know what to say.”

“Don’t sweat it. They worked hard and made it to the top. I just fell off the ladder somewhere and hit the bottom.” With a self-deprecating scoff, Eyze managed to labor his armor off. Most of his best cigars, which he kept tucked away in there, had been crushed, save for one. “At least that’s something...”

“Eyze...”

“Just like he said, we were a bunch of guys at this village with no jobs and nothing to lose: second-born and third-born sons to farmers, so we became mercenaries.”

This world provided few options for young men with no farm to inherit and no connections, education, or money. Unless they became adventurers or mercenaries, they would become bandits or worse: be forced out to sea.

“Why, um, did you quit...?” the guard asked.

“For whatever reason, I’ve always had a keen eye for death. I see stuff. It wasn’t too bad in the village, but when I went into battle...this sense of death was on everyone around me, ally and foe alike. It’s like drowning in death itself.” While not nearly as refined as Tron, Eyze had a special gift: eyes specialized in picking up death and danger.

Each time he saw death, he stopped his team and tried to change the plan. They listened at first. Who wouldn’t have when Eyze told them things like, “If we keep going, we die,” or, “We’ll lose most of our men if we push this plan”? However, there was no way for the mercenary group to make a living by continuing to run from the risk of death. Putting their lives on the line was part of the job description.

“They started to not want me around... After running from dangerous battles and situations, of course I’d get kicked out.”

“I didn’t know...”

“The funny thing is, all the guys that are leading the mercenary company overcame their deaths at every turn. They’re the real deal, unlike me.”

The core members of the Five Stars were each talented; they were all the equivalent of A-rank adventurers, which was often considered the peak of human strength. The exception to this was S-ranks, who had some source of inhuman strength. The Five Stars had overcome the deaths that Eyze foresaw and built their status from the ground up. Someone like Lilus only saw Eyze as a liar who dragged them down in combat.

“Enough about my pathetic past... Sorry, kid, I’m done for the day.” With a wave of his hand, Eyze left the gate and made his way to his blacksmith to check in his armor, as he couldn’t afford to order new gear.

“What the hell?!” exclaimed the blacksmith, “Did a monster get you, Eyze?”

“Something like that,” Eyze muttered as he left the blacksmith, away from the main street and into the slums.

Brighter lights cast darker shadows, and the extravagant capital of Euritheis was no exception to the rule. There were plenty of slums in the city of Rookie, but those were inhabited by the younger generation—the literal rookies—who still had chances to start again, who still had hope for tomorrow. The slum of Euritheis breathed a different air.

More beggars and the sick... And those over there lost in the colosseum. The alleys were littered with the agonized sick, those who had lost a limb, children scavenging the trash for food, beggars, dealers of unscrupulous substances, and women of the night. It was a graveyard of broken dreams. There were no redos, no restarts, no tomorrows, no futures, and no more chances. All of those things were left in the past.

Eyze pushed through the door of a makeshift hut and ordered a cheap drink. The establishment only housed a decrepit countertop, with nothing so sophisticated as chairs or tables in sight; a rancid smell hung in the air.

“What’s up, Eyze? Playing hooky this early?”

“Cut me some slack, eh? Give me the drink already.”

“Coming right up! Top-shelf rum, imported from Xenobia! You’ve got to enjoy every drop of this one.”

“Xenobia my ass. It’s the same bootleg you might as well have made from trash...”

The exchange invited some laughter from the intoxicated patrons.

Strong alcohol of poor quality was the drink of choice around these parts, and they were drunk on the cheapest. Those lucky enough to win a petty bet or two were enjoying a small plate of roasted beans, pinching them one by one. Others, presumably on some sort of pay day, were enjoying a tough Great Crow steak or stewed Crazy Chicken liver. The combined stench offered a slice of slum life. Naturally, bathing and laundering were activities of a foreign world for these people.

“Kept busting his ass, huh...? He’s right, of course...” Eyze pounded down the cheap bootleg and hissed. He seemed conflicted between admitting the merit in Lilus’s statement and refusing to be grouped in with natural-born mercenaries like them.

Eyze downed three cups of the bootleg back-to-back and produced the cigar he had been saving for a special occasion, definitely a more special occasion than this. Lighting it with a Spell Stone, he let the splendid aroma fill his lungs. Even his barmates came sniffing up to him to not miss a whiff of the cigar.

“Face death head on?” Eyze muttered to himself. “That’s not something normal guys can do... Goddammit...” He grunted, downing glass after glass to get drunk. His behavior wasn’t all that different from the other inhabitants of the slums, who seldom had any other escape than the drink.

Meanwhile, in the royal palace, the hulk of a man who controlled the nation was sipping on a beverage of his own. The man was, in a word, an orc: Towering stature, boulder-like build, and eyes that glimmered like an apex predator’s. Every aspect of the man seemed designed to intimidate those who faced him. The man sitting atop the other throne in the palace, the owner of Jack of All Trades and the ruler of all of Euri... Jack himself.

“The Tzardom’s still keeping quiet?” he asked.

The higher-ups of the Company, who all sat on the sofa across him, simply lowered their heads. They were dubbed Clubs, Diamonds, Hearts, and Spades, each of them adorned with various iterations of their namesake symbols on their clothing or skin. Three of the four men wore North Star-esque gear complete with spiked shoulder pads, while Hearts was dressed like a dominatrix.

Hearts spoke in a honey-sweet voice, “Patience, Big Daddy. You’ll hear about them soon enough.” Everything about Hearts was female, from his perfectly feminine voice down to his luscious, busty form. His dominatrix mask and platinum blond hair made him stand out even more among the team.

“That knave was a tough pawn to lose... No matter who takes his place, it means less gold for us.” Said knave, of course, was the bishop of the Tzardom. He and Jack had built a tight-knit and mutually profitable pipeline for drug and human trafficking, illegal imports, bootleg booze, arms dealing, etc. In other words, Jack had lost his pot of gold.

Jack’s wrath had kept the suits of cards silently staring at the floor, having run out of options.

Just then, Ignatio sauntered through the door. “Another dreary day in the office, huh? Smiling has health benefits, you know.”

“Enough chatter. What about Suneo?” Jack asked, as if with a heavy stab of a dagger.

Ignatio, however, simply gave a shrug and a wink. “Nothing, really. Pretty quiet so far.”

“Then I wasted my money hiring the lot of you.”

“Now, hold on! Who knows what they’ll get up to in the future!”

Suneo itself held no respectable army of their own, but they did have the option of hiring foreign armies and powerful mercenaries. Jack had hired the Five Stars at a hefty price, just in case Suneo decided to resort to that option to avenge their reputation.

“I’m looking forward to seeing my money at work.”

“No doubt. We’re the death-defying mercenaries, remember?” Ignatio singsang, fluttering his hand.

The gesture was met by irritated glares from the suits, which Ignatio was completely unbothered by.

“We’re done here. Everybody beat it. Except you, mossback.”

The room promptly cleared out at Jack’s command, leaving only Jack himself and an old man wearing a set of grandiose armor sitting in the corner. His face featured a white mustache and beard that exuded experience and dignity. He was nearly as large as Jack, looking like a metal boulder in his armor.

“Set up defenses around the palace, mossback. I don’t expect you on the battlefield at your age.”

“Protect a palace devoid of function and authority?”

“You think I’m going to trust the commander that Xenobian whore of a chancellor sent over? Go give the king some advice on good tombstones. He’s already got one foot in the ground.”

The general simply took the remark with his arms crossed before him. He had been sent to aid Euritheis in conflicts but thus far had been practically ignored. The old general bowed at the command and turned to leave.

Jack boomed at his back, “Tell that conniving little bitch that I’ve taken most of the major tribes in Milk.” The remark was a clear threat against the chancellor of Xenobia, who aimed to use Jack to her advantage.

“How frightening...” the old general mused. “Do you intend to engage in war with us, sir?”

“You’re not worth the effort. Daedalus, the one in charge of Icaros, and I are like brothers. Once I’m done with Gorgon, I’ll wring you dry,” Jack laughed, and even the general couldn’t conceal his disdain.

The Gorgon Company was the top trader among the City States, the wallet of the continent. Meanwhile, the Daedalus company ruled the Dark City of Icaros, where all underground industries of the continent congregated. If Jack were to gain the influence of these companies, the rulers of the east and the west, he would have the power to starve out any opponent without ever going into battle. Jack wasn’t bluffing either—he was a world-class villain with the skill, brute force, and cash to make that threat a reality.

“Our nation has never forgotten our friendship with Euritheis. I sincerely hope the feeling is mutual.”

“Keep wasting your breath. I can see through anything that little punk with the fan can cook up.”

The general made no retort but simply bowed and left the room.

Now alone, Jack crooked his neck to and fro as if to test how the throne suited him. Soon, he reached for a bottle and downed a large gulp of booze.

“Rookfell, my dear, mad lion...” Jack muttered to himself, rather cryptically. If anyone had been eavesdropping, almost no soul alive would have been able to decipher Jack’s meaning. “Behold my pride and conquest...!” With a great flourish of his cape, Jack left the room.

The Demon Lord and Ren, a pair that was basically fire-starter personified, were fast approaching a country as perilous as a room full of dynamite. An explosion seemed inevitable, one catastrophic enough to obliterate an entire nation.