The Day I, a Demon King's General, Received a Blessing - Observer of the Unseen Wall

The veil of night had completely enveloped the town of Axel. The moonlight falling on the cobblestones was cold, and in the alleyways that had fallen utterly silent—as if the daytime bustle had been a lie—Celestia lay hidden. The wall she pressed her back against was rough stonework, and its chill, soaked with night dew, seeped through her cloak. For four days now, she had walked the streets of this town, gazed out from inn windows, and tracked the flow of people with her eyes. One of her targets: Megumin. She had already precisely grasped that the Crimson Demon girl, without fail, headed alone to the northeastern hills every evening. Her walking speed, the route she took, even the angle of the staff slung over her shoulder—all of it was in her head. And after unleashing her Explosion magic, Megumin collapsed on the spot. Completely defenseless, unable to move even a finger from mana exhaustion. *(I just need to strike at that moment.)* But that alone wasn't enough. She had to determine with certainty which days Kazuma and the others accompanied her, and which days Megumin was truly alone. If she approached thinking the girl was alone, and those three emerged from the shadows, everything would be over. From the depths of the alley, Celestia tracked the figures crossing the main street with her eyes. —There. Three of them. Walking at the front was a boy with short black hair. He was short, and his gait carried no presence. But his black eyes alone darted around constantly, quick and alert. It wasn't animal wariness—it was a gaze tinged with cunning calculation. Kazuma. Beside him walked a girl with light-blue hair swaying softly. In the moonlight, her hair seemed to glow faintly. White skin, indigo eyes. By appearance alone, she was indistinguishable from some noble's daughter. Yet from the staff she held, a sacred presence drifted that was unmistakable even in the night air. Aqua. "Today I'm finally going to show off my power! Last time was the worst—I got licked by a frog!" Aqua's voice echoed far too loudly through the quiet night street. Celestia pressed herself against the wall and held her breath. "You just stay in the back and focus on support. Even if you go to the front line, you'll just trip and fall anyway." Kazuma's voice was light, almost dismissive. Not a shred of tension in it. Deep in Celestia's chest, her magic crest burned with a sharp, searing pain. *(These people...)* Celestia touched her fingertips to the hilt of the dagger sheathed inside her cloak. The hand gripping the hilt had unconsciously turned white. Then, the third shadow moved. There was the sound of metal scraping, and moonlight reflected off silver armor. A tall woman with long golden hair swaying. Her deep blue eyes were so clear they were visible even in the darkness. She carried a thick two-handed sword on her back, and the heavy armor covering her entire body was so imposing it was utterly out of place on a town's night streets. Darkness. "Kazuma, you'd better have chosen a proper quest today. Last time we wasted an entire day catching cabbages." "That was because you charged in on your own and got blown away by a cabbage. Whose fault do you think that was?" "Hmph... However, if I had not been your shield, you would have taken the damage." "I dodge, so I'm fine. Don't lump me in with you." Celestia made sure not to miss a single word of their conversation. The relationships among the four seeped out from every exchange. Trading jabs, complaining at each other, yet still walking in step. Those four were, unmistakably, a single party. *(They took Fort Velza—those four.)* The three figures passed through the guild entrance. From the darkness on the opposite side of the street, Celestia slowly followed after them. She silenced her footsteps, moving from shadow to shadow of the buildings. Using disguise magic, she had taken the form of an unremarkable traveler with light-brown hair—a figure that drew no particular attention walking through the night town. For the first time, she had all four of them in her sight at once. *(Megumin... isn't here.)* Only three had appeared at the guild tonight. Megumin had either already returned and was sleeping, or was at the inn thinking about Explosion magic. Either way, these three were sufficient for tonight's observation. Celestia followed them. Her objective was one thing only: to ascertain the true strength of those three. To achieve her revenge, she had to know how her enemies fought. The scale of their violence, their reach, their habits, their weaknesses. *(I... cannot afford to give up here.)* The crest on her chest throbbed with each step—a dull, pulsing ache. Passing through the south gate of Axel, the night air turned abruptly cold. Outside the walls stretched a vast grassland, low grass swaying in the wind as far as the eye could see. The light of the bonfires burning atop the walls barely illuminated the bend in the road, and beyond that lay deep darkness. Kazuma and the others walked into that darkness without hesitation. "Apparently a pack of Giant Toads has shown up in the southern plains today. Number... six or seven, I'd say." "Frogs! This time I'll burn them to ash with my purification magic!" "Wait, Aqua. Charging head-on into a group of Giant Toads is reckless. I will be the shield. You two attack when you see an opening." "The most useless one is giving the most plausible orders..." "W-what did you say! As a Crusader, is it not my role to protect my comrades!" "Every time you go out front, you just get tangled up in tongues and covered in slobber. Learn from it." The three's bickering reached Celestia's ears on the night wind. She pressed herself against a boulder about fifty meters behind them, watching intently. The tall grass rustled in the breeze. The smell of earth. The night plains wore a completely different face from the daytime. Celestia narrowed her eyes. Moonlight revealed unnatural mounds scattered across the grassland. Those were not rocks. With each breath, their backs rose slightly. A pack of Giant Toads. Those enormous frogs lay hidden in the night plains, waiting for prey. "There they are." Kazuma's voice sharpened, completely different from moments before. He drew the short sword at his hip and took the bow from his back. There was no hesitation in the sequence of movements, and Celestia's eyes narrowed slightly. *(Ah, so this is...)* She knew. On the battlefield, no matter how nonchalant someone acted, the truly strong ones changed the very air around them the moment battle began. *(Is this man one of those?)* —But. Kazuma's movements fell far, far below her expectations. He nocked an arrow and loosed it. The arrow, for what it was worth, embedded itself in the back of one Giant Toad. But it hardly looked like a killing blow. It was mere harassment—no, just a poorly aimed shot. "Whoa, it actually hit! It's coming, it's coming, it's coming!" The moment he fired, Kazuma screamed and retreated. "My turn! Watch closely—the sacred power of water, burn it into your eyes!" Aqua raised her staff. The next instant, an indescribable chill pierced through Celestia's entire body. The air around Aqua swelled—burst outward. No, that wasn't it. The light dwelling in her hands was purifying the surrounding air in an instant, driving it away. "Sacred Create Water!" Water was born. It wasn't a matter of it coming from the girl's hands or the tip of her staff. The night air itself was converted in an instant into an enormous mass of water, which became a colossal torrent that crashed down upon the Giant Toads ahead. —SHAAAAAAA!! Spray shattered the moonlight as it danced through the air. Wherever the water touched the Giant Toads' skin, white steam rose. This was no ordinary water. It was water imbued with sacred power, meant to destroy monsters. That water burned monster flesh, dissolved bone, and erased life force itself. "GYOAAAAAA!!" The death cries of the Giant Toads echoed across the plains. Celestia clutched her own arms behind the boulder. Phantom pain. As if that spray were falling on her own skin—a burning agony. Though she was over fifty meters away, she could feel the heat crawling beneath her skin. The magic crest on her chest ached violently. *(That is the power of a goddess.)* Celestia bit her lip. The taste of iron spread through her mouth. For a monster like herself, that water meant instant death. If she took that attack head-on, she would be purified to the marrow of her bones, leaving not even dust behind. The battle grew even more unhinged. One Giant Toad that had evaded the torrent opened its massive mouth and lunged at Darkness. "Come!" Darkness did not flee. No—she threw herself into its mouth of her own accord. A thick tongue wrapped around Darkness's entire body. The sound of her armor creaking and groaning reached even Celestia's ears. "Ah... nn..." What escaped Darkness's lips was not a cry of pain. "Th-this sensation... nn, tighter, squeeze me harder...!" Her blue eyes, beneath the moonlight, were glistening with rapture. Celestia could not believe her eyes. Her entire body was entangled in a giant frog's tongue, being crushed through her armor hard enough to break bone—and yet that woman was—smiling. "...Ah, here we go again. You really are useless." Kazuma's voice was tinged with exhaustion more than disgust. "GYOAAAAA!!" The Giant Toad now charged toward Kazuma. That was when it happened. "Whoa—!?" Kazuma's foot caught in a depression in the ground. His body lost balance spectacularly and tumbled to the ground. —In his place. "Ngh—!?" Darkness, who should have been tangled in the tongue, had regained her footing in the nick of time and thrown herself in front of Kazuma. "I will protect you! Come, frog! Hurt me to your heart's content!!" Once again, Darkness was seized by the tongue. Her face was even more ecstatic than before. Celestia gripped the hilt of her dagger. Now. *(Now, I can take that man—)* She stepped her left foot out from behind the boulder. At that instant. The wind shifted with a rustle. The purified water spray from Aqua's spell rode the wind and drifted toward the boulder. —Hiss. A droplet grazed Celestia's cheek. Not so much burning as something bursting on her skin—a sharp, explosive pain. Celestia immediately pulled back into the shadow of the rock. Her heart was pounding against her ribs from the inside. *(My disguise magic—!)* She quickly touched her cheek. Blood was seeping onto her fingertips. She checked whether the disguise magic was holding. ...Somehow, it hadn't been stripped away. But it had been close. *(I can't get near them.)* She clenched her teeth. That spray—even for a human, taking a direct hit would not leave them unscathed. For a human, it might only burn the skin, but if her disguise magic dissolved, her monster self would be exposed as good as naked. Then, something unexpected happened again. "Damn it, you're in the way!" Kazuma, still on the ground, shouted something. His hand thrust toward the corpse of a fallen Giant Toad. "Steal!" The next instant, a pale-glowing stone was gripped in his hand. A magic stone he had stolen from inside the Giant Toad's body. "You can have this!" Kazuma hurled the magic stone away with all his might. The stone traced a parabola through the night sky over the plains. Celestia watched its trajectory. —It's coming this way. No. Thud. The magic stone landed directly on top of the very boulder she was hiding behind. It scraped the rock's surface, bounced off, and fell into the grass. Celestia pressed herself against the boulder, not even breathing. *(That... that throw just now—)* It wasn't aimed. That man had simply tossed away something annoying, completely at random. And it had, by pure chance, struck her hiding place directly. Her heart was pounding. The magic crest on her chest radiated

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Episode 3

Name: The Day I, a Demon King's General, Received a Blessing
Author: Novelia

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