The Day I, a Demon King's General, Received a Blessing - Morning at the Nameless Grave

The sky before dawn was the color of cold ash. The eastern edge had only just begun to whiten, and beneath it, the ruins of the abandoned warehouse district slowly rose out of the blue-black shadows. Crumbled stone walls. Twisted timbers. Charred pillars, collapsed in a heap, one atop another. The fire had already gone out. But the smoldering had not stopped. From every corner of the burn site, thin wisps of smoke—neither white nor gray—rose slowly into the air. It was as if the dead buildings were exhaling their final breaths. The wind blew. The smoke swayed all at once, carrying the smell with it. Burned wood. Scorched earth. Melted lead. And beneath it all, faintly mingled, something cloyingly sweet. Like oil, yet also like viscera. A heavy, damp odor utterly out of place in the clear morning air. Tolba walked through it all without flinching, taking the stench into his lungs. He was in his mid-forties. He wore thick beige hemp work clothes with steel-toed leather boots. In his hand was a long pole with an iron hook at the tip. A sanitation worker from the city's east district, he was accustomed to this kind of work. The aftermath of battlefields. The aftermath of fires. Disposing of beasts that had rotted in alleyways. He had been cleaning up such things for nearly twenty years. "……They really went all out, didn't they. Those adventurers." He muttered to no one in particular. The abandoned warehouse district in the south quarter. It had always been a place of decaying buildings, but last night's Explosion magic—or whatever it was—had completely destroyed three of them, and the surrounding structures had walls tilting dangerously. In the ground, a massive crater had been gouged out in a semicircle. At its bottom, pulverized rubble had collected. The report from the Guild had said: "Remnants of the Demon King's army took an adventurer hostage and barricaded themselves. Subjugation complete. Requesting disposal of the remains." Remnants of the Demon King's army. Tolba rolled the words around in his mind. It was a phrase he'd been hearing often lately. Even when people said "Demon King's army," the ones you actually crossed swords with were probably nameless wretches like this—dying quietly in the corners of the city. He stood at the edge of the crater. He looked down. The wreckage of collapsed roofs. Fragments of shattered wooden crates. Mounds of ash. Among them, he could see several large masses that no broom could ever handle. "……Hey." He called out softly. No response. Of course not. Tolba carefully lowered his feet onto the crumbling slope. Gravel slid beneath him. He grabbed the edge of the rubble with one hand, planted the long pole with the other, and slowly descended to the bottom of the crater. The ash pooled at the bottom was still faintly warm. With every step, the ash billowed up, thickening the smoky haze. Tolba covered his mouth with a hemp cloth and hooked a nearby piece of charred wood with the iron hook. The sound of wood splintering. From beneath the ash, the remains of a scorched-brown wooden crate emerged. It had probably once held grain. The metal fittings had melted, fusing with the wood. Tolba carefully moved it aside, making sure it didn't collapse. One. Another. He worked in silence, shifting the debris. Scorched hemp cloth. Shattered bottles. Charred straw. Each time, white smoke rose, and embers—just barely—flashed red. Occasionally, the wind swept through, wrapping the smell of ash and smoke around his entire body. How long had he been at it? It was when he reached roughly the center of the crater. He saw something white in the ash. Thin. Bent. Against the uniform black of ash and charcoal, that whiteness stood out starkly. He thought it was a tree branch. Tolba crouched down and reached out. He touched it. Hard. Cold. But not wood. He brushed the ash away with his fingers. What emerged was a hand. Index finger. Middle finger. Ring finger. Pinky. Thumb. None of them severed, but all bent at unnatural angles, frozen in a tight grip. The back of the hand was covered in torn skin and streaks of black stains. Blood, dirt, and ash had caked on, dried, and cracked. It was a woman's hand. For several seconds, Tolba stared at it without moving. Then, slowly, he began clearing the rubble around it. He removed pieces of wood. He scraped aside the musty earth. He lifted a charred beam. Little by little, the hand's owner emerged from beneath the ash. A burned, blistered shoulder. Hair that must have once been crimson was now mostly scorched and shriveled, plastered to the scalp. The right half of the face had been seared, the skin peeled back and blackened to charcoal. Only the left eye was slightly open. Its color—surely once gold—was now clouded with ash and smoke, reflecting nothing at all. It was the corpse of a Demon King's army remnant. The armor had become like rusted scrap, clinging to the body. On the chest, something like a crest remained faintly, like a bruise. A pale, lightless pattern, on the verge of fading away. Tolba muttered. "……A woman, huh." His voice was as flat as ever. As if monsters cared whether they were women or men. Something close to irritation flickered through his chest for an instant. But he didn't dwell on it. He looked at the corpse's left hand. It was rigid. The fingers, blackened and caked with ash and blood. All five were clenched tightly. As if protecting something. Or as if gripping someone's hand in return. But the palm held nothing. "——Alright." He straightened himself and walked back toward the cart. To transport the body. The ground underfoot was wet and slippery. At the bottom of the crater, puddles gleamed black—water from last night's firefighting, or perhaps this woman's bodily fluids. By the time the sun rose, the reward payment was about to take place on the second floor of the Adventurer's Guild. The Adventurer's Guild in the town of Axel was noisy from morning onward. Out on the street, morning market merchants shouted at the top of their lungs, wagon wheels creaked over the cobblestones, and a rooster from some nearby house crowed shrilly, as if it had mistaken the time. Inside the Guild, the lingering smell of yesterday's alcohol, sweat, and cheap sword oil mingled together, wrapping the room in an almost suffocating heat. Several adventurers had already claimed tables in the tavern area. Their topic of conversation was last night's fire in the abandoned warehouse district. "Hey, did you see that light?" "Couldn't miss it if I tried. My whole house shook." "Again? That's that explosion-crazy Crimson Demon, right?" "I heard someone got taken hostage. By that woman." "Huh. So what happened to those guys?" "They're fine, right? It's those four. Honestly, it's a mystery how they're still alive." Laughter erupted. Light. Cheerful. The tone suggested that yesterday's life-and-death struggle was something that had happened in a faraway country. Through the middle of it all walked a black-haired boy. It was Kazuma. He was heading toward the counter, carrying something wrapped in tattered cloth under his arm. Sleep-deprived, his eyes were only half open. After yesterday's battle, he had carried his immobilized companion home, then bathed and slept like the dead. His body still ached all over. "Hey there, Luna-san." At the counter was the receptionist, Luna. She was in her mid-twenties. Her chestnut hair was tied back carelessly, and her small frame was neatly dressed in the Guild's deep green uniform. Her appearance gave a soft impression, but her eyes were sharp—she had the shrewdness of someone who had dealt with roughnecks for years. "Good morning, Kazuma-kun. I heard last night was rough. I'm glad you're alive." "Well, I did think I was going to die." With an exhausted face, Kazuma placed the bundle he was carrying on the counter. "This is the evidence." The cloth was opened. Inside were a broken dagger and part of a scorched sword belt. The dagger's hilt showed signs of heavy use, and the blade—perhaps shattered during the battle—was broken off halfway. The sword belt was stained with blood and dirt, charred and stiff. "Part of that female demon's equipment. The one who kidnapped Megumin." Luna examined them in silence. "While I was asleep, someone went and used Steal on her, then handed this to me and told me to use it as evidence. Well, I didn't hesitate to take the extra stuff." Luna's finger touched the dagger's edge. "……I see. It's certainly not standard monster equipment. But this alone isn't enough to identify her." "A remnant of the Demon King's army—a woman, alone—took a hostage and barricaded herself. We took her down. That's the whole story. I don't know the details, and I don't want to." "……I see." Luna pulled a ledger from beneath the counter. She wrote something quickly and stamped it. "Let's see. This time it's not a purchase of stolen goods, but a settlement for a subjugation reward. I'd say the danger level is equivalent to a Rank C monster subjugation." "How much?" "Fifty thousand eris." Kazuma let out a relieved breath. Fifty thousand. It was an amount that could finally reduce his debt, if only a little. "We never did identify that female demon. She might have been a Demon King's army officer, or someone connected to them…… but unfortunately, the Guild doesn't have enough information to raise the assessment value as a subjugation target. If she was a monster that had been sighted in that area, there might have been a bounty, but confirming that is difficult too.…… I'm sorry I can't meet your expectations." "No, no, it's plenty. She was just some nameless small fry anyway. We just had our friend kidnapped and blew her away out of spite." Loud, clattering footsteps echoed from the hallway. "Ah! Kazuma, you already finished the report! That's so unfair!" It was Aqua, rushing over at full speed, her bed-mussed light blue hair flying wildly. Behind her, Darkness walked, her long golden hair swaying. And beside her, a small girl walked languidly. It was Megumin. "I'm the one who purified that undead, you know! I should get the biggest share of the reward!" "How does that even make sense? In terms of combat power, it was thanks to Megumin's Explosion magic……" "……Eh, um, huh?" Kazuma's words stopped midway. He looked beside him. At the girl standing there—at Megumin. She was, as always, wearing a confident smile, her crimson eyes gleaming.…… But there was a large scrape on her right cheek. Bandages were wrapped around her wrist too. Wounds from last night's battle. But to her, such things were nothing but badges of honor. "Hmph. With my Explosion magic, a female demon of that level is but a castle built on sand, unable to withstand the trials of time. She was fated to vanish along with a beautiful blast of smoke." "So basically, you're saying all you had to do was fire off your Explosion." "Of course! It was unfortunate that I became a hostage, but in the end, I was the one who decided it. I blew away that entire warehouse—everything. Before my Explosion magic, even revenge and hatred are powerless." She puffed out her chest with satisfaction. Aqua puffed out her cheeks. "Hmph. Without my water, you couldn't have even gotten close. You were a hostage, and in the end you still had to be rescued." "What are you saying? I received the coolest moment at the very end. Besides, that wasn't being rescued—it was what you'd call fighting together." "Both of you, stop fighting. Last night was a battle where any of us could have died. We survived it. We should be grateful for that first." There was a noble dignity in Darkness's voice. Even through her equipment, her trained physique was evident. Her blue eyes were clear and bright. In her heavy armor, she looked less like a noble lady and more like a battle-hardened knight. "And furthermore. Last night, I received a fine blow. That fierc

日本語

What is Novelia? →

Episode 7

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

What is Novelia?

Novelia is an AI-powered platform to read original light novels and fan fiction, create your own in just a few taps, and chat with the characters. New, illustrated episodes arrive daily — free to start.

Learn more about Novelia →New sign-ups get 5,000pt