The Demon King’s Castle

Author: Iwashi-zukushi
Raw: https://ncode.syosetu.com/n3388fm/4/
Translator: Lilia v4
Editor: Yuriko AYA

Once she had waited for us to settle, Gerda took up the lead again.
Now and then our eyes met those of people in the town, and we exchanged small, hard-to-name nods.
After we had walked like that for a while, we came out into a somewhat more open place.

“Here. This is the castle of my lord, His Majesty the Demon King Shutraum.”

A small ohh went up as we looked where Gerda pointed.
While Gerda spoke with the gate guards—lizardmen, monster-people like lizards who walked upright on two legs—and saw to the formalities, we stared openly at the Demon King’s castle.
To be honest, it was not very large.
The royal castle of the country I had come from was unquestionably bigger; it might even have been smaller than any royal castle on the continent.
I was probably not the only one making that face. Gerda must have noticed.
When she finished the formalities and came back… she was wearing a proud smile.

“Different from the Demon King’s castle you had imagined, is it not?
This castle of His Majesty’s serves only as a facility for government. That is why it is not built wastefully large.”

At that, I thought, oh?
As for the functions a castle ought to have…

“Um, excuse me.
Does that mean His Majesty does not consider this castle a defensive fortification?”
“Mm. That is correct. …Asha, you are rather sharp.”

Gerda said it with what sounded like admiration.
Well. A girl dressed as obviously rural as I was would not be expected to think that far, so the reaction was only natural.
But in that case.

“…This is only a guess, but.
Because this is an island nation, perhaps His Majesty thinks of the sea as a moat, and the entire island as a defensive fortification?”

I was aware I had stepped in rather far.
I had simply thought it, somehow.
Come to think of it, the Demon King’s kin and subordinates, who wielded the power of wind, ought to have that same power of wind, or else the ability to fly.
In fact, I thought I remembered seeing some large shadow flying in the sky from aboard the ship.
Judging by the surprise on Gerda’s face at my words, I had apparently hit the mark.
I was relieved that I had not been completely off-base, and at the same time worried about how I would be taken.

“…I take back what I said a moment ago. Asha, you are very sharp.
As for why you would think of such a thing, I will not ask.
And I cannot answer whether or not you are correct.
Given my position, I would ask you to spare me that.”

Surprise, bewilderment, and interest.
With those mixed on her face, Gerda thought a little and then answered that way.
The phrasing told me it was a yes in all but name, and I had the sense she had said it knowing I would understand.

“I’m sorry. That was an impertinent question.”

So I let the matter trail off there and ended it.
While I bowed my head, I glanced at the other girls’ faces.
…Probably none of them had understood what we were talking about, I thought.
Which also meant there was now a chance that I alone would be treated as someone to watch.

“No, well—from now on, if you wish to speak of such things when no one else is present, I do not mind.”
“Understood. Then, if the two of us should ever be alone—”
“Y—er, it can indeed be taken that way… but, wait, er…”

I answered a little suggestively on purpose, and Gerda immediately started to panic.
I was giggling to myself, thinking I might tease her a bit more, when my sleeve was tugged, twice.
I turned despite myself, and found eyes fixed on me, staring hard.

“Hey. You.”
“Eh—m-me?”
“Yes, you. Why can you talk like that?”
“Eh, e-er?”

The girl who had spoken to me had brown hair tied in a single bunch.
Her unadorned face, still dusted with freckles, gave a rustic impression, but she was quite a beauty—as one would expect of someone sent as a sacrifice.
…I did think, even as I put it that way, that “as one would expect” was a questionable way to put it.
For that matter, I was not wearing makeup I could speak of either. Ordinary commoners did not have that kind of luxury.
At any rate, a beauty like that staring at me so intently made for a pressure that was hard to describe.
What had her name been, again…

“Answer. Why can you talk?”
“Even if you ask me why, all I can say is that it’s my personality.”
“That too, but that isn’t what I mean.
The content of what you said.”
“Eh—th-the content?”

I had slipped. So there was a girl who would catch that much. I found myself at a loss for words.
To be honest, when it came to the content, my previous life’s knowledge had more to do with it than anything I had learned since coming here.
Bluntly put, I was a bit of an otaku, and I had a rich store of miscellaneous trivia.
It was nothing much compared to a real specialist in any of those fields, of course.
The conversation just now had been a shallow mix of games, military knowledge, history, and the like.

In other words, I had knowledge it would be strange for a person of this era to have, and knowledge a mountain-village girl like my present self could not possibly have.
And more than anything, a commoner from a mountain village would almost never have the kind of thinking that had gone into that conversation.
They were run ragged by farm work and the rest of daily life, and they did not train their minds.
In the end the brain was only another organ of the body; if you did not train it, it would not work. I had been painfully reminded of that again and again since coming here.

“You and I should have seen the same things.
And yet you noticed something I never even thought of, and you could talk about it as if it were natural. Why?”
“Er, that is…”

She pressed in, and I stepped back the same amount.
There was no hostility in her eyes, or anything of that sort—which was exactly why I felt that dodging her would not work.
I was still wondering what to do when a helping hand was offered.

“Kira, was it?
It is only natural to have questions at a first meeting.
But an audience will be upon us soon. Why not talk at leisure afterward?”
“…That cannot be helped. I will do as Gerda says.”

Reluctantly, the girl called Kira backed down.
She was still looking at me as if she had unfinished business, so I offered her a small smile.

“So it’s Kira. I’m Asha.
Talk later?”
“…Y-yeah. All right.”

When I smiled at her, her face at once went confused, or perhaps flustered.
Huh. The pressure at the start had startled me, but maybe she was not such a scary girl?
Perhaps she had had some reason of her own for wanting to ask me.

“Hey, Kira.”
“W-what?”
“If you’d like, will you be my friend?”

As I said it, I held out my right hand.
Kira immediately went into a fluster.
Her cheeks a little red, she mumbled something, but.

“I-it’s not like I mind…”

Even as she said it, she took my hand in return.
Heh. Cute, I thought.

“Then here’s to us from now on!”

I smiled at Kira.