Meanwhile, at 【Xaous】, walking inside the castle with a rather grim expression unfit for the place he was heading to, was Aquinas, the head commander of the Demon Lord’s directly supervised, Cruel Division.

His long crimson hair fluttered left and right as he walked hastily while maintaining proper courtesy.

He didn’t even notice the admiring flushed expressions of the maids he pa.s.sed by as he continued walking oblivious to such scenes.

He was headed towards the office where a girl named Eveam whom he would protect above all else.

As Aquinas arrived, he notified his presence by knocking on the door, and opened it once he got her permission to enter.

“Hoh, seems like you had a good night sleep. Your complexion seems to have improved fairly”

When Aquinas saw the appearance of Eveam working, a smile made its way to his face and judged her expression so, because her skin had a different glow compared to before.

This however made Eveam look down shamefully and said,

“T-that’s why I said sorry about it last time! B-besides, I will properly sleep as I had been warned!”

“Umu, a fine answer.”

To the nodding Aquinas, Eveam shook her head a little to clear away the heat from her fl.u.s.tered expression and heard about the details of his visitation.

Yesterday, a bad news regarding 【Victorias】 reached 【Xaous】. She never expected for Avoros to take over the the human nation, much more, when the rumour was confirmed by her trustworthy subordinates.

And Aquinas visited her office to ask if there was any new information regarding that matter.

“I’m sorry. I have no updates yet regarding that matter.”

“I see.”

“Are you worried about something? …………Judom’s matters perhaps?”

“………”

“I heard that he was rebuilding the country from the bottom alone, but I don’t know what became of him when Avoros’ a.s.saulted the kingdom.”

“Yes, I’m worried about that.”

“I see. But even if he was renowned the strongest in their nation…”

Although Eveam anxiously leaked such words,

“No, I don’t believe that man would have died from that.”

“Aquinas”

“I’ve fought with him, so I have witnessed the true strength of that man. Even if that man is outnumbered, he could survive that onslaught through his wisdom and power.”

“…I see, if you say it like that then perhaps what you said might be true.”

Eveam expressed a relieved a smile on her face. To be honest, Eveam doesn’t actually understand Judom’s true strength.

She only met him once in her childhood. But Aquinas had a mortal combat with that person. The connection from their struggle seems to have built a mutual relations.h.i.+p that considered each other as equal comrades.

If Aquinas believed that Judom was alive, then so was Eveam who believed Aquinas’ strength.

And so the matter about Judom came to an end, but then someone’s name surfaced in Aquinas’ mind.

“Speaking of someone, any news regarding Hiiro?”

“Eh?”

“Eh is not a proper answer. It was Hiiro who forced you to sleep and made you realize that you were overworking your body too much.”

“M-mu.. why do I feel like you’re implying something else?”

“Fu, it’s just your imagination.”

But in reality, Aquinas is a little nudged about this matter. He was actually a little jealous about Hiiro influencing Eveam’s indecisiveness which he couldn’t do anything back then, so he couldn’t help tease Eveam who was listening to Hiiro’s advices every now and then.

“News about Hiiro you ask? Even though several days had pa.s.sed already and not a single update coming from him, ~muu that foolish Hiiro! Always making me worried!”

An amused smile made its way to his face when he saw the appearance of this girl frankly grumbling towards a certain young man.

“Well, he’s probably fine despite not reporting about it. And besides, can you imagine him dying from such a place?”

“……….not really.”

“And I’m sure that guy is delighting in a delicious meal or enjoying another unusual book he found over there, right?

“………very likely.”

Eveam had an amazed face when she imagined easily what was surmised about Hiiro.

“Besides, setting aside Hiiro, right now we have to deal matters regarding the Predecessor Demon Lord.”

“……you’re right.”

All of a sudden, both turned serious as the air around them became heavy.

“World Domination… if we believe what that person said, then the humans were his first agenda, is that how this goes?”

“No, that’s not it. 【Pasion】 was attacked, but they were not thoroughly destroyed while 【Victorias】 was in the midst of a confusion. So he probably took advantage of this and made his priority to take over the human nation.”

“Rather than took it, he obtained a country. And he will no doubt rule over the humans from now on.”

Eveam remained silent in face of Aquinas’ words. Based on Avoros’ character, he would surely rule over the human like a tyrant. It won’t be surprising if he decided to kill those who opposed him.

And eventually all the people will fall upon their fear of him and become submissive to his will.

“What country do you think is his next target Aquinas?”

“It’s highly probable that we would be the last target as our military force is very high right now.”

“……then, 【Pasion】?”

“Umu, perhaps some movements have already began to mobilise over there.”

“Wait a minute! Hiiro is over there you know!”

“I know, that’s why if they ever did made movements over there, I pity them. If they angered Hiiro who is present over there, they are likely going to be crushed by him instead.”

“……haa, whatever happens, Hiiro, please come back safely”

Although Eveam had a lot of insecurities, it seems she desired the safety of Hiiro the most.

“Besides, Ornoth is over there as well.”

“Now that you mention it, that’s right.”

But even so, Hiiro was a big existence inside Eveam’s world as she didn’t realize the strong feelings painted on her expression which made Aquinas once again chuckle in amus.e.m.e.nt as he thought of his dear friend’s safety.

(…..I hope nothing happens over there)

Under the pleasant blue sky, the rumored protagonist was….

“……this feels ~ oh ~ really great”

In the guest room given to stay, lying face down in an underpants only appearance, Hiiro was being ma.s.saged. Moreover, the one doing it was…

“How is it? Can you feel it against your back?”

His outer appearance was that of a wolf-man. It was Ornoth of Eveam’s directly supervised 《Cruel Division》who was ma.s.saging Hiiro right now.

“Ah, I can feel it. This is…yeah, give me more.”

“I see. Then I’ll let you feel more. How’s this?”

Ornoth began to ma.s.sage Hiiro’s b.u.t.tocks and hips. His hands tracing Hiiro’s lean legs.

“ “ Awawawawa! “ “

Besides Hiiro and Ornoth in the place, there were two people, two girls in fact, hiding their face with both of their hands.

“M-Mimiru-chan!”

“M-Muir-chan!”

Indeed, it was in fact those two girls. However, although they knew it was obviously just a simple ma.s.sage, somehow they were strangely excited in face of that spectacle.

If one would only listen to their voices, such words could certainly cause some strange delusions to be awakened, but Hiiro was definitely and only receiving a ma.s.sage right now.

However, it’s not… the usual ma.s.sage. Both hands of Ornoth was wrapped in red light.

The day after his first day in 【Beast Kingdom – Pasion】, he met Ornoth. He was actually an informant of the 【Evila】and went back and forth so many times.

Due to the hectic nature of his mission, Ornoth wasn’t able to fulfil his promise back then at the 《Grand Fortuna Library》, but since his next return would take a while, he took the opportunity to teach Hiiro about the basics of the 《Crimson Red Aura | Taishakuten》

( TL Note: See Below 1)

Apparently, Ornoth told him that he couldn’t start the lessons until he is able to freely release the 《Red Energy | Shaki》 at his own will.

(TL Note: See Below 2)

That’s why Ornoth is ma.s.saging Hiiro so that he could first help him wear the 《Red Energy | Shaki》

By directly being in contact with the 《Red Energy | Shaki》, it becomes easier to imagine the sense of being clad in 《Red Energy | Shaki》

It was true that Hiiro could wear the 《Red Energy | Shaki》 when in 《Peerless Mode | Tenka Musou Mode》, however it was a time constrained technique and very inefficient as it consumes his stamina and mana to a great extent.

Moreover, though he was clad in 《Red Energy | Shaki》, Hiiro was actually unconscious of it, or rather he was forced to feel that way, becoming unable to grasp the sense of it.

Thus, Ornoth not only ma.s.sages him simply, but also throws a small amount of 《Red Energy | Shaki》 to Hiiro’s body.

He said that this method would relax his body and improve the blood flow throughout his body, so that it would be easier to handle the 《Red Energy | Shaki》

So for the time being, in order to get ma.s.saged in such a way, Hiiro returned to his human form from his beastman appearance.

“At any rate, this doesn’t feel hot at all. When you were fighting in the duel back then, you seemed to have burned your opponent.”

Ornoth’s opponent in the duel was the Second Prince of 『Gabranth』, Lenion. At that time, Ornoth’s full body was clad in 《Red Energy》, and when Lenion seized his arms, he got burned as a consequence.

“That might be so. But I’m not applying heat right now.”

“That’s possible?”

“《Crimson Aura》 was originally called 《Fiery Aura》. The name was called like that because it was technique that enables one to wear a burning aura around the body like a scorching flame. And speaking of that, weren’t you able to wear one yourself in the duel before? You didn’t know of this?”

(TL Note: See Below 3)

When Hiiro was in 《Peerless Mode | Tenka Musou Mode》, he was certainly clad in a red aura, but at that time, he didn’t feel it was hot at all. His opponent at that time should felt it as well. Ornoth nodded in response as Hiiro explained these things.

“I see, in other words, your figure at that time was solely to defend your body with it, and not used as an offensive measure to your opponent.”

“…care to explain?”

“《Crimson Aura》 has two active modes, 『Stillness | 靜』 & 『Motion | 動』. At 『Stillness | 靜』, your defensive ability improves rapidly. And while at 『Motion | 動』, an intense heat is applied to your 《Red Energy | Shaki》 as an offensive power…”

Hiiro also felt that his defensive power not comparable than the usual when he was in 《Peerless Mode | Tenka Musou Mode》 that time. Although his offensive power had not changed that much.

However, for Hiiro, he did not worry about that as he could use the 《Word Magic》 character 『Herculean Strength | 剛力』 to compensate for his lack of offensive power.

“Well then, I think we are about done in here. You can stand now.”

Hiiro obediently followed his words and stood up. His body felt lighter than usual. An ordinary ma.s.sage wouldn’t be able to give this kind of effect. It seems Ornoth poured a considerable amount of 《Red Energy | Shaki》 into his body.

That said though, in face of Hiiro’s underpants only appearance, Muir and Mimiru further blushed to beet red. And incidentally, Tenn and Camus were nearby but were only watching attentively to the adults.

“Let’s start with the basics then.”

Although Hiiro gulped in a form of suspense, for some reason, the other observers also gulped in sync with him. When they closely watched Ornoth’s expression, his mouth slowly opened.

“……you let yourself go loosely like this, then go round and round! And finally, you go oof! Just like that!”

……………………………………….hah?

Translation Notes

1 – 《Futo Akai Matoi – Taishakuten / 太赤纏 – たいしゃくてん》. The author named it Taishakuten (Based on the hiragana above). This is the name of a G.o.d apparently, Sakra or Indra or Sakra Devanam Indra. I’m going to respect the author’s use of this term as the name of the skill. See this link for more information.

That said, I feel that I need to make an English Version for this. So I’m going to use Futo Akai Matoi / 太赤纏 as my basis

Futo/Futos.h.i.+ –  太 – thick, plump

Aka/Akai – 赤 – Red

Matoi – 纏 – kanji for ‘to wear’ , so I used the noun, Aura

Thus, we get a literal translation of ‘Thick Red Aura’. My impression however on Thick Red was a deep red color which led me to simplify the name into ‘Crimson Aura’

2 – 《Akaki – Shaki / 赤気 – しゃっき》This is the red aura that gushed forth when he used the Four Letter Magic. The author named it Shaki. I’m going to use this as well as my own version. Using the same reasons above,

Aka/Akai – 赤 – Red

Ki – 気 – Life, nature

Thus, we get Red Life Force, which I simplified to Red Energy

3 – 《太 灼 纏》Same as 1. First and third Kanji are the same with except the second.

Sha/Shou – 灼 – To burn (With its compound character く)

Thus we get – Thick Burning Aura or Fiery Aura