That Word Hero Carries No Meaning

"〈White Light Cannon〉!"

Right after the black-light cannonade left Merea's hand, from the spell-circle the Mūzeg corps below had built, a white-light cannonade fired.

The black and white cannonades came at each other on collision course.

Same trajectory; what each pierced was the other light.

Direct contact.

A push-back, dispersing.

A complete offset.

A multi-caster powerful formula-cannonade, by a single-caster Reverse Formula — offset.

For the Mūzeg formula-users, that alone was enough to nearly fold their fighting-spirit.

"Im — impossible…!"

Just before the offset, they had still held a small hope.

The hope that Merea's formula was all show.

A single user cannot, fundamentally, assemble a formula matching their cooperative one. So that must be a similar-looking but feeble formula.

But Merea's black-light cannonade also offset that hope of theirs.

"S-such a Demon Lord — unheard of!! Oi! 〈Sword Emperor〉 was not meant to be a formula-user! Why is this level of formula —"

The Elma they were chasing was a Demon Lord with the 〈Sword Emperor〉 title.

〈Sword Emperor〉 cuts formulae with the demonic sword, but does not, by personal craft, build formulae.

The being in front of them, however, was clearly a different existence from the prior intelligence.

— This one is a demon-god.

The same line ran through every one of their heads.

---

Toward the startled Mūzeg formula-corps, Merea raised his voice.

A strong, well-carrying voice.

"Why attack!!"

He had a guess at the reason Demon Lords were targeted.

He'd heard from Flander, and he'd heard the world-talk from Sky Dragon Cortista.

But until he'd checked it himself, truth could not be settled.

Abandoning thinking is easy, but that is the fool's path.

In particular, he, having seen nothing of this-world's affairs with his own eyes, was, on thinking-and-judging-the-truth, more cautious than necessary.

"Why fire formula-cannons without warning!"

Merea's voice carried truly well.

Subtly shaking the air, it ran clean.

That this was thanks to the 〈Throat of the Music King (Yurun Yura)〉 Heroic-Spirit-factor, no one but Merea, of course, knew.

"Because we predicted a Demon Lord would be there. Demon Lord is the enemy of mankind, yes? For that enemy, is warning required? No — what is required is the first-strike."

What a Demon Lord is — he did not say.

A line threaded on the assumption that the listener understands the Demon-Lord-is-this read.

"…Pointed question. That Demon Lord's name is."

"A Demon Lord of the 〈Sword Emperor〉 Eluiza house."

"What did that Demon Lord do to you all."

"— Nothing?"

"…!"

They said it without flinching.

They had read the meaning of Merea's protest.

What he was trying to say, they had read.

Knowing it, they were deliberately mocking him.

That was the only method they had to support the self-respect that the prior cannonade-exchange had nearly folded.

"The current Eluiza-house descendant has done nothing to us, the Mūzeg Kingdom. In the past, possibly, as a mercenary, on one or two occasions, in opposition — but that is, separately, war. Cannot be helped."

"Then why…!"

"Because she is 〈Demon Lord〉. Because she is 〈Sword Emperor〉. The strength of an Emperor-class-titled Demon Lord is, truly, attractive. Sword Emperor's strength has a clean, readable form. — The demonic sword. To take that sword. By that, our Mūzeg Kingdom grows further."

Emperor-class title. A word Merea did not know.

But what mattered for Merea was not there.

Why are they targeting a Demon Lord who has done nothing.

The answer is given.

Given — but —

"Is there even a flicker of revulsion in that…!"

"Revulsion? Revulsion at what."

"That manner of thing is no different from a brigand's…!"

"Against Demon Lords, it is permitted. Demon Lord is that sort of label. Particularly in this age."

In a staged breath of laughter, the formula-user added at the end —

"We are the heroes. We slay Demon Lords for the world's sake — heroes, I tell you! Hah!"

— Rotten.

Alongside that line, a cold edge ran up Merea's back.

Not a cold of fright.

A cold of unbearable anger.

The 〈Demon Lord〉 system itself is rotten.

Long ago it was perhaps useful as a tyranny-suppression mechanism.

But now, as a shield of the 〈Demon Lord〉 label, more brutal people are using it as a tool to swing violence with their face up.

And the Mūzeg corps below is the same.

In their words, no hesitation.

Eyes of those who truly believe.

Knowing it is a base method, they use it on the because-it's-convenient line.

— Rotten.

Merea repeated it, twice, in his chest.

At minimum, the soldiers of the country called Mūzeg below were steeped in a value-system that could not be glossed over.

Merea judges.

And decides.

Now, in this place — should he swing further strength.

If he swings — for what should he swing strength.

For the Mūzeg spell-corps below, on a sneer — is that what he'd help.

For those who, under the empty pretext of slaying Demon Lords, swing baseless violence — is that what he'd help.

— No.

Then — let him swing strength to aid the Demon Lords.

— For what did I train.

To answer the Heroic Spirits' wishes.

— For what did I learn the craft.

To defend what I wished to defend.

— Are those below truly heroes who slay Demon Lords?

No.

The hero they speak of is, like Demon Lord, an empty label.

By now, the phrase hero who slays Demon Lords —

— Carries no meaning.

---

— Then I will aim to be a 〈Hero〉 for the 〈Demon Lords〉.

---

Merea's movement from there was flat and fast.

The Mūzeg formula-users, registering Merea's silence, were starting to recover from the prior shock and lay out tactics in cool register.

A figure that looked like the unit captain was issuing orders to the rest.

"— Fifty-six."

Merea, on his end, was counting the formula-users in his line of sight.

From the side —

"Below the cliff, and at the back of the right and left precipices, out of sight, ten more."

The small girl who reached Lindholm second — 〈Aiz〉.

The girl with the slim body — looked like an embrace might break her — peered out beside Merea, shy but on a clear-edged line.

In her silver eyes, a strange formula-pattern surfaced; the certain line read as if she had seen the surrounding region from above and counted, and Merea registered that this rested on some kind of magic-eye.

So Merea, on a slightly surprised face for her —

"Right. — Could you tell me the exact locations?"

"Y-yes!"

— asked her direct.

---

The girl — 〈Aiz〉 — had the surrounding picture in bird's-eye view.

〈The Heavenly Demon's Magic Eyes〉.

Phrased eyes of a demon dwelling in the heavens, they enable long-distance bird's-eye vision.

In that moment, the surrounding Mūzeg formula-users were vividly visible to her.

— Three behind the right cliff, two on the left, hidden below the cliff… five.

"That area, three; over to the left, two. Below the cliff — five — at the same intervals."

"Right."

Aiz, also, was startled by Merea's earlier action.

A fearsome formula-craft.

Building a formula of that mass, alone, at that speed — never seen.

That five Mūzeg formula-users were assembling the same kind of formula was already startling — and he did it solo.

— This person has fighting-strength my imagination cannot catch.

And he was about to do something again.

That she could expect anything from him was, surely, because she has no fighting-strength herself.

What she has is just eyes for spying around.

To rely on him entirely is shameful.

So — at minimum, to be a small help — she used the 〈Heavenly Demon's Magic Eyes〉 she had been avoiding using before others.

— Even if this isn't atonement.

If permitted, please let her wish.

That from this death-place, a road out — opens.