7th Demon Prince Jilbagias’ Chronicle of Demon Kingdom Toppling

１２３． On The Other Hand, At the same time

――This happened around the same time as Jilbagias started petting empty air (Ante in her phantom mode).

In the next carriage, Lyla was reading a dictionary of human letters in one hand.

"Fu… Nya~…"

"Suush… Su~sh…"

Garounya and Liliana were already fast asleep in the seat in front of her. They fell asleep as soon as they sat in the soft and fluffy cushion of the non-swaying carriage.

Garounya was almost completely covered by Liliana, but maybe because of her physical toughness, she didn't seem to be disturbed; she even started drooling in her sleep.

Lyla glanced sidelong with a complicated look on her face as she turned the page of her book.

It was only recently that Lyla learned to read basic phonetic and a few ideographic characters. Thus, the adult romance novel she was reading now was filled with difficult characters.

The only salvation for Lyla in this situation was the simple dictionary written by Sofia, with letters made with magical power. It listed the ideographic words that might be too difficult for Lyla in the order they appeared, along with the way to read them.

Thanks to this assistance, even a beginner like Lyla could keep reading the book written in human letters.

Currently, she was reading the part where the couple was forced to break up due to their parents' circumstances. Lyla couldn't help but empathize with the heroine and was curious about what would happen next.

"Hafuu…"

Lyla's breath suddenly became feverish upon reading the ending part of the book.

When she raised her gaze, she met the eyes of the beastfolk auntie sitting beside her. The veteran employee was watching the feverish Lyla with a gentle smile on her face.

"Lyla-chan sure is diligent, reading your book in this swaying carriage," the auntie nodded in admiration.

"Since I can't even read or write, I do think you're an amazing child, Lyla-chan."

"N-No, I just…"

Lyla had a hard time explaining that she was dazzled by the romance story rather than studying.

"I just want to be able to assist Jilbagias-sama as soon as possible…"

Lyla explained quickly with a flustered voice, as if trying to find an excuse.

Well, it wasn't a lie either. She did a lot of things to learn human letters as soon as possible.

… Yes, because it would be more convenient for her to be able to do many things.

"How diligent of you~… I know it's not my place to say this, but I do hope that child is as diligent as you; she's smarter than me, after all…"

The beastfolk auntie sighed as her gaze turned toward Garounya. Garounya seemed to be her relative.

"Ha~h, she's even drooling on the cushion…"

"Let's just let her sleep."

Lyla stopped the auntie, who was about to wake Garounya up, and used her handkerchief to wipe the latter's drool.

"It can't be helped… Garounya is really tired, after all."

Lyla said while looking at Garounya's sleeping face.

Recently, Garounya, who aspired to become a Fist Saint, had been working stoically to train her martial arts during her free time.

That's why, since she couldn't do anything during this journey, allowing her to get proper sleep was the right thing to do. No matter how superior the beastfolk's physical abilities, they were still made of blood and flesh; they were bound to get tired too…

"I'll become a Fist Saint so that Master can be proud of me."

That was what Garounya said as she abused her body during one of her training sessions, outside of her working hours, of course. Her martial arts skills were sharp and precise to the point that even Lyla, in her dragon form, would have a hard time against Garounya.

… As a side note, Lyla also learned self-defense. Maybe due to the overwhelming gap in physical ability with Garounya, or simply because she lacked talent in using the human body, Lyla always ended up rolling on the ground before she knew it.

"There, there. Since Lyla is strong, you can at least avoid instant death…"

Since her main offense was using her powerful dragon form to go on a rampage, her training was focused on defense and receiving blows to prevent instant death in her human form.

Lyla was attacked by pangs of guilt when she looked at the peaceful sleeping face of Garounya.

Lyla liked Garounya. No amount of gratitude was enough to express how much she felt grateful to the girl who had always been taking care of Lyla ever since Jilbagias took her under his wings.

Alas――

When she was reminded of Jilbagias' goal again…

She knew that someday she would have to…

Just thinking about that alone was enough for her to clench the paperback novel in her hand.

… Nevertheless.

It didn't change the fact that Lyla wanted to be of use to Jilbagias.

After wiping Garounya's drool with a handkerchief again, Lyla sat back in her seat nonchalantly and read the book in her hands again with an extremely serious look on her face.

†††

――The night elf's carriage was a large one, enough to carry six people.

Even after it was used to load the luggage, such as emergency camping tools, there was still so much space left, but no matter how big it was, it was bound to feel cramped when ten night elves boarded at once.

And those night elves were sitting solemnly, focusing on the table placed in the middle of the carriage.

"How about this!"

The other night elves raised astonished voices at once when a young night elf took out a card.

"Here I cut ‘Guts'!"

"Such a bold move!"

"Uh… The flow of the match has become unpredictable…"

Except for those on guard duty, the rest were playing a card game. Each of them took turns drawing cards with pictures and numbers on them; it was a peculiar game of the night elves in which they competed for the most points with the cards in their hands.

"Hya~h, that's a close call… I can't afford to let my guard down."

The maid who got the turn was raising a whistle.

"Well, don't panic. Let's make do with ‘Pinky Finger'――"

The moment she dropped her card.

"――Luon."

Verossa, who sat beside her, muttered a strange voice.

Rather, it wasn't a strange voice.

In a way, it was a death sentence, otherwise known as ‘Raise'――

Verossa revealed the cards in his hand with a flowing hand movement.

"Take this, my triple death combo with my fresh blood・Skin Peeling・Tearing From Groin・Love Vengeance."

The air inside the carriage stopped at once――

A silence descended inside the carriage for a while before everyone raised a scream.

"You must be kidding me!? That's a crazy score!!"

"Why is ‘Pinky Finger' hereeeeeeeeeeeeee!!!"

"Verossa-san must've replaced the card!"

Verossa looked as composed as ever while the others around him screamed in agony.

"Just how in the world did he get that kind of hand――"

"It's simply a matter of experience. It's still too early for me to lose against younglings."

Verossa whistled carefreely, yet seemed to be proud for some reason.

"This person keeps winning since a while ago."

"He must be cheating. Did anyone see that?"

"Did he switch his hand using Sword Saint's skill?"

"Nonsense, he must use humanization."

The ‘Sword Saint' Verossa was smiling gleefully, seeing the others doubting him or in awe of his skill. In fact, this man was a master of card games.

"Wueeh… My one month dessert."

The losing maid signed a certificate with tears rolling down her cheeks. Since the game would be boring without a bet, everyone ended up betting using their after-meal dessert.

Though Verossa barely smiled, seeing that, he was merciless when he took those signed certificates.

"Okay then… Shall we play another game?"

"Hiee."

"I don't think I can win this…"

"I don't care, not that I'm gonna lose if I play one."

The night elves were quite lively in their carriage.

Though the night elf hunter who became the coach could only hear those noises with an envious gaze on his face, they were professional when it came to their assigned job――

And speaking of being envious…

"Maan, Vigne pulled another dud."

A maid suddenly said those words while shuffling the cards.

"To be crammed in the same place as Sofia-sama, His Highness, and Madam."

"It's not ‘Dud,' it's the greatest honor."

"Yeah right, that girl always pulls the ‘Hit' that is tearfully given to her by everyone."

The other maids said so while hiding their chuckles. She recalled Vigne's despaired face, ears hanging down upon realizing that the latter drew the string with the red color on its tip during the lottery that was held before the departure.

"That girl is doomed to never win the lottery in her entire life."

"It's not that she never wins the lottery; you girls just cheat her."

Another maid poked the hypocrite maid who shuffled the cards while saying those words.

"Yeah, but not realizing that is just as bad."

But the maid who shuffled the cards just shrugged her shoulders and divided the cards with experienced movements.

"Ah, she hid a card in her sleeve just now. I ask for reshuffling."

"Tch, what a sharp-sighted guy…"

The maid who clicked her tongue reluctantly reshuffled the cards when a young hunter caught her cheating.

Night elf society was quite tolerant of one or two cheatings as long as the other party didn't get caught.

The night elf was having a blast since there were so many of them. Yet, by the time they arrived at their destination, they would do their job with expressionless faces again――

The cosy journey continued on without a hitch.

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