Return of the Apocalypse Knight

Chapter 3: Chasing the Demon King (1)

Not a demon castle, but a demon dungeon.

The dungeon of the Demon King was in a canyon, beyond the plain where we had fought the undead.

The canyon where the dungeon was located was a hellish sight, as it had been home to the Demon King for so long.

The canyon was steeped in death and decay, and nothing was left alive.

The trees were dried up and twisted, and the grass was dried up and rolling on the ground.

The dead had all returned to the earth, and with the Demon King gone, the canyon would have seen no more movement.

But now, half a month after the Demon King disappeared, the canyon was in an uproar.

Numerous tents were pitched at the entrance to the dungeon, and countless soldiers, leaders of the allied armies, and nobles of various nations were camped there.

As soon as they realized that the Demon King had fled to the other world, the entire command at the rear of the army pressed against the dungeon entrance.

Although they were unable to kill the Demon King, it could have been to further emphasize the achievement of driving him out, or it could have been to target the treasures and relics remaining in the dungeon where the Demon King lived.

Or perhaps it was a demonstration of the command’s determination to hunt down the escaped Demon King.

As a mere free knight, I couldn’t quite put my finger on it.

“The higher-ups are probably planning to exploit the gate that remains intact even after the Demon King has fled.”

I could hear the mercenaries talking as I sat in front of the tent, drinking mulled wine.

I’m sitting in one of the tents of the free Knights, far from the entrance to the dungeon.

Few of the knights were able to set up camp this far away, as the other knights had gathered by kingdom.

Well, not that there were many knights left alive.

In any case, from my perch on the outer perimeter, I could hear the mercenaries chattering.

In fact, it was just a noise from a distance, but since I was a knight who had been working hard in the field, there was no way I wouldn’t have heard such noise, and the mercenaries knew what I was hearing.

But neither the mercenaries nor I cared.

Before the war, they would have been respectful, but now they and I were comrades in arms, having fought together for years.

There was no need for such civility between comrades, not the nobles who commanded from the rear, and not the men who were dying with glee.

Besides, neither the mercenaries nor I had been able to return to our hometowns, delayed as we were by the Demon King’s escape, so the backstory was little more than a drinking snack.

I overheard the mercenaries cursing and looked around.

There were many tents and many people, but not as many as before the last fight.

Many had died, but there was more than that.

First, the wounded and disabled beyond immediate care, and the regular troops of each nation were already on their way home.

What remained were the greedy nobles and knights.

On top of that, there were priests purifying corpses and land contaminated by evil energy, and mercenaries waiting for their payment.

Finally, a few free knights who were unlucky enough to survive long enough to have their discharge delayed.

I was among them.

And now, half a month later, new people were entering the canyon of the dead.

“Look at that, even the cute little bastards have come, so I was right…….”

The mercenary who had spoken up earlier had finished his sentence, and the chatter died down.

They all fell silent at the sight of the men entering the canyon.

At the mouth of the canyon, among the withered trees, I could see people on horseback.

Dozens of people, knights and nobles in new armor, dusty and shiny, who had ridden from their homelands and among them, I saw people who looked completely out of place in this desolate canyon.

People with long ears, a race of people from this strange world, known to the people of this world as the Big-Eared Race, and to the mercenaries as the Eared.

They called themselves the Children of the New Tree, and I called them ‘elves.’

“I found it hard to believe…….There really is a gate to another world.”

A knight muttered as he sat down next to me.

Frodo the Free Knight, was an older knight, in his mid-thirties.

He was waving a flask with three fingers.

His remaining fingers had been chopped off by an undead sword like many others.

Of course, if you kept the missing part, you could have a priest reattach it after the fight, but a finger lost in battle is impossible to find, so not many knights had all their fingers intact.

My own desperation to keep all my fingers in such a battlefield was commendable enough.

The knight’s body on the ground reeked of alcohol.

The liquor he held in his hand was also unlike my own, and it was the right kind, with a high alcohol content.

I wondered where he got that kind of liquor every time.

His face was uncharacteristically pale from the amount of alcohol he had consumed.

He looked like that every time except when he was fighting, but I didn’t think to say anything to him.

He was a knight worthy of recognition for surviving on alcohol alone during this hellish battle.

I nodded at his words.

“They must be, otherwise they wouldn’t have called them, and they wouldn’t have come running.”

They came anyway, and my half-month vacation was over.

* * *

They were not wrong.

The day after the elves and nobles arrived, the commanding officers summoned the knights.

I was among them, of course.

The place called was the tent closest to the dungeon entrance.

There was already a large crowd gathered there.

Knights, mercenaries, priests, and the ‘elves’ we saw yesterday.

And in front of them all were the nobles of the command center, the ones I’d seen so many times before, and a group of warriors with glorious names.

In front of the tent were famous generals, high-ranking nobles from various countries, and even royalty, but thanks to the hero’s party, their presence was barely noticeable.

They were handsome and beautiful, but more than that, it was their mana.

After all, knights are those who can feel mana.

And I could sense mana better than most. It was a specialty, if only because I had spent years on the battlefield.

In any case, the sight of the hero party and their intense mana was bound to draw attention.

A little while after my arrival, everyone else arrived.

After confirming that everyone had arrived, the first one to step forward was the hero.

A handsome young man with black hair, he looked like he had stepped out of a book.

He bowed to everyone with a stern expression.

“First, let me apologize to everyone, I’m sorry. We-or rather, I-missed the Demon King, and it prevented you from returning home.”

It was a humble apology unbecoming of his position and everyone looked at the hero in surprise.

He hadn’t killed the Demon King, but he had banished it to another world.

Such an accomplishment would be enough to found a nation.

Everyone was surprised that such a hero would bow his head to everyone.

I looked at him and shook my head.

“A good hero, as expected.”

I wanted to gossip behind his back, but it was hard for me to criticize him.

“A real-life hero,” I thought, “not the one in the web novels and fairy tales.”

Not a fake hero from another world, but a real hero who was called by God to fight the Demon King.

As he was told, he was a good crusader, fighting demons and helping people with his faithful faith in God and the blessings he received from God.

There were many complaints about the hero because he missed the Demon King this time, but it was hard to argue with his apology.

Moreover, after the hero’s apology, his companions, the hero party, retorted.

“It’s not your fault.”

The priestess of the group, a saint, raised her staff and spoke up.

“You are right. The gate was prepared by the Demon King in advance. No wonder we couldn’t stop the Demon King from escaping!”

The royal chief wizard of the Empire, who was the wizard of the hero party, followed his words before he could finish his apology. Words that would make it impossible to hold him accountable.

The political allies of a sincere and just hero.

He tried to stop them, but they wouldn’t listen.

No one would dare to challenge him, because they would water down his apology.

It may have seemed cruel to him, the victim, but he couldn’t have asked for a better group of people to support him.

So it was worth it.

The hero and his companions were considered to be the most important people in the world, and yet they had lost the demon king.

After all, you never know what will happen in this world.

With that, the hero’s apology ended, and the Marquis Bate, the commander of the expeditionary force, stepped forward.

The pride of our kingdom, the younger brother of the king, the Count of Marx, he has been recognized by all as the leader of this expeditionary force, even by the nobility of the Empire.

Of course, political considerations had played a part, but no one doubted his command now that the Demon King ran away.

“As you all know, two weeks ago, the Demon King fled through the gate to the other world after being defeated in battle by the hero.”

This was common knowledge,

“Fortunately, the gate through which he passed is still standing, and we have confirmed that people can survive on the other side. We decided to use the gate to pursue the demon king.”

This was predictable enough.

Still, it was a relief. Someone had checked the other side of the gate first.

We weren’t going to fall into the water or space and die immediately.

Then the hero took up the Marquis’s words again.

“When the demon king fled through the gate, we followed him in, but we couldn’t find him after we crossed the gate. There was no way to chase after him, and it was too foreign a world for us to adjust to. Unfortunately, we had no choice but to turn back.”

I felt like I should apologize for cursing under my breath.

The world beyond the gate had not been confirmed by others, but by the heroes themselves.

The demon king had escaped, and they followed him right into a gate that led to nowhere.

Truly, he was a hero who did not know the value of life.

“The world beyond the gate was inhabitable, as the hero said. However, the world has been tainted by the Demon King’s power and the dead will come back to life to stop us.”

“I don’t know what kind of world it is, but if it’s habitable, there must be living creatures, and if there are living creatures, there must be dead ones, so the demon king power will work.”

I could only hope that the creatures there were weak ones.

“We’ll send out vanguards to search the area, while we build a base on the other side of the gate. Then, when the base is complete, the main force will cross the gate and pursue the demon king.”

I had no objection to the order.

I only wish I hadn’t been included in the advance party.

But, as usual, my wish was not granted.

The roster was called.

“……Sir Jansen.”

After all, I was in the vanguard.

Damn, I’m going to have to give the hero a piece of my mind.