The Punishment of A Demon General

Despite the whole boar thing being my idea, I'm the one who has to hold onto all the stuff while we ride. Find someone else for once!

I can't help but grumble at being the porter for the entire party when we have a giant boar. Sure there's no attachment points, but why me?!

Stop looking at me so smug-like, Killa, you should be the one holding onto all this junk! I glare at her in response, trying to cross my arms in frustration, only to be held back by the sheer amount of luggage on my arms.

She sticks her tongue out at me while snickering before hopping up onto the boar's back and getting into her spot, leaving one person remaining to get on. Me.

Thankfully mounting the boar isn't too difficult with the Heroine's magic, just really disorienting to do, especially with my legs feeling like jelly.

Honestly? Now that I'm up here and sitting among the fur like everyone else, I've realized a huge problem... It absolutely reeks! Why do monsters have to stink so much, aaagh! I have to do my utmost to hold back from gagging.

The Heroine gives me a spank to urge me to make the boar move now that we're all up here, but it takes me a few moments to try and do so, my nausea getting the better of me at first.

I've only been here for a couple seconds and it's already miserable, I really don't want to sit in this for hours... I just want to get there as fast as possible! "Go as fast as you can, let nothing stand in your way!"

Immediately my stomach lurches, only able to remain attached thanks to the help of the Heroine's magics as the boar begins tearing through the tree line, barely able to keep down the breakfast we had just eaten.

...

I honestly have no idea where we're going, so I just have to get the Heroine to figure it out for me as we go... It's kind of scary that she somehow manages to know the demon lands better than I do, how does she do that?

...

At the very least with the wind now whipping in our faces, it brings at least some sort of fresh air to us along side the loud crashes and thuds below us and behind us as trees topple over.

...

The Heroine has to occasionally block a large branch from flying up and nearly sweeping us off as it continues to plow through the line of trees, making me a bit more thankful she's as overpowered as she is. That looks like it would hurt...

...

I don't know how long had passed, but unfortunately for me the little bit of fresh air we did have didn't seem to be enough for Fluffy. She takes something out to splash onto the fur, no small amount of it hitting me as it does.

My nostrils are suddenly filled with an almost painfully strong flowery scent, mixing with the gross musk of the boar to create a nearly vomit inducing combo, leaving me feeling almost dizzy as my senses are assaulted in the worst possible way.

I attempt to choke out an order for the boar, but I can only cough violently as bile begins to build in my throat as I double over into the fur, only managing to make the smell worse.

I can't even try to get it to stop anymore, making the already terrible smelling coat even more vile with some 'definitely' rainbow colored spew, and absolutely nothing else coming with it. Remind me to remove any sense of nausea next time I change my body, this is the worst!

The Heroine pats me on the head even as I make a mess of the boar's back, my head spinning as the scents only seem like they get stronger. I can barely register the sensation of falling as I weakly flail my limbs, realizing I'd let go at some point, a shrill scream escaping me before I...

Land shamefully in the Heroine's arms, the boar tearing off ahead of us, leaving us behind.

What just happened? I don't know... What? I tumble out of the Heroine's arms after a moment, letting out another gut wrenching gag as my senses start to catch up. A pair of hands rub my back comfortingly after removing the gear I'm carrying, slowly easing up the tension in my body as I try not to slump over into the grass.

Slowly, the Heroine helps me sit up, pressing a bottle carrying a sweet liquid to my lips, washing down the nauseous feeling slightly with it before I gasp afterwards, beginning to catch my bearings again.

"Hey, uh... Sorry about that." Fluffy says, apparently one of the hands patting my back right now. I don't even know why you're apologizing right now, just gimme more of that! I snatch the bottle from the Heroine, laying down as I drink it.

The two swap to gently rubbing my stomach instead. "... Holy, she stinks." Killa says, reminding me of the fact that yes, I do in fact still smell like I just walked out of an alchemist's shop after rolling through all of their ingredients.

"... I uh... I didn't think the wind would blow all of it onto you, sorry Ilvia. I just wanted to get rid of that smell..." I just hold up my hand to Fluffy, not wanting to hear it.

"... At least we made it really far before our Lady Heroine pulled us off!" Julia chimes in, trying to point out the bright side of the situation. Honestly, I want to throw up again. Why couldn't Killa have been in the back?!

Looking around the area, we're in a boar-wide clearing of trees, spreading far into the distance as it continues to charge mindlessly out of view, my head still pounding from the intense smell surrounding me, tempting me to desperately find a river or something to help.

"I'd say we just take off her clothes, but a lot of it got onto our stuff too, so I think we might just need to find a river at this point..." The Heroine says, apparently agreeing with me. Who even brings perfume to a fucking trip into the demon lands?! I mean like, I get it, hygiene, but aaagh!

"At the very least that did shave off probably two days off our trip, some of those slopes were pretty steep, so..." She shrugs for a moment before continuing.

"While I could make it easier on us with gravity magic it would have been a struggle regardless. Speaking of, how are you holding up, Fluffy?" In response, Fluffy just flexes an arm, showing she's right as rain. In fact the only one struggling in the demon lands right now seems to be the demon herself...

"We could probably make it to our destination today, but..." The Heroine looks at me with a furrowed brow. Yes, yes, I know, I'm dead weight. "We'd stick out like a sore thumb with her smell, we need to find a place to stop and clean up first, technically for us we need to 'clean down' since slaves should look a bit more, well... Grubby."

I can't even find the energy to be happy at the fact that I'll get to treat them like slaves soon, my entire body feeling exhausted after that ordeal.

Now that I think about it, how do they even know where I live? I don't think I told them... Oh, right. Mind readers. I don't know how I forget that.

While I'm thinking, my head is rested in Fluffy's lap, leaving me feeling a bit warm while she continues to massage my stomach, the Heroine heading off to scout in the meantime.

Why can't just one thing go right on this trip?! What did I do to deserve such misfortune?! Just one thing needs to go right!

My nose scrunches up as I try to sniff again, the nauseatingly powerful scent of flowers overwhelming me again, not nearly as bad when it's combined with the boar musk, but still enough to make me want to throw up.

My nose is pinched by Fluffy, who looks down at me with an apologetic look as she sees me scrunch up my face. Ugh, fine. I'll let you off this time! I don't care!

I slowly turn my head, trying to turn my gaze away from her guilty looking eyes, not wanting to see her feel bad for my sake. Is it for my sake? I don't know, all I know is that it makes my stomach feel all knotted up, and I don't like it...

Why are humans so good at making you feel confusing feelings? Is that how they get you? Is that one of their evil tricks?

They make you feel like even if they accidentally almost killed you they could be just like 'whoopsie, my bad' and they'd give those cruel and cute smiles of theirs and it'd take every single ounce to try and hate them.

I don't like it. Why do they do that? Am I missing something? If a demon did something like that to me, I'd have torn their face off without blinking an eye, but...

It's probably because the Heroine's really strong, right? I'm just feeling threatened, so I don't wanna do anything that might cause her to kill me. Yeah, I just want to remain in the Heroine's good graces for now, that's it...

I'll punish Fluffy later when she becomes my slave. ... Though, she's too weak to become a slave, so maybe I'll just... Ugh, I don't know.

I can't help but pull at my hair in frustration, trying to throw away this conflict inside of me.

Think of something else! Something positive! Demons are good at thinking positive! Well, okay, maybe not really, but whatever! You're good enough at it!

Something good, something good...

At least that's probably it for the monster encounters for now...? Right?

Isn't that a death flag? That's a death flag isn't it?! Take me, Goddess, spare me from this mortal coil so my suffering may-

+Uh oh, what has Ilvia wrought with her literary powers...+

(Hey, you can't just blame everything on the person who makes the death flag!)

+I can and I will.+

(Jeez, you're so dramatic... After this is over, I'm gonna go home to my wife and kids.)

+Wait, you're gonna have kids with me?!+

(... Okay, the death flag came true.)

+Hey, don't run!+

Author's Note:

If it helps, more interesting things are likely to happen soon, since we're soon gonna be meeting some ~other demons~.

I wouldn't really call this filler tho, since it is partially important to Ilvia's character development.

Part of me feels like to a lot of people it would just read as filler though...

I hope it's not too disappointing though. :)

<3