Kuro no Maou

While sighing, I head towards the guest room where lily is waiting.

But still how could I say “I am the leader. Anybody who has a problem with that, step forward.”. Ah, I’m so embarrassed.

Well, after demonstrating the power, an imposing attitude is needed after all.

Though I still have a great doubt whether how I acted was the right thing to do.

“Anyway, rank 4 really are dangerous.”

During the battle of Vulcan it might have looked like my one-sided victory, in truth I didn’t feel that much difference between our powers.

I was able to win just because I had good compatibility against him.

Vulcan is an power fighter just as he looks. He attacked with the intention of stopping my attacks directly.

Any ordinary magician wouldn’t be able to stop his charge and would be knocked out. After all he withstood my 10 magic bullets at point-blank range while suffering no damage at all.

Not only the toughness of his body, but also his power, speed, reaction speed and physical capacity were some levels above my enhanced body.

“I doubt if we once again fight, it would go this easy.”

For now let’s pray for that situation to never come.

According to Lily “After becoming a leader never show your weak side or else you’ll be underestimated.”. So I can’t show my uneasiness to Vulcan or others.

Well it might be fine for me to maintain my normal expression on face to naturally speak something like “Hey, don’t you dare slack off!”

While thinking that, I reach the guest room and knock at door.

“Lily, I’m back”

“Ah Kurono-san, come in”

Nh, this voice, is it Fiona-san?

The door opened, and there stood Fiona-san.

Upon entering the room, I find Lily lying down on bed, she must have gone to sleep due to tiredness.

“I heard Lily had some business with Fiona-san, is it over?”

I casually ask,

“Yes, I was told you have a sweet thing called ‘Pudding’”

She replied with a tilted head.

“Ha? Pudding?”

“You don’t have pudding?”

Fiona-san stares at me with golden eyes filled with extreme expectations.

“No, I don’t have it? I didn’t go away to cook you know?”

Even if you looks at me with those eyes, I can’t help with things I don’t have.

Fiona-san shows a depressed expression.

Eh, what is this feeling like I’m the bad guy here?

“If you want to eat it, I will make it later”

“Is it true?”

She suddenly got better, somehow this reaction reminds me of the time I gave her popsicle.

“I will make it later, right now it is impossible. I am busy with the emergency quest, I don’t have the ingredients and don’t expect that it will be very good or not.”

“It will be fine. Let’s work hard to safely complete the evacuation.”

Thank you for brave words. I will find a kitchen when we reach Spada for sure.

“Then let us think about the name for our party at once.”

“Eh?”

“Eh?”

Umm, looks like Fiona-san and I are not even on the same page?

What the hell was this talk about? Party? Is it the party for celebrating after the evacuation is completed?

“I’m a member of Kurono-san’s party, aren’t I ?”

“Is that so?”

“Am I wrong?”

Hell with this conversation, always ending with a question mark.

Calm down, Don’t lose myself, I have to somehow find the hidden meaning behind Fiona-san’s completely unrelated words.

Talk with Lily, Pudding, Party member......

“erm, was your talk with Lily regarding your addition to our party?”

“Yes”

Bingo! I’m completely right!

“I now understand, completely understand.”

“I’m grateful that you have agreed to it.”

OK, now were getting on the same page.

“I will ask this just for being convinced but, are you really alright with entering our party?”

“Yes, according to Lily-san, I’m an wild witch who can burn 100 villages in all directions but still, take care of me from now on.”

Eeee, what is with that ultra-suspicious self-introduction. I never heard Lily giving that dangerous evaluation to Fiona-san.

“Is it alright for me to understand it as that you excel at using magic?”

“Yes, I have confidence in the ‘firepower’ of my magic. I can turn enemy and ally both to ash without any concerns.”

Not putting in a tsukkomi here, I calm down myself and ask

“......Can’t you just burn only the enemy to cinders?”

“I’m a little clumsy at controlling my magical power. Still I was passionately invited, so I decided to join the party.”

Fiona-san snorts and puffs out her chest full of confidence.

“I-I see, well Lily is fine with it so there is no problem. Well then best regards from me too, You’re welcome to our party.”

I have no choice but to accept her in, though her self-introduction was completely suspicious.

Even I trust Fiona-san’s magical firepower, after all she saved me from the rain of arrows with a wall of flame.

And she is also the saviour of my life, I have no more reason to refuse.

“Yes, thank you very much.”

We both shake hands and here the agreement is completed.

“Kurono-san”

Fiona-san shows a painful expression, I wonder now what is she going to confess.

“This is something Lily-san knows, I want to tell you too.”

“What is it?”

I wait for her next words being somewhat nervous.

“I’m a person from Arc continent.”

“......what the hell”

“Do you detest me?”

I reflexively start accumulating magical power for firing of the magic bullets. Though she may have not known about that, she must have already read through me due to the bloodlust I am oozing unconsciously.

“Sorry, just wait a bit.”

She came from Arc continent that would mean that she has the same position as that of the Crusaders.

Is she the same as those insane Crusaders who brought destruction to Irz Village. Is she the same kind and race as them? I cannot let her live, shouldn’t I kill her right now?

“I am glad I didn’t have the hatchet.”

If I had, I would’ve been devoured by those emotions.

Calm down, right now it is important to hear the story of Fiona-san.

First of all she saved me and Lily also has accepted her that would mean she is not a bad person.

“I’m fine. Tell me you story.”

“Yes, but from where should I start telling.”

It is the manner of adventurers to not pry into someone’s past, so it’s better to leave it.

“Right now I don’t want to hear about your life story or whether you were a Crusader or have you killed people on Pandora continent. Just tell me what you can tell.”

“Understood, but I don’t have any past that I must hide.

I went to the Magic School in Elysion, after graduating I didn’t have any new aim so I participated in the expedition as a mercenary.

but the food was not good and the place was very uncomfortable, so I left.”

‘You really betrayed them for such a reason?’, I ask unconsciously to her.

This is not impossible if it is Fiona-san, but if told right to my face, it is hard to believe.

“I’m not a believer of Cross religion. And without taking any money I went through all the formalities for resigning, so I doubt that I betrayed them.”

“But will you be fine fighting the people from your home country with us.”

On that question, Fiona-san replied with sleepy face saying not like I care, so I’m fine.

“Country, Religion, Human or Demon, I don’t care about any of that.

Kurono-san you can think of me like yourself, a traveller who came here just on whim for a faraway place.”

“Did you hear that from Lily?”

“I only heard you’re an inhabitant of a really far country. That’s why, think of my place of origin as meaningless, and I also don’t have any lingering affection towards it,”

I don’t know what place Arc continent is exactly like, but I can somewhat understand what Fiona-san is trying to say.

In short, she has nothing she wants to protect.

I don’t care if it’s a good thing or a bad thing, anyways the person known as Fiona-san is not affiliated to anywhere.

“I got it, I will trust you and you’re already a member of our party.”

“Is that really alright? I did participate in the previous invasion and have killed many people, are you willing to forgive that too?”

“It’s alright, that was your work as a mercenary, it’s just that now that has changed to some other work.”

I am already a murder myself, so I have no right to tell her that she has done wrong.

“I’m really grateful.”

“In Fact, I am really grateful that Fiona-san is an inhabitant of Arc continent.”

Now that I think about it, I, no, every adventurer and villager present here doesn’t know a single thing about Crusaders.

It is the situation where we have to fight an unknown enemy.

“I also roamed around the village a bit, but there wasn’t any person who knows about the the Crusaders or the Republic.”

“That’s right, even I have only heard that the name of the country is ‘Republic’”.

Information is the important factor at every time, and even more important when there is a fight with lives at stake.

There are many words claiming the importance of information like ‘know your enemy, know thyself, and you shall not fear a hundred battles.’ . Most probably, these are also told in this world.

I was granted with great luck, that I have met a person who know about Crusaders in an unexpected place, furthermore is my comrade.

I have a lot of things to ask, like the number of enemies, the equipment they use, morale, skill strength, their commander, and what are they thinking and trying to do.

“I’m really grateful that Fiona-san is our comrade, I’ll take your help from now on, take of care of me then.”

“Yes, thank you for accepting me.”

Fiona-san’s face is as usual unchanging but for some reason if had an expression of being relieved.

“I have a lot to ask you, but let’s think about the party name for now, it will be problematic when naming ourselves without it,”

“You’re right, let’s think a really good name together.”

I did gain the position of being the leader of adventurers due to the duel, but the one to lead them is not only me but the party I am in.

Now there are 3 people and there is also the need to introduce ourselves to adventurers, won’t it be difficult to name ourselves without a party name.

“Aw man, I have never even once thought about the party name.”

It would be a lie to say I never thought about it. During my high school days, I had to think about the names for organizations, agencies and squads in the Light Novels I used to write.

That this and that are different. I don’t want the name of my party with extravagant names with words like God... or Destruction... .

A party name should indicate about myself, should the name be indicating about my tall height.

“How do adventurers normally think about a party name?”

“Basically, everyone just thinks of what they like, let’s see, ah there are more cases of party names to be the exact names of the party leader.”

I see, Vulcan’s party name was also something like ‘Vulcan-powered’. [ET: Has author gone mad with naming sense and can’t write a normal design of story]

But that is only because he has more power than any other member in his party.

If we take the name of the strongest person in our party, we will turn into ‘Magical☆Lily’.

“There are also the cases of using the names of your birthplace, or class of members, characteristics, or even the name of legendary treasures.”

We are all from different places, furthermore my country can’t be found anywhere in this world. So we can’t even name ourselves like ‘Irz Bladers’ where all members were from the same place.

And I don’t know about the legends of this world as it is only a little over 1 year since I have come here, in addition to that I’m not even searching for some legendary treasure.

If i have to say, then I am searching for the summoning magic through which I can return to my own world, but right now I have no intention of searching it.

“Our common feature is, we all can use magic, right?”

“This really is an unreliable party without any vanguard.”

As a matter of fact you’re absolutely right. I make a wry smile and reply to her.

“I have only taken rank 1 quests, so it was good that I have not given more time to fighting in close combats.”

“But if I use my magic, I’m sure the vanguard will get engulfed inside it. Rather I think this is much better.”

Just how much does this girl doesn’t believe in controlling her power.

No, I won’t return a tsukkomi to this, as it is something I was also worried about.

“now that I think about it Fiona-san is good at fire magic, right? You used the ‘Ignis Rampart’ to save me too.”

“Ah, that was just an ‘Ignis Shield’”.

What is that answer, you trying to appeal as the best or something?

“That was a genuine ‘Ignis Shield’, when I use any lower-grade magic, it changes to that size.”

Upon my question ’What will happen when you fire offensive magic’, she replied calmly.

“In the case of ‘Ignis Sagita’, the range remains the same but it’s destructive power changes to that of ‘Ignis Fortis Sagita’”.

I see this definitely explains the ‘Enemy and ally will get burned to cinders’. I wonder what will happen if this is shot in cave or dungeon......

If she doesn’t use it very carefully, it will turn into a big disaster.

But now I completely understand why Lily went through the trouble of letting her in our party.

The old Lily does think greatly, we can’t leave a bomb roaming here and there. There might be big explosions in unexpected situations.

“I excel at using Fire magic, and can use every other magic till intermediate level except the light and dark magic.”

She speaks in a boastful manner. I think that her fighting capabilities are great.

“Using 2 magic is not rare, but it’s my first time seeing someone who can use every magic.”

I can only use one damn black magic! Well complaining about myself is hurting me more. So I won’t do it anymore.

“If you add my dark and Lily’s white magic, we have all the types of magic.”

My black magic is completely different from model magic, but it doesn’t change the fact that I can manifest the dark magic with this too.

Bullet arts are only the materialization of objects but Dimensional space is also a skill of dark magic.

“There are not many parties with every magic attributes. If a single person acquires it alone he can be called as the legendary ‘Element Master’.”

“Element Master, huh. This is good and cool.”

If one uses all the attributes, then it is easy to know the weakness in the magicians and monsters with other attributes. And can also intercept the enemy’s attack with the attribute with high resistance.

Though it is magic centered, but aren’t we pretty strong party.

“Is controlling every attribute called as Elemental Master?”

“That’s what they are called. All the elemental masters can use all the higher grade color magic, and make many exploits due to which their names are recorded in history. They are one of the ideals every magician has.”

oo, isn’t it great title which suggests we can use every magic.

“Well then let’s call us that from now on.”

“I feel it is good. Lily-san will also agree to it.”

And thus the party name was decided.

“OK, from now on we are Element Masters.”