The Meeting at the Window of the Southern Tower - Chapter 6

It was half-past midnight that night, one whole day later, when I got to speak to the swordsman again.

After blowing away the demon with a single sword, he ran out of the doorway where the white light still lingered, leaving me no time to speak to him.

After that, we were rescued by the aides who came running up to us and we managed to return to our room due to their care. Oir lives were literally saved.

But the danger was not over, so we were led to a room with an even stronger door, from which we were not allowed to leave.

At first, the entourage and maids were all confined together, but after a while, when the sun rose, a few of them started to go outside to bring water and food.

As the evening approached, the comings and goings became even bolder, but it seemed that the princesses would not be allowed to go out for some time.

As for what the swordsman was doing during that time, it seemed that he was very busy working around the castle.

First, he ran from the south tower to the living quarters and reaped the rewards of the demons that appeared with divine power – according to those who witnessed it – and then joined the strike team that had rushed from the barracks to catch up with the demons themselves.

“Fearing the appearance of the hero,” another witness said
“the demon fled from the castle and ran to the north tower located on the north side of the outer wall of the garden, and escaped into the tower.”

The soldiers, under the direction of the hero, sealed the door from the outside and trapped the demon inside.

In other words, the incubus itself was still alive inside the tower. Unfortunately, the battle was not over.

When and where would the demon named Incubus be born, and how would it grow?

There were many demons living in Lentria, but the incubus was one of the most abominable, the most formidable, and the most mysterious of them all.

First, there was the larva, which after a certain period of time would form a cocoon.

After the cocoon was formed, another timespan would pass and an adult would emerge from the cocoon.

While retaining a glimpse of the larval form, the adult body had undergone a major transformation.

The surface of the body was covered with a bluish-gray mucus, and the tentacles extended out as if the waves were lifting.

There were so many tentacles that I couldn’t even count them.

A cocoon?　Adults?　Was it a moth? What did it have to do with tentacles?/ Why it had tentacles？

The tutor, who was trying to teach the princesses about demons, explained with a plausible look on her face, as if she had actually seen them.

Tentacles were organs that could be moved instead of arms to catch food.

The tentacles of an incubus were like a bundle of threads that erupt from every part of its body to capture food and absorb the food into its body.

Each time it consumed food, it grew and became a giant.

If the prey was too far away to be captured, the tentacles would bite into the prey’s body and transform it into its own servant with a powerful spell.

What does it mean by “servant”?

Servant, in this case, was the creature responsible for capturing prey and bringing it to the incubus.

Servants themselves could grow in power and turn into a being that releases the next tentacle, but if they had not been able to transmit that much spell power, they could regain their original form once the main body was purified.

How did purification work?

When my older sister asked with a pale face, the teacher puffed out her chest as if it was her credit.

With magic flames, it’s easy.

Even if the city of Lentoria was attacked by demons, a magic flame wielder would surely protect the castle.

“Don’t worry, princesses.” the teacher who said that, of course, had never seen a demon with her own eyes, and those of us who were listening to her had never imagined that the day would come when we would see one for ourselves.

I had never even noticed that there were no flame wielders stationed in the castle.

So… how did it come to this?

I’m not sure what to make of this. How could a demon appear in the interior of the mighty castle of Lentoria, of all places?

It’s easy to overrun the castle in such a short amount of time.

The more they thought about it, the more terrifying it was, so the princess and her maids spent the rest of the day eagerly chattering away to distract themselves.

The topic of conversation was, of course, the splendor of the magic flames they had seen for the first time and the heroic figure of the swordsman who had drawn his magic sword.

“They said that his name is Lakis”

My sister, the second princess, who was the first to get to know the name of the hero, muttered in fascination.

I’m not sure what to make of this.

The matter of the brave man breaking in through the window without any self introduction and making some inappropriate comments at the same time, had been quickly forgotten.

I wanted to have something fun to talk about.

My eldest sister took out the sword she had and stared at it from time to time.

She must have been thinking about her actions and how she had everyone trying to make the same decision as her.

The only thing she was clearly worried about was how to apologize to the hero.

She seems quite worried because she told him to his face that he was rude and unprofessional.

In the midst of all this, I, the youngest princess, was the only one to interrupt the chatter by asking my sisters questions that had nothing to do with magic flames or swordsmen.

“Didn’t the demon have horns on its face?”

“Well, I don’t know. I didn’t get a good look at it.”

“Didn’t it have a horn that split in two?”

“Stop it, Ethel Thetha. I’ll end up recalling it. I’m trying so hard to forget it. “

“I’m sorry ……, but do you know where Meina has gone?　She hasn’t been seen since after noon.”
Meina was my maid of honor, a girl who had just recently been promoted from her apprenticeship.

She was a very eccentric girl who would never be promoted unless she was with me.

She has a hard time mastering the rules and manners of the castle, she’s always scurrying around because she’s too curious, and her fellow maids of honor were disgusted when she shows more interest in the horses in the stables than the royalty.

In other words, if I had been born in a castle, I might have been like her, and it was only natural that we got along well as master and servant.

It had been bothering me that she had left the room around noon and had never returned.

Unfortunately, judging from her daily behavior, my sisters’ reply was rather curt.

“Didn’t she go to make sure the horses were okay?”

“Why can’t you just be quiet like this? You’re still the same as always.”

There was no way she could have gone to the stables, it was a long way from here.

But if that’s where she really went, then so be it.

I mean, what if she’s thinking the same thing I am?

What if I had the same problem and thought about it?

This was what I found on the face of the demon that attacked my bedroom. It was a thick horn that stuck out and split in two in the middle.

I and Meina certainly knew something exactly like that.