Editing Shinmai Maou no Keiyakusha:Volume 5 Chapter 2 (section)

===Part 5===

“There being someone like that amongst the guards in the downtown area…”

After meeting up with Mio and the other in the café and returning to the castle,

Hearing Basara and Zest’s encounter with the downtown guards, Noel’s expression became depressed.

Right now – Yuki had returned first as she was worried about Kurumi’s condition, and Basara, Mio and Zest are now visiting the east side’s training field.

The ones currently training, are the selected outstanding soldiers like guards and knights of the Moderates Faction.

“The castle’s soldiers really do look more like soldiers…”

Basara commented while looking at the soldiers training.

"Of course! Here, the knights and trainee knights are the pride of the Moderates Faction!”

Noel was right, every one of them seemed dashing.

However – even while being optimistic, these numbers were small.

Of course, the past war between the Heroes and Demons or the past conflict between Demons were different from the modern soldiers using modern weapons to make up for their lack of strength in the current modern conflict with the Human Realm, with the main difference being [Individuals] with a lot of power; to list some examples, there were Jin who was known as the God of War who defeated countless demons, and Wilbert whose power was matched by none and had united the Demon Realm. At the core of the Current Demon Lord Faction, there were the Conservative and Radical Factions with long histories, and the heroic-like figure of youth Leohart who had rapidly gained power was also a pretty good example.

The Moderates Faction has people like Maria, Takigawa, and Lucia with A to S Class powers; with the Moderates Faction led by Wilbert’s brother Ramsas, it is obvious that they have a lot of strength, and now Zest is also present. So even if the Current Demon Lord Faction has many high-class demons or ones with equivalent fighting powers, the fighting wouldn’t be one-sided.

Therefore the Current Demon Lord Faction will also try to avoid consuming or depleting their fighting potential, by attempting to not let the current situation of the war turn into an all-out war, since that would mean the deciding factor wouldn’t be numbers.

--However, that doesn’t mean numbers doesn’t matter.

In the current situation where both sides has a limited amount of fighting force, what would decide the outcome in the end would be the amount of soldiers.

In a war where there is a need to defend a civilian town, the importance of troops was obvious.

Because even if someone has the ability to wipe out all of the enemy, there is no guarantee of being able to protect all comrades. 

In the past – when Wilbert was still the Demon Lord, the reason the Moderates Faction had its moment in the glamorous spotlight was because many capable fighters had come under his command, attracted by his qualities or his ideals. This Wildart City, is the proof of its brilliant days. Yet [End the war, and create eternal peace in the Demon Realm] – the goal the Moderates Faction sang so highly of, was a pipe dream realised only because of the existence of the strongest Demon Lord Wilbert; thus after losing the overwhelming lord, soldiers of the Moderates left Wildart City one after another. At first, they tried putting in their all to try to complete Wilbert’s unfinished ambition, but in the end it was just too large and too big of an ambition, not something the ones left behind could do. Hence—

“So in the end, they had to recruit fighting forces from the outside, just like the taking in of those who had Human Blood mixed in them – so the ones Basara had met, was one of the disadvantages of the last-minute cramming?”

“I’m really sorry, Mio-sama… I’ll ask the executives of the downtown guards to re-educate them on their ethics.”

Noel bowed deeply and apologized to Mio who had a look of displeasure on her. In order to face the Current Demon Lord Faction whose forces were growing quickly, the Moderates Faction could only open their gates and accept various types of people in order to fill up and scrape together enough forces. This, was the current miserable situation of the once greatest Moderates Faction.

''…In the end, Mio is a trump card they want to use to break out of the current situation.''

No matter if Mio chooses to become the new Demon Lord or to let go of her inherited power, her presence in the Moderates Faction would be similar to Wilbert’s influence. In the current war with the Current Demon Lord Faction where they wanted to protect the civilians, they most probably want to make use of Wilbert’s sole daughter to woo their past soldiers and comrades to return. Regretfully, it seems that the Moderates Faction have now been backed into a corner to this extent. They were holding on to such hopelessness, so it’s somewhat understandable.

“……………”

As Basara was organising his thoughts and feelings, a horse carriage suddenly came in from the gate near the downtown area. The white carriage was covered in luxurious ornaments and carvings, and it was obvious that it was on a different level from the carriage Basara and the others had taken.

“That is…”

Taking a closer look, Lucia and her subordinates were lined up before the gate, and the white horse carriage came to a stop before them. After the door opened, a male demon exited the carriage before Lucia and the others who bowed.

“ ! <nowiki>-----</nowiki>”

Beside Basara, Mio suddenly stiffened her body. The male who exited the carriage, his posture and appearance were just like in the Wilbert’s portrait. The nearby training soldiers also stopped and kneeled, and Noel and Zest also did so. The male demon noticed the movements here, and responded with his line of sight, and – his sight turned to Basara and Mio.

''…This is bad.''

Basara and Mio were still wearing the cleric and maid uniform they wore to go into the city area, so they might be mistaken for servants who didn’t know their manners. Just as Basara didn’t know what to do, Lucia whispered something into that male demon’s ear, and in the next moment—

<nowiki>「————！」</nowiki>

Toujou Basara sucked in a breath. Just by looking in this direction from far away, that male demon – a shocking oppression made it through to Basara.

If – he had shown any movements with the intention of drawing nearer, no matter how little it was, Basara might have immediately drawn out Brynhildr instinctively. However—

<nowiki>『——————』</nowiki>

The male demon didn’t move towards them at all, only simply walking into the castle following Lucia and her subordinates, as if uninterested in them. 

Being freed from that oppression, Basara finally released his breath.

“……!”

By his side, Mio appeared to have been frightened by that feeling of oppression just now, to the point where she was still trembling even now. Thus Basara held her shoulder—

“Mio… Don’t be scared, he already went away.”

Saying so gently, Mio then put a lot of energy into nodding. Seeing that male disappearing into the castle gates, Basara asked:

“Originally we were told that he would return only tomorrow – Zest, is he ''that person''?”

“…Yes, Basara-sama.”

Towards Basara question, Zest nodded and answered:

“That person is the current head of the Moderates Faction – the elder brother of the previous Demon Lord his majesty Wilbert, Ramsas-sama.”
[[Image: Shinmai_v05_077.jpg|thumb]]
<br style="clear:both"/>
<noinclude>