Chapter 314: The Present Is Being Reflected through a Map by the Horbs

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The demonkin recovered some of his spunk after eating a meal and his complexion visibly improved as well. I don’t know why he’s hurrying so much, but he was intent on departing as quickly, and kept asking all sorts of things in that direction.

“In what region are we here?”

I displayed a map and showed him.

“Around here, I’d say. Smack down in the middle.”

He appeared to be startled by the holography. After being frozen for a while, curiosity spread on his face and he scrutinized the map.

“Where can I find a human town?”

“Over here. Though I mean the towns inhabited by humans we know. We haven’t traveled all over yet, so we don’t know all the towns. But, even if you go there, it’ll be hard as a stranger, you know? They’re always low on water, so they won’t be welcoming unless you can provide water for yourself,” I told him while pointing at the map.

The demonkin brooded and then asked once more, “How far away from here is the capital?”

“I think it’s further than the demon king’s castle.”

Hearing my response, the demonkin looked at me with surprise written all over his face.

“However, although I don’t really know since I never went there, I feel like the roads are better in this country. The demon king’s country appears to be unwelcoming towards traffic.”

The map zoomed out, making the Kingdom appear smaller while also including the demon king’s country now. The demonkin seemed genuinely shocked. He stared at the map with his mouth open.

“……This is…… Hey, bitch! Why do you have a map of our country!?” He jumped up all of a sudden, shouting.

“Hmm? It’s a projection when looking at it from the sky.”

Once I answered while tilting my head in confusion, the demonkin looked as if he didn’t understand a word I said, all the while keeping an angry expression. Quite incredible as a feat.

“The horbs…flying magic tools…are simply showing the scenery they saw before. I’m a genius, so this much is nothing. Do you understand now, demonboy?”

The demonkin looked exhausted, weakly flopping down into the sofa.

Seeing his state, Sword shrugged his shoulders.

“Are the demonkin still hostile towards humans? The current brave hasn’t even entered the demon king’s country yet. Also, another brave doesn’t feel like goin’ there. He’s currently livin’ at my place. Or does the demon king’s country have the same circumstances as this country, bein’ forced to sent demonkin brave over?”

Hearing that, the demonkin acted obviously very suspicious. So Sword hit the bull’s-eye, huh?

“I see. That in itself is a pity. The brave staying with us is a pitiful guy who escaped as it looked like he’d be forced to go to the demon king’s country after having been summoned into this world against his will. I don’t know whether the demon king’s country also summons people from somewhere or randomly chooses some demonkin to talk them into traveling to this country, but this Kingdom and the demon king’s country are truly hopeless.”

When I showed my sympathy, the demonkin became angry.

“I’m not pitiful! I…”

His speech faded out.

I see. He had agreed to it. Since he possesses the specs of a brave, I guess he didn’t die despite trying to cross the desert in a daredevil mission bound to kill any normal person. His recovery was abnormally quick as well.

While looking at him, I voiced a point of doubt, “Still, strife between battles usually occurs when certain national interests are involved on both sides. This country has some special circumstances forcing it to send in braves, so they’ve been doing it all the time, but why is the demon king’s country sending over small groups of people? Moreover, isn’t it only causing expenses without having any clear gain? There’s not much point in waging a war without gaining anything out of it.”

“Eh? Wars took place for such reasons in your previous world?”

I shrugged my shoulders at Sword, “No matter where you go, those in power and businessmen think alike everywhere, right? If you try to make a profit, war is the easiest way to earn money. I mean, thousands and thousands of people need weapons, armor, wages, and public works to repel attackers, so it’s no exaggeration to call a war paradise for anyone selling those goods, right? If you win, you gain land and slaves. Moreover, technological innovation gets accelerated by wars. You develop outstanding weapons, spells, and magic tools in order to attack other countries. You can use prisoners of war for human experiments, allowing one to run statistics on how well the weapons you developed work on your enemies. Well, a moderate version would be the annexation and incorporation of the territory you occupied for the sake of building a superior civilization. All of this leads to the development of countries and individuals through wars.”

Both buys looked at me with their mouths open.

“For the common people it might be terrible to get levied with heavy taxation, or getting forced into fighting as soldiers in the worst case, just because their country attacked its neighbors half out of fun and half out of greed, but it’s not like the folks behind the war give a damn about that. Still, the common people would stage a revolt, if they simply admitted the truth of it. That’s why those in power come up with plausible excuses and clamor about just causes for their wars. In particular, the summons performed in this Kingdom are nice bypasses since they allow for an attempt to reap benefits by sending combat forces into another country without royalty and nobility having to dirty their own hands or or dispatch their own people. Since the brave with us has understood as much, he ran away.”

Sword revealed a face showing his agreement with my view. The demonkin, on the other hand, had suffered a shock.

“I see. …Amato possesses knowledge similar to yours, and based on that, he tried to frantically get away from his fate, huh?”

I nodded.

“I heard the other brave is still a boy. In other words, he was summoned to this world before he could gather such knowledge. Even in my previous world existed countries which approved of wars, and readily caused wars.”

I turned back to the demonkin.

“As far as I’ve heard in this country, humans are cautious of demonkin and the demon king’s country, but they don’t actively wish for the destruction of either. And I also heard that the demon king’s castle is a dungeon. In other words, His Majesty the Demon King is a Dungeon Core, right? I have several dungeon cores among my acquaintances, but they all seemed to be very welcoming of people visiting their dungeons. Moreover, dungeon cores basically stay inside their dungeons, even though they can leave, right? As such, I find it hard to believe that a dungeon core, who should be welcoming of people visiting his dungeon, would attack another country in an attempt to destroy it. There’s no benefit in that.”

“Makes sense,” Sword agreed. “Humans are greedy. I think some folks would consider attackin’ ‘nother country for such low reasons as wantin’ to make a profit or throwin’ their weight ’round. But, dungeon cores ain’t no people. I got no clue what they are, but they didn’t have any such low ideas. …At least, our acquaintances, that is. So, why are the demonkin plannin’ to destroy humanity?”

The demonkin Smith didn’t plan to destroy humanity, though, I retorted in my mind.

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