An Archdemon's Dilemma: How to Love Your Elf Bride: Volume 4 (eBook)

Fuminori Teshima (Autor)

eBook Download: EPUB

2019
293 Seiten
J-Novel Club (Verlag)
978-1-7183-2506-7 (ISBN)

Infos

Zagan's group heads off to Nephy's hometown in order to learn more about high elves. However, when they arrive, they get trapped in a barrier that distorts time! While they're in there, Zagan's beloved bride Nephy is... turned into a little girl!? The precocious little Nephy is cute in her own right, but there's no way Zagan can just leave her be! Will Zagan and the others find the culprit behind Nephy's curse before it's too late?

Textauszug

“OOOH!” In response, the sorcerers raised their voices without even a hint of agitation.

His outer appearance and past actions were unbearable, but Raphael’s cooking was superb. It was more than good enough to capture the hearts of people who had been eating it for over a month. Plus, since he spent a large portion of his life as an Archangel, he possessed enough combat prowess to exterminate all the sorcerers gathered here in a head-on battle. As such, Zagan tried to see what would happen if he left assembling the sorcerers to that elderly butler, and luckily, it turned out quite well. Though, there may have been one other reason that things worked out so well...

Unexpectedly, even sorcerers won’t bite the hand that feeds them... Zagan had arranged for each of them to be given something they desired in exchange for their assistance. He paid them in gold, grimoires, catalysts used for sorcery, and the like. As long as they didn’t betray him, he continued to pay them at fixed intervals. Thanks to that, even though thirty renowned sorcerers were gathered in one place, not a single quarrel had broken out.

“Well if it isn’t my liege. Do you need something of me?” Raphael made a sweeping motion as he bent at the waist, taking notice of Zagan’s entrance.

“No, I’m looking for Nephy. Is she in the kitchen?”

“If you’re looking for Lady Nephy, I believe she went off to the archives after she got back from her shopping trip.”

“No, I just came from there and didn’t bump into her. Did we miss each other?” Zagan tilted his head to the side in confusion at the situation.

“It’s almost time for lunch, so I doubt she would have left the castle,” Raphael replied.

“Got it. I’ll try searching a little more,” Zagan said, leaving Raphael behind as he continued his quest to locate Nephy.

Since it was close to noon, he came across sorcerers sporadically dashing down the hallways. Having said that, sorcerers were natural loners, so even when he passed them in the corridor, their exchanges only ever amounted to a slight nod, which left the inside of his castle just as quiet as before.

“Ah, Mister Zagan, gooooood moooooorning!”

The one who let out such a noisy and headache-inducing voice wasn’t a sorcerer.

“...Wait. Why the hell are you here?” Zagan asked as he firmly grasped the head of the girl who was passing by him. It was the siren girl who he’d saved during Bifrons’ evening ball. Unlike the rest of them, she was a singer from a musical troupe, not a sorcerer.

“I mean, like, weren’t all the members of the band and their instruments totally gobbled up in that boat fight? Anyway, I was, like, unwinding at a bar, and Big Sis Manuela told me to go to your castle!”

That damn woman... Does she take my place for a daycare or something? Zagan was suddenly struck with a headache due to that thought. Even as a joke, doing something like sending her off to look for a job at an Archdemon’s castle was out of the question... Maybe Manuela trusted Zagan, but if it were any of the other Archdemons, then the siren would’ve already been turned into a sacrifice or lab rat.

“I never heard anything about that... Honestly, I’m surprised you got in here...” Zagan had put several barriers in place around his castle. An average sorcerer or Angelic Knight wouldn’t even have noticed the place, and if one were to actually spot it, they’d be assaulted by pain that stopped just short of killing them. Fact of the matter was, a regular person who wasn’t even a sorcerer surviving to face him was impossible.

“All I did was, like, follow Miss Nephy while we were chatting...”

“Really... I’m surprised you managed that.”

“Huh?”

It wasn’t just the path up to his castle that was booby-trapped, but even the inside. If this girl triggered even one of them, she would have died instantly, but somehow she didn’t.

“Y-You’re kidding, right?” The siren questioned, face pale after learning the truth.

“Let me ask you a question instead. Do you really think an Archdemons’ castle wouldn’t have any traps in it?”

“That’s, you know... Since it’s someone like Mister Zagan who went and saved a lowly commoner like me, I thought, like, this would be a safe space or something...”

“This isn’t a safe space, you careless nitwit. If such a kind Archdemon truly existed, then they would already be dead.”

A sorcerer’s base was a treasure trove of knowledge. And to sorcerers, knowledge equaled power, so leaving their base exposed was the same as asking to have their power stolen. That was why a burglar, of all things, was a sorcerer’s greatest fear. Naturally, in order to protect themselves from would-be thieves, sorcerers setup countless terrifying traps.

Even Zagan, who was fairly indifferent in that regard, had set up severe traps that would activate when outsiders were present. More specifically, his traps were so deadly that Barbatos, an Archdemon candidate, would have had a hard time surviving. Although, protecting his knowledge mattered little to Zagan. No, what he truly wished to protect was his family... Nephy, Foll, and Raphael.

“N-No way! Aren’t we, like, on super good terms, Mister Zagan!? Please save meeeeee!” The siren wailed as she clung to Zagan, her face pale.

“Like I care. I don’t even know your name.”

“It’s Selphy! Please at least remember my naaame!”

Forget remembering it, he had never even heard it in the first place.

“For the time being, hold onto this,” Zagan said as he handed over a bead-sized jewel to Selphy the siren, letting out a sigh.

“What’s this?”

Honestly, Selphy was so annoying that he didn’t really want to get involved with her, but if she was Manuela’s acquaintance, he couldn’t just leave her to die. That woman was Nephy’s friend. Plus, they often relied on her to find suitable clothes for Zagan, Nephy, and Foll. Sure, the weird clothes she forced on them whenever they let their guard down was a bother, but it was also true that she was one of the few people who could talk to Zagan normally.

Eventually, Selphy vigorously nodded her head up and down. And while he gazed at the siren with an exasperated look on his face, Zagan suddenly tilted his head to the side.

“Now that I think of it, what’s with your feet? Are they artificial?”

A siren’s lower body was akin to the tail of a snake. However, Selphy had two legs sprouting out like an ordinary human.

“Ah, these? This castle’s awfully dry, so it kinda ends up like this.”

“...You lot grow legs when it’s too dry?”

“Sure do, what about it?”

Zagan’s head began to ache again as he heard her oblivious reply.

“So wait, since Manuela told you to come here... do you plan on working for me?”

“Yup! I heard you were, like, totally short on hands.”

“It’s true that I’m short on hands, but... do you have any knowledge of sorcery?”

“Nope! I mean, I’ve got, like, nothing but songs in my head!” Selphy claimed in a boastful tone... Well, that made sense since she was a singer, but it didn’t seem useful to Zagan at all.

Still, left with no choice, Zagan pointed to the direction he came from.

“There’s a butler named Raphael in the entrance hall. Go and see if he has a job for you. If he doesn’t, just give up and go home.”

Keeping this girl around seemed like more trouble than it was worth, but he felt awkward turning away one of Bifrons’ victims. And so, he decided to at least give her a single chance.

“Yaaay! Thanks, Mister Archdemon!” Selphy jumped for joy at his approval, and as he watched her, Zagan suddenly recalled something important.

“Wait, you said you were walking with Nephy, right? Do you know where she went?”

“Oh, seemed like she was heading to the garden.”

“I see. You have my thanks,” Zagan said. Then, he turned his back on Selphy and began walking toward the garden.

“Whoa... Mister Archdemon just gave me his ‘thanks’...”

He never noticed Selphy letting out a bewildered voice.

◇

When he reached the garden, Zagan found a single beast curled up, basking in the sun. It let out a loud yawn as if it were comfortable, but for a cat, it was a little... no, it was bizarrely large. It was, in fact, a lion with a large build and black fur.

When I look at him like this... he really does seem like a cat, huh...? Zagan, of all people, felt the urge to pet his fur every now and then, but he resisted. After all, he was not looking at a lion. No, he faced an Archdemon candidate, a sorcerer who held the second name Black Blade, Kimaris.

“Kimry, Kimry...” A young girl called out as she tottered on over toward him. She seemed just shy of ten years old. Her green hair was tied up in braids that ran along her back, she had large amber eyes, and she was wearing the native dress of some foreign country that used white and scarlet as the main colors. However, strangest of all were the dragon horns poking out of the gaps in her hair.

Yes, she was Zagan’s adopted daughter, Foll. Her true identity was Apparition Valefor, a former Archdemon candidate.

...

Produkt-Details

• Erscheint lt. Verlag: 20.2.2019
• Reihe/Serie: An Archdemon's Dilemma: How to Love Your Elf Bride
• Reihe/Serie: An Archdemon's Dilemma: How to Love Your Elf Bride
• Illustrationen: Comta
• Übersetzer: Hikoki
• Sprache: englisch
• Themenwelt: Literatur ► Fantasy / Science Fiction ► Fantasy
• Schlagworte: Comedy • cute • Fantasy • Light Novel • MOE • Romance • Slave
• ISBN-10: 1-7183-2506-1 / 1718325061
• ISBN-13: 978-1-7183-2506-7 / 9781718325067