After Gregory shouted and summoned the demons, dozens of them gathered around Vivian’s party.

‘Fortunately, this number is manageable.’

It was a great relief that the entire demon army did not swarm in, which would have made things difficult.

Right now, the only ones who could fight these demons were Vivian and Ludovica.

Dietrich and Ren were tasked with killing Gregory, so they could not join the fray.

“Vivi, I’ll take care of this side. Please handle that side.”

“Got it!”

Vivian and Ludovica, who had been sticking close together, dispersed to either side and charged towards the horde of demons.

Clang, clang!

Ludovica freely swung her iron mace in this direction and that, handling the demons one by one.

Judging that the mace’s reach was too short to effectively deal with the demons, she immediately transformed her weapon into a different form.

The metal ball, now more threateningly enlarged, glinted a dark red color.

The length of the chain connecting the ball to the handle had doubled in length.

A heavier and larger weapon, thus more difficult to wield. However, she fought on without any regard for that.

Vivian, witnessing Ludovica facing off against a multitude for the first time, had her gaze momentarily stolen.

Ludovica’s eyes, redder than the crimson moon, emitted an intense shimmer.

She soared here and there as if she had wings.

In an instant, she climbed atop a demon several times her height and attacked it from behind.

Clean yet dazzling movements.

‘This is the original female lead…!’

The sight of Ludovica, as if she were dancing, was too magnificent to be described by the word ‘cool’.

‘Rather… beautiful.’

A phrase from the original work briefly crossed Vivian’s mind.

『To Callys, Ludovica was an incomprehensible woman. A strange person who had helped him when he was dying, then coldly abandoned him afterwards.

But the moment he first saw Ludovica’s combat. The impression he had of her in his mind was completely overturned. All previous thoughts he had harbored towards her flew away, and only one word lingered in his mouth.

Beautiful. Inexpressibly beautiful.

It was the moment Callys first felt a tender heart towards Ludovica.』

Back when she was reading the book, she had thought it an exaggeration.

It was natural for the female lead to appear beautiful in the male lead’s eyes.

However, at this very moment, Vivian realized her thoughts had been wrong.

Still unable to tear her eyes away from Ludovica’s splendid movements, at that time.

“Vivi, watch out in front!”

Startled by Ludovica’s urgent voice, Vivian hurriedly turned her head forward.

A demon’s maw was right in front of her nose, menacingly baring its teeth.

Previously, being put in such a situation would have left Vivian terrified and frozen, but she had changed through the training and experience thus far.

The fact that the demon had gotten close enough to attack her also meant that she was in an advantageous position to attack the demon.

Vivian immediately stabbed the demon’s heart with the sword gripped in her right hand.

Gurgle. The demon died, spewing filthy saliva.

Wiping the creature’s spit off her face with her sleeve, Vivian immediately charged towards the next demon.

Mechanical movements.

Though barely a minute had passed, the number of demon corpses piled up in that time was quite substantial.

The problem was that the number of oncoming demons was increasing at an even faster rate.

Ludovica and Vivian faced them without rest, but the two of them were insufficient.

Eventually, a demon broke through Vivian’s guard and rushed towards Dietrich.

“No…!”

Vivian and Ludovica’s role was to help them focus on their fight with Gregory.

At this rate, it might greatly hinder their battle.

“Focus! I’ll catch it!”

Ludovica shouted, throwing her mace towards the demon.

The demon, struck in a vital spot, collapsed on the spot.

‘Thank goodness. We survived thanks to Ruby.’

Vivian once again firmly grasped her senses.

‘I have to make sure they absolutely can’t get past here. No matter how strong Dietrich and Ren are, Gregory will certainly not be an easy opponent for them either.’

Sweat flowed from Vivian’s sword-gripping hand.

Even though they acted at ease, as Vivian predicted, Gregory was indeed not an easy adversary for Dietrich and Ren to defeat.

A powerful foe they had never encountered before.

His immense strength alone was sufficiently threatening, but his combat style, in stark contrast to humans, drove Dietrich and Ren into difficulties.

The thought that it might be impossible to win if fighting one-on-one crossed Dietrich’s mind.

‘But today, we have a good chance at victory.’

Gregory was truly a menacing opponent. His technique of soaring into the air and instantly targeting the neck was extremely tricky.

Especially since Dietrich specialized in close combat rather than long-range attacks, there would have been no answer except to dodge.

If he were alone, that is.

Ren’s shadow rapidly expanded, seizing Gregory’s ankle as he hovered in midair.

Then it swiftly smashed him into the ground.

Being large also meant it was easier to target vital points.

Dietrich quickly rained attacks on Gregory, stuck to the ground by the shadow.

The black demon sword relentlessly gouged his heart.

Dietrich lightly twisted his wrist, carving out Gregory’s heart.

Gregory’s movements momentarily slowed, his heart torn out.

Ren’s shadow, not missing that instant, engulfed Gregory.

Eventually, plop. The writhing shadow spat something out. It was Gregory’s head.

The head with pointed horns rolled across the ground.

A battle ended far too easily compared to the mental preparation they had made.

Dietrich had disliked Ren from the start, but with things turning out like this, he had no choice but to acknowledge it.

The fact that he and Ren worked rather well together.

Afterwards, the remaining task was to mop up the scattered demons.

Difficult as it may be, the demons who had lost Gregory’s command were not such tricky opponents.

Ludovica and Dietrich eliminated the demons with great ease.

With a single swing of Ludovica’s mace, demons collapsed on the spot as if electrocuted, losing their center.

Demon bodily fluids splattered all over the red mace.

Of course, she paid it no mind and slaughtered the demons.

Dietrich also lightly severed the windpipes of the swarming demons with his demon sword.

‘As expected, someone with experience in demon subjugation is different.’

Dietrich had the experience of single-handedly culling demons in the Black Forest every year.

Like a veteran, he nonchalantly disposed of the demons no matter how many attacked, with a relaxed demeanor.

‘I need to work hard too.’

The role Ren and I were given was not to defeat the demons, but to rescue the soldiers collapsed here and there.

Using my ability-granted speed and strength, and Ren using his split shadows, we transported the injured soldiers to the infirmary.

Even if they were already dead, we did not neglect them and retrieved the corpses.

Veronica had requested this, saying that abandoning bodies leads to epidemics, but I thought there was a different reason.

‘She probably wants to hold funerals.’

Veronica’s expression upon seeing the corpses of young soldiers was indescribably devastating.

Sorrow, regret, and guilt. Her face, a mix of all sorts of negative emotions, was painful for me to witness.

‘Does she blame herself?’

Although we had won against Gregory as desired, truthfully, I wasn’t entirely at ease either.

In the original work, there was no mention of Veronica’s soldiers participating in this battle.

If things had gone according to the original, they would have been guarding the imperial capital at this time.

But I had intervened in the flow of the original story and revealed to Veronica the fact that a demon army was invading.

In other words, due to my choice, those who would have been fine in the original lost their lives tonight.

I was engulfed by guilt.

Of course, if I hadn’t intervened, the number of deaths would have been far greater.

The residents of Schneider territory whom Veronica evacuated would have died without a single exception.

The amount of blood spilled was much less than in the original work.

It was fortunate, if one could call it that, but lives that wouldn’t have been lost were cut short instead.

Having my choices dictate someone’s life and death was not a pleasant thing.

“…I’m sorry. Please rest in peace. This sacrifice will never be forgotten.”

I softly uttered, holding the corpse lying in front of the castle walls in my arms.

Then I gently closed his half-open eyes with my hand.

To him, whose spark of life had already been extinguished, my words and actions may have held no meaning at all.

However, I earnestly prayed in my heart that at least his departing journey would be warm and peaceful.