After waiting before the ramparts with Tetor and Somni for a short while, we spotted Aldebaran bounding across the wetlands toward us in a bizarre, writhing dance.
"Looking at them calmly like this, they really are a nasty bunch of degenerates."
At my candid impression of Demon King Aldebaran, Somni grimaced, speaking from the bottom of his heart.
"Yeah. Sprinting while dancing in perfect sync is seriously repulsive."
"Indeed. They look like mollusks, and somehow they remind me of Lord Beelzebub, which sends chills down my spine."
At Tetor's remark, Somni's cheek twitched violently.
"Tetor, seriously, don't even joke about that! That Great One is the one person I never want to remember!" he yelled, his voice cracking.
"Is Lord Beelzebub one of Lord Kai's subordinates?"
"Yes. If you are going to serve Master as well, Your Highness, you must never get involved with him, no matter what."
Faced with Tetor's desperate warning, I managed a nod.
"R-Right..."
"Hey, it's almost time. Besides, what's with this black mist?"
"It must be Lord Girimehkala's barrier. Aldebaran and his forces are already cornered rats. I genuinely pity our enemies. They went and provoked the most vicious faction among Master's subordinates, second only to Lord Beelzebub's."
"True that."
While Tetor and Somni got caught up in a discussion I couldn't quite follow, Aldebaran finally appeared before us.
Strange. Even though he had felt like such an overwhelming threat before, he didn't seem strong in the slightest now.
Wearing a faint smirk, Aldebaran uttered a line so cliché it was laughable:
"You've got quite some nerve, ambushing me, Aldebaran."
"Huh. So this is the 'true Demon King Aldebaran' that Gil supposedly could never beat? Honestly, isn't he a complete small fry compared to Mr. Grasshopper Man?"
When Somni turned to Tetor for agreement as if thoroughly underwhelmed, Tetor panicked and scolded him:
"It is utterly disrespectful to compare Mr. Grasshopper Man to a winged insect like that! Besides, Somni, if he overhears you, he'll fly into a furious rage and beat us to a pulp again! Count me out of getting dragged into that!"
"Tetor, don't say such scary things. There's no way Mr. Grasshopper Man would be in a place like—whoa?!"
Somni narrowed his eyes to scan the surroundings, only to make direct eye contact with a bipedal grasshopper-headed monster clad in a bizarre costume that had materialized right behind him, prompting a small shriek.
"Gigigigugigigi (Along with Akujiki-dono, we have been tasked by the Master to supervise you)."
The grasshopper-headed monster only made insectoid rasps, yet the meaning was clearly deciphered inside my head.
"L-L-Lord Akujiki...?"
Hearing the grasshopper monster's words, Tetor looked down toward his feet with the jerky, stiff motion of a broken tin doll.
"Lord Akujikiii—!"
Catching sight of a tiny, pure-white mouse, he screamed at the top of his lungs.
Paying no mind to the terrified pair, the little mouse hopped onto the grasshopper monster's right shoulder, raised its right paw, and let out a high-pitched squeak:
"Kyuu-kyu! Kyuu! Kyuukyuu! (If you take even a single blow, it's ten more years of training hell with me, kyuu)."
"Ten more years with Lord Akujiki if we take even a single hit?! Seriously, anything but that!"
Teary-eyed, Somni dropped his hips, squaring off in a completely different direction from Aldebaran.
Tetor, wearing a solemn expression, drew the two pitch-black daggers at his waist, turned in the opposite direction from Somni, and aimed the tips with both hands before shouting:
"Hey, come on out, you fish bastard!"
"I'll kill you, so show yourself, fish!"
"Oh myyy, not bad at all, noticing us like that, no nen."
"You insolent little trash bugs! I'll make sure you never flap those cheeky mouths again, jaii!"
Urokoonu, the sea bream-headed monster, and Fuguo, the blowfish-headed monstrosity wearing a pure-white headband, emerged from hiding.
The strength of these two was on a completely different level from Aldebaran. In other words, no one other than Lord Kai or his direct subordinates would stand a chance against them.
This grasshopper man didn't look particularly impressive, but Lord Kai had sent him as our overseer. He was undoubtedly a powerhouse capable of slaughtering even Urokoonu and Fuguo.
No matter how much they had been trained by Lord Kai, Somni and Tetor were still mere humans. There was no way they could face these monsters head-on. Lord Kai must have permitted Somni and Tetor to handle Urokoonu and Fuguo on the premise that this grasshopper man would assist them.
"I'm never doing that training with Lord Akujiki again. So you two are going to die right here. Hey, Gil, take out Aldebaran and his mob all by yourself! You can handle a small fry like that without our help, right?"
Rapidly dumping that impossible demand onto me, Somni manifested a crimson spear in his right hand and pointed the tip at Urokoonu.
The only thing I had offered to help with was Aldebaran's subordinate demon race. In the end, the only way I had ever defeated Aldebaran alone was by mutual destruction. If beating him were that easy, I wouldn't have struggled in the first place.
"H-Hold on, Somni—"
My attempt to change his mind was instantly shot down by Tetor, who stood poised with daggers gripped in both hands.
"He's right. It would be quite troublesome if Your Highness couldn't at least defeat such a weakling on your own."
"Hey, in the first place, I asked Lord Kai for help precisely because I couldn't beat Aldebaran..."
With smoldering frustration in my chest, I drew Flame from the scabbard at my waist and dropped into a combat stance.
Oh well, fine. That bastard had put me through hell time and again. It was certainly true that I wanted payback. I'll do it.
"Don't you underestimate meee!"
Aldebaran's enraged roar echoed through the air, and we clashed.