Kuro no Maou

Chapter 240 – The Four Ages

「Oho, isn’t it the『Nightmare Berserker』Kurono, and his party members guided by a bond made from fate, Lily-kun and Soleil-kun! What a coincidence, no, this meeting can also be something predetermined since the age of gods long time before——」

「Yo, Wil」

「Yoo!」

「Hello, Prince Wilhart」

Yesterday a lot happened in the cafeteria, that we ended up getting back without eating the food, so on today’s after school time we, the Element Master, came here to taste the food of school cafeteria, and then, maybe by coincidence, came across Wil.

It might be because the last class of every course ends, that this school cafeteria, that was so much crowded in the lunch break, seemed somewhat deserted.

The students are busy in stuff other than classes, like club activities and quests.

And so, Prince Wilhart was enjoying his tea time while drinking the tea alone, no, with a maid at his side, apparently he had no plans for today’s after school time.

Well, it’s convenient because he’s a person I can talk to, as a bonus, other royalty students like Nero Julius Elrod are not here, so it’s surely better.

I just made uproar yesterday, how dare would I confront that reckt-in-head prince. If he was here, I would extinguish my presence on Suu-san’s level and immediately run away.

Well, like that I spent the moment of after school time with my friend, well, in short, I brought up a subject I’ve been wanted to hear since long before.

That is, I want to know more about the Ancient Demon King – Mia Elrod.

「What! You want me to tell you about the dark history which is divine, ominous and smeared with blood——」

「Yeah, Wil seemed to have quite extensive knowledge, so you might be able to tell me」

「Fuhahaha! For you to rely on my omniscient gray matter-filled brain is a really great decisive judgment, Kurono! Very well, it’s not anyone else’s, but your request. I, Wilhart Tristan Spada, will tell you about the legend colored with bright shining glory, and also the history which has sunk in the shadow of a great abyss!!」

Wil’s word seemed like a flattery, but I already know that, without joking, his knowledge is truly vast.

Even Simon was surprised knowing Wil’s extensive knowledge.

If Alchemist Simon is the genius of science, then Prince Wilhart is the prodigy of liberal arts, something like that.

When I think like that, the monocle on his right eye seems to be holding a light, filled with intellectuality.

Well, Lily and Fiona who didn’t know about my evaluation seemed to be drawing back from Wil upon hearing his way of speaking.

In spite of meeting Wil on the day of enrollment, they are still sending a strange gaze, filled with bewilderment and indifference, so seems like they still think of him as an『Eccentric Prince』.

Incidentally, even the maid standing behind him, by vanishing her presence, was looking at him with somewhat cold gaze.

“Well, he might be having problems with her”, I left it at that.

「I came ‘here’ just recently, so it would be helpful to me, if you start telling me from the start」

「I see. You’re right, in that case I will start it with the classification of general history. Those are the Start of Fate, Scene of Beginning, World Filled with Light——」

Eh, are you going to start from the creation of heaven and earth stuff?

The story started with a great prologue, that no one would ever think of, but as expected of Wil, he’s pointing out the important parts.

Based on that, I learned the classification of history of this world, no, of this Pandora Continent.

There are four eras – 『Age of Gods』, 『Ancient Ages』, 『Dark Ages』, and finally the current, 『Modern Age』.

The first one is the 『Age of Gods』, which is about the start of world.

This is the era, which was not created by people but gods, and they even lived here, this truly can be said as a myth itself.

Of course, nothing about that era is clear.

The existence of this Age of Gods is summarized on that little bit of information, gathered from the historical records left behind during the next, Ancient Ages.

So to speak, for the Ancient Ages, the Age of Gods is like Ancient Ages is to Modern Age, the people from that age had the ruins and magic of Age of Gods was present just as legends.

Next was the『Ancient Ages』.

This was the era in which the so-called『Black Gods』, who give the divine protection to us living people, lived. The Demon King Mia Elrod was the first one, though.

However, this particular Age lasted for the longest time, even among the accurate history of Spada.

So to speak, the Age of Gods finished, and the world of humans started, in other words it’s like Joumon Period in history of Japan. This Age was prospered with wars and different cultures, developed new techniques, established magic civilization and did much more stuff, that created current Pandora Continent.

Incidentally, Mia-chan was born in the latter half of Ancient Age.

Like that, the Elrod Empire which unified Pandora was born, and after an unknown amount of time the empire collapsed, and with this『Ancient Age』met its demise.

The next is『Dark Ages』, as the name suggests, there is no information about what happened in this Age. In other words, this Age is a Blank Age.

The only thing confirmed was that the magic civilization, which continued till now, was completely lost by the time this Age ended.

It is again not known how long these Dark Ages lasted for, however as long as people lived, countries would have been built, and new civilizations would’ve developed.

And that leads to the current『Modern Age』.

Calling this current era as Modern Age does feel out of place, but this Age is which escaped from the Dark Age, has developed enough countries so that it can leave various sorts of civilizations for future.

Those countries, in the millennium reaching up to now, have also gotten in wars, been destroyed and then revived. Then rise again and repeat.

Various countries were destroyed, but among them, some are still left.

One of them is this Spada, and the neighboring country Avalon is also the same.

Also, though little in number, but there are legendary figures who have joined the group of『Black Gods』 in this era too.

One of them is the founder of Spada, the First King.

「——Whoops, I shouldn’t speak only about the glorious history of Spada, changing the story back to Legend of Demon King.」

Finally, it’s about Demon King Mia Elrod.

「It’s easy to figure out that the magic civilization, developed in Ancient Ages, was too advanced, if one looks at the Ruin-type dungeons, however, strangely, there seemed to be various things not too different from now」

「Like?」

「For instance, yeah, Kurono, the child Mia Elrod worked in a particular occupation, do you know what it is?」

He returned the answer with another question.

However, the child Mia-chan, or rather, she looks childish enough to me……just what kind of work she did?

「Black Magician?」

「Certainly, she could use the black magic since childhood, but he/she didn’t use it to work as an adventurer」

You were damn able to use black magic, eh, Mia-chan, you’re one terrifying child! No, later he/she becomes Demon King, so it can be said to be natural.

「If it’s not Black Magician, then I’ve got no idea. Just what was it」

「She worked as a shepherd」

The moment I heard this, an image of Mia-chan in fluffy hair, loitering in the farm, while crying Meeh Meeeh, crossed through my mind.

No, isn’t this wrong, Mia-chan herself wasn’t a sheep, but the one who herded them.

This time an image of her swooning after getting fluffed by a giant army of sheeps! (?)

「Err, that’s quite a pastoral work to do」

「Hmm, however, from the small farm, that was present in the Asbel Mountain Range, is from where the legend of Demon King Mia Elrod starts」

If I had to say, this is like the start of a RPG hero, who started his journey from a small countryside village as their birthplace.

No, with Toyotomi Hideyoshi as the precedent of becoming the government controlling boss from being a farmer, it is not impossible for anyone to become great, no matter how they started.

「Most people tend to misunderstand, but Elrod Empire existed long before Mia Elrod」

「Eh, then Mia-cha——Mia herself didn’t found the empire?」

Seriously, shit, lately I’ve been using ‘–chan’ suffix a lot after her name, it was almost about to get out from my mouth too.

Eventually, it seems like she would himself/herself scold me about it, so I’ve gotta be careful.

「Right, that shepherd Mia-chan would have died as a normal villager, but the fights surrounding the imperial succession of Elrod Empire of that time intensified」

「How is that related to a mere shepherd?」

「Mia was the illegitimate child of Elrod Emperor, apparently」

Holy crap, so that’s why Mia was pulled into the front stage of world.

「Now, details of what Mia did before becoming the Elrod Emperor is unknown, as there is not enough detailed records left of it. But, there is no doubt, that Mia was sent to a Knight Academy, yeah, just like the Elite Course of this Royal Spada Academy. It was most probably to not let Mia stand in the frontlines, and to let him/her become a good royalty general. The imperial succession were a problem, but more than that, it was the time of warring states, where the disputes with other countries would never die out」

Even I have heard about this warring states backsetting.

That is because there was such a warring states historical period that there was room for a Demon King to come into existence.

「However, this school-going Mia distinguished himself/herself, and also met the legendary knights who would later become the main force of Elrod Empire. Now, that is truly fate!」

Whoah, looks like Mia-chan worked hard as a student.

However, the image of a student Mia-chan came up in both boys’ school uniform and sailor uniform, hence my mind is in chaos.

「Ah that’s right, that Demon King Mia’s first and strongest Knight was『Dark Knight Frithier』, whom Mia met just by pure coincidence. It is said that the trigger was that they both were controlling the Punpuns rioting in the whole city, on the entrance ceremony day. This was confirmed by various memoirs and some records」

There are various surprising points, but the one that surprised me most, was the existence of Punpun since Ancient Ages.

Not like it’s impossible for them, and they even are related to Demon King’s legend, albeit in this way……

「The others were『Blue Lightning Knight Athena』, 『Dark Sword Saint Yomi』and various other members guided by Pandora’s Black Gods」

Athena, is it the one from『Athena Guard Ring』, it’s not like I unexpectedly heard about her, but rather that is a quite popular goddess, so I can hear some people talking about her sometimes.

I’ve never heard the name of Yomi, but judging from the name, he must be giving divine protection to swordsmen or/and swordswomen only.

His name is strangely similar to Japanese name, so his divine protection might be limited to katana users.

「And these three would become Demon King’s wives. They all had deep school lives」

「They even married!?」

「Yeah, the other four was met only after the genuine war started」

「Other four means, there are total of seven people!」

「The story of Demon King’s wives, the Seven War Goddesses is quite famous, you see that wall over there, those are pictures made with them as the theme」

Wil extended his finger out very flatly, that it seemed like a sound effect would come out. Anyhow, the place his finger pointed to surely had big paintings with title『Seven War Goddesses』.

Yesterday I thought that it’s just a work of art, but now, knowing that those seven beauties are Mia-chan’s wives, some sort of complex emotions boil up inside me.

Now the problem is, at the time of wedding ceremonies, did Mia-chan wear white tuxedo or a pure white wedding dress……no, fuck, wait, if the other party are girls, then the answer is completely obvious.

「Wives means that Mia was……a man, right?」

「Oho, for you to hold doubts about Demon King’s gender. Well, I have heard some minor rumors about it」

Now then, what that minor rumor might be about.

「According to records, there are various different descriptions of Demon King Mia Elrod, like a peerless beautiful man, or a giant helm-armor wearing person, sometimes even as a small child and a cute young girl.」

「H-mmm, so it’s like that……」

Damn shit, this only increased the doubts about Mia-chan’s true gender.

It would’ve been better if I didn’t ask Wil about this at all……

「Well, the direct descendants of Demon King, the current royalty of Avalon, might know about the true gender, however that is an undisclosed secret ’till now, even I don’t know about it」

Well, there’s no friggin way I will ask Prince Nero, so if a chance of talking to Nell-san comes by, I will surely ask this.

While praying that the mystery would finally become clear.

「Hmm? As for royalty of Avalon, I have heard some riot about them occurred in this cafeteria——」

「Ah」

I said that and stiffened my body.

「Kurono?」

「Kurono-san?」

Lily and Fiona were enjoying the tea given to them by the maid Seria, rather than Wil’s talk, however just as yesterday’s incident came out in our conversation, their eyes filled with anger are faced towards me.

Naturally, they are not feeling anger towards me, but rather this is the eye contact wanting to get the『Order for Attack』.

It’s already scary seeing Fiona showing those eyes while elegantly holding a cup in one hand, but it’s scarier to see Lily, who was in high spirits after being patted on head by Seria, showing those eyes while still remaining in the same posture.

「No, it’s fine, I am not concerned about yesterday at all」

「Hrmph~」

「Is that so」

I am grateful that they, though reluctantly, cooled down their anger.

「……W-what, was it a bad thing that I asked?」

Maybe he sensed the turbulent atmosphere, Wil seemed to be a little drawn-back.

「No, I want Wil to hear about it」

The ones who would believe my testimony can be counted on one hand.

「I see, then I will attentively hear about it!」

Just five minutes later, Wil,「I’m sorry my sister caused a problem for you」, said that.