Its ident.i.ty exposed, the gargoyle used the wings on its back to fly into the air.
Identifying us as enemies, he used the intermediate magic 《Dark Gatling》 from the air to attack us. A countless number of dark magic bullets rained down from above. I instinctively ducked behind a tree to avoid the bullet storm.
“Just as I thought, you’re a real gargoyle! What’s up with that Guardian Deity bulls.h.i.t, you’re just a monster!”
If that gargoyle continued on his rampage, the villagers were bound to notice. If they did, it’d mean all sorts of trouble. I needed to defeat him before he caused pandemonium.
Even though he was flying, I’d have no trouble shooting him down with my magic. Then, as I was thinking about taking him down, I noticed Shiek was no longer by my side. Huh, where’d he go?
I knew how strong Shiek was, and one gargoyle wasn’t enough to bring him down. I looked at my surroundings and soon located Shiek. Using the myriad of trees to his advantage, he agilely jumped from branch to branch.
Shiek may have had wings, but they were useless for actual flight.
That subject was taboo to speak of around Shiek, so we never brought it up. That’s why he was jumping instead.
Then, getting behind the gargoyle, without even using the dagger in his hand, he delivered a swift axe kick.
The fact that the gargoyle had stone skin didn’t matter one bit, and just that one attack ended it. The poor gargoyle fell, smack, right onto the ground. The final blow was Shiek making a perfect landing right on top of the creature.
“That’s a win for me~”
His smile was so adorable, any ShotaCon that saw it would have definitely had a raging nosebleed. Not being a ShotaCon myself, it didn’t much matter to me.
“Captain~ Whadaya wanna do with this guy~”
“Hmm.”
We were the ones who readied ourselves for battle in the first place, so I should probably see if we can talk with the guy first.
“Hey you, can you speak? You’ve got some questions to answer.”
With Shiek still standing on top of him, the gargoyle gave us a glare full of hate.
“Come now! If you are going to kill me, then just kill me.”
He replied in a pretty calm and defeated voice.
“O~kay!”
“W-w-waitaminute Shiek!”
Shiek was serious, and already had his dagger ready for a swift downward swing on the gargoyle’s neck, so I hastily stopped him. We hadn’t gotten any information out of him yet, so knock it off!
“You have not come to slay me?”
“What, weren’t you the one that attacked us first?”
Well, it was probably our bad, since we were the ones that had prepared for battle, however…
He admitted fault, lowered his head and apologized. Looks like words did get through to this guy.
“Shiek, get off him.”
We might be able to come to an accord, but we wouldn’t get anywhere with the current status-quo.
Shiek hopped off the back of the gargoyle. The gargoyle then righted himself and ma.s.saged his shoulder.
“Hmm, I apologize for my rudeness earlier. Not only did you know my true ident.i.ty, you were also having a suspicious conversation about the Demon Lord’s Castle. As you lot prepared for battle, I felt I had no choice but to attack.”
So if we hadn’t done anything, we could have started off on the right foot.
“Sorry about that. So, why is a gargoyle like yourself hailed as the Guardian Deity of a village?”
They were normally a monster that guarded ruins and castles, not villages.
“If it’s you lot, I believe I can tell you. Yes, it is a story that occurred several hundred years ago. I was born to protect a certain ruin, so I protected it. But there was not a single treasure in the ruin, thusly it held no appeal to humans.”
That’s true, if there was no treasure to be had in the ruins, I certainly wouldn’t go there.
Shiek wasn’t particularly interested, and began to yawn.
“Since no humans ever came to attack, I was bored every day. After a while I realized I was just sleeping most days.”
“Same as the Captain~”
Although uninterested, Shiek’s habit of eavesdropping caused him to suddenly laugh. I may have been a total shut-in, but it’s not like I was sleeping the day away every single day.
“I am unsure of what you are referring to, but I’ll continue. It happened one fine day. I was wondering if any humans would finally come, and started to fall asleep. But when I awoke, I was some other place, swaying to and fro.”
“What happened?”
“It would seem that while I was asleep, I had been removed from the ruins and placed inside some bandits’ wagon.”
“Ahahaha, so dumb~”
Shiek couldn’t hold back his uproarious laughter and was rofling. It really was a silly story.
It would have figured that when something finally happened at his ruins, he slept through the whole thing. But, as a shut-in myself, I could empathize with his boredom…
“Upon realizing the situation I was in, I escaped from the wagon. Of course, I raked those bandits that had taken me over the coals.”
Looks like the bandits weren’t a big deal then.
“Then why didn’t you return to the ruins?”
Once he got out of the wagon, he should have immediately gone back to the ruins he was guarding.
“…I had never left those ruins. I couldn’t guess how long I’d been asleep after I was removed, nor did I know which road led back to them.”
So, in short, he was lost.
“Ah~, geez it’s so dumb~ M-my stomach can’t take it~!”
Now Shiek was practically roflcoptering on the ground, he was laughing so hard.
“So it wouldn’t have been easy to just go home?”
“Indubitably. I knew it was along a mountain road, but nothing beyond that. I began to wander aimlessly, then I saw flames in the distance and headed for that area.”
“And that turned out to be this village?”
“That is correct. The same bandits that took me were now attacking the village. I didn’t have any intention of saving the humans; because they took me however, and were now stealing again, I was grievously offended. So I punished them for a second time.”
So because of that, he became their Guardian Deity. The t.i.tle seemed to have been forced on him.
There probably wasn’t even one villager back then who opposed treating the demon as a Guardian Deity.
“With my anger vented, I took up residence in the shrine. When I did, of their own volition, the villagers began to treat me as their Guardian Deity.”
Then the shrine was already here. I wondered if there was some other Guardian Deity here before he came?
“I see, so you never had any intention of actually protecting the village.”
If he had intended to be their Guardian Deity, he would have saved the villagers from the most recent bandit attack.
“Quite so, I didn’t take out the bandits to save the village. The villagers came to that misunderstood conclusion themselves.”
As I thought, he was just a normal monster. He wasn’t of a mind to save humans.
“…Even so, there was one girl who so wholly believed me to be the Guardian Deity, that she came every day to clean, despite her weak body.”
Must have been Tiel-chan. And he knew her body was weak? Well, probably because he saw her every day when she came to clean.
“I knew the bandits were coming, so when the girl came with her usual offerings, she was the only one I sheltered. No matter how many bandits came, I disposed of them all.”
Seems he was quite powerful.
A gargoyle is normally a rank D monster, but this guy might have had more powers than normal. He definitely had access to intermediate level Dark magic, so he wasn’t someone to be trifled with.
“You couldn’t be…trying to make a move on Tiel-chan…?”
Tiel-chan was probably around 14-15 years old. A several hundred year old demon with a still innocent, pure, if a bit eccentric, girl… was not something pleasant to think about. My own imagination got the best of me, making me sick, then the gargoyle gave his reb.u.t.tal.
“I would be pleased if you did not let your imagination run wild. I have done nothing to the girl. The only exception was casting 《Nightmare Sleep》 on her without inducing the nightmares; she merely slept. This is where my story ends. Now, I would like to hear the truth about you lot.”
True, it wasn’t fair to get his life story without giving ours in return.
I spoke with Shiek while he recovered from his laughing fit, then explained everything to the gargoyle.