Chapter 3

    *.*.*.*.*

    All of the men packed into the stands were all looking up.  Some of them carelessly had their mouths hanging open.  For humans who had not went to the battlefield, there were no opportunities to see magic.

    The snow drawing figures in the black sky slinked about according to its master’s will as if it were alive.  First was a bird, then a dog, then a mou-… no, a red squirrel.

    It was a bit of a one-man snow festival.

    Before the spectators had the chance to yell ‘Adalbert, behind you,’ the mass of snow shaped like a bucket took a nosedive and attacked the man standing on the round stage.

    “Ugh!”

    It was a hard blow to the back of the head.

    The arms that had a tight hold of Yuuri slackened.  His body instantly slipped down as he escaped from the muscle hell and tumbled onto the wet ground.

    “… Hey, what gives…?  Wasn’t this match normal combat?  If magic without any sense of art is allowed then you should have said so from the beginning… Ah, the shape of my head is going to change.”

    Adalbert was touching the lump as if to check it.

    When Yuuri brought his hand to his neck, his fingers were wet by something that wasn’t sweat or water.  It was blood.  He gazed silently at his palm, but before long the snow rubbed against it.

    Bit by bit, the white turned crimson.

    By the time he slowly raised his head, the light in his eyes was different than usual.  He was standing with his arms crossed and a cynical look on his face, his chin slightly lifted as if to look down on others.  His fiery, glittering black eyes were focused on one target: Adalbert.

    “… To not only go against your birthplace but to shake the resolve formed from a pure soul in younger days and to throw away the vow of loyalty to the demons you made as an adult…”

    A low and resonant voice with a roundabout, hard to understand way speaking.  Expressions you would only hear in period dramas in a halfway literary style.

    It’s undeniably the first Super Demon King Mode in a long while.

    “You make fallacious arguments with your selfish grudge and turned your back on your homeland to wander.  As if that was not enough, you wish for chaos in your native land because of a foolish reasoning that can only be thought of as resentment!  How foolish and lacking is your soul?  My nose cannot stop dripping at the shamefulness.”

    He’s the type whose nose starts running before his eyes tear up.

    “However!”

    The huge sumo wrestler snow sculpture floating in the air swung an arm around to match his speech.  It spread out all five figures and stood in a Stop the Back Talk trademark pose.  The cold, sleet-filled wind that sprung forth collided relentlessly across the entire audience.

    It stopped right when Adalbert got tired of listening to the lecture and was thinking if he should just attack already.  Nice timing.

    “… You do nothing but advocate for your own rights and do not know what it is to turn those over to another… Ah, where have the good old customs of compromise and sharing with others gone?”

    As if he was beset by an earth-shattering tragedy, he places a hand to his brow and gazes up at the sky.  The snow sculpture in the night sky accompanied that move by twisting its body as if it was wailing.  How ghastly.

    “What is the meaning of attacking the next opponent after being unsatisfied with one victory?  Von Grantz, you enemy of equal opportunity!  An insolent man like you should listen to these words well.  Are you listening?  Jam your fingers up those gigantic nostrils of yours and listen well.  Engrave it in your heart!  Modest virtue!”