The night before Leo headed for Empire...

Northern Mountains…

A giant shadow flew in the sky, it had wings that spanned for more than five-meters each, generating an incredible gust of wind every time it moved. Sturdy pitch-black scales covered its entire body, its golden eyes glowed with an ominous yet beautiful light. It was none other than a black dragon.

Its reptilian eyes spotted a certain figure on mountain, it dived and landed on the ground, just this simple movement of dragon caused tremors, nearly blowing away the figure.

"You fucking useless dragon!"

The figure cloaked in complete black robe cursed the dragon.

"If you are here then does that mean you completed the task?"

"Guuurrr!"

The dragon let out a soft roar as if agreeing to the question.

"Good, then we'll attack the town later. I need to meet him before that."

"Are you talking about me?"

A voice came from behind him. He turned his head unconsciously and noticed a person sitting leisurely on a wyvern.

"So is everything ready?"

"All preparations are done. I lured the sensei here with some rumors of me wandering here, it's pretty easy to crush this town with my army. But, you... will you keep your promise?"

"Of course, just kill the goddess of fertility and destroy the town and the Demon Kingdom will welcome you as a hero."

The figure uncovered his face, revealing the face of a young man with black hair. With the freckles on his face with the glum eyes he certainly stood out albeit in the wrong way.

His face morphed into a crazy smile. "I'll kill Aiko-sensei and become the real hero, the special place where I belong."

---

A few kilometers away…

A town was located near a vast river. Well-built houses were spread out in all directions. The farms nearby gave the town a refreshing look.

Inside one of the buildings, a brown-haired girl sat on a chair while resting her chin on one hand. Her face was frowning while her eyes looked deep in thoughts.

"Yukacchi~ You should stop looking so serious~"

Her friend, Nana Miyazaki called out to her.

Yuka's expression loosened a little. "I know… but I have a feeling something bad is about to happen."

"Yukacchi is just over thinking this. Just eat and enjoy."

"I hope," Yuka whispered.

"It's been days without any news of Shimizu-kun," Aiko-sensei said with a worried face.

"There have been a few sightings of monsters in the northern mountain area," Yuka said.

Bang!

The inn's door was slammed open by a young man in armor, who rested his hands on knees and panted heavily.

"Aiko-sama, there is a problem!" he said in a panicky voice.

"David-san, what happened?"

"Come with me and you too," he said while looking at the group.

Aiko and four classmates, one black-haired guy with three girls followed David who led them to the Mayor's house.

Inside the room, a middle-aged man with two old men sat, all of them had grim expressions on their faces. They were all higher-ups of Ur Town.

David walked and stood beside them, Akio and classmates stared at the men silently.

A heavy silence flooded the room, raising the tension of students.

The middle-aged, Mayor broke the silence. "...An army of monsters is headed this way. An adventurer named Will Kudeta conveyed it before passing out in front of a guard."

"A-Army? H-How big? Can we trust him?"

"...The exact number is unknown but he said the army is more than ten thousand strong. The adventurer is a merchant heir from Fuhren, I don't think he has any reason to lie beside his condition is too horrible to play any prank."

Aiko and others gasped in fear, the size of the army was too much to attack this small town. No one will survive such an attack.

"How much time do we have?" Yuka spoke up.

"Half an hour at most."

A serious expression appeared on her face. "...I'll stay here to cover for them."

Everyone was taken aback by her response. While the rest were shivering in fear, she was already determined to buy time for them.

Mayor bowed deeply in respect. "I can't thank you enough for doing this."

Yuka shook her head. "It's nothing… the people believed in me as a God's Apostle, I don't want to disappoint them."

Her hands were shaking, still, her eyes burned with enough determination to make Aiko hesitate a little.

"I won't let you! Tell me what I need to do? I'll offer my full support."

Yuka shook her head. "Ai-chan sensei, you should do your job. How is the progress on evacuation?"

"The nearest place is the Empire, half a day away from here, we can only evacuate there. The goddess's help is really necessary for maintaining order."

The Chief said and walked out of the room.

David looked at the students, all except Yuka were frozen stiff in their place. He shook his head and moved out to help his comrades.

Yuka also followed him silently. The loud noise outside nearly scared her, some people were crying while others were screaming at guards. A few people embraced their families in fear. Despair and hopelessness evident on each of their faces.

'I hope they evacuate safely.'

Aiko-sensei calmed down the crowd with a short speech, nearly a thousand commoners started evacuating slowly toward the south, away from the approaching monster army.

Aiko stood with her students and a hundred other people. More than half were commoners intending to buy time for their families to retreat, the rest were those didn't believe the Mayor.

Tears streamed down their faces as they prepared themselves to fight to the death.

David stood beside Aiko and tried to persuade her to retreat.

Aiko shook her head. "I won't leave my students here and run to save my life."

David let out a sigh and sneakily hit her, making her lose consciousness, while his other three comrades knocked out the students.

He looked at them with an apologetic expression before placing them inside the Caravan of Mayor.

"As if I'll let Aiko die here also children like you can't die in this place. Please deliver her to the Heiligh Royal Palace."

Half an hour later, a giant black dragon appeared far away, following behind an army of countless monsters. The villagers legs trembled in terror, with some kneeling on the ground in despair.

"Graaawwr!!!"

They all shook in fear. The frightening dragon truly froze their heart.

"Pick your weapons! Fight and die like a man."

David roared and unsheathed his sword and charged at the Dragon.

The dragon gathered a massive amount of mana in its wide maw and shot a silent beam of fire at the front guards.

Everything in its line of fire was... vaporized without any trace.

"""Aaaargh!!!!!"""

The rest of the people dropped their weapons and ran in all directions.

Hearing the screams filled with despair returned some clarity in Dragon's eye. A single drop of tears fell from its eyes.

"Rawwwwr!!!"

A pained roar left its mouth, the black-haired man panicked seeing this. He hurriedly used his dark magic to keep it under control.

He wiped the cold sweat from his face. If this dragon lost control here, he might lose a part of his army in killing it.

He looked at the group of four-eyed wolves. "Go and kill anyone who's left."

He inwardly cursed the situation. Aiko-sensei, his target, escaped with townsmen. How did they come to know about the attack? We killed every one of the adventurers trying to come close.

"You bastard! You fucked this up!"

The demon yelled at him.

"I-I don't know how they got the word of our attack."

The demon growled at his words, "I'll contact Freed-sama for orders."

The demon went somewhere on his wyvern. The four-eyed wolves came back after massacring the survivors.

The demon returned after talking for nearly five minutes.

"You'll attack Heiligh Kingdom with this army."

"Are you crazy!? Even my army will need several days to break through the barrier, it will give them enough time to request reinforcements from other nations."

A vicious smile appeared on demon's face. "Don't worry about the barrier, just attack. Freed-sama will send their trusted force to help you. Don't mess up this time."

The black-haired youth nodded his head timidly.

The demon smiled hearing his whisper. "Higher-ups have already prepared a reward for you. I bet you'll love it."

"You bastard will always stay a cannon fodder with that way of thinking."

The demon whispered with a smirk.