Julius 2.

The threads. And the war begins.

Before this, I use Mazoku = Demon race and Hitozoku = Human race.

Because now it keeps using these two words, I decided to change it to Demon and Human.

Y2 And the war began

There's movement in the Demon army.

It's just this morning that I heard the report.

It's the report brought by the spy who infiltrated into the Demon territory.

「So, it came at last」

「Yeah. I will be glad if it didn't come」

「Julius, it won't go that way. I know that you don't prefer fighting, but Humans and Demons are arch-enemies. You should have understood that this will happen someday, right?」

「That's right. After the previous Hero-sama died, the Demons became active, so I think that we are maintaining well」

Saint Yana, former adventurer Jiskan and Hawkin who's a former thief which was reformed.

Just as my comrades said, after the previous Hero-sama died, the Demons act actively.

It didn't escalate into a large-scale war and it ended with only a skirmish up until now, so we might be maintaining well.

「So, when will the Demon army reach here?」

「Hyrinth has went to confirm it now. Soon, ah, he returned」

When I turn around to Yana's words, there was my childhood friend, Hyrinth who's the second son of the Quoto Duke's family walking towards us.

「Hyrinth. How is it?」

「Ah. Judging from the marching speed, it's estimated that they will reach this fort tomorrow」

「I see. Finally」

War.

After I became the Hero, I have lived in the fight every day.

But, the fight of this scale is my first experience.

And that's not only me.

There was no large-scale war in the previous Hero-sama's era.

Therefore, those who know such a war of the scale is the generation that knows the Hero-sama of two generations ago hardly survived anymore now

When it's that generation, unless the person is a race with long life, most of the people will probably have an old body that can't fight.

In other words, the Humans who participate in this war have not experienced a large-scale war to this extent.

On the other hand, the Demons live longer than the Humans.

It's not strange that there's a Demon who's as the same generation with the Hero-sama of two generations or even older generation.

How will the difference of experience appear?

In addition, the combat ability of the Demon is high.

The magical power that's superior to the Human and the physical ability that's superior to the Human.

And, the intelligence similar to the Human.

The power of skills and wisdom are large for Human who has inferior status to fight against monsters that have high status.

However, it won't work against the Demon.

Because Demon can use skills and wisdom similar to the Human.

To be honest, I'm scared.

But, it's not permitted that I who's the Hero to bring out uneasiness.

If I who's the hope of the Human do that, everyone will feel uneasy.

I grasp the muffler that wrapped my neck lightly to hide my uneasiness.

「Although this has been in my mind for some time, what's that muffler? You wore it even when it's hot, right?」

「This? This is Mother's keepsake」

A plain pure white muffler.

「This is the thing knitted for me before Mother died after giving birth to Shun」

Mother fell sick immediately after giving birth to Shun and died just like that.

The Demons became active just then, and I became the Hero.

Father still worked as a king busily while shouldering the sadness of losing Mother.

Because of that, he neglected Shun and Sue.

Although I believe that the time when they will become a normal parent and child will come, those two should be attending the academy now.

I can't do anything but to have Father to endure it until they graduate.

When those two graduate from the academy, I'm sure that they will become amazing.

「I see. Was it so?」

Yana comes to have found herself at a loss for words.

Oops.

She might thought that she asked an unnecessary thing.

「Yana, there's no need to worry about it. I got over it already」

「But」

「That's right. There's no need to worry about it. Rather, it's better to say

"You mother complex!

"」

「Hyrinth, isn't that an exaggeration?」

I return Hyrinth's joking tone with a laugh.

Laughter can be heard from the surroundings.

This is fine.

Dark atmosphere doesn't suit the surroundings of the Hero.

It's all thanks to Hyrinth who did a follow-up.

After all, the best person to have is a friend who's an understanding person.

「Do you know what is this muffler made of?」

Hyrinth asks Yana.

Ah, isn't it better to not tell her?

「It doesn't seems to be a common cloth. Even though it's worn every day, it doesn't has even a scratch」

「That's right. This thing is made from a quite special material. It's a valuable thing that's said to be impossible to obtain now」

「Eh, is it such a valuable thing?」

I wonder is it because Hawkin is a former thief, because his eye color changed.

「Ah. The correct answer is spider thread!」

「Spi-Spider thread!?」

Aaa.

Yana falls off from the chair.

Yana is not very good with insects.

And she especially don't like spiders, so I remained silent about it so far.

「Un? Is that the spider thread of Elro Great Labyrinth?」

The one who entered the talk was unexpectedly Jiskan.

「Un. That's right. You know it well, right?」

「Ah. Because it's a famous story among the adventurers」

「A-Ah! The Phantom Spider of Elro Great Labyrinth! I remembered it! Hohou. So, this is the spider thread」

Hee.

It was quite famous.

「Eh, what's that story?」

Yana asks in a timid state.

「Ah. Although this is a story when I was still a child, a certain party of adventurers that burned the nest of a spider-type monster called Taratect in the Elro Great Labyrinth. This monster is weak if you fight it normally, and it's extremely rare that it will make a nest. That nest is troublesome in any case, and it's the tacit consent of the adventurers to burn it right away if it's found. And, there's a large amount of threads found at the inner part of the burned nest. Surprisingly, it's different from the common magic thread, it's an amazing thread that has abnormally excellent magical power conductivity and physical resistance ability. The threads brought back were sold at an outrageous price and the adventurers that brought the threads back made a fortune at a single stroke. It's quite a famous story as the adventurer's success story」

「After that, it seems that it was popular to capture Taratect. After all, the individual that can make the same thread can't be found, and it's called as the Phantom Spider」

「Hee」

I'm sure that Mother used this thread to make it.

In the story that I heard, it seemed that a wealthy merchant with good judgment presented it to the royal family.

Leaving aside my comrades who still talks about it, Hyrinth sends me a

"Telepathy

".

［Julius, the movement of the Demons this time is strange in any way］

［What's strange?］

［The enemies scatter their forces and attack the Human territory all at once. However, I don't understand why they scatter their forces］

［You mean there are some motives?］

［Ah. Even though it should be better to concentrate at one area, they purposely scatter their forces. I think that we should think that there's something］

［Do you happen to know of that thing?］

［Well. As expected, I don't know about that. However, it would be better to not be careless］

［Understood. Thank you］

I had an unpleasant premonition.

As if I fell into a huge trap before I knew.

But, as the Hero, I'm not allowed to escape here.

I grasped the muffler made from the spider thread again.