I’d Rather Be Healed by a Pure-Hearted, Beautiful Demon Lord Than by a Yandere Saintess! ~Even if I Run Away, the Yandere Saintess Keeps Coming After Me. If I Get Caught, It Seems Like I’ll Be Forced Into an Engagement!?~ - Chapter 14 & 15

Demonic Overhaul Traps

“Listen up, you lot! Follow Yukina’s instructions and set up the traps without the slightest deviation! This is a battle we’re staking our future on!”

Under Lady Lucilphia’s command, the Demon King’s army had thrown itself entirely into overhauling the forest.

The “Operation: Insidious Traps Against the Saint” that I had devised was proceeding on a scale far beyond my expectations.

“Lord Yukina! Which should we scatter here—A, B, or C?”

Necros approached me with sparkling eyes, holding three flasks filled with ominous-colored liquids.

A was “giant eel mucus.” Simple, but once stepped on, it made boots irreparably slippery.

B was “slime betton secretion.” Highly adhesive, so stepping in it trapped the foot, and trying to pull free left the boot behind.

And C was my crowning achievement, “infinitely proliferating seductive slime.” A mere drop covered a hundred meters around, and it relentlessly eroded the sanity of anyone who stepped in it.

“C is way too extreme! Go with B, please! Leaving just the boots behind sounds mentally devastating enough!”

“Understood!”

Necros gleefully began scattering the slime betton secretion along the forest animal paths. This was perhaps the first time I had seen him look so thrilled.

In another spot, Borgannon hoisted a massive log as he dug a pitfall.

Of course, it was not just any pitfall.

“Following Lord Yukina’s plan, we’ll line the bottom with heaps of feathers and the ‘charm perfume’ provided by Lady Lilith! Anyone who falls in will be enveloped in choking feathers and a cloying scent, stripped of all will to fight!”

“Zero physical damage, but massive mental damage—what a trap! Brilliant!”

Even the muscle-headed Borgannon had grasped this insidious strategy perfectly and was executing it to the letter.

The Demon King’s army turned out to have surprisingly high adaptability.

And the crowning touch was the area under Lilith’s charge. She was using her succubus abilities to weave illusions into the forest trees.

“This area ahead is my ‘Endless♡Tea Time’ domain. Any intruding knights will find themselves surrounded by beautiful girls—my phantoms—and forced to attend an eternal tea party. Once the tea runs out, next comes hide-and-seek forever… hee hee hee♡”

“It sounds like they might never make it back…”

Traps utterly devoid of physical attack power were steadily being installed to dismantle the Holy Knights’ iron wills from within.

All I had come up with were cute ideas on the level of “stinky flowers” instead of “bamboo spears,” yet in the hands of the Demon King’s army executives, every one had been demonically overhauled into vicious mental assault traps.

I was inspecting that chaotic site alongside Lady Lucilphia.

She watched me issuing crisp orders with an expression that blended admiration and delight.

“…Impressive, Yukina. Things have changed in the castle since you arrived.”

“Eh?”

“Our army used to be full of those who believed they might be right. But you showed us that wisdom can yield results beyond brute force.”

She proudly surveyed her subordinates, who poured their efforts into setting the traps.

Orcs, goblins, lizardmen—everyone worked with vibrant faces.

Not a single one cowered in fear.

“Everyone looks so enjoying themselves. It’s preparation for war, yet it feels just like getting ready for a festival.”

“…Yeah, it does.”

Indeed, it did.

We faced an utterly hopeless disparity in forces, yet the atmosphere in the castle was astonishingly bright.

That was surely because this battle was one “to avoid defeat.” And this unique strategy suited them down to the ground.

“This is all thanks to you.”

Lady Lucilphia turned to me, a touch embarrassed but with eyes straight and true as she spoke.

“I thank you, Yukina. I’m glad our army’s advisor is you.”

Those words filled my chest with warmth. Our bond had started from a misunderstanding. I’d bluffed my way through every day since.

Yet beyond that lay a future where someone thanked me like this.

(I was just running from the Saint…)

Before I knew it, I had come to genuinely love this place and the people in it.

I wanted to protect these smiles, this daily life.

I thought that from the bottom of my heart.

“…Lady Lucilphia.”

“W-What is it?”

“We’ll definitely win. I swear it on my grandpa’s name.”

“Your grandpa…? Ah, yes, the name of your master! Very well, we swear on that ‘grandpa’s’ name too—we’ll give it everything we’ve got!”

The mood had been perfect, but now a fresh misunderstanding had arisen.

It was too much trouble to correct it.

I looked up at the sky.

The sky over the Demon King’s territory stretched endlessly wide and serene.

Saint Erixia, are you watching?

What you’re trying to destroy is a world warm like this, a bit off-kilter, but full of the greatest people.

I’ll never lose to your twisted love.

With my newly forged resolve in my heart, I headed to the next trap installation site.

The festival preparations had only just begun.

**

Dear Holy Knights’ Party, Welcome to Hell’s Theme Park

The preparations for “Operation: Insidious Traps Against the Saint” had been completed, and an odd silence mingled with a pre-festival excitement hung over the Demon King’s castle.

Yukina Arclight and Lady Lucilphia, along with the executives, waited with bated breath in the strategy room where Necros had placed the “Farsight Water Mirror.” The water mirror vividly displayed the entrance to the forest leading into the Demon King’s territory.

“…They’re here.”

Lady Lucilphia’s low voice drew everyone’s gaze to the water mirror.

What it showed was a group clad in armor that gleamed silver under the moonlight—the advance party led by Saint Erixia.

Their number was about a hundred. At the forefront stood a knight commander who looked utterly earnest and stern, sporting a splendid mustache.

“It’s just as the scouts reported. Hmph, they dare to underestimate my territory.”

Borgannon crossed his arms and growled.

“Oh, but I can feel the tension from here. They seem to be advancing quite cautiously.”

As Lilith said, they entered the forest step by step, as if checking for traps.

(Please work, grandpa’s handed-down harassment tactics…!)

As Yukina Arclight prayed in his heart, the knights stepped into the first area—Necros’s “Slippery Adhesive Zone.”

“—All troops, watch your footing! The demons may have set cunning traps!”

The knight commander’s sharp voice rang out.

But right after that, the lead knight’s foot sank with a squelch into an odd sensation.

“Nuo!?”

“What’s wrong, Alfred!”

“M-My foot… I can’t pull it out! It’s caught in something incredibly sticky!”

His boot was completely ensnared by the slime betton secretion scattered on the ground.

As he desperately tried to yank his foot free, it came loose with a satisfying pop! leaving the boot behind in the ground while he toppled over spectacularly.

“Wh-What is this!?”

“Uwah!”

“Over here too!”

One after another, the knights fell victim to the mucus.

In an instant, the forest entrance turned into a hellish tableau of screams and chaos. The heavy armor made it easy to lose balance, and once they fell, getting back up was a real struggle.

“Damn it, stay calm! Don’t let a trap like this rattle you!”

The knight commander barked orders, but he too strained desperately to avoid getting caught, which halved his dignity.

The strategy room, peering into the water mirror, erupted in gales of laughter.

“Buhahaha! Look at them, falling for it hook, line, and sinker!”

“Kukuku… I’m delighted that my slime betton proved so useful…”

The knights somehow broke through the mucus zone, but several had lost their boots, and their armor was caked in muck.

Their morale had visibly plummeted.

But their ordeal had only just begun.

Next in store for them was Borgannon’s custom “Will-to-Fight-Loss Feather Pit.”

The first few at the front neatly stepped through the disguised ground and vanished into the hole.

“Enemy attack!?”

“No, I don’t hear any screams…?”

The remaining ones peered warily into the pit, where they saw their comrades covered head to toe in feathers, dazed by the sweet perfume’s scent, mumbling “Fuhehe…” and “Somehow, I just don’t care anymore…”—completely bereft of any will to fight.

“Wh…!? Are you all right in the head!”

“It’s no good, Captain… This scent… My heart feels all warm and fuzzy…”

“You idiots!”

The knight commander’s furious shout echoed futilely.

And when the exhausted group stumbled into the final area—Lilith’s “Endless♡Tea Time” domain—their spirits reached their breaking point.

A sweet fragrance wafted gently, and delicate phantoms of young girls materialized from between the trees.

“Oh dear, brave knights. You must be tired. How about some special tea?”

“…I can’t anymore.”

One knight staggered toward the phantoms, drawn in, and began sipping the proffered tea.

“H-Hey, stop! That’s a demon trap!”

“But Captain… The tea… The tea is so delicious…”

“Ah, and these scones are simply divine, aren’t they?”

One by one, they succumbed to the endless refills of tea and the unending tea party’s enchantment.

The knight commander cried “Enough of this!” and swung his sword to cleave the phantoms, but it sliced only air, earning him giggles and “Oh, how barbaric♡” from the girls instead.

His ironclad mind ground away bit by bit.

“…Amazing.”

Lady Lucilphia, watching the water mirror, murmured softly. She turned to Yukina Arclight with eyes sparkling in admiration.

“Yukina…! Just as you said! Our army hasn’t suffered a single injury or spilled a drop of blood, yet we’ve utterly broken the enemy’s spirit…! What a strategy!”

“Ah, haha… Well, it went according to plan.”

Yukina Arclight could only manage a strained smile.

(Grandpa, sorry! Your wisdom’s being used for something really sacrilegious!)

In the water mirror, the knight commander finally crumpled to his knees, murmuring “I just… want to go home…”

Thus, the advance party of the Holy Knights that Saint Erixia so proudly boasted of was effectively annihilated the moment they set foot in the Demon King’s territory, without engaging in any real combat whatsoever.