Hatch the Eggs, Deogandai!

It was night.

Summer had ended, and a wind carrying a slight chill ran across the slopes of Ranrananga.

The Kirkree trees rustled, their leaves rubbing together as they trembled anxiously.

The cloudy sky hid the brilliance of many stars; the only thing that barely reached the ground was the feeble moonlight, permitted to exist by the whims of the clouds.

On such a night, deep in the mountains of a demon realm though it was, there stood a lone figure, lit by the faint moonlight.

The name of that lanky, tall man with the left half of his face hidden by long hair was...... the Demon Lord's Army's middle-ranked commander, Deogandai the Puppeteer!

“Kukuku...... Kukukukuku......”

Now, the place where Deogandai stood alone was the bank of a spring that sat all by itself in the Ranrananga Mountains.

The water welling up here ran down a mountain brook and became a great river.

Its name was the Samnomno River.

Eventually merging with the Jacobe River, this river, which supported the agricultural powerhouse Tezonka, was used by many people as water for daily life and for farming.

Of course, the fortress city of Liheid was no exception, enjoying the abundance of water by drawing this river's flow into the town through canals.

“Now~! Time to wakey-wakey~! Mad Tadpole-chan~!”

Raising his voice to a creepy pitch as he cooed at them, Deogandai spread his palm toward the spring and poured in his magic power.

Packed into the spring in a disturbingly large quantity were jelly-like spheres, each about the size of a fist, and inside them, black creatures were twitching and wriggling.

These were Mad Tadpole eggs.

Dangerous monster eggs brought in by Deogandai.

The Mad Tadpole was a type of tadpole.

Owing to neoteny, this creature spent its whole life in tadpole form, and for all its cute face, it was an extremely ferocious monster.

It particularly favored human flesh and would actively attack humans.

For that reason, the Demon Lord's Army had spent many years researching whether this monster could be put to good use...... but no results had come of it.

This was because the hatching conditions for this monster were not well understood.

In a certain stream in the “Inactive Continent” Ikkanee, its native habitat, they hatched in huge numbers every spring and energetically attacked the nearby residents, yet within the tanks prepared by the Demon Lord's Army, those eggs never hatched.

No matter how they adjusted the temperature or water quality, no tadpoles were ever born.

The demon researchers all scratched their heads, completely at a loss.

The person who brought a ray of light to that research, run aground as it was, was none other than Deogandai!

Using his days off, he had traveled to the vicinity of the Mad Tadpole habitat and continued meticulous fieldwork.

As a result, he discovered, though by chance, that periodic disturbances in that region's ley lines caused a small amount of magic power to dissolve into the stream where the Mad Tadpoles lived each year at the start of spring!

Hurrying back to the Demon Lord's Castle, he began hatching experiments on the Mad Tadpoles with the condition set as not temperature, not water quality, but...... magic power concentration.

As a result, 3 days later...... the tanks in the Demon Lord's Castle were overflowing with Mad Tadpoles!

The researchers were all overjoyed!

They all tossed him in the air, the man of the hour, Deogandai!

During this, the head of the laboratory, the researchers' superior, stormed in and shouted, “Quiet down!”

The researchers stopped tossing him and straightened their posture, replying, ““““Yes, sir!! We're terribly sorry!!””””

Nobody caught Deogandai, and he fell straight to the floor!

He hit his head!

It hurt!

But it's fine! Demons are tough!

Besides, the research had progressed, so Deogandai was happy too!!

Anyway, through all that, artificial breeding of Mad Tadpoles became possible, and they were put into use as part of the Demon Lord's Army's forces.

In fact, this operation was their first full-scale, large-scale deployment.

Given that background, Deogandai was fired up.

“Now then, I suppose this will do......”

Deogandai took out a small magic power meter and checked the surrounding magic power concentration.

No problem.

The hatching conditions for the Mad Tadpoles were met.

Mad Tadpoles were delicate.

They wouldn't hatch if the magic power concentration was too high or too low.

“Kukuku...... I can already picture the humans running around in a panic......!”

The Mad Tadpoles he had given his magic power would probably hatch by dawn, follow the scent of humans along the canals, and slip into the fortress city of Liheid.

Then, after a latent period of a few days, seeking human flesh, they would leap out of the canals all at once and attack the humans!

And that timing would be, just about, the same moment the humans infected by the Parasitic Mushrooms turned into mushroom monsters and began to rampage.

The fortress city of Liheid would likely turn into a screaming hell.

What a precise and cunning plan!

This was an operation that only he, with his deep knowledge of monster ecology, could pull off: a low-cost, low-risk, high-return operation!

Patting himself on the back inwardly like that, Deogandai grinned......!

The success of this operation was no longer in doubt!

The fortress city of Liheid would fall, and the monsters overflowing from the demon realm of the Ranrananga Mountains would overrun the interior of Tezonka.

The linchpin of the region's defense, the Guardian Sacred Beast, the silver dragon Herensia, had also been infected by a disease through the Demon Lord's Army's machinations, and her power was greatly diminished.

The day Tezonka would perish was near.

The Hamejika Continent, with its many rich breadbaskets.

Even on this continent, also called the “Golden Continent” for the color of its ears of wheat, Tezonka was one of the leading agricultural powerhouses.

And such a country would perish.

The food supply would drop drastically, and the humans would surely fall into total chaos.

“Kukuku......!”

Reminded once more of how important the mission he'd been given was, Deogandai trembled with eagerness.

This operation could not be allowed to fail, no matter what......!

“Now, for the finishing touch......”

Muttering so, Deogandai proceeded to chant the incantation for teleportation magic.

A purple light began to envelop his body.

“Kukuku, you humans...... you have only a few days to live anyway. Enjoy them while you can!!”

After casting a brief glance at Liheid, the town that never sleeps, where lights were still glowing, Deogandai vanished into the light of the teleportation magic.

I feel like Deogandai would definitely make it big if he took a research job.

That aside, at this rate, killer tadpoles will get in, and the people of the fortress city of Liheid are in danger!

Help us! Hero Torch-kun!