AN (2020/12/26):
I’m the Evil Lord of an Intergalactic Empire! vol. 2’ is releasing to good reviews!
Once you go past the counter in the storefront――.
We’ve marched into the governor’s mansion to rescue Master Yasushi.
Going into the room where the governor Chester is in, we see Master being held in a cage.
――I won’t forgive this outrage to Master Yasushi.
But, Chester’s strength is just right.
“Ellen, you can do it, can’t you?”
As I call out to her, Ellen replies in a soft voice.
“I can.”
Ellen walks out in front of Chester.
She’s nervous, but seeing her in full concentration, I’m reassured as her master.
Chester’s eyes dart about as he looks at us not making a move.
Seeing a child, Ellen, stepping out to confront him, his guard goes up considerably.
“W-what do you think you’re doing?”
Since Ellen can’t respond, I decide to do it for her.
“My disciple hasn’t cut anyone down yet. Since she’s not yet fully-fledged as a swordsman, I thought to let her accumulate experience by killing you, that’s all. We’ve already gotten Master out. You no longer have any value.”
I call out to Riho and Fuuka who are shooting Chester cold looks, asking them to observe.
“I’ll be unveiling my disciple to Master Yasushi. Riho, Fuuka―― You two, be my witnesses, please.”
Riho shrugs.
“Okay~”
Fuuka’s face shows her interest in how Ellen will fight.
“Ellen, don’t bring shame to Master or Senior Disciple.”
I turn to look at Master. He closes his eyes once, then opens them slowly.
What he looks at is Ellen and Chester.
To Master Yasushi, Ellen is a disciple of a disciple.
I’ve made sure to spare no effort training her, but I wonder how she looks like in Master Yasushi’s eyes?
Even I get nervous.
“Ellen, you’re still green. Don’t use the Flash.”
I’m challenging her to enter a life-or-death battle after sealing the Flash, but Ellen is calm.
She doesn’t even give the impression of wanting to draw her katana.
“Acknowledged, Master.”
It looks like her concentration is high.
She’s waiting for my signal to begin.
However, Chester himself doesn’t look ready.
“Don’t mess with me! Since when did I agree to something like fighting to kill with this brat! Guards! Guards, come out!”
He shouts for his subordinates that he made to wait outside the room, but Kukri rises from my shadow, the sound of stifled laughter emanating from behind his mask.
“Everyone has already departed. They’re eagerly awaiting Governor-dono’s arrival.”
Man, capable subordinates are great.
Also, it’s good that he doesn’t go wild like Tia or Marie.
“You’ve saved me the effort. Thanks, Kukri.”
“I’m honored to receive your praise.”
Seeing Kukri give a reverent bow, Chester falls to the floor, probably thinking of something.
He places two hands on the floor in front of him, buttering up to me.
“Count Banfield! L-let’s make a transaction.”
Seeing me give no response, Chester continues flapping his mouth, thinking I was listening.
“My house and the surrounding lords have gathered more than sixty thousand ships to this planet. I-if you let me go, I could even help you out.”
Seeing Chester bringing a deal to me while trembling, I heave a small sigh.
“Marie.”
At the call, a display window immediately pops up in midair, displaying Marie’s slightly flustered expression.
『Liam-sama, it’s true that ships are heading to this planet on an enormous scale―― What! Liam-sama is covered in wounds! W-we’ll bring medical aid right away!』
“Shut up, you’re noisy.”
Chester stands and points at me, maybe thinking that he’s managed to reach a bargain.
This guy, his subordinates, they all seem to love making transactions.
“Now, what will you do, Count Banfield! Do we have a deal, or do we not!”
This guy’s one to run his mouth as he likes.
I’ve already decided such a thing from the start, haven’t I.
“――Who the hell do you think you’re talking to? It’s unthinkable that I would make a deal with you. Shut up and become fodder for my disciple. It’s an honor to become a stepping stone for the true Issen-ryu, isn’t it?”
“Huh?”
At Chester making an idiotic sound, I shake my head and enlighten him.
“Sixty thousand ships? What about them?”
Marie cuts in, seeing the scene from her display window.
『Liam-sama, we’ll retrieve you right away!』
“Don’t interrupt me.”
『Nh!』
“――Marie, send Avid to the planet.”
『B-but!』
“This is tedious, you know.”
『M-my apologies.』
“You all can escape first if you like. After all, I’ll just catch up with you using Avid later. As you’d expect, losing subordinates to such a thing is a big waste.”
Being told to run away first, Marie’s expression grows grim.
『I, too, have not fallen so low as to abandon my lord and make a run for it.』
The transmission cutting off, I turn to look at Chester.
He looks at me with an expression of abject disbelief.
In the first place, it’s impossible to think that we’d run away from this small villain.
“――How long do you plan on sitting down? Stand up right away.”
As I glare at him, Chester’s mouth flaps soundlessly.
Ellen breaks her silence.
“Even if you are a villain, I don’t feel comfortable about killing you if you don’t resist. Please show me your pride as a swordsman at the very least.”
Being told something like that by a child younger than him, Chester gets to his feet with sword in hand.
“Don’t look down on me! Setting Liam aside, I’ll be able to kill a single brat anytime!”
――Being addressed casually by the likes of a lowly governor isn’t anything forgivable.
I almost end up killing him, but I hold myself back for Ellen’s sake.
Chester is truly the best opponent for Ellen’s growth.
I look at Chester and appraise the man.
“It’s unforgivable that you’ve addressed me without my title, but I’ll overlook it this one time. You’re just right for Ellen. A man utilizing his standing to the fullest, tormenting his people, holding an ambition not befitting his stature. Your worst crime was to have kidnapped Master, though.”
Chester makes a disrespectful smile at me.
“I’m unforgivable for tormenting my people? I’d heard you were a softy, but it looks like it was true after all! Ruling over people means to do just that! No matter how much lip service you line up, what’s the difference between you and me? It’s just that you lavish your people with special treatment!”
I’m the same as this guy? I want to vomit.
“Don’t lump me together with you. In the first place, our statuses are different. It’d absurd to even draw a comparison. ――Well now, I don’t have the time to talk endlessly with you. Get started already.”
A small scoundrel comparing himself to me, a proper villain; there’s a limit to how conceited you can get.
“Put on as much airs as you can. It’s the end for you all as well. Even if it’s just me, I’ll kill this brat!”
Chester fires a Flash before the signal to begin.
The Flash heading for the base of her neck is shattered with a single stroke of her katana.
“T-take this! And this!”
Chester sends Flashes at her repeatedly, but Ellen bats them all away with her sword out.
Riho remarks with a disgusted look.
“This is a Flash? He’s making light of it, isn’t he.”
Fuuka looks like she lost all interest.
“He’s just sending slashes at her. It’s painful to watch.”
I gaze at Ellen’s situation with crossed arms.
Chester is truly a splendid opponent.
Tormenting the citizens of the territory, this man can even be considered the very model of an evil governor.
Chester pants, but in front of his eyes, Ellen returns her katana to its scabbard.
Seeing that, it seems like Chester thinks that he can have her spare him.
“A-are you helping me? Did you―― think that I’d say thanks, fool!”
He moves to fire a Flash to take advantage of the opportunity, but Ellen bends over, leaping right into Chester’s space with great force and drawing her katana in one smooth motion.
She draws her blade in iai as she passes him by―― cutting through him.
Ellen flicks her katana clean of blood, looking down at the fallen Chester.
“I won’t forgive abuse hurled at Master.”
Seeing that, Riho and Fuuka give halfhearted applause.
“With this Ellen is fully-fledged too, it seems.”
“In a few decades, she might even be able to spar with us.”
I walk up to Ellen.
She’s holding her katana in a death grip, looking down at the body of Chester whose life she cut down with her own hands.
Her breathing is unsteady and her legs tremble.
Just as Amagi did for me when I was a child, I cover Ellen’s clenched hands with my own.
As I take her fingers off the handle one by one, Ellen looks up at me as if to say something.
Her face is pallid.
“Since you’ve decided to become a swordsman, avoiding this will get you nowhere. You should have been resolved for this, you know.”
If one is unwilling to cut down a person, they’d be better off not aiming to be a swordsman.
An Issen-ryu swordsman not cutting anyone down is out of the question.
Ellen casts her eyes downwards.
“Please excuse my shamefulness.”
But, I can’t find myself taking up a cold attitude against this disciple of mine who accomplished something.
“No, you’re more splendid than I was during my turn.”
Ellen looks up at me in shock, but I head towards Master Yasushi’s prison without explaining further.
I make use of Kukri to break open the prison, and Master Yasushi gets to his feet.
“You’ve gotten bigger, it seems.”
“It’s all thanks to Master’s teachings.”
As I kneel and lower my head, Master speaks in a clear voice as if he hadn’t spent time in captivity.
“Stand up, please. Liam-dono is already a fine swordsman of the Issen-ryu. Since you have a disciple, too, it won’t do to conduct yourself without dignity.”
Getting to my feet, I turn to regard Ellen.
“Master, this is my disciple Ellen. What does Master think of her?”
Master Yasushi strokes his unshaven chin.
“She seems like a swordswoman with good talent.”
Having the disciple I take pride in be praised, I end up feeling both reassured and triumphant.
“Thank you very much. She’s my number one disciple.”
◇
Yasushi panics before Liam.
(The disciples are increasiiiiiing!!)
Yasushi is terrified that a subordinate disciple Ellen has been born at some point.
Liam is fearsome too, but from Yasushi’s point of view, Ellen is also a great swordsman.
Aware that he’ll be killed if they fought, he can’t help but feel terror.
And also―― The problem is Ellen’s eyes.
(T-that brat, is she doubting me!?)
Liam, Riho, and Fuuka; all three look at him with glowing eyes void of doubt.
That’s scary in itself, but Ellen who doubts him is the most terrifying.
“Ahem!”
With a seemingly deliberate cough, Yasushi thinks about how to escape from this scene.
If he remains here, they’ll eventually find out all about his lies.
Should that happen, he automatically imagines a future waiting for him like that of the cut-up Chester and his cronies.
“I am delighted at everyone’s growth. Well then, it’s about time for me to――”
At that instant.
Liam looks up at the ceiling.
“A vulgar bunch has come, huh.”
As Yasushi wonders what he’s talking about, multiple displays spring to life around Liam, projecting a view of the skies.
The security forces of the planet are gathering as if to surround the governor’s mansion.
『Capture the criminals that killed the Governor! If it’s impossible, there’ll be no issues even if you kill them!』
The shapes of battleships appear outside as well.
Sirens ring out and the surrounding residents are forcibly made to evacuate.
(T-these guys, are they planning on blowing this mansion away with us too!?)
With the governor’s armed forces included, the hostility directed at Yasushi and the others is high.
However, Liam heaves a small sigh.
“――Avid, do it.”
Right after his words.
A quake travels throughout the mansion. Then, the security vehicles and armed forces are pierced by lasers, mowed down by beams, and erased in the flames of missiles.
Just one single mobile knight is shown on the multiple screens, backlit by flames with its two eyes gleaming ominously.
(Hiyah!?)
Yasushi, who somehow managed to stifle the idiotic sound coming from his throat, is shocked by the arrival of the lone knight in the videos.
(Huh? Is this the mobile knight from that time? Why is this old-ass mobile knight so powerful!?)
As the ceiling of the governor’s mansion shakes, Riho and Fuuka release Flashes at it.
It bursts apart into carved chunks from their Flashes, and Avid gently lands through the now-open ceiling.
Liam speaks.
“We’re getting into Avid. It’s our escape from this planet.”
Fuuka places her hands on the back of her head.
“Huh~ we’re running away?”
“Don’t say something foolish. We’re going back, gathering our forces, and marching back in here to crush them flat.”
Yasushi wants to tremble hearing Liam’s reply, but he endures it.
(Even though a fleet of sixty thousand ships is coming, why are you coming back to fight! You’d normally just run, dumbass!)
He doesn’t say it out loud even if he thinks so.
After all, Yasushi is a small man.
If at all possible, he doesn’t wish to retort at Liam, who’s stronger than him.
Yasushi is a man with little courage.
However, at that moment, a being appears that might be able to rescue Yasushi from his predicament.
It has an awfully sinister form.
Its body is that of a man dressed in a suit, and octopus legs sprout from its head.
It’s red-faced as if trembling in anger, and its eight legs swing around in twists and turns.
“――Your existence is unforgivable. It cannot be allowed to exist.”
Yasushi had thought for a moment that help had come, but he understands seeing it that it’s directing sinister bloodlust towards them.
(Huh? What is this!? What the hell is this!?)
The octopus spouts vapor from its mouth like a kettle.
A sound like that of a flute can be heard.
“There’s no need for the Issen-ryu. It must not exist in this world―― You all, I’ll erase all traces of your existence right here and now!”
The head portion expands outwards, and drawing in its human-looking bottom half, it transforms into a giant octopus.
The vapor it blows from its mouth is dyed black, and the surroundings start to become obscured.
Riho and Fuuka have readied their swords seeing this enemy’s strangeness.
“This guy, what is he!?”
“Since earlier, the shakes won’t stop.”
The two of them are shaken.
Ellen has even ended up plopping down on the floor in fear.
Yasushi’s instincts are telling him.
(――Ah, I’m dead.)
Before the overwhelming presence in front of him, he’s so dumbfounded it’s as if he went one full circuit back to his calm self.
However, only Liam raises an eyebrow in suspicion.
Bryan (´；ω；｀) “That Ellen-dono has become fully-fledged, the feeling is both joyful and painful. Be that as it may, Liam-sama having so many enemies is painful.”
Sapling-chan (；゜Д゜) “If my own Leon-shan’s determination was as great as his―― Yeah, nope. I’ll probably be cut down as well.”
Sapling-chan ( ゜∀゜) “More importantly, have you gotten the Villain VS Fiend collaboration sidestory? Evil Lord vol. 2 has gone on sale, but next month, ‘The World of Otome Games is Tough for Mobs, vol. 7’ is finally going on sale! Please support that side as well!”
Sapling-chan ( ゜д゜) “The story promoting MobuSeka should be Evil Lord, and yet, why have I been doing the promotion for Evil Lord? ――It’s painful.”[1]
[1] – The MobuSeka webnovel has ended by this point, so the author uses this active one to promote his other works.
Cheldra's Translations 
The octopus ended up appearing. It seemed it wasn’t as sly as the Guide, exposing itself to danger like that.
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Just another stepping stone
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