Chapter 599 – Another High-Ranking Demon

The pursuers—specialized in flight with impressive speed, it seems they’re quite fast in straight lines. And they’re persistently tenacious.

We’re racing through the sky using Nemea and Capella’s strength, maintaining our distance. Two of the Demons have already fallen behind… but the remaining one shows no sign of giving up.

Perhaps he can’t retreat after coming out here despite what I said to Valros. Or maybe—

I considered using Balor to create distance in one go, but if that got back to Valros, it would be problematic. Including the strength of those aboard the Sirius, I don’t want to reveal my hand at this point.

It would be fine to take care of the pursuer… or rather, I probably should.

But since he refrained from joining the pursuit, faithfully adhering to his words despite my refusal, it would be somewhat unreasonable to crush these guys in this situation.

Even if that was his unilateral promise, that’s precisely why I refused on the spot.

I have no intention of saying naive things like fighting Demons honorably. Nor do I plan to fraternize with them. But precisely because of that, I won’t leave behind unnecessary emotions or thoughts. So that when I fight him next, I won’t hesitate even for a moment.

“Why don’t you head back?”

I amplify my voice with Wind Magic and call out to the Demon behind us.

“Fool! I will bring your head to Lord Valros!”

I see. So this one is deeply devoted to Valros.

I don’t know about the other Demons, but it seems the remaining one has strong motivation. In that case, persuasion would be useless, and he won’t give up.

“I warned you.”

While using Levitation, Nemea digs her Claws into the Shield and makes a sharp turn. The moment the Demon’s eyes widen, I move, reflecting from Shield to Shield.

I charge in at an absurd relative speed, slamming the Dragon Staff into the lead Monster. Hiding behind the falling Monster’s body, I leap downward once, then reflect at a sharp angle horizontally. I pierce through the flank of a Monster that has lost sight of me.

Next. While hiding in the shadow of a Monster’s body to enter the Demon’s blind spot, I knock down another Monster. Kicking off Shields to prevent them from predicting my next move, I vary my pace as I leap around, delivering Strikes until the Monsters fall one after another.

The last remaining Demon looks around, but only he and I remain in the air. I fly straight at him head-on.

“Y-you bastard!”

I deflect the fired Miasma Bullet head-on with Ouroboros, then thrust Ouroboros into his solar plexus.

“Guh!”

Spinning Ouroboros, I strike down from above, and the Demon falls to the ground.

I deploy a Magic Circle there. With the tip of the raised Ouroboros, I direct the swelling Fireball—not at the fallen Demon and Monsters below, but toward the snowy plain a short distance away. A pillar of fire rises, intense enough to evaporate the snow.

“Y-you mere human…! Are you showing us mercy?!”

Whether the fallen Demon was surprised or displeased, he stares in bewilderment before raging at me.

“No. Killing you now would be unreasonable.”

“Unreasonable…?”

“There won’t be a next time. Go back.”

Given their resilience, they’ll probably recover soon enough. I turn away, and this time, no one pursues.

Once they’re out of sight, I mount Balor and increase speed. It seems to be getting gradually darker around us.

With the pursuers gone, I use the Communication Device to make contact.

The Sirius—wasn’t that far away. I cancel the concealment Technique and Field of Light, revealing its form. I fly toward it in the distance.

They were maintaining a distance where they could visually track me, neither too close nor too far.

Originally, even if we had pursuers like that, we considered drawing out the battle lines and then trapping them together with the Sirius’s crew.

I catch up to the Sirius. Everyone is out on the deck. They look worried.

“Um… I’m back.”

“Welcome back!”

As I land on the deck, everyone rushes over, and Ashley and Marlene immediately hug me.

“Ah, yeah. Sorry for worrying you.”

I answer while stroking their hair.

“Watching while preparing Teleportation Magic was quite exhausting,” Claudia says. She probably intended to use Teleportation Magic to rescue me if things got dangerous during the fight. Though the idea of Valros interrupting our battle with Teleportation Magic is unsettling to me.

“At least we didn’t have to show them Teleportation Magic clearly,” I say jokingly.

Claudia’s eyes widen slightly before she gives a wry smile and lightly hugs me, cradling my head.

After separating from the three, Grace approaches hesitantly, her eyes still red.

“Theo, I’m glad you’re safe…” Grace says.

I activate the Cursed Tool, and she hugs me.

“Yeah. I’m fine.”

“Yes…”

Grace nods while still hugging me.

“Truly. I’m relieved you don’t seem to have any serious injuries,” Rosemary says, hiding her face behind her feather fan. Then… she puts her arms around Grace’s back, hugging me along with her.

“I’m glad, Theodore!” Seraphina clings to me. Ah, with this flow, I suppose Sheila and Irmhild are next.

The two exchange glances, and Irmhild smiles faintly.

“Mhm. Welcome back, Theodore.”

“Welcome home.”

“I’m back. Both of you.”

I hugged Sheila and Irmhild as well, sharing our joy at reuniting.

Well… I suppose I should talk about the outcome of my encounter with Valros.

We move to the bridge, and I explain my interaction with Valros and the pursuers.

“—So Valros didn’t pursue because he kept his promise. If you say that’s typical of Valros, I suppose it is,” Forset says, closing his eyes after hearing the story.

Right. I need to slightly adjust my understanding of Valros’s character. He probably chooses any means for his stated goal, but it seems he also has the premise of not going back on his words due to his strong will.

Well, for now, there are other things I need to tell everyone.

“So. I need to apologize to everyone. I wanted to maintain reason, so I let one of the pursuing Demons escape. Later… we’ll probably end up fighting him.”

Yes. I knowingly let him go. In terms of gain and loss, killing him would have been best.

When I say that… Elliot quietly replies.

“There’s no problem. It seems the opponent intends to preserve their combat strength until the day of the decisive battle, and originally, those kinds of followers are our responsibility.”

“Indeed. We’d be troubled if our work was taken away,” Elmer laughs and nods at Elliot’s words. The other members of the Demon-Slaying Knight Order also laugh, saying things like if they lost just because one lower-ranking Demon was added, they’d be pathetic.

“That’s right. Theodore, you work too much. Alfred too, though.”

“As the king’s proxy, we’ll let it pass.”

“Father used to say that having such debts makes your sword dull at crucial moments. Maintaining reason is important,” Princess Stephania says, and Princess Adriana and Princess Elharm agree.

Ah, well. I’m grateful they say that.

Anyway, next time I won’t hold back. He should understand that when he sent the pursuers back.

We are incompatible. That point is unmistakable.

“It’s from Seeker and the others,” Valentina says, pulling out a monitor placed on the bridge table as the conversation reaches a lull.

“Ah. How are things on that end?”

“They haven’t been noticed yet, but… perhaps because the distance increased? The images and sounds sometimes get distorted. Any idea why?”

When I look at the monitor as told, noise is running through all of them. I can still somewhat make out the situation over there.

Distance… might be a factor, but is that all? If I had to guess—

“That Black Building Material—”

It was emitting an unknown Magical Power. It might be interfering and causing this effect.

“That, huh. I wish we could have obtained a sample of that material,” Alfred says.

Right. If we could have broken off a piece and brought it back, we might have learned something.

“Well, even so. We investigated as much as we could while you were fighting. We can’t be of much use in battle, after all,” Old Sigmund says.

It seems they did their jobs thoroughly, dividing roles.

“First, a group of Monsters was lined up and waiting in the great hall.”

“Also, we’ve captured figures likely to be other Demons in different locations. We’re gathering information on the castle’s layout, though limited.”

Ah. Somehow, we’ve managed to collect quite a bit of information. Sigritta and Caduceus are also watching those images, so they can probably recreate it later.

It was while we were confirming the gathered information that a cold voice came from one of the monitors.

“—Quite noisy, Lord Zaradi.”

The Seeker’s image is from the courtyard—. It’s fixed on Zaradi, who was giving instructions to other Demons. This Seeker is intentionally kept stationary to avoid detection. Indeed, if we don’t move it carelessly, they’ll have a harder time noticing.

“Lord Mustra… Where have you been during this busy time?”

That monitor… captured another man, likely a Demon, speaking to Zaradi. A man with a cruel smile.

…This guy. I get a bad feeling from him too. Different from Valros, whose refined martial prowess is evident in his demeanor. What—is it? A sense of incongruity, perhaps?

It’s hard to put into words, but something is different from the posture and footwork of someone trained in martial arts.

“I was sleeping in the underground section. I’ve been a bit busy lately, you see.”

Zaradi directs a reproachful look at him, but Mustra shrugs as if it doesn’t matter.

“More importantly, what happened? It seems quite noisy.”

“Probably human Scouts. They sneaked quite close. Lord Valros went out to intercept them, but there’s a possibility they’ve infiltrated. Especially if they’ve slipped in using Familiars or the like.”

…The Seekers haven’t been found yet, but who knows what will happen. Perhaps because they’re not a direct threat, Zaradi doesn’t seem to have detected them, but given the nature of that ability, it wouldn’t be strange if they were discovered at any time. The instability also makes it difficult to devise countermeasures.

“I see. So that’s the reason for this commotion.”

Mustra looks at the Monsters and Demons moving around the castle and gives a small laugh. Zaradi frowns in displeasure, but Mustra pays no heed.

We should probably consider him at least equal in rank to Zaradi.

“But searching for Familiars whose presence isn’t even certain must be tedious. How about blocking sensory synchronization and flushing them out?”

“Can you do such a thing?”

“Yes. If you ask why we covered this castle… well, it’s so we can do things like that.”

As he says this, Miasma rises from Mustra’s entire body.

Unlike outside the castle, there were parts inside not covered by the Black Building Material, but those parts—the Black Building Material—glowed with Magical Power, responding to Mustra’s movements.

This is—.

Faster than thought, I touch the monitor and send instructions to the Seekers to hide and take no further action. Meanwhile, the noise on the monitor worsens.

I don’t know if the instructions arrived in time. But in that brief moment, both the video and audio from the monitor distorted violently and cut out completely.

“…He got us.”

The Seekers are still infiltrated, but their safety is unknown. We can’t expect further continuous information collection, huh.

If we close the distance, the images might restore, but considering Zaradi and Valros’s detection abilities, it’s highly likely to backfire.

At least three High-ranking Demons. Valros and Zaradi. And Mustra, huh.

Was Mustra the one who generated that building material? Is it related to his ability, or some kind of magical knowledge? Regardless, we need to be wary of him.