The Demon's Confession (1)
Instinctively, I drew my sword.
I swung it in a single instant.
“Wai……!”
Before the demon could finish his sentence, the first strike landed. His right arm was severed clean. Black blood sprayed into the air.
“Gwaaaak-!”
A wretched scream tore from his throat.
The demon shouted in disbelief.
“You said you wouldn’t kill me!”
“Yeah. I won’t kill you.”
I answered curtly.
“After all, demons have tenacious vitality.”
I swung again. His left arm dropped to the floor. Without pause, I brought the blade down on his legs.
Swish—
Both legs were severed at once.
“Guh-!”
The demon barely swallowed the rest of his scream. Finally, I drove the sword straight into his abdomen.
Thud—
The blade pierced through and pinned him to the ground.
“Now then. Shall we talk?”
“Th… this crazy bastard……”
The demon glared up at me, teeth clenched against the pain. For facing a demon, this was already quite civil.
Still, to suppress the urge to kill in front of humans, a demon’s rank had to be fairly high. Yet this one was far weaker than expected.
“Huu……”
New flesh began sprouting from the severed stump of his right leg. Bone, muscle, and skin regenerated at an alarming speed.
“You absorbed the right leg fragment, I see.”
Demons grew stronger in the part corresponding to whichever fragment of the Demon King they had taken in—strong enough to regenerate instantly when severed.
“Y… yes.”
Even through the pain, the demon’s lips curled upward. The smile was closer to self-mockery.
“The Tower Lord… a-absorbed the right leg into m… me.”
“The Tower Lord?”
“I was his ex… experimental subject.”
Despite the missing limbs, the demon’s breathing gradually steadied. As expected, he was still a demon.
“Before he took the Demon King’s fragment for himself, I was the test su… subject.”
“An experiment, then.”
“Huu…… So I brought his information. Because of that damn bastard, my life got ruined.”
He didn’t seem to be lying. That meant he had been forced into becoming a demon. Even so, a demon was still a demon. The instinct to annihilate life could only be suppressed for so long.
“You can kill me here if you want. Just promise you’ll take that bastard’s head after I give you the information.”
“Tell me the information first.”
The demon nodded and closed his eyes. When he opened them again, he spoke.
“The Tower Lord…… is at the northern edge right now. He’s almost reached the Demon Realm.”
He spoke as though he could pinpoint the location in real time.
“How do you know that?”
“Because I’m the demon who absorbed the Demon King’s right leg.”
An inherent authority, then.
“Once a target is marked, I can follow it anywhere.”
The demon calmly explained his power.
“The right leg corresponds to the Tracker’s authority. Its main ability is to pursue the target no matter where they go.”
His right leg had already fully regenerated.
“So you marked the Tower Lord as your target.”
“Yeah. I have to kill him. I can’t change targets until that bastard dies.”
“Then you can track his location in real time?”
“Not just that. I could actually move right beside him whenever I wanted. That’s the authority.”
The demon’s expression twisted.
“But even if I went alone, I couldn’t beat him.”
“Of course not.”
Regardless of whether he was a combat mage or not, the Tower Lord was still the Tower Lord. Even I would find a pure magic battle difficult. Of course, if I used a sword, I could take his head in a few moves.
“Then do you also know his abilities?”
“I do.”
The demon answered without hesitation.
“He absorbed the Demon King’s left leg. His authority is the Wanderer’s.”
“Tracker and Wanderer…… Neither appears in the records.”
“The Wanderer lets you drift wherever you please. Unlike mine, you can’t use it again for a while after moving, but you can go anywhere and bring others along.”
“How long is that interval?”
“I think it was about two months. I don’t know the exact details.”
This was becoming troublesome. It meant that if I was too late, he could simply flee again.
“Useful information.”
“More than you expected, right?”
I pulled the sword from his abdomen.
“See? So spare me. I want to watch that bastard die before I go.”
Without answering, I stood and grabbed him by the hair.
“Ah! What the—!”
I dragged the demon—whose right leg alone had fully regenerated—out into the corridor. His thick gray hair trailed through the black blood, leaving a smeared path behind us.
“Uwa! Hey, isn’t this a bit excessive?”
The demon kept complaining as I hauled him along. No need to respond.
“You’re really heartless, you know that?”
I continued dragging him in silence.
Toward the hero.
“Where are you taking me?”
This was a deliberate display. With the imperial family already sensitive about demons, it would be problematic if word spread that I had been conversing with one. I needed to make the demon look as wretched as possible and secure testimony from both the hero and the Holy Kingdom. That would prove my innocence.
“……I sense an unpleasant aura.”
The hero’s quarters were in the guest wing of the detached palace. I opened the door with one hand, still gripping the demon’s hair.
“……?”
The hero, seated inside, widened his eyes.
“General Berhardt……?”
He stared at the demon whose limbs had been severed, then looked back at me.
“What…… happened here?”
I dropped the demon onto the floor. A dull thud echoed through the room.
“A demon. He infiltrated the capital.”
“What……!”
The hero’s expression hardened instantly. He looked ready to strike the demon down on the spot.
“He didn’t attack me. He claims he wants revenge on the Tower Lord who turned him into a demon, and he’s already given me information about him. That doesn’t change the fact that he’s a demon, though.”
“That’s correct.”
The hero’s gaze shifted to the demon. Holy power began to leak from him. The demon looked up at me in fear.
“Calm yourself.”
I wanted to kill the demon too, but now wasn’t the time.
“This demon is necessary for capturing the Tower Lord.”
“What?”
The hero’s holy power paused, though he didn’t withdraw it. His eyes turned to me.
“How exactly is this demon needed to capture the Tower Lord?”
Under his suspicious stare, I explained.
“You know demons gain authorities based on which part of the Demon King they absorbed, correct?”
“Yes.”
“This one’s authority is tracking. Once a target is marked, he can locate them anywhere and follow them. Right now, his target is the Tower Lord.”
The hero frowned.
“Meaning no matter where the Tower Lord flees, this demon can find him.”
“Exactly.”
“How can we trust him? He could be lying.”
“I’m not!”
The demon shouted desperately.
“You can kill me right here. But please believe me. Only then can we kill that bastard!”
His blood-soaked voice was raw with desperation. The hero’s gaze returned to him.
“I see.”
The hero stared straight through the demon.
“Your grudge runs deep. This isn’t just revenge for being turned into a demon.”
“……”
“What happened to you?”
The demon’s face stiffened. The hero had struck a nerve.
“I…… I……”
He kept hesitating.
“It was just……”
“Speak.”
Under the hero’s questioning, the demon’s eyes trembled. Fear that hadn’t appeared even when his limbs were cut now surfaced in his gaze.
“It was a mistake…… truly……”
His eyes drifted toward the ceiling.
“Forgive me…… please……”
He thrashed on the floor, begging the empty air. Blood splattered as he muttered incoherently. It seemed he carried some deep trauma.
“Please…… please……”
I walked over and slapped his cheeks several times.
“Pull yourself together.”
The demon convulsed for a while. Only after roughly ten minutes did he regain his senses.
“H-huh?”
He fell silent, staring blankly.
“……”
The hero regarded him with interest.
“Now that I think about it, you don’t seem particularly high-ranked, yet you’re maintaining your sanity remarkably well.”
“……That’s right. I never want to kill humans again.”
A demon who didn’t want to kill humans. Quite the contradictory existence.
Even intelligent demons were still part of the demon race. No matter how high their rank, they could only suppress their desires temporarily—their fundamental nature demanded the annihilation of life.
The hero voiced the same thought.
“Is there a special reason? A demon should ultimately want to kill living beings.”
The demon’s expression hardened once more. This time, instead of another fit, he let out a long sigh and asked quietly.
“If I tell you…… will you listen?”
The hero nodded. The demon studied him for a moment before speaking.
“First, my name is Hailin Sarandal. I’m a wolf beastman, but I was raised by human bandits.”
“……I see.”
The demon began his story. The hero listened attentively, nodding along.
“Then the Tower Lord kidnapped me and turned me into a demon. I managed to escape somehow…… but sometimes I wish I hadn’t.”
“Why?”
The hero sat with the solemn air of someone hearing a confession. A hero listening to a demon’s confession—what a strange sight.
Even in that tense atmosphere, the demon continued.
“After escaping, I went straight back to the people who raised me. When I arrived there……”
He hesitated, then forced the words out.
“I killed the entire family who raised me.”