To Where We Must Go (2)
The underground prison beneath Fralbert was thick with the stench of mold and devoid of even a single ray of light. In its deepest section—the labyrinthine abyss reserved solely for the most heinous criminals—lay the farthest corner, where Grespara was bound in a wretched, humiliating posture.
Her once-noble status in the Demon Realm now felt utterly meaningless. The inhuman restraints that wrapped around her entire body were degrading enough to erode her pride in real time. She was seething with rage toward the North for treating her this way.
If not for the massive sealing stone hanging from her neck, she could have shattered these chains with a single burst of gravity magic and escaped. Her luck had been terrible. If not for that boar-like human called Yohan, she would never have ended up bound like this.
And that wasn’t all.
So she had made up her mind. The moment she was released from this North that treated prisoners so disgracefully, she would inform Lord Vincent of her unjust treatment and demand severe punishment for Fralbert.
She had no idea how much time had passed since no light reached this place, but she must have been left like this for several hours. Then—
Step. Step.
From the darkness beyond came the sound of footsteps that made the fur-covered animal ears atop Grespara’s head twitch violently.
It was probably a jailer. Grespara steeled herself, preparing every cutting word she could think of to harass this guard and somehow obtain what she wanted.
“Hello there. Did you rest well?”
But what she saw was nothing like what she had expected.
It was the terrifying figure from the history lessons she had been forced to memorize—the one always depicted alongside gruesome illustrations. Gorgo.
“…Hii, hiiiek?! G-Gorgo?!”
The moment she saw her, Grespara’s entire body broke out in gooseflesh, and she let out a shrill scream.
At the same time, she cursed Yagnus—one of the Six Swords—who had inadvertently turned the vanished Gorgo to the humans’ side. The moment the lessons she had received about what Gorgo had done to the Demon Army flashed through her mind, overwhelming terror made her legs buckle. She nearly collapsed on the spot.
Thankfully, her ingrained belief as a daughter of the Demon Realm—that she must maintain dignity until the very end—kept her upright.
Yet the moment Gorgo approached her, any thought of negotiating with the jailer vanished. There was no need to ask why she had come. It was obvious: either interrogation or persuasion.
But Grespara had no intention of complying. Being captured without a fight after coming to the North was already humiliating enough. If she spilled every piece of information she had, she would never be able to face her master again. She would be hated without question.
“…………”
“Oh my, what’s wrong? You’re clamping your mouth shut like you’ve seen something you shouldn’t.”
From the Demon Army’s perspective, she really had seen something she shouldn’t, but what was this old woman even saying? Regardless, Gorgo stood beside her with the flawless poker face of a seasoned elder and held out a bowl.
“Don’t worry, child. I have no intention of killing you yet. I simply brought you some food.”
“F-Food?”
“Yes. You haven’t eaten anything all day, have you? You must be starving.”
On the bowl lay a sandwich made of rye bread. Human food was usually disgustingly inferior, but after being thoroughly beaten by Yohan and turned into a pincushion by Hawk, she had expended a great deal of energy. Honestly, at this point she was ready to chew on rubber shoes if they were offered.
The moment she swallowed hard while staring at the appetizing shape, Gorgo gave her a benevolent smile befitting the great matriarch of the North and gently pressed the rye bread to her lips.
Grespara briefly wondered if it might be poisoned, but she decided that a so-called civilized nation would have no reason to tamper with food. With refined grace, she shoved the sandwich into her mouth.
“Oh dear, you really were hungry. Eat slowly, or you’ll upset your stomach.”
“……….”
That thought lasted only a moment.
After watching Grespara devour the entire sandwich, Gorgo stretched beside her and said,
“Mmm~! Good. Now that your belly is full, shall we get started in earnest?”
She began pulling various implements from the bag slung over her shoulder. The moment Grespara saw them, her expression filled with pure horror.
“G-Gorgo… w-what are those hideous things—?”
“What do you mean? You can see for yourself.”
“Awls… and pliers… and needles…? W-what exactly are you planning to do with them—?”
“Silly girl. Obviously, torture.”
Shiver—
Drip. Drip.
The instant she heard those words, cold sweat began pouring down Grespara’s entire body. She couldn’t even imagine the pain that was about to come, yet just picturing it was enough to fill her with bone-chilling dread.
Desperately, she recited every rule she knew.
“I-I am a prisoner with no intention of fighting! Is Fralbert not a civilized nation?! At the very least, civilized nations are forbidden from torturing those who bear no hostility!”
“Ah, you mean that treaty all the nations began signing decades ago? Sorry. I’ve read about it in books, but since I’m from three hundred years ago, I don’t really understand why it’s necessary.”
“That kind of excuse won’t work—!! The moment you do this, you become a war criminal guilty of crimes against all demonic-kind—!!”
“That’s funny coming from you, little one. Then I suppose the massacre of civilians you committed doesn’t count as a war crime?”
“………Th-that’s…”
The moment those words left Gorgo’s mouth, Grespara’s tongue froze. Caught red-handed at the scene, there was no way to deny it.
“Well, that doesn’t mean I can just do whatever I want… Whatever. We’re both criminals anyway. In my experience, this method is the most effective for gathering information.”
“N-not my nails…! Master gave me that polish—!”
“Then shall we start with your teeth?”
“…………”
“Good, good. Silence is nice. I was originally planning to flay you, but the torture specialist said fingernails would be sufficient, so please bear with me.”
“N-no… I don’t want this, I don’t waaaaant—! Stop iiiiiit—!!”
“Don’t worry. Just endure ten times per limb and I’ll keep healing you, so your body won’t be permanently damaged.”
When people from the distant past returned to the present, the hardest thing to change was their way of thinking. Three hundred years ago, she would have been subjected to punishments like lingchi or pressing, but now that such extreme measures had been greatly reduced, she should consider herself lucky that the current penalty still allowed her to live a normal daily life.
Gorgo simply thought of the pitiful Grespara in that detached manner.
And it was only then that Grespara truly understood why this insane woman was called the Terror of the Demon Realm.
“Now then, I’ll start with one. Every time you refuse to answer something I want to know, I’ll add another. Understand?”
“No, no, no! I was wrong, Lady Gorgo! No, Lord Asparug! P-p-please spare me!!”
“It’s not Asparug right now.”
The pain that followed was not something a pampered young lady—who had only ever cried and wet herself when beaten by Yohan—could endure.
In the end, the first piece of information Grespara spilled was not about selling out those around her, but rather selling out a certain fool who had broken his promise to make things comfortable for her in exchange for information.
Screaming at the top of her lungs, she cried out.
“…S-STOOOOOP!! I-I’ll tell you something interesting!! I will, so please—! Just listen!! It will definitely—definitely be interesting—!!”
“Hmm? I haven’t even pulled them all out yet.”
“Sh-Shagalor—!!”
“…Haa?”
“Shagalor asked me about the location of the nearby Demon Army remnants that haven’t withdrawn yet—! Right after I was imprisoned—!!”
“She asked for the location of the remnants? …To intercept them?”
“Th-that’s not all! There are many suspicious parts!! She asked how to control the Skull Legion—!”
Control. Control…? What on earth would she use that for—?
At that moment, Gorgo’s scattered thoughts snapped together into one clear picture.
Even if they were nothing more than remnants, they couldn’t seize control of Fralbert. However, it would be more than enough to use them to corner and eliminate a single target.
‘And the person Shagalor wants to eliminate most right now is…’
Karalin. Karalin von Vitagarte.
No wonder Shagalor had been so obediently handing over her assets, hosting banquets, and staying quiet. So this was what she had been plotting.
A chill ran down Gorgo’s spine.
If Yohan had not coincidentally encountered Karalin and urged her to go ahead… the soldiers pulled away for village relief duty would have left her nearly defenseless. Karalin might have been subjected to a direct assault by the Skull Legion.
“………Thank goodness.”
“Wh-what—?”
“That would have been disastrous, but fortunately we left an expert there.”
“H-huh?”
“……I’ll be back in ten minutes. Rest well, alright?”
With that, Gorgo left briefly to urgently organize a rescue team to support the Lord of Steel. Grespara was granted roughly ten minutes of respite.
She blew on her already-pulled fingernails and made a tearful face, but it was only a temporary breather. She had yet to realize that she would eventually spill everything.
The arrows did not stop.
As if they had been waiting for this moment, the prepared volley rained down from the high ground atop the hill, pouring fiercely with the clear intent to kill both Yohan and Karalin.
But Yohan would not die from something like this.
The black armor he always wore in battle was a special piece he had received from His Grace Rexas during his coming-of-age ceremony. With its defensive power and his own monstrous toughness, he endured the entire barrage. Then, with inhuman agility, he kicked off the ground and leaped toward the hill where the Skulls were firing their bows.
“You sons of bitches, you sons of bitches— I’ll kill you all…”
The moment his massive body slammed into the ground, the comparatively frail Skulls were sent flying upward. Their robes, which hid their skull faces, fluttered in the wind. The Skulls closest to him made precise gestures—
—and reached for the swords floating beside their robes, intending to swarm him.
However, they had chosen the wrong opponent.
Kaaaaaaaang—!!
The instant they drew their blades, they were seized by the powerful aura radiating from him. The swords lost their shape and shattered into pieces.
The Ghost That Eats Iron was originally only able to collapse the form of metal he physically touched. But right now—precisely when the one trigger that could truly enrage him had been pressed—his ability had transformed into a vicious poison and gone berserk.
The Skulls could not speak due to their physiology, but they rapidly transmitted their intentions through soul resonance.
「Target of elimination confirmed as the blue woman. Error. Target remains alive. Immediate reprocessing required.」
「Major threat detected. Major threat detected. Major threat detected. Reprocessing carries irreversible risk. Retreat. Retreat. Retreat. Retreat. Retreat. Retreat. Retreat. Retreat.」
The Skulls near Yohan desperately sent out distress signals, but those around them ignored the warning.
「Retreat? Retreat.」
「Retreat. Retreat. Swift retreat. Extremely rapid retreat.」
As a result, confusion spread among them, and the stronger emotion—retreat—resonated throughout every soul present. The summoner controlling the Skulls somewhere nearby should have been managing them, but it seemed the interference was not easily undone.
Clang—!
To the disoriented Skulls, Yohan unleashed refined swordsmanship steeped in deep fury. With no proper weapons to respond, the Skulls could only try to dodge. The moment they touched the tip of his blade, they shattered like they had been fed into a grinder.
Yohan roared with crimson eyes blazing. If one tried to describe his voice as a beast’s howl, it would be too simple, too refreshing. No—it was more like the horrific metallic screech of a vicious grinder vibrating before the things it was about to pulverize.
“Do you even understand… what you’ve done right now?”
And at that moment—
Black steam rose from behind Yohan. The cry of iron. A vibration of mana he should not have been able to use—
BOOOOOOOM—!!!
Before the Skulls could even react, iron shards began swirling around Yohan like a blooming flower. They spiraled outward, deliberately avoiding Karalin, and tore through the nearby Skull Legion.
Kuuuuuuuuuuu—
There was nowhere for those who had chosen to flee but hell itself.
「…Identification error. Identification error. Undetected threat.」
「Multiple personality entity confirmed. Abnormal. Analyzing issue…」
「Threat confirmed. Six Swords──. Six Swords──. Yagnus. Identification complete──. Error. Error. Error. Er─.」
The moment one of the creatures at the front, reduced to flying calcium dust, sent out that final scream of resonance, every Skull instinctively realized the identity of the black thing before them and began to tremble.
Some shook their heads as if they had already given up on life. Others, their mental interference severed, shook violently while screaming silently into the air. Still others clutched their heads and fell to their knees.
Yet even amid all these reactions, Yohan’s rage did not subside. Every being his iron shards touched disintegrated into ash.
「Error. Error. Error. Error. Six Swords. Requesting reinforcements──」
But the reinforcements they longed for would never arrive. After all, the Skulls present were nothing more than stragglers.
And then—
Among them, Yohan—the Lord of Steel—spotted the one being who, despite hearing the soul resonance, had neither fled nor prostrated himself. The figure wore a robe like the others and stood at a distance, but its appearance was unmistakably suspicious.
“──So you’re the only one who isn’t afraid. Necromancer.”
“………Damn it!!”
While shredding the Skulls with his iron shards, Yohan flew straight toward the man.