The Demon Realm (3)
The interior of the old wooden cabin within the Demon Realm was filled with a quiet tension. Allen walked in slow circles around me, Kristina, and Ciris, who sat cross-legged on the floor. His sword rested casually on one shoulder.
“Draw out your aura, excluding the use of mana.”
His tone and mannerisms were eerily similar to Cain’s.
“Aura is essentially another word for presence,” Vincent added lazily from where he lay nearby, a book draped over his face. His voice was thick with drowsiness.
“······.”
Watching him speak only when absolutely necessary, I couldn’t help but wonder, Is he really just bad at teaching?
Both Vincent and Allen had a habit of delivering only the core point in the shortest possible way, then offering no further explanation. At first I’d assumed they simply didn’t know how to teach. Now it felt more like they wanted us to realize the truth on our own.
Still, it doesn’t really matter.
Honestly, I had expected to struggle with understanding and fall behind in my learning, but that hadn’t been the case at all. When I was told to create my own space before being surrounded, I had melted the snow with flames and used it to my advantage. Even with this kind of instruction, I somehow managed to learn.
Aura without using mana, huh.
There were many different kinds of aura. The three most representative types were: the aura of killing intent, the aura of the will to win, and the aura born from one’s own dignity. What Cain had emitted was probably the last one. As for me, I planned to focus on raising the aura of the will to win—Battle Qi.
Will this even work?
In truth, I hadn’t properly released Battle Qi since my spar with Shane. I had fought plenty of battles, but for some strange reason, I could never apply Battle Qi effectively in real combat.
Let’s give it a shot.
I could kill two birds with one stone—raising my aura while practicing Battle Qi at the same time.
I kept the thought of struggle firmly in my mind.
‘······.’
Less than five minutes passed.
Hooooooo.
I wasn’t entirely sure, but something was definitely changing inside my body.
It feels like I could do anything right now.
It was as if the aura was helping me grow. On top of that, it seemed to carry an oppressive pressure meant to overwhelm opponents.
When I glanced to the side, I saw that Kristina and Ciris were also drawing up some form of intangible aura.
“Hmm.”
Allen let out a short, low hum as he observed our changes.
“Vincent, get up.”
At Allen’s command, Vincent jolted upright in surprise.
“Already?”
“Yes, they’ve already realized it. I win.”
“It hasn’t even been thirty minutes yet?”
“It’s been twenty-nine.”
Listening to their incomprehensible exchange, I asked, “What are you two talking about?”
“We made a bet on how long it would take you all to awaken your aura. I bet within thirty minutes. Vincent bet it would take longer.”
“······.”
Once again, I looked at the losing Vincent with pity.
“Vincent, you really shouldn’t gamble.”
In my opinion, he had the exact personality of a rich guy who would lose all his money at the tables.
“······I wasn’t planning to.”
Vincent seemed to share my thoughts; he gave a self-deprecating laugh.
“Anyway, let’s head out.”
We followed Allen out of the wooden cabin.
“First of all, if you want to survive in this Demon Realm, you must at least know how to raise your aura.”
With those words, Allen drew up his own aura, then immediately let it fade.
“You three should keep practicing how to raise your aura until the practical training in the Demon Realm two months from now. For today, we’re going to kill some demons.”
His emotionless eyes scanned the area ahead. Watching him, I thought, I’m curious.
I wanted to know what kind of effect Battle Qi would have.
The demon’s body was torn apart.
Blood and chunks of flesh splattered across my fist.
Disgusting.
Aside from how filthy it was, I didn’t feel much of anything. Maybe it was because the demon wasn’t human. Or maybe I had always been like this. I still wasn’t sure.
“Huuuuuumaaaaan!”
Hooooooo.
I threw a punch laced with Battle Qi at the approaching demons. This was a fight to kill before being killed—a struggle for survival. What I was learning here was simply how to stay alive.
Puuuuk!
Once again, a demon’s body folded in half as my fist pierced straight through its abdomen. When I pulled my hand free, it was covered in thick black blood and bits of flesh.
“This should be enough,” Vincent said, approaching while clapping lightly. He raised his aura to keep any other demons from getting close.
The reason only Vincent was here was because we had split into two teams: Vincent and me, and Allen, Kristina, and Ciris. It didn’t really matter how we were grouped. Since traveling in larger parties was more common in the Demon Realm than going alone, the teams were formed to practice coordination.
He did say today would be the only day like this.
Allen had divided us this way to help us grow more efficiently. Starting tomorrow, he said we would practice coordinating against multiple demons at once.
“Adel, how do you feel?”
My thoughts on killing a demon. My thoughts on using Battle Qi. My thoughts on the Demon Realm. All sorts of reflections came to mind.
“Not bad.”
I still hadn’t seen the demons’ true strength, so I wasn’t overly worried yet. Using Battle Qi made the movements that Allen and Vincent had called “swordsman-like” feel noticeably different. For now, it was still a luxury.
“Really? That’s good to hear. Want to try raising your aura again?”
At Vincent’s suggestion, I drew up my Battle Qi to its maximum.
“Hmm. Not bad at all.”
Suddenly, focus returned to his previously vacant eyes.
“Then take care of this one by yourself.”
“······Huh?”
With those words, he vanished. There wasn’t even a trace left behind.
“······What the hell? What am I supposed to take care of?”
Where had Vincent gone this time? From his perspective, he could probably still see me. I was the only one who couldn’t find him.
“Haa······.”
This was frustrating. He hadn’t told me to kill the demons, nor had he told me to find him. He just said “take care of this” and disappeared. What was I supposed to do with that?
Swish.
Just as I was thinking that, the bushes ahead began to rustle. There was no wind blowing.
Curious, I started walking toward the bushes when a woman suddenly burst out from them.
“Adel?”
It was Banya, the woman who always carried herself with grace.
“Banya? What’s going on?”
She gave me a slightly ditzy smile.
“I got lost.”
“You got lost?”
“Yes.”
Banya explained with a tearful expression that her teammates had also disappeared.
She got lost?
Banya, of all people? The girl who was perfect except for her airheaded moments? Something felt off about her claiming she had gotten lost. Still, it was possible, so I let it slide for now.
“How did it happen?”
“Our instructor is an assassin, so we were training to find him while killing demons at the same time. Then the fog rolled in and I lost my way.”
The story made sense. At least, it sounded plausible on the surface.
“Banya, where did we first meet?”
“Huh? In Class S, of course?”
“What’s your ability again?”
“I control the wind.”
Her short answers, tone, and behavior all matched what I knew. But right now, I was testing her.
I was suspicious of Banya.
I hadn’t been taught to be suspicious, but the strange feeling I’d gotten when I first met her, combined with Vincent’s vague “take care of this,” made it impossible not to suspect her.
“······.”
“······.”
Banya seemed to sense the shift in my mood and stayed silent. Eventually, she spoke first.
“Adel, it’s me. Banya.”
“I know.”
“Are you sure?”
“Yeah.”
She kept insisting she was Banya, so I decided to run one more test. I stepped closer until we were almost touching.
“······.”
I stared directly into her eyes. She didn’t look away, even though she easily could have.
I suddenly pulled her into my arms.
She responded calmly, “Adel? What are you doing?”
That reaction confirmed it.
This woman was not Banya.
Fwoooosh!
The moment I realized it, I summoned flames and threw a punch.
Whoosh!
But my fist cut through empty air. The woman had seen the punch coming and dodged.
“Adel? Why are you acting like this?”
Watching her still try to deceive me, I spoke with certainty.
“You’re not Banya.”
“······.”
Perhaps she sensed my conviction. The mask she had been wearing melted away, revealing pitch-black skin and a single horn sprouting from her temple.
“How did you know?”
“The Banya I know doesn’t get lost. In a situation like this, she would’ve let out a high-pitched scream in surprise.”
Clap, clap, clap.
Unlike the small applause from earlier, this time the sound was loud and clear. When I turned toward it, Vincent was walking over while clapping with mana-infused hands.
“That’s a doppelganger. You’ve seen one before, right?”
I nodded. I had encountered one during the entrance exam. It hadn’t had horns back then, though.
“You handled it well. Honestly, I didn’t say anything at all, so I didn’t think you’d actually figure it out.”
“Glad to hear it.”
Seeing us converse so casually seemed to enrage the doppelganger.
“Who the hell are you?! How dare you act so relaxed with me standing right here!”
Vincent picked at his ear in annoyance.
“Who am I? Who are you? Some nobody who’d die in a single strike from me shouldn’t be talking so much.”
“What? I don’t di—”
The doppelganger’s head was sliced clean in two before it could finish.
When I looked at Vincent, he was already sheathing his sword.
“Doppelgangers are demons too,” he said casually. “Because of things like this, you can’t just trust heroes blindly. The way to tell them apart is obvious, just like you saw. That’s all you need to distinguish.”
Vincent pulled out a mana communication device from his pocket and continued.
“That’s enough for today. Let’s head back to the lodge.”
Thanks to Vincent bringing the mana communicator, we were able to return to our lodging much faster than expected after finishing the day’s training.