Suspicious Movements - Part 5
Once Seere and Secily had left, Jophrey finally let out a long, shaky breath as sensation returned to his previously rigid body. He turned to Eri and asked,
“W-what in the world were they?”
“…That doesn’t seem to be the important part right now, Sir Jophrey. What do you plan to do with them?”
“Ah… right. Of course.”
Rather than drawing his sword, Jophrey reached into his coat and pulled out something else. When Eri saw the diamond-shaped gem, she tilted her head in confusion.
“What is that? I can feel magical power coming from it.”
“This is a tool capable of detecting demons. If you bring it close to one, it reacts.”
“…Pardon?”
This was the first Eri had ever heard of such a convenient device. She stared at it for a long moment, finding it rather strange.
“How does it work?”
“I’m not entirely sure myself. We simply received it from the Grand Temple. I was told it was bestowed by His Holiness…”
“By His Holiness?”
So the Pope possessed an item like this. Eri sensed something off and quietly observed Jophrey’s actions.
He approached the villagers gathered in the town hall, holding the device, and shouted in a commanding tone.
“I am Jophrey, Senior Knight of the Lilium Holy Knight Order! We will now begin the demon detection operation. Cease all resistance and cooperate immediately. If you refuse to cooperate…”
His sword slid smoothly from its sheath. Jophrey leveled the blade at the farmers who were only trying to protect themselves with farming tools.
“I cannot guarantee your lives.”
“You’re the ones tearing the village apart, and you dare—!”
“We will clearly identify them with this tool, and those found innocent will be protected by us. Therefore, cooperate.”
“You’re destroying our homes and you call that protection?! You stupid bastard!!”
“It seems words won’t suffice.”
It happened in an instant. Jophrey’s sword flashed in a clean, concise motion befitting a senior knight of the Holy Order, decapitating the shouting villager on the spot.
…Is he even sane?
Watching from behind, Eri narrowed her eyes in utter disbelief. No matter how necessary it was to root out demon spies, slaughtering civilians so casually should never be permitted. Jophrey wasn’t acting on madness—this behavior had clearly been authorized from above.
And that detection tool of his was suspicious as well.
After Jophrey made an example of the man, the villagers trembled in fear and submitted to the inspection. One by one, he pressed the device against them. Those who triggered a reaction were executed where they stood.
“Ugh—!!”
“W-what crime could this child possibly have committed…!”
“Mooommm!!”
Every single person Jophrey judged as a demon and executed…
…has no magical power at all.
There wasn’t a trace of it. If they were truly spies sent from the Demon Realm, they should have possessed magical power. Even if they had been brainwashed humans, anyone who had visited the Demon Realm would carry heavy traces of its energy. The air there was saturated with it, after all.
Eri and Dane had gone through the process of erasing those traces before crossing into the Human Realm. Yet these people… were simply ordinary humans.
In the end, the tool was a fraud.
There was an old saying: humanity’s greatest enemy is humanity itself, and nothing kills more humans than other humans. Eri was experiencing that truth firsthand.
This was all pointless. So why was the Pope repeating such meaningless acts? That was the real question.
Just then, Jophrey let out a slightly flustered sound.
“Hm? Why is it doing this?”
“…Is something wrong?”
“Ah, the tool has stopped working. I’ll need to call for another knight.”
“…Excuse me, would it be alright if I tried repairing it? Since I can sense magical power from it, it must be a magical device. I might be able to fix it.”
“Oh, would you really?”
Without a hint of suspicion, Jophrey handed the device to Eri. She examined it briefly before speaking.
“It might be difficult for me alone… but I believe my colleague could repair it.”
“Truly?”
“I’ll take it to him. If it turns out he can’t fix it, I’ll bring another holy knight myself. After all, you need to stay here to prevent anyone from escaping the town hall.”
“That’s true.”
Jophrey nodded.
“Then I’ll leave it to you.”
“Yes.”
Eri took the device and headed off, following the path Seere and Secily had taken.
"Summonitiones"
Conceals the area using fox tribe magic. Creates a powerful barrier that hides everything within from outside detection.
Seere and Secily had not gone far. They had retreated to a quiet corner of the village to soothe their foul moods.
Eri glanced around to make sure no one was watching, then approached them.
“Your Majesty.”
“What? Why are you here?”
“I have something to ask. This… is the demon-detection tool that holy knight was using earlier.”
“There’s something like that?”
Seere, who still looked irritated, approached with renewed interest. Eri handed her the device.
“It seems to be fake. He said it had stopped working, so I brought it under the pretense of repairing it.”
“Really? Well done.”
Seere examined the tool carefully. After a moment, her expression grew strange. She passed it to Secily beside her.
“Secily, take a look at this.”
“Yes, Your Majesty.”
Secily turned the device over in her hands, then frowned deeply.
“Your Majesty, this is…”
“Right?”
“…Yes.”
Seere took the device back and stared at it for a while longer before giving a small, decisive nod.
“Human.”
“Yes?”
“We need to show this to Teacher.”
“Is there something strange about it?”
“No matter how I look at it, this doesn’t seem to be an object from the Demon Realm… yet the magical power contained within it is clearly demonic. It’s not the impure mana of the Human Realm.”
An item not from the Demon Realm, yet infused with its power. What could that possibly mean?
Eri asked with a puzzled expression.
“Then… what does that mean?”
“There’s only one possibility.”
Seere wasn’t entirely certain, but Secily—who had once served under Seir von Devata, the second-ranked Great Demon King—recognized it immediately. She had felt this presence many times on the second floor, which had been Seir’s stronghold.
“It came from even deeper below.”
This was an artifact from a place far beneath the Demon Realm—a realm accessible only through the first floor. It was an object from Hell.
Seere lightly tossed the gem into the air and caught it again.
“We really should show this to Teacher.”
“Yes, I agree.”
When Secily nodded, Eri spoke up in slight panic.
“But… I told the holy knight I was taking it to be repaired. If we just take it like this, we’ll definitely be found out.”
They had no idea how long Nahen would take. Until his work was finished, they needed to avoid anything that might raise suspicion.
Seere answered simply.
“Then we just need to create a situation where we won’t be found out, don’t we?”
“How would we…”
“It’s easy.”
Seere briefly drew out her magical power. It sparkled around her like a galaxy embroidered across the night sky.
“Summon.”
A wide magic circle spread beneath Seere’s feet, and a sword rose from the ground. It was a peculiar blade with an entirely black body and a vivid red gem embedded in its center.
It was Seere’s demonic sword—the Sword of Blood Tears.
Eri felt a chill run down her spine at the sight of it. The red gem on the hilt looked almost like an eyeball.
“Y-Your Majesty? Why the sword…?”
When the flustered Eri asked what she was planning to do, Seere gave Secily a simple order.
“Secily, make sure no one escapes.”
“Yes, Your Majesty.”
Secily was Seere’s loyal servant. Even though she knew this wasn’t what Nahen had intended, she followed Seere’s will. She plucked several strands of fur from her tail, which she kept hidden with magic, and scattered them into the air while channeling her power.
“Cover the sky and conceal this place.”
The scattered fur stiffened in midair before plunging into the ground like stakes. This was the unique magic style of the kitsune tribe—the fur acted as a medium to spread her power over a wide area.
Thanks to Secily’s spell, the entire village and its surroundings were covered by a massive veil. The others might not have noticed it clearly, but as a mage, Eri could feel it distinctly.
This person… isn’t she just a maid?
Yet the barrier now covering the area radiated an incredibly dense magical power—so thick it was almost nauseating.
Seere, on the other hand, looked satisfied. A faint smile touched her lips.
“Good work, Secily.”
“Thank you.”
“Your Majesty, this… you can’t mean…”
It wasn’t hard to guess why she had sealed the area. When Eri realized what Seere was thinking and began to look afraid, Seere laughed.
“Don’t be scared, human. I won’t kill you.”
Then she added one more thing.
“At least not until Teacher decides you’re no longer useful.”
Seere raised her sword. She moved toward the source of the most unpleasant feeling she had sensed earlier.
As Seere vanished in the blink of an eye, Eri let out a deep sigh. It didn’t seem like she intended to leave any evidence, so they might be fine for a while. Still, the Guild and the Temple would eventually realize that everyone here had disappeared.
“…Well, Nahen should finish his work before then.”
A few days would be more than enough. Nahen was more than capable of that. This wasn’t blind hope—Eri had witnessed his power with her own eyes, so she could say it with confidence.
“Lady Secily.”
“What is it?”
“Since I’m human, I don’t really understand… but are His Majesty and the other Demon Kings usually this cruel?”
“…They are.”
“Pardon?”
“His Majesty is still quite young and relatively gentle compared to the others. But Demon Kings are a race that rules over and dominates others by nature. A certain degree of cruelty is inevitable. They feel no hesitation in eliminating others for their own benefit or the benefit of their faction… In any case, that is the kind of beings they are.”
Surprisingly, Secily explained it kindly. But just as Eri was about to thank her, she added one more thing.
“So don’t forget that you could be eliminated at any time. Regardless of the fact that you are one of Nahen’s limbs, His Majesty could easily dispose of you on a whim.”
“…Yes.”
So that was why she had explained so kindly—it was a warning. When Eri’s expression darkened, Secily looked slightly apologetic.
“It would be a shame for one of Nahen’s carefully raised limbs to disappear so meaninglessly. I only told you because I was somewhat concerned, so please don’t take it too badly.”
“…Concerned?”
“I’ve seen how you’ve lived these past five years. Even though you’re human, one can’t help but grow a little attached…”
Especially since Secily was a maid at the Demon King’s castle, she had often delivered meals to Eri and Dane. Back then, the two had still been young, so from Secily’s perspective they had looked like children working hard at their studies.
Of course, at first she had thought, They’re only human. No matter how hard they try, what can they really accomplish? But as they continued to produce results, her opinion had gradually changed.
“Anyway, the point is, try not to die easily. And be careful with your words and actions so you don’t offend His Majesty.”
“D-did I make some kind of verbal slip?”
“…Just don’t say anything that might cause His Majesty to misunderstand things about Nahen. That’s all you need to do.”
Eri tilted her head in confusion, but Secily was remembering the situation from earlier. If she hadn’t explained, Eri would have been misunderstood.
At that moment, a tremendous roar like an explosion echoed from far away. Eri flinched in surprise, but Secily simply gazed in that direction with a calm expression.
“It has begun.”
“Is His Majesty doing that?”
“Most likely.”
“His Majesty… doesn’t intend to leave any of the humans here alive, does he?”
“…Why? Have you grown attached?”
“No?”
Eri’s lips curved up slightly. The reason she had been flustered when Seere decided to kill all the humans was simply because she worried it would ruin Nahen’s plan. In other words, from the very beginning, the lives of these people had meant nothing to her.
“Whether they all die or not has nothing to do with me. It’s not like he’s going to kill me, right?”
After living in the Demon Realm for the past five years, Eri had already become twisted. It had started the moment she learned the full truth behind the death of her most precious and beloved friend.
“I was thinking about how I could help.”
“…There’s no need for you to help. I don’t think he’d like others interfering.”
“Then I suppose I’ll just stay still.”
That day, it took Seere less than an hour to eliminate every holy knight, adventurer, and villager present after she drew her sword.