Garbage Dump
The demon village was strangely similar to Grasis’s village, yet somehow different as well.
Grasis’s land and the demons’ territory were right next to each other, so the two must have rubbed off on one another over the years without either side fully realizing it.
“The atmosphere is kind of odd….”
That was Daeun’s verdict as she looked around.
“Everyone’s smiling, but it still feels kind of shadowed…. I wonder if something’s going on?”
“No idea.”
How would I know?
“Even Professor Know-It-All Cana doesn’t know everything?”
“...Are you teasing me?”
“No!”
It didn’t sound serious from any angle, honestly.
Only for a moment did I shoot her a suspicious look before we kept following the man down the street.
All around us, wary and curious gazes flickered in our direction.
Just as we weren’t used to demons, they didn’t seem especially used to humans either.
When I kept fidgeting with my cape under all those eyes, the man, noticing my discomfort, casually opened the conversation.
“It’s because it’s rare to see a perfectly healthy person.”
“A healthy human?”
“Yes. Most of the humans we’ve seen were either poisoned by Magi and dying, or else charging at us as though they’d rather die than back down.”
“...Ah.”
The man didn’t say what became of those humans, but it wasn’t difficult to guess the rest of the story from what he left unsaid.
It probably hadn’t been a pleasant end.
Daeun must have thought the same, because her chattering mouth finally fell shut.
For some reason, the air felt heavier.
Wrapped in that heavier mood, the man stopped in front of a building.
“We’re here.”
“This is…?”
“The lord’s residence.”
“Residence?”
I looked the building over.
It was certainly larger and fancier than the others around it.
That said, it didn’t feel nearly grand enough to belong to someone important.
If I had to describe it, it looked more like a wealthy merchant’s house.
Creaaak.
Then the residence door opened.
“I told you, it’s not a lord or a residence….”
A woman’s voice drifted out from the doorway.
The person who emerged looked as languid as her voice sounded.
Her already bloodless demon complexion was made even more striking by the dark circles under her eyes, making her look as though she might collapse at any moment.
Through her tousled, ebony-black hair jutted a long black horn, larger than the horn of the man who had guided us here.
“Her horn….”
But her right horn had been broken off, or so it seemed, leaving it less than half the size of the other one.
“Oh, this…?”
When Daeun muttered upon seeing the ragged cross-section, the woman lifted a hand to her head and brushed her fingers over the broken horn.
“It got cut off.”
“Would it be rude to ask how that happened?”
“Not really…. It’s a scar I’m proud of….”
True to her words, pride was the only thing plain on the woman’s face.
“I got it while fighting a Dimensional Beast in Laxia…. It was a pretty strong one…. Of course, I brought it down with my own hands.”
Hmph.
As she said it, the woman puffed her chest out.
It was a sufficiently bold gesture, but between the fact that she looked even younger than Daeun and that languid air about her, she didn’t seem especially imposing.
Much like the residence she lived in.
“Lady Lord. Perhaps we should go inside first.”
“Ah, should we…?”
The longer they lingered in whispered conversation before the residence, the more eyes turned our way.
Maybe word had already spread that humans were here, because there were definitely more demons circling nearby now.
At the man’s careful suggestion, the woman waved us in.
“Come in….”
“Then I’ll be on my way again.”
“Mm. Good work….”
Once the man left, only the woman and the three of us remained in the residence.
After leading us to what looked like a reception room, the woman reached for a teapot and then hesitated.
“Should I make tea…? Ah, wait. Humans can’t drink this, can they…?”
“Huh? Why not?”
“There’s Magi in the tea leaves…. Though if you’re still standing fine by the time you got here, maybe it’s okay, but you never know….”
“Ah. I suppose that could be a problem. In that case, I’ll just have water….”
“I’ll have some.”
“Mm?”
The woman looked at me, puzzled by my answer.
Her eyes ran from my head to my toes once before returning to my face.
“If you want to drink it, I won’t stop you, but… it’s a bit bitter. Are you sure you’re okay with that…?”
“...Anything sweet?”
“There was, but it’s all gone….”
“Then I’m not drinking it.”
“Right… What about you?”
“Yes, please.”
In the end, only Celine was served tea.
A fragrant, slightly bitter scent drifted through the reception room.
Click.
“Whew… I guess we should start by introducing ourselves….”
Setting down her teacup, the woman let out a long breath and spoke.
“I’m Atisha…. You can call me Ati or Tisha, whichever you like….”
When Atisha finished speaking at her unhurried pace, she took a sip of tea.
“I’m Johnny. Please just call me Johnny.”
“Canaria.”
“I’m Celine. It’s a pleasure to meet you.”
Following her lead, we introduced ourselves too.
Atisha, who had been paying us only half attention, picked up the teapot.
Trickle…
Then, as she refilled the empty cup, she asked us, “What brings humans here…?”
“We’re going to Laxia.”
Flinch.
“...Laxia…?”
The tea streaming into her cup stopped dead.
“There’s only one Laxia I know….”
“That’s the one. Your homeland, the demon continent Laxia.”
“Hmm….”
Sweeping away the sleepy look from her face, Atisha narrowed her eyes.
I could faintly hear someone beside her swallow.
“Setting aside whether you even have the ability to get there or not… why would humans want to go to a place like that…?”
“You’re pretty wary.”
“If someone as strong as you said they wanted to go to Laxia, wouldn’t you be wary too…?”
“Mm, fair enough.”
It was a remark that seemed to see right through my level.
Some powerful stranger had suddenly shown up and said they wanted to visit my… or rather, my race’s homeland.
Of course they’d be suspicious first.
So instead of protesting her suspicion, I cut straight to the point.
“We came to fulfill your race’s long-cherished wish. …Would that answer your question?”
“That’s not something humans would normally know.”
Clink.
“How on earth did you know that?”
After setting the teapot down, Atisha’s eyes made her wariness unmistakable.
Before long, an ominous Magi began seeping in thin streams from her broken horn.
How irritating.
As though swatting away a mosquito, I waved my hand and brushed the Magi aside, then called for the one person who could vouch for me.
“Celine.”
“Yes.”
Reading my intent perfectly, Celine unleashed her holy power with a force I’d never seen from her before.
A golden tide rolled through the room, driving back the Magi that had begun to spread there.
Seeing the holy power gently push the Magi away, the way one might soothe a frightened child, Atisha’s eyes widened into saucers.
“That much holy power… Are you a saintess or something…?”
“Not yet.”
“So there’s a chance, then….”
Atisha nodded.
“All right…. If that’s the case, then it makes sense….”
Good thing I brought Celine after all.
Nothing beats showing your holy power and having people accept it without needing a whole speech and debate.
Of course, the real reason I’d brought her was to protect the group from Magi and to prepare for any unexpected trouble, but being versatile was never a bad thing.
“Wait a second!”
“Mm?”
Daeun, who had been hopping in place like a child left out of the conversation, suddenly cut in.
“What exactly is that long-cherished wish?”
“Mm?”
Atisha looked at her as if asking, Who are you supposed to be?
Daeun flinched a little under that cool, almost icy stare, but she didn’t back down.
“The other two seem to know… but you don’t…?”
“I just came along because I was following Cana. Whenever I ask, she says I’ll find out later and doesn’t tell me, so how would I know?”
“It’s rude to speak of someone else’s circumstances without permission.”
“...Don’t throw common sense at me right now!”
Why was she shouting?
Daeun really did have a short fuse sometimes.
I asked Atisha for permission.
“Is it okay if I tell her?”
“I don’t mind….”
Atisha granted permission with surprising ease.
I’d thought demons would feel ashamed of having left Laxia and might hesitate even if asked, but apparently not.
Well, now that I had permission, there was no point dragging it out any longer. Daeun might start pouting if I kept her waiting.
“The demon race’s original name was the Purifier Clan.”
“The Purifier Clan?”
“Yes.”
Once she heard that, another question naturally followed.
“Purifying what?”
As expected, Daeun gave the textbook reaction.
“Magi.”
To purify Magi and return it to ordinary mana.
That was the fate and duty Edel had entrusted to the demons, the Purifier Clan.
In the world of Silia, there existed an energy called mana.
People often thought of mana as nothing more than a means to grow stronger, or as a convenient kind of power, but in truth it was as essential to life as the air that living beings breathed.
The problem was that, like air, mana could also be polluted.
As it passed through the bodies of countless living things, and as time went on, mana became contaminated and turbid. Once polluted, it turned against life instead of supporting it.
Knowing that, Edel created a system.
She gathered polluted mana in one place, purified it, and then released the purified mana back into the world.
A circulating system that encompassed the entire world of Silia.
“That polluted mana is what people call ‘Magi.’”
“Then the demon continent Laxia is….”
“Yes. Exactly.”
The endpoint of the system Edel had made.
The place where polluted mana was purified and restored to its original form.
That was the true nature of the demon continent Laxia.
If you thought of Magi as trash, then calling it a trash heap wasn’t really wrong.
Of course, no one had likely known that and named it so on purpose.
“And the ones in charge of purification at that enormous purification site were—”
“Us. The Purifier Clan….”
“Now that you hear it, it’s not such a big deal, is it?”
Daeun, who had been staring blankly at my explanation, blinked.
“...No, it’s actually a huge deal.”