Chapter 118
Chapter 118
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Translator: penny
Chapter: 118
Chapter Title: Investigation (2)
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It should have been a moment to celebrate Carlyle's survival. Under normal circumstances, anyway.
“⋯⋯.”
“⋯⋯.”
A horribly tense atmosphere filled the room.
The cake someone had brought sat untouched, while everyone eyed each other in silence.
Especially heavy was the weight of Blackie, clinging to Carlyle's stomach with a woeful expression.
Rubbing at Carlyle's injured spot with its paw, it gazed up at him from below⋯⋯
“⋯⋯.”
⋯⋯No, actually, isn't it normal not to cling if someone's hurt?
Just leave it be. Around Carlyle, it sticks like a magnet and shows no sign of letting go.
And honestly, Blackie at least expressing something was a relief.
The others were utterly silent, to the point of suffocation.
“Why's the mood like this?”
In the end, Carlyle awkwardly broke the silence, but an even more awkward quiet answered him.
Everyone in the room stared at Carlyle with grave expressions.
“⋯⋯I heard all the treatment's done.”
Panhima voiced it with a serious face.
Probably prompted by the bandages wrapped tightly around Carlyle's face.
“⋯⋯Ah, this?”
Facial collapse, broken nasal bone, shattered cheekbone.
⋯⋯The result of some human's dropkick.
The very person who'd left the shoeprint on his face was pretending ignorance off to the side.
“Well, it'll heal quick enough.”
“⋯⋯Hmph.”
Panhima glanced briefly at Gray.
Gray, receiving the look, scowled fiercely back at her.
“What?”
“When a comrade's hurt this bad and you dodge explaining, it's usually your doing.”
“⋯⋯.”
A terrifyingly sharp observation.
Even Gray was left speechless for a moment, mouth shut.
“⋯⋯Don't know.”
Seeing Gray gruffly turn her head, everyone present instinctively knew.
Ah, so she's the one who did it⋯⋯
And as always, Carlyle was the one to defend her in such cases.
“Still, it's not a major injury, so let's move past it.”
Clearing his throat, Carlyle surveyed the room.
“Now that we're all gathered⋯⋯”
A noble-rank demon being summoned wasn't an issue that ended with just that one.
They always came in packs. Even if the Hero had taken one down with dragon might, the real work was just beginning.
Fortunately, Gray bringing back Gregory's head was all for this purpose.
They needed to squeeze that bastard for info on the current situation.
But.
“Where's Cardinal Felix?”
Felix was missing.
The one who'd be most helpful in this scenario.
Gray answered curtly to the question.
“What you mentioned? They're already on it.”
“⋯⋯Aha.”
As expected of the Gray Cardinal. She knew priorities cold.
“Where are they? I'd like to join.”
“No.”
Gray's face soured deeply as she replied to Carlyle's question.
“Better if you don't know.”
“⋯⋯.”
“Seriously. Better off not knowing.”
The words carried sincere weight, making Carlyle pause.
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The power of demons defied imagination.
Right here, a demon decapitated in plain view could still live and move its face proved it.
Tenacious vitality, to the point of boredom. Like the resilient bugs that inspired this breed of demon.
“⋯⋯Ah, Gray Cardinal.”
Astarion, wearing Priest Gregory's face, smiled at the person entering the room.
Fitting the bug motif, insect legs writhed from the stump of its severed neck in a gruesome display.
“I know your reputation well. The higher-ups have been quite concerned about your whereabouts.”
Not quite Hero level, but someone they'd eventually have to kill.
A person of that level of threat, they'd said.
“⋯⋯When'd you devour Gregory? Thought he was decent in Exorcism Division. How'd he go down so easy?”
“Well, after a bit of 'justice'.”
“Justice?”
“Kidnapped his daughter, bargained which one he'd feed on first—him or her. Ended up eating both, though.”
“Guess Orthodoxy has its moles. No wonder things have been dragging lately. Time for a purge.”
“Haha. Demons are all hard workers. Got any spare corpses? I've got subordinates who enjoy cannibalism.”
“A few I'd love to dispose of that way. No traces left behind.”
Siona watched Felix and the headless demon exchange words, her face paling in disgust.
⋯⋯Horrific talk, yet their tones suggested casual investment chatter.
Both of them.
Not a shred of humanity.
Demons aside, even knowing Felix was like this, it still turned her stomach sometimes.
“Siona.”
Felix spoke expressionlessly next.
“Anything yet?”
Asking after the 'interrogation' progress, Siona shook her head.
“⋯⋯Not saying a word.”
Even squeezing with dragon might, a mana-based lifeform.
No reaction at all.
“Lost the body worth losing anyway. After the Hero got to it, seems the pain sensors atrophied or something.”
“Hmm.”
“To torture a noble-rank demon, you'd need the Hero at least. Right?”
Astarion smiled as he said it.
⋯⋯Words aside, both Siona and Felix knew it was bullshit.
Simply put, even top-tier dragon mana couldn't match the demonic energy this noble-rank demon wielded.
Gray eating its bones bare-handed was the insane part.
“Good work, Siona. Step out for a bit.”
“⋯⋯Your Eminence. You're not planning to stay alone with it, are you?”
“Yeah. It's fine.”
“⋯⋯.”
Siona glanced between Astarion and Felix.
But soon nodded quietly and left the room.
“⋯⋯Are you in your right mind?”
Even Astarion, watching it all, posed the question.
“What.”
“No matter how weakened I am, bound in all these barriers—think I can't harm a non-combatant?”
Fair point. Even in this state, it'd repelled Siona's dragon mana. No way it couldn't do damage.
But Felix silently packed her pipe with tobacco.
“One thing I'll tell you.”
“Yes?”
“Siona's no fool to miss that. She trusts me, that's why she left.”
“Seemed pretty worried, though.”
“Not worried about me.”
Then.
Her shadow twitched.
“Worried about you.”
And.
The living shadow lunged out, wrapping around Astarion's head on the table.
‘Sorcery?’
Astarion scoffed inwardly.
No holy technique by any stretch, but the counter was clear.
Once more, demonic energy seeped from his severed head. Even with just this remnant, a thick black veil of rot formed around it.
But.
“-?!”
Casually.
Like ripping soggy paper, Felix's shadow tore through and invaded.
The very veil Siona had strained against with dragon mana earlier.
Then, it burrowed straight into his 'ear canal.'
“You mentioned subordinates who enjoy cannibalism earlier?”
“-Guh---urk---!”
“Yeah. Got one like that around me too.”
One that feasted mainly on 'demons.'
Next.
A horrific scream erupted as Astarion's eyes rolled back.
Felix's shadow in his ear.
⋯⋯Was devouring his brain whole.
Voraciously.
Like finding 'prey.'
“Only don't use it much 'cause cleanup's a bitch.”
“Gurk----huh, heeeurk----!”
“Some days are pure shit.”
Mashing his brain to pulp via the shadow in his ear, Felix packed fresh tobacco into her pipe.
The room was splattered with blood gushing from his body in all directions.
Even Felix right in front took the full brunt, yet she didn't flinch.
Deadly aura from the demon blood seared her skin. Like acid, her body sizzled.
But she sat still, accepting it.
As if punishing herself.
“Days when nothing goes right, simplest tasks take double the usual effort, and you'd kill for what you want.”
Smoke bloomed from her mouth, drifting spookily through the room.
“Today's that day for me.”
Rage. Regret. Self-loathing.
They filled her heart.
The kind of feeling where she'd do anything. Even the worst.
Because of her own judgment.
She'd nearly lost the one link to her family.
⋯⋯Maybe even someone who could truly become family.
With that thought, she withdrew her shadow from Astarion momentarily.
Blood poured from his nose, eyes, ears as the demon stared at Felix in disbelief.
“-Shard of God?”
A guttural wail boiled from his mouth.
“⋯⋯A mere human wielding that—?!”
“Not wielding. 'Contract' relation. You lot should get it.”
From the start.
What dwelled in this shadow now.
As the demon said, no mere human-bound thing.
That's why she never fought up front.
⋯⋯If it broke free.
It'd be truly uncontainable.
‘⋯⋯Must inform.’
Brain pocked with holes from the feasting, Astarion barely strung thoughts together.
‘Somehow, must warn—!’
Fair point.
If what slumbered in this shadow matched what Astarion knew.
Demons needed to reclassify 'threats' several levels up.
What he faced now.
To demons, at least—a threat rivaling or exceeding the Hero—!
“Who summoned you, who came with, their traits, their plans. Spill that much, and I'll make it quick.”
“⋯⋯.”
“Could just eat and digest you whole, but that'd take time. Let's wrap this fast for both our sakes.”
Felix wagged her pipestem as she spoke.
“Talk and die easy, or we cozy up long and slow?”
“Go fuck yourself, you damned whore.”
“Hmm. Good choice.”
Felix nodded.
Emotionless, devoid of feeling.
“⋯⋯Truth is, no matter what, I wasn't letting you off easy.”
After what you did to that child.
Then.
The demon's soul-shredding scream echoed chillingly through the room.
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