Touching My Subordinate? (2)
The Blood Lord.
So this fellow was Isaac's loyal retainer. "Blood Lord" was the epithet given to each of the fourteen masters who guarded the King's treasures.
The Spider of Blood, master of blood — his true name was Shavnak. One of the Skeleton Demon King's closest bodyguards, and his steward of silent, unwavering service.
In a word, he was a retainer so fanatically loyal that he would die on command without a second's hesitation. Still, he was a docile one at heart — Isaac had never imagined he'd go so far as to storm the Holy Empire all by himself. And he'd known the man valued his lord's life above his own, but…
[Gyaak! That man, he's completely lost his mind?!]
I just didn't expect this idiot to be the one flying off the handle first, pulling the whole "you die, I live" routine.
Thud! Thud!
The retainer was seething at the sight of the priests who had brought Isaac in — seething to the point where he looked ready to slaughter them on the spot. Not that Isaac would have minded if he gave the bastards a thrashing, but at this rate, it was the retainer who was about to die.
Why?
Perhaps reacting to the surging mana, the restraints embedded in the retainer's neck, hands, and torso had begun to glow. The restraints themselves were made of a special substance no demon could ever break — and etched densely across them was the Pope's own holy law. The principle was simple: the moment the wearer showed aggression, the Pope's power would erupt from the shackles and blow him apart from within.
The retainer clearly knew this himself, yet the sight of his master being hauled in had driven him past the point of endurance. But calm down, you idiot. I wasn't dragged here against my will.
[That's right. Not dragged in — more like walked in under escort.]
At Whisper's words, the retainer's demonic energy surged even higher— wait, what are you doing?! The Pope's shackles were reacting faster and faster. No, react was the wrong word — the retainer's body was already starting to melt under the holy power— what?! MELTING?!
[Whoa, he's going to die.]
Hey! You want to get us killed? Why would you provoke someone this quiet and well-behaved!
[Ah, my apologies. He didn't come dragged in — he came after being threatened. So — wait, no!]
CRASH! BOOM! KUOOOO!!!
Hey!! How do you leave out the most important part of a sentence?! Get your subject straight when you talk!
'Now he's got the wrong idea! He thinks I was the one being threatened!'
[Ahh, that wasn't what I meant. Don't misunderstand! What I meant was — our master said he'd bite his tongue and die on the spot, but thankfully it ended with him just having to bow his head!]
KA-BOOM!!
Kuo, kuooooo!
Gashes split across the prison walls. The retainer, lost to reason, was seconds from breaking himself out.
How DARE you make my master bow his head! How DARE you put such words in my master's mouth!
That seemed to be the gist of his fury. The cell shook violently enough to collapse, and the Pope's power — the kind that crushed even 9th-tier demons without effort — activated.
Isaac and the priests alike went ghost-white, for entirely different reasons.
"Hold on — that demon's going to die before we can even execute him!"
Isaac shot a glare at Whisper, too. You lunatic! Because of you, the kid's going to melt before I can even save him!! Do you have any idea how lethal holy power is to a demon?! Can't you see him dissolving?!
[Ah… this isn't right. No, what I meant was — mmmph!]
Isaac forcibly sealed Whisper's power.
You little bastard. You've got plenty to say and never stop saying it, but credit where it's due — you did help. The moment the retainer went berserk, the wariness that had been fixed on Isaac scattered elsewhere.
"Someone bring the Bishop — now!"
"He might try to escape!"
At the flustered priests' shouts, Isaac smiled a slow, wide smile.
This was his chance.
A chance to slip the tool that would break those shackles into his retainer's hands.
'Now.'
Not that it made things safe. Three priests had become two, and all that had happened was that the targets of their attention had been split. The surveillance never stopped. And these weren't fools — even in a sudden emergency, there was no way they'd miss someone stuffing escape tools into a prison cell.
'What do I do? Do I go back to the original plan and cast a distraction spell?'
He hadn't expected them to suspect him this deeply — using magic now might inflame their suspicion further. But this was an emergency. A little risk was worth—
That was when it happened.
Tug, tug.
"!"
The baby skeleton hiding against Isaac's back tugged at his clothes.
"Dalak-dalak-dalak!" (Master, let me deliver it. Let me deliver it.)
Oho! What a good little thing!
And the skeleton that had peeked down from his waist had changed, too. Perhaps thanks to the cord he'd been wound with — the prize from the Blue Pentagon — a skeleton that had been merely forearm-sized had shrunk to the size of an actual palm.
Since that cord erased demonic energy, it must have had a power-sealing effect on magical beasts as well. Which meant the skeleton's body had shrunk because his strength had been sealed.
In any case — a miniature skeleton that size, a lowest-tier magical beast with barely a wisp of mana to his name?
'He can slip between the iron bars.'
Better odds to have the skeleton move — the one they didn't even know existed — than to move under Isaac's own surveillance.
Isaac, deciding this worked out nicely, pressed the tool into the little skeleton's hands. It was a stone wrapped in a small cloth — the one and only object in existence that could shatter his retainer's shackles.
'Do you know how much gold I spent getting that tiny little thing?'
Enough money to live lavishly for a lifetime, vaporized in a single transaction — his chest still ached over it. But well. Money exists to be spent when it needs to be spent.
In fact, if the Papacy ever learned their funds had gone toward rescuing a retainer of the Skeleton Demon King, their whole house of cards would collapse on the spot.
Soon the skeleton, hoisting his gift onto his head, went dashing headlong toward the prison cell. Brave as could be, even though he had to know discovery meant death.
Well — he was probably terrified, judging by the way the hands holding the cargo trembled like leaves, even if he didn't show it.
Either way, Isaac wasn't about to let his little skeleton get caught while playing it meek. And sure enough, Isaac flashed a radiant smile at the enemy priests.
"The Red Faith really is something else."
"…?"
At Isaac's words, the Red priests looked at him as if he'd lost his mind.
…Did he just call the Red Faith impressive? Isaac Eshua? A Blue?
What's he scheming? Mockery? A provocation?
But Isaac simply beamed.
"What's the matter? I'm telling you — I genuinely respect you."
[Have you finally submitted to the clergy, Master?]
Yeah, no. Shut up.
He needed to hold the watchers' eyes while the operation ran. If he got caught, one poor lowest-tier magical beast was going to die.
So watch closely, everyone — feast your eyes on how I butter up these bastards.
Isaac flashed the flustered priests a smile so dazzling it could make a viewer fall in love.
"Don't you see? The Fourteen Six Demons? I nearly wet myself the moment I laid eyes on one."
The Red priests' pupils trembled.
…You little bastard. Then why were you grinning in the thing's face like an idiot?
"I just started laughing, out of my mind with fear."
…Wasn't this guy already insane to begin with??
"Which is why the Red Faith is impressive. You people keep things like that as your guards. You looked at that thing and stayed perfectly fine."
"What is that supposed to—"
"Men like you? Back in Blue, you'd be knight-captains."
"Wh… what?"
What is he on about now?
Isaac let out a long, wounded sigh, like a child bearing the weight of the world.
"Brothers, this is actually a secret, but the reason I'm here is on the orders of our House head."
"!"
The priests' ears perked straight up.
"An order from the head of House Blue?"
At their sharp reaction, Isaac smiled slyly. Yes — once a provocation has hooked someone's attention, you have to reel them all the way in. The best way to hold a person's focus is to unravel the secrets of someone they care about. And nothing spikes concentration quite like hearing the secrets of someone you hate.
"It's a family trial. The truth is, my house has entered a succession contest."
A bald-faced lie, of course. Grandfather had no intention of naming an heir anytime soon.
"The task that fell to me was to go and wound one of the Fourteen Six Demons."
If the lie were ever exposed, he'd be punished for deceiving his house and violating Blue doctrine, and the real succession might slip further from his grasp — but so what?
The Red priests looked at each other, visibly stunned.
Blue had already begun selecting a successor? Wait — this was no small matter. This was information of acute sensitivity to every faith in the Empire, and to the cardinals it was as grave as a nation's archenemy changing hands. The whole country would be in an uproar. Of course they couldn't look away.
'More than that — the task is to face a Six Demon?'
'…It does track. It's the house that hunts the Skeleton King, after all.'
'Still — sending a ten-year-old to handle a 9th-tier demon? Isn't that a death sentence?!'
"So, brothers — how about coming over to Blue? Interested?"
The Red priests' pupils shook.
B-blue? So that knight-captain remark wasn't empty flattery after all?!
'Is this… a recruitment offer?'
"If you want it, I could genuinely bring you into Blue as knight-captains. Your current wages wouldn't even compare."
By this point, even Whisper sounded worried.
[Just how do you intend to clean up the aftermath, Master?]
But regardless, Isaac's eyes narrowed as he checked the prison cell.
'Oh! Yes! There it is!'
While he'd been busy buttering up these imbeciles, the baby skeleton had completed his mission! The skeleton, who had tucked the item neatly into the retainer's trouser cuff, was scrambling out between the iron bars as fast as his little bones could carry him.
Isaac, having woven his spell over the Red priests, applauded silently in his heart.
Yes! Perfect! Good boy!
Keep coming! Come straight to my arms—
KANG!!!!
The sound of bone cracking against iron rang through the air. The baby skeleton, rushing out in a panic, had smashed his head straight into the bars.
At the loud noise, the Red priests whipped their heads toward the cell.
"What was that? What's that sound!"
"Check inside the prison!"
Isaac's face went white as a sheet.
…The little bastard got wrecked before he could reach my arms!!
Worse — his head had turned backwards on impact, and now he couldn't get out at all!
Granted, the skeleton was doing his squirming best, twisting his skull around trying to squeeze free… but you idiot, that's the wrong way! Not that way! That's deeper into the cell!
And as the priests drew closer, the skeleton redoubled his efforts to find the way out. And bonked into the bars again.
"There's no way a sound like that should come from a prison cell."
"Somewhere around here—"
No! This is it — total annihilation!
Just as Isaac, for once in his life, truly panicked—
KWAANG!!!
"GYAAAH!!"
The retainer inside the cell erupted with a torrent of demonic energy — and slammed his own head into the bars.
Kang! Kang! Kang!
Apparently having caught on to the situation, the retainer was deliberately drawing every eye to himself — and taking the blame on his own head while he was at it.
The flustered priests' eyes blazed.
"This fiend dares—!"
The priests immediately invoked their arts of torture.
KRAK!
With a flash of scarlet lightning, the Red Faith's pride — its holy arts of interrogation — lanced into the retainer.
The retainer writhed in agony and collapsed.
And in that gap, the skeleton — his head finally turned back the right way around — came slithering back to Isaac, bawling his little eye sockets dry.
Isaac hastily tucked him into his jacket and braced himself against the wall.
Hah… that took ten years off my life.
The skeleton squeaked apologetically, as if to say he was sorry for the trouble.
"Dalak-dalak-dalak…" (Sorry, sorry…)
No. You did great.
That brute of mine is tough as hell — he considers this a warm-up.
'Anyway. Mission accomplished.'
With the tool delivered, the retainer could now break his own restraints. And once the shackles were off — well, from that point on, it was simply a matter of him cutting loose.
Isaac sent a silent greeting toward his retainer.
'I'll have you out in no time. See you at the execution ceremony.'
With the operation done, Isaac played his part — pretending to be poisoned by demonic miasma, he staggered and swayed, mustering every ounce of frailty he had.
"Young Lord!"
"Ah… perhaps the Fourteen Six Demons were too much for me after all."
"Oh…!"
Whether it was the secret he'd shared or the kind words, the Red priests seemed to have developed a genuine fondness for him — they rushed to catch him.
"Are you all right? Why on earth did you insist on coming to see the Six Demons!"
"…What kind of man vows to hunt the Skeleton King if he can't even handle a Six Demon?"
At his labored struggle, the priests stared at Isaac in surprise. They'd taken him for a blustering little brat — was he already carrying a mission like that in his heart?
"We'll escort you home at once!"
"…?"
Wow, these idiots really want to get recruited that badly. I can't promise I'll cover for whatever happens later, but sure. Fine. All that mattered was getting out of this prison.
Just get out. That's all—
"One moment. Before you leave, there's a small inspection you'll need to undergo."
"!!"
The entrance building of the Papal prison.
The only building through which anyone could leave the cells was packed with people.
Red inquisitors. And one of them stepped boldly into Isaac's path.
"Young Lord. You may remember me, but—"
"Nope. Don't recall you at all."
"!"
At Isaac's dismissive brush-off, familiar laughter and a familiar voice rang out from among the priests.
"Pfft! See? I told you he wouldn't remember you."
The one who emerged, grinning, was none other than the Red Faith's third son — Niger Sephet.
"You're a mere apprentice who crossed paths with him once in a dining hall, after all. But I, on the other hand—"
"And who were you again?"
Crack.
At Isaac's supremely indifferent expression, Niger bristled with fury. But he swallowed it down, and soon smiled as if he'd been waiting for exactly this.
"Before you go, I'll be inspecting the medallion you carry."
"The medallion?"
"Yes. Did you think the head of House Red handed out cardinal's medallions for nothing? That medallion also serves to test one's faith. You blockhead."
"!"
Niger grinned, as if he'd been savoring this moment all along.
"The medallion you received changes color according to the depth of your faith. The weaker your faith, the blacker it turns. So then — shall we see what color the rose on your medallion has become?"
Niger held out his hand.
Isaac flexed his facial muscles into a wide, sunny smile.
Haha. You squinty-eyed bastard.
The moment I'm out of here, I'm going to put an eye out first.