Say What Now? (1)
Isaac, his work finished, skipped and bounced around with a light spring in his step.
Ahh, yes! This is the life! No priests around, so I can actually use magic. This is paradise!
Damnable priests! So THIS is what it feels like without you bastards breathing down my neck!
It was those same priests who had blocked him at every turn back when he was a minor, whining that sugar would rot his teeth and ruin his health, forbidding him from so much as a single piece of candy!
But now? Just look at the situation!
Even that insufferable goody-two-shoes Shuri, if he found out about this, would probably turn a blind eye to fifty or so pieces of candy…
"Isaac! Confiscating your candy!!"
"……."
By the time Isaac returned to their lodging, Shuri was waiting with his eyes bulging out of his skull.
And what was that? Confiscate the candy? This absolute menace had finally gone and stolen the one small joy an elder was allowed to have in his twilight years??
"Where on earth did you go?! Why couldn't I track your location at all?!!"
This punk. He's been tracking me?
"What if something had happened to you?! If you'd died here, then…!"
Hah, these insufferable priests!
Why do they act exactly like my old subordinates?!
Still, it seemed Shuri had a legitimate reason to be this furious.
"While you were gone, mages showed up here!"
What the hell? Mages?
Why would those bastards come here?
Naizer added anxiously, his voice tight with worry.
"A massive surge of mana erupted in this area. The mages from the Magic Empire came all the way here searching for its source."
Ah. So using magic bled mana into the air. Makes sense.
It couldn't be helped. Even after absorbing all the countless magic cores from the House Eshua estate, he was only at 5th Tier.
So how exactly had he managed to overpower a high-ranking demon in that state?
'I may have pushed myself a bit too hard.'
He had overcharged his magic core far beyond its safe limits to draw out more power.
'And opening the Eight Hot Hells burned through quite a lot too.'
The Eight Hot Hells was the signature spell of the Skeleton Demon King.
The Black Ascension Hell he had used this time was merely the first of the eight hells — but pulling a gate of hell into the mortal realm was, in itself, an extremely high-tier spell.
What's that supposed to mean, you ask?
Well, isn't it obvious!
I had to keep my cool in front of the enemy while my heart and veins were bursting, my whole body screaming in agony — I thought I was dying for real!
Even now, just summoning one pathetic little spell makes me want to keel over! I coughed up blood on the way back, damn it all!
All this torture, just to save one useless subordinate… hah, never mind.
At any rate, he had unleashed power of that caliber — which meant some sharp-eyed watchers had definitely sensed it.
"The mages kept pressing us about whether any priests had been kidnapped! We went looking for you and found bloodstains in the forest! You weren't traceable anywhere! Do you have any idea how worried we were? We thought a demon had found you and hunted you down!"
Hunted? Me? Please. As if you lot could ever track me down in the first place.
Shuri finally seemed to let it go, gripping Isaac's shoulders.
"So… the antidote?"
The antidote, huh?
"Yes! The antidote! The others are in critical condition! All their holy power's been converted to mana — they're on the verge of death!"
"Yippee! Perfect timin— no, no. Ahem. I got it, hyung-nim."
…This little punk. Did he just say 'yippee' out loud?
But while Shuri's pupils were rattling like marbles in a cup, Team Blue's eyes were shining.
"You got it! Good, then…!"
"Anyway, can you take care of this for me? It's important, but it weighs a ton."
Isaac, feigning exhaustion, pointed toward the door — where a suspiciously lumpy bundle sat waiting.
"What is this? Why is it so heavy?"
"Don't eat it, whatever you do."
"Don't eat it?! You little brat, what on earth did you bring back— AAAAHH!!"
When Shuri and Team Blue opened the bag, they let out horrified screams.
"That's a HEAD! A HEADDDD!"
"Wait…! What in the world is that enormous magic core…?"
Isaac clicked his tongue at Team Blue, their mouths flapping open and shut in disbelief.
"What else? That's the proof we earned a perfect King in the Gold Pentagon. Damn bastards — handing out a mission like this? Their faces are going to be a treat when we get back."
This punk — what on EARTH did he go and do?
Shuri pressed a hand to his forehead.
"Did you forget?! The Gold Pentagon's mission was retrieval!"
"Right. Retrieval. Did it. Done."
…What?
"The holy knights. I got them as far as this area, but every last one of them had eaten something or other and was too heavy to carry. My brothers and the other knights will have to go haul them in. You know how it is."
…No, you little bastard. What exactly am I looking at here…
"What do you mean, you brought them here?"
This time, even the knights were stunned.
"Isaac-nim, what does that even…!"
"You brought the kidnapped holy knights here?"
"From that place? The one crawling with demons?"
"What do you think I hauled back here, exactly?"
No, damn it — I'm telling you, that's THAT demon's magic core!
"Ah, fine! If you don't believe me, go look for yourselves."
"?!"
At those words, the knights bolted outside at once.
Before long, an unexpected sound rang out from beyond the door.
"Captain! Ken's here! He's really lying in that bush over there!"
"Shaoul is here too — and Zen!"
"What?!"
Wails of disbelief erupted from not far off.
They stared at Isaac with expressions that said this simply could not be possible.
And honestly, how could they believe it? That whole region where the holy knights had been kidnapped was crawling with mages, layered in a net of surveillance.
They were planning to take the holy knights and ransom them back to the Empire, no doubt.
But would the mages ever allow priests to set foot inside?
Simply put — even getting INTO that place was a mission in itself, on top of dodging uncooperative mages at every turn!
So in order to retrieve the holy knights, they would inevitably have had to fight the mages first!
And even if they somehow pushed through the mages, there was still the demon lurking within. No wonder the Gold Faith had essentially signed Isaac's team's death warrant.
And yet…
'What in the world…!!'
"What's going on here?! Tell me right now!"
Isaac, arms crossed, rolled his eyes this way and that, pretending to think.
Now comes the important part. I can hardly tell them 'I just disciplined a brat or two because I'm the Demon King,' now can I?
"Hmm, well, one of the women who took our medicine happened to be a mage. Looks like she was planning to knock us out and sell us off to the Magic Empire."
"WHAT? A mage? She was trying to sell US to the Magic Empire?!"
"Human trafficking?!"
"Exactly — and we're the world-famous priests of the Holy See, aren't we? They must have caught wind of our mission here. Anyway, with the whole business of holy knights being kidnapped by demons going on, I figure they planned to sell us off, then 'rescue' us from the demons and cut a deal with the Holy Empire."
"That's… insane! How could anyone stoop that low!"
Puheheh. Such naive little lambs. They actually believe it.
"When I threatened to report all this to the Holy See and let THEM handle it, the woman got scared and backed down."
"Scared? Someone like that got scared of a pipsqueak like you?"
The group eyed Isaac doubtfully — and Isaac's eyes flashed, glittering.
"What, don't believe me? Want a live demonstration of exactly how I did it?"
The moment Isaac slowly drew out his rattle, Team Blue nodded, strangely convinced.
"Yeah. That tracks."
"We can see it all too clearly without even watching."
"Honestly, none of that stuff matters at this point, does it…"
"Anyway, when I asked whether she knew where the holy knights were being held, she did — apparently it's a well-known spot. Better yet, she knew a secret route that lets you sneak in past the mages entirely."
"A secret route?!"
That's right. Spatial teleportation magic — a dirty little shortcut. Puheheh. Thanks to that, I skipped right past the mages and plucked out the holy knights, slick as you please.
But Shuri, unaware of all this, was having a fit.
It was suspicious as hell — but either way, the fact that Isaac had entered the mages' territory was undeniable.
"Have you lost your mind?! What if it had been a trap?!"
"Well, better than sending you lot to fight the mages, isn't it? If we'd gone up against them, half of us would be dead. A guardian of the faith can't just let his family die like that."
"……!!"
"Isaac…!"
The eyes of Team Blue, looking at Isaac, trembled with emotion. This brat — I thought he was an insufferable little snot, but he… to think he went this far…!
But Shuri simply stared at Isaac as if the whole story was complete nonsense.
…There's no way this brat has that much sense of responsibility as an Eshua. Not a chance.
"Anyway, the knights weren't poisoned yet, just tied up as emergency rations, so I let them out. This guy here was the demon guarding them — he was snoring away, so I just lopped his head off. Anyway, I'm going to go detox the brothers, so you lot deal with THAT."
Isaac tucked the magic core into his shirt, grinning slyly.
He'd let it sit for a good day — it should be nicely aged by now.
'Time to squeeze every last drop of mana out of this thing.'
But then, as Team Blue packed up their things, one of them said something strange.
"Anyway, thank goodness nothing happened to you. Do you know how terrifying those search mages were? They kept demanding to know if you'd been kidnapped. They said they were worried about you."
Isaac, hearing this, nearly choked on air.
What? Worried? THEM?
"The bastards are sitting on their asses worried? Why would mages give two shits about a priest? Those creepy little vermin…"
"That's quite a mouth on you, isn't it?"
"!"
Hooded figures were filing into the first-floor lobby. They looked like the ones who'd been searching the area.
'They're hiding it, but judging by their posture, they're nobles and their attendants.'
They were mages.
Well, this region is technically a neutral state — but it's still the land of mages. Of course there'd be mages around.
"Good to see your party made it back safely. It would have been quite the headache if the famous direct-line Eshua heirs died on our soil."
Typical of the continent's Five Great Faiths — apparently even the mages know the Eshua name well. But—
"Hey, did YOU tell them? That we're Eshua?"
Shuri's gaze said there's no way that happened — and the search party swept their eyes over Isaac, smiling.
"Oh dear. You don't seem to know yourselves very well, do you? An Eshua could stand in a crowd of a hundred thousand and be picked out at a glance. Anyway — did you happen to see a demon around here?"
Isaac snorted.
These creepy bastards. So they're after the demon that kidnapped the priests, after all.
Well, of course they were.
That demon was the very one who had laid waste to the Holy See's apprentice priests fourteen years ago. And if it could evade pursuit from the holy knights, how strong must it be? Its magic core must be absolutely monstrous.
'Well, these are the same people who covet dragons and even Holy Spirits.'
Word was they'd demanded the magic cores of the Fourteen Six Demons during this very execution ceremony.
There was no way they'd overlook a demon wandering into their own territory.
But did you really think I'd hand over MY prey to you? Not in this lifetime, you vermin.
'Besides — you're too late, anyway.'
Meanwhile, Shuri swallowed hard and looked at Isaac.
That brat. He's meticulous.
He said 'perfect King.' That means he's planning to submit the demon's head along with its magic core as proof.
But if the mages seized the magic core, the evidence would vanish.
And sure enough, Isaac smiled sweetly.
"We haven't encountered any demons, so wake up from that dream of yours and head home, won't you?"
But the mage's gaze swept over Isaac, suspicious.
"…I can sense the aura of a demon's magic core somewhere here…"
"Impossible. You've probably got one of your own on you, sir."
A strange tension crackled between them.
Shuri swallowed. Mages and priests did not get along — one wrong move and it would turn into open combat.
But the standoff didn't last. The mage looked at Isaac and let out a hollow laugh.
"Well, I suppose an apprentice of the Holy See facing that demon alone would never have survived it anyway."
Puheheh! Not only did I survive — I came back and crushed the thing, you know?
But the mages, huddling together, whispered something unexpected to each other and then left.
"At this rate, it's no different from what 'Halak' said…"
"!"
Shuri's brow furrowed at those words. At the same time, he grabbed Isaac's arm urgently.
"Isaac."
Yeah, yeah. I heard it too.
Halak — Shuri had told him it was the alias of the Eshua family's good-for-nothing uncle. Shuri's face said he wondered if there was some connection — but then he quickly shook his head.
No matter what, there was no way their uncle would put them in danger like that.
"It must be a different person with the same name. It's a common name."
"I wouldn't be so sure."
"What? What's that supposed to…"
"Anyway, clean that stuff up. I'm going to detox the brothers."
"No, hey! At least EXPLAIN, you little—!"
But Isaac waved them all off with a get-out gesture, shooing Shuri and Team Blue out the door entirely.
Once Isaac had returned to his room, he spoke to a woman crouched inside, trembling like a leaf.
"Now then… shall we discuss your payment, hmm?"
Isaac flashed a wicked grin as he looked down at Ash, prostrated on the floor, shaking violently from head to toe.