The Road to the Erebor Kingdom
"So? Sirmiia. Who is this girl?" Angelica asked me with a blank expression. Seeing Angelica's icy demeanor after so long felt strangely unfamiliar.
"I asked who she is."
"It's... a long story if I explain everything. In short, she's a demon hunter."
"You cut that explanation far too short..." The saintess sighed, insisting more details were needed.
"Hello, sisters and brothers. My name is Seria. My job is demon hunter!" Seria greeted the party with a bright, energetic smile.
"Hmm..." Ian regarded Sirmiia with an expression of complete disbelief. "Are you certain? From everything I know, demon hunters are a profession that could never produce a personality like that."
Ian had encountered parties with all sorts of professions during his adventurer days. Demon hunters had been among them. They wielded diverse abilities and weapons, yet they all shared one trait: an unparalleled hatred for demons. Most had lost family or lovers to demons, or had their souls stolen through contracts. That hatred drove them to grow stronger and become demon hunters for revenge.
But the girl calling herself Seria showed not even a trace of vengeful intent. One might assume she was simply hiding those emotions. Yet with her, that assumption felt impossible. No human who wore their feelings so openly could conceal them perfectly. Ian knew from experience how difficult emotions were to control. That was why even the emperor's famed Royal Knights trained to suppress their feelings from childhood—so a single moment of weakness would not fail their duty to protect him. Anyone who could freely manipulate their emotions was either already mad or an emotionless actor. There was no other possibility.
This girl fit neither description. Therefore, she had to be a demon spy sent to assassinate them. Ian reached his conclusion.
'Pure-hearted Sirmiia might be fooled, but I won't be.'
The unidentified girl had to be eliminated immediately.
'...Wait. Why do I need to kill her at all?'
He questioned himself, yet no answer came. Only an instinctive urge to murder the girl.
"Step away from her for now, Sirmiia. That girl is suspicious. She could be a demon spy." Ian drew the holy sword at his waist.
'Actually, I'm the demon here...' I shook my head to dispel the stray thought.
"Ian, calm down and put the sword away. Seria really is a demon hunter. I've already confirmed it." I pulled Seria behind me and warned him. Seria clung to my clothes, trembling in fear.
Crack.
"Sirmiia, get away! That's a demon!" Angelica snarled, fury twisting her face as she drew her blue sand sword from subspace.
"Haah..." Even Angelica, the one I trusted, had reverted to her mad dragon self.
'I was an idiot for expecting anything serious from her.'
Now only the saintess remained as the party's sole sane member. She was their last hope.
"I'll follow Ian's judgment!"
There was no hope left in this party. The saintess I had thought normal now stared at Ian with drug-addled eyes. She looked ready to sell her own organs if it would please him.
'Explaining won't change anything, will it?' Still, I had to try. At least then I wouldn't feel quite so wronged.
"Ian, crazy dragon, listen carefully. Seria belongs to the ancient Mind's Eye clan. The Mind's Eye is—"
"Step back, Sirmiia." Acceleration. Ian chanted the spell and blurred forward in an instant. Apparently the hero could use magic after all.
'Well, if he can cast spells, it would be stranger if he couldn't use simple incantations.'
Ian seized my arm, shoved me aside, and swung his blade straight for Seria's neck.
"Hey!" The lunatic was attacking without even hearing an explanation—the exact behavior I despised most. I flooded mana into my leg and kicked his sword with everything I had.
Clang. Ian's blade missed Seria's crown by a hair's breadth.
'...He actually tried to kill her?' I had half-suspected it, yet I still believed he would stop short at her nape. Ian was an even bigger lunatic than I had imagined.
"Calm down, Ian!"
"Sirmiia, why are you doing this? It's as if you've been brainwashed. That thing is a demon spy."
"What?" Brainwashing? Are you fucking kidding me.
"You're the weird ones here, you know that?"
Freeze Rose. Crack. An ice flower erupted from the ground beneath Seria's feet.
"Shit!" I poured mana into my legs and accelerated. Whoosh. I snatched Seria away at the last possible second, escaping the spell's range. The belatedly blooming ice flower mercilessly tore up rose vines, freezing every plant it touched.
'This is so damn frustrating.' The situation felt far too unnatural to dismiss as mere suspicion. It almost seemed as though something had been done to them.
"Sister, wait just a moment. I'll explain everything." Seria grabbed my arm with trembling hands.
"Wait for what? If you don't want to die, stay glued to me." I circulated mana through every corner of my body. Seconds later, I felt my physical abilities surge.
"This sister is way too unreasonable..." While Seria kept muttering beside me, I wrapped an arm around her waist, channeled mana, and manifested a sword. Normally, taking on Ian, Angelica, and the saintess simultaneously would have been impossible. But Angelica had less than 2% mana remaining. For some reason, both of them were extremely reluctant to attack me directly. The saintess possessed no combat ability anyway. Knocking them all out and forcing them to listen afterward would be far more reliable.
"Huu... haa." After steadying my breathing, I charged straight at Ian. He was the hero. Anything less than my full strength and I would be the one subdued. With the saintess present, ordinary wounds wouldn't kill anyone, so I attacked with lethal intent. I swung at his neck. Ian leaned back and kicked my shoulder. My blade only grazed his nape without drawing blood. I immediately altered my mana's nature, flooding my body with lightning-attribute energy. Yet this alone would never be enough to defeat him. Should I run? No—my pride refused. There was still one option left. I had never wanted to use it in this body; the risk was too great. A human frame lacked a demon's durability, so even success would cause severe damage. But with Angelica as an ally and the saintess's healing available, it was feasible now. Besides, fleeing from Ian would leave me too irritated to sleep. So I would at least land one solid hit on that insufferable talent-mongering hero.
I soothed Seria and set her down at a safe distance. She fussed about wanting to explain herself, but one serious look from me made her reluctantly comply. The moment she moved away, Ian and Angelica's gazes flicked toward her.
'Not happening.'
I scattered killing intent around me, snapping their attention back. 'Good.'
I drew every last drop of residual mana from my circle and coated every cell, blood vessel, and internal organ with it. The delicate manipulation demanded intense focus. Then I slowly pushed the lightning-attribute mana outward.
Srrrk. The escaping lightning suddenly began to rampage violently.
"Huu..."
"Sirmiia, stop that right now!" Angelica shouted, rushing forward. At some point she had activated Dragon Eyes. 'She must have seen the mana flow.'
Ian also sensed something wrong and came running, sword now sheathed.
"I don't know what you're planning, but you'd better stop!"
Too late. I raised the voltage and reversed every remaining trace of mana inside me into lightning attribute.
Crackle. Current far beyond my limits engulfed my body. Every muscle contracted at once. My lungs shriveled; I wanted to breathe but couldn't. Skin burned. The stench of scorched flesh filled my nose.
A technique born from thousands of attempts with attribute mana—something I, who couldn't even cast basic magic from birth, had created. It wasn't magic in the conventional sense, yet I could proudly claim its output rivaled the highest-tier spells.
Thunder God
Boom! Lightning crashed around me. Ian and Angelica, mid-charge, faltered for an instant.
Daring to imitate a god's power as a mere mortal—what an arrogant act. But that was precisely why it felt so good. We were a cursed race abandoned by the gods; no one could punish us for anything we did. Therefore we sinned and mocked the divine. That was why I was a demon.
'I... am definitely not something like a human.'