The Contract is Important, But the Law is Far and the Fist is Near
The streets of the Fhara Kingdom had grown chaotic.
“In the end, we lost both of them.”
“Yes… I’m sorry, Mother.”
Back at the temple after leaving the noisy streets, I pinched the bridge of my nose at Mu’s words.
We had lost Idea and Pensia.
Though I had ambushed them from the dragon and knocked them down, the pair had apparently escaped through the air instead of falling onto Sky Island.
If possible, I had wanted to capture every single demon executive, but in the end the only ones I actually secured were Morgan and Isolde. That meant the enemy side had regained two more high-ranking demons.
Honestly, they weren’t such formidable opponents that it posed a real problem, but this development forced me to revise the plan I had originally drawn up.
After all, that plan had been built on the premise of capturing every demon executive.
I unconsciously furrowed my brow and rubbed it with my hand, but when I opened my eyes, the sight of Mu made a small smile slip from my lips.
Tap tap tap───
Mu was trembling all over as if she had caught a chill. Even though she was a homunculus and not a living being, the way she flinched at my every little action looked exactly like a frightened human.
She seemed to be blaming herself entirely for failing the order; her feet shook pitifully as terror gripped her.
But the real reason we hadn’t managed to kidnap all the demon executives was the sudden appearance of the Demon King—a variable no one could have predicted.
The cause was the Demon King’s intervention. Mu bore no fault whatsoever. So I gently placed a warm hand on her trembling shoulder.
“Don’t worry, Mu. I have no intention of blaming you for what happened today, so hold your head high.”
“M-Mother…!”
Were my words really that moving? At a single sentence from me, Mu burst into tears of overwhelming emotion.
I didn’t know whether she was magically generating the tears, but they poured out endlessly. I smiled at her once more and spoke.
“There, that’s enough crying. For now, let’s focus on bringing the two we did capture over to our side. You locked them in the laboratory, right?”
“Hic, krrng! Yes, Mother. I fitted both of them with mana and demonic-energy sealing restraints and confined them in the lab.”
Mu nodded vigorously in answer. Perhaps because she had been crying in Meiel’s form, her swollen, reddened eyes looked adorably puffy—like a sleepy kitten that had just woken up.
For the record, I was still in Aria’s body.
Originally, the pain-nullifying magic had worn off, so I had planned to switch avatars to escape the discomfort. But the moment I returned to the temple, the Pope had showered me with healing magic on the level of a sacred artifact. My wounds had closed in an instant, making the switch unnecessary.
As expected of the Pope. Truly impressive.
“Ahem! Then I suppose it’s time to head over.”
Enough idle thoughts. I abruptly cut off the mental detour and refocused.
From Mu’s earlier reply, the two were securely bound and held in the underground laboratory beneath the temple—the very place where she herself had been created.
To bring them into our fold, I took the lead and walked deeper into the temple with Mu following close behind.
“Let’s go, Mu.”
“Understood.”
Our destination was the research lab beneath the temple.
Humming a little tune, I hoped the pair had already woken up.
A cheerful hum filled with the wish that they would cooperate nicely.
Drip… drip…
In a damp underground chamber thick with ominous energy, two women slowly regained consciousness and opened their eyes.
“Mmm…”
“Ugh…”
They had been bound for who knew how long; involuntary groans escaped both of them.
The identities of the restrained pair were none other than Morgan and Isolde.
They were the demon executives who had lost to Aria and Meiel respectively, their final memories being the battle above Sky Island before blacking out.
Still unable to fully grasp the situation, the first to speak was Morgan—the one who usually talked more.
“Looks like you lost too, Isolde? Seeing you tied up here like this.”
“…Hmph. We’re both in the same boat anyway.”
Irritated by Morgan’s needling tone, Isolde snapped back without restraint.
It had been only a single exchange, yet it was enough to clear the fog from both their minds and bring them back to reality.
A conversation this ordinary, without any sense of dissonance, could only mean this was harsh, undeniable truth.
They now understood their circumstances were neither dream nor illusion. Morgan first tested the weakness in her own body, then scanned the handcuffs, shackles, and the room’s appearance before speaking.
“Seems we’ve been taken hostage…”
“No doubt about it. And this workshop is the masterpiece of a truly powerful mage. Probably… that person’s.”
At Isolde’s murmur of “that person,” Morgan glanced sideways at her. She assumed Isolde was referring to the mage Meiel who had subdued her.
Isolde must have been overwhelmingly defeated as well. Otherwise, the usually expressionless witch wouldn’t be wearing such an openly furious face.
I wonder just how humiliating the defeat was to make even Isolde look like that?
If only she could watch the fight again. She’d love to see it.
But the moment the word “defeat” crossed her mind, the image of Aria—the one who had overpowered her in exactly the same way—rose up. Morgan bit her lip lightly.
A powerhouse whose sword could not even reach.
She couldn’t begin to guess how many years of effort it would take just to touch the hem of Aria’s clothes.
At least ten years of living like a battle-crazed lunatic, fighting from dawn to dusk every single day, before she might reach a similar level.
“Damn it…”
Just thinking about it soured her mood in an instant. In this hopeless hostage situation, such thoughts were nothing but poison.
Morgan shook her head to clear away the useless thoughts and lifted her gaze.
What she needed to do right now was perfectly assess their current predicament.
She already knew the mana and demonic-energy sealing restraints on her wrists and ankles meant she had been taken captive like a hostage. But she needed a clearer picture of the overall situation.
Isolde seemed to feel the same. When Morgan turned to look at her, their eyes met.
“……”
“……”
A brief silence followed. Then, without needing to speak, both nodded at the same time.
“First, let’s figure out where we are and then decide whether to plan an escape or not. Sound good?”
“Agreed.”
Their shared goal was escape, if possible. They began a thorough inspection of their surroundings, far more carefully than their earlier cursory glance.
The room was covered floor to ceiling with intricate, bizarre magic circles. On the tables sat powerful grimoires radiating immense mana, clearly marking this place as a mage’s laboratory.
The owner was most likely the mage Meiel, just as Isolde had guessed.
The lab was fairly large, but an obvious exit door stood prominently on one wall.
Had they been free, they would have immediately suspected it was a trap. But after seeing the restraints binding their arms and legs, Morgan realized the door was not a trap.
The mana and demonic-energy sealing devices were driven into the walls like savage dogs chained in place.
They were crafted with such precision that not a single drop of demonic energy could be squeezed out. Gathering the ambient mana in the air was equally impossible.
Therefore, that door was not fake or booby-trapped—it was the real entrance the lab’s owner used.
The reason they had left such an obvious door untouched was probably because they judged the pair incapable of escaping the restraints.
Unfortunately, that assessment was perfectly correct.
Clank clank──!
“If we could just get these off, we might be able to do something…”
No matter how hard she strained, the restraints refused to budge. They looked like they could be removed easily, yet the solidly built devices were impossibly sturdy.
Morgan poured all her strength into it, but only metallic scraping echoed. Not even a crack appeared.
If only she had her magic swords… but Aria had stolen them. They were nowhere to be seen. Isolde seemed to have lost her staff as well.
With all their weapons taken, they were completely bound and utterly helpless.
“Haaaa…”
Morgan let out a deep sigh. Then, as if taking revenge for earlier, Isolde began scratching at her nerves with that characteristically cool, indifferent tone.
“Put a little more effort in, Morgan. What’s the point of a warrior who doesn’t even have that much strength?”
“Hey, Isolde. How about you actually try doing some work before you start running your mouth?”
“I’m a mage from the start. Unlike you muscle-brained warrior demons who only know how to move your bodies, I’m the type who uses her head.”
Twitch. Morgan barely held back the surge of anger.
They had never gotten along well and often bickered, but being provoked so logically left her without a retort. Her teeth ground together in frustration.
Even though she had started it first… or perhaps precisely because of their current situation, Isolde was picking a fight even more aggressively.
With no escape method in sight, Morgan had considered simply ignoring her. But it turned out her patience was thinner than she thought.
When it came to fights, accepting the challenge was the best response. Morgan opened her mouth with a smile—only to close it again at the sound of footsteps beyond the door.
Step… step…
Tap… tap…
The footsteps of one tall person and one short person.
Though the sounds came from far away and gender was hard to distinguish, both Morgan and Isolde instinctively knew exactly who they belonged to.
There were only a handful of people who would come to this place where they were imprisoned.
And just as they expected, the two women who appeared through the door had rose-red hair and deep navy-blue hair.
“Ah, Mother. Fortunately, both of them are awake.”
“Mm, that’s good. If they were still unconscious, I was going to wake them with an ice-cold water shock.”
The two women walked into the laboratory, casually uttering something that sent chills down the spine.
There was no need for further explanation. Just as Morgan and Isolde had predicted, the pair were Aria and Meiel.
Aria carried the magic swords she had taken from Morgan, while Meiel held the staff she had seized from Isolde.
Are they going to stab us with blades? Or perhaps water torture? Maybe they’ll even burn us alive.
After all, the two of them were executives who possessed vast amounts of information about the demon race. Morgan and Isolde shared similar thoughts as they watched Aria approach with eyes full of dread.
But no matter what kind of torture awaited them, they would endure until their last breath to protect the pride of the demon race.
They steeled themselves for the coming declaration of torment—yet the words that left Aria’s mouth were something else entirely.
“You two. Why don’t you join our side?”
“……Hm?”
“……Eh?”
Simultaneous sounds of confusion burst out.