The Irrelevant Fifth among Five
When five humans gather, one of them is always trash. * * *
The Duke Imptia’s head was severed by a sword that spun so fast it was impossible to track its trajectory.
Watching the severed head roll across the floor and collide with the contractor’s head he had thrown, Morgan inhaled the thick stench of blood deep into her lungs and said, “Ah, killing feels good. My heart is beating again….”
Indeed, swinging the sword again after a long time felt exhilarating.
Swoosh── Haa──
“Enough. Get ready to leave. I’m going to blow up this mansion.”
“Got it.”
Morgan straightened up, wanting to savor the feeling a little longer, and looked around the room. But the tired voice of Isolde urging them to hurry from behind made him fold.
Isolde’s back as she floated through the air on her staff, surrounded by countless floating papers created with magic.
“……Are all those documents related to corruption?”
“Yeah. The kind that, if discovered by the higher-ups, would lead to immediate loss of position and the death penalty. I told her it was enough to have just a few shady documents, but the result was beyond imagination.”
Meiel—more precisely, the command delivered to Aria via Mu while she was going to meet the king.
Two orders: first, find all corruption-related documents concerning the Duke Imptia. Second, if found, immediately stun and expel the innocent servants inside the mansion, and kill everyone else.
The orders given by Aria, who already knew through the Pope’s information network that the Duke was involved in multiple dirty deeds.
In fact, it was a risk-free plan: sneak in without anyone noticing and leave. Kill if there’s something, find another way if there isn’t.
Morgan had entered the mansion’s study through Isolde’s teleportation magic, found the documents, and was cleaning up the “trash” inside. But she never imagined there would be so many corruption documents.
“Amazing. And if it’s enough to get a death sentence, what exactly was written?”
What kind of content could possibly lead to a death penalty? Morgan couldn’t hold back her curiosity and asked Isolde. The reply was rather amusing.
“The plan to overthrow the current king and seize the throne. It was well hidden in the safe, but it was easy to steal. There are also those who needed to be eliminated—killed by the contractor. Those you killed, too.”
“Ah, I didn’t realize humans were that weak. It was the contractor? More than that, plotting to overthrow the throne—it really is a death penalty.”
Morgan’s ambition had been overflowing. She had thought it was just dirty eyes, but she never imagined they were aiming for the modern king’s seat.
If it were discovered by the higher-ups, not only would Morgan not be able to cover up the murder of the Duke, but she would even receive additional charges.
At this, Morgan let out a low laugh, her face full of amusement, and muttered, “At this level, our master will be satisfied. It’s truly wonderful to have legitimate grounds for killing.”
“Indeed, irrefutable evidence. With just this, the guy won’t have to worry about punishment. That’s a relief.”
“……Relief?”
Suddenly, Morgan’s smile, which had been praising Aria’s good luck, shattered at Isolde’s words.
The laughter that had continued for so long suddenly stopped, and a cold, heavy silence filled the room like eternal snow.
Isolde turned her head with a flat expression, sensing something was wrong, and when their eyes met, Morgan began to speak, having been chewing on Isolde’s words.
“Isolde, are you really serious about following that guy?”
“……What do you mean?”
“The word ‘relief’ you just said. It sounded like you were genuinely worried about that guy.”
Are you really that worried? Morgan asked. Isolde instinctively closed her mouth.
Isolde had always been sharp-witted, so it wasn’t hard for her to understand what Morgan was implying.
What Morgan was asking was simple. Are you seriously following Aria? Even after being defeated and signing a contract, are you truly loyal at heart? And even further…
‘Is she being placed in the Demon King’s seat in place of her?’
Isolde, who had read the full meaning in her mind, opened her eyes to think.
Countless words churned in her head, but they refused to settle into simple sentences. She didn’t know whether it was because of the probing eyes of Morgan or her own lack of vocabulary, but at least she could easily tell in which direction those chaotic words leaned.
More precisely, since she knew the exact reason for the tilt, Isolde immediately finished her long thoughts and spoke the neatly arranged sentence.
“Morgan, why do you think we’re loyal to the Demon King?”
“What? Of course because we respect the Demon King……”
“What kind of nonsense is that. That’s impossible.”
Isolde wondered if Morgan was testing her loyalty to the Demon King because she had seen the question. But it seemed she had been right. After all, even the mage Isolde had barely understood it. The warrior Morgan surely didn’t even grasp it.
Why do demons serve the Demon King with their whole hearts? Because they were born as demons. In other words, when they are born as demons, they naturally hold the wish to eliminate other races, just as the Demon King is followed without question.
And when Aria removed the demon bloodline factor, Isolde realized that her loyalty had only ever been for that bloodline factor. She could understand it with her head.
But right now, even though the loyalty to the Demon King had disappeared, Morgan still looked like she hadn’t realized that the feeling had been engraved in her body for hundreds of years.
‘Or……’
Isolde immediately dismissed the possibility that it had truly grown in her heart over hundreds of years of loyalty. After all, Morgan had never felt the emotion of loyalty to anyone. She had never felt the emotion of respect in her life, so she couldn’t have respected the Demon King.
When Isolde said the loyalty had been due to the demon bloodline factor, Morgan looked confused and exhaled steam from her head.
“But still, I had some loyalty……”
Isolde let out a small sigh and firmly fixed the confused girl with a hammer strike.
“Morgan, you don’t just need to keep your own life safe, right? Then it’s strange for me not to treat Aria seriously. You heard the story she told last time, right?”
“Ah, that’s definitely……”
“Yeah, that’s it.”
The story Aria had given a few days ago. She had shown the names and faces of dozens of academy students and said that in about five years they would become even stronger than she was.
It was a horrifying story that was still unbelievable, but it had become the opportunity for Isolde to serve Aria completely, together with the demon bloodline theory.
“In five years, when the original war was supposed to start. If there are so many humans as strong as Aria, there’s no chance for the demons.”
“They will definitely lose. Overwhelmingly…….”
“That’s right. So I’ll side with the winner. Of course, not with the humans, but with Aria.”
“I see. Yeah…… sorry Isolde. I asked a stupid question just now.”
Morgan had heard the story with her. So the winner of the five-year war was already clear. And after hearing the still-unbelievable but true story that the demon bloodline factor was the source of loyalty, it was only natural for Morgan to apologize.
“Indeed, I have to live first. I have to fight strong guys until I die.”
Morgan also valued her own life more than anyone, just like Isolde.
Therefore, Morgan apologized for having asked a pointless question to Isolde earlier, and at the end of the small commotion that had briefly become serious, Isolde stepped down from her staff.
“If you understand, it’s fine. Let’s leave the mansion first. According to the orders, the mansion has to be destroyed.”
“Huh? What about the corpses?”
“I’ll move the corpses too. I need to prove to the human soldiers that I really killed them.”
It would be easy for even the humans with narrow vision compared to demons to find them if placed next to the collapsed mansion ruins.
Isolde shook her staff to create a teleportation circle for herself, Morgan, the contractor and Duke Imptia who had become corpses, and the contractor. The contractor’s body was now one of them. The destination was the upper floors of the mansion and the priestess’s room, respectively.
“Good. Let’s blow it up.”
And the next moment, when Isolde swung her staff, a massive explosion swallowed the mansion.
《Great Earth Explosion》 * * *
After leaving Haran and Arin, who had walked with them from the palace, and returning to the temple, Morgan and Isolde who had already arrived were waiting for me.
“You’re back already. You handle things quickly.”
“Just arrived.”
“We cleaned up the mansion. This is the evidence.”
She had delivered the order via Mu about an hour ago. She had already finished and come back.
I marveled at their quick work while looking at the papers Isolde floated behind her.
Papers wrapped in a huge bundle. No matter how you looked, the number of papers was light enough to easily surpass three hundred.
“Here.”
“I’ll take them…….”
Isolde threw the papers toward me with her magic power. Mu changed Isolde’s magic power into my own and received the papers.
Isolde’s slightly furrowed expression was because she felt her magic power was being dominated. But after my next question, she relaxed her expression and answered.
“Looking at them as documents, there are a lot of bad things written, but what’s the content?”
“Bribery, assassination contracts, brainwashing requests, various indecent methods to lure you, but the biggest is the documents about plotting to overthrow the throne.”
“Overthrowing the throne?”
Even I, Mu next to me, and the Pope and Pina standing behind them were surprised and widened their eyes at Isolde’s words.
Even just the four things Isolde mentioned were enough to kill the Duke Imptia, but she was also plotting to overthrow the throne.
I stopped my involuntary laugh and picked up one of the papers floated by Mu.
The paper showed similar content after a quick glance. And when I saw it directly, it was clear that the documents were filled with a meticulous plan for overthrowing the throne and a clear stamp of the Duke Imptia’s own seal.
“Hah, unbelievable, but it’s real.”
“Of course. I don’t lie to you. I can’t because of the contract, but I don’t lie.”
“Yeah, good work. You really brought magnificent results.”
The evidence that was beyond expectations. I praised Isolde for finding and bringing it.
With this level, I could boldly tell the principal Mira, who was suffering from a headache over the fact that the Duke Imptia had been killed, that I had found it tomorrow when I stormed into the principal’s office. I couldn’t help but praise her.
I briefly looked at a few more papers, then put them back in the bundle and commanded Mu.
“Mu, move all these documents to my room. Especially the ones I just mentioned about overthrowing the throne, pull them out separately and organize them first.”
“Yes, Mother…….”
Mu flew inside the temple with the documents she was floating.
Watching her back, I climbed the stairs of the temple and stood next to Morgan and Isolde.
Then, unconsciously, I reached out to stroke their heads, but I suddenly lowered my hand.
Considering Isolde’s past, she apparently disliked praise, so instead of stroking her head, I raised my hand and crossed my arms.
“You both worked hard.”
“What work. It was better to kill humans, right?”
“I had fun too, so it doesn’t matter.”
“Yeah, both of you go inside and rest. From tomorrow, the proper academy life will start, so it would be good to take a break.”
I wasn’t stingy with praise, so I generously praised the two who had properly finished my first command, then passed them by and entered the temple.
Of course, the Pope and Pina who hurriedly followed beside me also heard the content about the throne overthrowing I had just heard.
Anyway, today it seemed I would be able to stretch my legs toward the collapsed Duke Imptia’s mansion and sleep well. * * *
In a very deep sea.
A library was built in a place where even sunlight could not reach, where magic light replaced sunlight.
A library so white it was blinding, as if the sun itself wouldn’t be able to compete.
And inside the library, which was filled with pure white, a woman in a neat outfit rose from her seat.
Because she had been sitting there for hundreds of years, when she stood up, the chair supporting her body collapsed, but she didn’t care and moved to the center of the library.
Tap── Tap──
The library had been sitting quietly for hundreds of years and hadn’t been cleaned, but there was not a single speck of dust in the library.
Therefore, the woman answered the noble voice echoing in the library and opened one of the books located in the center where she had arrived.
The only unique book kept in this library.
The book that recorded all stories in this world.
When she opened the book, countless characters filled it. Characters that filled every corner without a single gap.
And since all pages of the book should have been like that, but she looked at the last page she had just opened, the five empty pages, the woman said, “Is this it? Lady Iriel.”
[Yes, that’s right. Fill the story there for me.]
The answer to the woman’s question came from inside the library where no one was.
Fill in the empty page. The mysterious words made the woman hold the quill pen placed next to the book and ask again.
“What story should I fill in?”
[The story the man did.]
The answer made countless words sweep through the woman’s mind.
More precisely, the story the man had shown so far had entered her mind in the form of characters.
The amount of vast story made the woman feel her mind wander for a moment, but when she came back to her senses, a new story had already been written in the place that had been empty.
Perhaps because it was written in red letters unlike the black letters on the other pages.
The red-letter story was a story that only qualified people could read.
It was not a story of ordinary lives that were useless, but important stories that should not easily spread in the world. They were written in red letters.
So far, only two pages of red-letter stories had been in the book.
The woman was surprised for a moment that the story she had just written was in red letters, then murmured the name of the story owner written there.
“Aria, Yujia, Kama, Meiel, Yeonhwa…… is it.”
The five Irregulars led by the goddess Iriel in this world. The pages where their stories were written were a woman who was extremely curious. But the woman soon closed the book she had been holding and returned to her seat.
[I am just Lady Iriel’s doll. A tool that only performs commands.]
I am just a homunculus without a soul.
Since that was how Lady Iriel decided, the woman created a new chair on top of the broken chair and sat there.
Waiting for the day when people who read that story would appear.