Demons Bleed Red Too
A standoff.
I was handing the Ring of Strength Absorption over to Aisha, and she had dropped to one knee before me with such solemnity that she seemed about to swear a knight's oath on the spot.
"Something reeks of treachery."
Grand Duke Astaroth spat the words low, then launched himself straight at me. He must have sensed the danger radiating from the ring, because he came to stop it—moving so fast I could barely register him before he'd already crossed half the distance.
"Get out of his way, you bastard!"
But she truly was the Sword Saint. Aisha scooped up a fallen dagger and shot forward like a bolt of lightning, cutting Astaroth off.
West-wind aura coiled around her blade, clashing against the demon's demonic energy in a spray of sparks.
The demon looked almost leisurely. Aisha's face, by contrast, had gone tight with alarm. The swirling green aura staining her blade was darkening little by little—being converted into demonic energy and swallowed whole. KRA-BOOM! It detonated in her hand.
"Kgh!"
Aisha was flung back by the blast, opening up the distance. The demon wasted no time seizing the opening and fired a magic round straight at me.
I drew my sword. A draw I'd executed tens, hundreds of thousands of times—faster than light itself. Concentrating my blade energy, I calculated in an instant the trajectory needed to deflect the round and reacted accordingly.
Fwoosh!
The instant I swung, the magic round split apart and came at me in three separate streams.
What a tiresome little trick.
I knocked down two of them, but they felt heavy as hammers. The third I couldn't fully parry, and it slammed into my arm. Hot pain flooded in.
"Professor!"
"And that was my good suit."
So this was what the Second Rank could do—no mere posture after all.
Even for an incomplete summoning, the demon was no pushover, not even in its basic attacks.
I was about to carry things into the next phase when the demon started moving again.
Fast, isn't it.
Aisha instinctively stretched out toward me, but the demon had the advantage.
Can I actually block this next attack?
Tch—maybe I should've learned a defensive spell or two.
Here I am with a perfectly good magic circuit, and I can't even use it.
And Slave Exploitation's casting speed is far too slow.
I gripped my sword. Upper-diagonal guard stance.
Just hold out against one strike. That's all.
The entire chain of thought took 0.3 seconds.
Refined, razor-sharp demonic energy pulsed in both of the demon's hands as they came hurtling toward me.
This one's going to be dangerous.
Every last nerve in my body prickled to attention in the name of survival, every muscle wound as tight as it could go.
Fine. Let's meet it head-on.
I steeled my resolve.
And then—
"GWOHHRK."
The very next instant, the demon folded up like a squashed frog and went skidding off at a diagonal.
"How DARE you lay hands on Orabeoni!!"
"You ugly piece of—!"
"Die."
Luca, Tia, and Yuri had come flying in from somewhere, and they hammered the demon with a gloriously savage combined strike.
KWAAAAAAM—!!
The demon plowed face-first across the ground for a long stretch before slamming to a stop at the base of a fountain. Even that didn't seem to satisfy the three of them; they stomped on the demon's exposed rear end with everything they had.
"You attack Wicker and think you'll walk away? Today's your funeral!"
"It's a demon. They're weak around the horns, you know."
"Let's rip one off and stick it up his rear."
Every manner of magic, sword energy, and qi whirled through the air, and the ground where the demon had been driven down was smashed to irreparable rubble.
Hmm.
They're far stronger than I imagined.
Astaroth can't even absorb their attacks properly.
And the way they go straight for his weak points—they've got plenty of real combat experience, too.
"Professor, are you all right?"
Aisha came running up, breathless, eyes sweeping over my arm.
"It was a graze. Nothing to worry about."
"Thank goodness. If something had happened to you this soon, then I…"
Aisha let out a long breath of relief.
"Um—about that ring from before."
"Oh, this?"
I pulled out the Ring of Strength Absorption that I hadn't managed to hand over in time. When Aisha saw it, her eyes lit up.
"If you don't mind, right now would be…"
"Let's. Those three bought us the time to prepare. Given his absorption trait, we can't fully subjugate Astaroth without it—someone needs to finish the job."
I held out my hand, ring pinched between my fingers. For some reason, Aisha flushed red and looked up at me with pleading eyes.
"W-wouldn't you put it on me yourself…?"
"Myself, you say?"
Doesn't that make for a rather odd picture? I've never heard of such etiquette in any royal house.
Well, no harm in it, I suppose.
Just as I took Aisha's left hand in mine—
"Aisha! What do you think you're doing over there?!"
Tia's sharp voice cut through the air.
"Huh? Tia?"
Aisha turned, flustered. Three figures were striding toward us with heavy, deliberate steps.
"Luca, Yuri, why are you two angry too?"
"Have you three had lunch yet?"
I greeted them. Yuri spotted my injured arm, went pale, and immediately began casting a healing spell.
"Are you all right?! You're hurt!"
"I'm fine. More importantly, the demon—"
"Wicker, was the person you were meeting today really Aisha?"
"It was."
All three of their expressions turned grave.
Calling her "Aisha" so familiarly was new. Were Yuri and Tia close with the Sword Saint? I knew they never attended her lectures.
"Why were you meeting her? And why is she dressed in something so…flowy?"
Luca fired off her questions.
"No, forget that—what is that ring on your finger? Don't tell me. Th-that's not—you can't mean—there's no way!"
Tia shouted through gritted teeth.
There seemed to be some serious misinformation circulating in this little group.
"This ring is something I was trying to get to her in a hurry, because of that demon over there. Here, there's more."
I produced two more Rings of Strength Absorption from my Item Box. Four in total.
"In a hurry? What do you mean?"
"It means if things get dangerous, I can leave without regrets. Something like that."
"Gimme."
Luca snatched one of the rings without ceremony.
"Hey! I'm first!"
"M-me too!"
Before I knew it, Tia and Yuri had each claimed one as well. All three slid them snugly onto their left ring fingers.
"Hii—!"
"Nngh."
"Hyaaah."
And then, in perfect unison, all three shuddered from head to toe and crumpled to the ground.
The Ring of Strength Absorption carried a side effect: the wearer with the lower strength received a tingling jolt from the stronger one. That was what they were feeling.
"Mm."
The ring on my finger shimmered too. My sleeves and waist felt a touch snugger now—as if layers of new muscle had been grafted onto me.
"Mister, this is…"
"The Ring of Strength Absorption. I was planning to borrow the Sword Saint's strength to fight that demon."
"I-if that's what it was, you should have told us sooner…"
"We misunderst—hnnn, misunderstood…!"
All three turned wounded, accusatory glares on Aisha.
"Aisha."
"Y-yes…?"
Aisha answered dazedly.
"You arrange a meeting with Wicker? In clothes like that—clothes you've never once worn before?"
"Huh? No, that's…"
There had clearly been some misunderstanding.
I supposed I should explain the situation.
"The Sword Saint has been tracking this incident from the start. Our goals aligned, so we cooperated today. The outfit was a disguise."
"Oh. So that's how it is."
"Huh? Ah…um…?"
When Luca pressed her, Aisha's eyes darted about frantically.
"Why did you ask Orabeoni for his cooperation?"
"Um…"
"It was the Emperor's order that came first, I'd imagine. You were weighing my trustworthiness because of the nametag. And in the end you judged me acceptable. Have I understood correctly, Sword Saint?"
At my question, Aisha slowly nodded. Her face looked as though her soul had briefly left her body.
"…That is correct."
"Oh… so that's what it was?"
"I'm sorry, Aisha, for misunderstanding. But if something like this was happening, you should have told us ahead of time—we'd have helped…"
"What a relief. Now I don't have to stab you."
"R-right… hahaha… ha."
Aisha gave a hollow laugh.
Listening to Luca, Tia, and Yuri trade words with Aisha, they seemed to be on quite friendly terms.
"I had no idea your bonds ran this deep, free of all pretense. I would very much like to hear the story someday. As the professor responsible for these three, my interest is piqued."
"…Of course. Um, but Professor."
"Yes?"
"The favor you mentioned wanting to ask of me…"
"I intended to request that you serve as supervising instructor for my Dungeon Studies lecture. What say you?"
"Ah, supervising… Yes… of course…"
"Are you crying?"
"I'm happy at the thought of teaching the students."
KWAAAM!!
The demon erupted up through the shattered ground.
His immaculate suit hung in tatters. His body was covered in wounds, his limbs bent at unnatural angles.
And yet his blood runs red. How ordinary of him.
"Hoo. So this was not a pact with a worthless human. An incomplete summoning, unable to so much as resist a handful of women."
"A handful of women?"
I started walking toward the demon, undoing my shirt buttons from collar down.
My upper body had felt stiflingly tight for a while now. With the strength of all three of them coursing through me, it was as if extra layers of muscle fiber had sprouted beneath my skin.
I stripped off the cumbersome shirt and faced the demon with nothing but a single sword.
"…Wow."
"I—I can't be held responsible for this…"
"Bliss."
Behind me stood Luca, Tia, and Yuri.
I could forgive a great many things—but insulting these three was not among them.
The demon spat at me:
"I will annihilate you."
Grand Duke Astaroth brought both arms together, charging his demonic energy. This time, at last, he meant it. Thicker and deeper than anything before—compressed to its absolute limit, intending to detonate it all at once.
I would finish this before he could.
I began from the middle guard.
Footwork: a measured five steps.
The point of my sword settled precisely between my own brows, aimed dead center at the enemy's core.
Breath: forty percent of the lungs. In the instant of the swing, focus—and stop the world.
Nothing else was needed. No grand aura, no ornate swordwork.
Simply raise a single strength-laden blade overhead, and bring it down.
The foundation of every swordsman's art.
The cut.
That one stroke was enough.
—FWOOSHAAAK!!
Had those eyes even registered my movement?
It felt as though, for one instant, both my body and mind had passed through some other realm entirely—and by the time I returned, the deed was already done.
The result: the demon's body was split precisely in two, from head to toe.
"—Oooooh."
Fwaaash!
The nameplate reading Grand Duke Astaroth went up in flames. The summoning circle that had bound him collapsed into nullity.
—FWOOOOM!
As his body dissolved, the souls trapped inside burst outward in every direction, scattering back to their owners. It looked, for all the world, like a fireworks display at the strangest of hours.
"Hah."
I picked up my scabbard, sheathed the blade, and returned to the three girls and Aisha.
"Everyone—anyone hurt?"
At my question, Luca, Tia, and Yuri threw themselves into my arms as if they'd rehearsed it.
"That's our question to ask! You're the one who pushed yourself, Orabeoni…!"
"We were worried, you know."
"Next time, tell us first. You saw it, didn't you? We're incredibly strong!"
"I know. I'm sorry."
I patted each of their backs in turn. Their pouting expressions slowly melted, softening into something warm.
The rings, their time limit spent, cracked with a brittle clatter and dropped from their fingers. The same happened at mine.
"Aw, what a shame. Guess the usage time was short."
"Doesn't matter. They were fakes anyway."
Luca said that to Yuri, of all people. They were all genuine, though?
"Well, if they're going to break anyway, they might as well let you dream a little…"
At some point Aisha had drifted over to stand near us, gazing down wistfully at the shattered ring fragments at her feet.
The fragments scattered on the wind and were gone almost at once.
In the end, we had repelled an invasion by a genuine Second-Rank demon without any real damage—a lucky outcome, all things considered.
And all three of them had come through unscathed.
No—not unscathed. They'd beaten the demon like a punching bag.
There was no doubt about it: those three had reached a level of mastery far beyond anything I'd anticipated. Even against an incomplete summoning, I never imagined they'd overwhelm a Second-Rank demon so utterly.
They really are strong.
Too strong, honestly.
And Aisha is close with them, too.
Hmm.
Hmmmm…
Something about this doesn't add up.