Editing Sorcery Hacker:Volume1 Phase3 (section)

===Part 2===

Light Castle Brightio was the central region of the sky city. The king’s castle stood at the center of that special district that also contained all important government facilities and the cathedral of the Forturiana Church, which was more or less already protected by the king and was enjoying its honeymoon here. There were no real shops running here. That was not due to the late hour. Most likely, commerce was banned here and the king provided food, clothing, and shelter for the knights and soldiers.

Below the moonlit starry sky, a woman in red leather walked quietly along without worrying about the slits in her long tight skirt. Yes, she walked silently despite the flashy high heels she wore.

“?”

After seeing a Flower Seller girl walking there, Nirvelphany briefly hid behind cover. The Demon Lord’s sharp nose could tell that seedy look was a disguise. Unlike her, that girl probably used her powerless and foolish appearance to gain permission in and out. She may have been a Priest spying on the Forturiana Church which was effectively linked to the king.

This may have gone without saying, but stone castle were the product of a tower and walls culture. The many towers would be connected by tall walls to form the overall silhouette and the courtyards and the boxy hall where the king performed his official duties would be constructed inside those walls. Brightio was no exception, but the one major difference was the many additional structures that seemingly bubbled out from the main king’s castle. That created a unique view of labyrinthine staircases arranged in accordance with no apparent logic. It almost looked like a piece of trick art.

Even those small staircases were enough to get the red leather woman out of breath. Her head was wobbling side to side and she could not support her body weight, so she placed a hand on the wall.

A sticky sensation had hit her as soon as the faint magical lights – ''artificial'' magical lights – shined on her soft skin.

“…!”

Dark blood stained her upper body in a diagonal line down from her right shoulder. A dull and heated pain similar to pus spread below her beautiful skin.

She shut her eyes and took a deep breath.

(I am fine. There is no wound. The old wound itself has ''been forgiven''. This is an illusion. Just an illusion.)

When she opened her eyes again, the rusty-looking color was nowhere to be seen and the pus-like pain had faded. Still leaning against the wall, she wiped the cold sweat from her brow.

Long ago, the Hero’s sword had dug into her shoulder and then sliced diagonally through her torso. The wing on her back and the item embedded in her body had been sliced through as well. Without the “breadth of possibilities” available to the Demon Lord, she would have died. The right wing Expansion Armor she now wore had been made from her own body part thrown into that sealed shrine along with her. That alone would have stood out too much, so she had also acquired horns, a thick tail, and a left wing to match.

She lived in fear of that nonexistent wound, she had lost her “breadth of possibilities”, she had reattached her severed wing in pursuit of her former appearance, and she did her best to maintain her dignity.

What would the humans think if they knew this was what had become of the Demon Lord who had once shaken all of history?

(They would think I have grown weak.)

She gave a self-deprecating smile. For one thing, the Demon Lord was not some strongest being. It was said writing out her name in a circle to connect the end to the beginning would give you an eternal incantation that provided unlimited power, but that was not what the title actually meant. When powerful, she broke through the upper limits of history. When weak, the average human could defeat her. The Demon Lord title referred to the being with both those highs and those lows. That was why she was known to bring surprises and the unexpected. The Demon Lord’s power referred to her great “breadth of possibilities”, whether that led to her victory or her defeat. That was why the Four Great Demons, who only had their fixed strength, had found her interesting enough to follow.

And now…

(The fact that I’ve lost the strength to laugh even in defeat may be the real proof of my weakness.)

During the vast length of time for which she was sealed, her “power” had slowly but surely leaked from her broken body. The current Demon Lord no longer had that “breadth of possibility”. She was an ordinary being who could not change anything and only had her arms and legs to work with. All her “power” had leaked out, so all that remained to her was the sturdy tank that was her healed body. She could bathe in the moonlight to gradually refill that tank and expand her possibilities, but that would take too long to accomplish her goal here.

Since she was at human level or below, she would do things their way.

She just had to use techniques just as – or more – cheap and underhanded as those humans.

She looked up at the stone wall she was leaning against.

(This really is the age of sorcery guns. I can see the loopholes all over these walls. They look like worm-eaten cheese.)

However, if all of those small holes opened at even intervals had sorcery guns and snipers waiting at them, she would have been detected well before now. Just like with laser pointers, ''more loopholes were built than necessary'' to frighten the enemy by giving the impression of more guns than there really were.

Using the many stairs to move from tower to tower must have been a lot of work because there were thick wires set up between towers and between plazas and moonlit cable cars could be seen dangling from those. Humans would do anything to increase efficiency in the name of laziness.

They must have loved the stillness and inviolable atmosphere because unlike the rudely bright nightscapes outside, the light castle was much more subdued at night. It did seem ironic that it was the light castle which was enveloped in darkness.

(They placed light at the peak of the four elements, but they lost their way because they aren’t sure what exactly the “light” element even is.)

Nirvelphany gave a snort of laughter below the red aurora known as the Demon Lord’s Bite.

The statues praising the regional royal family were joined by ones of Forturianan priests. Based on the inscriptions at the bottom, they had supposedly brought peace to the world by defeating the Demon Lord.

Thanks to that, the religious leaders were allowed a life more luxurious than the royals and nobles. The Temple Moving Ceremony was no more than checking off the proper boxes on the official paperwork. It was ridiculous to think of those holy men as pure and righteous when they were clearly indulging in a life of disgusting gluttony.

(What is this Light-Dark Duality nonsense? ''Everything in this world can be explained just fine with the traditional four elements, so why even bring good and evil into it?'')

The world had not been like this back when she was sealed.

Celedileka had been planted firmly on the ground and she had been discarded in a tomb deep below the surface. She had never imagined she would be lifted high into the sky along with the ground around her.

(Not that it matters.)

The facility she was interested in was also here.

Namely…

(The special prison. The giant cage used to contain those found guilty of sorcery crimes.)

Or that was the story anyway, but the devil in red leather knew all too well that it did not function as advertised. Simply put, that prison run by Government Security was an exchange that traded hostages for money. They claimed to be protecting the peace by keeping dangerous criminals off the streets, but if you were rich enough to pay bail, you could walk free once more. This was abused by accusing the son of a rich merchant or noble for some random crime to get a juicy ransom or bail payment out of them. And if they refused, the money could still be obtained under the name of consolation money, indemnities, or a fine.

And once that system became normalized, the jailors stopped questioning the absurdity of their duties. If a political opponent or an inconvenient witness ended up imprisoned for no justifiable reason, it was dealt with as just more of the same.

So no one would question it if a completely innocent old man showed up in there.

“I need to get going.”

Brightio was best described as a city of stairs. The royal castle’s tall towers extended ever upward and the boxy government buildings were built alongside those like lizard eggs.

But the prison alone was different.

A secret route defied the staircases by continuing ever downward.

Even with the giant anti-dragon rifle resting on her shoulder, even with the revealing red leather vest and tight skirt, and even with the horn and wing Expansion Armor, no one called out to her in suspicion. It did not matter that she was blatantly not dressed like a knight or government officer.

The guards did not bother leaving their assigned posts and the patrols along the many staircases tangled all around the royal castle were only made at specific times.

Instead of actually trying to increase security, it was more like creating a giant clockwork device to show off to everyone looking in from the outside. There was still a giant dragon in Fire Castle Town Flared, but not everyone would be out dealing with that.

An attempt on the king’s life could not be allowed to happen.

And because it could not be allowed to happen, they must not even consider it a possibility and must not put together any concrete countermeasures.

That was probably how it worked.

(This must be the result of living so snugly behind that impenetrable aurora-like barrier.)

The soldiers’ training and the locks on the doors did not matter when the Free Audience Restriction was considered an absolute defense. It was considered impossible – truly impossible – for an enemy to get through there, so it would be disrespectful to try to convince the royal family there might be a threat. She was silencing the sound of her sharp heels, but this place was not designed with intruders in mind, so this was no different from a nighttime stroll.

In what was probably meant as a form of camouflage, a makeshift wooden door was attached to the right triangle wall in the space below one of the many staircases. She aimed the stock of her anti-dragon rifle toward it.

She swung the weapon down at the knob to break the lock and then slipped through.

She was now inside the special prison.

She silently snuck in, but she did make one unnecessary statement to herself.

“I will be there to save you soon, you kind old man.”