Editing Sorcery Hacker:Volume1 Phase3 (section)

===Part 6===

As always, he seemed to live in his own little world.

The metal bars and stone walls would wear down anyone’s heart. A cruelly bright spotlight made from a vacuum crystal and mist mana was shined on him day and night. The food and clothing were highly inadequate. The living conditions could hardly have been worse, but that old man looked no different from when she had first seen him.

“Oh?”

His expression was as gentle as ever.

Everything was the same as when he had opened the door to that small shrine that had been forgotten to everyone.

“What brings you all the way here?”

“Don’t mess with me.”

Nirvelphany was standing before the person who had saved her life and her dignity, but she still snapped back at him. She knew it was rude, but she could not stop herself.

“Did you not hear me: I am here to save you!! I will save you from this gods-damned situation and all the crimes that should have fallen on my shoulders!!”

“…”

“I will not allow them to hold that farce of a public execution. There is no reason at all for anyone to hate you!! The crime of freeing Demon Lord Nirvelphany is entirely based on how hated I am. No, even that is an excuse! Really, the fattened-up Forturiana Church is afraid their lies about defeating me will be revealed, so they’re silencing you using this public execution they’re dressing up as some Temple Moving Ceremony! You have no reason at all to go along with it!!”

“I didn’t rescue you to bind you like this instead. I told you to live the life you want to live, so do not waste your life on something like this. I am no more than a stranger who saved you just the one time.”

“You are no stranger.”

She could bear it no longer, so she grabbed at the bars with both hands.

He had not caught on. He really had not.

Not that he had the Hero’s blood, not that he would never have ended up in this situation if it had all simply been forgotten, not anything.

But she could bring herself to abandon him because he was the kind of person who had not hesitated to save someone despite not realizing all that.

Perhaps that was the true nature of the Hero – of the kind of person who truly saved people.

They had only been able to attack each other back then, but things were different now.

It was said that writing her name in a circle to link the start to the end would create an eternal incantation that provided unlimited power, but that was a lie. The Demon Lord was not that perfect a being. When she won, she truly and utterly won, but when she lost, she lost quite easily. That breadth of possibilities was both a strength and a weakness.

She had wanted just one person in the world who understood that.

And she gathered her strength in her gut and shouted at the top of her lungs.

“Someone who saves your life for nothing in return and takes the blame for your crimes is not a stranger!! Listen, I will save you no matter what. You may have stopped struggling against the ugly conspiracies of those in charge, but I will save you even if you tell me not to!! Just like you did for me when I told you not to!!!!!!”

Luckily, she already had the key to the cell.

What did those bars matter? She could free him right this instant.

But just as she thought that, all the lights went out and she heard a deafening sound like some giant switch being thrown.

“…!?”

She had not expected this darkness.

It only lasted a moment and the lights came back on soon enough, but things were different now. The entire pit-like prison was illuminated by red emergency lights.

The creepy artificial light assaulted the Demon Lord’s soft skin. She felt nonexistent blood spreading from her right shoulder to cover her entire torso.

''Something'' had happened.

And it was ''something'' that Nirvelphany had not expected.

“Ah.”

Then it hit her.

She tried to insert the cell’s key into the door’s keyhole, but it did not fit. She only heard a rattling sound and it would not fit inside the keyhole.

An announcement played from a metal tube that swelled out like a giant flower.

“In accordance with an emergency alert, the entire central castle area’s security level has been updated. All mana-conducting silver locks in the area have been altered. To rewrite your keys to match the new locks, please report to your superior officer and follow their instructions. I repeat…”

“Dammit.”

It did not fit.

No matter how much she tried it, bit her lip, and suppressed the tears, this one little key simply would not fit!!

She grabbed the bars in her hands and tried to move them with all her might, but they refused to budge. She only heard an unpleasant rattling. And the forced exertion produced a scorching dull pain in her right shoulder as if pus were seeping out of the wound that had once been there.

Had she really grown this weak?

She no longer won sometimes and lost sometimes. There was no variation and the outcome never moved too far in either direction. She had no breadth of possibility. Her arms and legs were no more than arms and legs. They could not destroy these bars!!

“Dammit, don’t you worry, old man. I swear I will save you!!”

But while the Demon Lord felt utterly hopeless, the old man awaiting his execution in the cell remained calm.

That person with the Hero’s blood placed a smile on his wrinkled face and shook his head.

“You don’t have to.”

“Yes, I do.”

“I am already close to death. And I don’t fear it after accomplishing that one last job.”

“I said yes, I do!!!!!!”

She lost her patience, threw aside the useless key, and grabbed the anti-dragon rifle from her shoulder. She slammed the stock against the door, saw that it did not budge, and then aimed the sorcery gun at the lock.

If she wanted to, she could blast through not just the door but the entire prison.

But that was the problem.

(It’s too powerful!!)

This was not like the thick metal door in the sealed guard tower. There were gaps between the bars, so the blast would fill the cell.

“Old man, move to a corner of the cell.”

He did not move.

A Hero would not do anything that would drive a neighbor toward evil.

“Please just do as I say!! Just this once!!”

The Demon Lord shouted in childish frustration, but the old man still did nothing that would place any wrongdoing on her shoulders.

And she already knew the truth herself. Even if she used the weakest of the weak and restricted the output as much as possible with the letters and numbers carved into the soft disintegrating lead bullet, she could not burn through that lock without harming the old man beyond the bars. The idea was as absurd as trying to peel an apple with a guillotine.

She could not save him.

She could not save the person she cared about more than anyone else in the world.

How could she call herself the ancient Demon Lord, the Zodiac Bright Eater, or the charismatic leader powerful enough to bind together all the demons and destroy humanity? How could she feel any pride in who she was if she could not save this one person who had saved her!?

“Thank you.”

“…”

“Knowing someone cares about me this much lets me look back on my life with a smile on my face.” The voice from within the cell sounded far too cruel to her ears. “But there is no good reason for you to stray for the sake of an old man like me. Now, go. Work towards whatever it is ''you'' want to do. I saved you, so it doesn’t make me happy to see you bound like this. Can’t you look at it like that?”

She heard his words.

She heard his words which remained perfect even now.

“This is…”

She finally snapped.

Demon Lord Nirvelphany threw her soul into a torrent of emotion more intense than any she had ever felt before.

“This is what I most want to do, old man!!!!!!”

“…”

She changed how she thought about this.

She forcibly cut away her regrets and drew out her cold-heartedness as the Demon Lord.

She could not afford to waste any time here. If she was captured here, she would lose what little chance she still had, so she had to leave here even if it meant forcibly tearing herself away.

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“Listen, I swear I will save you. That alone I will not back down on.”

“You…”

“''Silence, brat''!! You are but a child who has only lived as long as it takes for a nut to sprout and grow into a great tree, so don’t act like you have a complete understanding of the world!! …I will show you something, old man. I will show you that this world you have given up on is much larger, vaster, brighter, and unbelievably beautiful than you think it is!! You do not get to talk back to me! Listen, I am a lord! I am the leader of a tribe known for their wisdom! You puny lifeforms are satisfied crawling along the surface of the world, so can only view us as evil, but we cannot be accurately judged by mere humans!! By what right do you refuse me!? When I speak, the world listens!! And I say I will save you!! Do you understand now!!!???”

“…”

“Cry, fool! Cry if you wish!! I do not care how much or little of your lifespan remains and I am not interested in how many cycles of the seasons you can still experience!! Anyone is free to cry and call for help if their life is about to be snuffed out like a candle in the wind! I am doing this because you have refused that right. Even if your soul is on the verge of annihilation, I will not let you throw it away. Do not mess with me, brat! That life is yours alone, but do not assume you are the only one with a connection to it!!!!!!”

“…………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………”

The atmosphere changed.

No, the change was on that wrinkled face.

This was a change he must not have wanted anyone to see.

It had finally happened.

He had let it happen for her.

“Better,” she spat out.

No matter how hopeless it looked, she refused to give up. This first attempt may have failed, but how could she abandon the person who saved her life and dignity? She was the Demon Lord and she would have her way. Surprises and the unexpected were fine by her. She would praise her freedom without tying herself to any specific power. Because that had always been the true essence of Nirvelphany.

She would ensure there was a second attempt.

She would look to the future.

“I will return.” She clenched her teeth oh-so-strongly, grabbed those loathsome bars, and stared the old man straight in the eye. “I cannot stay in the strictly-guarded royal castle forever, so I will leave here for the time being. But the Demon Lord will pay you another visit. I will not let your flame be snuffed out here. Old man, don’t you let anything break your spirit. When the pressure feels too great to bear, gaze upon the Demon Lord. You will always find hope there.”

The old man did not respond.

The possibility of salvation may have brought back his fear of the approaching Temple Moving Ceremony…no, of the public execution. The crime of freeing the Demon Lord was utterly absurd and he was only being executed so the terrified powers that be could rest easier, so of course he was afraid. In that case, had her actions here been cruel? She did not think so. Keeping your presence of mind and having your feelings numb over were two different things. It was more natural to start by properly understanding the situation and then preparing to overcome it.

The prison’s security was sure to grow stricter. She doubted she could break in again like this.

That left just the one opportunity.

The Zodiac Bright Eater rested the anti-dragon rifle over her shoulder again, stepped away from the cell, and spoke back over her shoulder.

“The Demon Lord will come to save Hero Thomas Robergin on the day of his public execution. Got that, old man?”