Editing Sorcery Hacker:Volume1 Phase3

Just like in the tunnels the humans had so thoughtlessly dug through the mountains, this pitch-black area was only lit by the mana light in the bare minimum of crystal tubes installed at even intervals, but restricting the amount of light probably had its purpose.

A prison was meant to let the jailors know what the prisoners were doing, but the opposite had to be avoided. Directing the flow of information in a single direction created an absolute barrier between the rulers and the ruled. That was a truly basic tactic.

When the artificial light crawled across Nirvelphany’s skin, that irregular sticky sensation returned. She felt a heated pain like her body was rotting and filled with pus. It was all an illusion, so she slowly exhaled and brushed off the remnants of that forgiven wound.

“…”

This space was so large it was hard to believe it existed in a sky city.

This vast subterranean space continued every downward. Beyond a bottomless-looking pit that measured 100 esoule<ref>Approximately 120 meters.</ref> across, she saw barred cells installed on separate levels with this side of the pit converted into a large guard tower. The guard tower was installed with a large spotlight made by converting mist mana into fire magic within a giant vacuum crystal. That shined inside the cells to see within, but that same bright light would make it impossible for the prisoners to see inside the tower. It was intentionally set up that way.

Of course.

In this underground space with no concept of day and night, constantly shining blinding lights on people would prevent them from getting much sleep. Not only did this place rob people of their freedom by trapping them behind bars, but it drove them ever closer to death by sapping their physical and mental strength simply by being there. They avoided direct violence like punching and kicking and instead designed everything to simply direct information in a single direction. The facility was like a crystallization of the ugly side of humanity that could claim righteousness while harming others.

They liked to talk about the Light-Dark Duality.

If anyone complained they could not sleep because of the bright light, they would simply be mocked for fearing the light because that pointed to a darkness filling their heart.

There were bridges connecting the guard tower to the cells on the other side of the pit, but they were drawbridges made to be immediately raised in case of emergency. There were no safety standards here. That single light source could start a fire if it malfunctioned, but if a fire did break out, the prisoners would have nowhere to run and they would be surrounded by flames and smoke in no time. The jailors did not leave the guard tower except to provide the bare necessities like food, so they had no problem with the current arrangement since they could climb up to the safety of their tower to escape danger.

The people in those cells were not necessarily guilty of serious crimes. One of them was a girl with unnaturally clear hair and skin. She almost looked like a sculpture. She was probably a Homunculus, but how had she ended up in here? Was the Alchemist who created her looking for a chance to break her out?

After seeing all this, Nirvelphany saw no reason to hold back.

She had never thought she could reach her destination without being detected anyway.

She would need the proper keys to open the prison’s doors.

“Now, then.”

While carrying a rope she had found tying a light fixture in place, she snuck up behind a young jailor in the guard tower and wrapped the rope around his neck.

“…!? …!!”

He only started clutching at his throat and kicking his feet after he had been lifted from the ground by his neck, but by then it was too late. There was no hesitation in her high heels. He could not resist at all and he could not cry out to alert the others, so he could only accept his fate.

On the other side of the pit, his colleagues were chucking what amounted to table scraps into the cells on the wall there, but that put them on the other side of the bright light they had set up as the ruling class. They could not see the tragedy occurring so close by.

Killing someone by blocking their windpipe would take time and she was not going to bother with that. She considered shaking him up and down to break his neck, but…

''“It must have been hard surviving so long surrounded by so much rust and dust. You are not human yourself, so you don’t need to let human circumstances control your fate. Live the life you want to live. That is what I want for you.”

“…Tch.”

She had killed plenty of people already, so why was she remembering those words here?

She clicked her tongue, subtly shifted the force applied by her arms, and constricted the jailor’s carotid arteries on the sides of his neck instead. With the blood flow not reaching their brain, puny humans would pass out before you could count to ten. Before the lack of oxygen could damage his brain cells, she loosened the rope in her hands and tied the limp jailor’s arms behind his back.

That choice only introduced further risks, but she did not feel like turning back to finish off a defenseless life.

Perhaps this was like not wanting to dirty your hands before heading to your birthday party. You wanted to remain clean for that special day at least.

At any rate.

(This panel operates the drawbridges. And this is the key for the cells. Hm, so they aren’t using separate keys for every cell. Well, they can’t exactly walk around with hundreds or thousands of keys, so a single master key is easier.)

She blindly operated the control panel, lowered the levers, and raised all of the drawbridges connecting the guard tower to the cells across the pit.

“Wait, what’s going on!?”

“Hold on! Now we can’t get back!!”

This was like angering a hornet’s nest, but those on the cell pathways were stuck where they were and could not move up or down between levels. More than half of the jailors had been locked in place.

On the other hand, nearly half of them were at the top or bottom of the guard tower, but she did not have to fight them.

“Let’s do this.”

There were staircases connecting different levels of the guard tower, but there were thick metal doors installed to prevent jailbreaks and riots.

She raised her giant anti-dragon rifle, pressed the top against her forehead, and focused on the disintegrating lead bullet. She focused her mind on the magic she would use.

This was the weakest of the weak.

By carving the necessary letters and numbers with her willpower, she had set up the muzzle flash in the color she wanted like a fireworks craftsman. The color was yellow, the vertices were three, and one of those vertices was kept shorter to intentionally break the balance.

“Tertiary Arc Charge.”

While drawing out as much power as she could, she pressed the stock against her shoulder and fired. The intense heat fused the door and wall together, so no one could open it anymore. No one could reach this level.

The recoil hitting her shoulder sent pain through her body like spreading cracks. It was like the bag of pus built up below her skin finally bursting. Of course, that old wound was not really there. ''I am overthinking this,'' thought the Demon Lord with clenched teeth. Just to be safe, she leaned over and collected the giant empty cartridge that was covered in a hardened film of mist mana thanks to the impurities and heat.

Once she hit the button on the control panel to lower the drawbridge to the cell she wanted, her objective was halfway complete.

She followed the path she had created for herself.

''“Freeing me is a bad idea, human. Once my seal is broken and I regain access to the object embedded in my chest, I will regain my full power as the Demon Lord. Although that is assuming it still runs after being disconnected for so long. Also, you humans have a bad habit of shifting the target of your hatred to revel in a false sense of satisfaction. If I escape from their grasp, they will try to satisfy themselves by tormenting you in my stead.”

She recalled something she had said before.

Yes, she had known it would turn out like this from the beginning.

''“I am an old man and I have lived long enough already.”

But none of her warnings had done anything to remove the smile from that old man’s face.

He had not even been aware of his own value.

How could a truly normal human have opened the door to where the Demon Lord was sealed? Not to mention the many charms and chains. Why didn’t he realized doing that was all the proof anyone needed that he carried the blood of the Hero whose sword she had once taken.

In the current legends, the Forturiana Church insisted quite loudly that their ancestors had defeated her to prove their religious authority and to justify their position as rulers while they worked to curry the favor of the regional king who ruled this land. That had reached the point of an effective rule and they were even putting on a ridiculous event they called the Temple Moving Ceremony.

So if the old man’s identity became known and those in power sensed danger, that forgotten old man would be the one in real danger.

Those ugly humans would not hesitate to silence someone.

''“Ha ha. I’m no one that important.”

And yet.

And yet.

''“But I still want to help out when I see someone like you. I don’t have much time left in this world, but you can live forever. The few Combo-Years I have left is a small price to pay for reclaiming your eternal life, don’t you think?”

Then that old man had removed the many curse charms and chains one by one.

He had even placed his hand on the ugly wound running diagonally down from her neck to heal it and provide forgiveness.

He himself had seemed surprised when it happened.

That was when it had hit her.

It had been a real revelation for her.

She no longer needed to hold that hatred inside her. She did not need a weapon. It was over. The age of conflict from so, so, so, so long ago had long since ended.

There was no point in continuing to live as a Demon Lord.

She could fly free now.

It was that Hero’s healing and forgiveness that had taught her that.

The old man had not known anything.

He had even forgotten the duty assigned to his bloodline. The flow of time had washed away all the bad blood.

“…”

She ran across a group on food duty, but there were only two or three of them equipped with just enough to deal with unarmed prisoners. They carried no sorcery guns, presumably so rioting prisoners could not steal them. Aiming her gun at them might have led them to jump off the edge, so she instead beat them down with the stock of her anti-dragon rifle and continued on.

(I have no interest in the division between good and evil that the humans have so selfishly defined for themselves. Fire, water, wind, and earth are the only real divisions, but they still insist on dividing the world between the nonexistent elements of light and darkness.)

In the end, it had played out exactly as she had expected.

If they hated her, they only needed to attack her, but they forgot all about challenging that powerful foe and instead redirected their excess righteousness toward ''an enemy in their grasp'' to enjoy a false sense of satisfaction.

An innocent old man had been accused of the Demon Lord’s crimes and he was to be executed in public for it.

No, even that was an excuse.

In truth, the powers that be needed to eliminate that old man because he could reveal their lies. Wounds caused by the Hero could only be healed by the Hero. That was all the proof anyone needed of who had defeated the Demon Lord. So they were trembling in their boots and too scared to sleep at night. They had needed to find anything they could accuse him of so they could kill him. That was the entirety of the emotion behind it. And if they could use him as the evil to be slain at their Temple Moving Ceremony, that was two birds with one stone. He could act as the cornerstone of the foothold the Forturiana Church needed to earn the official approval of the king. Money, money, money. It all came down to those filthy holy men needing to support their indulgent lives.

How could she let this happen?

She could not. Not for a second.

(But I am the lord of wisdom who rules the demons, so I will use everything at my disposal to make you pay. I carry a noble soul that will always repay any debt that I owe!!)

For some reason, she came to a stop just before this reunion.

She toyed with her hair, slapped her cheeks, twisted her body, and pinched at various parts of her red leather outfit to check on it. Not even tapping her sharp heels on the floor was enough to calm her down. Her pulse was racing and she was nervous despite being the Demon Lord. She took a deep breath to try to relax. What would she do and say when she saw him again? She had rehearsed this countless times in her head, yet now she found her mind had gone entirely blank. And that seemed fine to her. She would face this as her honest and unadorned self. Once she made that decision, she took that final step forward to reach the bars of the cell.

“Hi, old man.”

When she spoke, the words that came out were entirely ordinary.

She hated how poorly her mind was working right now, but there was no redoing it at this point.

She powered through it.

She gave up on trying to look good in front of him and that resignation felt kind of nice.

She smiled thinly and spoke with countless emotions in her voice.

“I apologize for the inept execution, but I am here to rescue you, old man!!”

“Th-this cannot stand,” said Henrietta with a tremor in her voice. She slammed her fist on the counter hard enough to nearly break it and raised her voice. “They stole the credit for sealing the Demon Lord? And they are beheading an old man for a nonexistent crime to gain the king’s approval? You advertise this as some exciting ceremony, Forturiana, but this cannot stand!! You make a mockery of the king’s trust and charity!!”

“Sorry about this. She’s very drunk, so please just ignore her.”

Ayato winked while doing only the bare minimum to deflect the attention they were gathering.

Then he spoke to the bull man who thought he was dressing up by wearing zipper-covered pants.

“How much did you know?”

The reddish-brown Minotaur tried to feign ignorance while using his very large hand to grab the strong cheese and dried fruit arranged in front of him.

“’Bout what?”

“How much about all of this did you know from the beginning? You were the one that lured us in with gold and hired us to destroy the human traffickers working in Fire Castle Town Flared. Did you know all this already and knew we would come into contact with Nirvelphany if things went well?”

“Anything’s possible.”

He dodged the question, but the answer was clear.

And if he was going to stick to the role he claimed for himself, then Ayato could guess why he had not told them their true objective from the beginning. He belonged to the Selected Kingdoms, which put him on the side of the humans. And if he had explained everything occurring here in Sky City Celedileka, it went without saying ''which side'' an uncontrollable Sorcery Hacker like Ayato Criminaltrophy would choose. That would have been a problem for the First Prince.

No.

It would have hurt his reputation as a prince of the Combined Royal Family if he had bowed down to a sorcery criminal in order to clean up a scandal related to the Forturiana Church that had deep ties to the regional power structure.

“…”

Needless to say, solving this kind of problem would be difficult for strict rule-followers like Henrietta.

You could not just draw out clear divisions between right and wrong.

If humankind banded together to hunt down the incarnation of evil that was Nirvelphany, that would be an act of good.

But if Nirvelphany was trying to do whatever it took to stop this meaningless public execution, that was also an act of good.

…The normal rules did not apply in a contradictory situation where two acts of good came into conflict. Especially when it involved revealing the lies of the powerful hidden deep, deep, deep within the system. That was why people sought out Sorcery Hackers and others who operated outside the law.

“''I was hoping you would figure it out on your own''.”

Resignation filled the reddish-brown Minotaur’s voice like a tutor lamenting that his student was even dumber than he imagined.

He also glanced over at Striker Henrietta, who symbolized the good and just side of the sky city.

“''It would have been best if you had left my control and solved it all yourself,'' but you were so trapped by your assumptions you were never going to arrive at the truth. And yet I went to you with this one because I believed Sorcery Hackers had more of a flexible worldview.”

“So we betrayed your expectations there?”

“That meant I had to make some decisions. If I couldn’t have everything I wanted, I had to figure out what I could salvage and what I had to give up on. I cut away the excess fat in my plan. Directly telling you the truth comes with a fair amount of risk, but I steeled myself for the pain and did it anyway. So what will you do now?”

“Is that even a question?” Ayato had a troubled look that said he wished he had been told this earlier. “Surely you have some guesses as to why Miss Teleria and Miss Mamilis are nowhere to be seen here.”

“Oh, so that’s why they aren’t with you.”

“Don’t pretend you didn’t know.” The Sorcery Hacker sighed. “Dagregor Bull Gerlos. He’s a white hat hacker who was given the title of Knight, but he has apparently been unleashed with Miss Henrietta away from the knights. I don’t know where you get your information, but I’m sure you’re aware of what that drugged-up Sorcery Hacker is up to.”

Henrietta’s shoulders jumped at that.

She must have known what kind of person that man was more than the bull man with the mystery information source.

“Wait just a moment. What has that drugged-up man done? What has happened while I was stuffed in that sack and tied up in a way too humiliating to describe!?”

“Heh heh heh. That is known as tortoise shell bondage, and what he believes is actually the opposite of the reality. You disappeared when we did, but how do you think he interpreted that?”

“Wait, you don’t mean…”

“Dagregor mistakenly thought you had captured us and he was so desperate to earn some credit for himself that he left the knights and started acting on his own. The knights have already fought Nirvelphany, so he hoped stopping her would earn him enough points to not be thrown back in his cell.”

“But what does that cockroach actually hope to do? That sorry excuse for a knight is an insult to the tradition behind the title, so I already know I am not going to like the answer!”

“Yeah.” Ayato nodded. “He went to destroy the earth core in this castle town. That’s why I sent Miss Teleria and Miss Mamilis to stop him.”

Henrietta had felt left behind by this conversation, but now she scrambled to her feet.

“Wh-what!? What did this dangerous individual just say!?”

“After all, Nirvelphany set things up so she could ''sneak'' into the center. Whatever kind of person he is deep down, Dagregor is officially a knight and that means he receives security reports from a law enforcement perspective. There must have been something in those reports that only someone with the skills of a Sorcery Hacker would notice. He might not be as good as me, but we still use the same sort of techniques.”

“But we never heard anything about that…”

“He wants to make a comeback after you outdid him, so do you really think he would honestly share whatever he found? Sorcery Hackers use data as a weapon, if you recall.”

The beautiful Striker placed a hand on her forehead.

She had threatened him to put a stop to his misbehavior, but she may have overdone it.

“That white hat hacker apparently thought he could sound his own alarm to make Nirvelphany panic while in the center of the city.”

“Th-that’s all? But we are talking about the earth core here!”

“Hey, what did I just say? Sorcery Hackers use data as a weapon. And the one thing we fear most is exposure. I bet he followed her ‘footprints’ so his attack would carry her scent. You can use the same technique when pursuing a sniper who also wants to avoid being exposed.”

The beautiful Striker only looked more confused by his explanation. This was too far outside of her style of fighting where she wielded a blade, directly confronted the ruffians, and proved the righteousness of the civil servants to put the people at ease.

“Maybe you could think of it like operating the bank vault door to trap the robbers inside. Just like we have to put ourselves in a fair amount of risk if we want to get the Demon Lord to make a mistake and leave enough of a trail to pursue.”

“B-but this is more important than some issue of logical planning. I mean, this is the earth core! And…and why would he hide something so important for so long!?”

“Oh, and don’t ask why we haven’t reported it yet. We’re still wanted criminals, so they aren’t going to listen to us. Also, organizations will always try to cover for their own. When it’s the word of a wanted criminal against the word of a knight, we all know who they’re going to believe.”

“…!!!???”

Well-behaved Henrietta flapped her mouth wordlessly and could not find anything to say. As someone who had seen the true line between good and evil for herself while protecting this city, she knew the power of official paperwork could not be ignored. Whoever Dagregor was as a person, he was officially registered as a knight. It did not matter that Ayato and Dagregor were both Sorcery Hackers. And it was Striker Henrietta herself who had given him the freedom to do all this.

Just then, they felt a tremor like the ground thrusting up from below.

Ayato looked up to the ceiling.

“Oh, did they screw it up?”

“Hey.” The reddish-brown Minotaur placed a hand on his rugged forehead. “Just out of curiosity, if this was so important, why didn’t you go with them?”

“Don’t blame them for this just because it didn’t work out. Remember what two threats we were facing back then: a berserker like Miss Henrietta and drugged-up Dagregor. The former was clearly more trouble.”

“Do not talk about me that way, dangerous individual!!”

“We had no idea what she would do when she came to. I mean as a Knight or a Striker or whatever, she was liable to find an opening, contact her old buddies, and get us surrounded. That meant we had to split up. …Although if I’d known she would kneel down the instant she saw bull man here, I would’ve gone there instead.”

“Wah, wah, wah!! Bah, bah, boo!!”

Henrietta’s mind was so overloaded her speaking skills reverted to the level of a baby while she clenched her fists and lightly pummeled him. The bull man sighed as he watched it play out.

“Wouldn’t this all go a lot quicker if you would just wield a sorcery gun, Mr. Hexajinx?”

“Don’t ask for the impossible. ''I’ve abandoned that devil’s revolver.''”

“?”

Henrietta stopped her fists and tilted her head, but he had no obligation to dig into that old scar and explain.

The blue blazer boy sighed and said something else instead.

“We touched on this before, but nothing anyone does to the earth city’s core will bring down the barrier’s emergency power, but it will probably make them reconsider the security situation in the central castle. And isn’t that where Nirvelphany is right now? I’m not about to root for her, but I don’t like the thought of her being angered because Dagregor’s haphazard actions got in her way.”

“So…”

“However she is trying to rescue that kind old man named Thomas, a powerful shock is going to run through that prison. Powerful enough for her initial plans to crumble around her.”

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.

[[Image:SorceryHacker_v01_BW06.png|thumb]]

“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?”

===Option 04: Precaution Pamphlet Distributed to Intermediaries===

The knights and administrative forces run by the government are regulated by an examination system and are backed by public funding, but there are individual workers who use their lighter footwork to slip into the gaps left by those large organizations. They are hired by third parties to perform various jobs.

However, there are some broadly-defined categories there: the Bouncers who guard a specific location or individual, the Ransackers who collect rare plants, animals, or minerals, and the Forwards who specialize in resolving the cases that the large organizations would have difficulty with.

Since they are not managed by examinations or licenses (as you well know, the legal system is concentrated more on the intermediaries that assign those jobs), there are no strict divisions between those different categories. But they still seem to take a territorial view of things, so if a combat-oriented Forward accepts a job as a defense-oriented Bouncer, it can apparently lead to some conflict over a perceived “stolen job”.

They deal with these divisions on their own, so the intermediaries need not try to settle those conflicts.

Each of those categories has some legendary members. For example, the Bouncers have Grapple Shields who singlehandedly defended a crash-landed airship from sky pirates for seven days until a rescue team arrived. And the Forwards have Hexajinx who uses a large revolver sorcery gun and is known for completely any job in no more than six shots.

This legendary status is something they decide on among themselves, so the intermediaries do not need to keep up with a ranking board or anything like that. In fact, allowing them such titles would increase the risk of them demanding greater payment for their work, so it is safer to pretend you are ignorant of it all.

Now, these people who accept jobs as individual workers are still protected by the legal system. They pay a bare minimum of respect for their intermediaries, so – for example – they will make sure you cannot be accused of helping fund a criminal’s getaway.

However, there are signs of some intellectual criminals like Sorcery Hackers abusing the holes in the system, so there is still room for improvement.