Sorcery Hacker:Volume1 Phase3

Status: Incomplete

3/7 parts completed

   

Phase 03: Earth Castle Town Grouviv

Part 1

Earth Castle Town Grouviv was a lot less unique compared to the other towns. It had normal roads, normal houses, and normal shops making up a normal cityscape. It had a lot fewer lights at night, so the glow of the red aurora known as the Demon Lord’s Bite seemed more distinct there.

This was the town for viewing the moon and stars.

It was night there and a conversation was being held in a restaurant that put more focus on alcohol than food.

“You can tell how crazy Celedileka is by the fact that being normal can be a selling point here. But I guess people will sometimes feel homesick while sightseeing. People tend to end up here when they’re sick of the other more unique towns and need a break, so they apparently get a lot of customers.”

Of course, that could also be seen from the buff Executioner collapsed on the table while complaining about his everyday troubles and how a female Paladin and Samurai showed more gentlemanly spirit than any of the men by trying to comfort him.

The restaurant was not illuminated by the mana light of a vacuum crystal container or crystal tube filled with phosphorescent moss spores. The tallow lamps on the tables provided an unsteady but gentle light much like watching a campfire.

Mana light was uniform and simple to use, but it was known to exhaust the eyes during long periods of work. That may have been another way this place welcomed people who were tired of the city. The mood was further established by the lack of the ubiquitous Media Summoners that looked like a crystal snowdome hooked up to a cable.

And when they had hired a beautiful Dancer to alluringly shake her hips instead, no one was going to complain.

Two people were seated at the lamplit counter.

Needless to say, one was Ayato Criminaltrophy.

The problem was the person seated next to him. He used fingers thicker than bananas to flick a royal gold and spoke with a cheerful voice. He slammed the bottom of his empty glass against the counter to gather the barkeeper’s attention and the vibration caused some sharply flavored round beans to dance on their plate.

“Hey, barkeep, give me another. This kid’s still too young to drink, so it’s be rude of me not to drink enough for the two of us.”

However, this man had a powerful presence.

It was overwhelming enough to keep anyone from asking the obvious questions that came to mind.

Ayato placed a hand on his forehead while commiserating with the bad luck of the barkeeper who worked here and the customers who happened to be here. Quite a few glasses and mugs of alcohol were served, but not one of those customers was truly drunk. One look at that man’s face was enough to sober them up.

The man supported his unusually large head with a hand and nearly stabbed Ayato with a thick horn as he winked and smiled.

“Oh? What’s this? I know a sexy guy like me draws everyone’s eye regardless of sex or age, but observing me isn’t gonna help improve your own looks.”

“What are you talking about, bull man?”

He was a Minotaur.

The bull-headed giant stood 1.7 esoule tall. He wore pants with an absurd number of zippers, but his upper body was entirely bare. And with how muscular his reddish-brown body was, that was about his only option. It was indecent for a person, but it may have made for a lovely sculpture. He claimed his muscles had burst through all the decent clothes and armor he had tried to wear. He had leather holsters at his hips, but instead of twin handguns, he carried two old-style magic swords that were treated like fossils in the current age.

The beautiful but out-of-place voice of a strict woman reached their ears.

“Mgh, mgh…pwah!! Wh-what do you think you’re doing!?”

“I tied you up pretty tightly and stuffed you in a sack, but you escaped already? Not confiscating your sorcery gun was probably a mistake.”

While the boy made a dangerous-sounding comment, something burst out of the cheap sack lying at his feet. It was a battle-obsessed woman with a ponytail-like blonde braid who wore combat armor that increased its magical defenses and her own athletic ability using large monster tendons and leather as well as protectors made of oxidized mana-conducting silver that was given an asphalt color to increase its durability at the cost of general versatility. She had chosen the more popular older style to obtain the people’s cooperation. This was of course the beautiful Striker named Henrietta Split Destrius.

Her flushed face was due to more than just difficulty breathing.

“How dare you take me to some cheap inn, knock me out with a cowardly surprise attack, and then tie me up in order to do who-knows-what to me!?”

“You accepted that the anti-dragon sniper exists and is the greater threat to Sky City Celedileka and you agreed to help us eliminate that threat, but the instant you saw an opening while we were holding a strategy meeting at the inn we were hiding out in, you tried to contact your old buddies in the knights. How many times must you try to have us surrounded and slaughtered?”

“Uh…b-but it is my duty to keep the peace in Celedileka, so I could not ignore the ruffians I saw in front of me.”

“Don’t give me that and stop pouting your lips like some selfish brat! I really was nearly shot to death because of that!!”

“(B-besides, what are we doing in such a seedy restaurant? What are they plotting by taking me to some sketchy bar? No, stay strong. I need to stay strong. I can’t let them scare me. The instant you look away, they will try to have their way with you, Henrietta!!)”

The miniskirt Striker started muttering to herself and behaving oddly, so the blatantly suspicious Minotaur spoke up in exasperation.

“Hold on, boy. That is no way to treat a lady.”

“Oh, don’t worry. I made sure to put one of my shirts in the sack to help that lonely kitten get through the night. Did you have fun rubbing against it and filling your lungs with my scent?”

“You did what!? Now I am killing you!!!!!!”

That woman, who had chosen the old-fashioned protector armor and miniskirt instead of cutting-edge combat equipment, must not have understood how she had ended up in the earth town after losing that battle.

“Well, now that the cat’s out of the bag, you might as well take a seat.”

“Shouldn’t you apologize for your rudeness first!? Do not worry. I am not angry. If you sincerely bow your head, I will make sure to arrest you and tie you up swiftly and painlessly!!”

“You say that, Miss Henrietta, but don’t think I missed that complicated look you gave Miss Mamilis earlier.”

“Hgee!?”

That earnest woman apparently could never bring herself to outright reject what someone else said and instead took it all under consideration. To be blunt, she got the short end of the stick a lot because of that.

“No. As a Striker, I refuse to accept this. I can never accept the concept of a necessary evil…uhh.”

“Strange things happen. Like a completely innocent girl’s SOS going unheard by all those wonderful Knights or Strikers or whatever. Since you left her to be captured by despicable human traffickers, don’t you think you need to reconsider your view of Sorcery Hackers?”

“Stop reading my min-…cough, cough, ahem!! No, you misheard! That is not at all what I was thinking!! Cough, cough! Besides, even if those charges were false, you are still a sorcery criminal, are you not!?”

“Here, you can use my handkerchief. You were in that sack for a while.”

“Ugh, wipe, wipe. I can’t believe a Striker like me must accept the charity of a hacker…”

“Oh, I thought you were just going to wipe the sweat from your brow, but you went for the whole face. I used that to wipe off my mouth earlier, so does this count as an indirect kiss?”

“Bfhhhh!!!???”

She spat out the contents of her mouth.

For being a cutting-edge knight, her table manners were not the best.

“S-s-s-stop messing with me! There is so much I want to say that I’m afraid I won’t remember it all, but for now, you two dangerous individuals need to be tied up!! Yes, the human and the bull head!!”

Just as she shouted and pulled out her bolt-action carbine with axe-like bayonet, a Martial Artist woman hoping for some excitement stood up at a table a short distance away.

The reddish-brown Minotaur drank from his glass and did not even reach for the swords at his hips.

A palm-sized purple butterfly fluttered by in their vision.

This was an unnatural night butterfly decorated with lace and gems. It became a woman whose long hair glowed with a purple radiance and who wore a classic maid uniform. She also had metal arms extending from her hips and back which held a double digit number of small and large sorcery guns. They were all aimed at the various vital points across Henrietta’s body.

“…!?”

The ponytail-style blonde braid Striker gasped and the purple-haired maid spoke coolly.

“Sheathe your rude and impudent blade, insolent woman. You are a mere knight who serves one of the many regional kings left in charge of the continent’s excess land, so did you really think you were an equal of the primary heir to the Selected Kingdoms’ Combined Royal Family?”

“Huh? Wha-?”

“Stop it, stop it. I’m just some bull man now. This is my chance to live my life the way I want and bars are more enjoyable when everyone can relax.”

The Minotaur said that while draining his drink and munched on a handful of salty beans and small fish cooked in oil, but that was all. He did not give any kind of explanation. Henrietta blinked in confusion while still holding her sorcery gun at the ready and she glanced over at Ayato who was supposedly her enemy.

The boy simply shrugged.

Only the maid who he had called his client kept speaking.

“The man before you is His Excellency Liberca Bran Zorca Totalinus. His Excellency himself has forgiven you your previous insolence, but since you are aware of your inferior position now, any further rudeness will be swiftly punished.”

“D-do you want me to cut you down on charges of disloyalty and impersonating royalty!? No, do not give up on people’s lives just because they are a dangerous individual, Henrietta. As a Striker borrowing the king’s authority, I must show them the proper way and urge them to reform. Listen, some things are not appropriate to joke about!”

“Your Excellency,” smoothly said the maid. “Please kindly enlighten this foolish servant.”

“Oh, gods!”

There was a heavy thud as the muscular Minotaur drew one of his two swords from its holster and placed it heavily on the counter.

Henrietta’s forehead tensed more than necessary when she saw the symbol engraved at the base.

“The Royal Sword – Butterfly Effector.”

“So even a lowly knight like you knows a bit about heraldry. The combination of the family crest and the individual name is all the proof you could need that he is a member of the Selected Kingdoms’ Combined Royal Family. If you continue to question his royalty, I will punish you for disloyalty.”

“Ah, ahhh, wah, wah, ahhh!!”

There was no sign of the powerful foe Henrietta had been earlier.

The ultimate vertical society had its pros and cons. She was so confused she dropped her carbine with axe-like bayonet, her face paled, her eyes spun in her head, and she dropped to one knee in the pose of absolute obedience.

“Can I put this away? I don’t like flaunting my authority to solve problems. That makes me one of those awful rulers that looks down on everyone else. I just hate it. Every time I do it, it makes me feel like less of a man.” The reddish-brown Minotaur looked like he could not stand it. “And we call it the Combined Royal Family, but it’s unclear how ‘combined’ we really are. It might look like everyone in the Static Continent gets along, but it’s not unusual for regional royal families to make plantations overseas to secretly build up money and soldiers. We’re one secret agreement away from a set of kingdoms saying they’ll sink any ships not in their little group that try to head out to sea. Not everything is nicely in view. Like this sky city for example.”

“There are four continents in all, right? But the other continents are supposed to have their hands full with small kingdoms fighting each other for supremacy. Is there really room there for all this?”

“And who told you that nice story? Was it those Media Summoners you love so much? It’s not like you’ve actually gone overseas and seen it for yourself.”

Henrietta was seriously having trouble keeping up with all this now, so she could not even shout like a child and her mouth simply flapped wordlessly. But unlike that earnest Striker, the outlaw Sorcery Hacker had considered another possibility.

“Why did you believe him so readily? Even if that Butterfly Effector is real, he could just be some talking Minotaur that stole it from the corpse of a prince who kicked the bucket on a trip.”

“Huh!? That is truly despicable, bull head! No more mercy! It is time I began the Henrietta Education Camp where I will teach you the difference between right and wrong until your eyes are shining mirrors of purity!!”

“By the way, I am Micha Angelo, a prototype humanoid sorcery device whose organs are made from biological gems. I function as a succession manager who protects the Butterfly Effector’s seal. If any unauthorized individual were to touch the that royal blade or its wielder, I possess the defense capabilities to cut them down.”

“Wah, wah, wahhhhhhh!!”

Henrietta was truly at her limit after so much back and forth. Her position kept changing and her eyes were spinning dizzily as she tried to figure out whether she was pointed in the direction of good or evil.

Meanwhile, Ayato gave a snort of laughter while seated next to the Minotaur.

“So you’re enjoying a trip across the continent with a servant who does everything you ask? Not only are modern Minotaurs compulsive liars, but they apparently get their diapers changed too.”

“Say what you like, but I really don’t want to hear that from some gloomy geek who drags around a tearful busty blonde roommate wherever he goes.”

“…”

“…”

Invisible sparks flew between them, but the maid broke that silence.

“If necessary, I am willing to equip some thin plastic gloves, a mask, and goggles to change your diapers or eliminate your pent-up desires.”

“You might think that’s a kind offer, but you’re really not helping, maid! I never asked you to grab my you-know-what and I definitely don’t want to hear you need all that equipment before you can stand to do it!!”

The (self-proclaimed) Prince Charming gave a roar and the cool, purple-haired maid transformed back into an unnatural night butterfly made of bewitching lace and gems before flying off somewhere.

The reddish-brown Minotaur clicked his tongue and returned the sword to the holster.

“A-anyway, um…”

The elderly barkeeper was left dumbfounded by this exchange, but he finally seemed to have found someone to speak to.

While being very careful not to drop the glass he was polishing with both hands, he asked a hesitant question of the well-known Striker who was tasked with keeping the peace in the sky city.

“How am I supposed to respond to these people?”

“Hm, good question. They are dangerous individuals, but I am monitoring them for the time being. Let them do as they wish.”

She finally said it once someone came to her for help. That seemed to help loosen up the tense atmosphere in the restaurant. Having the “seal of approval” from the knights meant a lot.

“(So which is it? Is he real or a fake!? Am I facing an insolent traitor, or acting rudely to the Combined Royal Family? Please tell me where I stand here, so I can figure out what to do. Nothing bothers me more than this kind of gray zone. I need a clear division between right and wrong!)”

“I don’t know either, you earnest and straitlaced moron,” said Ayato. “How am I supposed to prove it one way or the other?”

“Oh? What, so you’re sitting next to Ayato!?” protested the Minotaur. “Makes me sad to have a guy sitting between me and such a pretty lady!!”

It was said that man had received divine punishment after performing repeated sorcery experiments.

Not even Ayato had been told what those experiments were meant to accomplish, but the man claimed they were meant to help people.

And Ayato honestly did not particularly care whether or not he really was the First Prince of the Combined Royal Family that bound together the many regional kings.

The man would spew nonsense when he was drunk, but he had far more information than Ayato could imagine and he was a good client that freely spent royal gold taken from some personal fortune he had hidden away somewhere.

“As your client, could I ask for a report on what happened?”

“There’s not much to report. Funny Snatch’s human trafficking group was successfully destroyed in the fire town and that completed the job you hired us for. Although if you’re interested in the overtime we put in for free, the villain pulling the strings decided to pick a fight with us and we were stuck being chased all over the wind town by those ignorant knights who were lagging several steps behind. We didn’t earn anything and we had to pay our own way through it all!!”

“We were ignorant and lagging several steps behind!? I demand you take that back!!”

“You were perfectly happy attacking me when I was working to stop the villain. That’s one step behind. Some straitlaced woman was shouting nonsense without even knowing what the real threat to the sky city was. That’s two steps! You still don’t seem to understand any of this. That’s three steps!!”

Henrietta’s head was full of question marks (and her eyes had some tears welling up in them), but the reddish-brown Minotaur ignored her to speak to Ayato again.

“Run out of tricks?”

“Right now, I can only wait.” Ayato licked the surface of the magically-created ice floating in his water. “Someone went out of their way to acquire that monstrous Critical Disaster and they disappeared beyond that nasty barrier with a ridiculous name like Free Audience Restriction. I am worried about what they are trying to accomplish, but we have no way of breaking through that barrier.”

“Hm. A Sorcery Hacker is saying he can’t do something?”

“Are you trying to provoke me? But luckily, the Free Audience Restriction is brought down to allow the normal citizens and sightseers into the royal castle on certain days. We’ll have to use one of those days to get in. And I believe the one coming up is for that Temple Moving Ceremony.”

“Are you aware what kind of event that really is?”

“A public execution. Fun for the whole family, I’m sure.”

Ayato spat out the words in disgust.

The Temple Moving Ceremony was used to invite in a specific religion as the new state religion, but Sky City Celedileka was a military government run by the king and knights. If this was to defend the divine right of their rule, they could not afford any mistakes here. In other words, the Forturiana Church had to defeat some great evil to be accepted by the king. (Officially, anyway. Any previously established connections were a different matter.)

This was not the suppression of the great Demon Lord spoken of in legend or the slaying of a dragon from a picture book.

It would take the form of a test, but the regional king and the church did not want it to fail. That was why they had chosen a convenient villain for themselves. They would offer up a human prisoner who had been sentenced to death and the event would continue as planned.

“Hey, Ayato. I’ve got a fundamental question for you here.”

“Yeah?”

Henrietta tugged on his sleeve and begged him to explain what was going on, but the muscular bull man cut in before he could reply.

“You seem to be doing your best to not see a certain possibility here. So do you mind if I point it out for you?”

“Quit beating around the bush. What are you talking about?”

“The Zodiac Bright Eater.”

Henrietta clearly had no idea what the reddish-brown Minotaur meant. Ayato did know what that term referred to, but he still did not understand what the man was getting at.

“The ancient Demon Lord Nirvelphany? That’s one of the nicknames listed in the sightseeing pamphlet while explaining that people here call the aurora the Demon Lord’s Bite, but why bring that up now?”

“Because that’s who you’re pursuing here. She’s a ruler of surprises and she can be the trigger of doom or the key to salvation. Write her name in a circle to link the end back to the start and you create an eternal incantation that provides unlimited power.”

This was all far too sudden.

But the Minotaur did not seem to be joking.

“C’mon now. You have a Dark Elf like Mamilis with you and you’re speaking with a guy who abandoned his humanity after too many sorcery experiments, so how can you be so certain the Demon Lord isn’t still alive?” The bull man drank down the rest of the amber liquid in his glass and slammed the glass against the counter, sending the round beans and small fish dancing along their plates with the vibration. “You did figure it out on your own, didn’t you? You knew the answer, but your common sense got in the way and refused to let you accept the answer right in front of your eyes.”

“It can’t be…”

“You remember now, don’t you? It’s about that sniper’s Expansion Armor. Shops selling demon wings and horns are pretty common in that wind town, but those are different. Demon Lord Nirvelphany remade her own right wing into Expansion Armor. She used her own body part that was cut off long ago and sealed in that shrine along with her.”

“It is true she seemed to have much greater control over that one compared to the horns, the left wing, or the tail. It seemed like an excessive amount of processing space for a mere decoration.”

“She only saw it as reattaching the body part taken from her, but as Expansion Armor, she can’t hide it inside herself anymore. Being a sniper or Sorcery Hacker is all about hiding and sneaking around and she would stand out quite a bit walking around with just the one wing sticking out, so she probably felt the need to match the rest as well.”

The Minotaur chuckled and tapped at his empty glass a few more times. Earnest Henrietta still could not decide who was an enemy and who was an ally, but she still called over the frightened barkeeper like the organizer of a drinking party.

“Demon Lord Nirvelphany definitely did exist in the distant past, but how she vanished from the center stage of history is much less clear. Some say the holy light of Forturiana purified the demon and others say she destroyed herself in some kind of sorcery experiment, but none of it is very credible. It’s all a bunch of rumors.”

“?”

“ ‘It was a golden horse carrying death and a holy follower adorned with glittering gems.’ Those words apparently describe her fate, but all the scholars have different interpretations of what it means. Although maybe it means there’s someone else out there like my maid.”

“What are you even talking about? I’ll admit the right wing of that Expansion Armor wasn’t normal, but I seriously doubt Nirvelphany is still alive and active to this day. Didn’t you see that dragon rampaging in the fire town? Without a leader, the demons have been fighting sadly meaningless individual battles. Yet if they had rationally banded together again and formed a single cohesive force, they could have started a war large enough to divide the continent in two. If that charismatic leader was still around, it never would have ended up like this.”

“You’re right about that. But a history book gathering dust on the Combined Royal Family’s bookshelves says the Forturiana Church opted not to wait for the arrival of the Hero and instead sealed Nirvelphany in a small shrine somewhere.” The giant bull man accepted a newly filled glass and waved it around a bit to spin the ice. “But not even the official records of the Combined Royal Family say where that shrine is located. No one can tell you where on that vast, vast continent it is.”

“Wait, hold on…”

“This isn’t too unusual. For example, the Combined Royal Family’s treasure house isn’t open to public tours, but that’s because we can’t let the commoners know it’s actually empty. And the Resurrector Cathedral that preserves the royal tombs is pretty much the same. All the generations of kings are supposed to be sleeping there, but if you open up the tombs, the numbers don’t add up. If it was just one body missing, you could make up some story about the mysterious vanishing king, but when there are that many missing, you can’t smooth it over with legends.”

“…”

“(Heh heh heh. This is fine. I am using invisible chains to keep these dangerous individuals here. This is an important job, so I haven’t given in. I will never lose to these ruffians. Eh heh heh heh.)”

Henrietta had tried to figure out from the conversation if this Minotaur was telling the truth about his identity, but the information must have overloaded her mind at some point. She had been listening in without interrupting for a while, but now she was childishly muttering to herself while slumped down on the counter despite not having had a drop to drink. Ayato lightly rubbed her head with a hand while listening to the reddish-brown bull man.

“A lot is lost in the long span of history. Records that everyone just assumed would always be around will one day not be there. Now, a question. You believe the commonly-accepted fact that Demon Lord Nirvelphany disappeared and was no more, but does that really have any historical basis? Or is it a false theory some idiot made up to hide the fact that the official records were lost due to some combination of coincidence and malice? Yes, that’s the real question here.”

It was true the right wing that red leather woman had worn was not your average device. If it really did belong to the Demon Lord, then not many people would be able to get their hands on it.

But Ayato still shook his head.

“I still don’t get it. That isn’t a logical conclusion. All you’ve said is ‘well, it could be’. If the Demon Lord was sealed in some musty old shrine several thousand Combo-Years ago, why would she be showing up again now? And why would she bring down the Free Audience Restriction to make an attack on the light castle in the center of Celedileka?”

“That just means she has a reason to do it now.”

“???”

“Listen, you’ve already given the answer yourself. You just haven’t noticed because you’re being led astray by the preconceptions made up by some idiot to hide the missing records.”

“Just tell me what you’re getting at here.”

“Try thinking for yourself.” The man with the ridiculously-large bull head sighed. “Nirvelphany went on ahead. And you can’t reach her because the Free Audience Restriction reactivated. That’s a problem, but luckily, the central light castle is bringing down that aurora-like barrier to invite in the normal citizens and sightseers for their fixed game of a Temple Moving Ceremony. And that means you can sneak in then to get a second chance at fighting Nirvelphany.”

The newspaper had mentioned an old man named Thomas. Losing his head for some silly event was tragic, but he had been given a death sentence already. He must have done something bad enough to warrant it, so that fellow resident of the underworld calmly urged the man to continue.

“And?”

“Really? That wasn’t enough?”

The reddish-brown Minotaur took a jocular tone as he pressed the cold glass against his forehead.

And then he said it.

“Then why did Nirvelphany go to all the trouble to bring down the Free Audience Restriction? Couldn’t she have just snuck in with the crowds during the public execution of that old man named Thomas Robergin?”

“Ah.”

That point should have been obvious, so Ayato’s mind went blank.

“That means she must have some reason for it,” said the bull man. “Nirvelphany has some business she wants to take care of before Thomas is killed for that religious event. Surely that’s enough for you to figure it out, Ayato.”

“You mean it’s related to that old man they’re calling a brutal criminal?”

“Incidentally, despite being part of this fancy event at the castle, the actual charges against him haven’t been released. All they’ve said is that he is a ‘brutal criminal’. So I wonder what this Thomas actually did?”

“…”

“Zodiac Bright Eater Nirvelphany hasn’t appeared on the center stage of history for several thousand Combo-Years. Not since this sky city was still a piece of the continent below. Yet now she appears to be active again. So how do you think that great Demon Lord managed to come crawling out of the shrine that’s location has been lost? Of course, the door can’t be opened from within, so I’m really asking who came along to open the door from the outside? Once you look at it that way, it all clicks into place, doesn’t it?”

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.”

Part 3

“So, so, so.”

The legs in those zipper-covered pants rudely fidgeted below the counter.

Ayato and Henrietta were not interested in eating anything, but that First Prince reached for the assortment of cheeses laid out on the counter. Unlike the uniform mana light trapped in artificial crystal, the gentle orange light of the lamp was reminiscent of a campfire and that may have made the food look more delicious.

“…”

Henrietta tugged on his sleeve from the side.

It was an oddly weak and childish action for that adult woman in armor and a tight skirt. It did not suit her at all, but she could not help but wonder if this was possible and if this kind of plotting really was carried out on a daily basis in the light castle that stood above the knights.

She must have always trusted the information given to her by her allies.

She would not want to believe that some of the criminals she had arrested in the past were actually good people or that she had assisted some bad guys who had worked their way into the groups meant to carry out justice.

“But what is the truth of the matter really?” The Minotaur licked the surface of his glass. “Even if the shrine’s door did open by random chance, would that really have fully released Nirvelphany? I have to imagine she had a curse charm on her forehead, mana-conducting silver chains binding her body, and all sorts of other defenses applied to her since the regional king at the time couldn’t kill her.”

“Which means…”

“Yes, he could have just stopped.” The reddish-brown bull man drained his glass and grabbed a piece of strong cheese. “Maybe when that old man called Thomas saw the sealed Demon Lord, he only saw a woman who could laugh and cry just like a human and he couldn’t help but reach out a helping hand. So he removed that charm on her forehead and the chains binding her.”

There would have been no real reason for it.

If he had been blinded by the Demon Lord’s charisma or wanted to sign a contract with her to turn his life around, Nirvelphany would not have been this fixated on him.

He had done it without thinking.

Truly without thinking.

That old man had simply reached out his hand like a small child opening the birdcage by the window despite knowing the small bird inside would never return.

And he had released her of his own free will.

That had been deemed a crime.

One worthy of death.

“In that case, Nirvelphany has no reason at all to hold back.” The First Prince slammed his empty glass down on the counter. “I doubt the peerless Demon Lord would rely on a human-made sorcery gun. We’re talking about someone who comes up when you discuss who it is that supports the power of magic in the first place. Why is a VIP like that relying on puny human tech? I imagine this plays a role there.”

The enormous Minotaur stroked one of the holsters at his hip. The guard of the sword was shaped like butterfly wings and it glowed with a faint magical power.

Yes.

Unlike the lamps and candles in this restaurant, this was an artificial magic light.

Something happened in that moment.

That bull man had no injury on his head. Or he had not before. Yet the others saw an illusory black liquid oozing from the top of his head.

“An attack taken by the Hero can only be healed by the Hero.”

“…”

“Heh heh. This hurts like hell. Even after the injury itself has been forgiven and sealed up, it sticks with you for a good long time. There’s an illusion of a dull and heated pain similar to pus and it saps your body of strength.”

Yes, it was no more than an illusion.

The symbol of a leaking fluid vanished along with the magic light from the sword in his holster.

“If she was defeated and sealed, it’s only natural to assume she was injured as well. But the Demon Lord is walking around despite that weakened state. If she just wanted to regain her former power, she would be better off staying put. Now, Ayato, you’re a clever boy, so here’s a question for you: what could explain this contradictory situation?”

“You don’t mean…”

“I don’t know if that old man is aware of it or not. After all, even the lowest estimates put it at more than a thousand Comb-Years ago. That was so long ago that no humans or even demons remember what the Demon Lord looks like.”

The bull man twisted his oversized jaws in his best imitation of a smile.

“But it is possible this old man named Thomas carries a secret. A secret power in his blood. …If that kind old man really and truly saved Nirvelphany, then he would hold great meaning for her. She wouldn’t want to wait to recover her strength even if she only has just 1% of her original ‘breadth of possibility’. She would feel a need to challenge that impregnable castle all on her own.”

Option 04: Precaution Pamphlet Distributed by an Intermediary

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