Ch.47The Wizard Milia (13)

Mage Millia (13)

Even though I was knocked out after being hit on the back of my head, I could tell that I had somewhat convinced Millia.

The woman who had been acting like a lunatic was at least talking to me now.

Of course, her method involved knocking me out and forcibly sitting me down in the cold snow.

Was she planning to lecture me?

Millia?

In some ways, it’s quite a funny scene when you think about it.

So I decided to boldly try to persuade Millia.

“B-but I have things I need to do. Yes, so…”

“Lug, you said it yourself. Your retirement is Esmeralda’s jurisdiction. You can’t just leave on your own. Your work isn’t the only important thing, right?”

“That’s…”

You’re the one saying this after trying to melt me with tentacles in real-time?

You, who acted more selfishly than anyone else, dare to say such things?

But I’ll stay quiet because I’m still afraid of those tentacles.

So what if it’s sophistry?

Since when did we communicate with logical arguments? We’ve always followed the law of power. I’m talking about the hero’s party, not demon-kind. They’re more barbaric than demons.

“Lug, if you really want to quit, you should convince Esmeralda.”

“…The hero basically doesn’t listen to people.”

“Did you think I would listen?”

“Uh…”

When she puts it that way, I can’t argue back.

If I could have convinced them to let me leave the party, I would have done so long ago.

Why did I think I could persuade Millia now?

Expecting normal thinking from these selfish, conscienceless party members was the problem from the start.

This party fundamentally only thinks about themselves.

The Saintess is the only one who shows consideration for others, but even she wouldn’t allow me to leave the party.

Probably because I’m not tied to just one person.

It’s unfortunate.

No, my situation is what’s unfortunate.

“Still, Lug, you’re right. At least the memories with you aren’t only related to your physical body.”

“…I’m honored that you understood at least that much.”

“Hey, Lug. What did you think of the book I lent you last time?”

“What?”

By the book she lent me last time, does she mean [Female Knight and the Tentacle Dungeon]?

She’s asking about that in this situation? What am I supposed to answer?

Should I answer honestly?

“Um… it was arousing?”

“I felt love that transcended species in that book.”

“…”

Where and how exactly?

Did we read the same thing?

Wasn’t that the bad ending where the knight captured by tentacles has both body and mind stickily, slimily dyed and becomes one with the tentacles?

“That’s why I really like that book. Lug, I’d like you to feel the same way.”

“…In a different sense, I do like it.”

Because it was a book that helped a lot during poetic nighttime hours.

If I add the imagination from that book to the video recording of Esmeralda and Eirene’s escapades…

Well, it was very helpful when I had time alone, whether day or night.

“Yes, that’s enough for now. So, Lug, good night.”

“What? No, what? Uh…”

With Millia’s rare bright smile, my vision flickered.

***

Millia was returning to the magic tower, quietly carrying the collapsed Lug and Eirene with her tentacles.

It was a moment that would make Eirene faint immediately if she regained consciousness.

‘Love is indeed difficult.’

She didn’t like the idea of Lug escaping, but she decided to scrap her plan to kill him and turn him into an undead to completely prevent it.

After all, even his escaping figure and judgment were part of the Lug she loved.

Millia had grown to like Lug, who kept talking to her.

She liked how he constantly challenged and waited for her even when she put up walls and fell silent, unable to find words.

But if she killed Lug and turned him into an undead… all those lovable traits would surely disappear.

“Lug, I’ll try my best.”

So she decided to focus on her second option. A method she had initially given up on because it seemed too difficult.

The tentacle magic she created.

It was magic she created after getting inspiration from a book that had impressed her.

“To keep you with me…”

At first, she hadn’t made such an extreme choice either.

She thought that if they had a child together, Lug, with his sense of responsibility, would give up on escaping.

Something Lug would have welcomed with open arms if he had known.

But Millia only had partial knowledge about Lug.

Yes, she knew Lug was a demon.

But she didn’t know he was a half-demon.

So based on her common sense that hybrids between demons and humans don’t exist…

That’s why she had scrapped her plan to pounce on Lug and make a child.

It made her sad. And scared.

As much as Millia was awkward with relationships, she also found it difficult to persuade Lug with words.

She couldn’t convince Lug. She could only hold him by force, like now.

But how long could she keep him this way? She had duties at the magic tower and couldn’t always be by his side.

That’s why she chose the second-best option.

“Later… later, let’s definitely become one, Lug.”

In the book she read, two beings of different species became one in the end. The ending where the female knight, her body and mind melting stickily from the tentacle’s secretions, finally becomes one with the tentacle.

So she decided to melt and modify Lug based on that ending. To make it possible for a child to be born between a demon and a human.

By melting flesh and bones with tentacles and transplanting the brain into a new body.

“Yes… that would be good.”

Of course, this plan isn’t much different from turning Lug into an undead.

And it’s not perfected yet.

That’s why she had considered making him an undead, but doing so would erase Lug’s personality.

Yes, both plans were impossible.

But she knew. Hadn’t she learned from Lug?

“So that we can melt and become one while preserving your personality.”

Nothing is impossible.

It’s just that it hasn’t been confirmed yet.

“I’ll do my best until that time comes.”

A small stone that Lug had casually thrown one day. It was now about to return to him as a meteor.

***

Lilith had made a misstep.

Thanks to that, Lug had an unplanned encounter with Legion Commander Five.

She had arrived at the place where Colonel Extra was killed, thinking Legion Commander Five would look for that location, resulting in them completely missing each other.

“This is…”

Although she couldn’t prevent Five’s rampage, there was a gain.

She had suspected certain circumstances from the beginning, and now she could confirm them. The first death of a field-grade officer by the hero’s party.

It was an unusual situation where someone supposedly just died to the enemy.

It was well packaged as being to save Lug, but it was strange.

A field-grade officer should have been able to extract themselves without much difficulty.

That’s why Lilith had been suspicious, and she could find the answer to her suspicion just by checking the scene.

“As I thought… you were alive.”

Yes, he had faked his death.

It was reported that he died instantly after being stabbed by the holy sword, but there was no corpse left here.

Of course, wild animals roam around, so it’s possible that no corpse remained.

But no matter where she looked, Colonel Extra’s remains were nowhere to be found.

No, among the remains found here, only about three belonged to demons. But they seemed far from regular army remains.

The equipment was old and outdated. Considering that military equipment had been replaced quite some time ago, they were likely deserters from the past.

In other words, Colonel Extra and his entire operation team.

“Did they escape the eyes of the Demon King’s army?”

It meant that a field-grade officer of the legion had escaped with all the information they could access without restriction.

***

“Damn it!”

Legion Commander Five, who had decided to retreat after suffering an unexpected attack from the hero Esmeralda, was grinding her teeth.

She had been defeated by an opponent far weaker than herself. Although she hadn’t fully recovered from injuries sustained in battle with the Ancient Dragon Agni, it couldn’t be more humiliating to be caught off guard.

She had no intention of letting this go as magnanimously as Eleven would.

After returning and treating her wounds, she planned to take action herself.

The front line she was in charge of?

Hadn’t they already taken down one Ancient Dragon?

The situation at the front wouldn’t change much even without her.

Yes, she needed to erase this humiliating fact. Kill the hero and eliminate the demon spy Lug.

“Legion Commander Five.”

It was while she was racing through the snow, burning with revenge.

Five only then noticed that she had been surrounded, having been too absorbed in her thoughts.

“Who are you people now?”

They weren’t forces from the magic tower.

The magic tower couldn’t encircle her this stealthily in the first place.

This was the realm of technique, not magic. That’s why Five hadn’t noticed those approaching her.

“That symbol…”

They were wearing robes that covered even their faces.

If there was anything distinctive, it was the eye pupil engraved in the center of the robe and the number-shaped markings around it like eye lines.

“The Eye of Truth?”

An academic organization of the Empire with a scale comparable to the magic tower and the Celestial God’s Order. However, unlike the magic tower or the Celestial God’s Order, the Eye of Truth wasn’t a place to be wary of.

It was literally just an academic organization.

They were simply a group that expounded their knowledge and discoveries through lectures on subjects like mathematics and philosophy.

But just from the energy she felt now, Five could tell that the intelligence department’s assessment had been wrong.

From humans and elves to dwarves and demons. Their races were diverse, and each was a skilled warrior.

And most importantly.

“What connection do you people have with the dragon race?”

They were all emanating the energy of the dragon race, the ancient enemy of demons.

“Well, even if you knew, it wouldn’t matter now, would it?”

“…You?!”

Five was shocked by the familiar voice. Someone who was reported dead.

A name she had dismissed and pushed to a corner of her mind.

“That’s disappointing. You even gave me a name.”

Demon King’s Army 5th Legion, 12th Regiment, 3rd Battalion Commander.

Colonel Extra.

“I heard you were dead…”

“If you had tried to recover the body, you would have found out sooner. Anyway, this damn Demon King’s Army. No loyalty. None at all.”

With Colonel Extra’s chilling smile, the combat personnel of the Eye of Truth gathered around began to draw their weapons one by one.

“Well, anyway, we’ve come in the name of dragons to avenge Agni.”

With those words, Extra slung the sword he had brandished toward Five over his shoulder and grinned.

The dragon energy Five had felt came from weapons made from dragon bones.

“Ah, even though I was a spy, having to kill you, my longtime superior… I’m not that sad. You weren’t a good superior anyway, were you?”