episode_0035

Alice created countless ice swords.

‘The key is imagery.’

Her favorite things might be cute animals, but weapons were what she was most familiar with.

‘I need to visualize every sword I’ve ever faced.’

To learn swordsmanship, she had faced countless blades.

Because of that, she had seen many varieties— and remembered them all.

‘Impress the memory into magic.’

Her ice swords grew more refined.

At first, they were little more than crude ice clubs. Now, they had reached the level of ordinary swords found in a rural village.

They weren’t perfect yet. But.

Teacher Cain praised her.

“Good job.”

‘This much is enough for now.’

She never expected to master the spell perfectly in a single day.

‘I can keep practicing.’ ‘I’ll improve gradually.’

That’s just how skills work.

“Huu…”

She steadied her stance. With overflowing mana, she lifted all the ice swords into the air.

And then…

Hmm…

‘A name for the technique…’

Nothing came to mind.

‘Something…’ ‘I want a cool name for it…’

Since this was Blizzard Swordsmanship, she wanted it to follow a naming pattern like Blizzard (○○).

But. No decent ideas came to her.

‘Later, I’ll ask Cain to come up with a cool one.’

With that fleeting thought, she assessed her enemies.

‘Just like Cain said.’

Cast magic near the entrance, and the monsters would come running.

A large force of goblins and orcs.

Numerous in quantity, but no particularly strong foes among them.

Even with low-quality ice swords, this was a fight she could win.

‘Let’s do this.’

Whoooosh!

The floating swords turned their blades toward the approaching monsters—

Swoosh!

—and shot forward, attacking at high speed.

“Kyaaaaak!” “Gwaaaaah!”

Thunk! Thunk! Thud-thud-thud-thud!

Countless ice swords embedded themselves into the monsters like arrows.

But not all of them died.

The ones struck in vital areas perished immediately, but those hit in the arms or legs survived. Some even avoided the swords altogether.

Still. This much was fine.

‘Cain taught me.’

Rather than just launching ice swords, an ice missile would be far more effective.

‘Missiles.’ ‘One of the most powerful weapons from Cain’s original world, wasn’t it?’

She heard they were formidable.

But. He hadn’t taught her how to make a real missile— only a rough imitation of the principle.

So she didn’t expect much, but—

“Wow…” “That’s… insane…”

The explosive power of the ice swords exceeded her imagination.

Not only was the blast force immense, the freezing shockwave that erupted could instantly freeze everything solid.

“Wow…” “So mixing magic with scientific theory creates something like that…”

It was powerful enough to surprise even Cain.

“At this rate…” “This might be stronger than the frost explosions Alice uses in the later stages…” “Oh…” “If I teach her a little more, she might be able to solo the Demon King.”

Cain muttered with a faint smile.

“With this, even if Ria breaks down crying mid-battle, the Demon King’s army would still get wiped out.”

He probably thought no one heard him.

But she did.

‘Ria isn’t a crybaby, though…’

Cain still seemed convinced Ria was one.

‘Crying until she can’t fight? Really?’ ‘No way…’ ‘Ria’s the type who would think, “If I kill the Demon King, I can find Cain faster!”’

That girl crying in battle? It was laughable.

But. She knew why Ria was pretending to be meek.

“Waaaaaaaaaah!” “Explosions are scaaaary!”

Ria faked a startled reaction and clung tightly to Cain.

‘Wow…’ ‘Playing innocent while doing whatever she wants.’

Faking tears, naturally leaning into him— Cain, in turn, gently stroked her head to comfort her.

“Hehe…” “Love you, Sensei…”

She smirked and even threw in some sweet talk.

Teasing him with her ample chest, holding him with a dazzling smile.

‘Wow…’ ‘She’s really gutsy…’

If she overheard Cain’s muttering, Ria definitely did too.

Yet she still played dumb and clung to him.

But. Alice didn’t see that in a bad light.

If anything, she approved.

‘Cain’s weaker to temptation than you’d think.’ ‘That kind of teasing works on him.’

Fluster him enough, and he gets excited. Act cute, and he turns red.

‘He tries to act like it doesn’t affect him, but…’

Cain was the type who sucked at hiding his reactions. That made it easy to notice.

Thanks to that, she realized:

‘He does see us as women.’

He was just resisting—for the sake of some goal.

So figuring out what that goal was became critical.

Because resolving it meant Cain could finally view them as women.

‘Summarizing the intel…’ ‘He seems convinced that if we meet the woman he likes, we’ll definitely fight her.’

Judging by that, she must be someone like a demon, dark mage, or heretic.

‘Probably not a monster.’

If Cain had a weird fetish for monsters, he wouldn’t react to them like this.

She must be pretty.

Meaning: a humanoid demon or a corrupted human.

But it was hard to imagine a man like Cain falling for a genuinely evil woman.

‘Which means…’ ‘Either a demon who’s friendly to humans…’ ‘Or a dark mage or heretic who’s actually good…’

Common sense dictated they were enemies— the kind you kill on sight.

Yet exceptions existed.

Even among supposedly wicked races, good individuals existed.

But. Even if someone claimed to be a “good demon,” most would assume they were being controlled.

So proof was necessary.

Proof that they weren’t being manipulated. Proof that good demons indeed existed.

‘Thinking about it…’ ‘Running away was the simplest solution.’

Proving a good demon’s existence was harder than solving things alone.

The pieces fell into place.

Why Cain wanted to escape. Why he wanted to gather evidence.

She finally understood.

‘Yeah…’ ‘If she’s a demon, normal persuasion would be near-impossible.’

Even if they said they trusted Cain, trusting a demon was a different matter.

She would’ve doubted too. She’d have assumed Cain was being controlled.

That reaction was natural.

So. She could predict what must have happened in the future.

‘Cain must have introduced her as a good demon.’

And then. They killed her anyway.

Cain saw that future. That’s why he deemed it too dangerous to let them meet her.

‘Cain said this was his last chance.’

His future-seeing power was gone. This was his one remaining chance to change fate.

No wonder he was being so cautious.

‘A truly good demon?…’

She could hypothesize, but accepting it wasn’t easy.

Still. If Cain—who had seen countless futures—was willing to stake his life to save this woman…

‘I should trust him.’

She might not trust demons, but she could trust Cain’s judgment.

‘Though…’ ‘Honestly, part of me wishes she was evil.’

The odds of that were low.

If she were evil, there would’ve been futures where she tried to kill Cain.

‘And Cain wouldn’t have vowed to save her.’

A woman who remained kind across countless possible futures.

‘Hmm…’ ‘If this is true… does that mean he’s living with a demon?’

A hero party and a demon under the same roof.

‘And if Holy Maiden Selena joins too…’

Uh…

That sounded like a disaster in a different sense.

‘Cain…’ ‘You really chose the hardest path, huh?’

Even she would’ve run away.

Living with a holy maiden, heroes, and a demon sounded insane to anyone.

But. A woman who could understand and accept all of that… That’s the kind worth calling special.

‘A supportive wife—the kind who stands by her man no matter what.’

Romance novels featured plenty of heroines, but in the end, that type always won.

So. She’d aim to be that kind of woman too.

‘Not that I’m vying to be his legal wife.’ ‘But striving to be more loved is admirable.’

As she pondered how to approach Cain—

“WHO’S THERE!” “WHAT LUNATIC DARES CAUSE A DISTURBANCE IN MY TREASURY!”

A brown-skinned, blonde male demon—looking to be in his 20s—shouted, gripping his sword.

‘This guy?’

The treasury’s guardian.

Cain had said the type of monster varied. Monsters frequently fought over treasure hoards, so the “boss” changed often.

‘Currently, it’s a demon?’

Demons.

Not a race created by the Holy Maiden Selena, but invaders from another world.

Some were bloodthirsty. Others obsessed with treasure. Or slaves to lust.

But fundamentally, they were self-serving villains— the kind who’d do anything for their desires.

The notion of a “good demon” was a joke. Calling all demons evil wasn’t wrong.

Though few in number, many enslaved monsters as soldiers, making them formidable foes.

But.

The monster army had already been wiped out. Only this guy remained.

‘This’ll be fun.’

She had faced countless human swordsmen, but never a demon’s blade.

Still, just in case, she asked:

“Hey, demon.” “Are you humanity’s enemy?”

“Enemy?”

The demon laughed mockingly.

“You humans are just our playthings!” “Useful fools—gathering treasure for us and doing our dirty work!”

His eyes glinted with malice.

“And well…” “Heh heh heh…” “The pretty ones make great stress relievers.”

The moment she heard that, she made up her mind.

‘Yeah.’ ‘Let’s kill him.’