episode_0156

000

Under the protection of the sun, the devil’s veil loses its power and becomes subdued, but when the dark moon rises, a mysterious magical energy once again envelops the royal capital. A curse flows out, riding on a portion of the contaminated ley lines due to a ritual that is `designed` to be unnoticed by ordinary people – no, designed so they *cannot* notice it. They once again, without realizing it, turn the outlet of their desires into dreams, and their life force, that is, vitality and life, is absorbed by the devils.

This was a rather clever trick. First, ordinary humans who have no resistance to dark magic are cursed and have nightmares, and even if they are deprived of their power, they forget this fact when they wake up in the morning. They mostly forget what kind of dream they had last night, or what kind of negative impact that dream had on their body. They just spend the day feeling an inexplicable sense of lethargy and fatigue, tilting their heads as if they don’t know where the fatigue comes from.

Then, what about humans with some resistance to demonic energy? For example, priests. Priests basically have the power to resist dark magic, and thanks to that, they don’t listen to weak curses. The reason why this curse is so clever lies here. If priests belonging to the Order become the target of this curse, their bodies naturally block the curse and protect themselves with divine magic. This is a very natural phenomenon, a kind of reflex that is activated even if the priest is not aware of the curse.

Therefore, priests do not have nightmares. Although they are supposed to sense and resolve matters related to devils, they do not realize that a curse is occurring in the first place. Very low-ranking priests may feel a slight sense of discomfort, but they lack the knowledge and power to figure out where it comes from. High-ranking priests unconsciously purify the curse before it even reaches them.

This is why the Order is currently unaware of the devils’ curse. The ley lines that the devils use to spread the curse were originally a huge flow of magical power, so even if you mix a drop of ink into a huge stream of water, people won’t notice. But who can realize that this ink is actually a droplet of curse to turn humans into food?

Ishtal was quietly looking down at the desk where a miniature of the royal capital, glowing with a suspicious purple light, was displayed. Beside her was Reynold, or rather, Remilia, who had informed her of the fact that Kamala had been attacked during the day. Most of the devils who worked at the shop were dealt with when they brought Kamala’s head, but as soon as Aruru reappeared and disappeared in front of her, he returned to Ishtal’s base of operations. Her employer was Ishtal herself, not Kamala.

“I see… Kamala’s shop. It seems that they have started to move in earnest, having drawn in Cleon as well.”

After listening to Remilia’s report, Ishtal quietly put the glasses she was wearing on the desk. The magical light flowing from the miniature still remained, but as its owner finished observing, the light dimmed slightly. Remilia examined Ishtal’s expression, but unlike Remilia’s expectations, she was smiling. Even though she had lost a capable contracted devil with a somewhat difficult personality, and the shop she was running to earn funds, she was full of composure.

“Are you alright?”

Remilia asked, as if a little worried that she might be feeling more anger than necessary and having trouble expressing her emotions. Humans sometimes express emotions in incomprehensible ways.

But fortunately, Ishtal was not that kind of person, and nodded, saying “Of course.”

“Certainly. Kamala had some resources in the way of gathering spirit and funds, but that was just a bonus. It was just something I let her do to satisfy Kamala’s strong desire for control. The humans she had were also substandard, with a low probability of creating a ‘key’… Well, she received a very flashy punishment.”

Ishtal says so. But Remilia’s expression did not improve at all. She knows that this is Ishtal’s carelessness. Remilia knows that in adventures, as well as on the battlefield, there are many cases where things go wrong due to carelessness in overwhelmingly advantageous situations.

“Kamala did not die, but was taken prisoner by them.”

“That’s right.”

“…Won’t she say things about us?”

“Even if she doesn’t say it, they have skilled magicians who will forcibly extract information.”

Silence flowed between the two.

“You have a look of incomprehension on your face.”

When Ishtal said that, looking at Remilia’s face, Remilia nodded. She was one of the few people within Astaroth, excluding Lilim, who could offer opinions to Ishtal. This was evidence that Ishtal highly valued her strategy and experience as an adventurer.

“Although this Remilia’s body has been changed into a woman through my contract with you, and I have abandoned my ethics as a human being, it seems that Ishtal-sama is being too optimistic about the situation. Although Kamala – she was not given more information than necessary, and had the role of a piece to be used and discarded, if she is captured alive, the Saint Princess side may launch a counterattack based on the information she has.”

At Remilia’s words, Ishtal chuckled. Nodding her head.

“…Do you remember what our ultimate goal is?”

“…It is to summon the great devil… Demiurge, using the power of the ‘key’. If so, the false peace created by humans will collapse, and a foundation will be created for a new order to be established.”

Remilia gives Ishtal the same answer she had heard when she contracted with her. Then Ishtal nodded and replied.

“That’s right, but there are too many ‘systems’ prepared in this world to prevent such things. Winged lizards stuck in caves. The ‘Adversary’, an end-prevention device created by the will of the stars. Unless we move by putting those things into our calculations one by one, no matter how much we struggle, we will eventually meet the epilogue of fate.”

Ishtal realized this once again through a series of events at the Academy. They, like the Sword Demon Emperor, failed because they could not escape from the framework created by the star.

“Is all of this in order to overcome those things?”

“Yes, that’s right, Remilia. You said that you wouldn’t spare your life, body, or soul for the sake of a greater cause, right?”

Remilia nods at her master’s question.

“Then. When the ‘Great Collapse’ you want occurs, it doesn’t necessarily have to be us standing on the royal capital where the sky is burning and the earth is cracking, wielding the power of devils. Don’t you think so?”

001

The pure white moon gradually reveals its appearance through the clouds spread out in the sky. Moonlight pours down from there. The only light visible in the black sky where there are no stars evokes a more uneasy feeling than when viewed from other places. It was a moon of `devilish charm`. An ominous magical power that makes you mistakenly think that someone is watching you, using the moon as their eye, when the moon looks down on you. Cleon, dressed in his adventurer’s outfit for the first time in a while, passes through the shadows of the dark streets and heads to the back alley bar, “Shape Shifter.”

He wears the Holy Sword and the Demon Sword on his waist, and a familiar black armor on his body. A belt that can carry potions and a pouch containing light consumables such as lockpicks and flints. One throwing dagger, made for single use, is hidden on each of his arms and legs.

The door of the store opens, and when the bell attached to it rings, Rubella and Amelia, who were waiting inside, turn their gaze towards the door. Amelia was wearing a cheap robe that covered her entire body, and Rubella was wearing a tight black outfit that she had worn when fighting Talcheck, neither casual clothes nor a maid outfit. It clung tightly to her body, revealing the lines of various parts, but it would be much more comfortable to move in than the other two outfits. For the time being, thin detachable iron plates were added to important parts to maintain defensive power, but for her, who uses the assassin’s blade, the fighting method itself, which presupposes the collision of swords or being attacked, was nonsense.

“You’ve arrived.”

“…Sorry, did I keep you waiting?”

“Ah, no. We just got here too.”

Amelia answered Cleon’s question. She seemed a little flustered seeing Cleon, who was completely armed as an adventurer, different from Cleon in the light clothes she had seen during the day. In addition, the Demon Sword and Holy Sword on his waist were enough to attract her attention. She was looking at the two swords, which normally could never coexist, as if it were strange.

Leaving such Amelia aside, Rubella looked at Cleon and opened her mouth.

“I received a call from Iona. She succeeded in rescuing the idiot. And… what happened to that human’s body.”

“Yeah. He’s currently being protected by the Tromeria family. The other adventurers who were in that store are the same.”

“…In the past, at the brothel that Astaroth used as a base, Rubella and I saw succubi changing men who appeared to be vagrants into women. …Could it be that they were doing such things to obtain magical power…”

At Amelia’s words, Rubella also recalled the scene. The intense scene of succubi rushing in and deforming the body of a male customer who had fainted was strongly etched in her mind.

However, Rubella puts her hand on her forehead as if shaking off such cumbersome memories and says.

“I heard there is no cure yet.”

“It seems that we need to catch Ishtal herself, who has the formula, to solve it. I’m trying to extract information from the devil Rubella captured, but it seems that devils don’t decompose magic into ‘formulas’ and just use it like a natural phenomenon. She said that she doesn’t have the image of the formula in her head.”

A formula, so to speak, is a blueprint for magic that humans create by decomposing and analyzing the laws of nature in order to use magic. The formula requires the method of magical power flowing until the magic is activated, and the recognition of coordinates to activate the magic in 3D space, and generally, if a human magician has a poor understanding of this formula, the power of the magic also decreases. Therefore, magicians naturally had to study the formula and make it their own, and that is why there are so many researchers among magicians.

But devils are different. The existence of devils itself transcends human perception, and their bodies are only temporary things to stay in the material world. Even if they don’t study the formula, they can use magic as if breathing, so they don’t try to understand or study the existence of the formulas that humans use. Therefore, they can use magic haphazardly without knowing the structure or how to release the magic they use.

“…If it’s impossible even for Lyla, I guess we have no choice but to eliminate the source.”

“Yeah. …But it’s not like there were no gains at all. The captured devil told me various things about Ishtal. In particular, she passed on some helpful information.”

“…Helpful information?”

Cleon nods and takes out a map that organizes the geography of the back alleys. If you ask when he got this… he answers that he stole it from Kamala’s office.

“Yes, adventurers are definitely good at taking spoils.”

“No, this guy is a bit special. …More than that, I’m worried about the place marked with an X here.”

Rubella says so, and the place she is pointing to definitely has a place recently marked with a red X. On the map, it was just a street in a back alley with nothing special. Cleon tells the information he extracted from Kamala.

“There is a sewer under the royal capital, and if you go further down, there are ruins where excavation has been halted. Right?”

“Yes. Originally, it was discovered during the construction of the aqueduct and excavation was underway, but I heard that a huge seal exists, so it was judged that it could not be touched for now and the ruins were left unattended. It happened in the early days of the kingdom, before the war with the Empire broke out, so it has been left unattended for quite a long time.”

Cleon also nods at Amelia’s answer. Up to this point, it was the story he had heard from Lyla. And Kamala added some more stories after that.

“The place marked on this map is connected to a passage that leads to the ruins through the underground aqueduct. Ishtal also tried to find the ruins in the past and do something, but she fought with the guy who was guarding the ruins and lost and fled. After that, she doesn’t touch the ruins.”

“…The guardian of the ruins. Would that be a golem or a gargoyle?”

Cleon shook his head at Amelia’s guess. The knowledge she had was excellent compared to her young age, but unfortunately, it was different this time.

“Kamala called that guy ‘that woman’ when referring to her. You wouldn’t use those words for a golem or a gargoyle, would you?”

“She has a human appearance, or is a human.”

Rubella nods as if understanding Cleon’s words. She is guarding the ruins of the ancients, so it is difficult to say that she is an ordinary human. But it was also true that communication was more likely than with golems or gargoyles.

“If she is a person with enough power to frighten Ishtal, it wouldn’t be bad to recruit her as an ally.”

“…What if we are attacked too?”

When Rubella asks an obvious question, Cleon answers.

“Well, if that happens, it’s a shame, but we’ll have to give up recruiting her and come back. Even if that’s not the case, there is something Ishtal wants in the ruins she’s guarding. We need to know what it is.”

“What they want is a large amount of magical power for the Demiurge’s advent. Could such a thing be lying dormant inside the ruins?”

“…Maybe.”

Cleon nodded at Amelia’s guess, put the map away, and put it back in his bag. As if signaling that, Rubella and Amelia also got up from the chairs they were sitting on.

“…It’s better than just wandering around the back alleys aimlessly looking for their traces.”

“Because the captured devil couldn’t even tell where the hideout was because of the oath, and couldn’t even get information out. He didn’t answer even when a needle was stuck in his head.”

“A n-needle in the head…? Is there such a torture method…”

Amelia’s face turned pale as if a terrible scene had come to her mind at Cleon’s words, and Rubella glared at Cleon, seeing that appearance. Even though she is a holy warrior who fights devils as the Saint Princess, Cleon reflected that the last remark might have been a bit too stimulating.

The three of them left the bar together and carefully moved through the back alleys. This was because the succubi might be sensitive due to the events of the day. If they cause unnecessary disturbances, higher-ups or executives might come and interfere with the search, as they did yesterday. The three of them walked through the cool moonlit air. They were not yet aware that there were gray eyes watching them from the shadows.

002

The passageway of the sewer smells foul. Decades have passed since the underground facility was renovated, so the stench constantly rose due to rusted iron bars and waste accumulated in the sewage treatment facilities here and there. The vast population of the royal capital produces garbage every day, but unlike the generally managed sewers, the back alleys are being neglected by the kingdom. Therefore, there were discriminatory aspects to maintenance.

Cleon, Rubella, and Amelia each covered their mouths and noses with cloth and moved inside. Of course, it wasn’t a full-fledged protective equipment, so even if they protected their respiratory organs like that, the stench was unavoidable. Amelia’s face was already dark and her expression was pale.

“…Are you alright?”

Rubella seemed worried about such Amelia, looking at her complexion and grabbing her shoulder.

“I-I’m fine. Rubella. I can handle this much.”

Rubella nodded, looking at such Amelia. But then she looked at Cleon and made a silent expression of “Do something about it.”

Both Rubella and Cleon had built up some resistance to this kind of environment while experiencing various messes, but it would be cruel to expect Amelia to have that much resistance. Cleon wondered what to do, and tried to purify the air around her a little by using the divine magic of “Purification” in Kuon’s divine magic.

Certainly, he felt like the air had cleared up for a moment, but the stench around him roamed around in vain, and even if he only purified one part in an environment that was not ventilated, it would quickly return to normal.

“…To solve this with purification magic, you’d have to purify the entire underground waterway.”

“Is that possible?”

Rubella’s eyes widened slightly as if surprised at Cleon’s words.

“No, I can’t do it. Kuon might be able to, though.”

But then she returned to her usual expression at Cleon’s words and looked at Cleon.

“Then, how about this?”

It was then. Suddenly, when the three people turned their heads in a hurry at the voice heard from behind them, there was a child with gray hair standing there wearing a bizarre mask on their face. The mask, which protruded like a bird’s beak, had glass lenses in its eyes. A unique sound of “Psh- Ko-” could be heard every time they breathed.

“…Who are you.”

When Cleon took his hand to the sword hilt while being vigilant, Rubella stopped him.

“That detective from yesterday.”

“That’s right! You have a good memory.”

Gray smiled brightly and approached her. Then, they handed her a mask similar to the one they were wearing. Cleon also knew that Gray was the one who provided the “Replica of the One-Winged Ring,” a clue to saving Eustace, so he soon relaxed his vigilance and looked down at the mask.

“I made this gas mask! It will definitely block odors and toxic substances, so let that woman over there wear it.”

“…Why are you here? Did you follow us?”

When Rubella raised a natural question, Gray nodded without hiding anything.

“That’s right. As a citizen of the kingdom, I am very interested in the incidents that are happening now. It seems that you have clues to solving the case, so I followed you.”

“You’re doing something unnecessary…”

When Rubella sighed, Amelia quietly grabbed Cleon’s sleeve. Cleon, understanding her intention, says to Rubella.

“But it’s also true that we received help. I think it’s okay to act together.”

“…Are you serious?”

Rubella turns her gaze to Amelia. The most important thing was to avoid revealing her identity.

“It’s okay! I will never pay attention to that girl over there! And even if I know her identity, I won’t tell anyone. It’s a matter of credibility as a detective.”

“… …Don’t tell me, you already realized who she is?”

When Cleon asked that, Gray just whistled.

Anyway, when Amelia put on the mask she received from him, she also became a bit comical, but she could see that her breathing had noticeably improved.

“It’s amazing…! The odor and stuffiness are really gone.”

“Hehe, that’s good. With this, can I come with you too?”

Rubella and Cleon looked at each other, and then Rubella sighed.

“…Just don’t get in the way. And make sure you follow us properly.”

“Of course! Following is a detective’s specialty.”

Gray’s face was covered by the mask, but for some reason, he could tell that the bottom was smiling brightly. Both the gas mask and the replica of the One-Winged Ring… It was certain that he was not an ordinary detective, but Cleon was sending Gray trust based on the fact that he did not feel any malice.

“…Ah! You’re Cleon-ssi.”

“…Did you know me?”

“Of course. Aren’t you Lyla Flamewatch’s lover?”

“… …”

Cleon nodded awkwardly when those words came out of Gray’s mouth. He kept the fact that he might be Lyla’s baby daddy in 10 months a secret.

“Well. I also owe you a little bit. I’ll work hard to repay it, so please take care of me.”

“O-Okay…”

When Gray reached out his hand, Cleon grabbed it and shook it. Even if he grabbed his hand, he couldn’t tell whether he was a man or a woman.

“What are you doing? Follow us before we leave you behind.”

Rubella, who had already walked quite a distance, said that, and Gray hurriedly ran towards her. Cleon, looking at Gray’s back, moved his steps to meet “the woman Ishtal fears.”