Chapter 66
The Leash
“Darling.”
Sitri’s lips twitched.
“Have you lost your mind?”
Not even the artificial laughter that usually flowed from her lips came out.
“Do I look insane?”
“Did you take a quick trip to the North and come back with some kind of idiot virus lodged in your lungs? Or did you mistake me calling you darling all the time for genuine affection?”
Many humans made that mistake.
But Ferda was not that kind of man.
That was precisely why Sitri had never been this flustered by anyone before.
“I know a secret that could destroy you.”
“The only thing about me worthy of the word ‘devastating’ is my charm.”
The greater a secret was, the less outwardly visible it became.
The more critical it was to a nation, or the more it threatened those at the top, the more thoroughly it was concealed.
The same held true for demons.
Even demons could not escape the laws of secrecy.
“I once heard a story.”
It was a story from the distant future.
Ferda had been collecting all manner of information for his magical research.
Among those records were documents concerning Hell.
One such work chronicled the moments when the Seven Great Demons of Hell had been threatened.
It was a comprehensive collection recording their fatal mistakes and weaknesses.
The demons called it the Deviromicon.
Though it appeared to deal with matters of utmost importance, it was actually a book humans could read as well.
The reason was simple.
It represented their firm determination never to repeat the same mistake, while also serving as a trap for fools.
Those who opened the Deviromicon hoping to seize upon a demon’s weakness always ended up being used instead.
They invariably believed themselves different, and their arrogance always produced the same result.
Ferda, however, truly was different.
He had read that history of demons fifteen years from now.
And the story he was recounting had taken place during those intervening years.
“There was an absurd tale about the Great Demon Sitri, who was indulging in her usual debauchery, having her Life Vessel stolen by one of the countless children she had given birth to.”
“What could you possibly be talking about?”
Sitri tilted her head.
“You don’t know the story?”
“Of course not. I have no idea what kind of nonsense you’re spouting, darling.”
As expected of a demon of temptation, she was skilled at maintaining her composure.
Ferda leisurely studied her face.
He waited only for the moment when that mask would crack.
“Then I suppose I’ll take Penelope to the Magic Association.”
“The Magic Association…?”
“You demons are well aware of how much they hate your kind, aren’t you? What do you think will happen if I hand her over to them? Especially if I tell them she isn’t merely a demon, but one who might hold the key to a weakness of the Great Demon Sitri?”
Ferda spoke almost as though he were singing.
“They’ll conduct an exhaustive examination of Penelope’s body. It may take time, but eventually they’ll uncover the truth. And once they do—”
“Enough.”
Sitri cut him off.
The atmosphere changed instantly.
The silky presence that had been trying to seduce Ferda only moments earlier transformed into icy thorns.
“Who was it?”
Sitri’s mask shattered.
“Which son of a bitch handed that secret to you?”
Her gaze was piercing.
It felt as though she were desperately trying to peer into Ferda’s mind.
“It wasn’t my daughter, at least. If that idiot had told you or even given you a hint, she would already have been dragged back into my hands.”
“What if I discovered it myself?”
“I’m not underestimating you. But I’m not overestimating you either. Even the Archdukes don’t know that story yet. There’s no possible way some mere human could have learned it first.”
“You’re not even calling me darling anymore. Are you getting anxious?”
“Yes, I am. So answer me quickly, unless you want to spend eternity burning in Hell.”
Sitri threatened him with her long nails.
“Do not threaten me. Unless you wish to become no better than a common fly.”
The demons of Hell had ranks, and the higher one climbed toward the position of Great Demon, the stricter the hierarchy became.
Rising was difficult.
Falling could happen in an instant.
“Do you think I won’t do it?”
Her sharp nail pressed firmly into Ferda’s skin.
“You violated the terms of our deal. I asked you to hand Penelope over, and now you’re trying to use her to screw me over.”
Ferda answered,
“You asked me to rescue Penelope. And I rescued her.”
“No. I explicitly told you to send her to me. This is a breach of contract, Regent.”
Ferda scoffed.
“Did you not violate it as well?”
“What?”
“You said you would send all of ‘us’ safely. Yet I was unable to escape from that place. How do you intend to account for that?”
“You should obviously have killed Penelope. Once she was forcibly summoned back to Hell, it would have been over.”
“And what if I did not know that? You made her rescue the condition. I brought her out safely. If anything, you are the one who violated the agreement.”
“Are you seriously going to play word games?”
“Is that not what your kind loves most?”
The word games of demons.
How many people had been tempted and killed by them?
“If it bothers you so much…”
Ferda crossed his legs and leaned back in his chair.
“Then let us put it to trial.”
Whenever disputes arose over contracts, they could be resolved in the demonic court.
And Sitri would certainly win.
But could she actually take this matter to court?
She could not.
If the words Life Vessel came out of his mouth there, her deepest shame would be exposed to all of Hell.
Sitri fell silent.
She had been thoroughly cornered.
“You once told me that even a demon could become an excellent dog, provided its collar was fastened properly.”
A faint sneer spread across Ferda’s face.
“It seems demons can indeed make excellent dogs.”
“Hehe…”
Sitri began to laugh.
“Hehehehe! Hahahaha!”
She burst into uproarious laughter.
Had she finally lost her mind?
“You know something, Oppa?”
“…Oppa?”
“You look incredibly sexy right now.”
This was different from her false seduction and manufactured allure.
“So, what will you do?”
“Fine. I’ll do it. It’s true that I made a deal with Abel Silverwind. Is there anything else you want?”
She moistened her lips with her long tongue.
Breathing heavily, she said,
“For you, Oppa, I’ll do anything.”
She felt even more unsettling now than when she had turned cold.
“Get away from me.”
“Hehe. So prickly. Even the way you play hard to get is charming.”
Sitri obediently backed away.
“So, what about the answer to my question?”
“What question?”
“The informant who told you about my secret.”
No one had told him anything.
It was knowledge he possessed from the distant future.
Naturally, there was no way to explain that.
So he gave her an answer.
“Barbatos.”
Barbatos was one of the Seven Demons of Hell.
The demon of shadows and schemes, and the one most plausibly connected to Ferda.
“Barbatos… How strange. I never expected that name to come up.”
Sitri murmured to herself.
She did not look like someone who had found an answer.
Her reaction was closer to, Well, I suppose it doesn’t matter.
“Then I’ll see you again next time, handsome Oppa. Until then, make sure you take good care of that leash.”
Muah.
With a blown kiss, her form vanished completely.
Dawn arrived.
“I found you, Director Rinne.”
“Urgh…”
The dark elf had used an emergency escape spell, so only her body had been transported here.
“Damn it…”
She had barely managed to find shelter, but there was no escaping the cold.
Even for an elf with exceptional physical resistance, surviving in a snow-covered mountain range was no easy task.
The icy wind seeping in from outside the cave tugged at the thread of the dark elf’s consciousness.
Then she suddenly jolted awake.
Someone was approaching.
“Who’s there?!”
All she had in her hand was a stone.
Even so, she glared at the intruder with enough venom to threaten them.
The figure appearing outside the cave was so massive that it blocked half the entrance.
The dark elf could see him clearly.
Red eyes.
Sharp teeth.
The man swept his gaze over Rinne’s body and spoke.
“I heard there had been a disturbance. Judging by your condition, it seems the reports were all true.”
“Demons are every bit as lecherous as they say. Are you another bastard who volunteered just to get a look at an elf’s body?”
“Enough nonsense.”
“If you know it’s nonsense, then give me some clothes. I’m going to freeze to death at this rate.”
The demon man held out his hand.
His large, bulging muscles looked threatening.
“The journal and samples first.”
“You still expect me to have them after seeing me like this? Obviously, they’re no longer in my possession.”
“Then they must be in their hands.”
“Yes. I failed.”
“You know what happens to those who fail, don’t you?”
Rinne growled.
“So what? Are you going to execute me on the spot because I failed?”
“You’ll be transported as a prisoner rather than a research director. Then you’ll stand trial.”
“Let them hold whatever damned trial they want! All the research is in my head. I’m the only one who knows how to recreate those samples and how to continue the progress we made.”
“There are necromancers among us. Extracting what’s inside your head would be simple.”
“Those idiots? Ha! How perfect do you think those gloomy half-wits could make anything after rummaging around in my mind? I can already see them regretting it after producing nothing but a few children’s toys!”
The man merely looked down at her.
Rinne forced her stiff lips apart.
The cold was nearly killing her, but she compelled herself to speak.
“You saved only me while the rest of my people were dying. Do you remember what you said that day? That I was the only useful one among them. Are you really going to execute your most capable asset here?”
“…”
“So hand over that damned coat already.”
The man stared at her for a moment before throwing her the garment.
Rinne wrapped the coat around herself.
The inside was warm with a heat spell.
“Was it Ferda Valdrova who did that to your eyes?”
Rinne clenched her teeth and nodded.
“I never imagined I would lose to that brat.”
“I heard he was superior to an ordinary human. His name has even been mentioned at the Round Table recently.”
“Calling him superior to an ordinary human isn’t enough. Even that phrasing underestimates him.”
“Then how would you assess him?”
Rinne pulled the coat tightly around herself.
“There has never been anyone like him in all of recorded history.”
“You’re frightened.”
“I’m only being objective. I felt it the moment he caught me off guard.”
She remembered Ferda as he had appeared in her vision after the Lightning Bolt pierced her eye.
A young man with gray hair.
Blue eyes whose intentions were impossible to read.
And within those blue eyes, she had sensed something familiar.
“That madman has fought magicians stronger than himself countless times.”
They were the eyes of a giant slayer—someone who compensated for insufficient power with technique, predicted several moves ahead, and overwhelmed superior opponents.
The moment Rinne saw those eyes, she knew she had lost.
That was why she had abandoned the fight and escaped using an emergency teleportation scroll.
The man glanced outside.
The blizzard that had been raging fiercely was finally beginning to calm.
“We should get moving soon.”
He rose, but Rinne hesitated.
“Is there no way… to avoid punishment?”
“You already know the answer.”
The man replied coldly.
“You can only hope the council accepts your assessment of him as a madman.”
All demons were like this.
They had no emotions and felt no guilt.
They would weigh her life using nothing but cold calculation.
The only thing I can do is prove how useful I am.
Rinne clutched the coat tightly.
I’m going to survive.
Survival.
That was the vow she had made from the moment she first laid hands on Godwin’s blood.
The central-eastern region of the peaceful Cerdes Continent remained calm.
The Rosnova territory was no exception.
Erembalt, the head of the family, had grown old and retired, but his two sons had succeeded him and continued leading the household to greater prosperity.
Then, without warning, a bombardment struck the family.
Not that actual cannons or catapults had attacked them.
No, that might have been preferable.
“Hello, former family head. You know who I am, don’t you?”
A young girl stood before Erembalt.
She asked the question in a childish voice, her tone brazenly informal.
Normally, Erembalt would have shouted at such a young brat for daring to speak disrespectfully to him.
“Yes. I know very well.”
But he did not dare do so now.
What he saw was not the whole truth, and he knew that the small girl before him was easily older than he was.
“You are Lady Erdes, the paragon of great magicians.”
“Oh my, a paragon? You don’t need to flatter me like that. I know you people call me a beautiful young delinquent.”
It was difficult to respond.
She was certainly a delinquent.
But she was not a beautiful young girl.
“What brings you to such a humble place?”
Erembalt wondered about her purpose.
Erdes was like a storm.
She appeared without warning, turned everything upside down, and then vanished.
Depending on the circumstances, people could vanish along with her.
Erembalt could become one of them.
“It’s nothing special. Relax. I’m not here to reduce this place to rubble or anything.”
“Of course. I was never worried about such a thing.”
“But depending on what happens, I might.”
Erembalt swallowed hard.
He had encountered a genuine lunatic.
Erdes flicked her finger, and a map flew from her clothes and spread itself across the table.
“What do you think this is?”
“A map… is it not?”
“Correct. It’s a map inscribed on mana paper. The people in our Magic Tower use it to observe flows of mana.”
After the brief explanation, she pointed at a location with her small wand.
“Where do you think this is?”
“According to the label… it is Count Consilus’s castle.”
“Correct. And the marked area here?”
“Hmm… Some mountain in the North?”
“Be specific.”
“That would be… Silverwind territory.”
“Correct! What a relief. I might have become angry if you were as dull as our dear Blue.”
She smiled brightly and withdrew her wand.
“Why do you think I pointed out those two places?”
“Pardon? Well, that is…”
Erembalt stared down at the map.
He could not raise his head.
That subtle smile.
He did not have the courage to look directly at what lurked inside her eyes.
“My apologies. My foolish mind cannot understand…”
“That’s fine. You aren’t a magician, so how could you know? And unlike Blue, at least you’re aware that you’re stupid.”
Erembalt realized that the Grim Reaper had been standing behind him until only a moment ago.
Every time his words, actions, or choices diverged from the correct path, he would die.
Why?
Why did he feel this way?
The answer was simple.
“A Bending Bridge spell was activated here. One that passed through Hell.”
It was because the matter involved demonic magic.
Her hatred for such magic was infamous.
“Is… that so?”
“But I don’t think Count Consilus used it.”
“T-Then who did?”
“Think a little harder. If it wasn’t Count Consilus, then who was it? One of his relatives? His children? Or perhaps… someone above him?”
“Someone above him…”
Then Erembalt finally saw the connection.
He understood why this delinquent magician had come to visit a family of knights like his.
“Ferda…”
His third son.
The son he had discarded.
This was happening because of him.
“There are traces indicating that Regent Valdrova has made contact with a demon.”
Erdes Roton.
Erembalt knew the depths of her hatred for demonic magic.
Anyone who came into contact with black magic faced, at minimum, the extermination of their entire family.
That meant the destruction of House Rosnova.
“P-Please spare me!”
Erembalt dropped to his knees.
The crest of the proud martial family crumpled beneath him.
“I swear I have nothing to do with that boy! From the moment he left this place until now, we have been complete strangers! We haven’t even exchanged a single message!”
He desperately rubbed his hands together and begged for his life.
Erdes continued smiling as she watched him.
“I know. A worthless knight like you couldn’t possibly have been involved.”
Her tone suggested understanding.
Yet he could not feel relieved.
There was no mercy in her anger.
This fact alone would have been enough for her to annihilate House Rosnova.
But today, she would not do so.
“So tell me.”
She had only one request.
But that one request was impossibly heavy.
“Tell me about that man named Ferda.”