“It looks like we have Till’s permission. That means we can look for Sephilia without feeling bad.”
Says Lela as she hides behind a wall to listen in.
Unlike Mars next to her, she’s not emotional, and speaks plainly.
In the end, we decided Iris should convince Till by herself. That’s what she really wanted, and what made sense.
I agreed with her, and thought we shouldn’t get involved too much.
It looks like that was the right call, because Till just accepted Iris’ proposal pretty easily.
“Should we go right away then? If we’re going after them, the sooner we leave the better.”
“I really want to do that too, but we don’t even know where the alraune queen went. We know she went east, but…”
“If the goal is to kill me, she’ll appear if I get close enough.”
“That’s an amazing level of no planning. But since we don’t know anything else, that’s really all we can do.”
“Sensei, do you have any idea where they might be? You’ve met her before, right?”
“Hm… I honestly don’t really know what she looks like.”
・Wears an oni mask
・Is an alraune queen
・Master rank demon
Maybe the demon king knows something. She’s been alive for way longer than me.
Thankfully, she’s been living in Isolte’s mansion, so it’s a good time to ask.
“Lela, I’m going to ask the demon king. Look after Iris.”
“Understood. Talk to me again once you’re ready, Mater Loyd.”
Hearing her call me master all of a sudden makes my heart skip a beat, but I haven’t really done anything to warrant that…
I feel like I should, but let’s think about that later, and go find the demon king with Mars.
I take Mars with me to the annex, a two-story building on the eastern side of the mansion where the demon king is.
It doesn’t take us long to find her.
“Oh, it’s Loyd. It’s quite rare for you to come visit me.”
“Some stuff happened. I want to ask you something.”
“Ask me?”
“Do you know of a white alraune?”
“A white alraune? Are you referring to White Rose?”
She says plainly. I didn’t expect her to know the name.
“You know her, demon king!?”
Mars is surprised.
“Do you know each other?”
“It’s more than that. When I was throwing my weight around with the demon king’s army, I encountered her and we took a lot of damage.”
“There was a war between demons?”
“If our interests don’t match, it’s normal for even a demon to be an enemy. I am a demon of the western continent, and she is from the eastern continent. We came from different lands, so there was more antagonism between us than with humans.”
I guess we humans also have wars with humans…
“Why are you asking about her?”
The demon king tilts her head.
“Actually, yada yada.”
“That’s a useful expression.”
I see the demon king’s eyes being painted with surprise as I explain.
“W-what!? She took Sephilia!?”
“Yes. I want to know why.”
“Hm. What is White Rose after… I don’t really know either.”
“If even the demon king doesn’t know…”
“As far as I know, she is very aggressive with outsiders, especially humans. Maybe something happened that triggered her anger.”
I can’t think of anything in particular, but we can’t just leave it be when there’s already harm done.
We need to take White Rose down…
“If you’re going to fight her, watch out for swords.”
“Swords? What does that mean?”
I don’t remember her using swords. Are we actually talking about different people?
“She’s an alraune. She can best display her abilities in places with a lot of vegetation, but her powers are halved when she can’t.”
“I guess. But what does that have to do with swords?”
“She learned swordsmanship to make up for her weaknesses. She’s also quite good at it, about master rank.”
“I guess so, if she beat Sephilia. But then why didn’t she use them before? Isn’t it known that mages are weak to swords?”
“Because of her pride as a demon.
If she encounters an enemy in the forest, she uses plant techniques to display her power. Using anything else in that advantageous setting is a big humiliation for her.”
That’s not really something I can understand as a human, abandoning an advantage to use your techniques.
“Humans do anything to win, but demons have to show off their power to their comrades, winning is not enough. That is the big difference between the two.
…That was why my number one subordinate left me.”
For a moment, she looks sad, but she quickly puts on a smile and taps my shoulder.
“In any case, I like you people a lot, so I want you to beat White Rose and bring Sephilia back.”
Sounds like she’s rooting for us. It’s kind of heart-warming.
We’ll definitely bring Sephilia back, I vow to myself once again.
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