If it hadn’t been for the unmistakable setting of the Demon King’s Castle, one might wonder who could possibly take him for a Demon Clan member.
But this was the Demon King’s castle, and standing before the threshold of the 100th floor — the innermost reaches of his domain — there was only one being that could make such an appearance.
Demon King Gerard. It had to be him.
“Demon King Gerard!”
Malek shouted. He nocked an arrow to his bow in the same motion.
Magical energy gathered in Ilena’s hands, and Casioth pooled his strength, ready to unleash his sword aura at any moment.
Kol and Henri also fell into battle stance.
And yet, even though everyone was prepared for a fight, no one launched an attack right away.
Because something instinctive recoiled against it.
He looked too human. He didn’t look like a monster at all. He didn’t look like the villainous Demon King Gerard.
Of course, he wasn’t actually Demon King Gerard — but that was beside the point.
“Today is the day you answer for your crimes!”
Malek shouted, and the Demon Clan member stroked his chin. Paired with those striking features, the unremarkable gesture looked like the refined motion of a nobleman.
“Answer for my crimes? What crimes?”
The Demon Clan member asked, with that elegant face of his, what crime he was supposed to have committed.
“I have no memory of laying a hand on humans.”
The man’s unhurried voice struck the group’s ears. The gentle tone carried no trace of any personal grievance.
As though he genuinely had never touched a human.
But Malek roared back as if to say what are you talking about.
“There have been frequent child abductions in this area recently! We came here knowing it was all your doing!”
That was the real reason they had come to conquer the Demon King’s Castle.
Child abductions that had suddenly surged in number of late. People had been openly spreading word that it was the Demon Clan’s doing — and that had ultimately been confirmed.
The mages of the Mage Tower had issued a statement. They had detected the distinctive magical resonance of the Demon Clan on several of the abducted children whose bodies had been found.
The Emperor had ultimately given the order for the annihilation of the Demon Clan. But the Demon King’s Castle, as recorded in human history, did not permit armies to enter — and so the Emperor carefully selected Heroes and dispatched them to the Demon King’s Castle.
Those Heroes were precisely these people.
Those who had come to eradicate evil and make the guilty Demon Clan members answer for their crimes.
“We haven’t done that.”
But the voice of the Demon Clan member saying so was far too firm. It felt genuine.
Malek, however, was not fooled.
“I see you won’t admit to your crimes! You shameless——!”
“That’s your problem, not ours.”
The man cut off Malek and let out a sigh. His manner was one of fatigue, nuisance, and boredom.
“Even if we really had done it, why would we hide it? Against creatures with no power to punish us.”
The man, who had by now dropped all formal speech, waved a dismissive hand.
“We have no reason to do something like that. Look elsewhere.”
The gesture had the air of shooing away a troublesome customer, and the group’s expressions instantly curdled with embarrassment. Malek’s face flushed red.
“You speak so cleverly as though you’re above reproach! You’ll have to prove your own innocence!”
Even to Casioth’s ears, Malek’s argument sounded thin on grounds.
Simply that they were Demon Clan, that they were demons, therefore it must be so. That the mages of the Mage Tower had released such a statement, so they must be right.
That if the accused couldn’t produce evidence that they were wrong, they were guilty.
Thinking about it, there was no more lawless a stretch of logic than that.
The eyes of the man who had heard that one-sided claim went dry.
Watching that farce unfold, Casioth felt a sudden and inexplicable sense of shame.
They had gathered under the mission of destroying evil, championing human justice, and annihilating the Demon Clan — and come all this way.
But what if they really hadn’t done it? ……How could anyone be sure the mages weren’t lying? Was there any guarantee the Emperor hadn’t been deceived? The imperial family and the Mage Tower were famously on poor terms, after all. And in the first place — why would the Demon Clan abduct children?
On top of that, they had specifically targeted only children of low social standing — what meaning could human rank and status possibly hold for them?
Was it really the Demon Clan’s doing?
Casioth’s gaze was clouding with uncertainty when Malek cried out.
“Everyone, get ready!”
Everyone prepared for battle. But even as Casioth raised his sword, he realized that the uncertainty was blunting the tip of his blade — and his expression grew troubled.
Even so, he forced himself to focus. He was the youngest among them, but he was also the strongest swordsman in the group. He couldn’t afford to lose his head.
“One question before I kill you all.”
The Demon Clan member, as though he had no particular expectations left for humans who refused to believe him, showed not a trace of disappointment.
That attitude sent a cold chill through Casioth’s chest.
“Who’s the youngest?”
The group exchanged confused looks, but reflexively glanced toward Casioth.
“Why do you want to know that?”
Malek growled, for no particular reason. The question had an unsettling air to it.
“Ah.”
The Demon Clan member shrugged as if it were nothing.
“Better to pick the youngest one, don’t you think.”
He said this with a benevolent smile.
The meaning behind those incomprehensible words — they would come to understand it in less than an hour.
“Hah——! Hah——!”
Casioth was barely managing to stay upright, using his sword propped against the floor as support.
The interior of the Demon King’s Castle — which had once been beautiful and steeped in a classical grandeur — was, like Casioth’s state, in complete ruin.
Before they had entered, the floor had been laid with a deep, blood-red velvet carpet that seemed to stretch on endlessly, and running across it, lavish golden embroidery had bloomed like flowers.
Along the walls, rows of ornate marble pillars had stood in formation, with silver candelabras and crimson silk ornaments hanging from each one, the whole space unutterably elegant.
But now, everything inside was in shambles. The elegant, beautifully decorated interior. The people.
And Casioth.
“Cough——!”
He stood there barely, looking like a paper doll that children had played with and crumpled and torn without mercy.
“……Malek……”
He called out to Malek, who had crumpled against a pillar far in the distance, as though he had been driven into it. He hadn’t moved since the moment he’d crashed into it, and he remained still now.
“……Ilena……”
Ilena too had given everything she had — pouring out attacks and defense and healing magic alike — but it seemed it hadn’t been enough. After coughing up blood and collapsing, she had not risen again. Her pale face held no trace of life.
“Kol, Henri——!”
The other companions were no different. Kol, his body split at the waist, was clearly beyond saving — and Henri, who had slammed his head hard against the ground and lay sprawled out, showed no signs of survival either.
The only one left alive was Casioth.
Casioth glared at the one responsible for reducing their group to this state.
The man stood in the same composed posture as when they had first met him — that elegantly aloof bearing — and appeared to have taken not a single point of damage.
“Hmm.”
He seemed dissatisfied with the drop of blood that had gotten on the end of his white glove, and furrowed his brow before pulling the glove off and tossing it carelessly to the floor.
A pair of fair, fine hands was revealed.
Beautiful hands.
Even with his vision going blurry, Casioth felt a flash of revulsion at himself for having that thought.
Is now really the time for that, Casioth? But no matter how much he berated himself, he couldn’t stop that impression from surfacing.
The man walked slowly toward Casioth.
Casioth, barely managing to stand with his sword as his only support, was in no physical state to dodge.
He gritted his teeth.
Even if he was going to die, he had to resist to the very end. That was the reason he had survived this far.
Casioth forced his sword upright. The sword that he had always thought of as light as a feather felt unbearably heavy today.
He knew how pathetic it must look to his opponent. Even held firmly it would look laughable to a Demon Clan member who commanded such overwhelming power — let alone like this, swaying with a weapon he could barely grip.
True to expectation, the man didn’t seem to feel the slightest bit threatened — he smiled instead.
“Certainly impressive for someone so young.”
“Shut up!”
He tried his best to put up a front, but the man wasn’t fooled. With a smile still on his face, he snapped his fingers in Casioth’s direction.
A sound like air colliding against itself rang out — thwip! Not a loud sound, but its effect was anything but small.
The sensation of his entire body being swept away — a shock crashing over him like being hit by an invisible cannonball — was more than Casioth’s already-wounded body could endure.
“Aaagh——!”
Casioth was slammed straight into the wall. A tremendous crash rang out — or at least it seemed to — but all his ears could register was a high-pitched ringing; nothing else came through clearly.
Dust billowed in every direction, and debris from the wall rained down over his head. Casioth’s whole body was immediately coated in ash.
New wounds layered over the ones he already had, and the body that had taken a battering of stone went limp like waterlogged cotton.
He could feel the strength draining from every part of him.
“Hmm.”
The man finally surveyed his surroundings. His eyes as he looked over the intruders lying dead in the wreckage were entirely without feeling.
“They’re all dead.”
It was the truth — but right now, for Casioth, it was the most agonizing truth of all.
“You’re the only one left.”
“…….”
He had no strength left to respond. He couldn’t even tell if his arm was broken — he could no longer use his sword to prop himself upright.
His vision, a smear of blood and dust, could no longer make out what lay in front of him.
“But don’t worry.”
And yet the man kept on talking, right there in front of Casioth in that state.
