“The clan will not permit it.”
Lucy flatly refused Epherene’s proposal. Then she removed her eyepatch, revealing her bare face.
“……!”
Epherene’s shoulders trembled violently.
Lucy spoke calmly.
“……They say that when an eyeball is extracted, the bones and flesh of the face sag, distorting its shape. So I put glass orbs inside and stitched it up myself.”
A face like a ghost’s, with red thread sewn tightly across the eye sockets.
Epherene turned to look at Deculein with a slightly sorrowful expression.
The very person who had made her this way said nothing.
“If there is anything I gained from losing my eyes, the first is waves. I can feel the waves and sounds emitted by objects. Through them, I see the world and handle it as if it were my own body.”
Lucy continued in an even tone. Yet Epherene could sense the frozen rage within it.
“The second thing I gained is responsibility. I had only intended to hide away in Padahal. I abandoned my clan and thought only of my tribe’s safety. I should not have done that.”
She preheated her mana.
“I came to kill Deculein, and I will certainly do so.”
In that instant, her voice rose like a blade. As if her claim that she could manipulate waves was no lie, the air around them turned sharp. It was a threat that seemed capable of slicing through one’s whole body at the slightest movement.
“It can’t be helped, Professor. Because of you, there’s no persuading her.”
Persuasion had failed.
Epherene wrapped her entire body in armor of mana. She emitted a 「Barrier」.
Clang—! Clang-clang-clang-clang——!
A metallic sound rang out from the barrier where it touched the air.
Lucy had truly turned the very “atmosphere” into a weapon.
“……Mage Epherene. Do you not wish to kill Deculein as well?”
“No. I want to live. I told you, we need Deculein to kill the demon.”
“This would be the perfect chance to avenge your father.”
Epherene bit her lip lightly.
“……You don’t know anything about other people’s family affairs. If you don’t know, don’t talk.”
Lucy nodded as well.
“……A shame.”
With that single remark, the conversation ended.
A silence on the verge of explosion—in other words, the signal for battle to begin.
Just as the density of mana in the space, and everyone’s heartbeats, were rapidly soaring—
“It is still too early to kill him.”
Someone’s words cut through the tension.
Epherene and Lucy turned toward the source.
“This is quite the amusing situation, isn’t it—?”
Approaching with a torch illuminating the darkness of the corridor was General Bell.
* * *
From the office on the upper floor to Deculein’s prison.
During the descent, the party of twelve had been reduced to five, but thanks to the forced sacrifice of those seven, Bell had obtained important information.
“All we have to do is avoid the darkness. They may say it devours humans or whatnot, but in truth, it is nothing much as a demon—”
The demon could only act within darkness.
Bell and his adjutant swung their torches here and there, driving back the darkness encroaching from all sides.
“……So. You are the Jeokgwe?”
He asked Lucy’s group first. They gave no answer.
Next, Bell pointed at Epherene.
“And you, Epherene, are Count Deculein’s disciple. Now, you are enemies who have cut ties with each other, yes—?”
“So what?”
“……Ha.”
Haha, hrahaha.
A smile rose naturally to Bell’s lips. He tried covering his mouth with both hands, but laughter kept leaking out.
There were this many people who regarded Deculein as their enemy.
Good heavens, how could things be this wonderful?
“Hahahaha——”
He laughed so loudly that he bent backward, then composed himself again and took a deep breath.
“Whew. Good. Very good. Everyone here seems to bear a grudge against Count Deculein, so do as you please.”
Pausing briefly, Bell glanced thoughtlessly at Deculein inside the prison.
Standing upright, glaring at him.
Was it just his imagination that he looked more like a demon than the demon itself?
Bell coughed for no reason.
“Ahem. Hm. I mean it. As I said, the demon is not much of a threat. It is a simple creature that can be driven back with torches. Will you really miss the chance to kill Deculein, one of the Empire’s greatest military assets, because of such a thing?”
Then he pointed at Deculein’s handcuffs.
“Those handcuffs are Deculein’s leash. They stagnate his mana circulation.”
“……Bell. No less than Deculein, you too are a target to be slain.”
Lucy said, glaring at him. Bell twitched his eyebrows.
“I know. However, they say the enemy of one’s enemy is a friend. Above all, is this not the perfect opportunity to kill Deculein—?”
“…….”
Lucy, who seemed to be deliberating, soon nodded.
Bell smiled broadly and dismantled Deculein’s prison.
“Count Deculein. Congratulations. Your confinement is lifted.”
At that moment, Lucy immediately bound Deculein with waves. As if preparing to transport him, she wrapped him tightly and kept him beside them.
“Mm? You do not intend to kill him right away?”
Bell asked.
Lucy answered.
“After we leave this place first.”
“Ah~ True. You would not want to kill him comfortably.”
“Excuse me.”
This time, Epherene held out her hand to him. Bell tilted his head.
“What?”
“The key to the handcuffs.”
“……Why the key?”
“As proof that the contract was made. And if you have that key on you, won’t you be in trouble too? Just pretend we stole it from you.”
“Mm?”
Indeed, now that he thought about it, it was a clever suggestion.
Bell laughed heartily.
“As expected. You are truly the disciple who suffered so much at Deculein’s hands. To think you would be this meticulous. Here, take it.”
Bell took the key from within his coat and seemed about to give it to Epherene……
Gulp.
Epherene swallowed.
Bell handed the key not to Epherene, but to Lucy.
“It would be better for you to take it—this friend here seems to still have some lingering affection.”
“…….”
Epherene clenched her teeth, and Lucy obediently accepted the key.
“Now. Let us be off.”
Bell said, bowing obliquely like a gentleman.
“I shall help you escape. After all, escorting is a gentleman’s duty, is it not—?”
* * *
……Lucy, Epherene, and Bell’s party were escaping the main building together and making their way through the desert.
Thud, thud— Thud, thud—
Eleven camels climbed the sand dune.
All around them was darkness so deep they could not see an inch ahead. It was as if they were wrapped in a pitch-black veil.
“Shoo! Shoo!”
Bell’s adjutants drove away the darkness with torches, and General Bell chuckled as he looked back behind him.
There, bound atop a camel’s back, was their prisoner, Deculein.
“Look for yourselves. That we cannot escape this space because of the demon? It was all Deculein’s lie—his struggle to survive. Something like that.”
“It seems so.”
Lucy agreed as well. Epherene, on the other hand, bit her lip.
“Count Deculein. Are you all right?”
No answer came back.
Perhaps sensing his own death, Deculein remained silent with his eyes closed.
“We need only be careful not to let the torches go out. Hey! We have enough oil, yes?!”
“Yes, General!”
As things continued without incident, just as Bell said, color returned to the adjutants’ faces as well.
“By the way, where is your hideout? This is taking quite some time.”
Bell asked Lucy in a subtle tone. Lucy snorted.
“As if I would show it to you. If you have come this far, leave.”
“Haha. That is not my purpose. Rather, it would be better for us to share secrets with each other—having handed Deculein over to you, I will take care not to attack your hideout.”
“…….”
“If you are captured, or if even one of you survives and tells His Majesty of this, would I not be executed on the spot—?”
Lucy looked back at Bell.
He was unexpectedly shrewd, and reasonable as well. Then again, since he was greedy only for his own advancement, wealth, and glory, perhaps he had no prejudice toward races like the Jeokgwe.
Well, she would kill him later anyway, so it did not matter.
Lucy said,
“We have advanced this far north, so it should appear soon.”
“Ah~ In that case, I will hand him over there.”
“Wrong.”
Then, from behind, where he had been silent all this time, a voice flowed in.
Deculein’s words.
Everyone’s gaze shifted to him.
Whoooooosh……
The wind blew from somewhere, disheveling their collars, and Bell let out a hollow laugh.
“Wrong? The direction?”
“No.”
Deculein shook his head.
“Your conjecture about the demon.”
“……?”
Bell furrowed his brow.
“It seems you fear death after all. How pathetic—”
“Do you truly think you are moving forward?”
All at once, Deculein said something strange.
Their reactions varied.
Epherene listened intently, Lucy glared at Deculein with the same murderous expression as before, and Bell asked back,
“……Forward?”
Whoooooosh——
The wind rushed in once more.
Belatedly, Bell looked around.
“…….”
Empty sand dunes.
A desolate place with no landmarks, where one could not distinguish whether they were walking or wandering in circles in the same spot.
Deculein said,
“You have been circling the same place all along. And yet, you have not noticed. As people often say, you have been ‘bewitched by a demon.’”
His voice was exceedingly composed.
Though he was in the most disadvantageous position, bound in the most humiliating manner, it was as if he were mocking everyone here.
“And yet the reason I intentionally told you this late is……. 3.”
The number 3.
A countdown that began abruptly.
“2.”
Lucy instantly preheated her mana, and Bell likewise wrapped his body in protective aura.
“1.”
Craaaaack——!
Immediately, a horrifying sound rang out.
Bell opened his eyes wide and looked beside him.
“……Ah!”
The adjutant who had been standing there with a torch just moments ago was gone. Only his remains—blood and shards of bone—were left on the ground, trickling down.
Deculein twisted his lips.
“……The demon was not unable to devour you because of the darkness. It is marking you right now. Without you even realizing it.”
The attribute called 「Killing Field」.
The demon of the desert was carving a “mark” upon the humans it watched.
Bell hurriedly inspected his own body here and there.
“…….”
And then, he fell silent.
It was there.
A bizarre demonic mark, near his right collarbone.
Deculein spoke as if sneering.
“How is it? It must resemble the ghost stories that circulated in your childhood.”
The others belatedly searched their own bodies as well, showing reactions similar to Bell’s.
“The activation of the mark naturally differs from person to person. The conditions are mental fortitude, mana, physical strength—that much. However, if time continues to pass like this, you will be completely eaten by it.”
Craaaaack────!
The second death.
Without anyone realizing it, one of Bell’s adjutants was devoured, and Lucy gripped the camel’s reins.
“It waits with its maw wide open, but you cannot kill it. No, you cannot even observe it.”
Time flowed helplessly. Sweat ran down their entire bodies.
Yet more than that, Deculein’s words clenched their hearts.
“Moreover, this thing grows stronger the more humans it eats. If it is not dealt with here and now…”
“…….”
Lucy looked back at Deculein behind her. Deculein met her eyes and wore a mocking smile.
“It will spread throughout the entire desert and kill. Every desert tribe will be exterminated. His Majesty would rather welcome it. Worthless creatures like you will destroy yourselves on your own.”
At the degrading contempt, Lucy ground her molars.
“Lucy. Pitiful blind one, I shall give you a choice.”
Craaaaack——!
Even as he spoke, the fourth death followed.
“Will you be blinded by rage and abandon the fate of your clan and the desert?”
……The demon had already opened its maw wide here.
“Or.”
Deculein held out his wrists.
With an aristocratic smile filled with refinement and dignity, though so detestable it made one want to slap him across the cheek.
“Will you give up your hatred?”
That was what he asked.
“…….”
From Deculein, Lucy recalled the past.
That dreadful, cruel sight of him gouging out her eyes while perfectly sane.
“The fate of the desert rests upon your choice.”
Demon hunters, Yukline.
The Jeokgwe feared that family.
Because a very small amount of demonic energy flowed mixed within the blood of the Jeokgwe.
“……Let me ask you one thing. Are the Jeokgwe regarded as demons by Yukline? Is that why you hate the Jeokgwe?”
“…….”
Deculein looked into Lucy’s eyes. To be precise, at the part of her face where her eyes had once been.
Then he said,
“The blood of Yukline does not respond to the Jeokgwe.”
“Then……”
“The Jeokgwe are not descendants of demons.”
Lucy let out a small sigh.
She had never imagined it.
That she would hear the words that the Jeokgwe were not demons from none other than Deculein.
“……I think I understand why Karixel sent me here.”
So Karixel sent her— Deculein murmured softly, then nodded.
“However, I still hate you.”
“…….”
“But I thought you took my eyes merely out of interest.”
Lucy took a key from within her coat.
“W-Wait—”
Bell hurriedly tried to stop her, but.
“Now I see there was a reason.”
Click—!
The moment Lucy’s key slid into the handcuffs.
Crack─!
Deculein spread both arms wide and shattered the cuffs.
At the same time, the demonic energy of the desert seeped into his body.
Kwaaaaaaaaa────!
As if a typhoon were raging.
“…….”
No special preparations are needed for a Yukline to accept demonic energy. No equipment is needed either.
All that is required is the body of a Yukline.
His body absorbs the demon’s demonic energy, and the Snowflake Obsidian refines it.
However, the demonic energy of the Man-Eater is far too vast to simply be refined; it overflows outward, transforming Yukline’s exterior into something truly demonic.
His eyes glow dark red, and the mana he emits is black.
“……A demon. A, a demon!”
Bell shouted, pointing at Deculein.
In that form, as though a demon were barely maintaining the shape of a human, yet still retaining his proper posture and the dignity of a noble, Deculein stared somewhere.
In empty space, where nothing existed, the shape of a demon could be seen.
He could observe the Man-Eater in its incorporeal state.
For no demon could escape his 「Naked Eye」.
“Ah! Looks like it’s already started!”
A pure, innocent voice arrived just in time. Epherene and Lucy turned toward it.
It was Lia and Delric.
“……Lia?”
Epherene called her. Lia looked back at Epherene and nodded.
“Miss Epherene. I knew you’d come.”
“……Yeah. It’s almost all settled.”
“Yes. It looks that way.”
Yukline, the natural enemy of demons.
When facing demons, his combat power is amplified by at least tenfold.
Against demons alone, he is the strongest in the world, the final weapon, the Russell Weapon, Devil May Cry, or something like that.
────!
No sooner had the thought come than a vibration shook the earth.
Deculein, in the distance, was already swallowed in demonic energy and could no longer be seen.
“Where do you think you’re running!”
In the meantime, Lia pointed somewhere and shouted.
It was Bell, trying to sneak away.
“Stay right there! You’re court-martial material.”
At Lia’s firm, no-nonsense manner, Epherene laughed softly and lowered her head.
For some reason, this girl seemed to be taking the place of her former self.
It was nice, but bitter, and a little confusing.
“……Lia. I feel like I dreamed this before.”
Epherene said, looking at Lia. Lia’s eyes went round.
“A dream?”
“Yeah. Of course, this probably isn’t a dream right now. But when the Professor finishes dealing with the demon and comes out……”
A dream.
Epherene, who was slowly being eroded by the talent called “time,” was suffering from déjà vu, as if she had seen even this very scene somewhere before.
“You help him.”
“Me?”
“Yeah. He might be struggling a lot. They call it rampaging, right? But you…… if you go and help him……”
“Because I look like his former fiancée?”
“Yeah. He’ll calm down.”
“Okay. I’ll do that. What about you, Miss Epherene?”
At Lia’s question, Epherene smiled bitterly.
“I have somewhere else to go. Besides, even if I’m there, the Professor will hate me terribly, won’t he? You know too. How completely ungrateful I am……”
* * *
……At the same time.
Sophien arrived at Sewol.
“Is this the place?”
—Yes. It seems so.
A sanctuary centered around a single tree, lined with research devices that, at a glance, looked as precious as artifacts.
“……These are Deculein’s devices.”
They were the things Epherene had supposedly stolen.
Sophien walked among them with a faint laugh, fiddling with reagent bottles and microscopes, when she suddenly discovered it.
“…….”
A large cylinder, big enough for one person to lie inside.
“……So you were in a place like this.”
And within it, sleeping peacefully, was Yulie.
The knight who had stolen Deculein’s heart.
Receiving undiluted Mangwolcho extract directly into her veins, she slept without even knowing of Sophien’s presence.
No, she was “turning back” her own time.
—Do you truly intend to kill her?
Keiron asked.
Without a word, she gripped the sword at her waist.
Shing—
The blade was drawn sharply.
“There is no need to kill her. If I simply break this cylinder……”
However, before she could smash the cylinder with that blade.
Her gaze fell upon a certain diary.
“…….”
A diary placed on the table beside the cylinder. A planner made as straight and neat as Yulie’s own personality.
“What a thing……”
Sophien let the sword hang down and reached for it.
Rustle—
Words filled it densely from the very first page. It began with the first sentence, To the me who will wake again—
“……Hmph.”
Reading it with a snort, Sophien sat down in a chair for a moment.