Chapter 66: Dog Collar

“Darling.”

Sitri’s lips twitched.

“Have you gone crazy?”

She could not even maintain that fake smile she always showed.

“Do I look crazy?”

“What’s wrong? Did you go north and catch some stupid virus? Or because I called you darling, did you think I actually fell in love with you?”

There were many humans who indulged in those kinds of delusions.

But Perda was not one of them.

Precisely because of that, this was the first time Sitri felt so bewildered.

“I know your most fatal secret.”

“The only fatal thing about me is my charm.”

The bigger a secret is, the less it reveals itself.

The more important a matter is, the more carefully it is handled.

It was the same with demons.

Even they could not escape the rules of secrets.

“I heard a story.”

A story from the distant future.

Perda had gathered countless records in order to research magic.

Among them were records about hell.

A compilation that recounted the moments when the seven archdemons of hell were in danger.

Their greatest mistakes and weaknesses.

The demons called it the Devyromicon.

It sounded like a forbidden book, but even humans could read it.

The reason was simple.

It was a display of pride.

A declaration that they would never repeat the same mistakes.

And at the same time, a trap for the arrogant.

Those who tried to uncover the demons’ weaknesses by reading the Devyromicon ended up destroyed.

Always believing they would be different.

But Perda truly was different.

When he read that demonic story, fifteen years had already passed since then.

And what he was reciting now was something that occurred during that time.

“I heard a ridiculous story. One of the countless children born from the archdemon Sitri while she indulged in her pleasures stole her Life Vessel.”

“What are you talking about?”

Sitri tilted her head.

“You don’t know?”

“Of course not. I have no idea what kind of nonsense you’re talking about, darling.”

As befitted a demon of seduction, she maintained a flawless appearance.

Perda calmly observed her face.

Waiting for the instant that mask would break.

“Then I suppose I’ll have to hand Penelope over to the Magic Association.”

“The Magic Association…?”

“You know better than anyone how much they hate demons. What do you think they’ll do if I hand over not just a demon, but one capable of revealing the weakness of the archdemon Sitri?”

Perda spoke almost as if singing.

“They’ll examine Penelope’s body from top to bottom. It will take time, but eventually they’ll reach the truth. And then—”

“That’s enough.”

Sitri interrupted him.

The atmosphere changed completely.

The seductive feeling from before became as cold as thorns.

“Who are you?”

Sitri’s mask broke.

“What bastard told you that secret?”

Her gaze was suffocating.

As if she were trying to rip everything out from inside him.

“It doesn’t seem to have been my daughter. If that idiot had spoken or left clues, she would already be back in my hands.”

“What if I discovered it on my own?”

“I don’t underestimate you. But I don’t overestimate you either. It’s impossible for a mere human to discover something even the archdemons do not know.”

“You’re not even calling me darling anymore. Are you desperate?”

“Yes. I’m desperate. So answer quickly if you don’t want to burn eternally in hell.”

Sitri threatened him with her long nails.

“Don’t threaten me. Do you want to end up turned into a shit fly?”

The demons of hell had rules.

And the higher a demon’s rank, the stricter they were.

Ascending was difficult.

But falling only took an instant.

“Do you think I’m incapable of it?”

Her nails dug into Perda’s skin.

“You broke our deal. I asked you to hand Penelope over to me, and now you’re trying to use her to screw me over.”

Perda replied.

“You asked me to rescue Penelope. And I rescued her.”

“No. I clearly asked you to hand her over to me. That is breaking the contract, regent.”

Perda let out a dry laugh.

“You broke it too.”

“What?”

“You said all of us would return safely. But I couldn’t escape from that place. What do you have to say about that?”

“Obviously you should have killed Penelope. Sending her back to hell would have been enough.”

“And what if I didn’t know that? You made rescue the condition. And I rescued her alive and safe. The one who violated it was you.”

“Are you planning to play with words?”

“Isn’t that what you like most?”

The demons’ word games.

How many people had been seduced and destroyed by them.

“If it bothers you that much…”

Perda crossed his legs and leaned back.

“Then let’s go to trial.”

When contractual disputes occurred, they could be settled in the demon court.

And Sitri would undoubtedly win.

But she could not take this to court.

Because if the words Life Vessel came to light—

Her shame would be exposed before everyone.

Sitri fell silent.

She had been completely cornered.

“You said it yourself. If a demon is fitted with a proper collar, it can become an excellent dog.”

Perda smiled faintly.

“I suppose demons can make good dogs too.”

“Hahaha…”

Sitri let out a laugh.

“Hahahahaha!!”

She burst into laughter.

As if she had lost her mind.

“Do you know something, oppa?”

“……Oppa?”

“Right now, you’re incredibly sexy.”

The atmosphere was different.

This was no longer fake seduction.

“So, what will you do?”

“Fine, I’ll do it. It’s true that Abel Silverwind worked with me. Anything else?”

She moistened her lips with her tongue.

Breathing heavily, she said,

“For you, I’d do anything, oppa.”

It was more unsettling than when she had turned cold.

“Stay away.”

“Hahaha, you’re so cold. Even that makes you attractive.”

Sitri obediently stepped back.

“Then answer my question.”

“What question?”

“The snitch who gave oppa information.”

Who would tell him something like that?

Perda knew all of it because of the future.

And there was no way to explain that.

So he answered.

“Barbatos.”

One of the seven demons of hell.

The demon of shadows and conspiracies.

The demon who could have the greatest connection to Perda.

“Barbatos… how curious. I didn’t expect to hear that name.”

Sitri murmured those words.

She did not seem to have found an answer.

But she also did not care too much.

“Then we’ll meet again, handsome oppa. Until then, take good care of that dog collar.”

Muah.

With a kiss blown through the air, her figure disappeared completely.

Dawn arrived.

***

“Kugh……”

The dark elf.

Since she had used emergency escape magic, only her body had been transported there.

“Damn it……”

She had managed to find a place to hide, but she could not escape the cold.

Even for an elf with great physical endurance, enduring a snow-covered mountain range was not easy.

The freezing wind leaking in from the cave entrance constantly brushed against her consciousness.

Then she suddenly opened her eyes.

Someone was coming.

“Who goes there?”

The only thing she held in her hand was a stone.

Even so, she threatened the intruder with a fierce expression.

What appeared from outside was a massive figure that covered half the cave entrance.

The dark elf’s eyes could clearly make it out.

It had red eyes and sharp fangs.

“So this is where you were, Laboratory Director Linne.”

“……”

The man slowly swept his gaze across Linne’s body.

“We received reports of a disturbance, but it seems all of it was true.”

“You demon bastards are damned hypocrites too. Are you another idiot who came to stare at an elf’s body?”

“Stop talking nonsense.”

“If you know it’s nonsense, then give me clothes. At this rate I’ll freeze to death.”

The demon extended his hand.

The massive reddish muscles protruding from his body were intimidating.

“The journal and the samples first.”

“After seeing me like this, you still want those? Obviously they’re no longer with me.”

“Then that means they are now in those people’s hands.”

“Yes, I failed.”

“You know well the fate of those who fail, don’t you?”

Linne growled.

“So what? Are you going to execute me on the spot for failing?”

“You will be escorted as a prisoner from your position as laboratory director. After that, you will face trial.”

“Then go ahead with your damned trial! All the research is in my head! I’m the only one who knows how to recreate those samples and continue the evolution of the True Demons!”

“There are those among us who practice necromancy. Extracting what’s in your head won’t be difficult.”

“Those idiots? Ha! How perfectly do you think those pseudo intellectuals can create anything by playing around with my mind? They’ll barely manage to make a few children’s toys before regretting it!”

The man simply watched her in silence.

Linne forced her mouth to move.

The cold was so intense she felt she was going to freeze to death.

“When my race was being exterminated, you were the only ones who saved me. That day, you said this, didn’t you? That out of everyone, I was the only useful one. Are you going to execute the most competent person right here?”

“……”

“So stop wasting time and give me those damned clothes.”

The man observed her for a moment before tossing her a coat.

Linne immediately put it on.

The inside was warm thanks to thermal magic.

“Was it Perda Valdrova who left your eye like that?”

Linne clenched her teeth and nodded.

“I never imagined I would end up defeated by that brat.”

“I heard he was more outstanding than an ordinary human. Even now his name is being mentioned in the Round Council.”

“It’s not enough to say he’s better than an ordinary human. Even that description underestimates him.”

“Then how would you describe him?”

Linne hugged the coat tightly.

“In all of history, something like him has never existed.”

“You’re afraid.”

“I’m only speaking objectively. The moment he caught me off guard, I felt it.”

After Lightning Bolt pierced through her eye, she remembered the image of Perda burned into her vision.

A young man with gray hair.

Blue eyes impossible to read.

And within those blue eyes, she sensed something familiar.

“That bastard is a lunatic who has fought stronger mages over and over again.”

The eyes of a monster hunter.

Someone who compensated for a lack of power with technique and crushed enemies by seeing several moves ahead.

In those eyes, Linne understood that she had lost.

That was why she abandoned the fight and used the emergency escape scroll.

The man looked outside.

The snowstorm that had been raging violently was beginning to calm down.

“It’s time to move.”

The man stood up.

But Linne hesitated.

“Is there no way to avoid my punishment?”

“You already know the answer, don’t you?”

The man answered coldly.

“Just pray that your evaluation of him as a lunatic carries enough weight before the council.”

Demons were all the same.

They had no emotions.

No guilt.

They only calculated the value of a life.

“The only thing I can do is prove how useful I am.”

Linne hugged the coat around herself.

‘I will survive.’

Survival.

That was the oath she had made from the day she touched Godwin’s blood.

***

The peaceful central-eastern region of the continent of Serdes.

The Rosnova territory was also prospering peacefully.

The family head, Eremvalt Rosnova, had already retired due to age, but his two sons successfully maintained the family line.

And then, a bomb fell upon that house.

Not literally a catapult or cannon.

No.

In fact, that would have been much better.

“Hello, family head. You know who I am, right?”

Standing before Eremvalt was a young girl.

With a childish voice, she spoke in an openly disrespectful manner.

Normally, Eremvalt would have exploded in rage, shouting that an insolent girl should not speak to him that way.

But…

“Yes. I know you very well.”

He did not dare.

Because he knew what he was seeing was not the whole truth.

The little girl before him far surpassed his own age.

“Oh? Aren’t you the great guide of mages, Lady Erdes?”

“Oh, come on. No need to flatter me like that. I already know you people call me the little beautiful lunatic behind my back.”

It was a difficult reaction to deal with.

Because she really was a lunatic.

But not exactly a “little beautiful” one.

“What brings you to such a humble place?”

Eremvalt wanted to know her purpose.

Erdes was like a storm.

She appeared suddenly, destroyed everything, and then disappeared.

Depending on the case, even an entire family could cease to exist.

Eremvalt’s family could be next.

“It’s nothing important. I didn’t come to turn this place into a disaster, so you can relax.”

“Y-yes. Of course I wasn’t worried about that.”

“Although depending on how this conversation goes, maybe I will.”

Eremvalt swallowed hard.

He had ended up in front of a true lunatic.

When Erdes moved one finger, a map floated out from inside her clothes and landed on the table.

“What do you think this is?”

“A… map?”

“Exactly. A map engraved on magical paper. In our Magic Tower, we use this to observe the flow of mana.”

After that brief explanation, she pointed at a spot with her little staff.

“And what do you think this is?”

“Judging by the mark… it seems to be Count Consilus’s castle.”

“Correct. And this point here?”

“Hmm… some northern mountain?”

“More specifically.”

“That… is Silverwind territory.”

“Exactly! What a relief. If you had been as idiotic as our Blue, I might have gotten a little angry.”

She smiled sweetly as she lowered the staff.

“And what do you think it means that I pointed out those two places?”

“Eh? Well… that is…”

Eremvalt lowered his gaze to the map.

He could not raise his head.

That subtle smile.

What shone in her eyes.

He did not have the courage to face it directly.

“I’m sorry. With my dull head, I cannot understand…”

“Well, it doesn’t matter. You’re not even a mage, so how could you understand? Besides, unlike Blue, at least you know you’re an idiot, right?”

Eremvalt understood that until just moments ago, death had been standing right behind him.

Every word.

Every action.

Every wrong decision and he would die.

Why?

Why did he feel that so clearly?

The reason was simple.

“Bending Bridge magic was activated here. A Bending Bridge connected to hell.”

Black magic.

Her hatred for black magic was famous.

“Is that so?”

“But I don’t think Count Consilus was the one who used it.”

“T-then…”

“Think a little harder. If it wasn’t Count Consilus, who could it have been? One of his relatives? One of his children? Or perhaps… someone above him?”

“Someone… above him…?”

Then everything began to fall into place.

That was why that lunatic mage had come specifically to seek out a knight family like his.

“Perda…”

The third son he had abandoned.

All of this was happening because of him.

“There are traces showing that the Regent of Valdrova had contact with demons.”

Erdes Roton.

He knew perfectly well the level of hatred she felt toward black magic.

Anyone connected to black magic faced, at minimum, the extermination of their entire family.

That meant the complete destruction of House Rosnova.

“P-please, forgive me!”

Eremvalt dropped to his knees.

The emblem of that proud family of knights was crushed against the floor.

“I swear I have nothing to do with that bastard! Since the day he left this house, we’ve been complete strangers! We haven’t even contacted each other!”

He desperately rubbed his hands together while begging for his life.

Erdes continued smiling as she watched him.

“I know. It’s obvious that a mere little knight like you wasn’t involved.”

She spoke as though she understood.

But that did not reassure Eremvalt.

There was no mercy in that woman’s anger.

That fact alone was enough to exterminate the entire Rosnova family.

However, today she had no intention of doing so.

“So speak.”

She desired only one thing.

And that one thing was far too great.

“Tell me about this Perda.”