《The queen of darkness does not want to be the villain》


 Chapter 1: The prophecy

    The queen of darkness grows in power, surrounded by countless books.


    She shall soon depart, on a journey to spread terror through the world.


    Demons and dragons shall bow before her might.


    Heroes and kings will submit to her in fear.


    As she commands her army, her hand shall cover the world in shadow.


    But a silver knight, wielding a sword of light, will be able to oppose her.


    When the day of fire arrives, death and despair will rule.


    Unless the knight points her blade at the true enemy of the world.


    "Wow, it seems like a really scary villain is going to appear soon"


    The emerald oracle has made a prophecy for the first time in ten years, following the usual protocol it has been sent to everyone in the kingdom who has a device capable of receiving official messages, such as this enchanted mirror we have at the library.


    "Well, it''s not like this is something that should concern a normal girl like me"


    The prophecy even mentions the one who is supposedly destined to deal with the problem, a ''silver knight'', so there''s probably nothing to worry about.


    "Still... this is a very unusual prophecy"


    Normally, prophecies tend to be full of metaphors and riddles so that there''s no way to know for sure what it is that they are referring to until it happens, but this one is clearly a warning about a villain, there''s even an image of the ''queen of darkness'' in question.


    At a glance her appearance is quite intimidating, she seems to be an elf with a face that looks beautiful in a scary way, her long black hair reaches all the way down to her legs, her eyes are the same shade of purple as my own and she''s wearing a purple outfit very similar to the one I''m wearing right now, on her neck, there''s a necklace with a crescent moon that looks exactly like mine...


    "No... it can''t be"


    While doing my best to keep calm, I look for the normal mirror on the other side of the room, after taking a good look at myself, I go back to the enchanted mirror and compare the two.


    Yeah, that''s definitely me...


    But that can''t be! I''m just a regular librarian who''s only interested in reading books and researching magic, I''m not a queen of darkness or of anything else!


    "Luna, are you in there?"


    I hear the voice of the head librarian calling out to me from outside the room, I erase the message on the mirror in a hurry with a wave of my hand just before he opens the door.


    "I''m here! Do you need anything?"


    The old man looks up at me with a tired expression, the top of his head barely reaches the height of my breasts, not because he''s short, I''m the one who''s really tall.


    "What did you do to those two students that just left to scare them so much? They looked like they were on the verge of tears"


    "Eeeh? I just told them that we were about to close the library and that they should leave"


    "Is that so..." He says, not sounding very convinced.


    Well, they didn''t want to leave at first so I had to raise my voice a little, then, when they turned around and saw me, they suddenly went pale and started apologizing like crazy. Really, if you get scared so easily, you should just listen to what people tell you in the first place.


    "Is something wrong? You seem nervous"


    Of course I''m nervous after reading such an outlandish prophecy about myself! But I can''t let him know about that...


    "I''m fine, I think I''ll go back to my room for today"


    His eyes open in surprise at my words.


    "Are you sure you''re fine? Normally you spend at least an hour making sure everything is in place after we close, even if I keep telling you that nobody else does that..."


    Just because other people do not take their work seriously does not mean that I should be lazy too! But today I have other things to worry about.


    "Yes, don''t worry, I''ll see you tomorrow"


    Since I don''t have a home, I was given a room on the top floor of the library, because of that, I don''t often go outside and interact with other people, which is probably for the best since most of my social interactions tend to go like the one with those students from before.


    In any case, now that I''m here I can relax and think rationally about that prophecy. First of all, it''s obvious that anyone who listens to it is going to think that I''m secretly planning to take over the world or something, that''s of course completely ridiculous, there''s no way that a weak and gentle girl like myself could do something like ''spread terror through the world'' or any of that other stuff.


    "It does seem too silly to be true, will anyone actually believe it?"


    But the prophecies from the emerald oracle are always taken very seriously by the higher-ups of the kingdom, maybe they will realize that it was a misunderstanding when they actually meet me, but at the very least, they are going to launch an investigation into me.


    That could be a problem, I''ve been researching dark magic since darkness is my main attribute, and some of the fields I''ve studied are... technically illegal if you apply a strict reading of the law. I''m not trying to do anything bad of course, it''s just that there are many forms of magic that have been given a bad name after having been used for evil in the past, so they have not been given a proper chance by other mages. I just want to study their beneficial applications and prove that all forms of magic can be used for good.


    So what should I do? Should I just get rid of all of my research? That would be too much of a waste... Maybe I should hide everything somewhere until everything clears up? But I have no place to leave everything at other than this library.


    "Uh, I can''t believe this, what have I ever done to get into so much trouble?"


    Now that I think about it, am I even sure that the prophecy was really talking about me? The emerald oracle is supposed to be very accurate, which means that everything on it is probably true, but that is completely absurd if the ''queen of darkness'' is supposed to be me.


    In reality, the only reason I thought that it was me is that I saw an image of myself, but I saw it while looking at the enchanted mirror which is, in fact, still a mirror.


    And that first line, which supposedly talks about what the ''queen of darkness'' is currently doing does not fit me at all! I''m certainly not ''growing in power'' and I''m not surrounded by ''countless books'', there''s 324611 books on this library, I counted them.


    Could it be that the enchantment on the mirror was malfunctioning and what I saw was my actual reflection? Well, the reflection was not following my movements at all... I guess the mirror was malfunctioning too, yeah, that''s probably it.


    "Now I feel like an idiot for worrying so much..."


    I mean, the ''queen of darkness''? me? I can''t help but laugh at myself for believing any of that.


    I need to get my mind on something else, maybe I should go back and check the library after all? No, I already said that I would not be doing that today.


    I guess I''ll continue with the novel that I''ve been reading, ''The adventures of the crimson slayers'', it''s a typical story about a group of heroes going on a journey to fight against evil.


    This type of tale makes for great escapism, after all, who would not want to be a hero? They are loved by everyone and people praise them instead of being afraid of them, they travel across the world instead of spending each of their days alone inside of a library, in short, they are the exact opposite of me.


    But there''s no way I could ever become a hero, heroes are supposed to be brave and strong while I have not been in a single fight in my life. If I ever run into a monster in the wild I''ll probably get killed immediately.


    That does not mean that I''m planning on staying a librarian my entire life, as much as I like books, I want to become a magic researcher full time someday.


    ...


    "Well that was a good read"


    After I finish the book I go down to the first floor to put it back in its place, when I''m about to go back to my room, I hear some voices on the other side of the hallway.


    ''That''s strange, why are people here this late in the night?''


    I take a peek around the corner and see the head librarian talking to a group of people that appear to be knights.


    ''Isn''t that the uniform of the royal knights?''


    The royal knights are an elite force that works directly for the king, I heard that most of their members are above level 100. What could they be possibly doing at the library? There''s no way that they''re here because of the prophecy right?


    "We''re looking for a female elf with black hair and purple eyes that should be living here"


    They are looking for me!!! And now they are showing the head librarian something, I think it''s the prophecy. Good, now he should explain to them how ridiculous all of this is.


    "Yes, this is Luna... I always knew that there was something wrong with that girl, but I never would have imagined something like this..."


    Why are you believing it so easily!? You have known me for years! Shouldn''t you be a little doubtful?


    "Her room is on the top floor, follow me"


    And why are you handing over your subordinate so quickly!? At least ask a few questions first!


    And now they''re all coming this way.


    I think I might be in trouble.


    forli


    Please let me know what you think

 Chapter 2: Escaping the law

    This is bad, this is really bad.


    At least they are walking slowly, I might still have some time.


    Before any of the knights can see me, I go running back to my room as fast as I can.


    "Alright Luna, calm down and think about your options"


    Well, I can calm down but I don''t seem to have a lot of options...


    "What do I do now? Should I hand myself over?"


    If I get arrested and they look into my research my life is probably over. If it was only the prophecy or only the illegal research I might be able to get a chance to explain myself, but the two things together are going to make me look really bad.


    "There''s no choice, I need to escape"


    But where should I go? At the very least I''m going to have to leave the kingdom, I''ll just take all my savings and start a new life somewhere far away. Since I never spend much I have quite a bit of money hidden behind my wardrobe, hopefully, it will be enough.


    Let''s see what else I should take... To go to a different country I''ll have to travel quite the distance, I''ve never traveled anywhere before so I have no idea of what I could need, let''s think about this logically, what is the most basic and necessary thing for someone traveling on their own? Books! Of course!


    Packing up all of my books would normally take some time and they would also be rather cumbersome, but fortunately for me, the darkness attribute has a very useful spell called ''storage'' that will help me carry anything I need.


    I open my palm in front of me and a dark hole materializes on the air, my collection of books starts flying and disappears into it.


    "Alright, what else do I need?"


    *Bang* *Bang*


    I suddenly hear something hitting the door of my room.


    "This is the royal knights! Open the door!"


    Oh crap, they are here already.


    I need to think of a plan to escape... I know, I''ll open the door suddenly and quickly run past them before they can react!


    I rush outside and... the knights are standing right in the way... I don''t know what I was expecting.


    "Hum, could you please move aside?"


    I try asking politely but they don''t look like they''re going to let me pass, now they are all glaring at me, that seems a bit rude, aren''t knights supposed to be gentlemen?


    "She''s the one! Grab her!"


    A very tall and bald knight with very big muscles approaches me, well, he''s tall compared to the others, he''s still half a head shorter than me, he grabs my arm with his hand and pulls violently.


    "Let me go!"


    In a panic, I swing my arm and the bald knight is sent flying through the air into one of his companions... uh... what?


    They both crash into a wall and look like they are hurt, they''re not getting back up...


    Am I now also guilty of injuring a knight? But that is their fault for sending someone so weak to grab me, were those muscles just for show?


    "Don''t let her escape! Surround her!" Another knight screams at his astonished companions.


    Now there''s four of them pointing their swords at me and my back is against the wall, there''s really no way to escape is there... Well since I know a lot of magic I can use a few self-defense spells, there''s no way that something like that could work against the royal knights but I''m desperate enough to give it a try.


    "Shadow bind!"


    A dozen black ropes emerge from my palm and fly towards the enemies surrounding me, but they simply swing their swords and cut the... wait no, instead it''s the swords that shatter the moment they come in contact with the ropes and my assailants get wrapped by them.


    "Huh?" I can only stare dumbfounded at the four men struggling in vain to free themselves.


    How is that even possible? A steel sword shattering against a rope? Were they defective or something? What do they even expend our taxes on if they can''t give the knights proper swords? I bet someone has been embezzling all their funds.


    But this is not the time to think about that, I need to take this chance to escape! Now the only one on my way is a small girl holding a sword with both of her hands, she has light grey hair tied in a ponytail with a blue ribbon and there are two cat ears on top of her head, how cute, but isn''t she too young to be a knight?


    "D-Drop your weapon and surrender!" She says with a weak voice, but I don''t have any weapons...


    We stare at each other for a few seconds, her legs are trembling more and more and a hint of tears is starting to appear on her eyes.


    "Please, let me through"


    "Eeeeek"


    The moment she hears my voice she lets out a high-pitched scream and falls backward landing on her butt, then she starts sobbing.


    Is she alright? I feel sorry for her, but I need to run away.


    I manage to leave the library without any other incidents, running on the streets towards the city walls... I got completely lost.


    Well, I guess it can''t be helped, since I don''t go outside much I don''t know these streets well, in fact, this is the very first time I''ve been out at night.


    Since I''m not getting anywhere anyway I''ll take this chance to catch my breath, but strangely, I don''t seem to be out of breath at all even though I''ve been running around for some time now.


    "So many people..."


    I thought that there would be nobody else around at this time, but there are groups of friends hanging out everywhere, I guess that should be expected from the capital of the kingdom, that just shows how little I know of what having friends is like, the one friend I do have is not exactly an example of the norm.


    Now that I think about it, if I leave now I''ll probably never come back here again, that thought makes me a bit sad, this city is all I''ve ever known after all, and now I''m wishing that I had taken the time to know it a bit better.


    Before I start getting depressed I should go back to focusing on my escape, this is not the time to think about pointless stuff.


    "But how will I get past the city walls?"


    If the guards have been alerted about me they won''t let me get past the gates, and even if they haven''t, I don''t think that they let people go out during nighttime, much less a girl going out alone.


    Fortunately for me, I have a perfect spell for both finding my way and getting over the walls, it''s technically a combination of three different spells, but in practice, it may as well be just one.


    "Let''s hope that I don''t crash"


    I concentrate dark mana on my back and a pair of jet black wings materialize, the people around me seem to notice my magic and now they are all looking in my direction, it''s embarrassing but I can understand them, this is a very rare form of magic, after all, I also get interested whenever I see someone use a spell I don''t know.


    With a jump and a flap of my wings I launch myself into the air, I actually don''t have a lot of practice doing this, there''s not a lot of space to fly inside of the library, after all, so the altitude and speed I can reach are very limited, but it should be enough to get over those walls.


    Not wasting any time I make a beeline to the edge of the city, but as soon as I approach the wall the guards on top start firing their muskets at me!


    They didn''t hesitate at all, do they always fire at everyone who tries to fly over them? Actually, that makes sense, there would be no point in having guards if they just let anyone get past them.


    I panic for a moment when I see a lead ball strike me on the shoulder, but it''s not very painful at all, it feels more like someone poked me with their finger with slightly too much strength.


    It doesn''t seem like I got injured at all, did I really get hit? In the first place, it''s weird that I was able to see the projectiles so clearly when they were mid-flight, they should be too fast for that, I must have just imagined that.


    A moment later I get out of their reach, looking behind me no one seems to be pursuing me.


    "Well, I''m not sure how I did it but I managed to escape"


    I fly over the plains that surround the capital and land on a forest a bit further away, now that the trees are hiding me I can finally relax.


    But naturally, I get lost immediately after I start wandering around.

 Chapter 3: Arana

    I''ve been walking around this forest for the entire night, the sun rose some time ago and now I''m all covered on dirt, small leaves and... is that a spider on my shoulder?


    "Eew, get off"


    Flying magic is surprisingly very physically exhausting, and it made me very thirsty as well, now I''m realizing that I should have taken some food and water with me when I left, I knew I was forgetting something important.


    Now I''m tired, thirsty and I have no idea where I''m going, and I think that there might be monsters in this forest, am I going to die here? The only positive is that I don''t need to worry about pursuers, after wandering around at random for so long there''s no way that anyone could be able to find me.


    "I found you!"


    "Ah!"


    Someone just pinched my butt!


    "Luna! I can''t believe that you left without saying anything to me!" I know this sweet-sounding voice.


    Behind me there''s a girl with shoulder-length pink hair wearing a white hat and white clothes, she''s also carrying a large backpack.


    "Eh? Ara? What are you doing here?"


    This is Arana, she works as a seamstress and tailor at the capital, she''s also the closest thing to a friend I''ve ever had, I certainly was not expecting to see her here.


    "I heard the news that you had some interesting stuff going on, so I decided to go with you, I was getting bored lately anyway"


    "You just decided to come after me on a whim? And how did you even know where I was?"


    "Oh, I always know where you are," She tells me with a sly smile.


    That''s kinda terrifying if you think about it, I''ll just not think about it.


    "I''m here to lend you a hand because knowing you, I bet you left without preparing properly so I''m bringing food, clothes and a tent" She points her finger behind her.


    Oh, so that''s what that backpack is for.


    "Do you have some water too? Can I have some?" I plead.


    "Sure here you go" She hands me a wooden canteen.


    I didn''t know water could taste so good!, after I''m done drinking the whole thing in one go I give it back to her.


    "Aaaah you just saved my life"


    I don''t know what I would have done if she had not shown up out of nowhere.


    "But are you sure that you want to come with me? I''m wanted by the kingdom and I''m planning to go really far away, do you plan to just leave the capital?"


    "Oh, don''t worry, I already left a note explaining where I was"


    "A note?"


    "Yes, it says ''I''m leaving to go help the queen of darkness take over the world''"


    What did she just say?


    "Ara... isn''t that going to reinforce the misunderstanding about me and also make you into my accomplice?"


    "I know right! Just think how much more interesting our lives are about to get!"


    I can''t believe this! She has always enjoyed messing with me but to think that she''s willing to put her own life on the line just to cause me more trouble...


    "Why am I even friends with you?"


    "Because you don''t have a choice, remember?"


    That''s right, Arana is the only one who talks to me like I''m a normal person so my only choices were to either become her friend or have no friends whatsoever.


    Well I guess she did save my life just a moment ago so she''s still done more good than harm, and I''ll probably be needing her help in the future too...


    "In any case, I guess we''re now ready for the travel thanks to you"


    "Now that you mention it, could you place this backpack on your storage space? It''s a bit too heavy for me"


    Oh right, I guess that would make things easier for her, I make the backpack disappear in the same way as my books.


    "Well then, it''s decided! Let''s go on an adventure the two of us together!" She says, raising her fist in the air and smiling with a determined expression.


    "You say that as if I ever had a choice... Anyway, I just hope that we don''t run into any monsters"


    "Why? What happens if we run into one?"


    Arana looks at me while tilting her head as if I had said something strange, does she not know what a monster is?


    "That we''ll get killed!" That seems like a good enough reason to want to avoid them.


    "Killed? Can''t you just take care of it?"


    "Me? How? I don''t know anything about fighting"


    She stares at me squinting her eyes.


    "Luna... when was the last time you checked your status?"


    "My status? I''m not sure... I think there was that time back when I was still at the orphanage and they checked all the kids, but there was nothing unusual about mine"


    "And you have not checked it since then"


    I shake my head, status is something that only matters to people who get into fights, it''s not something that interests me.


    "So, what level do you think you are?"


    My level? Well, everyone gets to level 10 just from growing up, I don''t really exercise but I''ve practiced magic quite a bit so I must have also gained a few extra levels from that.


    "20 to 25 I''d say"


    "Oh, really? ...wait, did you hear that?"


    The sound of rustling leaves can be heard behind us, when I turn around, three black spiders the size of horses jump down from the trees and start moving toward us while clattering their mandibles menacingly.


    "There they are! Monsters! Ara, we need to run away!"


    "I can''t, I got stuck"


    Arana''s leg seems to be trapped on the space between some rocks, when did that happen? She was standing next to me a moment ago, and why did she even place her leg there?


    What do I do now? I can''t just run and leave her here by herself but there''s no way I can fight those things.


    Looking at the spiders closely, there are some distinctive green marks on each of their backs shaped like a pair of eyes, if I''m not mistaken that is a monster known as a ''swamp hunter'', they are rather strong, usually above level 60, but if what I''ve read about them is correct this situation is very strange.


    For one, this place is not a swamp, and the ''swamp hunters'' are supposed to appear on the other side of the continent, they should not be here at all.


    Also, spider-type monsters usually prefer to set traps and ambushes, they don''t normally approach their prey on the open like these are doing.


    "Luna, just try to cast an attack spell against them"


    Well, I suppose I might as well...


    "Shadow lance!"


    Three thin cones of dark mana appear in front of my open palm, when I lower my hand, they fly toward the spiders at an incredibly fast speed, each lance pierces one of the monster''s heads leaving a perfectly circular hole and killing them instantly.


    "Huh? Did they really die so easily?" My eyes go wide open as I watch a green ooze pouring from their wounds.


    "Good job! They didn''t even stand a chance!"


    Arana congratulates me as she gets her leg out of the hole without any difficulty.


    "Ara...."


    She just looks at me with an innocent smile as if she didn''t do anything wrong.


    Whatever, I''ll go back to the spiders.


    Two of them have holes right on the center of their heads, but on the third one my aim was apparently a bit off and I hit the left side instead.


    "Mmmmm, I need to fix this"


    This is a chance to try out one of the fields of magic I''ve been researching, a set of spells known as ''flesh shaping'' that do exactly what the name implies.


    Flesh shaping has an extremely bad reputation because of some incompetent mages who have been using it to create all kinds of horrors and monstrosities in the past, thanks to that, its practice was made illegal in almost all countries.


    However, I''ve discovered that some more advanced applications can be used to heal almost any type of physical injury, from closing wounds and fixing broken bones up to even restoring lost limbs, for example, I can easily heal the hole on this spider''s head, not that this will bring it back to life, of course.


    "Shadow lance!"


    Now this spider has its hole right on the center just like its two companions, perfect.


    "Luna... What are you doing?" Arana looks at me with an exasperated expression.


    "This is my first time ever fighting against monsters! I don''t want it to look like I did a sloppy job!"


    Anyone would want their work to look as perfect as possible, that''s just normal, right?


    "But I was not expecting to beat them so easily, how was that even possible?"


    As if she had been waiting for me to ask that question, my friend smiles and gets closer to me.


    "Would you like to check your status right now? I have an appraisal stone here"


    She takes a black stone slab from her pocket, where did she get that from?


    "Oh, how did this work again?"


    "You just have to send some mana into it, but don''t send too much, if it''s you, you could end up breaking it, just a small amount is enough."


    What does she mean ''if it''s me''? Why would she think it would break?.


    I grab the stone with both hands and pour my mana into it, after a couple of seconds the information appears written on it on white letters, and I open mouth in shock.


    "This... this can''t be!"


    forli


    This type of troublemaker character always walks on a thin line between funny and annoying, let''s see if I can pull it off...

 Chapter 4: Overwhelming power

    Name: Luna


    Race: Elf


    Class: Mage


    Level: 507


    Stats


    Strength: 626


    Speed: 602


    Magic: 2411


    Dexterity: 1792


    Toughness: 825


    Wisdom: 4


    Magic


    Light: 0 (Rank 0)


    Fire: 1 (Rank 1)


    Water: 12 (Rank 3)


    Earth: 8 (Rank 2)


    Wind: 5 (Rank 2)


    Dark: 1204 (Rank 20)


    Skills


    Focused mind


    Self-control


    Fast reading


    Quick casting


    Mana conservation


    Encyclopedic knowledge


    Multi-casting


    Titles


    Outcast


    Bookworm


    Deranged perfectionist


    Archmage


    Queen of darkness


    Level 507 it says.


    507...


    "Ara, I think this stone is broken"


    "No, it''s not, I''ve been checking your level as it kept gradually increasing over the years using many different appraisal stones, they can''t all be wrong"


    She''s been looking at my level without my knowledge? Just how shameless can she be? And why did she never say anything to me?


    "But, if you just look at someone from a distance without their consent the only thing shown is the level, so I don''t know about the details"


    The high level is not the only unusual part of my status, there''s also the fact that I''m rank 20 in dark magic, which is impossible, the highest rank that can be achieved in an attribute of magic is 10, and even that is something that only a few accomplish.


    And also, I have a title called ''queen of darkness'', did I get that because of the prophecy?


    "I''ve never even heard of someone above level 500..."


    A level above 200 is already enough to become famous, and level 300 is enough to have your name written in history books, I think the highest level recorded was that of the great demon king who almost conquered the world 2000 years ago, he was level 422 if I remember correctly...


    For the time being, let''s take a closer look at my status.


    First of all, are my stats, there are many ways to level up and doing so increases all stats, which is why you can become better at magic by improving your sword skills or run faster by practicing your spells, however, the stat that corresponds to whatever it is you practice the most will become higher.


    Since I''m a mage, magic is obviously my primary stat, it increases the amount of mana I have available to cast spells and also makes them more powerful, dexterity is also important since it lets me be more precise with my spells.


    Also since wisdom is the only stat that does not scale with level it looks like I have no wisdom at all, actually... isn''t 4 a low amount of wisdom anyway? Is my status calling me dumb?


    Next, there''s magic, the first number next to each attribute indicates how many spells I''ve learned and the rank indicates how good I am at using them, I don''t know how I can have rank 20 in dark magic, I''m sure the limit is 10...


    Whatever, let''s move on to skills.


    Skills are either granted when obtaining a title or are simply something that you learned to do trough any method, but only abilities that are unique and remarkable will be shown as skills, for example, the skill to tie your shoelaces will not appear on the list.


    Let''s look at the descriptions of my skills, although 4 of them seem rather pointless.


    Focused mind


    Allows one''s mind to focus only on relevant matters


    Fast reading


    Increases reading speed


    Quick casting


    Reduces the amount of time required to cast a spell


    Mana conservation


    Decreases the mana consumption for all types of magic


    What''s even the point of having a description that just says what is already implied by the name? Let''s look at the rest.


    Self-control


    Diminishes the effect on one''s thoughts and actions caused by emotions such as anger or fear and protects from attacks against the mind


    Oh, this seems like a good one.


    Encyclopedic knowledge


    Grants possession and quick recollection of information acquired by reading books


    So this one just means that I''ve read a lot so I know some stuff, I wonder how much one has to read for that to count as a skill.


    Multi-casting


    Allos to simultaneously cast multiple spells, current limit: 18


    I believe this skill is called ''double-casting'' and ''triple-casting'', when the limit is two and three spells respectively and becomes multicasting when it reaches 4, most advanced uses of magic require the combination of multiple spells so this is an important skill, more so for a researcher like me than for a combat mage since the new spells I develop, will naturally be advanced ones, the basic spells already exist.


    And finally, we have the titles, these indicate a characteristic of a person or something that they have achieved.


    Outcast


    An individual who has been rejected by their people


    No effect


    This is the only title I remember having when I last checked my status, let''s look at the new ones.


    Bookworm


    Someone who has read a truly countless number of books


    Grants the fast reading and encyclopedic knowledge skills


    Again with the countless thing... I did not actually count how many books I''ve read in my life, so I guess I lose this round, but I could have if I had wanted to.


    Archmage


    A mage who has gained at least 50 levels by increasing their magic capabilities


    Grants the quick casting and mana conservation skills


    If my assumptions are correct, I think I might be overqualified for this title...


    Queen of darkness


    Someone who has mastered the magic of the dark attribute and has taken it beyond what anyone thought to be possible.


    Increases the rank limit for the dark attribute to 20.


    Oh, I guess that explains a few things.


    So the prophecy did not give me this title, after all, it was probably the other way around, I was called the ''queen of darkness'' because I had it.


    "And that''s everything, this certainly is not how I expected my status to look like..."


    "Is it just me? Or did you skip one of your titles?"


    "But how did my level get so ludicrously high? I''ve never done any fighting at all"


    Everyone knows that the only way to reach a truly high level is to constantly face challenging battles and dangerous situations, which is the exact opposite of the way I''ve been living my life until now.


    "That''s probably because of the absurd number of spells you''ve learned, you get a level up for every 3 spells which means that you rose 410 levels from your spells alone"


    "What? That doesn''t make any sense!"


    After all, if that''s how it worked, all mages would just keep learning new spells nonstop to become stronger without putting themselves in danger.


    "I don''t know the details, but the knowledge of spells occupies a special part of the brain, and the more spells one knows, the more difficult it becomes to learn new ones, that''s why even the best mages rarely get to 60, seriously Luna, how did you manage to learn over 1200?"


    I already knew all of that, but I''ve never had a problem learning new spells so I just kept memorizing any that I could find, even many that seemed to have no practical use, the only reason I stopped recently is that I ran out of spells to learn.


    "After that, ranks in magic also grant levels, 3 for each rank in your main attribute and 2 for each of the others, so that''s an additional 76 levels, then we add the free 10 levels for growing into an adult and the last 11 I guess are from training in magic"


    So there''s an actual reason why I am that strong.


    "Huh... I had no idea" I bring my palms to my face.


    Maybe I should have suspected something, I did notice that I could carry heavy weights without much difficulty and I could use powerful spell quite easily, but I never had anyone to compare myself to.


    "Aren''t you happy? With such a high level you might be able to fulfill your dream of conquering the world!"


    "I don''t have a dream like that!!!"


    I''m already tired enough, I don''t need you to make it worse...


    "Would you like to set up the tent and get some rest?" Arana makes an actually good suggestion.


    "Yes, please..."


    I pull the tent out of my storage and she sets it up in an instant, does she have experience doing this?


    It''s still morning but after running around all day I need to get some sleep.


    "Today has been a long day..."


    I''m woken up by a delicious smell, outside of the tent Arana seems to be cooking a stew on a pot over a fire, where did she get that from? I thought that all of her stuff was inside of my storage.


    "Good morning Luna!"


    I look above and see that the sun is starting to rise again, how long have I been asleep?


    "You have not eaten anything since you left, right? You must be hungry" She hands me a plate of stew, it smells even better from this close.


    "This is delicious!" I feel a tear fall down my face.


    Arana is a very good cook, and I was starving so this feels like the best food I''ve ever had.


    "I was thinking that we should stop at a nearby town to buy a few things, regardless of how strong your magic is we should still get some weapons, and if we''re going to travel to another country we don''t have enough food"


    While I''m stuffing myself Arana is explaining what we should be doing next, she''s making me feel a bit useless...


    "But we''re in the middle of nowhere, do you know in which direction the closest town is?"


    "I don''t, but Longleg can tell us"


    A pink long-legged spider wearing a miniature version of Arana''s white hat comes out from her sleeve, it''s her pet spider Longleg! Most spiders are gross but he''s strangely cute.


    "Longleg say hello to Luna"


    He waves one of his legs at me.


    "Hi, Longleg" I wave my hand back at him.


    "Can he really tell us where we can find a town?"


    "Of course he can! He''s a spider!"


    Huh? Are spiders known for being able to find settlements and I never heard about it?


    "Just kidding, Longleg is special"


    Ah, then it makes sense... No wait, I still want an actual explanation!


    "See? He''s telling us where to go."


    The spider is pointing one of its legs towards a direction a bit to my right.


    I guess we''re going that way.


    forli

 Chapter 5: Unusual healing

    After walking for about six hours we reach the top of a hill and a small town comes into view.


    Instead of a wall the town is protected by a field of blue dandelions, a flower known to repel monsters, I guess they are not worried about non-monster attackers since this area is rather peaceful.


    "Finally civilization! I was getting sick of the forest"


    "You only been there for two days... and you don''t like forests? I have been thinking this for a long time, but you really are not elf-like at all."


    "Why, thank you" It''s nice to get complimented from time to time.


    "But are you sure that it''s a good idea for me to go there? What if someone recognizes me?"


    Just imagine if someone sees the ''queen of darkness'' casually wandering around their town, that could be awkward.


    "So you want me to go alone? Don''t be mean" Would she get lonely if I don''t go with her?


    "The only people who could have seen the prophecy are either nobles or scholars... I don''t think anyone we could run into in such a small town will know your face"


    "But it''s not impossible right?"


    I just don''t want to take any risks...


    "If it would make you feel better, in that backpack I gave you there''s a cloak with a hood, you can use it to hide your face"


    "Oh, that should work"


    I put on a large dark purple cloak that fits me perfectly, did she make it for me? If I pull down the hood nobody should be able to identify me.


    "Perfect, now you are just a normal, more than two meters tall woman hiding her face with a hood, nobody will find you suspicious at all"


    Does she need to be sarcastic? She''s the one who had the idea in the first place.


    "I''m not over two meters tall, I''m two meters exactly"


    I don''t need her making me even taller than I already am...


    We are now wandering around the streets of Kelna, that''s apparently this town''s name, a lot of people keep glancing my way but they all quickly turn their heads away when they notice me looking back.


    "Here it is, a general store for travelers"


    We get inside a building with a rather low ceiling... I have to bend down slightly to fit inside. There''s a wide variety of items for sale, all of it stuff that can be useful for travelers.


    There are all kinds of non-perishable food such as dried fruits or jerky, many different types of bags, backpacks, and canteens, maps and compasses and even healing potions, they don''t seem to be selling weapons here unless you count those knives.


    However, the clerk is nowhere to be seen.


    "Excuse me! Is anyone here?" Arana tries to call them out.


    Then a small boy around 4 years olds peeks at us from behind a half-opened door.


    "Are your parents here?"


    I ask him and he thinks for a few seconds before answering.


    "Mom is sick, her tummy hurts"


    Eh? Did she fall ill while she was working?


    "Is she in that room?" I ask while pulling back my hood.


    The boy nods and goes back inside the room. I guess I''ll go take a look.


    Inside the room, there''s a woman sleeping on a sofa with a pained expression.


    "Are you going to try to heal her?"


    For some reason, Arana seems to be under the impression that I can just casually heal any sick person I come across, being a high-level mage does not mean that I can fix everything you know, but it''s true that I''ve been researching many forms of healing.


    "I don''t even know what illness she has, so I don''t know if I can do anything"


    Well, at least I''ll try.


    "Corpse puppet"


    I use a spell that most people mistakenly believe to belong to the field of necromancy. There''s a good reason why necromancy is a forbidden form of magic, it''s spells are not only very nasty, they also tend to cause a lot of unintended consequences that cause even more harm.


    I learned those spells for the sake of having more knowledge but I don''t intend to ever use them, however, corpse puppet is different, it has nothing to do with attempting to revive the dead, instead, all it does is let the caster''s mana enter a dead body and manipulate it to their will. Since this spell has no effect at all on living people (at least not by itself), it became known as a spell that ''makes dead bodies move'' and nothing else, so it was categorized as a form of necromancy and banned with the rest, since it could not be studied they all missed the most interesting and useful aspect of this spell, the fact that it lets one''s mana enter someone else''s body while still allowing the caster to feel and manipulate it.


    Normally, when your mana enters a living being''s body you can no longer do anything with it, it will fulfill the effect of whatever spell you originally used and that''s it, but because of ''corpse puppet'', I can still use this mana to cast additional spells.


    "Mana sense"


    Now I can use my mana to look inside of the woman''s body, something that would not be possible with other means.


    I was expecting to have to take some time to discover the illness, but the problem is incredibly obvious, there''s a monster inside of her body, some kind of parasite.


    The difference between animals and monsters is the way they are born, monsters are created when a high concentration of mana takes on a form of its own, wild mana likes to copy living beings, but it never gets them quite right, so races of monsters can be almost anything, such as mouses the size of lions, lions the size of mouses or combinations of different animals. After the monsters are done forming their bodies, there''s no practical difference between them a normal creature, their bodies become flesh and blood just like everybody else''s.


    But this parasite, perhaps because it''s a more simple creature, didn''t transform fully into a living being, I can still feel the water mana its made off, it would be more accurate to call it a living spell, which is convenient because it makes it vulnerable to another spell of my own.


    "Mana corrosion"


    The parasite gets killed instantly, and since mana corrosion only attacks magic and not living beings there''s no way for me to accidentally hurt the woman.


    "Alright, I''m done"


    I''m overcome by an intense feeling of happiness, after all those years researching magic this is the first time I''ve been able to put my techniques into practice, to see how all my efforts are of help to someone feels great, I should have done something like this sooner, I could even get addicted to this feeling.


    "Wow, that was fast, you are better than I thought" Arana is praising me.


    The boy is looking at me with doubt.


    "Your mom will be alright now," I say giving him a gentle smile.


    "Sniff" Huh? Why does he look like he''s about to cry?


    "Bwaaaaaah!"


    "Heh? Why are you crying? I said your mom was alright!"


    "Of course he''s crying, even I feel goosebumps every time I see that ''gentle smile'' of yours, it''s just more than what such a small child can handle.


    What? So all the practice I did to make my smile less scary was for nothing?


    "Ara! Tell him that he does not need to be afraid"


    Arana places a hand on the boy''s head and gives him a soft smile.


    "You don''t need to be afraid, I''ll protect you from the scary lady"


    "That''s not what I meant!!!"


    "Bwaaaaaah!!!"


    I should not have yelled, now the child is crying even louder than before.


    "Please calm down..."


    I think I''ve read somewhere that children calm down when someone picks them up, I try grabbing him and lifting him in the air, but that only seems to make it worse.


    He''s panicking and flailing around wildly, I need to be careful that he does not fall, I''m starting to think that I''m bad at dealing with children...


    "What''s going on?"


    Oh, the mother just woke up! Good, now she should be able to calm down her...


    "What are you doing to my son!?"


    She''s looking at me with a terrified expression, I''m not doing anything! See? I''m handing him out to you. She seems to calm down as she hugs her son tightly, but then we stare at each for a moment and she gets nervous again.


    "Please don''t hurt us!"


    Eh? Did she recognize me after all?


    "I don''t know who you are but you can take anything you want, just leave us alone!"


    Oh, she doesn''t know, in a way, that makes it even worse...


    "Really? Anything we want?"


    "Ara! Not now!"


    We should just leave before someone comes to check on the commotion.


    After getting away from the shop I let out a heavy sigh.


    "I''m glad that she got better, and helping people feels great, but I wish she had known what I did"


    After all, if I want my magic to become legal I need to prove that it can be used for benign purposes, this would have been a good place to start.


    But then I see a man grimacing while holding his stomach. I exchange a look with Arana and she goes to talk to him, then she comes back to me.


    "It seems like there''s been a lot of people getting ill lately on this town, most of them feeling severe pain in their stomach"


    Is this the same parasite? So that woman was not the only one?


    "So a lot of people have that same illness then? That''s great!"


    "You''re happy that people are getting ill? You really are evil after all!" Arana seems to be misunderstanding me.


    "No, no, that''s a bad thing, but this gives me another chance to prove the worth of my magic!" Maybe I''m being a bit selfish but I''m starting to get desperate.


    Well, I guess if at first, you don''t succeed...


    forli

 Chapter 6: Magic in the water

    I just realized something, a parasite monster made of water mana infecting an entire town... I''ve read about something similar happening before.


    Ah, I see that there''s a canal providing the people of this town with water, it all fits.


    "Hey Ara, do you know if this town gets its water from source boosted by a magic circuit?"


    "Heh? I don''t know, why do you ask?"


    "If there''s one it''s very likely that those parasites are coming from it"


    If she doesn''t know I''ll have to ask someone, oh, there''s a guard on patrol over there, perfect.


    "Excuse me" I call out to him.


    "How can I help... you?"


    He turns around but is taken aback when he sees me.


    "Would you mind telling me where the source of the water canal in this town is located?"


    He looks at me with a face full of suspicion.


    "The water source? Why do you want to go there?"


    "Oh, I''m a scholar researching magic circuits, there''s one set up to provide this town with water, correct?"


    I come up with a brilliant excuse on the spot, but he doesn''t seem very convinced.


    "Young lady, could you please show me your face?"


    "No"


    "No?"


    I guess I should have known that keeping my face hidden would not make me seem very trustworthy.


    "Come with me, I''ll need you to use an appraisal stone so that we can take a look at your titles"


    He''s treating me like I''m a suspect for a crime... I''m sorry, but I cannot let you see my status.


    "Mind void"


    My spell makes the guard fall asleep on the spot, I grab him from under his arms and sit him next to a wall.


    However, the people around here seem to have noticed me dragging the guard and are all staring at me.


    "I didn''t do anything! He collapsed on his own!"


    They all exchange looks with each other.


    "Oh, I guess he must have been tired"


    "Yeah, she didn''t do anything at all"


    "I didn''t see what happened! I swear!"


    They all leave in a hurry, mmmm, they were surprisingly easy to convince, maybe I''m actually good at lying?


    "Luna, if you want to find the source of the water, how about we follow the canal?"


    Arana just had a good idea, or rather, that''s probably the first thing that should have occurred to me.


    We arrive at a building located next to a lake just outside town, numerous magic circles and lines form a circuit intended to transport and increase the amount of water from the lake.


    Inside we find a man sitting on the ground with his hands on his stomach.


    "Did he become infected as well?"


    Well, since I already got rid of one parasite, it''s easy to do it again.


    "Huh? Miss, are you a healer?"


    "Something like that, me and my friend were passing through this town during our journey and we couldn''t help but notice how many of the townsfolk seemed to be sick, so we would like to offer our help"


    He gets back up and takes a look at the two of us.


    "This is Arana, I''m Luna, are you the one responsible for this magic circuit?"


    "Ah, yes I am, my name is Joe, I would be grateful if you can heal everyone... But why are you asking me?"


    Oh, that''s disappointing, I expected a professional mage to have a more unique name.


    "We believe that there''s an error that''s causing this circuit to generate monster parasites"


    The mana on a magic circuit behaves according to the circles drawn on it, but since nobody controls it directly any excess mana behaves the same as a concentration of wild mana, in other words, it makes monsters.


    Monsters born this way are too weak to be dangerous, but the ones being born from here are on the water that people drink, any monster is dangerous if it gets inside of your body.


    I probably would have never thought that such a thing could happen by myself, but since this is not the first time this has happened I was able to read about it so now, I know how to deal with it.


    "Parasites? Is that what has been making everyone sick?"


    "Yes they are probably being born from an excess of mana on the circuit"


    He looks shocked to hear me say that, so he had no idea...


    "Does that mean that this was all my fault?"


    "Ah, don''t worry, I can fix it for you"


    I told him not to worry but he looks like I just scolded him.


    "Well, let me take a look... Oh! There it is!"


    I walk towards a magic circle painted on the ground on the corner of the room.


    "The central star of this circle is eight-pointed when it should be six-pointed, that''s providing more mana than necessary to the rest of the circuit"


    "Huh? How did you find the error so quickly? Or rather, how did you even know how this circuit works?"


    "What do you mean how? I looked at it"


    "But you only took a single glance..."


    I don''t know what he finds strange about this, when you see something that''s out of place, regardless of how small, it''s impossible to avoid noticing it immediately and focusing on it, then there''s an itch in your brain that keeps getting worse and worse to the point of not letting you even breathe until you fix it.


    Everyone is like that, right?


    "Well then, allow me to correct it"


    Magic circles are drawn by projecting mana so I don''t even need to get close, water may not be my specialty but this is not a task that requires any power, rank 1 would be enough.


    "All done"


    "That fast!? Miss... just who are you?"


    For some reason he seems to be impressed, I never thought I was particularly good at this, but maybe the normal standards are just very low?


    "Well, now all that''s left to do is make sure that there are no other mistakes, you can go take a walk if you want, it won''t take me long"


    "I think I should help you out with that, I can see that I can''t measure up to you as a mage but this is still my job"


    "I''m a very shy person, I can''t work if there''s someone else is with me"


    "But didn''t you just..."


    "Please leave"


    Joe''s face freezes and then he takes a step back.


    "I... I understand I''ll leave for a moment"


    He then leaves in a hurry and Arana follows him, I was not expecting him to buy that, I''m really good at lying, aren''t I!


    Now that I''m alone I can put my plan in practice, I''ll add a dark magic circle to the circuit, this will add some dark mana to the water ready to cast the ''corpse puppet'' and ''mana corrosion'' spells on anyone who drinks it, this way the cure will be distributed in the same way that the parasites infected the townsfolk in the first place.


    I don''t want to do this without permission, but I don''t think Joe will allow me to place a dark spell on the drinking water, I will only reveal what I did after everyone has been healed, this way it won''t matter what preconceived notions they have, they won''t be able to deny their personal experiences.


    "Fufufu, this plan is flawless"


    Now I only need to wait.


    -Silvea, knight apprentice-


    I still tremble in fear when I remember our encounter with the queen of darkness.


    She was much stronger than we expected, first, she easily overpowered Roul despite his strength stat of 310, with a single spell she immobilized the others and then, I came face to face with her.


    I''ll never forget that terrifying glare, even the most vicious monsters I''ve seen didn''t possess such an enormous bloodlust when I fell on the ground, she looked down at me with an expression of disdain as if I was a disgusting insect.


    "I''m such a failure..."


    I just recently was allowed to join the royal knights as an apprentice at the age of 14, if someone reaches level 50 at my age they would already be considered talented, at level 70 they would be part of the elite, but I''m already level 91, because of that everyone had great expectations of me.


    But I turned out to be just a coward, my first time facing a powerful enemy all I could do was freeze in fear.


    "Come on Silvea, don''t be so down"


    "Yeah it''s not as if we accomplished anything either"


    Roul and Paula approach me and start scratching behind one of my ears each.


    "Stop that... I''m not a cat"


    It feels good but it''s embarrassing.


    "We''ll get her for sure! This time captain Leon is coming with us"


    We''re on our way to a town called Kelna where we believe the queen of darkness has stopped to prepare for her journey, and with us is the captain of the royal knights, Leon Flameban, a famous and experienced knight with the title of ''hero'', known as the strongest man in the kingdom at level 253, he''s the person I admire the most.


    "Silvea, remember the reason you are coming, try to not put yourself at risk" Captain Leon warns me.


    I''m here because they need to make use of a very rare skill I possess, ''perfect pursuer'', it allows me to memorize the mana signature of up to three people at the same time, then I can tell their general direction no matter how far away they are, the queen of darkness is, of course, one of the people I''ve currently memorized.


    "That woman is extremely dangerous, when we investigated her room we found traces of her having researched ''necromancy'', ''nightmare weaving'' and, worst of all, ''flesh shaping'', we need to make sure to not let her escape"


    The captain seems much more serious than usual, I heard that he had a traumatic experience when he had to deal with some flesh shapers when he was just a young knight.


    Alright, I cannot let him down, I''ll find her for sure!


    forli


    And then I realized that I had never mentioned Silvea''s name before so I just added ''knight apprentice'' next to it.

 Chapter 7: Shopping with a friend

    After I return from altering the circuit, I see Arana holding Longleg from a thread tied to her finger, she''s repeatedly letting him fall and pulling him back up as if he was a yo-yo, does he not get dizzy from that?


    "So are you done messing with the town''s water?"


    "Please don''t word it like that..."


    Since we have some time to kill while we wait for everyone to drink some water, we should go back to our original goal of buying everything we need for our journey.


    I thought that we would need to find another shop but Arana just went back to the one we had visited before and told me to wait outside, isn''t she worried about that woman freaking out again when she sees her? I hope she''s not planning on making her do good on her offer to let us ''take anything we want''...


    She soon comes out holding two heavy-looking bags on her hands.


    "I knew she would not recognize me, you make so much more of an impression compared to me that she doesn''t even remember my face"


    Do I really make such a big impression on people?


    I place the bags inside of my storage, now that I think about it, just how much stuff can I put inside? I''ve never tested it before and this is already the most I''ve ever been carrying, I guess I''ll put ''test the limits of storage'' on my to-do list.


    "Next we should go to a weapon shop" Arana is leading the way.


    Since I''m a mage a weapon is not something I truly need, but it may still be a good idea to get one just in case I''m ever in a situation where I can''t or don''t want to use magic.


    The owner of this shop does not seem to have as big of a reaction to me as everyone else, could it be that suspicious-looking people buying weapons is just a common occurrence? That''s probably not a good thing...


    "Luna, make sure sure the durability rating on the weapon you pick is eight or higher, otherwise it will break the moment you try to swing it considering your strength stat"


    Each weapon has a sticker with a few stats written on it, weapons with high enough durability are on the expensive side, but since I don''t really care about anything else I should still be able to find something affordable.


    Let''s see, since this is meant to be just a sidearm I should go with something simple and easy to use, a shortsword is probably the best choice.


    "I found a perfect weapon for you Luna!"


    "A perfect weapon?"


    "It''s something called a war scythe, they''re on the other side of the shop"


    "You want me to fight with a scythe? Aren''t those meant to be used for farming"


    I bet that she just wants me to look like death or something, why does she enjoy seeing people being afraid of me?


    "No, no, this is a war scythe, it''s something completely different, come on, you''ll look so cool using it"


    "You probably just want to make me look even more sinister, I''m not buying it"


    Yeah, I don''t care how much you pout, you''re not getting your way this time.


    I go back to choosing a weapon, but then I notice that there''s a shortsword mistakenly placed among the longswords.


    "That''s weird, that wasn''t there before, I would have noticed"


    I go to move it to its proper place, but from my new location I see a spear with the point facing downwards when all the others are facing upwards, how do you even make a mistake like that?


    After I turn it around, I see a dagger on the floor near the corner of the shop, I guess I''ll pick it up.


    Now I realize that I''m standing right in front of those war scythes that Arana was talking about, why do I get the feeling that I was led here?


    The war scythes seem to be pole weapons with a blade that looks similar to a regular scythe, however, the blade curves forward from the pole as opposed to sideways and the cutting edge is on the concave side.


    "Arana..."


    "Don''t they look cool? That black one over there would suit you perfectly, oh, but the purple one feels a bit more unique..."


    Who chooses a weapon because it''s color? Is she taking this seriously at all?


    "These look like they are intended to be used as a primary weapon, they are not what I''m looking for"


    "You''ll keep it inside your storage when you''re not using it, right? It won''t get in the way at all"


    "Look, I''ve already decided that I''ll take a short sword, stop insisting" I just have to put my foot down sometimes.


    "Well, fine, then I''ll just buy one for myself"


    She says that, but she''s buying one with a durability rating of ten, is she really planning on using that herself?


    We then go to a clothing store to buy a pair of boots for me, it''s not like the shoes I''ve been wearing are uncomfortable but they were not made to walk for long distances.


    We do not buy any clothes, instead, Arana buys some materials and says that she''ll just fix our clothes herself if necessary. That''s right, since I so rarely see her when she''s working I keep forgetting that she''s a tailor.


    The sun is already starting to set down by the time we''re done, I always wondered why other girls tend to enjoy going shopping with their friends, and now that I tried it myself, I still have no idea, going shopping is just a chore after all.


    "Well, that was fun, this is the first time we went shopping together, right?"


    However, Arana seems to disagree.


    "By the way, were you not going to go around curing people of that parasite? It''s not like you to leave that for the end"


    Uh? but I already...


    Oh right, I forgot to tell Arana about the method I used to distribute the cure and my plan to make people accept my research.


    When she hears my explanation she lets out a heavy sigh.


    "I can see what you were trying to do... but you didn''t really think this through did you"


    "Eh? what didn''t I think through?"


    I think it was a good idea, wasn''t it? Since nobody would let me use my dark magic to heal them if I tell them about it, I just heal them first and only tell them after they have already seen the results, so what''s the problem?


    "First of all, how do you expect anyone to even know about what you did?"


    "How? Obviously, because they were sick before and now they''re not" I didn''t think that''s something I needed to explain.


    "I mean how do they know that YOU healed them? What exactly is supposed to make them think that they were healed by a new treatment that uses dark magic and that they had never heard about before?"


    Oh now that she mentions it, most people would have a hard time figuring that out.


    "Well, maybe there''s someone around here who can sense mana? There are still traces of dark mana left on the people who got healed, the spells I placed on the water only activated for those who had the parasites, so they''ll notice that those are the ones with dark mana on their bodies"


    There has to be at least one person capable of sensing mana in this town, right?


    "Second, how can you prove that the parasites ever existed in the first place? You fixed the magic circuit, so no more of them will appear, and since by now everyone has probably drunk some water your spell must have completely destroyed them"


    That''s true, but everyone still knows that there was an illness that got healed, right? Why does it matter which specific illness it was?


    "You said that there must be someone who can sense mana, but it would probably be better for you if there isn''t"


    "What? why?"


    "Try to put yourself in the shoes of someone who can sense mana and who, like everyone else, is used to dark magic harming people instead of healing, this person, of course, knows nothing about your research, then, one day, a bunch of people fall ill, since the mana the parasites are made of is the same as the drinking water, they would not notice anything, but after the patients get better, there are remains of dark mana inside their bodies, what conclusion would you take if you were that person?"


    "I would think that the thing that made them sick was a darkness spell and they got better after it ended... I would assume that the mana from the spell was just not detectable while the spell was still active"


    "Exactly!" Arana smiles and gives me a thumbs up.


    "Nooooooo!!!"


    I can''t believe this, I only made everything worse.


    People won''t let me use dark magic on them if I tell them beforehand and I can''t prove what I did if I tell them afterward, then what am I supposed to do?


    Maybe I should ask Arana to help me... but that''s too dangerous, knowing her, she''s just as likely to give me bad advice on purpose just to have a laugh as she''s of helping me...


    "Wait! I know! There''s Joe!"


    He knows about the parasites and also about the error in the circuit, he should be able to explain what happened to everyone.


    I rush to the building that hosts the magic circuit, but when I''m about to enter a girl crashes into me, the ribbon on her head comes undone from the impact.


    "Ah, sorry" She apologizes.


    Wait, I think I''ve seen this girl before.


    forli


    I hope I''m not leaving any plot holes, as I said before this is my first story so I''m a bit insecure.

 Chapter 8: Evil pursuer

    Silvea


    My ''perfect pursuer'' skill allows me to find the general area where a person is located no matter how far away they try to run or what they do to hide, however, it doesn''t tell me the exact location of the target, all I can tell is that the queen of darkness is somewhere in the town of Kelna, so now we''ll have to search for her the normal way.


    We all start asking the townsfolk if they have seen anyone who fits her description, normally it takes a while to get any hints by just asking people randomly, but this time there are a lot of people who claim to have seen a very tall woman walking around covering her face with a hood, I guess it must be difficult for someone like her to walk around unnoticed.


    Apparently, several people witnessed her assaulting a patrolling guard who is still unconscious right now, the owner of a traveler''s shop also claimed that she saw her trying to take away her child, I wonder why, in addition to that, she was wandering around the lake that this town gets its water from, that sounds worrying.


    We also hear about an illness that began afflicting the people of this town around two days ago, that''s around the time she should have arrived if she came directly here.


    Just what is she trying to accomplish? We thought that she only came here to get ready for her travel, but she seems to have something else planned.


    "Everyone get here, I have something to tell you"


    Paula has a worried expression on her face, I wonder what she found out.


    "I''ve observed that those who have suffered from the illness have traces of dark mana inside their bodies, I believe they had the ''corpse puppet'' spell cast on them, but there was something unusual about it, also, there was another spell I could not identify"


    Not only can Paula sense mana but she can even tell the spells that it was used for, very few people are able to do that.


    "Isn''t ''corpse puppet'' a spell used to manipulate dead bodies? Why would she use it on living people?"


    The captain points out something strange, why would she use a spell that only works on the dead if they were alive, wait... could it be that she was planning to kill everyone? Is that what the illness was for?


    That''s horrible! How can she be so heartless?


    "For the time being, let''s go take a look at that lake"


    We enter a building that hosts a magic circuit for the water, it''s amazing that there are people who can understand how any of this works, my head hurts just from looking at it.


    "The royal knights?"


    The man in charge of the place seems surprised to see us, hehehe, I know that I should not think this way, especially since I''m just an apprentice, but I like how everyone knows about us.


    "How can I help you?"


    The captain gives him a description of the queen of darkness, it seems like she really did come here.


    "That young miss was amazing! I have never seen anyone as talented in magic as her!"


    When he says that, the other knights exchange glances with each other and then restrain him with ropes.


    "Eh!? What are you doing!?"


    I''m just as confused as he is, but then Paula comes to explain.


    "An excessive amount of praise towards someone that he should not know well is an indication that his mind is in an early stage of being altered with dark magic and since he also has remains of dark mana in his body, we cannot overlook that possibility"


    When Paula takes a look at the circuit, she notices a dark magic circle that was not supposed to be there, but she can''t tell what it''s for.


    "Doesn''t that mean that the rest of the townsfolk are also in danger of being controlled? We need to do something!"


    "Then we should just try to find our target as quickly as possible and take her down, that should solve the problem"


    As always Roul is advocating for a direct approach, but this time the captain seems to agree.


    "Even if it''s dangerous we''ll split up to find her faster, if any of you sees her do not try to confront her without warning the others"


    As I''m about to leave with the others the captain stops me.


    "Silvea, you''ll stay here to see if she comes back, stay hidden and do not come out no matter what"


    Oh, I see, if I don''t need to come out I can stay hidden so this is the safest role for me. I don''t like to feel like I need to be protected but I understand why he does this.


    After just I few minutes I hear someone running this way.


    Did something happen? Why are they coming back? I run outside to meet them, but I crash into someone.


    "Ah, sorry"


    It seems to be a very tall lady, from this angle her breasts are blocking my view of her face.


    Wait, a tall lady... it can''t be, I take a step back to take a look at her.


    "Have we met before?"


    It''s Her!!! And she just recognized me!


    No no no, I messed up again, the captain told me not to come out no matter what, but when I heard someone running I didn''t imagine that it could be her, she does not seem like the type to run around by herself.


    Is... is there any way I can get away from here? Before I have time to think I see her hand moving towards the top of my head.


    She''s going to kill me!


    "EEEEEK!!!"


    I start running as fast as my legs can carry me, I cannot die in a place like this.


    "Ah, she''s not following me"


    I look behind me and don''t see her, but just as I was about to breathe in relief I see that''s she''s running alongside me!!!


    "Please, don''t run, I just want to..."


    "NOOOOOOOO!!!"


    I think my heart just skipped a few beats, speed is my highest stat at 275, and judging from her form she is not used to running at all, yet she''s still easily able to keep up with me, just how high must her level be?


    I activate my ''super sprint'' skill, doubling my speed stat but only for running towards or away from something, it''s a great skill for escaping from danger, even if I become exhausted afterward.


    I think I have escaped after I turn around a corner, but then I see her approaching from the other side.


    "Listen, your rib..."


    "AAAAAAH!!!"


    I know! Since she does not seem to be used to running around the streets, I can probably shake her off if I take a route where it''s harder to move around.


    I jump over a fence, get into some narrow alleyways and through some bushes, I think I finally got rid of her, but then I look above me.


    She''s... flying over the houses, on her back, there are a pair of jet black wings, wings so deeply dark that it''s impossible to discern their shape, they are so sinister that it feels like my soul will get sucked if I keep staring at them.


    Despair grasps my heart and I fall on the ground, I give up I can''t escape from her.


    "Ah, are you going to listen now? Good!"


    She lands in front of me and just as I thought that she could not possibly be any more terrifying I see her face twist into something that I can only reluctantly call a smile, a smile that reveals the unimaginable malice and cruelty of its owner, this is simply not an expression that any creature of this world should be able to make.


    This only lasts for an instant as tears start flowing from my eyes she goes back to her usual expressionless face.


    "Please don''t cry! You have the wrong idea about me, I don''t want to hurt you"


    There''s no way she can expect me to believe that, especially not after showing me a glimpse of her true nature just now, does she really need to mock me on top of everything else?


    "Please don''t kill me... I have not become a proper knight yet, Roul still owes me 50 silver coins and I have a pet mouse that needs me... I don''t want to die..."


    I only barely manage to talk without swallowing my own tears.


    "No, I just wanted to..."


    "Stop right there!"


    But then, the captain and the others rush into the scene.


    "Get away from her!"


    Roul and Paula jump in front of me to protect me, are they not afraid?


    No, they are probably scared, but they are true brave knights unlike me. They are placing themselves in danger to protect me, I love them so much...


    "Surrender yourself!"


    And now the captain is also unsheathing his sword, making me smile in relief.


    I''m saved...


    forli

 Chapter 9: Hero vs villain

    "Get away from her"


    I''m surrounded by knights again...


    When I crashed into the girl her ribbon fell off and her hair became a mess, then she started running while I was picking it up. There''s no way I could let her go like that, everyone would think that she''s a slob and it would have been my fault.


    But it seems like she''s afraid of me for some reason, she started crying and now her companions think that I was doing something bad to her.


    They look angry... I don''t think they''ll give me the chance to explain myself, in that case...


    "Mind void"


    A wave of dark mana expands from my palm and flies towards the knights, there''s a girl who tries to create a barrier but she''s not fast enough, my mana reaches their heads and they all begin to fall asleep.


    All of them except one, a man with bright red hair that seems to be aflame and an equally red short beard is holding his sword against his hand, the blade is glowing a hot red color and seems to be burning him, ouch, that has to hurt, but it seems like it''s keeping him awake.


    "My name is Leon Flameban, captain of the royal knights"


    Eh? I think I''ve heard that name before, isn''t he some famous hero? I might actually be in danger this time, but this is my first time meeting a real flesh and blood hero! Maybe I can have him sign me an autograph? No, I probably can''t...


    "I challenge you to a duel to the death," He says pointing his sword at me.


    He has a determined expression on his face that would make him look handsome if the thing he was determined to do was not killing me.


    "Does it have to be to death...? Can''t we settle this with a game of checkers instead?"


    He charges at me and gets his arms ready for a swing, I guess I''ll take that as a no.


    "Black wall"


    From the shadows, a barrier emerges blocking his path, but he just slices it with his sword, it takes him a few seconds but he gets through it.


    I think that his sword has an enchantment to help in destroying dark magic, did he come here prepared to fight me?


    I try to create some distance between us but it looks like our speed stats are rather close to each other and his movements are a lot more practiced and efficient than mine, at this rate I''m going to get cut!


    "Speed drain"


    The ''drain'' spells removes 15% from any one of the target''s stats and adds it to the caster, thanks to that I manage to run away from his range, but immediately after, there''s a glow from a gem imbedded on his chest plate and the effect of my spell disappears.


    He really did get himself ready for me!


    "Shadow bind"


    A dozen black ropes fly towards him, but unlike those other knights from before, he manages to cut them all with his sword, now that I think about it I should not have used that spell against a lone opponent in the first place.


    "Shadow chain"


    This is a stronger version of ''shadow bind'' that sends a single chain instead of ropes, but in exchange for the extra strength it can only target a single enemy at a time, even he should not be able to cut this one.


    And he doesn''t, instead, a ball of mana flies out from his gauntlet and the chain wraps itself around it, does that gauntlet have a mana projector on it? I had never seen one before, since most spells detect the target''s mana to find them, projecting some of it can create a decoy.


    This is just unfair, I don''t have any powerful pieces of equipment like those, since I never expected to get myself in any fights I never got myself any, not that I think I could have obtained any as high level as the ones he has.


    But what''s strange is that he made the decoy before I actually cast my spell, did he somehow know what I was about to do?


    "Fireball"


    He tries to throw some fire at me so that I have to deflect it and give him a chance to close the distance, but I can just tell that with the difference in magic power between us it will not have any effect so I simply ignore it and let it dissipate by the mana around me.


    Let''s go with an attack from beneath him, I crouch and place my hands on the ground.


    "Swamp terrain"


    The ground for around 30 meters in front of me melts into a black sludge hungry to trap any who step on it, but once again, he was already jumping by the time I was starting to crouch.


    "Woah!"


    I only barely manage to jump backward in time to avoid his slash as he lands on the spot I was at a moment ago.


    Every time he swings his sword, sparks of fire are left dancing in the air across the arcs he traces, he looks very cool, especially when compared to my clumsy movements...


    "Black wall"


    That wall only earns me a small amount of time to increase the distance again before my pursuer slices it apart.


    And now I''m realizing another problem that comes from my lack of practical experience, and that is the fact that I don''t really know to which degree my offensive spells will hurt a person.


    If I was fighting a monster it would just be a matter of overwhelming it with raw power, but fighting without killing is a bit more complicated, there''s a range of power that an attack must be in to be strong enough to hurt the enemy but not strong enough to kill, that range varies depending on how tough the opponent is. And for someone with no battle experience like me, it''s practically impossible to find that range.


    That doesn''t give me many offensive options, I will not be able to live with myself if I kill someone over some stupid misunderstanding, and I can''t think of any more spells that can stop this knight captain and are 100% non-lethal.


    Then again I''m thinking of this the wrong way, I never wanted this fight in the first place so I don''t actually have to ''defeat'' him, do I? I should be thinking of escaping instead, I don''t think he has a way to chase me if I just fly away.


    I summon my wings, jump and... that was a bad idea, when I''m taking off there''s a moment when I can''t use any magic to attack or defend and he won''t let that chance pass. He swings his blade from above me as he, once again, jumped before I did.


    Reacting just in time I take out the short sword I bought earlier today and block his attack at the last moment, however the force from the impact is enough to put a crack on my blade as I crash into the ground, then the crack expands and my sword splits in two.


    I picked that sword because of its high durability and yet it could only take one attack from him...


    "How are you able to predict everything that I''m going to do?" At this point, I just have to ask...


    "How could I not be able to tell? You fight like a complete amateur"


    That''s because I am a complete amateur...


    So does that mean that this is that ''battle instincts'' thing I''ve heard experienced fighters have? That is so cool!


    In that case, I should use a different strategy.


    "Black wall"


    Hidden behind the wall I prepare another shadow chain spell, he won''t expect me to be right next to it when I used it to run away each other time, and he won''t be ready to defend immediately after slicing the wall.


    I see his sword cutting the wall from top to bottom, for some reason, the cut is a lot slower this time, alright Luna, get ready to get him the moment he gets through...


    Then I''m startled as I see him approaching from the side... what!? Wait... he tricked me! He let go of his sword so that the enchantment on it would keep eating at the wall while it fell from its own weight, and while I believed that he was still there he ran all the way around the house on the side.


    He swings his arm at me while his sword files back to him, he catches the sword mid-swing and slashes at me in one single swift motion, that was awesome! Also, ouch, I could not dodge properly and got a small burn on my arm.


    This reminds me of those stories where the hero fights a villain stronger than himself, but because the villain is dumb while the hero is clever and skilled the hero still manages to win.


    And the one playing the role of the strong dumb villain is me...


    Well, I can heal this burn in an instant, burns are notoriously difficult to heal, but my flesh shaping is just that great.


    I start backing off again, but then I trip on a small rock.


    "Oops"


    Seeing me off balance, he takes the chance to attack and cuts my neck, seeing my head fall to the ground, he lets out a heavy breath and sheathes his sword... he dropped his guard! This is my chance!


    "Shadow chain!"


    "!?"


    Caught by surprise, the knight captain becomes bound by the chain and falls to the ground, I then pick up my head and put it back on its place.


    "You! How...?" His stoic expression breaks for the first time and he looks at me like he cannot believe what he''s seeing.


    Well, as far as I know, I''m the only one to have ever mastered flesh shaping to the point that I can keep my body working for about 15 minutes even if it''s split into pieces, not to mention the ''auto-resurrection'' spell I invented that can recreate my body completely even if it gets reduced to ashes, although that one spends most of my mana, and unfortunately, I cannot do either of those things for someone else''s body.


    Well, even if I was fairly certain that I could do it, the truth is that, for obvious reasons, I had never tested it before, so that was a bit scary.


    "What kind of creature are you?"


    It seems like my opponent is having trouble understanding how he lost.


    "Mmmmm, your great amounts of battle experience kept giving you the edge in the fight, but it was also the reason you lost in the end"


    "What are you talking about?"


    "In all your battles your opponents always died when you severed their heads, so when mine fell off your experience betrayed you and made you drop your guard"


    I think my explanation was clear enough, but he''s looking at me with a strange expression...


    Did I say something weird?


    forli

 Chapter 10: A calm conversation

    Well, that was quite an experience, so that''s what a battle feels like. It was scary as expected, but surprisingly, it was also fun in a weird way, but that is probably only because I won.


    I never really got the impression that I was in any real danger, I can heal from almost anything after all, but if I continue to get into fights like these and I don''t truly learn how to use my power, it will be only a matter of time until I end up hurting someone.


    The good news is that now that the knight is bound we should finally be able to have a calm conversation like civilized people. Let''s see, how can I explain myself?


    "You see, I..."


    "What are you doing!? Why have you not killed me yet!?"


    "No, listen, I..."


    "There''s nothing for me to listen from the likes of you!"


    I send my mana around his mouth and manipulate to keep it closed, let me speak, please!


    "Listen, this is all a misunderstanding, I''m not an evil person, I don''t know if that prophecy was wrong or if it was just misleading, but I have no intention of causing any harm to anyone, and I''m not going to hurt you or any of your underlings, so please, stop chasing after me"


    Hearing me say that only seems to make him angry, he''s desperately trying to tell me something, maybe I should listen to what he has to say...


    "I don''t need you to tell me about your intentions! We searched your room and found the research on dark magic you have been doing, I know exactly what you''re up to!"


    He has seen my research? And from his words, he sounds like he knows what it was about! Could it be?


    "So you really understand what my research was really about?"


    "Of course I know! I know it very well..."


    Ah, finally, someone who understands! I feel so happy that I cannot help a smile from appearing on my face.


    "Then you must know about all the great things that can be accomplished with advanced dark magic! I have a vision of a future in which people all around the world will be able to rid themselves of injury and disease with the power of advanced necromancy and flesh shaping"


    He seems to be taken aback by my enthusiasm, but that can''t be helped, this is my life''s work we are talking about, it''s just natural for me to get excited when given the chance to have someone learn about it.


    "You cannot seriously think anyone will want something like that! Even if they can turn into something that does not need to worry about disease or injury, the price is simply too high!"


    "I disagree, the price will be actually rather small"


    I understand that right now only the top mages would be able to put my techniques into practice, so only a few rich people would be able to pay for it, but I''m working on methods to simplify the necessary spells and on better ways to teach younger mages how to use dark magic, by the time my research is finished I''m sure that a lot of average mages will be able to specialize themselves on dark healing magic and the prices for treatment will become quite affordable.


    "You think that losing one''s humanity is a small price?"


    Huh? What is he talking about?


    "Losing one''s humanity? Look, I know that these fields of dark magic have a bad reputation right now but you need to become more open-minded"


    "You''re insane..."


    Well, I''m aware that I''m a slightly unusual person, but does he need to be so rude?


    "I will not allow this!"


    I''m starting to think that he didn''t understand my research as well as I had assumed...


    He begins to activate all the fire mana in his body at once...


    WHAT!!? Isn''t this a self-destruct move!?


    "Mind void" "Mind void!" "Mind void!!!"


    I think just the first one was enough to make him fall asleep, but he made me freak out, did he just try to kill me at the expense of his own life? Not that it would have worked...


    Seriously, why does he hate me so much? And just when I thought that we were reaching an understanding...


    Well, I''m already starting to get used to it, not sure if that is a good thing... in any case, there''s still a couple of things I need to do before I leave.


    First I need to make sure that the captain won''t be trying to kill me again in the future, I''ll place a curse of my own creation on him, it will cause him to lose his strength, but only when I make the curse active myself, if he does not try to go after me again, this curse will not affect his life in any way.


    Normally a famous hero like him would have an easy time getting rid of any curses, after all, you only need a light magic-user of the same rank as the one who cast the curse, and he would have no trouble getting help from a rank 10 light mage, but I just happen to be rank 20 so he should not be able to find anyone who can dispel mine.


    Now all that''s left is to find that cat girl and give her back her ribbon.


    I walk along the empty streets of the town since I was focused on the fight I didn''t pay much attention to it, but there were a lot of people watching from their homes, when I look in their direction they all quickly close their windows, I guess I won''t be able to return to this town anytime soon...


    "Oh, there she is"


    The girl is still sleeping just where I left her, she''s so small and cute, I''m a bit jealous... and now that she''s sleeping she looks even cuter than before.


    I tie the ribbon back to her silver-colored hair, wow it''s so soft to the touch... huh, I know that I should not do this while she''s unconscious, but this is far too tempting... I take a good look around me to make sure that nobody is watching and...


    "Eheheh"


    "Hey Luna, what are you doing to that girl?"


    "Woah!"


    Arana is standing right behind me, when did she get there? I just looked and she was nowhere nearby.


    "I''m sorry, I just could not resist... those ears looked so fluffy"


    There''s no way that I could get so close and not touch, nobody would have been strong-willed enough.


    "Well I''m not going to judge your interests, I just wanted to know if you were done defeating the forces of justice"


    Why does she always have to word everything in the worst possible way?


    "Yes, I somehow managed to win... but now I don''t think that we can stay here any longer"


    "Well, we already have everything we need anyway, speaking of which, maybe you should have one of these, I already have my own so I don''t need this one"


    Arana passes me an appraisal stone... she has two of them? Aren''t these things supposed to be rare?


    "Where did you get this from? Don''t tell me that you stole it..."


    "What!? How could you accuse your friend of something like that!?"


    She says that, but I''ve caught her several times in the past stealing stuff from me...


    "The things I take from you do not count, friends are supposed to share with each other"


    She just used the present tense there, does that mean that she plans to keep doing it?


    "Let''s just leave already, I don''t want to stay here with all the sleeping knights..."


    I know that it will still take some time for them to wake up but they still make me nervous.


    "Sure, I was thinking that we should avoid settlements until we reach another country, I already have a route planned"


    And so we leave town to continue with our journey, we don''t encounter a single person on the way out, I think that they are avoiding us...


    It seems like fixing this misunderstanding will be more difficult than I was expecting, not only did that prophecy make me sound like some evil villain, but there''s always been something about me that makes people afraid of me, I''ve never understood what it was...


    But I cannot give up! I know that my research can greatly benefit the world if it''s just given a chance, and if the reason why people reject it is that it''s the magic of the queen of darkness, then I need to improve my own image for it to become accepted.


    One way or another, I''ll make everyone understand that the queen of darkness does not want to be the villain.


    forli

 Chapter 11: Bandits and demons

    We are now wandering around a place known as the ''blue mountains'', probably named that because it''s a mountainous area made of grayish-blue rocks and because someone didn''t want to think too hard about the name.


    Unlike before when we were just wandering across a forest, this time we''re walking on an actual road, after all, it''s not like we''re going to run into anyone, this place might be technically part of the kingdom but nobody ever comes here, since there''s nothing of interest around and the monsters are considered to be moderately dangerous.


    There''s not a lot of vegetation around here, and the road is full of loose rocks that make it difficult to walk, I''m glad that I got these new boots, we are also getting attacked by monsters every couple of hours, there''s a lot of them here, but nothing dangerous, the strongest so far was only level 44... my sense of what counts as a ''dangerous monster'' has become warped ever since I found out about my level...


    On that topic, I pointed the appraisal stone to Arana and found out that she''s level 60, it''s not extraordinarily high but it''s higher than what a non-combatant like her should be, after all, the level of a normal soldier is around 50...


    "At this pace, we should make it out of Granbel in only a few more days"


    "Out of where?"


    "Out of the Granbel kingdom, you know, the place we''re currently trying to leave"


    "The kingdom has a name?"


    Arana stops walking and turns around to look at me, her eyes are wide open.


    "Haven''t you been living here your entire life?"


    "Well yeah... but everyone kept calling it just ''the kingdom'' so I didn''t learn the name..."


    Well, I most likely heard it a few times, but I have a very bad memory for stuff that does not interest me.


    "Somehow, after all this time, I still continue to underestimate you..."


    Was that supposed to be praise? It didn''t sound like praise...


    "Nevermind, Luna, use your mana sensor on the area ahead of us"


    "It''s called mana sense... What am I looking for?"


    "Just do it"


    Alright, let''s take a look... uh? There are people over there.


    "Six men are hiding on each side of the road, twelve in total... Ara! Are they bandits?!"


    "Seems likely"


    Oh! This is my first time encountering bandits! What do I do? Do I attack them first or pretend that I didn''t see them and wait for them to come out? After they went to the trouble of preparing an ambush I should let them make the first move, that way anything I do will be self-defense.


    Alright, pretend to not notice and keep walking, and walking, and walking and... didn''t we already get past them?


    "Huh, Ara... they didn''t attack us"


    "Nope, they didn''t"


    "But we''re two small girls walking alone and helpless, there''s no way that bandits would not attack us"


    "Small?" Arana looks up at my face, tilting her head backward with an exaggerated motion.


    "We''re two frail-looking girls walking alone and helpless, there''s no way that bandits would not attack us"


    I don''t think that a bunch of random bandits would know about that whole ''queen of darkness'' business, and we''re not even carrying any visible weapons, so why didn''t they come out, am I not good enough to rob?


    "These are bandits we''re talking about! Bandits! These are the guys who will attack anyone, it does not matter if it''s a powerful hero or a group of armed adventurers so why didn''t they attack us?"


    Could it be that they''re not bandits after all? Everyone knows that it''s the duty of a bandit to make the protagonist look good, and they will uphold that duty even at the cost of their own wellbeing.


    "Well I don''t know, why don''t you ask them?


    "You know what... I think I will!"


    As soon as they see me approach they try to run away, but I won''t let them.


    "Shadow bind"


    "Ah! What''s this!? I can''t move!"


    Alright, now they are all immobilized, let''s ask them.


    "Are you guys bandits?"


    "No, we''re not!"


    Let''s see, a group of men hiding on the side of the road all armed with axes, all of them are dirty, wear rags and have scars on their faces, they could not be more obviously bandits if they tried.


    "We''re..." One of them starts talking and looks at the axe on his hand "Lumberjacks!"


    I take a look at the only tree in 50 meters around us, it''s soo thin and weak-looking I don''t think you could even make toothpicks out of it.


    "Well, maybe we are bandits..."


    I approach a bandit larger than the others.


    "So, are you the leader?"


    "Uh, no... the leader is me," Says one of the shortest ones.


    What? But the biggest bandit is the one who''s supposed to be the leader... could it be that these guys just don''t know how to bandit? Is that why they didn''t attack?


    The bandits on the other side are running away, do they not care about their friends? Or maybe they do, they suddenly stopped.


    "So what are you doing here anyway?" Now Arana is joining us.


    "Nobody ever comes around here, this doesn''t seem like a good spot for banditry"


    Oh, she makes a good point, you can''t rob people in a place with no people to rob.


    "No reason..." Seems like they don''t want to tell us.


    "Really? Keep in mind that if your reason is interesting enough, I may be able to convince my friend to not kill you"


    Kill them!? Why is she saying something so crazy all of a sudden? And why do the bandits look like they actually believe her?


    "I was not going to kill them! I just want to capture them!"


    "Capture them? How?" Arana asks a weird question.


    "How? By tying them up, taking them to the nearest town and handing them over to the guards... oooh"


    There''s no way they would let me do that and not check my identity, is there?


    "See? You should just kill them"


    "No, wait! I''ll talk"


    The bandit leader seems to be willing to speak now, is it really so easy to believe that I''ll kill them? They should not judge people only on appearances.


    "There are two tribes of demons living around this area, since they are not in contact with the rest of the kingdom, we can rob them and when we go back to a human town nobody will have heard about what we did, that way we can sell everything more easily and not have to worry about being identified"


    Really? There are demons here? That''s interesting.


    "So that''s why you didn''t try to rob us? Because we''re not demons?"


    "No, we didn''t rob you because you look like you would have killed us in a rather gruesome way if we had tried"


    "..."


    Am I really so scary that even bandits don''t dare to attack me? I guess at least I still have the monsters...


    "Well then, I guess we can hand them over to one of those tribes of demons, let''s make the bandits guide us to their village"


    Well, I am curious about demons, it would be nice to meet one.


    We capture the other group as well, turns out that the reason why they didn''t escape is that they got trapped on a large spider web, is there a spider monster around here?


    In any case, now that we are all together let''s go meet some demons.


    The different species of intelligent animals are known as the ''enlightened races'', this includes humans, elves, beastkin, and many others, however, there''s an even greater variety of races of monsters that are also intelligent, these are collectively known as ''demons''.


    A long time ago they used to be known as the ''manaborn'', but during the great war 2000 years ago, the enlightened races started to refer to them as demons in an attempt to... demonize them, and somehow, that new name ended up spreading even among the demons themselves.


    It''s been a long time since the war, now the idea that demons are naturally evil is basically dead and the relationship between them and the enlightened races has become a lot better, however, they still live separated from us, I, for example, have never met a demon before, but that might be in part because I''ve not met a lot of people in general...


    "Hey, Luna! Look over there"


    It seems that I won''t have to wait until reaching their village to meet them, up ahead I can see a girl that seems to be a cross between a human and a pig, I believe she''s an ork, she''s being harassed by four young men that look like green-skinned humans with prominent tusks, if I''m not mistaken, they belong to a race of demons known as orcs.


    Orks and orcs don''t usually get along with each other, the fact that their names are so similar can get confusing and they both want the others to be the ones to change theirs.


    "Those two races of demons always appear together, don''t they?"


    "That''s because the mana they''re made of is similar, orks are 80.5% earth, 12.3% fire and 7.2% dark, while orcs are 80.6% earth, 10% fire and 9.4% dark"


    A place with mana that can create one of them is also likely to be able to create the other, so they usually live in the same areas.


    "You know the exact numbers?" Arana seems surprised.


    Well, I read about them once and I have a very good memory for stuff that interests me.


    At any rate, since I''m a good person I should help that girl, but as I was thinking of a way to chase the orcs away, they finally see me and start running in fear, that was easier than I expected...


    "Are you alright?"


    Then the ork girl sees me too and starts running away as well...


    I thought that the demons were supposed to be the scary ones.


    forli

 Chapter 12: Temptations

    "Now I''m not even sure if I really want to visit that village..."


    "Why not? I thought that you wanted to learn about the way demons live"


    "Didn''t you see how they reacted to me? If I go there I''ll probably scare them all again..."


    I mean, they just ran away in a panic the second they saw me, that is even worse than the way humans usually react to me, is every single demon going to be that way?


    "Huh... I wish that I was not this intimidating, all I get from it is trouble..."


    "Well, there''s also a positive side to having people fear you, you know" Arana is saying something weird.


    "Positive side? What positive side?" I don''t get what she means.


    "Well, fear is a good way to make people do as you want, for example, people follow the law because they are afraid of punishment, and these bandits get people to give them their valuables by intimidating them, and you don''t even need to do anything to make people afraid of you! I would even go as far as to say that the fear you inspire can be even more powerful than your magic, you just never take advantage of it"


    "Why would I want to take advantage of that? I have no interest in making people obey me or anything similar"


    "Are you sure? Then what about these bandits right here?"


    Arana turns to point at the tied up bandits following us.


    "Uh? What about them?"


    "Well, they surrendered without fighting because they were afraid of you, didn''t they?"


    Well, that''s true, but I don''t think they would have been difficult to defeat regardless.


    "Not all enemies will be straightforward, some might try tactics such as taking hostages or attacking when you sleep, but they might think twice before doing any of that if they fear you, and you never know what might happen in a fight, having your enemies give up from the start is a guarantee that nobody will be harmed, you don''t want to hurt anyone, do you?"


    "She''s right, last time we fought some adventurers both sides ended up injured even though they were much stronger"


    "I agree, this was the least painful way I''ve ever been captured"


    For some reason, the bandits are sharing their opinions as well.


    "But I never wanted to get into fights in the first place..."


    "It''s not only fights, you can solve all kinds of problems just by intimidating the people causing them, and you can also..."


    "That''s enough! Stop trying to tempt me!"


    All the bandits stop walking and look at me worriedly when they hear me yell, even Arana flinches slightly. See? There''s no way that this could be a good thing.


    Seriously, what is she trying to convince me to do? And they say that I''m the villain... the evil one here is obviously Arana.


    And it seems like while I was distracted we reached the ork village.


    "Welcome to our village!"


    "Please come this way, we have prepared a meal for you"


    "Eeeeeh!?"


    I can''t help but be shocked when I see all the orks waiting to receive us into the village with smiling faces, this is basically the exact opposite of what I was expecting.


    Some of the orks take the bandits to the village''s jail, the rest takes us to a large building on the center of the village, the buildings here seem to be made of the greyish-blue that can be found everywhere around this area, the designs are rather functional, just rectangular houses with nothing fancy about them.


    "We would have taken you to the temple, but it was destroyed by a group of orcs that snuck into the village during the night"


    He points to a pile of rocks next to the building we''re entering, do orks often take visitors to the temple? That seems weird. Like I thought, they have a very different culture from us, don''t they.


    Once inside, they guide us to a table with a delicious smelling meal placed on it, it seems like they just prepared this recently, which means that they were expecting us.


    The food consists of roasted boar meat (something feels wrong about that) and many sweet tasting vegetables I have never seen before, it''s actually very good.


    "This is great!"


    "Ah, I''m glad that you enjoy our offerings"


    Did I feel some relief in his voice? I must be imagining things.


    "So, you knew that we were coming?"


    "Ah, yes, my daughter told us that you rescued her from some orcs that were harassing her"


    So because I helped her and she saw that I had captured those bandits, the people of her village decided to reward us? I knew that doing good deeds would pay off in the end, I''m feeling quite happy right now, but why does she look like she''s still afraid of me?


    "She''s your daughter? I thought that demons don''t have families since you are born from concentrations of mana"


    "Well, we don''t, but orks are born as children and are weak at first, so it''s customary for adults to take care of the newborns until they can fend for themselves"


    Oh, so they are all basically adopted, and I guess the races of demons that are born as adults won''t need to do this.


    "By the way... why are there so many people staring at me?"


    A large number of orks have been standing around watching me eat the whole time, I''m not used to being popular.


    "Oh, don''t mind them, it''s normal that they are curious, this is our first time being visited by a great spirit of darkness after all"


    ...


    "Being visited by a what now?"


    "A great spirit of darkness, I mean you, of course"


    Oh, I see, they must have mistaken me for some being from their mythology... why!? There''s nothing mythological about me! Did they think I was someone else?


    "Uh, it doesn''t matter how you look at it, I''m an elf, see?"


    I point to my ears, but he doesn''t seem convinced.


    "I don''t know why you are trying to disguise yourself, but there''s no way that an elf could have such a great quantity of dark mana, or of such purity"


    Now that he mentions it, demons are supposed to be very sensitive to mana, and I certainly have more of it than any normal person should.


    "No, please, listen..."


    I try to explain, but then Arana pulls me to the side and starts whispering to me.


    "Hey Luna, maybe you should just let them keep thinking whatever they want, just think about the reception you were expecting and what you actually got, isn''t this a lot better?"


    "You want me to lie?"


    Why is she so insistent on taking me down the wrong path?


    "It would not even be a lie, you just have to let them continue to believe whatever they want"


    "A lie of omission is still a lie..."


    "Also, if they think you are one of those great spirits, they will probably answer any questions you have about their culture, even things they would not normally tell to most people"


    Well, when she puts it that way... I guess I could just stay quiet, it''s not like I''m hurting anyone...


    "...And then the water mana is absorbed directly by the seeds without ever turning into actual water"


    "Oh... so that''s how you are able to cultivate all these crops even in a place as dry as this"


    It would be easy to think of the orks as having an underdeveloped society that has nothing useful to learn from, but even if their magic is overall less advanced, they have a lot of techniques that I''ve never heard about, I''m learning a lot from them.


    While I''m talking to this older ork, Arana is sitting on a bench surrounded by ork children, Longleg is standing on her opened palm juggling several balls of web at once as the children watch in awe.


    "And you said that the war-boss is your son? Could I meet him?"


    This place is rather big for a village, there are more than 600 orks living here, as such, they even have a group of dedicated soldiers under the command of someone called a ''war-boss'', I want to see what they''re like.


    "Yes, his name is Gorcanak, he''s been very busy lately dealing with orc attacks, so he''s not in the village right now, my apologies"


    At that moment, the ork girl from before approaches while trembling in fear, her face is completely pale, is she alright?


    "Well then... let''s not delay this any longer"


    The older ork suddenly gets serious and places his hand on the girl''s shoulders.


    "In accordance with the ancient traditions, we now offer you this girl as a sacrifice"


    ...


    "I''m sorry, could you repeat that?"


    "We''re offering you this girl as a sacrifice"


    Yeah, I didn''t mishear... WHAT!!!?


    This is bad, I had no idea that dark spirits took sacrifices like that...


    "Nonono! I don''t want a sacrifice!"


    "You won''t take me?"


    The girl sounds even more dismayed than before.


    "You want to be sacrificed?"


    "No, but... if I''m not then the entire village will be destroyed, no?"


    So I can''t simply refuse or the orks will think that they''re all going to die...


    Ugh, I''m just getting what I deserve for listening to the whispers of the devil, also known as Arana, what do I do now?


    I guess I''ll have to find a way to convince them that I''m a regular elf after all.


    forli


    I considered including a small glimpse of her perspective earlier than planned, but it''s still too soon for that and to be honest, I''m not sure if it would solve the issue...


    So do you think that I should change their relationship a little? Or is it fine to continue this way?

 Chapter 13: A chance to be a hero

    "I''m telling you I''m not a spirit, I''m just a regular elf, you don''t have to sacrifice anyone to me"


    Actually, they shouldn''t sacrifice people to anyone, but to me even less.


    "But we can clearly see your immense mana, no mortal being could be that powerful"


    "Why won''t you accept me as a sacrifice? Am I not good enough?"


    "Of course you''re good enough! I mean, no! You''re not!, I mean... I don''t take sacrifices in the first place!"


    I should have tried to clear their misunderstanding sooner... this is why they say that lying only serves to create more problems in the future...


    But even if I had insisted on me being an elf from the start, I don''t know if I would have been able to convince them, if only there was some method to prove my race... wait, now that I think about it, there actually is one, isn''t there.


    "Please, take a look at this"


    I take out my appraisal stone and show them my status, even though I don''t want people to know about it, this time it seems like it will be the lesser of two evils.


    "Level 508..."


    "Rank 20 in dark magic..."


    "How is this possible?"


    They all seem surprised by what they''re reading on the stone.


    "Do you all understand now? I''m not a spirit"


    "Yes, we can see..."


    Well, that''s good.


    "We apologize for calling you a great spirit of darkness, we can see now that you are something far more fearsome"


    What!? No!


    "But I''m an elf, see?" I point to the race line of my status.


    "But you are level 508, and your rank in dark magic is beyond what''s supposed to be possible"


    Wait... wasn''t I level 507 the last time I checked? How did I level up again?


    "If you''re not a spirit, does that mean that you''re not going to help us?"


    Now the girl is worried about me not being a spirit, at this point, I''m starting to think that getting worried is just her default response to everything.


    "You need my help?"


    "The adults say that there''s going to be a big war against the orcs"


    "Well, we don''t want to fight, but we have to protect our village and our children"


    I see I''ve already heard of the trouble that the orcs have been causing, they really sound like a bunch of bad guys.


    "I''m afraid that everyone is going to die... since you are so strong, maybe you could stop the orcs yourself!"


    Did I hear that right?


    Filled with excitement, I rush to the girl and grab both of her shoulders.


    "So you are really in trouble then!? And you want ME to help you!!!?"


    "Eeeeeeeek! I''m sorry! Please forgive me!"


    "Nonono! I''ll help you! I really want to help!"


    Is this finally it? Saving a village of innocent people from the bad guys... that''s exactly the sort of stuff that heroes do! Is this finally my chance to be a hero!?


    "What is your name?"


    "Heh? I... I''m Hama"


    "Hama! You don''t have to worry anymore! Leave everything to me!"


    I turn around to look at the older ork.


    "Sir! Where can I find those orcs?"


    "Well... their village is to the east of here, you''ll find it if you follow that path over there"


    And just like that, I start running to the orc village...


    "Hey! Don''t just leave without me!"


    With Arana chasing after me.


    "Hah... Luna... you know... that I cannot... hah... run as fast as you..."


    Even though I''m holding back my speed Arana still has trouble catching up.


    "Oh that reminds me, I saw earlier that I have gone up a level, do you have any idea of how that could have been?"


    You''d think that once you go past level 500, earning more levels should be extremely difficult, and I don''t think I''ve done anything exceptional these past few days.


    "Well, since you didn''t get your levels by fighting, any combat you do should count extra since you had no experience on that field, on the other hand, all the fights you''ve been in have been rather easy and at your level, you should need a lot more than normal... if I''m honest, the way you''ve gained all your levels is so unusual that I have no idea of what to think"


    Eh, it''s not like I need a higher level, I think I''m already strong enough, so I''m not interested in methods for leveling up, learning to use the power I already have should be my priority, but until now, the only training method I''ve been able to think of is to practice on the random monsters I encounter.


    "But let''s get back on topic, what are you planning to do about the orcs?"


    "Oh, I guess I''ll just beat them up a little and tell them to stop causing trouble"


    Arana stares at me with a look of pity.


    "You really are naive to the core, aren''t you... Why are you so enthusiastic about helping some people that you don''t know at all?"


    "Because it''s a chance for me to be a hero! This is exactly what I''ve been hoping for"


    If I can''t make people understand that I''m a good person by showing them my research, then I''ll just prove myself with my good deeds.


    "Luna... the truth is that I have a bad feeling about this, I think you may get in trouble if you keep going with this, and I don''t mean the fun kind of trouble, I''m talking about real trouble this time"


    Now Arana is saying something that does not sound like anything she''d ever say.


    "Real trouble? I did tell you that I got decapitated last time, didn''t I?"


    "That doesn''t count as real trouble, for you, something like that is a mild inconvenience at worst"


    Well, she''s right, but still...


    "If that doesn''t count, then what would real trouble be?"


    "For you? I guess it would be if it was someone else who was in danger..."


    As she says that she sounds like she''s genuinely worried about me, now I''m really starting to get worried myself, Arana never worries about me, or about herself, or about anything at all, is this feeling she''s getting really that bad?


    "Maybe we should just leave and forget about this"


    "You don''t get it... I never have people ask me for help, even when I offer it myself I''ve trouble getting them to accept, I cannot let a chance to play the role of hero pass, I might never get another one"


    She keeps looking at me with even more pity than before, yeah, I''m pitiful, I know.


    "Never mind then, it was just a feeling anyway, everything will probably be fine"


    She says that, but now I won''t be able to stop worrying...


    "Hey, Luna! Look over there"


    Suddenly we run into a situation that feels oddly familiar, a group of orks seems to be harassing an orc girl.


    Huh? Are they trying to get revenge or something, but then they''ll be no better than the orcs!


    As soon as I approach them, they see me and start running in fear, including the orc girl...


    This feels REALLY familiar.


    We enter the village and immediately I get surrounded by orcs.


    "Could you truly be... a great spirit of darkness?"


    I show them my status without wasting any time, I don''t want the same misunderstanding happening again.


    "Level 508..."


    Yeah, yeah, I know, my level is high.


    I was about to bring up the topic of their attacks against the orks, but then I notice a familiar-looking pile of rocks that I think used to be a building.


    "Excuse me... could you tell me what that is?"


    "Oh, that used to be our temple, but it was destroyed by a group of orks that snuck into the village during the night"


    Huh... isn''t that the exact same thing that they did?


    Maybe the orcs did this themselves in an attempt to deceive me? But they didn''t even know I existed until just now...


    "I heard from the orks that you have been harassing them and that you have been getting ready for a war against them..."


    The orcs seem to get upset when I tell them that.


    "That''s because THEY have been harassing us and THEY have been getting ready for war, we don''t want to fight, but we have to protect our village and our children!"


    I don''t understand, what is going on here? Neither side seems to be lying and I have seen proof of both of them harassing the other... I feel like my head is going to explode.


    "Just as I thought, orks and orcs are known for always starting fights with each other, this conflict is likely to be equally the fault of both sides"


    Arana does not seem to be as confused as I am.


    But that''s not how this is supposed to work! A hero is someone who protects the innocent from the bad guys...


    And now you''re telling me that both sides are the good guys and the bad guys at the same time? That doesn''t make any sense!


    I already made a promise to Hama... what am I supposed to do now?


    forli


    To tell the truth I''m starting to feel a bit of pressure... but I''m still happy that a lot of people seem to be interested in reading what I write.

 Chapter 14: The power of fear

    While I''m still lost in thought, a group of orcs wearing leather armor and carrying muskets and spears approach the village, stopping right at the entrance.


    "Attention everyone! We are about to begin an all-out battle against the orks! Any civilians who want to volunteer please gather here!"


    What? An all-out battle? Right now?


    I thought that I could at least try to convince them to get along, but now it seems like I won''t have any time, isn''t it too much of a coincidence that this happened just when I arrived here?


    "Why are you coming to recruit so suddenly? Did anything happen?"


    The orcs seem to be surprised as well.


    "Earlier today our scouts sensed someone or something with an incredible amount of dark mana wandering inside of the ork village, it''s possible that they''re making some sort of deal with that being in an attempt to destroy us, in which case we cannot waste any time"


    ...


    He''s talking about me, isn''t he...


    Does that mean that this is my fault!?


    The orcs are probably thinking the same thing because everyone is turning to look at me... I suppose I should say something here.


    "Eh... excuse me"


    As soon as the soldiers see me they all tense up and point their spears at me.


    "W-Who are you?"


    "I''m not your enemy! You don''t have to start a fight, I''m not planning on doing anything to you!"


    Arana is squinting her eyes at me, yeah I know, I came here intending to teach them a lesson, but that''s only because I thought that they were the bad guys... just like everybody usually thinks that I''m the bad guy, maybe there''s a lesson to be learned here.


    "You expect us to believe that when you''re giving us such a threatening glare?"


    What threatening glare? I''m just looking at them like normal... does it always seem like I''m glaring at people?


    "I guess you''re the one who was at the ork village recently? Even if you''re telling the truth it''s already too late, both sides are getting ready for battle right now"


    The soldier seems nervous while talking as if he''s expecting me to attack at any moment.


    "But there''s no need to fight! Both of your villages seem to be doing perfectly fine on their own, if you can just come to an understanding nobody will need to get hurt"


    Nobody seems to be convinced at all, one of the soldiers gathers his courage and approaches me.


    "L-look, if you''re our enemy then we''re ready to fight, but if you''re not then please stop getting in the way"


    So that''s how they see me, I''m just in the way... I guess they won''t listen no matter what I say.


    Should I tie them up or something to stop them from fighting? But that would confirm me as an enemy and they could still fight as soon as I leave.


    I need to think of a plan.


    "Ara, let''s leave for now"


    Arana and I walk away from the orc village, just far away enough to be out of view, part of me was expecting the soldiers to try to stop me, but they just seemed glad that I was leaving...


    "Ara, please! I need your help!"


    If there is anyone who knows what I should do here it''s probably her, I''m willing to beg if I have to.


    "My help? For what?"


    "To stop the battle! You have some idea of what I can do, don''t you?"


    "Why do you want to stop them? No matter how I look at it, this is none of your business"


    None of my business? Has she not been paying attention?


    "I promised that I was going to stop the fight! And even if I didn''t, I can''t just let people die without even trying to do anything about it!"


    "Look, helping innocent people when they are in trouble is very noble and heroic, if that''s what you were trying to I would be completely on your side, but this just two groups of idiots who want to fight each other for no reason, what exactly is an outsider like you supposed to do about it?"


    "Even then, I can''t just ignore people who are about to die... and there''s probably plenty of innocent people in those villages who are going to suffer as well"


    "You know this is going to be trouble for you, and knowing you, you''re going to blame yourself if you fail"


    "I''m only one person, this is more important than what might be troublesome for just me"


    Arana lets out a heavy sigh.


    "You really are too nice for your own good, no wonder that you''re destined to become a villain"


    What she just said doesn''t seem to make any sense, what did she mean by that?


    "If you want my opinion, there''s actually one way that you can stop this battle, but you might not like it"


    "Really!? What is it?"


    "First of all, I''m guessing that you''ve already realized this yourself, but physically stopping them from fighting won''t help in the long run, they''ll just go back to it as soon as you''re gone"


    "Yeah, I know, I''m not THAT dumb"


    "However the impression I''m getting from this conflict is that it''s closer to a brawl than to a war"


    "Eh? What''s the difference?"


    "This might be oversimplifying things, but the way I define a war is that it''s a conflict fought by soldiers who are determined to win at any cost, they won''t hesitate to kill their enemies and will probably fight until death"


    War sounds really scary, doesn''t it?


    "A brawl, on the other hand, is fought by a bunch of idiots who don''t like each other, they''re more likely to stop themselves when it''s time to kill and will run away if it seems like they''re going to die"


    "Oh! So does that mean that they''re not going to kill each other after all?"


    "No, they''re still going to attack each other with spears and firearms so you can expect quite a few deaths, also keep in mind that this is only an assumption I''m making based on what little I''ve seen of both tribes of demons, I''ve barely even seen the actual soldiers"


    "Oh..."


    "But if I''m right and they''re not fully committed to this battle, then you should be able to stop them by making use of that power of yours that I told you about earlier"


    I have a feeling that this is the part she said I won''t like...


    "Power? What power?"


    "The power of fear"


    Fear? She was talking before about how fear can be used to make people do what you want, but I thought that she was just teasing me like usual.


    "Ara... I don''t think that''s really something I can do..."


    "Why not? Isn''t this exactly what you were going to do in the first place?"


    "What!? I never thought about using the power of fear for anything!"


    "If I recall correctly, your exact words were ''I guess I''ll just beat them up a little and tell them to stop causing trouble'', that is to say, you were planning to make them stop by making them afraid of your reprisal"


    "But that''s different! I was under the impression that they were the bad guys, and beating up the bad guys is what heroes do!"


    "Exactly, using fear to stop the bad guys from hurting innocent people is what heroes do, isn''t it? In truth, a hero is just someone who uses their great strength to enforce whatever they believe is morally right"


    "That''s not the way I would describe it..."


    "And you said yourself that both sides were the ''bad guys'' and the ''good guys'' at the same time, didn''t you? So shouldn''t a hero use fear to stop them from hurting each other? All you have to do is make sure to scare them enough so that they won''t forget even after you leave"


    "Ara... why are you trying so hard to make me use fear? Do you actually want me to become a villain?"


    "Of course I don''t want you to be a villain! And I''m not trying to make you do anything, in case you''ve forgotten, my advice was that you leave and forget about this, I''m just trying to make sure that you understand what your options are"


    "My options?"


    "The only two things that make you special here are your high level and the fear you inspire on everyone around you, if you are not willing to use either of those, you are just some random outsider passing by, nobody will listen to what you have to say"


    Well, I''m also a magic researcher and I''d say I''m rather good as a healer, but I don''t think either of those applies here.


    "If we had more time maybe it would be possible to come up with some complicated way to make the two races get along with each other, but they are marching to war as we speak, as things are right now, your only options are to use the power of fear, or to decide that this is not your problem and leave"


    Arana was right, I don''t like this... but no matter how hard I think I can''t come up with anything else, and I already decided that I''m not going to simply ignore this problem.


    "You know... if you don''t want me to think that you want me to be a villain, you could at least try to word things in a less evil-sounding way"


    She looks at me with a strange smile.


    "Luna... do you think that only people who have evil intentions can be villains? That because you are a ''good person'', you cannot become one?"


    "What are you trying to say?"


    "Many of the worst villains to have existed could commit their atrocities because they kept believing themselves to be good, to be honest, Luna... you scare me quite a bit, you are extremely naive and incredibly powerful, that is a very dangerous combination, you may end up believing that because you did something good here you should act the same way every time, that''s why I word things the way I do, I want you to understand what you are actually doing"


    So even Arana is afraid of me... it''s rare to see her get serious like this, but now I think I may be able to trust her after all.


    "Alright then, what should I do exactly?"


    forli

 Chapter 15: Stopping the fight

    -Gorcanak, ork war-boss-


    "Boss! Our scouts just spotted the orc army entering the valley, we believe they number somewhere around one hundred"


    "Finally! At long last, we''ll have a chance to show them all the true strength of the orks!"


    My body jumps in excitement when I hear the report from my assistant, I''ve been forced to wait for far too long to get the opportunity to crush the orcs, the cowardly elders from our village were afraid that a lot of people would die if we started a war with them. As if there was any warrior who would ever be afraid of death!


    Not that there''s a reason to worry about that in the first place, orcs are nothing more than slightly bigger goblins, they will be no match for a true warrior race such as us.


    "A hundred is more than the number of soldiers the orcs should have, I bet that those cowards went to recruit from their civilians because they were too afraid to face us by themselves"


    "But boss... didn''t we recruit from our civilians as well?"


    "Idiot!"


    "Ouch"


    I smack my assistant in the head for suggesting that we are in any way similar to the orcs.


    "We didn''t recruit them because we were afraid! We''re just trying to give everyone a chance to take part in the fight, do you understand?"


    "Yes! Of course!"


    "Well then, tell everybody to get ready to go down the mountain, we''ll meet them at the center of the valley"


    "Right away boss"


    I can almost hear my spear telling me how much it wants to skewer the enemy, hehehe, this will be an easy victory.


    It doesn''t take long until the orc soldiers come into our sight, it appears that they have spotted us as well, as their march suddenly comes to a halt.


    "Look at them, they look like a bunch of weaklings, this should be even easier than I thought"


    "I don''t know boss, our reports said that their average level was around the same as ours..."


    "Idiot! Don''t you know that a soldier is not supposed to contradict the war-boss?"


    "Yes, sorry boss..."


    "Tell everyone who''s holding a musket to start firing at the enemy"


    At the same time, the orcs also open fire against us, but as expected from those clowns, they don''t hit a single one of our soldiers, I can only laugh at how bad their aim is. Our side is not able to hit anything either, but that''s normal, we''re still far away from them after all.


    "Alright! Let''s charge them!"


    I start running at the front of my men, but I can only take five steps before my feet start sinking into the ground.


    "What in the world is going on!?"


    It''s not only me, my soldiers and even the enemy seem to have been trapped by this swamp that suddenly materialized beneath us, but before I can try to understand what just happened something even stranger occurs, our surroundings suddenly become dark as if it was the middle of the night, I would think that it had become nighttime, but I can still see the mountains in the distance being illuminated by the sun, it seems like it''s only our surroundings that no longer have any light.


    "All of you! Drop your weapons this instant!"


    I hear a woman''s voice coming from above us, when I look up I see her figure descending from the sky, her long black hair is floating behind her in the air, on her back, there are a pair of wings with a shape I''m not able to tell and of such a dark color that I cannot see the place where the wings end and the darkness begins, she stops her descent and stays floating still in midair, her face has an expression of absolute disdain as she looks down at everyone below her.


    "You seem to have come here thinking that you would obtain honor and glory from this battle, but I guarantee you that the only thing you''ll get if you insist on fighting is death"


    My assistant comes over to me with a fearful look on his face.


    "Boss, I believe that is the elf that was at our village earlier, the one so powerful that everyone mistook her for a great spirit of darkness"


    I can indeed sense an immense amount of dark mana from her... so she thinks that she can look down on us? She''s just like one of those demon lords, thinking that she can boss everyone around just because her level is a little high, I get angrier the more I look at that arrogant expression of hers.


    "Maybe she needs a lesson in humility, tell our soldiers to start shooting at her"


    "But boss, if I''m not mistaken her level was 508, is it really a good idea to pick a fight with her?"


    "So what? With all our soldiers here our total level is probably above 5000"


    "I don''t think that''s how levels work boss... "


    "What did I tell you about contradicting me!? Give the order to fire!"


    The orcs also seem to have decided to fire at her, however, all of the projectiles stop in midair just before reaching their target and then fall to the ground, the woman doesn''t even give any signs to have noticed that we were shooting at her just now.


    "Maybe you didn''t hear me... DROP YOUR WEAPONS!"


    For a moment I fell a strong impulse to let go of my spear, when I look around me I see that some of the soldiers actually did as she said... there''s something about that voice that gives a feeling of absolute authority as if anyone who hears it should obey without question, and I don''t think it was a spell... just who is this woman?


    "If you are not afraid of death, allow me to give you a demonstration"


    As she raises her hand, a massive amount of mana gathers above her and a gigantic sphere of darkness materializes on top of her opened palm, a strong wind starts blowing on the entire valley with her as the center and several people are knocked to the floor.


    "Obliteration blast"


    The sphere is sent flying at an incredible speed and in less than two seconds it explodes against the side of a bare rock mountain in the distance, a cloud of dust covers the area of impact and stops me from seeing the extent of the damage but I notice a few small rock fragments falling close to me despite the distance.


    When the dust finally clears... the mountain is no longer there, everyone is unable to move, complete paralyzed by the sheer terror of what we just witnessed, the woman, however, is just standing in the air, seemingly unfazed by the spectacle, I cannot believe that this is something that she can do so casually.


    I always thought of myself as a fearless warrior, even if I know that it''s not true, there was a part of me that believed that I was invincible. That part of me is now gone, after seeing an overwhelming power that I cannot hope to stand against, all I can think of is that I do not want to die.


    - Luna -


    According to Arana the reason why these demons are so willing to go to war with each other is because they don''t really understand the fear of death, therefore, the most effective way to stop them from fighting would be to make them fear for their lives, and the best way to do that is to show them an incredibly destructive magic that they could not possibly defend against, this should make them think twice about risking their lives in the future, even when the thing that''s threatening to kill them is not me.


    To be honest, I''ve been wondering for a while what would happen if I actually used my full power for a spell, and this seemed like a good moment to try, so I used my mana sense to make sure that there was nobody anywhere near the area I was aiming for and fired one of the strongest spells I know.


    But the result was way bigger than I was expecting! I thought that at most it would make a hole on the side of that mountain, not blow up the entire thing...


    Everyone here is now paralyzed by fear... including me! That was the scariest thing I''ve ever seen in my life! I think that I''m going to forbid myself from using spells of that level in the future...


    But now all the demons are just standing there, not knowing what to do... maybe I should remind them again.


    "Drop your weapons! Now!"


    Oh! It seems like they are listening to me this time, all of the orks and the orcs are letting go of their weapons almost in a hurry.


    I''m not very good at reading people, but even I can tell that their fighting spirit is completely gone.


    I guess that means that I succeeded in stopping the fight.


    forli

 Chapter 16: An unwanted title

    Now that I no longer need to grab everyone''s attention I can finally descend to the ground, since my wings don''t let me stay still in midair I had been using one of the few wind spells I know, ''feather fall'', which is used to slow down someone''s falling speed, but it seems like with my extremely high magic stat, it can make me fall slow enough to make it look like I''m standing still, however, every time I use a spell from an attribute other than dark I get a small headache, so I''m glad that I can stop now.


    As soon as I touch the ground, the leaders of both armies come towards me with a look of uncertainty, I''d say that they are actually rather brave, the rest of the soldiers are still unable to move after the shock from before.


    There''s an awkward silence as the two of them stand in front of me, maybe I''m the one who should talk first.


    "Am I right to believe that both of you have decided to give up on fighting?"


    "Yes... we acknowledge that we are no match for you"


    "We surrender as well"


    Well, that''s good, but now I need to make sure that they understand why they should not throw away their lives so easily.


    "You know... you could have died very easily just a moment ago, but I made sure that you stayed alive, do you understand why I did that?"


    The two of them seem to be unsure of what to say for a moment, but then the ork leader finally decides to speak.


    "Of course, you didn''t want to kill those you were about to conquer"


    "Eh? What do you mean by that?"


    And then all of them start kneeling in front of me, first the leaders and then the rest of the soldiers.


    "Wait, that''s not what I... "


    When I try to get them to stop, I''m interrupted by a loud ''ping'' noise that seems to come from inside my head, what was that?


    "Wow, you always surpass all expectations, I only told you to scare them a little, but you went and made them all your servants, good job!"


    Arana is standing right to my left... how does she always manage to sneak up on me like that?


    "Ara, do you know what that ''ping'' noise just now was?"


    "A ''ping'' noise? Are you talking about the sound you hear to warn you when you get a new skill or title?"


    Oh, there''s a sound for that? I never paid much attention to it, so I didn''t know.


    I guess I''ll take a look at my status then, I move away from the demons and take out my appraisal stone.


    Skills


    Focused mind


    Self-control


    Fast reading


    Quick casting


    Mana conservation


    Encyclopedic knowledge


    Multi-casting


    Mmmmm, nothing new here, then I guess it must be a title?


    Titles


    Outcast


    Bookworm


    Deranged perfectionist


    Archmage


    Queen of darkness


    Demon lord


    Well, there certainly seems to be a new title there...


    But this is clearly a mistake, I mean, I''m not even a demon in the first place! There''s no way I could have gotten THAT title, right?


    ...


    Looking away and then looking back doesn''t seem to work, the title is still there.


    Let me see what this is about...


    Demon lord


    An individual who has made at least 1000 demons swear subservience towards them through the use of power and fear.


    Increases any feelings of fear caused by the titleholder.


    Allows the use of certain spells related to this title.


    Oh... I guess there''s nothing in that description that says a demon lord needs to be a demon... and I certainly made these demons subservient by using ''power and fear'', but isn''t this requirement a bit too small? 1000 doesn''t seem like such a large number of people.


    This is bad, while the belief that ''demons are evil'' has been mostly dead for a long time now, everybody still believes that ''demon lords are evil'' ... including the demons.


    As a consequence of the way they are born, the demon races have always had a problem with choosing their leadership. First of all, it''s more difficult for them to choose a ruler because of their bloodline since they mostly don''t have parent and child relationships, in addition to that, it''s hard to have a consistent society at all when the new groups of demons can appear anywhere at any time.


    And then there''s the fact that there are some demons who are a lot stronger than the others, this means that a lot of the rulers of the demons end up getting their position because of their power and nothing else, and needless to say, their strength does not help when it comes to being good leaders, and the arrogance they usually get from their power makes things even worse, those are what we call ''demon lords'', and they have been the cause of all kinds of problems for the world throughout history.


    Well, in the first place, the demon lord title itself mentions that it belongs to someone who rules with ''power and fear'', that''s clearly the kind of title a villain would have, and now I have it...


    "Hahahaha, that title suits you so well! I guess you''ve finally taken the first step towards world domination"


    Arana is just laughing at me, how can she react like that when she sees her friend get into even more trouble?


    The demons are looking at her laugh with a fearful expression that makes it seem like they are expecting me to kill her, and they may not be entirely wrong this time...


    "Ara, this isn''t funny... wait a minute, now that I think about it, even if there are more than 1000 people in those two villages the only ones who surrendered are the soldiers here, so why did I get the title?"


    "Well, having the army surrender is the same as being conquered, no? And besides, they already got their chance to take a look at you, so nobody is going to argue about you being a demon lord... hahaha!"


    She''s absolutely enjoying this... she''s gone back to her non-serious mode, which means that I can no longer expect any help from her.


    "Look at the bright side, if both the orcs and the orks consider themselves to be your underlings there''s no way that they''ll start fighting again"


    I don''t know if I''d say that ''there''s no way'', but it''s true that the odds are probably lower than before, however, now I have an entirely new problem to deal with.


    And with Arana no longer being willing to help me, I''ll have to think of a plan by myself, let''s see what my options are.


    Option A is to just roll with it and actually become their ruler, there''s absolutely no way I''ll do that, these demons are technically not part of the kingdom, but they still live inside its borders, I don''t think that the king would be happy about having a demon lord show up inside of his territory, and more importantly, it doesn''t matter how you look at it, there''s no way that I could ever be a ruler of anything...


    Option B would be to explain to the demons that this was all a misunderstanding and that I didn''t actually want to conquer their tribes, but doing so would increase the chances of the two starting another war, which would mean that I didn''t do all I could to stop them... and besides, it''s not like that would fix the bigger problem of me having the demon lord title, titles don''t just go away when you no longer fulfill the conditions to obtain them.


    So it seems like I''m going to have to go with option C...


    I approach the two leaders again, I''ve already made them wait long enough, all the demons around seem to be holding their breaths, waiting to hear what I have to say, this is a bit embarrassing, I''m not used to getting so much attention.


    "Alright, I''m going to tell you the two rules that I will want you to follow for the time being, first of all, you are not allowed to fight each other again, I''m going to leave this place now, but I don''t want to hear anything about another battle between the tribes"


    "You''re going to leave?"


    Why did he sound so relieved when he said that?


    "Yes, but if you don''t follow my instructions I''ll come back as fast as I can"


    Maybe they''ll take me more seriously if I say that.


    "The other thing I don''t want you to do no matter what is telling anyone from outside your tribes about the fact that you are my subordinates, this is very important, so make sure that everyone is aware of it"


    I don''t want them to keep it a secret just for my sake, if the kingdom hears that there are some demons working for me inside of its borders, it could be dangerous for them as well.


    "That would be all for now, I''ll be going now, but I better not find out that you broke those two rules when I return"


    Even if I say that, the truth is that I have no intention of ever coming back to this place.


    That''s right, it''s time to make use of the famous ''let''s run away and pretend that nothing happened'' strategy.


    forli

 Chapter 17: Disposable minions

    "Hey, Ara! Take a look at this!"


    "Take a look at what?"


    "I''ve been practicing my smile these past few days, look, is it better now?"


    It seems like people tend to think that my smile is a little creepy, so now that I have free time while traveling I''ve been doing my best to make it seem a bit more natural.


    "Mmmm I''d say that it was a big success"


    "Really!? Are you telling the truth?"


    "Yeah! Your practice to make your smile even more terrifying seems to be working quite well!"


    "..."


    This is bad... smiling once in a while is necessary to maintain a healthy mindset, if I have to keep forcing myself to never smile I''ll end up getting depressed...


    "Come on! Cheer up! Since we''ve finally crossed the border, how about we set up camp and take a break for today?"


    A couple of days ago we left the kingdom where I''ve been living until now... I think Arana told me what the kingdom was called just the other day but I don''t remember... anyway, now we''re in... the kingdom next to the one we were in before.


    "Alright, there''s actually something that I wanted to try, so it would be convenient to take a break from traveling"


    I''ve heard that there are people who enjoy camping in the forest, and this seems like a good place with the nearby river and only having weak monsters around, I, however, don''t like to be surrounded by trees, and the smell of nature is rather unpleasant, I wonder when I''ll be able to live in a big city again...


    Arana took out that war scythe she bought before and is fighting a bunch of blue slimes, well, fighting is not exactly the most accurate word to describe this, blue slimes are notoriously weak monsters so she doesn''t really need to put any effort into it, even children could beat them with their bare hands.


    That said, the way she uses her weapon is a bit strange, she''s spinning several times before every swing, is she trying to make it look cool to make me want to use it as well? If so, it''s not working.


    "Ara, I don''t know much about fighting with weapons, but I don''t think that''s how you''re supposed to do it"


    "Well, it seems to be working, no?"


    "Those are slimes... you could kill them by stepping on them"


    I''ll just let her do whatever she wants, I have a spell that I''ve been wanting to try for some time now, the ''spawn minion'' spell, the idea of having monsters fight for me seems a lot cooler than any weapon Arana could try to force on me.


    Creating a monster artificially is very easy, you just have to gather a lot of mana in one place without giving it a purpose and the phenomenon will happen on its own, but those monsters will just do whatever they want, and if they are the aggressive type, you will be the first one they go after.


    What is more useful yet more difficult is creating monsters that can be controlled, that requires the use of a specific spell to make the monster be made exclusively from the caster''s mana while keeping that mana linked to them, which causes the monster to essentially become an extension of the caster''s body, allowing complete control over it.


    However, even if I learned the spell a long time ago, using it requires a skill or title related to controlling monsters, and I didn''t have one until now, it seems like something good ended up coming from me getting the ''demon lord'' title after all, since demons are still a type of monster, it will allow me to use this spell.


    ''Spawn minion''


    A small blob of dark mana emerges from my body and starts taking shape in front of me, I read that this spell is supposed to use a large quantity of mana, but I feel like only an insignificant amount came out, maybe it just feels that way because I have more mana than most people?


    The monster that materializes is of a dark shade of purple and has a very small body compared to the size of its head, said head is a sphere of about 20cm in diameter, its mouth seems to be about half of its face, there are two round white eyes above it and two small horns on top, the body is only about 10cm and the hands and feet seem disproportionally large, how can this thing even stand without falling over?


    I think this is some type of imp, with the pattern until now, I was expecting something scary to appear, but this thing is small and actually rather cute, I wonder how strong it is.


    "Alright, try attacking one of those slimes over there"


    Blue slimes are too weak to serve as a proper test, but there''s nothing else to fight around here, at least I want to see what my creation can do.


    The imp approaches the slime and tries to bite it with its huge mouth, but before it can, the slime launches itself against it with a light tap causing the imp to fall over before the mana that formed its body dissipates.


    ...


    "Uh, what? It lost?"


    Knowing that the imp was a part of me, I feel a bit bothered by the fact that it got killed so easily... let''s try this again.


    This time I make two imps, they''re so easy to create that I can do both at the same time, now that there''s two of them one manages to take a bite off the slime while it was busy tackling the other, however that''s not enough to kill it and it quickly retaliates, killing the second imp in one hit just like the others.


    I''m just left watching the slime go back to wandering around with my mouth open.


    "What''s going on!? How are they so weak!?"


    After experimenting a bit more, I found out that it takes six imps ganging up on a single slime for them to be able to win, and even then, two or three of them will get killed in the process.


    I also checked the levels of the slimes just in case and found out that they''re all level 2 or 3, so there''s no mistaking it, the imps are the ones who are absurdly weak.


    "I don''t understand Ara, since I''m strong, shouldn''t the monsters made from my mana be strong as well?"


    "''Spawn minions'' creates a different monster for each caster, but since the weaker ones require less mana it balances out and the spell is equally useful for everybody, at least I''ve never heard of anyone having a problem because their monsters were too weak"


    It''s true that with the insignificant amount of mana it takes, I could probably make a million of them and still have mana to spare, but what''s the point when any enemy would be able to kill them faster than I can make them?


    "But don''t you have any idea of why mine are so weak?"


    "If I have to take a guess... I''d say that the monster that appears probably depends on the caster''s personality"


    "What do you mean by that? Is there something wrong with my personality?"


    "Well, yeah, you do have a very weak personality, no?"


    "No I don''t! It has to be something else"


    Arana can be very rude sometimes.


    "Whatever you say... by the way, could you go gather some wood for the fire?"


    "Eh? Didn''t we agree that today it would be your turn to gather firewood?"


    "Well yeah, but I''m too tired right now"


    Oh, I guess all the jumping and spinning that she was doing while fighting the slimes must have made her exhausted, I suppose I can do her a favor just this once.


    "Fine then, I''ll go"


    "See what I meant?"


    ...


    "That''s not being weak! That''s called being nice!"


    "Isn''t that just a different way to say the same thing?"


    Damnit, why does she have to be this way?


    "If that''s what you think, then go look for the firewood yourse... on second thought, how about we make the imps do it?"


    If they can''t fight, I can just give them a different job, I''ll just have to make them useful somehow.


    "Huh... no that''s not it"


    Half of the imps are bringing back grass instead of wood, others are carrying flowers and mushrooms and one of them has a rock...


    "How come not a single one of them is actually carrying wood? I made 40 of them so you''d think at least one would have gotten it right, even if it was just coincidence"


    "Well, it''s not all useless, I think we can eat some of these mushrooms"


    Useless... the imps are supposed to be an extension of myself, so if they are useless, what would that say about me?


    No! There has to be something they are good for, I just need to keep trying.


    They were able to find some edible mushrooms, how about I send them to gather some more?


    ...


    They all got lost in the forest... and apparently, they disappear if they go too far away from me.


    What if I give them some buckets and tell them to bring water from the river? That should be easy enough.


    ...


    It seems like they cannot walk the 30 meters of distance on the way back without spilling all the water they''re carrying.


    How about starting a fire? Maybe they can do that?


    ...


    As expected, they just set themselves on fire.


    "Just give it up already, it''s time to go to sleep"


    I cannot give up so easily, this is my pride on the line.


    Maybe I could make them keep watch during the night? No, there''s no way I could trust them with that, and we already have Longleg anyway.


    I can''t find any use for the minions created by my mana, but that doesn''t mean that I''m useless myself... right?


    forli


    I also just discovered that I can add horizontal lines, maybe I should replace all the ''-------'' from the previous chapters.

 Chapter 18: Murderers

    "Miss Luna look! I can walk to the other side of the room without any help!"


    "That''s great! If you keep this up soon you''ll be able to play with the other children"


    "Hehehe"


    Seeing the little girl''s bright smile I can''t help smiling as well, she''s so cute that I cannot help but pat her head a little, but she seems happy about it.


    "I don''t know how I can ever thank you enough, I thought my daughter would never be able to walk again"


    Her mother, on the other hand, cannot stop crying, her daughter''s legs stopped working a year ago because of a rare genetic disorder, but after a lot of work I finally managed to find a way to use flesh shaping to restore them, allowing her to slowly become able to walk again, it was a lot of effort, but it was all worth it for this moment.


    ''Bad... danger...''


    "Eh? Did you hear that?"


    "Hear what?"


    I thought I heard someone whispering, it must have been my imagination.


    "Well then, the next examination will be..."


    ''Killing... bad...''


    "Huh"


    I open my eyes and see Arana sleeping next to me, those whispers actually managed to wake me up... is there someone outside? But Longleg is keeping watch and he didn''t wake us up.


    I exit the tent while being mindful to avoid waking up Arana, no matter how much I look, there''s nobody around here, and yet I keep hearing the whispering... I also seem to be strangely on edge, I can''t stop myself from focusing all my attention on the whispers and the more I listen, the more I feel like I should be ready to start fighting or running away at any moment, I''m not going crazy, am I?


    Using my mana sense does not help me find the source of the voices, but something inside me is saying that I should go to a certain place if I want to know what they are talking about, that something bad is happening there at this very moment, I have no idea how I know where that place is, but for some reason, I feel certain of the way I need to go, and since there''s no way I can go back to sleep now, I suppose I might as well go there.


    ''Bad... killing...''


    "Yeah, I heard you the first time"


    Just who do those voices belong to? There''s nobody else in this forest... oh wait, this is a forest, could these be the famous ''whispers of the forest''?


    Whenever anything bad happens in a forest, there''s a whispering that all elves are able to hear that warns them of the danger, and even if I keep forgetting about it, I am an elf, I probably should have thought about this sooner... but I always thought that I of all people would be an exception to hearing this, I hate forests after all, and I don''t like the idea of having things in common with the rest of the elves.


    In any case, now that I know that this isn''t just my imagination I should probably speed up my pace, there might be something bad going on after all.


    After running for a while I start hearing some real voices, as well as the sounds of fighting, what''s going on over there?


    "No! You traitors! How could you do that to your friends?"


    "Hahaha! That''s what they get for getting in the way"


    It seems like there are some people fighting each other, I wonder why ''the forest'', or whatever that was, decided to tell me about this, I mean, there are probably animals killing each other all the time around here, no? So how does the forest know that this is different? Is it because since they''re humans it is different for me and the forest knows that? Or is it because they are outsiders? Maybe animals that kill their own kind are considered ''evil''? The elves should have figured out how this works a long time ago, but they are too stupid to question these things.


    After I get a bit closer, a fancy looking carriage comes into view, I can see horse reins, but no horses, six men dressed in the same uniform are outside trying to force the door open, they look like guards, but if that''s the case, why are they attacking the carriage they''re escorting?


    "Why are you doing this? I trusted you!"


    A girl''s voice is coming out from inside the carriage.


    "Heh, didn''t you find it strange that you were able to escape so easily? We only wanted you to go to a place where it would be easier to dispose of you, your highness"


    Highness? Is she a princess or something? And it seems like they are trying to kill her! I should probably step in.


    But then I notice two other men on the floor, covered in blood, that doesn''t look good... I rush to them as fast as I can to the surprise of the other men.


    "Huh!?"


    "Who are you!?"


    I don''t have time to pay attention to them, the two on the floor seem to be gravely injured, I kneel on top of them and start closing their wounds with flesh shaping, someone seems to be tapping me on the shoulder, can''t they see that I''m trying to concentrate?


    However, it is too late, even if I can close their wounds, when I take a look inside their bodies, I find that they have already stopped working completely, or in other words, they were already dead by the time I arrived.


    This is my first time seeing someone get killed... even though I''m supposed to be incredibly powerful, even though I''ve been researching healing magic all my life, I still couldn''t do anything...


    They are wearing the same uniform as the others, did they get killed by their fellow guards? So these guys are a bunch of murderers... I''ve spent so much time and effort to learn how to save lives, and yet all of that can be made meaningless so easily by such disgusting savages... just thinking about it is making me so angry that I feel like I''m going to explode.


    When I turn around I see that one of them has been trying to slash me with his sword this whole time, but he''s so weak that it just felt like he was tapping my shoulder... someone this pathetic thinks that he has the right to kill the people I was trying to save?


    The moment he sees my face, he goes pale and begins walking backward, so he''s also a coward then...


    "You... are you the one who killed these two?"


    "I... no... I mean yes... I... I don''t know!"


    I grab his neck and lift him so that he''s face to face with me.


    "I heard you laughing before... do you think that killing people is funny?"


    "Gjk"


    When he tries to speak he just makes a strange noise instead, the rest of the murderers seem to be trying to run away and abandon their friend, but I won''t let them.


    "Shadow bind"


    As expected, they''re not able to fight back at all, now that they are immobilized I can turn my attention back to this guy... and now that I''m giving him my attention I just noticed that he just literally pissed himself, eew... that takes me out of my stupor and I realize that I''m dangerously close to crushing his neck.


    "Mind void"


    Let''s make them all fall asleep, I''ll decide what to do with them later, I also heard that ''ping'' noise again, meaning that I just got a new skill or title, I''ll look into that later.


    Now I need to take a look inside the carriage, when I open the door, I see a girl of around 15 years old with blue hair and eyes hugging her knees with a fearful expression, she''s wearing a simple yet high-quality dress and a tiara on her head, so she really is a princess? But if that''s the case I don''t think 8 guards would be enough to escort her.


    "Do not be afraid, you are sa..."


    "Stay away from me!!!"


    I should probably be expecting that type of reaction by this point, but it still hurts...


    "I know who you are! You are the queen of darkness from the prophecy!"


    Heh? Judging by the uniforms the guards were wearing and the design of the carriage I don''t think that she is from the kingdom I come from... does that mean that people in other kingdoms have also heard about me? That could be a problem...


    "Listen, I only want to..."


    "I... I won''t let you use me against my country! I won''t let you capture me!"


    She takes out a dagger and points it at her neck, what is she trying to do!?


    "Wait! Mind void!"


    Fortunately, I realize my mistake fast enough and rush to grab her before she collapses on top of the upwards pointed dagger... seriously, what in the world was she thinking? Don''t scare me like that!


    I''ll need to decide what to do with the murderers... Obviously, I don''t want to just kill them and become a murderer as well, but I cannot take them to the authorities without revealing my identity... this is quite a conundrum.


    All I can think of is leaving them chained inside the carriage, since there are no dangerous monsters around here they should be fine, next time someone comes down this road they should find the dead bodies that were killed with their weapons and maybe they''ll be able to tell that they are the killers... but how likely is it that someone who was found chained will be found guilty? Not to mention that these chains will only last for two days, it''s unlikely that nobody else will come before that, but not impossible, in which case they''ll simply escape, and now that I think about it, I should probably take the bodies with me to make sure that they can get a proper burial, since they are dead, I can place them in my storage, but this way there will be no bodies for anyone to find so the chances that the murderers will receive any punishment is practically zero...


    But there''s no way I can just let them get away with what they''ve done... I know! I''ll just place a curse of weakness on them, but this time I''ll use the normal version, the one that is always active, this is probably not good enough for punishment, but it should at least stop them from hurting more people in the future.


    Actually, let''s also give them the ''wasp bait'' curse! Oh! And the curse of ''frequent toe-stubbing''! And also a curse of baldness!


    Now let''s see what to do with the princess... leaving her here with the people who want to kill her is not an option, neither is leaving her alone in the forest, so I''ll have to take her with me, but I''m worried that she may try hurting herself again when she wakes up...


    "Shadow bind"


    Alright, now that she''s tied up I won''t need to worry about that, I''ll take her in a princess carry since I believe that''s how you are supposed to carry a princess.


    ...


    You know... I just saved this girl''s life, that was a rather hero-like thing to do, no matter how you look at it, am I wrong?


    ...


    Then why does this look like I''m kidnapping her?


    forli


    As always, any comments will be appreciated.

 Chapter 19: Arana’s weakness

    Carrying the sleeping girl in my arms I start walking back to the tent where I left Arana, or at least that''s what I hope I''m doing... I probably should have realized this sooner, but even if the ''whispers of the forest'' can guide me to a place where a murder is taking place, that doesn''t mean that they will also guide me back to where I was before, still, all I have to do is go back the way I came, that cannot be such a difficult thing to do, probably...


    ...


    Nevermind, I have no idea where I''m going, I think I''ve already walked past this fallen tree four times, I need help!


    "Excuse me mister pine tree, would you happen to know where my friend is?"


    It''s not answering, I guess it doesn''t work that way...


    Well, even if I cannot find my way back, I''m sure that Arana will be able to find me, so I might as well stay in one place and wait for her, she''ll probably be waking up soon.


    I''ll just sit on the fallen tree and read a book, I have not had a lot of chances to read these past few days, I''ll place the girl sitting next to me, it shouldn''t take much longer for her to wake up either.


    ...


    To my surprise, it seems like the forest is actually a good place to read, the silence despite being out in the open is rather relaxing. But I got to a part of this novel that seems strange, the bad guy was making a very long evil speech until the protagonist interrupted him by impaling him with a spear while saying ''get to the point'', but how can he get to the point if you kill him? ... Oh, wait! I get it, it''s supposed to be a pun!


    "Hahahaha"


    "Eeeeeeeek!!!"


    Eh? Oh! The girl just woke up, what are the odds of her waking up just when I was laughing? Now she seems to be completely terrified, is my laugh really that creepy?


    "I was just laughing at the book! I''m not..."


    "Stay away!"


    She tries to run away, but being tied up she ends up tripping and falling to the ground.


    "Are you alright?"


    "Stay away! stay away!"


    She''s crying and yelling like crazy, it doesn''t seem like she''s listening to me at all... I probably should just wait until she calms down a little.


    ...


    After a bit of waiting her sobs finally start to subside.


    "Will you listen to me now?"


    "What are you planning to do with me?"


    "I''m not planning anything! I just saw those guys trying to kill you so I went there to help!"


    "Then why did you tie me up!?"


    "Because you tried killing yourself earlier! I cannot risk letting you do something like that again!"


    "You are lying... the way you look at me... is the same way a predator looks at its prey"


    If she words it like that people may think that I''m planning to do something indecent...


    "I cannot change my eyes... look, just bear with this for a while and I promise that I''ll let you go as soon as we reach a town"


    She stops to think for a moment, and then she seems to decide to stop trying to fight back.


    "It''s not like I have a choice, do I? Fine, let''s go..."


    "..."


    "Well, what are you waiting for?"


    "Eh, I''m actually waiting for a friend, we''ll leave after she arrives"


    I don''t want to admit that I got lost...


    "Waiting for a friend? In this place?"


    "We agreed to met here"


    "You agreed to met in the middle of nowhere in a forest?"


    Uh, I need to change the topic.


    "So anyway, are you really a princess? What kingdom are you from?"


    "I will not reveal any information to you"


    "I don''t think either of those things should be a secret..."


    "..."


    Now that she''s calmer, she''s acting rather defiant, I suppose that this is how a proud princess is expected to act when kidnapped, not that I kidnapped her.


    "Anyway... my name is Luna, would you mind telling me yours?"


    "I will not reveal any information to you"


    "You won''t even tell me your name!?"


    It seems like winning her over might be more difficult than I thought...


    "You really do not waste any time, do you? It''s not even been a week since you became a demon lord and you''ve already kidnapped a princess"


    "I did not kidnap her!"


    "Then why is she tied up and why does it look like she has been crying?"


    "I only tied her up for her own safety"


    "I see, so you are the type of villain that takes away the freedom of people ''for their own good''"


    "I''m not a villain of any type!"


    As expected, it didn''t take Arana long to find us, I wonder how she does it, and of course, as soon as she arrived she started making fun of me.


    "That hat... "


    But the princess in question seems to be more interested in Arana''s hat.


    "That''s a witch''s hat, isn''t it? Why are you wearing that?"


    "A witch? What''s that?"


    Is there anything special about that hat? Arana herself doesn''t seem to know.


    "I don''t know what a witch is either..."


    "It''s a legend that only a few have heard... a witch is a creature that is both a human and a demon, they are able to look into the hearts of people, and whenever they appear they always bring chaos and misfortune"


    "Well, that certainly does sound like Arana..."


    Still, that legend is probably not true, humans are animals, so no one can be both a human and a demon.


    "Ufufu, that''s right, with Luna''s help I shall bring chaos to the entire world! Now let me take a look at your heart!"


    "Nooo!!!"


    Arana is approaching the princess while making some creepy gestures with her hands.


    "Ara! Stop joking around! You are scaring her even more!"


    "Haha, you should learn to have fun every once in a while"


    I don''t think this is a good time to ''have fun''... but I''m still curious about one thing.


    "And you think that Arana one of those ''witches'' because of the hat she''s wearing? Is there anything special about it?"


    "A witch is supposed to be always wearing a pointy hat just like that one"


    Is that so? Now that she mentions it, Arana never takes her hat off, not even when she sleeps, I wonder if she''s actually bald on the top of her head?


    "Luna... did you think something weird about me just now?"


    Huh? Can she really look into my heart? Or am I just that easy to read?


    "I was just wondering... Ara, could it be that you cannot take off that hat?"


    "Eh!? Of course I can! I just don''t want to!"


    Why is she getting so worked up over this? This is suspicious.


    "Then why don''t you take off your hat right now?"


    "What!? Why do you want me to take it off?"


    "I see, so you really are bald at the top..."


    "No, I''m not... hey! Why don''t you show the princess those imps of yours? If she sees how weak they are maybe she''ll be less scared of you"


    "Don''t try to change the topic..."


    She''s trying her best to appear calm, but as I keep staring at her with eyes full of suspicion, she cannot help looking at the sides.


    "Alright! You win! I''ll take it off!"


    She lifts her hat for less than a second and then quickly puts it back in place, but it''s enough for me to check that the top of her head looks normal, that''s a bit disappointing.


    "There, happy now?"


    "Sure..."


    She''s breathing heavily for some reason, huh, there''s no way I can just let it go like that, I need to find out what this is all about!


    As soon as it seems like she''s dropped her guard, I swipe her hat with all the swiftness that my speed stat grants me, when she realizes what I''ve done, a look of despair appears on her face.


    "Luna! Give me back my hat!"


    With me holding it as high as I can, she cannot reach it, no matter how much she tries to jump.


    "This is not funny! Give it back!"


    The Arana I know would be able to think of a way to get her hat back, but instead, she just crouches on the ground and places her hands on top of her head with a pitiful look on her face.


    Don''t tell me...


    Did I finally discover Arana''s weakness!?


    "Luna... please..."


    She looks like she''s about to cry... I''ve never seen Arana crying, now I feel like a bully.


    "Uh... here"


    As soon as she gets the hat back she puts it on in a rush, now she looks angry... and the princess looks confused at everything going on here.


    "Forget what just happened! And never do that again!"


    How am I supposed to know not to do it again if I forget it?


    Not that I want to forget anyway, I should probably keep this new information in mind for the future...


    forli


    I''ve actually not mentioned Arana''s hat much until now, in fact, I think I just said that she was wearing one when she was introduced and didn''t even describe it, at the time I thought that since Luna is not supposed to know what a witch''s hat is she would not think much of it, but she should have called it a pointy hat at least.


    Some readers may not even remember that Arana had a hat at all, I hope this didn''t feel like it came out of nowhere.

 Chapter 20: Another town

    It didn''t take long for Arana to go back to her usual self, but she did secure her hat to her head with a few extra pins, and she does seem to be a bit more vigilant now.


    Well, I do need to talk to her about this girl, so I''m glad that she didn''t stay mad at me. We both move away from her and I start talking in a low voice.


    "So Ara... do you have any idea of which country this girl comes from? And do you think that she''s truly a princess?"


    "If I had to guess... judging by the blue hair and eyes as well as her style of clothing, I''d say that she probably comes from the Agua kingdom, as for her being a princess, I have no idea, but she does look the part"


    "The Agua kingdom? Isn''t that the kingdom located on the east coast of the continent? The one made mostly of a set of islands?"


    "You don''t know the name of your own kingdom but you know about one on the other side of the continent?"


    "Well, the Agua kingdom is just much more interesting, don''t you think? They''re at the top of the world when it comes to research on water magic, and they even managed to build a system of bridges to connect all their islands by placing magic circuits on the sea itself, I don''t even know how they managed that! And those bridges only materialize while someone is crossing them, I wish I could see them someday"


    "So you are just interested in stuff related to magic research, as always"


    "Well, I also read that there are a lot of underwater ruins, many of them have not been explored yet so there are a lot of adventure novels that use that area as a setting"


    There was a story in which the protagonists encounter a monster inside one of those ruins that was level 500, I remember laughing at how absurd it was for something to have such a high level... and then I found out that my own level was even higher than that.


    "Let''s get back on topic, what were you planning to do with the kidnapped princess?"


    "I did not kidnap her! I was thinking of letting her go after we reach the nearest town, whoever is in charge there should take care of sending her back home"


    "Are you sure? We don''t know if she even has a way to prove her identity, there''s no guarantee that she''ll be able to get any help, and since it seems like someone is trying to kill her, leaving her alone could be dangerous"


    "Well, it''s not like I have a choice... she clearly doesn''t want to travel with me, if I don''t let her go at the first chance I get I would really become a kidnapper"


    If she said that she wanted to stay with us, I would let her, but the chances of that seem very low...


    "According to the map, there''s a town called ''Lixard'' less than two hours away from here"


    "There''s one more thing I need to do there, I''m still carrying the bodies of the two guards who were killed earlier, I should leave them on a church so they can bury them"


    It''s a bit disturbing to think that I''m carrying two corpses around, so I want to drop them as soon as possible.


    "Actually, you should give them to the town guards, they''ll want to inspect the bodies before they get buried, by the way, do you know what their names were? They''re going to need them to give a proper burial"


    "No, I don''t, maybe we should ask the princess"


    When we go back to her, she''s looking at us with a weird face.


    "Eh... do you want to ask me anything?"


    "You... were you listening to our conversation just now?"


    Eh? I don''t know how Arana got that idea but the girl is making a surprised face as if she just got caught.


    "Listening? Why would you think that? You were too far away to listen to"


    "Normally, if the people who kidnapped you... "


    "But we did not kidnap her"


    "... walk away to talk without letting you hear, you would be concerned and a bit afraid, especially if one of those people is Luna, but instead of looking worried, you had a confused expression on your face, as if you had been listening to our conversation and didn''t expect the things we were saying"


    I''m not sure if that alone is enough to conclude that she was listening...


    "And isn''t it strange how you knew that we wanted to ask you something?"


    Oh, there''s also that.


    "I don''t know what you are talking about, I could not have heard you from here when you were talking so low"


    "That''s true, so how did you do it? Was it a spell or a skill? There''s no way you could have used magic without Luna noticing, so it must be a skill, am I wrong?"


    "Let me warn you that trying to keep a secret from Arana is impossible, I know from experience"


    "Alright, you win! I have a skill that lets me listen to things I should not be able to hear, happy now?"


    Well, it''s not like knowing that will do us any good...


    "Since you know what we were talking about, will you tell us the names of your guards?"


    "Is this some kind of trick? Will you be able to turn them into your undead servants or something if I tell you their names?"


    "No, I don''t think that type of magic even exists..."


    Seriously, there is a limit to how much you can mistrust someone, and inventing new forms of magic that they may be trying to use is clearly past that limit.


    "Please... I''m sure that they were your friends, do you want them to be buried in a nameless grave? I promise that I''m not trying to do anything weird"


    Oh, she''s actually thinking about it.


    "Their names were Roy and Mauro"


    "Ah! thank you for trusting..."


    "She''s lying"


    Heh? What does she mean by that?


    "Fine! Ron and Marnon!"


    "Now she''s telling the truth"


    "Uh, Ara, how do you know that?"


    "I have good intuition"


    She says while shrugging her shoulders, as I said, it''s impossible to keep a secret from her...


    We arrive at the town of Lixard shortly after, however, I could swear I just saw a...


    "Ara, could you describe to me what you just saw?"


    "You just got so surprised that you tripped on a rock and fell on your butt"


    "I mean what you just saw over there!"


    "A red dragon just flew away from the town"


    Ah, good, I wasn''t just seeing things. This is my first time seeing a dragon, it really looks as imposing as they say, but the wings were way bigger than I thought, I wonder what it was doing here.


    "Is it common for dragons to visit human settlements?"


    "No, it''s not... or rather, if they do, they''ll go in human form and not reveal themselves"


    Then what was that one doing over there? Ah well, it''s not like that has anything to do with me.


    "I guess it''s time for me to enter a town once again"


    To be honest, I''m a bit scared to go there after my last experience visiting a town...


    "Don''t worry, when we were at the ork village I got something for you"


    Arana gives me a mask to hide my face, but this mask... it''s completely white except for the holes for the eyes.


    "Isn''t this going to make me look even more sinister and suspicious?"


    "Yeah, but it''s still better than letting people see your actual face"


    "I agree, you look much less scary with that on"


    Why do you have to sound so certain of that!? And why do you have to agree!? Is my face really that bad? I always thought that I was at least a bit pretty...


    "Don''t get the wrong idea, Luna, you really are beautiful, but that only adds to the intimidation factor"


    "If you say so..."


    "Well then, leave this girl to me"


    "Just make sure to leave her somewhere safe"


    Arana said that she would take care of not only leaving her somewhere safe but also of finding someone who can help her. I don''t know what she''s planning to do but she seems rather confident.


    I have the bodies inside my storage, so I''ll have to take care of them myself, since I don''t think that letting anyone see me with two corpses is a good idea, I''m just going to leave them when nobody is looking with a note explaining what happened, also, I''m leaving them at the church, after all, I don''t want to get close to any guards while looking this suspicious, if they want to investigate anything that''s their problem.


    I split up with Arana and enter the town, let''s hope that things go better than last time. I only intend to go in, leave the bodies and go out, so I don''t think there''s a chance for me to run into any trouble.


    forli


    I wonder if the second half will end up being a full chapter as well.

 Chapter 21: A suspicious masked woman

    As expected, my appearance right now is calling the attention of every person I come across, the townsfolk are looking at me with suspicion, but they quickly look away when they think I''ve noticed them. I can''t blame them, I would also be suspicious if I saw a tall woman wearing a hood and covering her face with a creepy looking mask.


    This really is a problem, I don''t like being in the wilderness, but whenever I enter a settlement the way people react to me makes me feel even worse and I start wanting to leave as soon as possible, I wonder if there''s any place left in this world where I can feel at home...


    Fortunately, my depressing thoughts are interrupted when I see a group of guards placing two barrels in the middle of a plaza, one of them is full of chunks of silver and the other is filled with gold, I wonder what those are for.


    Even if I''m curious I don''t want to bring more attention to myself by asking, however, I don''t seem to be to the only visitor around here as someone asks the guards about it.


    "These barrels? They are for the dragon that flew away a moment ago, didn''t you see him?"


    "Yes, that was quite surprising... isn''t everyone around here rather calm despite having a dragon around?"


    Now that he mentions it, most of the people I''ve seen seemed more concerned with me than the dragon...


    "That''s because he''s been staying at the nearby ruins for over two months already, we''re used to him by now"


    The guard has a tired expression on his face.


    "He demands a weekly tribute of silver and gold from us in exchange for ''protecting the town'' even though there''s nothing we need protection from... but since we have an alchemist living here it''s not a big deal"


    Silver and gold? I wonder what he wants those for.


    Those metals were very valuable in the past, in fact, that''s the reason why coins were made of gold silver and copper, the value of money came from the value of the metal it was made of.


    However, just over 300 years ago, an alchemist discovered a method to easily manufacture silver and gold, he and the lord he worked for apparently believed that they would we able to get a limitless supply of money thanks to that discovery, but it didn''t take long for the precious metals to lose their value, and when other alchemist managed to copy the method they became almost entirely worthless.


    These days we still utilize coins made of those same metals, but their value comes from the mana signatures of 20 different kings imprinted on each of them, and unlike before when the value of each coin changed constantly to match the metals, now it''s fixed to silver being worth 100 times more than copper and gold being 100 times more than silver, there''s also ''big'' coins of each metal that are worth 10 times more than a normal one.


    That really makes me wonder if the dragons just don''t know that silver and gold do not have any value anymore... if they don''t it would probably be very easy to scam them.


    But if these barrels are for that dragon from earlier that means that he''s going to come back soon to this plaza, I should probably leave before I get involved in some nonsense, let''s just go to the church and get this done with.


    This town''s church is slightly smaller than average but the decorations seem rather expensive, the most eye-catching of all is a large tapestry depicting the 5 gods of the elements, it seems like this church also follows the most common religion in the continent.


    The goddess of light is sitting on a throne right at the center, to her right, the goddess of wind is floating over a lake in which the goddess of water is swimming, to her left, the god of earth and the god of fire are arguing with each other, there''s no god of darkness since darkness is the attribute of the bad guys.


    Well, as pretty as this tapestry is, I really don''t think any of these gods actually exist... that''s probably not something I should say out loud, but if they existed, there would be a god of darkness too, and I don''t see why the goddess of light would be the boss, despite what a lot of people think, there''s absolutely nothing special about the light and dark elements.


    "I need to stop getting distracted..."


    Let''s get back to the task I''m here for, I think all churches have a room where they store the dead bodies before performing a funeral, that seems like the perfect place to leave the two I have, but I bet that people will get the wrong idea if I ask where it is so I''ll have to look for it myself.


    Not here, not here... oh! I think I found it.


    I don''t want anyone to catch me leaving the bodies, they''ll think that I''m the one who killed them, I''ll use ''mana sense'' to make sure that there''s nobody around...


    Alright, it seems like the coast is clear, I think I need to place the bodies on this table... done, now I just need to leave, stay calm Luna, just keep walking and don''t do anything that could bring any attention to you...


    ...


    I did it! I''m outside! And nobody seems to have seen me, I cannot believe I finally managed to do something without getting into any trouble, hehe so this is what victory feels like.


    "Hehehe"


    Huh? People are whispering to each other and pointing at me, one priest, in particular, seems to be very concerned about me, I guess stopping to laugh like a crazy person in front of the church was not a good idea.


    Whatever I just need to leave quickly and they''ll never know I was here, after all, the reason nobody saw me earlier is that I was really fast leaving the bodies, I was so fast that I''m not even sure if I placed them on the table properly, I just left without checking, if their legs or their arms are hanging off the table it would seem like I didn''t care about placing them properly, will they think that I''m disrespectful or lazy?


    Well, it''s not like I can go back and check... or I can, but I shouldn''t... as long as someone sees the note I left they should take care of the rest, but now that I think about it, I didn''t make sure to leave it on a place where it could be easily seen... No! I''m not going back! Even I''m not stupid enough to tempt fate again after getting away the first time, so I won''t go back to check even if can do it rather quickly... and if I could do it once it should be easier the second time, so I guess I''ll just take a quick look.


    ...


    "Mmm, it seems like everything is in place"


    It seems like I didn''t need to come back, after all, now I''ll just leave again like before and... that priest that was looking at me earlier is standing in front of the door, did he follow me?


    "Hello"


    "What were you doing in there?"


    Am I truly dumb after all? How did I manage to snatch defeat from the jaws of victory?


    "Me? Nothing, I was only looking around"


    "This room is not a place visitors would be interested in... can I take a look inside?"


    "No! Don''t come in!"


    When I scream, the man suddenly goes pale with a frightened expression and then collapses on the floor.


    What happened to him? Did he forget to eat breakfast? No wait, just now it felt like I was using a skill, could it be? Let me check my status.


    I had forgotten about it, but it seems like I got a new skill after I dealt with the murder guards.


    Intimidate


    Allows to cause a strong feeling of fear on another person


    This is a very common skill, but I had never heard that it could cause someone to faint, normally the fear effect is supposed to be rather small, then again, considering how I make people afraid just by being around, maybe it''s not strange that this skill is more effective when I use it.


    I''ll just drag him into the room and then leave before someone else comes...


    But when I go back to the hallway, there''s a girl trembling in fear looking right at me.


    "Uh... do you need something?"


    "Did... did you drag someone into that room?"


    "No... I did not..."


    "But I just saw..."


    "Forget what you saw!"


    And now she''s passed out as well, I need to figure out how to avoid activating this skill...


    Since I cannot leave her in the open I guess I''ll place her inside the room as well, let''s hope that nobody saw me this time...


    Needless to say, my hopes were in vain, now a young boy is pointing a knife at me.


    "What did you do to my sister!?"


    He''s trying to put up a brave face, but I can tell that he''s afraid.


    "Nothing! Let go of that knife!"


    And down he goes...


    Since I''m sure that everyone can imagine what happened during the next hour or so, I won''t go into much detail.


    By the time I finally managed to get out of the church again, there were around 40 unconscious people crammed inside of that small room. I hope that they don''t get the wrong idea when they see that I left them inside a room meant for dead bodies, and to make things worse, there are also two actual dead bodies with them, maybe they''ll get a scare when they wake up.


    My only consolation is that I think that I''ve already filled my quota of trouble for this town, I guess I''ll try to meet back with Arana and ask her how things went on her side.


    forli

 Chapter 22: Double kidnapped

    It doesn''t take long for me to find Arana sitting on a bench on the same plaza from before, and it seems like she''s alone, did she find someone who could take care of that girl?


    "Oh, Luna! You look like you''ve been having fun, did I miss something?"


    I thought that I could pretend that nothing happened... am I really so easy to read?


    "Uh... no, nothing unusual happened"


    "Then what have you been doing all this time?"


    "I was... taking a look around the town, you know, tourism"


    "Yes, of course"


    She doesn''t believe me, does she... let''s change the topic.


    "And what about you? Did you find someone who could take care of that girl?"


    "Well... that depends on how you define ''finding'' and ''taking care of'' "


    Uh... I have a bad feeling about this.


    "Ara... what did you do?"


    "Me? I didn''t do anything I was just going to take her to the lord of the town, I even had prepared a very convincing story about her being a noble from the Agua kingdom who had been kidnaped and taken away from home by a terrible villain"


    "I hope that your ''terrible villain'' was not inspired by any actual person"


    "Of course not, don''t be silly, but it''s not like I even had the chance to tell anyone about it, for some reason, she ran away at the first chance she got"


    "She ran away!? Why!?"


    Arana shrugs her shoulders.


    "I don''t know, I was not expecting that she would want to escape when we were on our way to letting her go"


    Yeah, that doesn''t seem to make much sense, did she think that Arana was not really going to let her go?


    "I followed her to this plaza and found her talking to a dragon, I could not hear what they were saying, but he grabbed her and then flew away"


    "Eeeh!? Why didn''t you stop him!?"


    "Luna, it''s a dragon, what did you want me to do about it?"


    "Oh right... but don''t just tell me that she got kidnapped by a dragon as if it''s not a big deal!"


    "Don''t worry, she''s already got the experience of being kidnapped once, the second time is always easier"


    "I did not kidnap her! And I am worried, we need to save her!"


    "Oh, well then, I believe that he took her to some ruins not far away from here, it seems like this dragon has been living there for some time now, do you want to go?"


    "Of course, let''s go there right now!"


    I made myself responsible for her safety when I decided to take her with me, I cannot just pretend that this is not my problem.


    The ruins seem to be hidden in a small valley, but since we already know the way, or rather, Arana knows the way, it doesn''t take long before we make it there.


    Still, I cannot help but notice that I''m strangely calm for someone who is soon very likely to get into a fight with a dragon. My way of thinking has changed a lot since I found out about my level, normally I should be thinking of a way of rescuing that girl and escaping without him noticing, I should also be terrified of the possibility of being found, but instead, I''m not planning to hide at all, if he tries to attack me, I''ll just deal with him, a dragon is normally between level 180 and 200, so it should not be too difficult for me to beat him... yeah, this is not even close to what a normal person would be thinking right now.


    I wonder what these ruins used to be before, all I can see now is the remains of a bunch of walls, or maybe it would be more accurate to call them ''piles of rocks'', I think this was originally a group of several buildings rather than a single large one, but even that is hard to tell.


    There''s a sign just before arriving that reads ''Caution: Active traps'', and indeed, I can see the faint glow of a magic circle buried in the ground, when I throw a small stone at it, a large spike made of rock emerges from the ground and quickly retracts once again, just how long have these traps been here? If people know that they are here, you''d think that someone would have gotten rid of them by now, these ruins seem to be at least a couple centuries old, maybe I should remove them myself later..


    "This place seems dangerous, Ara, make sure to be careful around here"


    "I don''t think traps of this level can really hurt you, I''ll just follow your footsteps"


    "Don''t just use me as an elf shield! Actually, you just gave me an idea"


    I summon my imps and make them walk in front, the truth is, I actually do know one thing that they are good at, dying, going ahead of us they activate every single trap without fail, they get impaled by spikes from the ground, pits open up dropping them into spikes, a spike shoots from a wall and pierces the head of an imp... whoever made all of this must have really liked spikes.


    There''s also a lot of holes around here as if someone has been digging looking for something, who would do such a thing in a place this full of traps? I wonder if there''s anything valuable buried around here, is that what the traps are protecting?


    By the way, I''ve actually found every single trap before they got activated by my imps, there''s always something out of place around each place where a trap is hidden and I''ve not failed to notice any of them, and now...


    "I just got a skill called ''trap detection''... how?"


    "Oh! It seems like your ability to notice every single small detail also extends to noticing traps, but even if there''s something you can do, it doesn''t become a skill until you actually do it"


    So I can find traps? I guess that''s a good thing, but I can''t help but feel like that makes the sacrifice of my imps completely redundant, just when I thought that I had found something they were good for...


    Well, I''ll just say that they''re extra insurance, I''m not going to stop using them now.


    I found the dragon, he''s digging a hole in the ground and doesn''t seem to have noticed me, is he also the one who made all the other holes around here? He''s not as big as I thought a dragon would be, not counting the tail and wings his body is only around five meters long, the large wings are what makes him seem bigger than he actually is. It seems like his level is 260, so he''s rather strong even by the standard of dragons, maybe I should be a bit careful about this.


    Arana is standing a bit away from me and is giving me a thumbs up, shouldn''t she be hiding somewhere?


    First of all, I will summon around 200 imps and make them attack the dragon, needless to say, I''m not expecting them to accomplish much, but this will allow me to learn about his fighting skills and help me figure out how to deal with him.


    When the imps start attacking, the dragon takes a look at them and breathes fire, incinerating all of them instantly.


    ...


    That didn''t tell me anything about his fighting skills, nor did it help me figure out how to deal with him.


    "Heh!? Who is... there?


    He turns around to look at me, but he seems a bit taken aback when he sees me.


    "Humpf, you must be rather brave if you''re trying to use an intimidation skill against a mighty dragon such as me"


    Did he just call himself mighty at the start of a conversation? Something about the way he said it just rubs me the wrong way...


    "I didn''t use an intimidation skill"


    "Liar! You think that someone as perceptive as myself would not be able to tell?"


    He did it again! Now it was ''perceptive'', does this guy just like to compliment himself? Also, he clearly is not able to tell, because I did not use it.


    "Where is the girl that you took here earlier today? I''m here to take her back"


    "The girl? Why would I have to give her back to you?"


    "Because you cannot just kidnap anyone you want just like that!"


    "That''s right! Luna kidnapped her first! The girl is hers!"


    Arana is yelling from the back, I almost forgot she was there.


    "I did not kidnap her!"


    I wonder if she''s trying to turn ''I did not kidnap her'' into my catchphrase.


    "I don''t know what you''re talking about, but that girl should be honored to be allowed to assist me, I did not kidnap her"


    "Hey! Don''t steal my catchphrase!"


    Both the dragon and Arana are tilting their heads, oh right, for a second I forgot that''s not actually my catchphrase.


    "Anyway, tell me where the girl is, you cannot keep her here"


    "Humpf, I should burn you down for your insolence, but I''m willing to forgive you if you go down to your knees and beg"


    You know... I don''t think anyone has ever made me angry just by talking to me, even being insulted doesn''t bother me much, but somehow, this guy is actually managing to make me lose my patience.


    forli


    I keep getting confused by the difference between in and on, for this chapter, I tried to search both ''digging a hole in the ground'' and ''digging a hole on the ground'' with google and there were plenty of results for both... the hole is inside the ground, but you also dig on top of the ground, so I don''t know.


    I wonder how many ins/ons I''ve gotten wrong so far in this story. (Or is it on this story?)

 Chapter 23: The mighty dragon

    The dragon approaches me and looks straight at my face, I wait for him to do or say something but he''s just standing there, doing nothing... this is a bit awkward.


    "So... are we going to fight now? Or are we just going to have a staring contest?"


    "Eh!? How are you able to resist my intimidation skill!?"


    Intimidation? What is he talking about? All he''s doing is staring at me, is this supposed to be intimidating? I hope not, because I often stare at people in a similar way whenever I''m nervous talking to someone, did they think that I was trying to be intimidating?


    "Don''t you understand how strong I am? Go down to your knees and start begging already!"


    He grabs me with one of his front claws and starts pushing me, but that''s not enough to move me and I start pushing back.


    "Eh!? What''s the deal with this strength?"


    Then he starts using his other front claw as well and pushes me harder.


    "Ugh... go down already"


    Now that he''s using all his power to push me he''s actually managing to overpower me, it seems like his strength stat is a bit higher than mine, in that case...


    ''Strength drain''


    With the help from my spell, I manage to push him away from me, causing him to fall to the ground.


    "How can you be this strong!? Even a powerful warrior would be no match for me, and you look like a mage!"


    "I am a mage, but I''m level 508, you should probably surrender, I don''t think that you can beat me"


    "508? Do you think I''m going to believe that!?"


    No, of course not, I would not believe it either, I guess I''ll need to give him some proof, but I''m afraid of using my full power here...


    I guess I''ll just prove myself by beating him.


    "If you really are as strong as you claim to be, you should be able to survive something like this"


    He jumps into the air and flies away from me, then, a cone of flame comes out from his mouth towards me, I can already feel the heat from this distance. So this is the real ''dragon fire breath'' attack, the one he used against my imps cannot even be compared to this one.


    ''Shadow hole''


    However, the flames are dragged into a large shadow I create on the ground and disappear without a trace.


    "Not bad, then let''s see if you can stop this one"


    He breathes another cone of fire, this one seems much more powerful than the last one, a few rocks that come in contact with it seem to be melting a little, isn''t it dangerous to use such a powerful fire attack this close to a forest?


    ''Shadow hole''


    Well, my magic is still way stronger, so I guess it''s not really a problem.


    "Stop wasting time and just go directly to your most powerful attack, don''t worry, I can take it"


    "Uh... that was actually... the strongest one"


    Oh! That was it? I guess he''s telling the truth because he is making a face as if he cannot believe what he''s seeing, seeing a dragon with his mouth open like that is actually kinda funny.


    "Hehe"


    "YOU ARE LAUGHING AT ME!?"


    "Ah, no, I just remembered a joke someone told me"


    "I''ll let you know that my greatest stat is toughness, even if you can barely manage to stop my attacks, there''s nothing you can do to hurt me"


    What does he mean with ''barely manage''? I stopped them completely and I didn''t even have to put much effort into it.


    "Does that mean that it''s my turn to attack you now?"


    "Go ahead, do your worst"


    He''s smiling with a prideful expression, he seems rather sure of himself.


    "Are you certain? I might really hurt you if I do this"


    "Hah! Impossible! Your pathetic magic will not be able to pierce the mighty scales of a dragon"


    I''m still a bit hesitant to use attack magic against a person... but he seems confident that he can take it, so I suppose it will be fine.


    ''Shadow lance''


    My pathetic magic is able to pierce the mighty scales of the dragon and makes him bleed from the side.


    "Ouch!"


    Now he''s rolling on the floor in a humorous manner... maybe I should have held back a bit more, he seems to be in pain.


    "See...? That... was nothing... you cannot... beat me"


    He''s panting so much that he''s having trouble talking.


    "It looks to me like that hurt you quite a bit, do you want to quit now?"


    "I only got a scratch... something like this is not enough... to take down a dragon"


    Is that so? Then I''ll try to use a bit more power this time.


    ''Shadow lance''


    "Ugh!"


    He''s rolling on the floor again, maybe it''s because I''ve never fought a dragon before, but that really looks to me like he''s hurt.


    "Are you sure you''re ok?"


    "I... yes..."


    Maybe I went a bit too far... but it''s not my fault! He was bragging so much about of tough he was that I cannot be blamed for thinking he could take it.


    "Eh... sorry about that, let me get closer so I can heal you"


    "What!? You are my opponent! I will not accept being healed by you! Stay away!"


    Oh! I must have hurt his pride by saying that, since I''m not much of a fighter I didn''t realize that what I said was rather rude, a true warrior would never accept help from their opponents, maybe this guy is actually worthy of some respect after all.


    "You are clearly running out of power... if I let you heal me you will use that as an excuse for losing! I''ve seen right through your plan"


    I take back what I just said, he''s just an idiot.


    "Now, let me show you my... "


    "That''s enough"


    "Eh?"


    "You are going to admit defeat right now, or else I''m REALLY going to hurt you, do you understand?"


    To make my point clear I gather a mass of dark mana on my right hand, causing the air in the area to tremble in a strange manner.


    "I... uh..."


    It looks like I activated ''intimidate'' again, this guy is actually able to remain conscious at least, but he still seems to be a bit scared, every time I take a step towards him he takes a step backward.


    "Do you understand?"


    "Yes! I surrender!"


    Mmmm, ''intimidate'' seems to be very effective, maybe I''ll use it intentionally a few times in the future if I can figure out how.


    "Good, now I''m going to heal you and you are going to tell me where you left the girl you took with you, is that clear?"


    "Yes, mam!"


    This dragon was much easier to defeat than the knight captain from that other time, I suppose it''s true that levels are not everything.


    At least it seems like his injuries were not serious, healing them was rather easy.


    "But what I said earlier was true, I did not kidnap Nera, she agreed to help me look for the lost relic I was searching for by using that skill of hers"


    "Nera?"


    "That blue-haired girl I brought here, I thought that you were looking for her"


    "Yes, I am looking for her, but... she told you her name!?"


    This is just unfair, there''s no way that I am less trustworthy than this guy, is there?


    "Yes... like I said she agreed to help me"


    "But I did not agree to that until you had already taken me here, I would say that was still kidnapping"


    She''s here now, I wonder if she''s been watching the entire fight, let''s hope that didn''t scare her even more...


    "But why did he take you here in the first place?"


    "That was thanks to that witch friend of yours"


    "My witch friend? Do you mean Arana?"


    But Arana told me that she had escaped and then got taken by the dragon, how could that have been her fault?


    "I was searching for a lost relic that is supposed to be really dangerous, the last time it was seen it was taken to a secret research facility that then became these ruins, but I could not find it anywhere"


    Oh, so that''s why this place was so well hidden and trapped.


    "Then I remembered that they told me that the relic is supposed to make a buzzing noise when magic is used nearby, so I went to the town to ask if there was anyone with good hearing that could help me, that''s when that pink-haired girl told me that this girl here had a skill just for that and that she was willing to help"


    "Even then, you should have at least asked before grabbing me..."


    Eh? Does that mean that this was Arana''s fault after all? She lied to me!


    "Arana!"


    But it''s already too late, no matter how much I look, she''s nowhere to be seen, now that I think about it, I didn''t see her at all during the fight.


    "So she escaped..."


    forli

 Chapter 24: Explanations

    -Nera-


    These past few days have been very stressful, first I''m betrayed by my guards, then I get kidnapped twice, and now...


    "I''m telling you that''s the reason why dragons have such a bad reputation, you cannot go around extorting people to give you what you want"


    "But I need to make it clear that I''m stronger than them! Otherwise, I will not get the respect I deserve!"


    "That''s what I was telling you before! Nobody respects someone so arrogant that they keep praising their own strength, people just pretend that they do because they don''t want any trouble, you need to learn to be more humble"


    I''m witnessing a rather surreal scene. The queen of darkness, a woman with unmatched magic power, who is able to make even dragons cower in fear and was prophecized to be one of the most fearsome villains in history... is currently giving a lecture on humility and basic morality to a dragon.


    And it''s not only this, a moment ago she forcefully ended her fight against said dragon and healed him, it was as if she was more concerned with the safety of her opponent than her own.


    Granted, it was obvious just from watching the fight that the only one in any danger was him, but still, that''s not something that I would have ever imagined someone like her doing, or rather, all of her words and actions keep being the exact opposite of what I would have expected.


    At first, I thought that it was all a ploy to make me lower my guard, every time she told me to not be afraid while looking at me with an intimidating expression, I believed that she was being sarcastic, but now I''m starting to have some doubts... could it be that she just can''t avoid inspiring terror on everyone around her? It sounds crazy, but it''s the only explanation I can think of. In fact, I''m starting to think that her friend is the worst of the two...


    I always believed that I was not the kind of person who judged others because of their appearance, but I would have never imagined that it could be possible for someone''s appearance to be so different from their real self.


    "Are you alright?"


    "Eh!? What!?"


    When did she get near me? I was distracted and she scared the crap out of me!


    "You have been silently looking at the ground for a while, is anything wrong?"


    "Ah, no, I''m fine"


    Is she worried about me? The way she looks down at me is scary. Since she''s so pretty and so tall, it gives the impression that she looks down on people as well as looking down at them, but now that I think about it, I don''t think that she''s actually done or said anything demeaning to me, was it really all in my head?


    And the truth is that I need to get help from someone, most of the guards who were traveling with me were actually working for my mother all along, and the only two who were truly on my side are now dead... which means that I am all alone.


    At first, I thought of asking the dragon in exchange for my help, but it seems like the artifact he''s looking for is not here, and to tell the truth, he does not seem like a very dependable person, so as crazy as it sounds, maybe I should ask the queen of darkness for help. I''m still not sure if I can trust her, but earlier they were talking about sending me back home, and if they do that, I will die for sure, so maybe I should take the risk after all...


    "Are you sure you are fine? You''re looking at the ground again"


    She''s placing her hands on my shoulders, and her face is really close! She''s way too scary after all...


    -Luna-


    This girl is acting strangely again, well, it''s true that she''s been through a lot these past few days so maybe it will be weirder if she acted normally.


    I''ll get back to her later, for now, there are a few questions I want to ask the dragon.


    "So what exactly were you searching for around here? I think you said something about a dangerous relic?"


    "Ah yes, it''s something called the horn of the earth, a device that can gather large quantities of earth mana to create an extremely powerful monster, since there''s no way of controlling that monster, a great disaster will occur if someone were to use it"


    Monster creation... since they are stronger and easier to make, people keep trying to make use of uncontrollable monsters for war, but it always ends up backfiring.


    "It was created in the northern continent, that''s also where I''m from, but it disappeared a long time ago, recently it was discovered that it had been sent to a research facility in this continent, so the dragon elders thought that it needed to be destroyed before someone manages to find out how to use it, and since I''m the most powerful dragon in our nation they gave the mission to me"


    He says that like it''s a big deal, isn''t a nation of dragons usually just a couple of hundred of them?


    So they gave him a mission that made him have to go to a different continent, they must have really wanted to get rid of him.


    "And you think that it''s buried here?"


    "I''m sure of it! Didn''t you notice that there''s not even the smallest amount of earth mana around here?"


    Eh? Is that true?


    ''Mana sense''


    Oh, he''s right, that''s strange, some areas have more mana of certain attributes than others, but there''s no such thing as a place that does not have any mana of one attribute at all.


    "That''s because the horn of the earth must have collected all of it, and yet... I could not find it, despite looking for it everywhere, even Nera''s skill didn''t help"


    "Could it be that someone got it before you could?"


    "No, I asked the Lord of the town and he said that nobody had found such a thing"


    "And why do you think that he would know if someone had? And that he wasn''t lying?"


    "Eh!? So someone did get it before I could!?"


    I''m starting to think that this guy might be a bit dumb...


    "Then how can I find it? The one who took it could have been anyone!"


    "Don''t ask me, you are the ''most powerful dragon in your nation''"


    "Being powerful is not going to help me here!"


    He really does not seem as prideful as he was before, I guess that''s to be expected, first I easily beat him and now this...


    "Anyway, there''s actually something else I was curious about"


    "Eh? What is it?"


    "What did you want gold and silver for? I don''t see what you could have needed that for"


    "Oh, that was just to have something to eat"


    Uh... I think I heard that wrong.


    "I''m sorry, could you repeat that?"


    "It was to have something to eat, I heard that there was an alchemist in that town so I thought I could take advantage of it"


    "What? But... dragons eat metal?"


    "Obviously, have you not heard the stories of dragons stealing treasures?"


    Well, yeah, but that made dragons famous for their greed, and you are telling me it was actually gluttony all along? I guess all those adventurers that go looking for a lost dragon hoard are just wasting their time then.


    "Well then, I suppose that''s all, I need to go look for my ''friend'', there are a few things that I want to tell her..."


    "Ah, please, wait a moment"


    Oh, it seems like the dragon is transforming into a human form, I knew that they could do that, but it''s still surprising.


    He looks like a handsome young man with red hair, and thankfully, he''s wearing clothes despite being naked in his dragon form, I guess that''s part of the transformation, but I wonder what he wants to look human for.


    "Nera told me earlier that you were the infamous ''queen of darkness'', I didn''t believe her at first, but you proved it to me during the fight"


    Did he need to add ''infamous'' to my title?


    "Yeah, that is technically true"


    "Then, if you are planning to take over the world, you must be in need of strong underlings"


    What is he talking about?


    "No, I don''t want to take over the world, and... are you offering to become my underling? Why?"


    "That battle was a unique experience for me... nobody had ever looked down on me like that before, and the way you completely overpowered me and then made me follow your orders by making me feel absolute fear... it made me feel a way I could not understand"


    Eh... I really do not like where this is going.


    "But now that I''ve given it some thought, I believe that I have fallen in lo-ough"


    Uh!? Somehow my body moved without me wanting it to. Before I realized what I was doing I had already punched him on the stomach, sending him flying several meters until he crashed against a wall, now he''s whimpering while laying on the floor.


    This is scary, I need to control myself better, otherwise, I might end up hurting somebody...


    forli

 Chapter 25: A different misunderstanding

    "Sorry! Sorry! I didn''t mean to hit you!"


    I''m not some crazy person who hits people for no reason! I just panicked because of what he was saying so I hit... I''m not crazy!


    And that girl, I believe her name was Nera, is hiding behind a wall, it seems like she got scared, just when it seemed like she was getting used to me.


    "Are you alright?"


    "Of course, I deserved that punishment for forgetting my place"


    "Uh, no, that was not supposed to be a punishment..."


    "Please mistress, if I upset you again in the future do not hesitate to punish me in whatever way you like!"


    Maybe it''s just me, but he sounds like he''s actually excited about being punished again, I don''t really understand what this is about but for some reason, it feels really disturbing...


    "My name is not ''mistress'', I''m Luna"


    "But I cannot simply call you by your name, can I call you mistress?"


    "No"


    "Thank you, mistress!"


    He''s not even listening to what I''m saying, it seems like I found another troublesome guy.


    I put my mask on before entering town again, Nera is following behind me and the dragon is coming as well for some reason, at least he stayed in human form.


    "Eh, mister dragon, you don''t need to come with me as well"


    "If the horn of the earth is not in those ruins I have no reason to stay there, and I have to follow my mistress, also, my name is Irvan"


    "I already told you I''m not your mistress mister dragon"


    If he''s not going to call me by my name, I''m not going to use his name either.


    "I don''t see Arana anywhere..."


    Arana knows that I have trouble staying angry for a long period of time so she''s trying to wait it out, but that''s not going to work this time! Not only did she get me into a pointless fight, but she also put Nera in danger. She deserves at least to have a curse placed on her for a while.


    "Mistress, I was thinking about what you said before, thinking back on it, I think that the town lord lied to me when he said that he didn''t know anything about the horn... it felt like he was trying to get rid of me when I was asking around"


    "So you want to have another talk with him?"


    "Yes, I believe they called him ''baron something''... if you come as well I''m sure that he will talk"


    "Uh? What would change if I go?"


    "Nobody would dare to lie when faced with that intimidation skill of yours, if you go, he''ll talk for sure!"


    No, in the first place I still cannot use that whenever I want, and even if I could most people seem to just fall unconscious whenever I use it.


    "Don''t drag me into your problems... I don''t want to get into trouble with the authorities"


    "Stop right there!"


    Before I can understand what''s going on we get surrounded by guards.


    "You! The masked woman! You are under arrest for multiple accounts of assault!"


    Assault? I have not assaulted anyone in this town so why... oh wait, leaving a bunch of people unconscious in the church probably looked like I had attacked them, didn''t it.


    "Eh!? How were they able to recognize you when your face is completely covered by a mask?"


    Nera looks troubled by the situation, I guess a princess is not used to get threatened by guards. I, on the other hand, have plenty of experience in the field.


    "There was a small misunderstanding earlier and I got into some trouble, that''s probably what this is about since I was wearing this same mask it must have been easy to recognize me"


    "You were wearing this same mask when you ran into trouble? Then why did you put it on again when you came back?"


    "..."


    I cannot think of a good answer to that.


    "Surrender yourself and come with us, the baron wants to interrogate you in person"


    "Haha, you fool! A bunch of pathetic weaklings like you thinks that you can challenge the power of my mistress?"


    "Please mister dragon, stop talking, don''t make this situation any worse than it already is"


    "Now you will learn what true fear is! She will slaughter all of... ouch!"


    I manage to make him shut up by lightly hitting his torso with my elbow, but why do I get the feeling that this is just going to encourage him to keep doing this stuff?


    "Very well, I will go with you"


    But then Nera whispers into my ear.


    "Are you sure about that? From what I''ve seen so far I think you would end up creating less trouble if you just put these guards to sleep and escape"


    "I already tried that before, I just want to try to explain myself this time, if that doesn''t work I can just escape later"


    "Well, if you say so..."


    She does not seem convinced, but well, I''m the only one getting arrested anyway.


    The guards put my hands in shackles, these even come with a magic seal, it seems like they know that I''m a mage? But these seals can only reduce someone''s magic stat by 600, that''s enough to leave most mages at zero, preventing them from using any magic at all, even the few with more than 600 magic will be weakened enough to prevent them from escaping. But for me, that''s not even one-fourth of my magic, so I can probably take them off whenever I want.


    I''m taken to a small office located next to the prison, a middle-aged man is sitting on a chair behind a desk. He''s slightly overweight and is balding a little, he also has a mustache to complete the look of a stereotypical baron, but if that''s who he is, I don''t think that this office is his.


    "Sir, here she is"


    "Ah, good, you can leave us now"


    "Are you sure sir? This woman seems to be dangerous"


    "Didn''t you restrain her properly? Then there''s nothing to worry about, I want to talk to her alone"


    "As you wish"


    And so they leave the two of us alone.


    "Sir, there''s been a misunderstanding, I didn''t go to that church to assault anyone"


    "Of course, then perhaps you were there to look for something?"


    Look for something? What is he talking about? But this reminds me, that dragon said that this guy might have lied about not knowing what happened to that relic he was looking for, maybe I should ask him now that I have the chance.


    "The truth is, a... friend of mine believes that you may have been hiding something"


    "Oh, so you already knew"


    The baron stands up from his chair and his body starts to contort grotesquely, he then transforms into a tall and lanky creature with blue skin, his body is completely devoid of any features except for his eyes and mouth.


    That''s clearly a shapeshifter, so the baron was actually a demon? I really was not expecting that.


    "You must have been the one who saved princess Nera from her execution, we were not expecting her to recruit such a competent bodyguard"


    Well, me saving her was just a coincidence... but at least this seems different from the usual misunderstanding, so I won''t complain.


    "And somehow you even learned about our plans, I don''t know how you knew that we had hidden the horn of the earth inside that church, but you must have been certain if you went as far as to search every single person there"


    No, I wasn''t searching them, that''s not even close to what I was doing.


    "However, you were too late, my companion already took the horn away, she''s about to complete the creation of an unstoppable monster that will crush this town soon"


    Crush this town? That sounds really bad, someone needs to stop these guys!


    "But what does any of that have to do with killing Nera?"


    "We were supposed to be receiving the body of a member of the royal family of the Agua kingdom, that was part of the agreement between the queen and my master"


    "Your master?"


    "Yes, demon lord Kalroth the infernal"


    "Kalroth the infernal!? Why would the Queen of the Agua kingdom make a deal with someone like that?"


    "Anyone would be tempted by his incredible power, there''s nothing someone like you could do against him"


    "I won''t let you all do as you please, Kalroth will pay for all the evil he''s done!"


    "Oh, is there something my master has done to upset you?"


    "Yes, all of his evildoings"


    "I meant something specific"


    "Well, you know, that one evil thing..."


    "You... have no idea who Kalroth the infernal is, do you..."


    "No, I don''t"


    He caught me, that''s embarrassing... but this is the first time someone has mistaken me for one of the good guys, you cannot blame me for wanting to play along.


    "I can''t believe you managed to make me tell you so much, you really are a shrewd one"


    No, he is the one who kept telling me all his plans for no reason, but being praised feels nice so I''ll let him think whatever he wants.


    "Not that it matters, now that you have been restrained it should be a simple matter to dispose of you"


    "Um, about that..."


    I easily break my shackles and let them drop on the ground, I didn''t even need to use any magic, my strength was more than enough.


    "What!? You even got the guards, to put some fake restraints on you!? You were a lot better prepared than I was expecting..."


    No, I didn''t prepare anything, that was just brute strength.


    "But it''s too late now, my companion already went to the ruins to create the monster, and she will use it to kill the dragon there, then she will use her power to reanimate its corpse and she will send both of them to destroy this town!"


    Is that companion of his a necromancer? And if she can reanimate a dragon she must be quite good, now I''m curious.


    "Actually, I brought the dragon here with me, he''s not in the ruins anymore"


    "You went as far as to prevent us from killing him!? I was not expecting such a master schemer to get in our way..."


    He really seems to have gotten the wrong idea about me, but I understand, all this stuff seems too much to be all a coincidence... could it be that I was actually a master schemer all along and even I didn''t know?


    forli


    I wonder if Luna will be able to clear her name by stopping their evil plans.

 Chapter 26: Disappointment

    "Not a lot of people can get the better of me the way you just did, I would like to congratulate you"


    He''s offering me a handshake, somehow I don''t really believe that getting the better of this guy is a difficult thing to do, but it would be rude to refuse his handshake.


    As soon as I get close to him, a multitude of spikes emerge from his body and attempt to impale me, however, they are not able to pierce my skin at all.


    "..."


    "..."


    "So now I suppose that you''ll want to try to stop my companion from unleashing the monster"


    "Don''t try to act as if you didn''t try to kill me just now!!!"


    Let''s just take care of him right now...


    He seems to start panicking when he sees me getting ready to cast a spell, he then quickly transforms back to the form of the baron.


    "Wait! Wait! Think about this! I still have a hostage!"


    A hostage? Oh, that''s right, for a shape-shifter to take the shape of a specific person, they first need to come into physical contact with them, then they''ll be able to transform into them for as long as that person is still alive, which means that the real baron must be locked up somewhere.


    "Then release him now"


    I''m starting to get the hang of using ''intimidation'' it seems like it activates when I make a forceful demand of someone, and I can hold back the intensity by controlling the tone of my voice. This way, I make the target afraid without having them faint.


    "I can''t! The only one who knows where he''s hidden is my companion, maybe you should go to the ruins to see if you can find her"


    "You are not just telling me to go there because you are hoping for me to get killed by the monster, are you?"


    "No... maybe"


    Well, I should probably take care of that monster anyway... but how do I make sure that this guy doesn''t run away until I come back? If I tie him up the guards will just untie him...


    "I just placed a curse on you, if you try leaving this town before I come back, you will die"


    "What!? A curse!?"


    A curse like that does not even exist, but he doesn''t know that, eh eh, it seems like I''m smarter than usual today.


    "We''re here mistress"


    I didn''t want to come here with the dragon, but I also didn''t want to bring Nera to a dangerous place and if I had come alone, I probably would have gotten lost...


    "It would have been a lot faster if you had agreed to ride on my back"


    "Absolutely not"


    With ''mana sense'' I can detect a person somewhere at the center of the ruins, I think it''s a demon, but more importantly, there''s an incredibly powerful monster less than 50 meters ahead.


    However, I cannot see anything there.


    "Hey, can you see anything over there?"


    "Uh? What do you mean? I don''t see anything unusual"


    That''s strange, if there''s no monster, what is this immense concentration of earth mana I''m sensing?


    While I''m still trying to figure this out, a rock is sent flying at a high speed and hits me in the head.


    "Ouch"


    That actually hurt a little, wasn''t it an earth spell?


    It wasn''t much, but for a magic attack to hurt me at all, it must have been very powerful, after all, the magic stat is supposed to make a small contribution to toughness against magic.


    "Mistress! Watch out!"


    ''Black wall''


    Another dozen rocks are sent my way, but now that I have my guard up I can easily stop them.


    I sense the monster quickly move to our left before firing another barrage of rocks, but I still cannot find it.


    ''Black wall''


    Since it''s an earth-based monster, maybe it''s hiding underground? Let me test that.


    ''Shadow lance rain''


    I fire a few dozen of shadow lances on the air, they all fall around the area where I''m sensing the monster and penetrate over fifty meters into the ground, and yet, none of them seem to hit anything. The only thing I seem to have accomplished is to make the monster run away with amazing speed.


    "It''s going that way, try to see if you can find it"


    "Right away!"


    As for me, I think I''ll try to see if that demon over there knows something.


    As I approach the demon I get attacked by a group of dead animals animated with the spell ''corpse puppet'', there''s wolves, bats, and snakes, but they are all too weak.


    ''Shadow dagger''


    I won''t even bother to use a strong spell to deal with them, but if they are here there must really be a dark mage controlling them, this is my first time meeting one, I''m really curious to see the uses for dark magic that she has, dark magic is a very unresearched field of magic after all.


    "Who is there?"


    Oh, there she is, a woman with a pair of short horns, sharp teeth, silver hair, and gray skin... if I''m not mistaken she''s something called a ''gray demon''.


    "Are you the one who took the ''horn of the earth''"


    "Ufufu, I see, you are here to stop our plan, but you are too late, I already created an invincible monster and soon the humans will know true terror!"


    "Erm, may I ask what exactly you are trying to accomplish with this?"


    "To remind everyone that demons are meant to be feared! Long ago, our ancestors used their greater power to stand above the flesh-born races, the way that the demons of today try to coexist with your kind is shameful, we will remind all of you of... "


    Ugh, I was hoping that she would give me some useful information like the other guy, but instead, she started giving me an evil speech...


    To be honest, I don''t think she knows anything about that monster either, it just seems like she just used that relic with no plan in mind, I can only hope the dragon can figure something out, he seems to be serious about wanting to become my underling.


    "... and then our power will once again... "


    But there''s no way I''ll let him come with me, if he goes around telling everyone about how powerful and terrifying I am, he''s only going to make things worse for me, and I already have enough with Arana.


    Speaking of her, I wonder when she''ll show up again.


    "... so that the weak will learn that we are... "


    Even if she causes a bit of trouble sometimes, the truth is that I would be completely lost without her, maybe I should forgive her after all...


    No! That''s what she wants me to think! I need to at least give her some kind of punishment, but what should that be?


    "... no matter how much you resist... "


    Maybe I''ll forgive her in exchange for making one of those strawberry cakes of hers, I have not had one of those in a long time.


    I should actually learn to cook one of these days, I cannot always depend on Arana for everything.


    "... THE DEMON LORD KALROTH!!!"


    "YES!!! I WAS LISTENING!!!"


    "..."


    "..."


    "So... I believe that you are a dark mage, could you show me what you can do? I''m interested in that field of magic"


    "It seems like you think that you can make a fool out of me... very well, let me introduce you to my servant"


    The wall behind me collapses and I''m grabbed by the corpse of a large man with bear ears on his head.


    This is not just ''corpse puppet'', this body seems to be able to move of its own accord, choosing the best way to follow orders, and it seems like he retained the strength from when he was alive.


    "Did you use ''zombify'' on this man?"


    "Indeed, what you see now is the true power of a necromancer"


    ''Zombify'' is probably the main reason why necromancy is forbidden, it turns a person into an undead servant that retains their status from when they were alive, the only limit is that if the caster is a lower level, the level of the servant will be reduced to match, and controlling more than one is difficult, other than that it is very powerful magic, but there are a few reasons why it should not be used.


    The first is that using it in the first place requires the caster to kill the target, that alone already makes any use of the spell questionable, to say the least. In addition to that, many people believe that doing this prevents the target''s soul from moving on until the spell ends and that the target remains conscious during this time, while there''s no way to confirm either of those things, there''s a good chance that they are true, and just the possibility is enough to make me not want to ever cast that spell.


    "You call that the true power of a necromancer? Don''t tell me that you are one of those who believe that necromancy is just making the dead follow your orders"


    "What else could it be if not that?"


    "And do you also believe that ''corpse puppet'' is a form of necromancy?"


    "Of course, is it not?"


    "Maybe it''s my fault for getting my hopes up, but this is very disappointing"


    It seems like there''s a reason why dark mages have such a bad reputation if there''s many more like this one.


    "Let me go, also, you can die for real now"


    Following my orders, the zombie releases me and then drops to the floor.


    "What... how?"


    The demon looks like she cannot believe what she''s seeing.


    "I overrode your magic, nothing special"


    "Don''t be ridiculous, my dark magic is rank 9"


    She''s understandably confused, to take control of someone else''s magic it''s necessary for your rank in that attribute to be twice as high, since the highest rank is supposed to be 10, it should not be possible to do it to someone who''s rank 6 or higher.


    For that reason, someone is only considered to be a ''real'' mage when they reach rank 6 in their primary attribute, after all, if an enemy can override your magic, you''ll end up doing more harm than good in a fight.


    I didn''t really think about this before, but being rank 20 means that any users of dark magic will be powerless against me, maybe that''s the reason why that title is called ''Queen of darkness''.


    "Just so you know, it''s possible to use ''corpse puppet'' to control people who are alive as well"


    "What?"


    Before she can react, I rush to her and place my hand on her shoulder.


    ''Paralyze''


    My spell numbs the nerves in her arms and legs causing her to lose control of them.


    ''Corpse puppet''


    "What is this!? I''m moving against my will!"


    "The reason why ''corpse puppet'' does not work on the living is that the orders sent by the brain take priority, but if the connection between your limbs and your brain is weakened, I can control you"


    And so, I make her walk away from the ruins.


    I''m starting to think that teaching people the correct way to use dark magic might be more difficult than I thought...


    forli


    After I had written this chapter, I took a look at chapter 5 to make sure I didn''t contradict anything there, and it turns out that I did contradict something, so I had to make some small changes to this chapter, and now I''m worried about what I could have missed.


    I guess the longer this story goes, the more difficult this will be.

 Chapter 27: A dreadful monster

    "Let''s see, I think this is it"


    I found an object shaped like a hollow bull''s horn, it feels like it''s made of ivory but its color is a reddish-brown, both the inside and the outside are covered in a multitude of very small mana circuits, I couldn''t even see them until I looked closely.


    "This must be the so-called ''horn of the earth''"


    I was hoping that I could learn something about that mysterious monster by studying this thing, but the circuits engraved are all very outdated and complicated, however, I can feel it absorbing earth mana from the surroundings, and yet, it''s almost empty right now, so it really was used to create a monster recently...


    I guess I''ll just try to figure it out later when I have more time, right now I need to see how that dragon is doing.


    When I step outside, I see him lying on the ground. Did he fall asleep while he was looking for the monster? What a lazy guy.


    Taking a closer look, it seems like he has a lump on his head, so he got knocked out? I know that he''s actually supposed to be really strong, but all he''s done since I meet him is get beaten up, so my impression of him is getting very low.


    But where''s the monster hiding? I can still sense it and yet it''s nowhere to be seen.


    "Hey, you! You''re the one who made that monster, right? Do you know what it is?"


    The demon woman seems to want to run away, but she''s not going anywhere unless I want her to.


    "I don''t know, I only activated the horn and all the mana poured out of it and condensed a bit further away, but I didn''t see the monster at all"


    So the monster was invisible even at the moment of its creation?


    "Ufufu, look at that, even that dragon was no match for the monster, you and the humans in that town are already as good as dead!"


    "You do realize that if it kills me it will go after you next, do you?"


    "Well... you are actually pretty strong, maybe you can beat it"


    Well, I''ll need to find it first.


    "Huh?"


    What''s this? There''s something beneath my foot that''s pushing against it.


    "Whaaat!?"


    I just got sent flying backward more than ten meters, causing me to fall on my butt, what in the world was that?


    Oh, it seems like there''s actually something there, I think that''s the monster, and it is... an ant.


    And I don''t mean that the monster is a giant ant or anything like that, I mean an ant, a regular one, around one centimeter long, that''s... not what I was expecting.


    No wonder I wasn''t able to find it if it''s that small, and not only that but it also moves really fast, I already lost track of it again. At least I was able to check its level with my appraisal stone, 333... is this the strongest ant in the world?


    "Ouch!"


    It just smacked me on the head from behind! When did it get there? It seems like it is much faster than I am.


    But you should not underestimate my eyesight and hearing, if I focus, I can actually see the ants on the ground and even hear them moving, this monster ant is rather stealthy considering how fast it is moving, but it won''t get away from me so easily.


    ''Gravity bomb''


    Gravity bomb is a spell designed to be extremely difficult to dodge, an implosion of dark mana drags everything in a radius of 50 meters towards its center, and it all happens as fast as a normal explosion type spell, but it doesn''t actually have anything to do with manipulating gravity so the name is a bit questionable...


    And yet, the ant manages to escape its range rather easily, its speed and reaction time are much better than I thought, it runs faster than the spell can suck it in...


    ''Gravity bomb''


    ''Gravity bomb''


    ''Gravity bomb''


    No matter how many times I try, I cannot land a single hit, and now it seems like it just dug itself underground so I won''t be able to see where it is anymore, but I still feel its mana just a bit further ahead.


    Normally everyone would assume that a bigger monster would be tougher to fight, but that''s because greater size usually means greater strength, but if an opponent is going to be strong anyway, a smaller size simply means that it will be harder to hit, and this monster''s stats and skills seem to be focused on speed and evasion, I need to think of a better strategy...


    Maybe the best way to do this would be to just use a spell with an area of effect so large that it won''t be able to escape in time, I have spells that can destroy an entire mountain in one shot after all, but I cannot use such a powerful spell in this place, the town is too close and there might be people wandering nearby, also the dragon and the demon woman are still near, so instead I''ll use...


    ''Swamp terrain''


    By using a greater amount of mana I can increase the area that turns into sludge, by using the greatest amount the spell can accept, I can affect a radius of 300 meters around me, not even that annoying bug will be able to escape this.


    Ah, look, there it is, it''s standing on top of the sludge not too far away from me. Wait... it''s standing on top of the sludge... and walking on it...


    How!? Why isn''t it sinking!? Is it because of its low weight? And why are both the ant and the surface of the sludge getting higher and higher?


    Oh, I just realized that I''m actually the one who''s sinking, making the sludge appear on an area with me at the center obviously means that I will also get caught in it, by the time I noticed, I''ve already reached the bottom and I''m trapped up to just below my chest.


    Uh, I need to cancel my spell before the ant...


    "Ouch!"


    It just used earth magic to throw a rock at my head! It''s taking advantage of the fact that I can''t move!


    "Ouch! Hey! What are you doing!? Uf! Stop that! Agh!"


    It seems like it realized that hitting my head was not going to accomplish anything so now it''s aiming for my chest, is it trying to make me die from embarrassment?


    This is making it difficult to focus on undoing my magic, so it manages to hit me quite a few times, fortunately, its attack power does not seem to be as great as its evasion so I don''t really get hurt, it truly seems to be a highly specialized monster.


    When I finally get out, it just stops in front of me and seems to be looking up as if waiting for me to do something else, is it making fun of me?


    "That''s it, you''re getting stomped"


    I use flesh shaping to reinforce my right leg and stomp down on the ant with all my strength, the impact leaves a large crater on the ground and causes a small earthquake, but the ant just jumps to the left to dodge.


    I keep trying to stomp it again and again with no success, until it finally grabs my left foot and trips me, causing me to faceplant on the ground.


    "This is starting to get a bit frustrating..."


    Is someone trying to pull a prank on me or something? I''ve already fought a hero, an army of demons, and a dragon, and yet, the most difficult opponent I''ve had so far is an ant of all things, I''m feeling really miserable right now...


    "Hey! Where do you think you''re going!?"


    That stupid bug is running away from me? It is trying to escape after all of that?


    It really runs fast, I even had to form my wings to keep up with it, but I won''t let it get away.


    "Hey! Mistress! Do you need help?"


    "Oh! You got back up already?"


    "Of course! There''s no way that a few stones would be enough to take me down! But mistress... I had no idea that you could fly"


    "I can, but I get tired quickly"


    Alright, I need to calm down, even if it is difficult to hit that thing, its attack power is too low for it to be able to defeat me either, and now I have someone else helping me, all I have to do is be patient and keep trying until I find a way to kill it, it''s not like anything bad will happen if I take a long time to do it.


    Wait... isn''t that the town? When did we make it here?


    Oh no, that monster is about to go inside.


    "Mistress... isn''t this bad?"


    "Yes, really bad"


    I need to kill that ant somehow before it hurts someone...


    forli

 Chapter 28: Undodgeable attack

    All the people around look up at us as we fly over the town, maybe I''m just being self-conscious, but I get the feeling that they are more concerned about me than about the dragon, well, I guess they''re used to him.


    "Mistress, how are we going to find the monster?"


    "Just give me a moment"


    That ant is really good at hiding itself, but a large concentration of earth mana is very noticeable when using mana sense, and I''m starting to get really good at finding it.


    "Over there!"


    I find it on a wide street filled with people, it seems like nobody has noticed that there''s a monster there, they are all looking at me instead.


    This is dangerous, they''re all in danger of being attacked at any moment and they don''t even know.


    "Everyone! There''s a monster here! Please run away!"


    They''re not running, instead, they are looking at me as if I was a crazy person, how can I convince them?


    Wait, I think that the ant is getting ready to attack!


    ''Shadow lance''


    If I couldn''t get it with ''gravity bomb'' then ''shadow lance'' has no chance, but I cannot use a spell with a large area of effect in this place... however, I need to keep attacking to make sure that the monster only targets me.


    ''Shadow lance'' ''Shadow lance'' ''Shadow lance''


    As I keep attacking, the ant also shoots large rocks at me, the entire street is being filled with craters and rubble and some walls from the surrounding buildings are collapsing.


    "Aaaah!!!"


    "She''s crazy!!!"


    "Run!!!"


    At least it seems everyone else finally noticed the monster, everyone is running and yelling although I can''t understand what they''re saying.


    "Try to use your fire to cut off its escape route"


    "Yes! That''s a great plan!"


    Is this dragon making fun of me? Or is he just going to praise anything I say?


    ''Gravity bomb''


    Now that everyone has fleed the area I can use that spell again, but the surrounding buildings seem to be collapsing...


    But this time, it''s escape route is sealed by a wall of dragon-fire, seeing itself trapped by our pincer attack the ant... digs itself underground and easily escapes, isn''t that cheating?


    "It really was you two? What in the world are you doing?"


    Nera is approaching us looking confused and scared.


    "We are trying to kill an ant that got into this town just now"


    "An ant?" She''s looking at me with a blank expression on her face.


    "Well, it just left, but it was there a moment ago! You have to believe me!"


    "No, even if I believe that there was an ant there, that''s not really the issue..."


    "I mean a monster ant! It''s actually very strong even if it''s small"


    *Rumble*


    Oh crap! It was preparing a large attack while I was talking, all the rubble that was around and some of the still intact walls are now floating above us.


    "Wha... what is that!?"


    This is bad, if all of that falls on top of Nera she''s going to get crushed.


    ''Black wall''


    "Ugh!"


    By placing a barrier above me I''m able to catch the falling debris, but the weight is pushing it down so I need to hold it with my hands.


    "Are you alright?"


    "Y-Yes, thank you..."


    But now I cannot move or all of this will fall, and the ant is taking aim at me again, does it know when I''m not able to defend myself? It''s firing another rock... no, wait, that''s not a rock.


    "Wait! Don''t!"


    *Splash*


    A ball of mud splashes right on my face... the rocks were actually better.


    Now that I think about it, I can just place all the rubble in my storage, it''s certainly large enough for that.


    But the ant is running away again, how am I supposed to catch it?


    "This is impossible, I cannot find a way to kill that bug"


    "Hahaha, Luna, you sure seem to have been having some fun while I wasn''t around"


    "This is not funny Ara, I need to find a way to... wait, Ara!?"


    Here''s Arana, showing up from nowhere without a care in the world, and she''s holding the war scythe for some reason.


    "Relax, relax, I just happen to have the solution to your problem right here"


    "The scythe? You think that I''m going to hit the ant with that?"


    "I do! Did you think that I''ve just been lazing around all this time? I was placing an enchantment on this weapon"


    "An enchantment? What enchantment?"


    "''Undodgeable attack'', it''s one of the most advanced enchantments of the light attribute"


    "What? Wait a minute, since when can you place enchantments like that?"


    "Since always, I did tell you once that I could use light magic, didn''t I?"


    "Well yes, but you said that you could use ''a little'' light magic"


    "And you know that I worked as a seamstress, no? So, of course, I would learn how to place enchantments on some of the clothes I make"


    Uh? Do all seamstresses know how to enchant stuff? I didn''t know that.


    "Anyway, the point is that with this weapon all you have to do is pour your mana into the enchantment and then any attack you attempt will hit your target no matter what, the only downside is that it takes a lot of mana to activate, but you should have no trouble with that, also, don''t worry about this being a light attribute enchantment, any type of mana will work"


    "I see, that''s good but... how did you know that I was going to need this specific enchantment"


    "I just had a hunch," She says, shrugging her shoulders.


    "A hunch?"


    She went out of her way to prepare a very complicated enchantment that just happened to be exactly what I needed to deal with the monster I was going to fight, that''s too much to just be called a hunch.


    Now that I think about it, she probably heard about the ''horn of the earth'' from the dragon when she first met him, could she somehow have known what type of monster it would make?


    "Mistress! The monster is going that way!"


    Ah! I wasted too much time, for now, let''s just give this weapon a try.


    "There you are, let''s see if you can dodge this"


    I pour my mana into the enchantment and then I swing with all of my strength, I can feel the war scythe speeding up and correcting the angle of the swing, the ant also seems to be affected and is being pulled into the path of the blade, however, it still manages to barely avoid the attack.


    "Well, so much for the undodgea... WHAAAT!!!?"


    Before I complete the swing, my weapon turns around and makes my body spin in the air, what is going on!?


    "Hey! Stop!"


    The ant is running away and the scythe is flying after it at a high speed, dragging me along, and it doesn''t seem like I can let go of it even if I want too!


    "Wait! Slow down!"


    *CRASH*


    "Ouch"


    When the scythe takes a 90 degree turn my body swings like a ragdoll and I crash into a building.


    Is this all technically part of the same attack? Does that mean that the ant didn''t really dodge...


    "Hey! Get out of my way!!!"


    There''s a bunch of people on this street, some of them jump to the side when they see me approach but most are too slow and I have to use my mana to push them.


    And the ant just went through a small hole in a wall... wait! No! No! NO!!!


    *CRASH*


    "Ouch"


    *CRASH*


    "Ouch"


    *CRASH*


    "Hey! Stop..."


    *CRASH*


    "STOP GOING THROUGH WALLS!!!"


    When is this going to stop?


    "Heh? It stopped?"


    Oh! It worked! The ant actually got hit! It''s still alive but it seems like it''s hurt and it can only barely move.


    Still, I thought that the reason why the attack would be undodgeable would be because the enchantment was going to make it too fast and precise, I didn''t think it would be because it just wouldn''t give up until it hit. I wonder if Arana knew that would happen...


    Well, all that''s left is finishing off the monster and then...


    "Stop right there!"


    "Eh?"


    The shape-shifter demon is here with the form of the baron and a dozen guards coming behind him.


    "She''s attacking the town and the civilians! Kill her!"


    "Wait! What?"


    "Hehehe, I didn''t expect you to defeat that monster, but now that you are injured and exhausted I have the perfect chance to end you"


    Eh... I know that I''m all covered in dust and mud right now so I probably don''t look good, but I''m not injured at all and to tell the truth, I''m not very tired either.


    "Alright! Prepare yourself for..."


    Just as the guards were about to take out their weapons, the ground starts shaking causing them to fall to the ground and a giant fist made of stone rises into the air.


    "What!? She can also use earth magic!?"


    "No, that''s not me..."


    It seems like the ant is desperate and is trying to use its remaining power for one last large spell, but there''s no way it can beat me in a battle of magic.


    ''Gravity bomb''


    The two spells clash creating an intense shockwave, but mine is much more powerful. When the dust clears, I see the demon laying on the ground looking at me with a fearful expression, and the ant is right next to his head, let''s finish this off.


    "What... what are you doing?"


    The demon trembles when I approach, but I''ll deal with him later, I focus all my strength in my leg and raise my foot.


    "Get ready to die, you disgusting insect!"


    I stomp on the ant causing a small tremor and leaving a deep hole on the ground, now it''s dead for sure, the demon seems to have passed out for some reason and he goes back to his real form.


    The guards are all back on their feet but they look like they don''t know what to do.


    "So... do you still want to kill me?"


    "NO! WE DON''T!!!"


    They all leave in a hurry, I''m glad that they realized that I was only fighting a monster.


    Soon after, Arana and Nera arrive.


    "Hehehe, did you see that? I won!"


    "Eeek! Why are you smiling like that!?"


    "Ah, sorry Nera, I know my smile is a bit scary, but I can''t help it! This time everyone saw me saving the town from that monster, now they all know that I''m a good person!"


    "Huh... I don''t think that''s what they..."


    I don''t know what she was going to say, but she gets interrupted by Arana placing a hand on her shoulder.


    "Just let her gloat for a bit, she doesn''t get to do it very often"


    forli


    Also... this story used to have 3 one-star ratings and now it only has 1, is it common to have ratings just go away like that? Not that I''m complaining, of course, but it seems weird.

 Chapter 29: How to deal with a prophecy

    After the shapeshifter woke up he quickly surrendered and told us were the real baron had been locked up, for some reason he seemed very eager to do everything I asked of him, even when I told him to hand himself over to the guards and confess everything he had done he didn''t put any resistance at all, I think that he''s afraid of me but I don''t know why.


    However, they only arrested him for kidnapping and impersonating the baron, it seems like they didn''t believe me when I told them that an ant had been destroying the town, can''t they see all the houses and streets that got wrecked? If they don''t believe that there was a monster ant, then who do they think did all of that? And why did they keep giving me those weird looks?


    Oh well, as long as the one responsible receives his punishment I guess everything is fine so I''ll just leave it be, besides, there''s someone else who also needs to be punished.


    "Luna! It hurts! Let go already!"


    "Why didn''t you warn me that your enchantment would send me flying like that!? You did that on purpose, didn''t you"


    I''m pinching both of Arana''s cheeks, it''s surprising how much her face can stretch, she looks kinda funny right now.


    "I didn''t know that would happen! I was just trying to help!"


    "And why did you tell the dragon about Nera''s skill? Did you want her to get kidnaped?"


    "I just wanted to help him because that mission of him seemed important! Why are you angry at me when all I did is trying to help people? Please let go! It really hurts!"


    Is that true? Maybe I''m being a bit too harsh... I guess I''ll let her go for now.


    "Don''t let her trick you! She obviously did that to get you to fight against the dragon!"


    "Huh?"


    Nera is looking at Arana with an angry expression, I think that she dislikes her, but I don''t know why.


    "Why would she want me to fight against a dragon?"


    "Don''t you get it? She''s clearly trying to make that prophecy about you become true, by fighting him you ended making the dragon ''bow before your might'', just like the prophecy said, and you flying around causing destruction like that also helped your bad reputation"


    "What!? Is that true!?"


    Now that she mentions it, it''s true that a lot of Arana''s actions seem to have been leading me on the path of following the prophecy, has she been doing this intentionally?


    "Arana! Is that true!?"


    This is a big deal, so I called her Arana instead of Ara, to show that I''m serious.


    "Like I said I''m trying to help you... since I know that you probably would have rejected it, I didn''t tell you about the method to deal with a prophecy"


    "The method to deal with a prophecy? What are you talking about?"


    "Do you know what a prophecy is? A lot of people believe that it''s a spell that let''s one see into the future, but do you think that''s true?"


    "I think I know what you mean, ''no event can influence another event if the later occurs at an earlier point in time'', seeing the future would contradict this fundamental rule of magic, but it''s true that a prophecy can do just that, is it not?"


    "No, a prophecy is an incredibly powerful spell that is cast by the world itself, it will identify a set of events that are very likely to occur and then it will cause them to happen one way or another"


    "What!? I''ve never read anything about that..."


    "Nobody understands prophecies all that well, I admit that I only know the basics myself"


    "But doesn''t that mean that it should be possible to fight against it and stop it from coming true?"


    "As I said, a prophecy is a very powerful spell, trying to go against it usually ends up badly, that''s why the correct method to deal with a prophecy is to fulfill it in a way you want"


    "Eh!?"


    "Prophecies tend to be rather vague, they can be interpreted in many different ways, or in other words, it can be fulfilled in many ways. For example, there was a man who had a prophecy saying that he would be killed by his own son, so he made his son promise that he would kill him when he''s already on his death bed. Your prophecy is the same, just because you have to become the queen of darkness that doesn''t mean that you have to become a villain"


    "So that''s why you wanted me to fight the dragon?"


    "Yes, if we didn''t take this chance, you might have ended up running into another dragon in a less optimal situation"


    So she really was just trying to help me out?


    "Don''t listen to her, she''s still hiding something, a witch cannot be trusted"


    Nera really doesn''t like Arana does she... but it''s true that I also got the feeling that she was hiding something, in particular when she talked about ''fulfilling a prophecy in a way you want''...


    "Arana, are you hiding something from me?"


    She shrugs her shoulders. "Everyone has secrets, can''t you trust your friend a little?"


    "I want to trust you, but you make it really hard..."


    "And miss princess... not only do you know what a witch is but you also seem to dislike them for some reason, did you meet some other witch by any chance?"


    Nera looks down at the ground for a moment before answering.


    "A girl with a hat just like yours became an attendant of my mother not long ago, she''s the one who gave her the idea of making a deal with that demon lord"


    "What!? A deal!?"


    "Because of my skill I could hear their conversations, and when my mother found out, she decided to kill me, that''s why I had to run away"


    "Your mother wants to kill you? Just for hearing something?"


    "So she''s a genuine evil queen... Luna! Maybe you could ask her to give you a few tips!"


    "I don''t want to learn anything from someone like that!"


    "It''s true that my mother has always been a bit crazy, and she never liked me at all, in fact, I barely even know her. However, she never did anything this drastic until that witch came!"


    If that''s how it is I can see why she doesn''t like witches... wait, when did I accept the fact that witches are real? I still have not seen any proof.


    "And that witch that you''re talking about... do you know what the color of her hat was?"


    "It was blue, why do you ask?"


    "Blue? That can''t be... are you sure?"


    Arana looks confused for some reason.


    "How old was she?"


    "She looked very young, I''d say around eleven years old"


    "Mmmmmm"


    Does Arana know who she is? She looks lost in thought, and then she looks at the sky and seems to get scared.


    "Luna! That crow over there is a monster! Shoot it down!"


    "Eh!? Ah! Sure! Shadow lance!"


    The crow got obliterated with just one attack, what was Arana afraid of?


    "In any case, we should go to the Agua kingdom next, if your mother is planning to do something bad you probably would like to stop her, right? We would like to help you out"


    "Help me? I guess I do want to stop her, but can you two really help me?"


    "Of course we can! Luna is really strong after all"


    "I''m not sure if me being strong will be enough to stop her mother from... wait, shouldn''t we ask what her mother wants to do before we offer our help?"


    "Luna, isn''t it natural for you to help your new friend?"


    What!? Did she just say that Nera is my friend!?


    When I hear that, I quickly get near her and place my hands on her shoulders.


    "Is that true!? Are we really friends!?"


    That sounds too good to be true, can I truly make a real friend? One that doesn''t get me into trouble and laughs at me all the time?


    "Uh... yes, I guess we can be friends if you want"


    "We''re friends!"


    I cannot stop the tears from coming out.


    "Hey, are you alright?"


    "Frieeeennd"


    -???-


    A young woman wearing a green pointy hat just entered my room, the smile on her face makes me think that she knows something that I don''t.


    "Is something the matter?"


    "I finally found our lost sister"


    "Is that true? Tell me what you saw"


    ...


    ..


    .


    "I see..."


    Not long ago, the prophecy of the queen of darkness was made public in a small remote country, there''s only one person who could be responsible for that, after all, an oracle will not make a prophecy public until a witch tells them to do it, and the only witch I had lost track of is Arana, however, I couldn''t understand what she was trying to do until just now.


    "Hahaha, you say that she''s with the queen of darkness? I see I see, so that''s what she''s planning..."


    "I believe that they intend to go to the Agua kingdom next"


    "The Agua kingdom? If I remember correctly that''s where Ranna is right now, we''ll have to send her some instructions"


    I have to admit that I had underestimated you Arana, and yet, I can only call you a fool for trying to go against me.


    forli


    I had been thinking that I could change what the ''truth about Arana'' was until I wrote this chapter, but now it''s too late :S.


    Also, I want to clarify that the name of that character at the end is not actually ''???'', that just means that we do not know her yet.

 Chapter 30: Ditching the dragon

    I''m so dumb, why do I have to be this dumb?


    "So how long has it been since you saw her leaving?"


    "Around ten hours mistress"


    I completely forgot about that necromancer demon, but you can''t blame me! All my attention was taken by the ant... who am I kidding, of course I''m to blame, I should have restrained her with a spell that lasted longer than paralysis.


    The dragon says that he saw her running away ten hours ago, she could be anywhere by now, I can''t believe I let someone so dangerous escape...


    "And why didn''t you try to catch her?"


    "Well... you didn''t seem to be concerned about her at all so I just thought that you didn''t want to capture her"


    Is he serious? This guy is really not very smart, is he... this makes me wonder...


    "Hey... could you tell me what your wisdom stat is?"


    "My wisdom? It''s nine, why do you ask?"


    Nine... the average is around twenty, so he''s at less than half of that, and yet that''s still more than twice of mine.


    That can''t be, there''s no way this dragon can be smarter than me.


    "Ara, you know how stats work, don''t you? Why is his wisdom higher than mine?" I ask her whispering so that he doesn''t hear.


    "Mmmm, let me think, how can I explain this?"


    Arana thinks for a bit and then turns to the dragon.


    "Alright, Mr. Dragon, imagine that you want to steal something from some building and it''s very important that nobody sees you do it, you get lucky and manage to do it without any trouble, however, you are not sure if you left the drawer where you found it closed, would you go back inside just to make sure that you did?"


    "Huh? Of course not, nobody is that dumb"


    "See? He''s not THAT dumb"


    I should not have asked...


    "Whatever, here''s the relic you were looking for, you can go back to your home now"


    "My home? What do you mean by that?"


    "You found the ''horn of the earth'', shouldn''t you take it back?"


    "I''m your underling now, I have to go with you"


    Wait, was he actually serious about that?


    "Don''t you already work for those dragon elders you mentioned?"


    "Not really, those who live in the dragon nation are expected to fulfill a request from the elders, but it''s not as if I swore loyalty to them, and I already found the relic which is all they asked of me"


    "Well, that''s great... but I don''t want you to become my underling"


    "EEEEH!!!?"


    Why does he look so shocked? I thought that was obvious from the start.


    "Why not!? If I''m not good enough I promise that I will do my best to improve and live up to your expectations! Just give me a bit of time!"


    "No, that''s not it, I''m just worried that your attitude is going to contribute to people thinking that I''m evil!"


    "Uh? Who cares? Even if they think that you''re evil you are strong enough to deal with anyone"


    "That''s it! That''s exactly the problem! You cannot just ignore what other people think because you''re stronger!"


    "Why not?"


    "Look... this is not going to work, let''s go our separate ways now"


    "Never! I was born to become your servant! I''ve never been more certain of anything in my life!"


    He''s just not going to listen to me, no matter what I say is he... I need to get rid of him somehow.


    "Well then I''ll give you a job, fly back to where you last saw that demon and see if you can still find her"


    "Uh? But that was ten hours ago, and she was running really fast, there''s no way I''ll be able to find her"


    "I think that there may still be a chance of her being around that area, take a look just in case"


    "Well, if you say so..."


    After seeing him fly away I turn around to Arana and Nera.


    "Alright, let''s take this chance to leave him behind"


    "Hehehe, I guess it might be more interesting in the long run to leave that guy unsupervised for a while"


    "..."


    "Was it really a good idea to get rid of Irvan like that?"


    "Irvan?"


    "Yes, Irvan, you know, the dragon"


    "Oh, right, I forgot he had a name, don''t worry, he probably would have just caused more trouble for us"


    Nera seems to be concerned about going back to her country, but I still don''t know why she had to leave in the first place.


    "So Nera, could you please tell us about the problem with your mother?"


    "Ah, right... you see, my mother has never been a very popular queen, she''s very arrogant and gets angry all the time, and on top of that, she doesn''t have the ability of the royal family to communicate with the water spirits that dwell in our kingdom"


    "Oh! Do you have that ability?"


    "I have more than that... normally my family is able to receive strange visions or have some words appear in their minds, but my skill ''good listener'' lets me clearly hear the voices of the spirits, I can even hold actual conversations with them, but that ended up being the origin of my problems..."


    Nera stops for a moment before continuing, she looks a bit sad.


    "When I was four years old, I said in front of a lot of people that the spirits had told me that they didn''t like my mother, I was too young to understand the implications of saying something like that, my mother started to strongly dislike me ever since that day"


    So her own mother didn''t want her, huh... I understand how that feels, she''s a bit similar to me in a certain way.


    "That''s not your fault! A mother should not dislike her own child for such a small reason! Or for any reason, really!"


    "Huh!?"


    She seems surprised when I suddenly hug her.


    "No no! I''m fine, really, let me continue..."


    When I let her go I see that her face is a bit red, maybe I used too much strength...


    "There''s another reason people don''t like my mother, and that is the fact that she wants to get rid of the demons living in our kingdom. The demons living in the Agua kingdom are considered to be citizens and amount to about half of the population, most nobles strongly oppose my mother on that matter, and even if she''s the queen, she doesn''t have absolute power, that is a great source of resentment for her, and that''s why..."


    "Mistress! You almost left me behind!"


    An annoying dragon comes flying and interrupts Nera''s story, I guess it''s not that easy to get rid of him.


    "That was the idea, I was trying to leave without you"


    "What!? Why!? If I did something wrong just punish me please!"


    Why does he sound like he''s looking forward to being punished? It just feels very disturbing... I cannot let him continue to follow me, I guess I''ll use a more direct method this time.


    ''Mind void''


    "Alright let''s leave while he''s sleeping"


    "Sure..."


    "So Nera, what were you going to say?"


    "Oh, yes, I also need to tell you about Kalroth, the demon lord that has his territory just next to our kingdom"


    Kalroth? I think I''ve heard that name somewhere before...


    "He was born in a place known as the ''infernal caverns'', an extremely dangerous area filled with rivers of lava and powerful monsters, it should be impossible for a newborn demon to survive in that place or be able to escape it, but Kalroth was strong enough to do it, as a result of such a feat that proved his incredible strength he became known as ''Kalroth the infernal'', he became a demon lord not long after"


    I see... I guess that is pretty impressive.


    "He gained a large number of followers and conquered many tribes of demons, then he created a system where the strong rule and the weak are treated as little more than slaves. Also, he seems to want as many of his subordinates as possible to gain the ''demon lord'' title as well, but I don''t know why"


    "Oh! I think I might know"


    Arana seems like she was waiting for the chance to say something.


    "He''s probably trying to obtain the ''demon king'' title, that requires to have at least 1000 underlings with the ''demon lord'' title"


    "1000? That sounds really hard"


    "It is, as far as anyone knows, only one person has ever been able to get it, the demon king who tried to take over the world 2000 years ago, but that title supposedly comes with a great increase in power so it might be worth the effort"


    "Well, I don''t know the details, but it seems like the way he organized the country that he had created caused them to not be very prosperous, they have to resort to act as bandits and attack the nearby countries, and they have not been able to expand their territory any further, that''s when a witch approached my mother and proposed an alliance between her and Kalroth"


    "An alliance?"


    "To make it simple, first Kalroth will have his underlings assassinate all the nobles who oppose my mother, then she will send all the demons in the Agua kingdom to him, after that, the Agua kingdom will use its resources to support him while Kalroth acts as the muscle and continues his conquest for the two of them. My mother underestimated my skill and I heard about her plans, that''s why I had to escape before they silenced me"


    So she wants to get rid of the demons but she''s willing to form an alliance with a demon lord? That seems a bit hypocritical.


    "That witch told your mother to kill you?"


    "No, she said that locking me up in the dungeon would be enough, it was my mother who said that they should kill me"


    Ugh... that woman sounds like she''s completely insane.


    "Mistress! Sorry for falling asleep!"


    Aaaargh, why won''t he go away!?


    That spell didn''t keep him sleeping for long, I underestimated his resistance to magic...


    "Please! Just leave! I''m begging you!"


    "I could never abandon my mistress! I will always be by your side!"


    That''s it, I didn''t want to do this but he''s forced me to use drastic measures.


    ''Shadow chain''


    "Eeeh!?"


    "Don''t worry, that chain will disappear in 48 hours, you''re tough enough to last that long, even if a monster shows up"


    "But mistress! If you keep traveling all that time while I''m here, how will I be able to find you again?"


    "THAT''S THE POINT!!! YOU ARE NOT SUPPOSED TO FIND ME AGAIN!!!"


    At least I hope that he doesn''t...


    forli


    Also, I was wondering, did anyone remember his name?

 Chapter 31: Weird people

    -Nera-


    We have been traveling for ten days now, this is a bit rough since I''m not used to walking this much, but at least I''ve gotten to know Luna a bit better, she''s actually a really nice person despite what she looks like, but she does not seem very good at interacting with people.


    As a princess, I''ve lived a very sheltered life, so I don''t have a lot of experience dealing with people either unless you count formal meetings, and yet, I''m an extrovert compared to her. It''s as if she''s incapable to hold a normal conversation with anyone she doesn''t know well, but that might also be because of how scary she is.


    "Aaaah, I cannot do better than 19 out of 20"


    Since she was worried about her lack of practical experience using magic in battle, I told her about some of the training exercises that I''ve seen combat mages perform.


    Right now she''s firing attack magic from a distance at some sticks stuck on the ground, trying to not damage them below a mark drawn at a different height on each of them.


    This is a very difficult exercise that requires both accuracy and a high degree of control to stop the spells from damaging their surroundings, and yet Luna has figured out how to do it without any trouble, in just ten days she went from the level of a novice to an expert, her talent when it comes to magic is difficult to believe.


    "I''ve been doing this for ten days already and yet I''m still doing it wrong 5% of the time, what could I be missing?"


    "You reached that level in only ten days and you''re still complaining? A success rate of 95% would be enough to join an elite squad of mages you know"


    "Seriously? You should not call them elites if they''re still in need of more practice, I think that your standards are way too low"


    "No, you''re the one with stupidly high standards..."


    Because she''s always been alone she never had anyone to compare herself to, so she is under the impression that her skill in magic is around average, after all, the average of only her, is her, and even if I keep telling her that normal people are not able to do the things she can, she doesn''t seem to be able to fully understand it.


    That''s just completely unfair, you cannot compare regular people to a super genius like her.


    "Hey girls! Dinner is ready!"


    As for the witch... I really cannot trust her at all, she''s clearly trying to use Luna for some secret plan of hers. Such a naive person having so much power... is really dangerous isn''t it, and that witch is the worst possible person to be in a position to influence her, I need to do something about her...


    Also, that spider of hers has beaten me at checkers ten times already, how does a spider even learn to play checkers? Am I the only one who thinks this is weird?


    "Oh, Ara, this is really good as always"


    Well yes, I have to admit that she''s a very good cook, but eating this is making me feel indebted to her.


    "I don''t want to just take your food and give nothing in return, is there any way I could pay you back?"


    "Of course you can pay, since you''re a princess you must have a lot of money, no?"


    "Ara! You cannot just ask someone for money like that"


    "Money? It''s not a lot, but I took some with me, let me see"


    I take a look inside my purse and start counting the coins.


    "8 gold coins, 7 large silver, 12 silver, and 5 copper..."


    "Did you say 12 silver!!!?"


    "Luna..."


    The witch is holding her face with her hand and Luna is staring at me with her mouth open... what''s going on? Did I say something wrong?


    "Why didn''t you change 10 of those silver coins for a large one when you had the chance!?"


    "Eh!? Was I supposed to do that?"


    "Don''t mind her, that''s just one of Luna''s weird obsessions, she hates it when someone has more than 9 coins of the same type with them, just ignore her"


    "It''s not weird! You can change any 10 coins of the same type for one of a higher value, so having more than 9 is just inefficient"


    "I see... I''ll keep that in mind for the future"


    The queen of darkness really seems to be quite an eccentric person.


    Luna went to sleep already, but I''m going to stay awake a little longer, I''ve decided that I need to do something about that witch.


    It doesn''t matter how many times I try to tell Luna that her friend is really suspicious, she just agrees with me each time and then keeps going like normal, if I want her to listen to me I''m going to need something more specific to tell her, which means that I need to figure out what the witch is planning.


    "Hey princess! Aren''t you going to sleep?"


    "Ah!"


    She surprised me! When did she get behind me?


    Well, this seems like a chance to learn more about her.


    "Oh, Arana, you surprised me, I was thinking about you right now"


    "About me? I''m not a very interesting person, you know"


    I have to disagree with that...


    "Luna told me that you were from someplace far away, could you tell me about your home?"


    "Well, I was born in the northern continent"


    "Really? Which country are you from?"


    "You wouldn''t know it, it''s a very small country"


    "And what kind of country is it?"


    "You know, a small, boring one"


    She keeps avoiding my questions... well then, how about this.


    "I was thinking... when I told you about the witch who''s working for my mother you sounded like you knew who she is"


    "Oh, yeah, I think that she might be my little sister, Ranna"


    "Your sister!?"


    How can she say something so crazy as if it''s not a big deal?


    "Well, it might not be her, what you told me doesn''t fit her personality after all, and I have not seen her in six years, so I wouldn''t know what she''s up to anyway"


    Does she expect me to believe that after she just admitted to being her sister?


    "Ufufu, you really don''t trust me at all, do you, what are you trying to accomplish asking all of these questions?"


    "I know that you''re just trying to take advantage of Luna! What are you planning to do with her!?"


    "Take advantage of Luna? Me?"


    Huh? Why did she get serious all of a sudden?


    "That''s a really bold thing for a cheater like you to say"


    "Wha-!? Cheater!?"


    "You have been getting to know Luna these past few days, have you not? She''s so smart and beautiful and yet so humble, so powerful and yet so kind, and her personality is truly one of a kind"


    "Well, I guess, but what are you..."


    "And I''m the only one who knows!!! Every single one of those idiots who have been lucky enough to meet her have been unable to see past her scary exterior, I''m the only one who knows her real self!"


    Just what is she going on about?


    "And you... you cheated to learn the truth about Luna, you were afraid of her like all the others, but then she tied you up and forced you to stay with her and see what she was truly like, that''s cheating, don''t you think?"


    "Well, I..."


    "And as her friend, I should probably get rid of someone like you, who does not deserve her, Luna will be better without you"


    "What!? Who gave you the right to decide who can or cannot be friends with Luna!?"


    That made me a bit angry, does she think that Luna is her pet or something?


    "As I thought... you want to take Luna away from me..."


    "MMMMM!!!?"


    All of a sudden I notice that there''s something in my mouth stopping me from talking, and my arms and legs have been tied up by something invisible, I can''t move!


    "If you disappear, Luna will be all for me alone again..."


    Why does she have such a crazy expression on her face!? And why is there a knife on her hand!!!?


    She''s going to stab me! No! No!!! NOOO!!!


    ...


    Huh? It doesn''t hurt... it looks like the knife was bent when it hit my chest... what!?


    "Fwahahaha!!! You should have seen your face! Did you really believe that this knife was real?"


    Eeh!!!? She''s bending the knife several times with her hand... it was a fake?


    "How did you even fall for that? Did you forget that I was the one who said that you and Luna should become friends? Hahaha"


    My restrains go away and I can talk again.


    "That wasn''t funny! I was really scared!!!"


    "Oh, I guess a princess would not be used to being pranked, but this is normal among friends"


    Is it really normal? I have to admit that I wouldn''t know that...


    "Let''s just go to sleep already, and stop worrying so much"


    So that was all a joke, right? She wasn''t being serious...


    I think I will hold back on trying to expose her to Luna, just in case...


    forli

 Chapter 32: The knight’s mission

    -Silvea-


    "Watch out!"


    *Woosh*


    I tilt my head to the left and a bladed limb barely misses my neck, before the ''death mantis'' can strike again, I take the chance to slice its thin body in half with a single swing of my sword, then I jump backward to distance myself from the remaining six.


    ''Razor wind''


    Paula''s spell comes from behind me and decapitates two more of the insects, but the rest of them don''t seem to get scared at all and rush towards us, I need to hold them back until she''s ready to cast another spell.


    "Leave this one to me!"


    Roul grabs the forelegs of one of the death mantises with his armored gauntlets and then tears them off with nothing but his raw strength, no matter how many times I see it, I always keep getting impressed by his strength. Then he pulls out a dagger from his side and slices its neck.


    I manage to take out another one, and I see Paula''s spell slicing yet another in half, but where''s the last one?


    "Eeeek!!!"


    Somehow it managed to sneak its way past us and is now attacking Paula, I need to do something!


    "Agh!"


    *Clang*


    I barely make it in time to block the slash, but in my hurry, I''m unable to take a proper stance and my sword is knocked off my hands.


    Being unarmed in front of such a monster should be quite a terrifying experience, and yet, I do not feel scared at all, maintaining my calm, I dodge the next few attacks coming my way until Roul gets here and stabs the mantis from behind.


    "Silvea! Are you alright!?"


    "Yes, I''m fine"


    "You really have become brave recently, nothing seems to be able to scare you anymore"


    Nothing is able to scare me... that might appear to be true, but it has nothing to do with bravery, I simply cannot help but keep comparing everything to the time I was chased by the very embodiment of terror, something like a giant mantis seems cute by comparison.


    "You did it! You killed them!"


    It seems like the old man from the village who told us about the monsters had been watching the fight.


    "When I saw those things wandering around the forest I thought that we would need to leave our village, how could I possibly thank you for this?"


    "There''s no need sir, this is our job as knights"


    Paula always sounds so cool when she acts professionally.


    "But you are not knights from this kingdom are you..."


    He turns to look at me.


    "And it was really surprising that such a small and cute girl could be so strong"


    "Well, Silvea is very talented and hardworking, so that''s to be expected"


    "No... I''m really not that great..."


    I don''t deserve to be praised, not after the incident with the queen of darkness, I cannot believe I sleep the whole time while the captain was doing his best to fight, and as a result, he received a curse that nobody was able to identify.


    Even if he pretended to be fine it must be really hard on him, after all, the queen of darkness left him alive with only that curse, and with no way of knowing what it is we can only assume the worst, he even told us that we should be prepared to kill him if necessary, I don''t even want to think about that...


    Since it would be far too dangerous for the captain to go after her with that unknown curse, it was decided that Roul, Paula and myself would become ''knights errant'', which in practice means that we are now adventurers working directly for our kingdom, then I would use my ''perfect pursuer'' skill to follow the queen of darkness from a safe distance and keep monitoring her.


    However, there''s no way we can confront her directly, we would get killed for sure, that much was made clear shortly after we began following her. We saw her cast a monstrous spell that reduced an entire mountain to rubble, when we went later to investigate we encountered two tribes of demons that were too terrified to tell us what had happened, they didn''t say anything no matter how much we asked, just what horrible things did she do to scare them so much?


    In the end, we decided to report about the spell but not about the demons, they were clearly only victims, after all, so we didn''t want the higherups to think that they were related to her.


    After that we found several guards chained inside of a carriage, according to their testimony, the queen of darkness has kidnapped the princess of the Agua kingdom, she also killed two of her guards and placed several curses on the rest. That girl must be so scared... I want to help her but there''s nothing that we can do...


    Then she went to another town and stayed for a while until she decided to start destroying the place and terrorize the citizens there, we weren''t able to investigate what that was about because she left in a hurry for some reason, so we had to chase after her.


    No matter how much we think about it, we just cannot see how all of these things connect to each other. To be honest, if I didn''t know any better, I would think that she''s just traveling without any specific goal in mind and she''s just randomly getting herself involved into a bunch of different incidents, but that cannot be, we are talking about someone who was patient enough to keep herself hidden for years while she was getting ready to conquer the world, this has to be all part of some greater plan.


    "Silvea! Look at this! You just reached level 100!"


    It seems like Paula pointed an appraisal stone at me while I was thinking.


    "Oh! It''s true! We should have a feast to celebrate!"


    And as always Roul is thinking about food.


    "That''s not something to celebrate, I''m still far too weak..."


    "Why do you always have to be so negative? You have been gaining a lot of levels lately, you might even surpass the captain someday"


    Even if Paula says that, when I think about how much stronger our enemy is, I cannot help feeling depressed.


    We leave the village the next morning to continue our pursuit, but there''s something I cannot get out of my mind.


    "Is there really nothing we can do to help that captive princess?"


    I cannot imagine how terrible it must be to be the prisoner of the queen of darkness, I feel so sorry for that poor girl...


    "I also feel bad for that girl, but there''s no way we can possibly rescue her"


    "That''s not entirely true"


    Eh? There''s a strange girl just ahead.


    She looks much shorter and younger than even me, her body is completely covered by a blue robe and on her head, she''s wearing a blue pointy hat. There''s also a small frog standing on the hat, wearing a miniature version of its owner''s hat.


    "Allow me to introduce myself, my name is Ranna, I currently work as an assistant for the queen of the Agua kingdom, here''s the proof of my identity"


    She shows us a necklace that I assume is supposed to prove that she''s who she claims to be, but I don''t really know what it is...


    "The princess of our kingdom was kidnapped recently by the queen of darkness, brave knights! I request your assistance in order to rescue her!"


    She''s making such an impassionate speech but her face seems to be completely expressionless... that actually makes her look cute in a weird way.


    "We would love to help, but I''m not sure if we can..."


    "This is also personal for me, my older sister is working for the queen of darkness"


    "Your sister!?"


    Is she serious about that?


    "My sister is very smart and it''s not easy to catch her off guard, but I believe that the skill you have been using to chase after her is the key to defeating her"


    "You mean ''perfect pursuer''?"


    How will that help? That skill is for finding people, not defeating them.


    "Yes, that one, you see, we can take advantage of the fact that your skill is extremely rare, so rare that my sister does not know it exists, and not knowing, she won''t be able to predict your attack"


    "Eh? But what about..."


    "My sister has taken measures to make sure that nobody can find her while traveling, but your skill can let you chase after her regardless, thanks to that, you''ll be able to strike at a time when she believes that nobody will be able to locate her"


    "Well, that''s great, but what about the queen of darkness?"


    "Don''t worry about her, I''ll distract her while you rescue the princess"


    "What? How?"


    "By distracting her"


    She sounds like she thinks that her sister is a bigger threat than the queen of darkness, does she not know who we are dealing with?


    "It won''t be easy to defeat my sister, but you should be able to do it if you focus on trying to steal her hat, that is her greatest weakness"


    "Her hat?"


    How can a hat be a weakness?


    "Yes, a white hat similar to the one I''m wearing, I will be grateful if you give it to me afterward"


    "I see... so about the queen of darkness..."


    "I will distract her"


    "..."


    "And one more thing, I believe that the princess has been subjected to some form of mind control, she may resist when you try to rescue her and even claim that she''s not been kidnapped at all"


    Mind control? That''s terrible! I didn''t know such a thing was possible.


    "What is your answer? Will you help me?"


    I take a look at Paula and Roul but they just shrug their shoulders.


    "If you can really do what you said... then yes"


    forli


    But don''t worry, we''ll go back to Luna next time

 Chapter 33: Equip and unequip

    "Alright Luna, it''s finally time to make some equipment for you"


    "Are you sure that you want my help with this? I''ve never done anything like this before"


    Because I do not own any equipment I''m not as effective in battle as my level would suggest, so Arana said that she''s going to enchant some objects for me and that if I help her she can make them powerful enough for someone of my level.


    Until now I didn''t think that I needed any more power than I already had, but now we''re probably going to walk into a confrontation with some dangerous people, so I should probably do everything I can to make sure that they won''t be able to beat me in a fight at least.


    "You know how to make magic circles and how to place spell effects on a target, don''t you? Turning a common object into equipment is just that with a few extra steps, I can take care of those steps, so don''t worry"


    Arana takes out a few silver rings from her pocket and gives one to me.


    "Try to cast ''darkness boost'' on that ring, then create a magic circle to make the effect permanent"


    What''s that supposed to do? ''Darkness boost'' increases the power of dark spells used by the target, but I don''t think a ring would be able to cast a spell since it''s an inanimate object and all... well if it does it will be quite a surprise, I guess I''ll do it since I want to see what happens.


    "There, done"


    "Alright, let me engrave this"


    Arana uses a strange tool that looks like a long needle with a glowing tip to make the magic circle made of my mana merge with the ring, leaving the markings engraved on it.


    "Is that how equipment is made?"


    The process is a lot simpler than I thought, although it took her some time.


    "Let''s take a look with the appraisal stone, these work on equipment as well"


    Greater ring of deep darkness


    Increases magic by 80 when using dark magic


    Required level: 200


    Equipment burden: 10%


    Enchantment rank: 20


    "Oh! As expected of Luna''s spell, this is some high-quality equipment, If someone had ten of these they could increase their magic by a total of 800, that''s amazing! And since the rank of the enchantment is the same as your rank in dark magic the rank of this ring is probably higher than that of any other equipment you can find"


    Since the magic in different pieces of equipment interferes with each other, there''s a limit to how much any one person can wear, that is called ''equipment burden'', the burden of 10% of this ring means that someone can use up to ten of them at once.


    An average level 200 mage has just over 600 magic, so an increase of 800 would be rather significant, but I''m not sure if it''s all that useful for me, mostly because I''m already unwilling to use my full power, so what''s the point of increasing it even further?


    "I know what you''re thinking, but don''t worry, this one was just a test, now we''ll make something more useful"


    "What do you mean?"


    "Here, try using that flying magic of yours on this cloak"


    "That is complex magic created by me, made of three different spells, can something like that be made into equipment as well?"


    "Of course it can go ahead"


    This time the process seems more difficult than before, she uses her tool to somehow sew the mana of my spells into the fabric of the cloak, I don''t know much about sewing but I can tell that it must take a lot of skill to do something like this.


    Sky terror cloak


    Allows its wearer to manifest wings and fly for up to 5 minutes, recharges after 45 minutes.


    Required level: 280


    Equipment burden: 20%


    Enchantment rank: 20


    "Since flying always tires you out so much you cannot make a lot of use of that magic, but with this cloak, you''ll get 5 minutes of flight for free, no use of mana or stamina required"


    "Oh! That''s great! But... what''s the deal with the name?"


    "If you ever saw what you look like when you fly with those pitch-black wings you would understand..."


    Uh? What''s that supposed to mean?


    "Anyway, next I want to try to make a piece of equipment with two entirely separate spells, try to cast ''Paralysis'' and ''Mana grudge'' on each of these gloves"


    ''Paralysis'' can make someone the caster touches unable to move while ''Mana grudge'' leaves a mark made of mana on anyone who tries to attack the caster, combining the two resulted in...


    Stunning vengeful gloves


    Inflicts a powerful paralysis effect on anyone who attacks the wearer.


    Required level: 250


    Equipment burden: 30%


    Enchantment rank: 20


    "This can be very useful, the best part is that it can cause its effect without having to hit the opponent, so it''s a perfect counter for opponents with high evasion"


    "Oh... that really makes me wish we had made these before I fought the ant..."


    "See? I told you that you needed to get some equipment, so next, we should..."


    Before we can continue I notice that Nera has returned from her stroll.


    "Hey, Luna! I found something interesting! You need to come and take a look"


    "Really? What is it?"


    I suppose we can take a short break from making equipment.


    Nera takes us to a place not far away from where we were, there''s a pond of water that seems... warm?


    "Hey, is this a hot spring?"


    "Exactly! I was really lucky to find something like this just by wandering around"


    I had never seen a hot spring before, to think that it''s possible to find hot water in nature, this is amazing.


    "That''s weird... this does not seem like the kind of place where you can find one of these"


    Arana is looking at the spring with a bit of suspicion.


    "There''s nothing weird about a hot spring, we have a lot of these in the Agua kingdom, I used to visit them quite often"


    Is that so? That makes me a bit jealous.


    "So, can we take a bath here?"


    "Yeah, that''s the idea, no?"


    "Oh! Great! Ever since I started this journey I''ve only been able to use cold water, this should be nice for a change"


    Looking forward to the bath I take off my dress, but when she sees what I''m doing, Nera covers her eyes with her hands.


    "L-Luna! What are you doing!?"


    "Eh? I''m just taking off my clothes before entering the water"


    "Don''t do it in front of us!!!"


    "Why not? Is that wrong?"


    I thought that since we''re all girls and are going to take a bath it would be ok to undress here, but I guess I just don''t know much about social norms...


    "I think it''s fine"


    Arana seems to agree with me.


    "No! It''s not fine! A lady should never let other people see her naked! We need to enter the water one at a time! Luna, since you already took off your dress, you are first"


    And with that she grabs Arana by her wrist and drags her away, she got really worked up over this, even though I didn''t even take off my underwear, I guess that must be because of her upbringing as a princess.


    Well, since I''m all alone now, I''ll finish undressing and get in the water.


    "Oh! This really feels nice!"


    I close my eyes and relax for a bit...


    ...


    This is even better than I imagined, it makes me want to stay here the entire day.


    However, I should probably not make them wait too long, I need to get out of here soon.


    But I cannot remember where I left my clothes, I don''t see them anywhere...


    No, really, I don''t see them anywhere, where did they go? They disappeared without a trace...


    Mmm, I guess I can just take some other clothes from my storage.


    "Eh!? There are no clothes here!"


    All the clothes that I had inside my storage are gone as well, what in the world is going on here? The only thing I can do to cover myself is to wrap my towel around my body.


    "Ribbit"


    "Uh? Who''s there?"


    A bit further away I see a group of really large frogs, actually, I think that they''re monsters since they''re standing on two feet and they are holding...the clothes I had in my storage.


    What!? How!? Taking something out of someone else''s magic storage is something only a highly skilled mage should be able to do, how did a bunch of frogs manage to do it? And why!?


    "How did you get that?"


    "Ribbit"


    "Please, give me back my clothes"


    "Ribbit"


    "Hey! That was rude! Take it back!"


    I don''t really understand what they are saying, but I''m going to assume that they were insulting me.


    "Ribbit, ribbit, ribbit"


    Ah! They are running away, I can''t let them escape.


    "Come back here!!!"


    forli


    In the end I included it in this chapter since I had some room, I hope it doesn''t feel too out of place.

 Chapter 34: High stakes fight

    "Come back! How are you so fast!?"


    Despite my high speed stat, I''m having trouble chasing the frogs, the truth is that I''m not good at running and this is some difficult terrain. If it wasn''t for my high toughness I''m sure that I would have gotten hurt from stepping on all the sharp rocks with my bare feet, and none of my stats can stop me from repeatedly tripping and falling on the ground...


    Eventually, I follow the frogs into a small, concealed valley surrounded by steep cliffs, I see them leave all my clothes on a rock next to a small lake, but the problem is that all around the valley there are...


    "Ribbit"


    "Ribbit?"


    "Ribbit!"


    Frogs, more frogs than I can possibly count, some small, some much bigger than me, and all of them are looking at me.


    "Uuuum, excuse me"


    Step by step I slowly walk into the valley, all of the frogs have gone quiet and are intensely staring at me, this is really awkward...


    "I''m only here to get my clothes back, I''ll leave in a moment"


    "Excuse me, I''m afraid that you will have to fight against me if you want them back"


    A small girl that looks no older than 12 with droopy eyes and a completely neutral expression on her face is somehow standing on top of the water of the lake, she''s wearing a blue hat and has a frog that wears a smaller version of that hat... why does that feel familiar?


    "Uh... who might you be?


    She bows her head forward a bit before introducing herself.


    "My name is Ranna, the witch of water, I will be your comically underpowered opponent today"


    "Oh, I''m Luna"


    I try to bow my head in the same way she did, I''m not good at acting formally...


    "Wait... do you know Arana by any chance?"


    "I do, she''s my older sister"


    Her sister!? Is this girl the one that Nera told us about? If so that means she''s an enemy... and are all of these frogs working for her?


    "Why do you want to fight me? What are you after?"


    "Nothing, I''m only doing what my older sister told me to"


    "Arana told you to do this?"


    "No, I mean my oldest older sister"


    I''ll need to ask Arana about her family one of these days.


    She''s raising one hand, is she going to start the fight? I can''t tell what she''s thinking because of her expressionless face.


    "I don''t know if I can do this..."


    Oh? Could it be that she''s being forced to fight by her sister and she does not really want to?


    "I''m a very shy person, I don''t know if I can fight against someone who''s only wearing a towel..."


    "WELL! THAT''S YOUR FAULT!!!"


    "Mmmm, I think I got an idea"


    She snaps her fingers and a few of the frogs around us pick up some mirrors and make them face me, she then points her finger at me.


    "Those are recording mirrors, if you were to drop that towel at any time during our fight, I''ll be able to send the scene to anyone who owns an enchanted mirror, so you better hold on to it tightly"


    "What!? You cannot be serious!"


    This is bad! I''ve never been in a fight with such high stakes before, now I''m really getting nervous.


    When she raises her hand again a ring on her finger glows and the water in the lake begins to change shape, what kind of attack is this? I don''t have my appraisal stone here, so I cannot even check her level...


    "Uh... I''m sorry, you seem to be out of range for my attack, could you please move a bit closer to the lake?"


    I probably shouldn''t... but I cannot say no when she asks so politely...


    "Is over here alri... WOAH!!!"


    In less than a second, a large mass of water takes the shape of a giant frog and its tongue extends towards me, catching me in a strong current that drags me towards its stomach.


    However, I manage to keep hold of my towel.


    ''Bwadoh Bwance''


    It seems like a shadow lance is not going to help, it just made a hole on the frog but the water quickly refills it.


    ''Gwaviwy wob''


    On the other hand, gravity bomb sucks up the water to the side and the frog falls apart.


    I fall into the lake which seems to be where Ranna wanted me to be as she tosses a strange blue orb into the water, causing the lake to freeze all around me.


    So cold! I need to do something about all this ice trapping me.


    ''Hellfire''


    Hellfire is a spell that recreates a fire spell even though it belongs to the darkness attribute making it perfect for melting the ice, but it seems like I used too much power and most of the water in the lake ends up evaporating.


    "Amazing! I have never seen someone use such powerful magic without help from items or equipment"


    That praise does not really sound genuine when she keeps the same blank expression and monotone voice...


    Anyway, now it''s my turn to attack.


    ''Shadow chain''


    The chain wraps around Ranna immobilizing her.


    "Ah, you got me"


    Really? Did I get her so easily? I was not expecting to beat her with my first attack...


    Anyway, now I can finally go get... wait, why can''t I move!?


    "Ha"


    "Ha"


    "Ha"


    "You fell for my trap!"


    "Wait! That was a laugh!?"


    Not only did she not smile at all, but she also made several pauses mid-laugh so long that each part of the laugh felt like a different line...


    "You know... it''s rude to make fun of the way someone laughs"


    "I wasn''t making fun of it, I was just surprised"


    "Anyway, as I was saying you fell for my trap, do you recognize these?"


    She shows me the pair of gloves she''s wearing... wait, aren''t those the gloves that I enchanted with Arana earlier? They were supposed to paralyze anyone who attacks the wearer, is that why I cannot move? She must have put them on after stealing them earlier.


    "Since you are the one who enchanted them, this counts as rank 20 magic, even you will be affected by it"


    Even though we made them so that they would help me in fights, the first time they get used is against me...


    "Wait.. how did you equip those? Are you above level 250?"


    "No, I''m not... did Arana not tell you anything about witches?"


    "She didn''t..."


    Is she implying that they really are witches? And what exactly is a witch anyway?


    Still, we have both been immobilized and I can break this spell in a few seconds if I focus, which means that I still won the fight.


    "Now, burly frog, take off her towel"


    "Eh?"


    A bipedal frog more than three meters tall with very large muscles approaches me from behind, how can a frog grow human-like muscles like those?


    "Riiiiiiibbit"


    "Nooo! Not the towel!"


    This is bad! I won''t be able to undo the paralysis in time! I need to think of something fast!


    I can still cast spells but I won''t be able to aim, the only thing I could hit in this situation is myself... wait that''s it!


    ''Shadow lance''


    I aim my spell at my own neck opening a hole in it, then immediately fix it by using flesh shaping.


    "What!?"


    For the first time, Ranna is showing a hint of surprise on her face, with that I mean that she''s raising her eyebrows slightly.


    But there''s a reason why I did that, temporary spell effects such as paralysis end when the one afflicted takes mortal damage, even if they are healed afterward, this is a not very well known way of getting rid of them since not many people can do it without actually killing the person they are trying to help.


    Now that I can move again I turn around and punch the muscular frog on its stomach, sending it flying against a cliff wall where it makes a hole and gets stuck with only its legs hanging out.


    "Since I won the fight I''m going to take back my clothes, is that clear?"


    When I show them my fist the rest of the frogs all step aside and at last I''m able to get my clothes back.


    After gathering all my stuff I look for a place where I can put my clothes back on.


    "You really are Arana''s sister, she also usually steals my clothes and then alters them to make them a bit too small for me, she always makes fun of me for being so tall"


    "Yeah, that''s the kind of thing Arana always does"


    "Did she steal your clothes too?"


    "Yes, she made them a bit too big for me, she always made fun of me for being so short"


    So she also had to suffer Arana''s pranks... that actually makes me feel a bit of sympathy for her.


    "To think that she would do that even though you are so much younger than her..."


    "So much younger? How old do you think I am?"


    "Eh? I''d say around 11 or 12?"


    "I''m 17 years old..."


    "What!? Really!?"


    She''s not showing it on her face, but it feels like she got a bit depressed, it seems like I touched a sore spot, but how was I supposed to know!?


    "You know... Arana betrayed her own sisters, do you really think that you can trust her?"


    "Eh... maybe?"


    "She probably told you that you had to follow that prophecy, didn''t she, but that''s going to end with more people thinking of you as a villain, so why don''t you join our side? We could break that prophecy and even improve your reputation"


    Can they really do that? But even so...


    "Nera told me that you have been doing some bad things in her country, I don''t know if she misunderstood something, but there''s no way I can trust you"


    "I see, that''s a pity, I''ve actually taken a liking to you"


    Just as I finish putting on my clothes I see something surprising. The chains that were restraining Ranna fall to the ground, the reason being that she just turned into water.


    Was that some water clone or something? No, I''m sure that she was a real person, which means that she really is able to transform into water, and that water just went right into the ground.


    Using mana sense I can tell that she just left at a high speed alongside an underground water current, so she had an escape route prepared from the start...


    I don''t think I''ll be able to catch her again, and I need to go back with Nera and Arana already, I didn''t think about it until now but they are probably wondering where I am...


    "This entire incident has been very distracting"


    forli


    Still, I''m actually happy with the way it turned out, which is not something I feel very often.

 Chapter 35: The rescue

    -Silvea-


    "Look, there they are"


    That girl with blue hair is probably the princess of the Agua kingdom, and the girl with the white pointy hat must be Ranna''s sister.


    She gave Paula an orb that can help her cast a barrier spell with a diameter of around 40 meters, it will not only stop our opponent from escaping but will also block all sounds and prevent her from calling for help. The plan is to approach them pretending to be normal travelers so that Paula has enough time to set it up.


    "Eh? Who goes there?"


    It seems like the princess was the first one to see us, alright, I''ll say the lines I had prepared while getting closer to them.


    "Oh, hello, we are..."


    ''White lightning''


    "Woah!"


    "Ugh"


    What was that!? That white girl just attacked Paula out of nowhere without saying a single word, it seems like she was targeting the orb, did she know what we were trying to do? Fortunately, Roul reacted quickly enough to take the hit for her so she was able to set up the barrier after all.


    She''s supposed to be only level 60 but she was able to cast a really powerful light spell, we cannot underestimate her, the queen of darkness doesn''t seem to be the type to tolerate useless underlings, she must be keeping her at her side for a reason.


    "Who are these people? Why did you attack them? And why did they put up a barrier around us?"


    "What I would like to know is how they were able to find us here"


    "We have been asked by a representative of the Queen of the Agua kingdom to rescue her daughter and escort her to her home, release her at once!"


    Oh! Is it just me or did I sound really cool just now?


    "No way! I cannot go back! Arana, you need to make them leave!"


    "Well, I don''t think I can beat those three, I guess I''ll have to surrender"


    "What are you saying!?"


    "Oh, by the way, we are also supposed to take your hat"


    "In that case, I will have to fight until death"


    What!? Why does she care so much about that hat!?


    "You cannot take me back to my mother! She wants to kill me!"


    "You heard her, she doesn''t want to go with you"


    "Don''t think that you can trick us! We know that she''s under mind control!"


    "Uh? Are you stupid?"


    "What!? You think that I''m not smart just because I''m a beastkin!?"


    "No, I think that you''re not smart because you are letting a bunch of bad guys use you as a tool and because what you said makes no sense, that friend of yours knows at least the basics of magic, no? Just ask her"


    "Paula? What does she mean?"


    "Well... there''s two types of mind control magic, the first subtly influences a person to slightly alter their words and behavior, but that cannot make them do or say something too different to what they would normally, she couldn''t be made to say something as drastic as ''my mother wants to kill me''. The second makes a person fall asleep while the caster controls them completely, but it requires the caster to exert their control constantly, and someone under that kind of control cannot speak as eloquently as she did"


    "So does that mean that she cannot be under control?"


    "Not with methods I know of, but the queen of darkness has proved to be able to use magic beyond our understanding"


    "That''s right! There''s no way anyone would willingly go with someone as terrifying as the queen of darkness! You won''t be able to trick us!"


    When I tell her that she rolls her eyes... ugh, she''s starting to make me angry!


    "Anyway, I remember seeing you back when we were at Kelna, have you been following us since then?"


    "Eh!? You saw us back then?"


    In that case, we never had a chance to pass as normal travelers...


    "Since you know about my hat I imagine that the person who asked you to do this was my sister Ranna, correct? But why would she ask you specifically... if I had to guess, it''s because one of you has a skill that can find us anywhere we are and she wanted to use it to catch me off-guard, after all, I have been making sure to erase all of our tracks and check that we were not being followed, it would not have been possible to follow us with normal means. And I bet that Ranna is also the one who gave you that barrier orb and is keeping Luna busy as we speak, am I wrong?"


    "What... how?"


    I''m speechless, she got every single detail right... but she just shrugs her shoulders.


    "Not that figuring out all of that is going to help me now that you already caught me"


    "T-that''s right! You better surrend..."


    Suddenly I notice something moving below the ground right under me.


    "Watch out!"


    I manage to jump out of the way as a white spider larger than a horse emerges from the ground.


    "Eeeek! What is that thing!?"


    The princess really got scared, I can''t blame her, even when compared to other insect monsters this thing is absolutely terrifying.


    But where did it come from? Wasn''t the barrier supposed to prevent anything from coming in?


    "That''s my bodyguard, every time we have to stop somewhere I summon it below the ground just in case something unexpected happens"


    "Are you telling me that this thing was under us each time we were sleeping!?"


    It looks scary, but how strong is it?


    "Paula, did you check it''s level?"


    "Yeah, it''s level 170"


    "Ha! That''s strong, but it''s not something that the three of us cannot beat if we fight together"


    Roul seems to be rather confident, however...


    "You better not move from where you are right now"


    She''s holding a knife right to the princess''s neck!


    "You coward! Fight us fair and square!"


    "Sure, as long as you also try to fight Luna fair and square"


    "Uh... but she''s way too strong!"


    "You are also stronger than me, to be honest, I don''t know how you could have possibly not expected me to do this"


    She actually has a point...


    The spider then uses a string made of light mana to tie me up, I cannot fight back as long as there''s a hostage...


    "Ufufu, cat beastkins are my favorite you know"


    What the...!? She''s smiling and licking her lips while giving me a predatory look...


    "Noooo! Stay away!"


    *Bang*


    "!?"


    I don''t know what happened, all of a sudden my right hand started to glow and I could feel as if the light mana of the string that was restraining me was being influenced by me in some way... I''m not sure how to explain it, but as a result, the mana ended up... exploding? And the spider got hurt.


    "What was that... don''t tell me that you are..."


    The smile on her face has been replaced with an expression of shock, does she know what just happened?


    "Eeeek!"


    When the princess sees the spider trashing madly she gets scared and reflexively lowers her head... oh no! Since the knife was just below her neck she must have injured herself!


    Or not... now that I look closely, the knife got bent instead, is that a fake knife?


    In that case, this is my chance! Before she can react I use my full speed to get near her and take her hat.


    "Eh!?"


    When she sees the hat in my hands she seems to get paralyzed by the shock, seriously, why does she care so much about a hat?


    "Paula! Remove the barrier! Roul! Grab the princess and run away!"


    "Ah! Yes!"


    "I''ve got her!"


    "Hey! Get your hands off me!"


    I don''t know how, but it seems like our mission was a success...


    -Luna-


    After coming back I''m met by a rather disquieting scene, Nera is nowhere to be seen, Arana is sitting on the ground, hugging her knees, and most worrying of all, her hat is not on her head.


    "Ara! What happened!? Where''s Nera!?"


    "She got rescued..."


    Rescued? What''s that supposed to mean?


    "And where''s your hat?"


    "The knights took it..."


    "What knights!?"


    "The ones who had been following us... I didn''t think they would manage to beat me... stupid protagonists and their out of nowhere power-ups..."


    "So if I understand, someone came here and took Nera and your hat? Wait... was Ranna working with them!?"


    It''s too much of a coincidence for them to show up just when I was fighting her, which means that they must be together. I guess that I''m getting smarter, after all, I noticed that very quickly!


    "They said that they''re going to take Nera back to her mom"


    "What!? We need to get her back! Get up and let''s go!"


    "Y-yes"


    I help Arana to get back on her feet, but after only two steps she trips and falls on the ground.


    "It''s impossible! I can''t do it!"


    "You can''t even walk!?"


    Seriously, just how hat-dependent is she?


    This is bad... Nera is going to get killed if we don''t get her back, and I can never do anything right without Arana''s guidance, this is the worst situation possible!


    "Ugh... you losing your hat is really troublesome..."


    "Me losing my hat is... that''s it! That''s what happened! I can''t believe that I forgot about the first law of Luna''s woes..."


    "The first law of what now?"


    "The first law of Luna''s woes states: ''If Luna is involved, the most troublesome thing that could happen will happen''"


    "WHAT KIND OF LAW IS THAT!!!!?"


    Also, if that''s the ''first law'', does that mean that there''s more?


    Whatever! If Arana cannot help me that just means that it''s finally time for me to step up to the plate and save the day myself!


    "Alright! I guess that it''s all up to me... uh?"


    I notice a small trickling sensation on my hand... oh! It''s Longleg! He must have jumped at me from Arana.


    "Are you going to help me?"


    He gives me a salute and then climbs up to my shoulder, it seems like I won''t have to do this alone after all!


    "Alright, don''t worry Ara, I''ll get Nera back for sure!"


    "And my hat!"


    "Yeah, that too"


    forli


    And now it''s finally time for Luna to become the protagonist!


    ....wait a minute.

 Chapter 36: Fearsome horde

    I left Arana in a small cave and sealed the entrance with a ''black wall'' spell, after all, it would be too difficult to chase after anyone if I have to be carrying her and if I leave her alone in this state it would be really bad if a monster showed up. I''m counting on Longleg to find this place again later, he''ll be able to find it, right?


    "So... do you have any idea where those knights went?"


    Longleg points in the direction they went to. Since I''ll be much faster by flying it seems like it''s time to try out my ''sky terror cloak'' for the first time.


    Instead of my wings materializing from raw mana, the cloak changes shape and turns into them. This feels good, not only do I not get tired but not having to focus on maintaining my spells means that I can keep a clear head. I never knew just how much of toll my flight magic took on me, it really took away all the fun from flying around, this makes me wish that I could enjoy this a bit longer, but the cloak only last five minutes and I''m in a hurry right now.


    "So they are down there?"


    Following Longleg''s directions, I arrive at a very dense forest, the treetops do not let me see anything down below.


    "Can you tell me where they are exactly?"


    He responds by shrugging his shoulders, which is quite amazing for a creature with no shoulders, I suppose that means that I will have to look for them myself...


    "But this place is like a maze, with so many trees I cannot see more than a few meters away..."


    The knights will probably leave while I get lost in here, I cannot search for them in this place by myself...


    Oh! That''s it! I''ll just need to get some help, or rather, make some help.


    ''Spawn minion''


    If the knights meet any of my imps they will kill them for sure, won''t they? So all I have to do is make a lot of them, send them everywhere, and go wherever I feel that one of them has been killed.


    ...


    ..


    .


    You know... it really does not take any effort to make these things, I was planning to stop when I started feeling the drain on my mana but I think that I already went past ten thousand and I''m still not tired in the slightest...


    "Oh! I think some of the first ones I sent away just got killed!"


    Alright, I cannot mess this up no matter what, as soon as I see the knights I need to cast a shadow bind spell to make sure that they don''t even get the chance too...


    Oh, false alarm, it seems like these imps just got into a fight with some squirrels and got completely crushed.


    "Wait... that must be it!"


    Now I can feel a lot of imps being killed at a constant pace, that has to be the knights.


    ...


    It''s not the knights... the imps are all just walking into a lake and drowning one after the other... do these things not have any survival instinct at all!?


    ...


    ..


    .


    I keep checking the dying imps but they are all getting killed by either some random weak monster or a stupid accident.


    "This plan is not working as well as I expected..."


    -Silvea-


    "Let me go you idiots! I''m telling you that Luna was just trying to help me!"


    We had to tie the princess up, and she''s been kicking and screaming the whole time.


    You know... we just saved this girl from the queen of darkness, that was a rather hero-like thing to do, no matter how you look at it, am I wrong?


    ...


    Then why does this look like we are the ones kidnapping her?


    "Paula, can you really feel no trace from the spell controlling her?"


    "No... maybe it''s just because it''s a type of magic I don''t know about, but I don''t feel any traces of dark mana in the princess"


    "That''s because nobody is using a spell to control me! Just how many times do I have to tell you!?"


    She keeps saying that she''s not being controlled and I cannot help but feel like she''s very convincing... but the idea of a princess willingly going along with someone like the queen of darkness is absurd! Just what in the world is going on here?


    "I know! You''ve probably been tricked by that blue witch! You cannot trust her! She''s mmmfgh mmmmmh"


    I could feel the spell that just made the princess unable to speak, and the one who cast it is... Ranna, she just showed up here right now.


    "My apologies, but the queen of darkness is looking for us, we cannot have her screaming like that"


    "I see... but could you let her speak for a bit more? I want to hear what she was about to say"


    "I''m afraid that''s not possible, the spell I just used will last for two days and cannot be undone until then"


    "Mmmmmh!!!"


    Ranna... she put her life on the line and got face to face with the queen of darkness so that we could rescue the princess, I don''t want to suspect her after such a valorous deed but...


    "Before we return the princess, I would like to take her to a mage who specializes in dark magic, to check if she''s really being controlled"


    "What? Why? I already told you that she is"


    I think that she just got surprised, it''s hard to tell with that inexpressive face of hers.


    "I''m sorry... but the princess is acting in a way that should not be possible if she''s being controlled, Paula cannot find any traces of dark mana in her, and you just cast a spell that will prevent her for talking for two days. You cannot blame me for finding all of this a bit suspicious"


    "This cannot be... you were not supposed to mistrust me... I wasn''t told what to do in this situation... please wait a moment"


    She goes away from me and takes out a small mirror from her pocket, I think that she''s using it to talk with someone but I cannot hear what they''re saying. After a short while, she comes back to me.


    "Very well, when we arrive at the capital you may look for a mage and have them examine her before heading to the castle"


    "Can we not stop in some other town before?"


    "No, we cannot afford the time that would take"


    "I see... very well then"


    She accepted my proposal, but the way she reacted and the fact that she talked with someone in secret just made her look even more suspicious...


    "First we need to leave this forest and reach the plains next to it, I left a car there that we can use for our escape"


    "You left a what?"


    "My apologies, a car is a vehicle that uses fire magic and explosions to move at high speeds, it was invented only recently on another continent, so I should have known that you would not have heard of it"


    A vehicle that uses explosions to move? That does not sound very safe...


    "Hey! What are those things?"


    Before I can ask any more questions, Roul points out a large group of small dark purple monsters with big heads slowly approaching us.


    "What are those? They look cute"


    It seems like Paula does not agree with me, she went pale when she looked at them.


    "Those monsters have been created by someone, and I recognize the mana used to make them, it feels like the mana of the queen of darkness"


    "WHAAAAT!?"


    "Let''s hide under there!"


    We all rush under a large fallen tree, hopefully, those creatures have not seen us yet.


    If they''ve really been made by the queen of darkness then they are not something that we can defeat, their skin looks as hard as steel, those large mouths full of teeth could probably chew our bones into pieces without any effort, and their round white eyes reveal intelligence that no monster should have.


    "Uh... those things are absolutely terrifying..."


    "Didn''t you say earlier that they were cute?"


    Fortunately, it looks like they didn''t see us and are walking away.


    "I''ll go and see if the coast is clear"


    "No Silvea, you are the youngest of us, we cannot let you take that risk"


    "I''m the fastest one, if something happens I can run away"


    "But..."


    "Don''t worry, I''ll be fine"


    I go a bit further ahead and see some more of those monsters, but they seem to be jumping off a cliff... why?


    "Ugh, this isn''t it either, can''t you guys go more than five minutes without some of you killing yourselves?"


    Eh!? Who... who said that?


    "Oh! I didn''t think I would find someone else alone in this forest"


    WHY DID I HAVE TO RUN INTO HER!!!?


    "Hello"


    "..."


    "My name is Luna, who might you be?"


    "I''m... I''m Silvea..."


    "Oh, did you by any chance see a group of knights around here carrying a girl around?"


    "No... I didn''t see anything..."


    What is she saying?


    "Well, that''s too bad, but say... have we met before? You seem familiar..."


    She looks right into my eyes, causing me to forget about breathing for a bit from the sheer terror.


    "I... don''t think we''ve met"


    "Is that so? I''m really bad at remembering people''s faces so I''m not sure... but I think I''ve seen you somewhere"


    "You must be mistaking me with someone else"


    "Uh... are you feeling well? You''re sweating a lot..."


    She''s just toying with me isn''t she... there''s no way that she does not know who I am...


    This time I''m really going to die.


    forli


    Silvea is not really dumb, but her fear of Luna does not let her think clearly about any topics related to her. I should probably show her on a non-Luna scenario to balance out her character so that people do not hate her too much.

 Chapter 37: Lost girl

    The girl is nervously wagging her tail low to the ground, she seems to be a rather shy person. I can sympathize with that, I''m not exactly an extrovert myself and suddenly encountering a stranger after getting lost in a forest would make anyone wary.


    "Did you get lost?"


    At least she looks lost to me, she looks tired and scared and I don''t know what she would be doing here in the middle of nowhere.


    "I... yes, I got lost, my friends are waiting for me at the exit of the forest, so if you don''t mind I''ll be going now..."


    "What? No! You should not wander around on your own, now that we have found each other we should stay together"


    "What!? But I... I don''t..."


    "Don''t worry, this spider here can guide us to the exit"


    I let her take a look at Longleg.


    "A spider can guide us?"


    Everyone gets surprised when they met Longleg for the first time, he always surpasses all expectations people have for spiders.


    "I was trying to find a group of people who... stole a few things from me, but I''ve had no luck until now, maybe we''ll see them while we''re on our way"


    It''s probably better if I don''t give her too many details or she might get the wrong idea, that said, for some reason, she got even more nervous when I told her that.


    "I don''t want to bother you if you are busy, I really should go..."


    "No! No! You are not bothering me at all, and a forest like this can be dangerous for a girl wandering alone"


    "Dangerous? Why... why would it be dangerous?"


    "Well, you never know if there could be a bad guy somewhere around here and if you were to randomly stumble into them, who knows what kind of horrible things they would do to a cute girl like you"


    "Eeeeek!!!"


    Oh... I really scared her, maybe I went too far... but she needs to understand the danger she could be in.


    "Don''t worry, I''ll be right behind you until you''re back with your friends, you have nothing to worry about"


    I try giving her a reassuring smile but that only causes her face to get even paler, it seems like I still need to practice smiling a bit more.


    As we''re on our way to the exit, we keep encountering several of my imps wandering around, the girl... I think she said her name was Silvea seems to get curious about them.


    "Oh, those are monsters I created with a spell called ''spawn minion'', as I told you before, I''m trying to find a group of thieves that should be hiding somewhere in this forest, so I ordered them to search the entire place"


    "So they were really made by you... and you say that you sent them to catch those thieves..."


    "Yeah... it''s a pity that they are so dumb, I gave them a chance to accomplish something, but it seems like they are all going to die pointlessly"


    "W-what!? They don''t really need to die! Please, you need to think twice about this!"


    No, no matter how many times I think about it, the imps are so weak and so stupid that there''s no way they will be able to survive for long.


    "It cannot be helped, that''s just the natural result of trying to pick a fight with someone powerful when they are so weak"


    I mean, they keep losing against slimes and squirrels and yet they still insist on fighting stronger monsters whenever they find one.


    "But that doesn''t mean they should die, please don''t..."


    Huh? She''s starting to cry... even if the imps look like living creatures, in reality, they are nothing more than animated clumps of mana, there''s no reason to feel sad for them... or does she think that having them constantly dying is bad for me since I have to spend my mana to make them?


    "Oh, it''s not like this is such a big deal, those guys are entirely disposable after all"


    "D-disposable!?"


    "Yes, after all, they''re rather useless, and they can be easily replaced, so it''s not like it matters if they die"


    "But they''re risking their lives to fulfill their duty! Isn''t their bravery at least worth something!?"


    "Bravery that does not accomplish anything is nothing more than stupidity"


    To be honest, it would be better if my imps were a bit less brave, that way they would be able to last a bit longer...


    "Hey look! We got out of the forest"


    The dense forest ends abruptly in an open plain, it looks as if there was an invisible line and trees were not allowed after getting past it.


    Not too far from where we are I see a strange vehicle I''ve never seen before, some parts are made of wood but most of it seems to be metal, perhaps it''s some model of carriage that I don''t know about?


    "This is my friend''s carriage, you can leave me here"


    "So they''re not here yet? I was hoping to meet them, but I''m in a hurry"


    "Y-yes, thank you for everything"


    Ugh... the way she''s looking down while moving her ears is way too cute, I''m unable to resist the temptation and my hand moves to her ear by itself...


    "Eheheh... wait, I recognize this sensation..."


    "NOOOO!!!"


    "I knew that I had seen you somewhere before!"


    She''s that one knight I met back then! The one with the ribbon! What is she doing in such a distant place? Did she follow me?


    Wait, if she''s a knight, could she be one of the ones who...


    "Do you know where Nera is?"


    "Please don''t kill me!!!"


    "No, I''m not going to..."


    "Let her go!"


    Two more knights, a man and a woman, come out of the forest, are these Silvea''s friends?


    "Paula! Roul! Please don''t get any closer, there''s no way you can beat her! Leave me and save yourselves!"


    "Don''t be silly, there''s no way we will abandon you!"


    "That''s right! If we have to die, we will die together!"


    "You guys..."


    I guess that this display of friendship and sacrifice should be very moving, but it''s ruined by the fact that I don''t really have any intention to hurt them...


    "Nobody is going to die! Just tell me where Nera is"


    "Excuse me, if you are looking for the princess, she''s here with me"


    "What? You!"


    Ranna is sticking her head out of one of the strange carriage''s windows, so she really was working with these knights, and I can see Nera next to her.


    "Mmmmg mmmfph mmmm"


    "Uh, Nera, I don''t understand what you''re saying... anyway, Ranna! Let Nera go and give Arana''s hat back!"


    "How do I know that you would not kill the knights when you have what you want?"


    "WHAT!? Of course I won''t kill them!"


    Last time she seemed like she knew what my personality was like, so why is she saying this now? Could it be that this Ranna is an impostor?


    "Then let the knights enter the car...riage with me and after that, I will give you the princess and the hat"


    Is she trying to trick me? But it''s not like she would be able to escape just because these guys are inside, from what I''ve seen from Ranna so far, she''s probably going to summon a giant frog or something to pull the carriage, so I''ll get a ''shadow chain'' spell ready to trap the carriage the moment I sense her use any magic.


    "Alright they can go in"


    All three knights enter the carriage and close the doors.


    "Well, are you going to..."


    *Vroom*


    "Eeeeeh!?"


    The weird carriage makes a loud noise and a cloud of black smoke comes out from it''s back and hits me, leaving me covered in some black substance.


    When the smoke clears, the carriage is already a large distance away, and it''s moving even further away at a high speed.


    "Is that thing moving by itself!? How!?"


    With that speed, I won''t be able to catch up even if I fly...


    "No... I let them escape"


    It can''t be... this was finally the time to prove that I could do something right even without Arana and I failed her. And I failed Nera as well, even though I''m so strong I''m still useless...


    "Wait, what''s that over there? Is that Arana''s hat?"


    There''s a hat on the ground and Longleg is right on top of it, when I look closely I can see a spider thread attached to it, did Longleg do that while we were all talking? He''s so smart!


    "Thank you Longleg! You saved me! But... this is not Arana''s hat"


    I mean... Arana''s hat is white and this one is blue...


    When I go back to Arana I find her sleeping, so I place the hat on her head without her noticing.


    "Uh? Luna! You got my hat back!?"


    "Y-yes! I already put it on your head!"


    "Thank you! But... something feels wrong about it"


    Well, this hat is smaller than hers so it was a bit difficult to make it fit...


    "It must be just your imagination..."


    "Is that so..."


    She definitely suspects something, but she''s not taking her hat off to check, I guess Arana understands that there are certain things that she''s better off not knowing...


    "And what is that black stuff you are covered in?"


    "Oh, I was in a hurry so I didn''t clean myself..."


    "In a hurry? Why?"


    "Because they still have Nera! And they took her on a weird vehicle that can run really fast! We need to somehow get her back before they take her to her mother or she''ll be in danger..."


    "So we need a way to reach the capital of the Agua kingdom quickly... Ufufu, don''t worry Luna, I have a solution for this"


    Uh... I don''t like it when Arana smiles like that.


    forli


    I tried to draw Silvea as well, but that one didn''t look right.

 Chapter 38: Proof of worth

    -Irvan-


    Despite my best efforts, I was not able to find my mistress in the end, however, I''m sure that I heard her say that they would be going to Nera''s kingdom so at least I knew the general direction I had to go to.


    I''ve been pondering the reason why she wanted to leave me behind, after she trapped me with a chain there was a brief moment when I actually considered the possibility that she was serious about not wanting me as her underling, but then the white girl gave me a magic item that will allow me to find them again, of course, to think that there would be anyone who would not want to have a powerful dragon such as myself working for them is absurd.


    The item in question is some kind of compass that will point in the direction of my mistress when she uses a certain spell, but before that, I''ll have to prove my worth, that''s why I decided to visit the beastkin country located to the west of the Agua kingdom.


    My mistress is clearly already the most powerful being in the world, but if she wants to become the queen that she''s meant to be she will need to start gathering followers. The bestkin have always been a race that respects strength above all else, so it should not be hard to convince them, this is how I''ll prove that I''m worthy to stand at her side.


    Still, it took me a while to find a settlement, this entire country is covered by a dense forest that blocks my vision from the air and there are no roads for me to follow anywhere...


    "Anyone in there who thinks they can fight, come out right now!"


    I wait for a bit in front of the village I found, after a short while, two or three dozen beastkin of all types come out armed with a variety of weapons.


    "What is a dragon doing at a place like this!?"


    "My name is Irvan, I''m a servant of the queen of darkness, the strongest being in the world, I''m here to give the people of this country the chance to become her first subjects"


    "What are you talking about? We already have a king, we''re not going to follow someone else just because you say that they are strong"


    A king? I thought that the beastkin just followed whoever was the strongest among them, and they should be happy to join someone as overwhelmingly powerful as my mistress, could it be that they don''t know about her?


    "Do you lot not know who the queen of darkness is? She''s the one destined to rule the entire world, including this small country of yours"


    "What!? I don''t know what you''re talking about but we are not going to surrender without a fight!"


    "Hehehe, many others stronger than you have tried to oppose her before and she crushed them all without mercy"


    I''m not sure if that''s actually true, but it will be easier for them to surrender if they believe that it is. My mistress should be happy when she hears that I''ve been working on her reputation.


    "A bunch of lowly animals like yourselves should be happy that I''m giving you the chance to serve of your own free will"


    "What!? Animals!?"


    "Who cares if he''s a dragon!? Let''s teach this idiot a lesson!"


    All of the beastkin warriors come charging at me at once, but when I strike at the ground with all my power, the tremor causes more than half to fall to the ground.


    "How weak..."


    The others all jump at me and strike me with their weapons, but only two or three of them are able to make me feel any pain at all, when I start hitting back with my claws, they fall with a single strike each.


    "Impossible, even if he''s a dragon he should not be this though"


    "Ah, you might have had a chance against an average dragon, but I''m the one chosen by the queen of darkness, now you see the power that..."


    I stop talking when I notice that all the beastkin seem to no longer be listening to me, and I can hear a strange rumbling noise in the distance, what''s going on?


    I fly up over the trees and see a cloud of dust coming this way at a high speed, I can see several trees being sent flying into the air wherever it goes, what in the world is that thing?


    "Oh no, it''s her!"


    "This dragon must have caught her attention!"


    "Quick! We need to evacuate the village!"


    All of the beastkin are leaving, whatever that is, they are clearly more afraid of it than they are of me, or rather, they have forgotten about me entirely.


    I turn around to face the cloud of dust, preparing myself for whatever is coming.


    And what''s coming is... a cat beastkin girl, her long brown hair gives her a rather wild appearance, she''s also wearing very little clothing and her breasts are huge...


    "You dragon! I won''t let you bully this village anymore!"


    "Wait, who..."


    Without waiting at all, she jumps directly at me and gets ready to punch, not having any time to think I try to punch her back and our fists collide with each other.


    "Nya!!!"


    "Nya?"


    I lose the match of strength, actually, that''s an understatement, I get sent flying backward into the village and crash trough a few houses, my arm almost got broken.


    And did she really say nya? Cat beastkin are ashamed of acting like cats so they usually avoid saying that, then again this girl seems to be rather shameless...


    "Nyahaha! For someone so big you''re really weak!"


    "You are the one who''s stupidly strong!!!"


    She comes after me again and keeps punching me over and over, I''m somehow able to avoid direct hits by keeping my distance, but each time she strikes, she causes a shockwave that hits me anyways and demolishes more of the houses around us.


    "What are you doing!? Weren''t you supposed to be protecting this village!?"


    It seems like I have no choice but to use my fire breath at full power.


    "That won''t work on me!"


    She... just punched the fire away...


    What!? How did she do that!?


    *Bang*


    Before I can react, she grabs my head and slams it against the ground leaving a small crater.


    "Ouch"


    "So, will you give up now? I might forgive you if you beg"


    She''s looking at me with a smug smile.


    "No, this is not it..."


    It''s true that she''s completely overpowered me this entire fight, and yet...


    "Your strength is too wild, it doesn''t seem like you''re in control at all, even if you keep beating me, I do not feel dominated"


    "Eh?"


    "This is nothing compared to the absolute terror that my mistress can make me feel, you''re far inferior to her!"


    "Nyaaaa... I think that I hit his head too hard..."


    It seems like this girl has nothing other than brute strength, in that case, all I have to do is fly up until I''m out of her reach and she won''t be able to attack me at all!


    "Hahaha! What are you going to do now!?"


    Instead of answering, she jumps into the air, and then keeps jumping, on the air...


    "What!? How!?"


    She jumps above me, then flips her body around and kicks me with incredible strength, sending me back down to the ground.


    "Time for the finishing move!!!"


    Kicking the air above her, she comes down at me like a meteorite, if I get hit by that I''ll be done for! And there''s no way I''ll recover from my fall in time to dodge.


    However, I still have a way out, before she hits me, I transform into my human form, becoming a smaller target causes her attack to miss.


    *Crash*


    Being so close to the impact I''m sent flying and get hurt quite a bit... if that had been a direct hit I might have even died...


    I see the lower half of the girl''s body sticking out from the ground in the middle of a massive crater, it seems like her upper half got buried when she hit the ground head first, and she''s not moving at all...


    "Uh... are you alright?"


    When I get close, I notice that she''s still breathing, so at least it seems like she''s alive, but she got knocked out.


    If she''s unconscious, it means that I won the fight, right?


    Yeah, let''s say that I won.


    "Uh? What''s this?"


    The magic item that can lead me to my mistress just got activated! My victory against a strong opponent must have served to prove my worth to her!


    "I''ll go there as fast as I can!"


    -Luna-


    I was wondering how Arana was planning to take us to the capital quickly, but she just called that dragon from before... does she want us to ride him, she cannot be serious.


    "Mistress! Thank you for calling me! Was my victory enough to gain your approval?"


    Victory? What victory? Does this guy think that I know what he was doing when I wasn''t around?


    "Ara, do you think that this dragon can fly fast enough?"


    "Of course! A dragon''s body is made for flying you know, they are fast and do not get tired quickly. Hey! How long would it take you to take us to the capital of the Agua kingdom?"


    "To the capital? I think it would take around 80 minutes"


    Really!? That''s very fast...


    "By the way, why is your hat a diffe... Ouch!"


    I was only barely able to close his mouth in time...


    "Ara, do we really have no other choice?"


    "Not any that I can think of"


    But I got rid of him just the other day, to ask him for help now would be too embarrassing. And it would make it way more difficult to refuse his offer to become my underling, I''m afraid that I''ll end up getting stuck with him for real...


    However, I really seem to be out of options right now, desperate times call for desperate measures.


    "Dragon... I need yoruhepegh"


    Ugh... I got overcome with disgust at what I was about to say and the words got all tangled up in my mouth...


    "Well, we all need some yoruhepegh every once in a while, but I don''t see how he can help you with that"


    And now Arana is making fun of me!


    Fine... I''ll say it.


    "I need your help"


    "Of course mistress! It will be my honor to carry you!"


    So how am I supposed to sit on top of a dragon? He''s too big to sit the same way I would sit on a horse... Arana is just sitting cross-legged in front of me, I guess I''ll just do the same.


    And as expected, as soon as he takes off, the sudden acceleration causes me to fall from his back.


    forli

 Chapter 39: Walking on water

    It turns out that the reason Arana didn''t fall is that she had secured herself with something that seems like some type of spider web, so I asked her to do the same to me.


    "You could have told me about this before I fell..."


    "Since you didn''t say anything, I thought that you already had a way to keep yourself from falling"


    No, I''m sure that she just wanted to see me fall, even when we''re pressed for time she still does stuff like this.


    "Mistress! Are you comfortable up there?"


    "Not at all! But the view is great!"


    The dragon is flying much higher than I normally do, we only just reached the coast and I can already see the islands of the Agua kingdom in the distance.


    "Ara, do you know which one of those islands is the capital?"


    "You mean you don''t know? While it''s true that most of the territory of the Agua kingdom is on those islands, the capital is actually located on top of the sea"


    "On the sea? Do you mean on the water? How can anyone build a city there?"


    "The why is that they wanted to build the capital on top of the home of the water spirits, the Agua kingdom was founded by a family that had the ability to communicate with them, so they build a city near them to make it easier to get their assistance. As for the how, didn''t you talk before about the magic circuits that are used to create bridges between the islands of the Agua kingdom? A similar type of magic is used to keep the buildings of the capital fixed in place above the water"


    "What!? Is that true!?"


    Now I want to see those magic circuits even more, I hope that they are the type that can be used by any mage and not only the ones with water as their main attribute.


    "By the way, you should probably put this on when we get there"


    Oh, it''s that mask from last time.


    "I don''t really want to wear that, but you''re right, Nera was able to recognize me the first time she saw me, it would probably be a bad idea to show my face around the place she came from"


    "Well, there''s that too, but mostly I was worried that all the demons living here would be able to see your mana"


    Oh, now that she mentions it, that did cause some trouble back when we were at the ork village.


    "It''s not as if every demon is able to see how powerful you are, but some of them are, and half of the citizens of the Agua kingdom are demons so it''s almost certain that some of them will, that''s why I enchanted that mask to hide your mana as well as your face"


    "I see... you really made sure that nothing could go wrong this time"


    Holding the mask in my hands I stare at it for a moment as I get lost in thought.


    "Luna? What are you thinking about with such a worried expression?"


    "Nothing in particular, I''m just trying to figure out how everything is going to go wrong this time..."


    Perhaps I''m being too pessimistic, but you cannot blame me for being worried after all my previous experiences.


    "By the way Ara, do you think that we''ll make it there before them?"


    "Probably not, this dragon is really fast but they got a pretty good head start and Ranna won''t be slowed down by the sea"


    She''s probably right... I''ve been looking at the people traveling between the islands and yet I''ve seen no trace of them, and I think that we''re about to reach the capital.


    "Don''t worry, it''s not as if they are going to kill Nera the moment they get there, keep in mind that the knights think that they''re saving her so they will have to get rid of them first. Also, I don''t know how much Ranna has changed since the last time I saw her, but she''s not the type that would have an easy time murdering someone in cold blood"


    "Let''s hope that you''re right..."


    After a short while, we finally reach our destination. I bet that a lot of people saw the dragon approaching the city, but we don''t have time to worry about that, as long as he goes to his human form as soon as we land nobody should be able to tell that it''s him.


    And so, we land, or maybe I should say that we ''sea''? We''re standing on top of the water after all.


    "Woah, it''s true that we can walk on the water here"


    The lines and symbols of a mana circuit light up wherever we step, turning the surface of the water solid, does this thing really cover the entire city?


    The houses around us are also being held in place by the mana circuit, but they''re constantly bobbing up and down a little bit, it probably takes some time to get used to living in this place, I imagine that it must be similar to living in a boat, and in fact, these houses do look a bit like square boats.


    "Luna! Focus on what we''re doing, we need to go to the castle, you''ll be able to look at the mana circuits all you want after we find Nera"


    "Ah, of course"


    Unlike the houses, the castle looks more like a regular building, and it''s not moving at all, I wonder if they used a different method to fix it in place...


    "Can you use mana sense to check if Nera is inside of the castle?"


    "Of course! Let me see... no, she''s not there"


    Did we make it here before them after all?


    "Can you check if she''s in the city at least?"


    "Uh? Yes, she''s here"


    Could it that they went somewhere else before the castle? But where? And why?


    "Well, where is she?"


    "In the city"


    "I mean specifically"


    "I don''t know, I cannot tell the exact location of a specific person in such a large area, if I had any idea of where to look I might be able to confirm if she''s there, but as it is I can only tell that she''s somewhere in that general direction"


    "Oh, that mana sense thing is not as overpowered as I thought"


    "Well, obviously, if it was that powerful I would not have so much trouble to find someone every time I''m left alone, and I would never get lost like I always do"


    "Is that so... I always thought that you just didn''t think of using it"


    "What!? How dumb do you think I am!?"


    Arana stops to think for a moment and then seems to reach a decision.


    "Alright, we don''t know where they are right now, but we know that they will come here to the castle sooner or later so all we have to do is keep guard here... Luna, since you can check to see if Nera is here whenever you want you will be the one keeping watch"


    "Oh, sure, but what about you?"


    "I''m going to go to the castle, I want to get a sense of what things are like in there. As for Irvan, he should go to the direction you pointed at earlier and look for Nera"


    "Hey, who do you think you are? I only take orders from my mistress"


    "Dragon, go to the direction I pointed at earlier and look for Nera"


    "Yes mistress!"


    I need to get him to follow Arana''s orders as well or I''ll probably end up repeating what she says a lot in the future...


    "Now Luna, this is important, you''re probably the one with the highest chance of catching them so you need to make sure you stay here and not get distracted, it doesn''t matter if you see someone with an untied shoelace or if there''s some injured fish that you think you can heal, you need to stay focused, understood?"


    "What are you talking about!? Of course I''m going to stay focused!"


    Just how little does she trust me? Does she think that I''m someone who gets distracted easily?


    "Right, of course you will..."


    And so I''m left alone to keep guard.


    ...


    ..


    .


    "It sure is boring to be a guard..."


    We were in such a hurry until not long ago, and now I''m here with nothing to do...


    On the street in front of me there''s a strange demon, he looks like a cross between a man and a fish... if I''m not mistaken he''s something called a sahuagin, and he''s on all fours doing something to the mana circuit.


    "Excuse me, sir, what are you doing?"


    "Can''t you see? The mana circuit on this street had been damaged so I''m replacing it"


    Now that he mentions it, I can see that he''s already erased everything on the street, so now he''s writing it again?


    "Do you mind if I watch? I''m a traveler and I had never seen anything like this before"


    "Eh, as long as you don''t get in the way"


    After a few minutes of watching him work, I think that I''ve figured out how this works, and water magic is not necessary at all! Now I want to try this myself.


    "Uh... miss, didn''t you say that you had never seen this before?"


    "No, but I figured it out by watching you work"


    "Are you pulling my leg? Anyone would need a few weeks at least to figure out a mana circuit as complicated as this one"


    "What!? Why would someone need weeks for this? All I had to do is pay attention to..."


    At that moment I remember to check the castle again to see if Nera is there, but of course, she''s not there yet, after all, there''s no way that I would miss her because I got distracted by something like this...


    forli

 Chapter 40: An opportunity

    "You... how did you complete those circuits so quickly? Just who in the world are you?"


    "It''s not a big deal really, I''m just a regular mage"


    These circuits turned out to be far easier to draw than I thought, after figuring out how this all worked, I got the rest of the street done in just a couple of minutes.


    Well, I also want to check everything a few times to make sure I did not make any mistakes, confirming that I did my work flawlessly is always so satisfying.


    "I''ve never seen anyone do such a good job in such a short time... what are you hiding miss? You are hiding your face with a mask and you offered to do that work for free, how very suspicious..."


    "What!? I''m not hiding anything! Really!"


    For a moment I''m afraid that he''s going to report me to the guards or something, but instead, he just shrugs his shoulders.


    "Oh well, I guess that means that I get to go home earlier today"


    What a lazy guy! I want to say something to him but if he leaves he won''t get me into trouble. Now that I think about it I''ve gotten into trouble a few times before because of people who didn''t just decide to mind their own business after seeing a suspicious person like me. If everyone was as unwilling to perform their civic duties as this guy, the world would probably be a better place... for me.


    "Since now I''m alone again, I suppose I can take a look at that thing..."


    Earlier I noticed that there were a few lines from an entirely different mana circuit mixed with the one keeping the city above the water, I need to know what it does, my curiosity is too strong.


    Following the lines to just outside the castle, I find a magic circle that seems to be a controller for the circuit, but it''s blocked by a seal so I cannot access it.


    "Let''s see, if I pull from this part here... and then force my mana into here... oh! It opened!"


    That seal was surprisingly easy to open, at first I thought that they didn''t want the controller to be accessible to the public, but such a weak seal is probably only good for stopping children from using it.


    But even if I can activate it, I probably should not do it without knowing what it does, and since I cannot leave this place I cannot follow the lines to see where they go.


    However, I can copy the magic circle and make a portable version of the controller, they probably won''t mind, if this thing was something important they would have used a stronger seal to protect it.


    "Ufff, how long have I been waiting here?"


    After all this time there''s still no signs of Nera or the knights... Arana is not coming back either, this is so boring...


    "Eeeeeeeeek!!!"


    "Eh!?"


    All of a sudden I hear a high-pitched scream and I feel something hit me on the chest, I can feel something wriggling inside of my cleavage, did a fish jump from the water or something?


    "What is this!? The more I struggle the faster I sink!"


    It''s a talking fish! Wait, no, when I look down I can see that it has legs and... wings? I should probably pull it out.


    Oh! It''s a fairy! I''m holding a fairy in my hand!


    "You! Let Shada go!"


    Two small ''shadow spear'' spells hit me in the chest, but they don''t do any damage, the two fairies that cast them are floating in front of me.


    "It can''t be... our magic is not powerful enough to get through her fat boobs!"


    "I''m not fat! And that has nothing to do with magic resistance!"


    "Eeek! Sorry! Please don''t kill us!"


    Oh, I should not have yelled like that, I scared them...


    "Please calm down, your friend was the one who crashed into me"


    "Eh? Is that true?"


    "Yeah...I was in a hurry after escaping from the castle and didn''t pay attention to where I was going..."


    "You were escaping from the castle? Why?"


    "We wanted to ask for refuge after running await from Kalroth''s domain, but we ended up wandering into a restricted area and they thought that we were spies"


    "Well, there''s that and they also got angry because we took the..."


    "Sssssh, don''t tell her that!"


    "Kalroth was that demon lord that had his domain next to this kingdom, correct? Why did you want to run away from there?"


    "Isn''t it obvious? You can see just from looking at us that we''re dark fairies"


    Now that she mentions it, al three of them have black hair and are wearing black and purple dresses, I have to say, they have a good style!


    "Ever since Kalroth took over, the worth of all the demons under him is determined by how useful they are in battle, so the dark fairies are treated just like slaves!"


    "We''re treated like animals!"


    "We''re treated like trash!"


    "What? Why? Are dark fairies weak?"


    "What!? You don''t know!?"


    "Eh... I''m not from around here"


    "A fairy''s magic is strong when used for healing or support spells, but weak for anything else, and the dark attribute doesn''t have spells of that type, so in a fight, we''re useless..."


    "We''re worthless..."


    "We''re useless..."


    "I already said that"


    What!? Is this possible!? All my life I''ve been dreaming of teaching someone the healing dark magic I got from my research, but nobody seemed to be interested in such a thing so I was starting to think that it might be impossible, and now, in a place like this by pure coincidence I just encountered a group of people who are in need of learning exactly that!


    I cannot miss this opportunity, I need to convince them to learn from me without scaring them off.


    "Is that so... let me show you something"


    To show my healing magic I first need an injury, so I take a knife from my storage and use it to cut my arm... or at least I try to, but the knife gets broken instead.


    "Very impressive, but why did you want to show us that?"


    "No! Not that! Look at this"


    ''Shadow knife''


    With my magic, I can make a cut in my arm, and then I quickly heal it with my flesh shaping, the fairies all look at me with their mouths wide open.


    "See? Dark magic can be used for healing"


    "Unbelievable!"


    "Incredible!"


    "Inconceivable!"


    "Do you want me to teach you how to do it?"


    "You want to teach us!?"


    "Wait a moment, this might be a trap, how do we know for sure that she was not just making it look like dark magic when in reality it was something else?"


    One of them seems to be more careful than the others...


    "I could not have done it with another element, I''m only good at dark magic"


    "Really? Then show us your status so that we can see, I have an appraisal stone here"


    My status? Well, if I hide my level and stats it should be fine...


    "What... look at this title!"


    "Queen of darkness!?"


    "It can''t be... is it really her!?"


    Ah, crap... I should have hidden my titles as well, now they are afraid of me again.


    "I don''t know what you''ve heard about me, but I''m not a bad person!"


    "I heard a rumor that she poisoned a town''s water and turned everyone into zombies..."


    "I didn''t poison anything! And nobody turned into a zombie! Who told you that!?"


    "I heard that she made a dragon extort a town for gold and silver"


    "He was already doing that before I got there!"


    "I heard that she forced a knight to steal the clothes of one of the female knights"


    "Where did that one even come from!? Did someone try to use me as an excuse for their crimes!?"


    Just how many rumors about me have been spreading around? It seems like clearing my name is getting more and more difficult with each passing day...


    "But wait, isn''t the queen of darkness someone even scarier than lord Kalroth? Some of his minions might try to punish us for escaping, but if we become her disciples we might be protected by her!"


    "Ah! You''re right! But what about the rest of our tribe?"


    "There''s a rest of your tribe?"


    "Yeah, there were a total of ninety-two of us who came here, would you be willing to teach all of them as well?"


    "Of course! The more students I have the better!"


    "But what will you ask for in return?"


    "Ah, do you think that she wants to take our souls?"


    "What!? How would I even do that!?"


    If I have to ask for something... with that many fairies, they might be able to solve my current problem.


    "I was looking for a friend of mine, could you ask your tribe to help search for her?"


    "Oh, if it''s just that, then we can do it"


    "Perfect! Then we have a deal, by the way, what are your names? I''m Luna"


    "I''m Shada"


    "I''m Shadel"


    "And I''m Shadela"


    "Alright, then you''ll go find my friend and then I''ll teach you my healing magic"


    "Yes, but... first I''ll need you to let me go please"


    Oh, now that she mentions it, I''m still holding the fairy from the start in my hand... I probably should have let her go a while ago.


    forli


    The weird thing is that Longleg had more votes than Arana for a while, but in the end, she managed to get second place, which I guess is a good thing since she''s the deuteragonist.


    I''ve written less during this month, but I should be able to write more when we get to august.

 Chapter 41: Visit to a doctor

    -Silvea-


    "Ouch! She bit me again!"


    "Get your hands off me you piece of dove! I need to find those sparrows and get my hat back!"


    Ever since she lost her hat Ranna has been completely out of control, Roul has been doing his best to restrain her each time she''s tried to run off in a random direction, but she keeps biting him...


    "Ummm, miss Ranna, I don''t know why you care so much about your hat but you need to calm down"


    "Ah!? YOU are telling me to calm down!? This was all your goosing fault in the first place for getting found!"


    Uh, what in the world happened to her? She was so calm and polite before... it''s as if her personality became the complete opposite of what it was before. Now she''s being really aggressive and rude, but as someone who aspires to become an exemplary knight, I cannot let myself be tainted by rudeness, that''s why I trained myself to only hear the name of a bird whenever someone says a bad word.


    After walking for a bit around the capital we reach an area with large and nice-looking buildings, Ranna guides us to the front door of something that looks like a cross between a mansion and a galleon without sails floating in the water.


    "Alright you owls, this is the residence of earl Droplen"


    "Eh!? I thought that we were taking the princess to someone who could check if she was under mind control, why did we come to a noble''s house?"


    "I was told that the earl has a skilled doctor working for him so we''re going to ask to borrow him for a bit, he uses water magic to heal but he''s also an expert in dealing with dark magic such as curses and other penguins like that"


    "Will they really let us do that?"


    I don''t think that it''s really that easy to ask for a noble''s doctor.


    "Of course, we have the storking princess with us, since you''re knights you should know how to deal with nobles, right? Just make sure to mind your ducking manners"


    The truth is that I''m not used to dealing with nobles at all... but the one who worries me the most is her, it doesn''t seem like she''ll be able to mind her manners at all in this state, is there nothing I can do about this? She started to act this way after losing her hat...


    Oh! I think I just had a moment of inspiration.


    "Hey! I found your hat!"


    "Eh!?"


    I approach Ranna from behind and place her sister''s white hat on her head.


    "What!? Were did you find it?"


    "Well you see... it turns out that it was still in the car"


    That''s a really bad lie, I''m not a good liar am I... and this hat is too big for her head and is covering her eyes, there''s no way she''ll buy it...


    "I see... this is my hat, yes, thank you for finding it"


    "Y-you''re welcome"


    Her face went back to the usual lack of expression, it seems like she has chosen to pretend that she didn''t notice that the hat is not hers...


    Well, I hope that will be enough to solve the issue.


    "I see, so you are the ones who rescued princess Nera, I got really worried when I heard that she had been kidnapped, I cannot thank you enough"


    "No sir, you don''t need to thank us, this is just our duty as knights"


    After Ranna showed her identification to the guards we were allowed to meet with the earl, he told us that he knows the princess quite well but he had not seen her in some time.


    "Nera... I understand that you have been having problems with your mother, I myself have also had some strong... disagreements with her, but running away like that was far too dangerous, you''re lucky that these people were able to save you"


    "Mmmmm! mmm! mmmm!"


    "As I explained earlier, she cannot talk right now"


    "That''s right, you said that she had been..."


    *cough*


    As the earl is talking he suddenly starts couching in an unsettling manner.


    "Are you alright!?"


    "Ah yes, sorry, my illness has been getting worse as of late, that''s why I''m having Jack stay here in my house"


    "Is Jack the doctor?"


    "That''s right, I''m sure that he''ll be able to help princess Nera as well, look there he is"


    "Sir, did you call for me?"


    A bald man with blue skin just entered the room, I think that he''s a demon but I do not recognize his race.


    "It seems like the princess has been subjected to mind control and perhaps some other form of dark magic, could you please take a look at her"


    "Of course, let me bring her to my study"


    As they leave, I noticed that Ranna is staring at that man while murmuring something.


    "An illness... could it be..."


    "Is something wrong?"


    "Ah, no it''s nothing"


    I wonder what that was, one downside to her going back to normal is that her expressionless face makes it impossible to know what she''s thinking.


    "Now, I would like to invite the four of you to lunch"


    "Oh, no! That will not be necessary!"


    "What are you saying Silvea! A noble like him is sure to have some great food!"


    "If you think about it, would it not be more rude to not take his offer?"


    Roul and Paula seem to be rather eager... I guess that we''ll be taking his offer then.


    "You know, this earl seems to be a really kind person, it''s a pity that someone like him had to get sick"


    I don''t know what his illness is, I just hope that it''s not something too serious.


    "Yes... that''s unfortunate"


    Perhaps it''s just my imagination but Ranna seems to be thinking about something deeply.


    We are taken to an incredibly long table with more food than we can possibly eat, but I guess we can try. Meanwhile, the earl tells us about some of the troubles that this kingdom has been having lately, a powerful demon lord appeared recently and took control of the wastelands next to the kingdom and his minions have been stealing from the surrounding countries as if they were bandits, and from the inside, it seems like the queen has been causing trouble for everyone recently, it was apparently her fault that the princess left in the first place.


    "The worst thing about her is her dislike of the demons who live in our kingdom"


    "Really? It seemed to me that the humans and demons here were getting along well"


    "Most of them do, but since some demons have some rather intimidating appearances, there are also some people who are afraid of them and end up believing that they are evil"


    "That''s awful! They should not just assume that someone is evil just because they look a bit scary!"


    I myself always make sure to not judge anyone because of their appearance, otherwise, I could end up making some terrible mistake.


    "Daddy! Are you not going to come today either?"


    A little girl just came running into the room and approached the earl.


    "Sorry, I''m still not feeling well enough"


    "Is this your daughter?"


    "Yeah, ever since my illness got worse I have not been able to spend time with her"


    *crash*


    I hear the sound of glass shattering and turn to see that Ranna just dropped a glass she was holding into the ground, her face seems a bit pale and she seems to be sweating even though it''s not hot, don''t tell me that she got sick as well.


    "Ah, sorry for breaking that"


    "Are you feeling sick?"


    "No, I''m fine, this is just part of the plan... yes, just the plan..."


    She doesn''t seem fine to me, perhaps we should take her to the doctor as well.


    "Now, if you excuse me, I would like to take my daughter to her room and... ugh!"


    The earl suddenly falls to the floor.


    *cough*


    What''s going on!? He just coughed a bit of blood... that doesn''t look good at all!


    "Daddy! What''s wrong!?"


    "Sorry, I think I''ll need to go to rest now"


    "Daddy... are you going to die?"


    "Of course not, I will get better and then I''ll be able to play with you again"


    This is a lot worse than I thought... seeing such a scene really makes me wish that I could do something about it, but I''m not a doctor...


    "This is too much... I''m sorry... I cannot do this..."


    Ranna is also looking even worse than before, she does not look like she''s feeling well at all.


    "Listen... I have something to tell you"


    "Eh? What is it?"


    She seems to hesitate for a moment and then...


    "This man has been opposing the queen and she wants to get rid of him, that blue demon from before, the doctor... I think that he''s an assassin, the earl''s illness is probably his doing"


    Somehow Ranna managed to tell me that with a completely serious expression, she''s not joking, is she...


    "WHAT!?"


    forli

 Chapter 42: All back together

    Now I have a swarm of fairies looking for Nera, at first I thought that with so many of them it would not take too long to find her, but thinking about it a bit more, this is a really big city and there''s probably a lot of places that cannot be found just by wandering around, and if she''s in a place they''re not allowed to enter they won''t be able to find her at all...


    Also, I''m back to having nothing to do, I wonder what is taking Arana so long, I''m so bored... I want to read one of my books, but I know that if I do I''ll become too absorbed into it to keep watch, I need to resist the temptation.


    "This is an emergency! We need to call the captain!"


    There seems to be a bit of a commotion, one guard is yelling at another with a panicked expression.


    "Someone opened the seal of the controller for the city''s mana circuits and made a copy!"


    "What!? Who could have managed to force open a seal of such a high level?"


    "Nobody, the reason that the controller was placed in a public space in the first place is that the ones who made it were certain that nobody would be able to open that seal, and on top of that it was opened cleanly, no signs that it had been forced open at all"


    "Doesn''t that mean that the one who did it was someone authorized?"


    "Yes... it''s very likely that there''s a spy"


    Eh!? Could they be talking about the controller I copied earlier? No, there''s no way, the seal they were talking about is supposed to be impossible to break but the one I found opened rather easily. I can understand why they are worried but that has nothing to do with me.


    Wait... when did this book get to my hand? Did it move out of my storage by itself? There''s no way that I took it out without thinking, right?


    No, I''m sorry, I know that you want me to read you but I need to stay focused on keeping guard. D-don''t try to tempt me with the rustling sound of your pages and the smell of your ink, my willpower will not be broken so easily.


    Well, I don''t think anything will happen if I read just a bit...


    "We found her!"


    "Ah!"


    I quickly hide the book behind my back when I see the fairies return, it won''t matter if they catch me reading but I acted in reflex.


    "You found her already!? That was fast!"


    "It''s because there was a fight and when we went to check she was there!"


    "A fight!? Is Nera alright!? Where is she!?"


    "Around 100 meters in that direction"


    ''Mana sense''


    "Oh! It''s her!"


    Knowing where to look let''s me find Nera''s location, now that I''ve found her I have no reason to stay here so I rush to get her back.


    "Is she inside that house?"


    I can sense Nera inside of a really big house that looks like the kind of place a noble would live in, the sounds of battle can be heard coming from there.


    I enter through a window and sneak around to avoid being noticed, if this is really a noble''s house and I''m caught trespassing I would get into trouble... what am I saying, I''m clearly way past the point where I should worry about something like that.


    "How can he be this strong!? Wasn''t he supposed to be a doctor!?"


    "He''s not a doctor, he''s an assassin"


    There they are, the three knights who took Nera, they are fighting against a very serious looking man with blue skin. I don''t know what this is about so it''ll probably be for the best if I do not get involved, I''ll just let them short out their differences on their own.


    What I need to do is find Nera... oh! There she is.


    "Nera, it''s me, are you alright?"


    "Mmmm, mmmm"


    "Is that a yes?"


    The one I don''t see around here is Ranna, that''s a problem, I think that she''s the one who has Arana''s hat.


    "Who''s that!?"


    "The queen of darkness! She''s wearing a mask but I''m sure that''s her!"


    "She has the princess!"


    Oh, they saw me.


    "Please don''t mind me, I''m just here to pick up my friend, just continue with what you were doing"


    "Of course I''m going to mind you! A knight cannot abandon an innocent person in trouble!"


    The catgirl, Silvea, stands in my way with a determined expression.


    "Well, that''s really honorable and all... but how exactly are you going to stop me?"


    We stare into each other''s eyes for a bit and with each second she looks less and less sure of what she''s doing.


    "I... I guess I''ll just move out of the way..."


    Yeah, that''s what I thought.


    And so, I leave that house with Nera on my back, I have to say, after all the worries I had about rescuing her I''m a bit disappointed that it


    ended up being this easy...


    "So Nera, since we are already here I guess we should go and deal with your mother, but I don''t know how..."


    "Mmmm"


    "This is a really pretty city, by the way, you grew up here, right?"


    "Mmmm mmmm"


    "Why are you not talking? Is something wrong?"


    Oh, wait, something IS wrong, someone used a spell to stop her from talking.


    ''Mana corrosion''


    The easiest way to undo such a spell is to get rid of its mana.


    "Can you speak now?"


    "Ah, yes, thank you, that was really annoying"


    "Well, now we just need to wait for Arana to come back, I wonder how much longer it will take her"


    "I''m already here"


    "Ah!!!"


    Arana just appeared behind me out of nowhere and placed something cold on the back of my neck, that really startled me!


    "Why can you never just walk up to us like normal!?"


    "Because it''s funnier this way," She says, shrugging her shoulders.


    "Oh, you are wearing your sister''s mmmm"


    That was close, Nera almost told her about the hat but I was able to silence her in time.


    "Mmmm! Mmmm!!!"


    She seems angry, I guess it must feel bad to be silenced again just after I broke that other spell.


    "Sorry, I''ll undo that now, but don''t say anything about the hat please" I whisper to her.


    "So, Ara, what were you doing in the castle all this time?"


    "I was trying to figure out a way to solve the problem with Nera''s mom"


    "Really? Did you think of a plan?"


    "Of course, all you have to do is go to the castle and kill the queen"


    "Eh... what?"


    "From what I''ve seen, this is a really nice and functional country, all of the problems here seem to come from the current queen, so if you kill her, Nera will become the next queen and everything will be fine"


    "What are you saying!? I cannot kill the queen!"


    "Why not?"


    "Why not!? Because I''m not a murderer!!!"


    "You always like to make things more difficult than they need to be, don''t you"


    This is probably just one of her jokes, sometimes she takes it too far...


    "It''s not just me, I bet that Nera does not want to kill her mother either!"


    "Eh!? Well... I guess I don''t"


    "See?"


    "Oh well, since I knew that you were going to say that, I also prepared another plan"


    "Then why didn''t you just tell us about that plan from the start!!!?"


    Seriously, what was the point of that? Nobody would think that I''m the type of person who could kill someone... well, actually a lot of people would think that, but not someone who knows me!


    "So anyway, according to the laws of the Agua kingdom, the queen can be dethroned if it''s proven that she betrayed the country, and her deal with the demon lord Kalroth would definitely qualify as a betrayal"


    "I see... but there''s no way to prove that, is there? I don''t think that Nera''s testimony would be enough..."


    "No, but if you think about it for a moment, the proof that she made that deal has to exist"


    "What do you mean?"


    "Just think, we have a queen that has made enemies of everyone around her and hates demons for some reason, and a demon lord that from everything I''ve heard about him seems to be just a glorified thug, do you think that there''s any chance of those two working together if all they had was each other''s word?"


    "No, there''s no way... wait, do you think that they made a magic contract?"


    "Exactly! And that means that the queen must have a ''contract crystal''"


    A magic contract requires two people to come to an agreement while touching two ''contract crystals'', each one of the participants then receives one of the crystals that can be used to force the other one to keep their end of the bargain even against their will.


    "A contract crystal contains the information about the participants and the contents of the magic contract, and there''s no way to tamper with them, everyone would have to acknowledge it as definitive proof"


    "I see, and do you have any idea of where it could be?"


    "That''s what I spent such a long time trying to figure out, someone as mistrusting as that queen would not leave something so important in a location where anyone else could go, but after looking around the castle I could not find any places that only the queen can access, and after spying on her for a bit, I''m 90% certain that she just carries it on her person at all times"


    I guess that makes sense, the queen is probably very well guarded and nobody would be allowed to take anything from her.


    "So now all you have to do is take the contract crystal from her and give it to one of the nobles who oppose her"


    "But how am I supposed to take it?"


    "What do you mean ''how'', just go to the castle, walk up to her and take it, it''s not as if any of her guards would be able to stop you"


    "Eh!? Wouldn''t that make me a criminal?"


    "I think that it''s a little too late to worry about that"


    As much as I hate to admit it, she''s probably right...


    I guess I''ll go break into the castle then.


    forli


    There''s a lot of stuff going on at the same time in these chapters, I hope that everything comes out right.

 Chapter 43: Into the castle

    At the front side of the castle there''s a large entrance with wide-open doors, the visitor''s entrance, a lot of people are going in and out, most of them seem to be tourists coming to visit the castle. As for me, I know that the queen will probably be in one of the restricted areas, but it should be easier to sneak in there if I''m already inside.


    However, when I''m about to enter, a guard stands in my way.


    "Excuse me, isn''t this the visitor''s entrance?"


    "Yes"


    "Well, I''m a visitor, can I enter?"


    The guard looks up at me for a moment.


    "No"


    "What!? Why not?"


    "Miss, could you please take off your mask?"


    "That man over there is also wearing a mask and you didn''t stop him"


    "I''m sorry, it''s my duty to make sure that no suspicious people enter the castle"


    "I''m just a normal traveler, there''s nothing suspicious about me"


    If I take my mask off it''s going to be even worse, isn''t it...


    But there are other people around here who are more suspicious-looking than me, this is a clear case of discrimination! Why would he think that I''m the one who''s not just a normal visitor!?


    I mean, he''s right, but still...


    "Well, never mind then, I''ll leave"


    I''ll have to find another entrance to the castle that I can use...


    "Hey Luna, come over here"


    Nera is over there calling out to me, she''s wearing a cloak with a hood to hide her face.


    "Why did you come here?"


    "I was thinking... if you are going to confront my mother, I should go there with you"


    "Are you sure? This could be a bit dangerous"


    "There''s nothing to worry about if I''m with you, and I know the inside of the castle! I can even take you to a secret entrance!"


    I suppose that I could use her help... and it''s true that this is her problem in the first place, so I understand why she would want to come with me.


    "Very well then, tell me how to get into the castle"


    Nera takes me to a narrow street not too far away from the castle and places her and on one of the magic circles on the floor, then she opens a piece of the mana circuit as if it was a trapdoor, revealing an air tunnel underneath the surface.


    "Not a lot of people know about this, I often used it to escape from the castle when I was little"


    We enter the narrow tunnel closing the entrance behind us, a mana circuit surrounds the tunnel, preventing the water from coming in and blocking the view of the outside, and from the outside, I assume.


    "This feels like crawling through a plastic tube"


    It''s funny to think that we''re under a city floating on the sea. It doesn''t take long for us to reach a staircase, I wonder if this is already inside the castle, after reaching the top Nera opens a door and then...


    "Wait, opening that door just triggered an alarm"


    "What!?"


    It was a silent alarm, but nor silent enough to stop me from noticing. However, before we can leave, two knights in full armor are already running at us.


    "Luna! Those are elite knights, we need to... eh!? What are you doing!?"


    I wrap my arms around Nera and cast a spell to protect her.


    ''Ghostly armor''


    She now seems to be wearing a semi-transparent black armor, ''ghostly armor'' is normally considered to be one of the most powerful and useful dark magic spells that only some of the best mages can use, it sets the toughness stat of the target to 800, making normally frail mages very difficult to hurt, however, since my toughness is already above 800, when I tried to use it on myself it actually went down...


    "Stop right there intruders... wait, is that the princess!?"


    I probably should make them sleep before things can get awkward.


    ''Mind void''


    However, the knights stab their own hands slightly to prevent themselves from falling asleep, it''s a good thing that not a lot of people use that trick because it makes this spell kinda useless...


    "A dark mage? Your cheap tricks won''t work on us!"


    And then they start swinging their swords at me.


    "Woah!"


    "What!? How are you dodging all of this!?"


    Perhaps I should take advantage of my speed stat more often when facing weak enemies, dodging attacks like this is a bit fun...


    ''Shadow bind''


    "Ugh!"


    If everyone guarding the castle is this weak there should not be any problem, but I should not count on that, and it''s better to not get into unnecessary fights so we should run away from here before someone else shows up.


    "Let''s go Nera!"


    "Yes! At this time my mother should be in her room, come this way"


    After getting through a long hallway we get to a large room with a bunch of columns and... nothing else really.


    "Eh, Nera, I don''t think that we should have come to this room"


    "Why not?"


    "Because this place looks like it was designed specifically to have a big fight"


    "What are you talking abo..."


    Before she can finish her sentence, a bunch of figures wearing all black start flying around the room, they are jumping in and out of the cover of the columns, flipping and spinning in the air while throwing knives at us. Then, they all land in front of us after doing a backflip in perfect synchronization.


    *Clap clap*


    That was amazing! I cannot help but give them an applause. That said, none of their knives were able to pierce my skin or Nera''s armor.


    "Those are royal assassins, be careful, they are merciless and very dangerous"


    Well, they don''t really look all that dangerous to me.


    ''Shadow bind''


    All the assassins dodge the ropes by doing backflips that I''m not sure are necessary but are certainly cool, I try sending the ropes at them in different ways to see what other tricks they can do.


    They certainly have a lot of variety, dodge rolls, side jumps, tossing each other around... and as they dodge they keep counterattacking with knives, guns, and bombs, these guys are great! I could catch them by speeding up the ropes or making more of them, but I want to see more of their performance.


    *Clap clap*


    "Ahahah! That was a great act!"


    "She''s making fun of us..."


    "No, no, no! I''m serious! Well, you don''t seem to be all that good at fighting, but if you were to join a circus I''m sure that you would be really popular!"


    "That''s it! Let''s take her down!"


    Eh!? Why did they get so angry? I was praising them!


    ''Shadow bind''


    Now that they''ve lost their cool they''re no longer able to dodge, I guess that the show''s over...


    "Wow Luna, I didn''t think that you would also be good at psychological attacks"


    "What''s a psychological attack?"


    "Never mind"


    We decide to hurry up and leave, if we stay for too long in one place, more guards will end up showing up.


    In the next room, four large white humanoid figures stand in our way, and it seems like they are going to attack us!


    "Those are salt golems!"


    "Salt golems? That''s dumb, golems should be made of metal or, if you can''t, rocks"


    "Don''t underestimate them! Salt golems are..."


    ''Shadow lance''


    They were destroyed with just one attack, as expected, they were very brittle.


    "See? Just because you live on the sea and have a lot of salt around does not mean that you should make your golems out of it"


    "But this is the Agua kingdom! Salt golems are a symbol of our country, nobody else has them"


    "Yeah, I know, everyone wants to be unique and special, they all go ''we live in the forest so we''ll make wood golems'' or ''we live in a wheat farm, so we''ll make wheat golems'', but in the end, the standard golems are the standard for a reason"


    "Well, yes, but... salt golems can throw salt at the enemy''s face!"


    "And rock golems can throw rocks, what do you think is more effective?"


    "..."


    Nera is looking down with a sullen expression, I hope that I didn''t hurt her pride or something, I couldn''t tell before but she really seems to like her country, but I still had to say that or she would keep thinking that salt golems are a good idea.


    In the room after that, there''s a terrible stench, both I and Nera cover our noses but that doesn''t help much, what could they possibly have inside of the castle that smells this bad?


    "Ugh! Where does that smell come from?"


    Oh, that must be it, there are two piles of dead and rotten fish that seem to be... walking to us? They have a vaguely humanoid shape, wait, don''t tell me...


    "Luna! Those are fish golems! You need to watch out for..."


    "Nera, no"


    "Fish golems can..."


    ''Shadow lance''


    When the golems explode I get a few chunks of fish on me, ugh, I hope that the smell doesn''t stick...


    "But fish golems..."


    "No, just no"


    forli

 Chapter 44: Confronting the queen

    "Luna! Shes''s there!"


    A woman with blue hair is standing in the hallway surrounded by guards, it''s obvious that she''s the queen because of the complicated looking dress she''s wearing and because she just looks like an older version of Nera.


    "Nera... so you''ve finally decided to drop the pretense? Is that woman with you an assassin you''ve hired to kill me?"


    "I don''t want to kill you mother! I only want to put an end to your crimes"


    "My crimes? Since when have you become so impudent? Perhaps you are in need of being punished"


    With that, the dozen or so guards around her begin to approach us, I guess it''s my turn now.


    I now have an easy way to deal with a large number of enemies, I simply equip my ''Stunning vengeful gloves'' and they all get paralyzed after only one attack that I can easily dodge, these gloves would feel unfair if it wasn''t for the fact that I could easily defeat all these enemies easily anyway.


    ''Mind void''


    Their inability to move makes it impossible for them to resist my spell and all of them fall asleep.


    "It''s over mother, we know about the magic contract you made, give us the contract crystal"


    "You... were those fairies from before also with you?"


    Is she talking about the same fairies I met? Did they run into her?


    "Do not get ahead of yourself, I still have one last trick up my sleeve"


    She takes a small stone slab with a magic circle on it from her sleeve, why do I feel like I have seen that somewhere before?


    "Is that a controller for the city''s mana circuit? What are you planning to do with that?"


    "Just take a look outside and see for yourself"


    She points to a window and we take a look outside, the water under some buildings seems to have risen and they now appear to be floating above the rest.


    "That''s the area where many of your friends who you have been conspiring against me with live, isn''t it"


    "What are you talking about? I have not been conspiring with anyone, I didn''t even think of going against you until I learned about your deal with Kalroth"


    "Are you really still going to keep lying like that? Fine, but if you don''t surrender right now I will sink all of them deep into the sea"


    "Are you crazy!? The mages will be able to tell that the controller was activated from here, they will know that it was you!"


    "I''ll just say that you and your friend took it from me, after all, you did knock out all of my guards"


    Uh, this is bad, even if I try to take her down quickly there''s a chance of her activating it, I cannot take that risk, but wait... I really think that I''ve seen that thing somewhere before... could it be?


    "Oh, it''s really the same as the one I copied earlier!"


    "What!? How do you have that!?"


    "Ufufu, you didn''t think that I would come here without being prepared for something like this, did you?"


    The truth is that I had no idea of what I was doing and this is just dumb luck, but I''ll take the chance to make Nera think that I''m smart.


    Now let me see... since we have the same controller and I have more mana I should be able to override her commands, but which ones of all the runes in the magic circle will make those buildings stay in place?


    Maybe it is these ones? No, that was something else... maybe these ones? That did something, but I don''t know what... is it this? Ah! I did it!


    "How? Just who in the world are you?"


    "I''m Nera''s friend"


    Judging by her expression it seems like the queen has finally accepted defeat.


    "To think that Nera would go this far to bring me down... ever since the day she was born she''s always been trying to ruin me"


    "Mother, that''s not true..."


    "Yeah, there''s just no way"


    "Did she also manage to win you over with her innocent and gentle appearance? This girl has always been such a manipulative swindler..."


    "No, even if I didn''t know anything about Nera, I still would not believe that she was trying to ruin you when she was a newborn..."


    "People had always looked down on me for being a member of the royal family who could not communicate with the spirits, and when Nera was born being able to directly talk with them, it made me look even worse, all sort of rumors about how I was going to ruin the county started to spread, and then... she... she said that the spirits hated me! In front of everybody! After that, many of this country''s nobles started to see me as an enemy and conspired against me behind my back, she turned them all against me!"


    "But mother... I didn''t know... I just said what the spirits told me"


    Uh... Nera looks like she''s going to start crying at any moment.


    "And then you became really popular among the demons didn''t you, after all, magic creatures like them care more about the spirits, so they like you for the same reason that they dislike me. And so you made them all turn against me, but that will not work, I will get rid of all the demons in this country before they can get rid of me!"


    "That''s not true! People only turned against you after you started doing bad things! You need to stop this, please..."


    "Why would I? If everyone is going to treat me like a villain I might as well become one!"


    What did she just say?


    "Wait... is THAT the reason why you tried to kill Nera and those other nobles? Because some people thought that you were a villain? Are you kidding me!?"


    "Who are you to talk like that to me!? You don''t know how it feels to be treated as someone evil when I didn''t do anything wrong!"


    This woman!!! To think that she would say that to ME.


    "You... do you think that you know what being treated as a villain is like? You have no idea..."


    I take off my mask so that she can look at me in the eyes.


    "You... are you the ''queen of darkness''!?"


    "You were lucky enough to have a family, I was abandoned when I was too young to even remember mine, just because the elves believe that the dark attribute is evil. You at least had a chance of making people like you, when I was growing up in an orphanage the other children would not even approach me because they were afraid of me, and no family would even consider adopting me"


    The queen takes a step backward.


    "Now that I think about it, that stupid prophecy barely changed anything, even before it came out people kept reacting to me as if they thought that I was going to kill them at any moment. And you know what... even with all of that I never even consider getting revenge on them, because I knew that doing so would only make things worse, instead, I kept doing my best to get them to accept me, I''ve only managed to make few friends like Nera or Arana, but even just that made it all feel worth it"


    "..."


    The queen''s whole body is shaking as she falls to her knees.


    "And you... you decided that you ''might as well become a villain'' just because of a few bad rumors!? Even though it should have been so much easier for you to make people like you than it was for me, you didn''t even TRY to do it. And you even went as far as to want to KILL YOUR OWN DAUGHTER!!! IS THIS SOME KIND OF JOKE!!!?"


    "I... please..."


    "All you did was prove that all the bad things people said about you were true! If it was this easy for you to become a villain, that just proves that you were a bad person from the start!!! You are not some good person who became evil after being mistreated, you were never anything more than a piece of trash!!!"


    "Uh, Luna, she''s unconscious"


    "Oh..."


    It seems like my ''intimidation'' was too much for her, now that I look at her, even Nera seems to be a bit pale.


    "Sorry, I lost my cool for a moment..."


    "No, it''s fine. If anything, it''s impressive that it took this long for you to snap..."


    "Actually, the one who should have snapped is you, how could you let her say those things about you"


    "Well, the truth is... the water spirits are not as ''wise'' as most people think they are, if anything, they are the opposite"


    "Really?"


    "Most people just assume things about them because they cannot interact with them much, but since I can talk with them, I know better. They tend to be very childish and only seem to remember what happened in the last few days"


    That really is not at all how I imagined the spirits to be...


    "They only disliked my mother for stupid reasons like the tone of her voice or the haircuts she wears, not because she was evil or anything... if I had been more clear on that or if I didn''t say anything, perhaps she would not have ended the way she did..."


    "Nera! Don''t you think that this was your fault!"


    "Luna..."


    I try giving her a hug to make her feel better, I''m not good at comforting people...


    "Now that I think about it... she is a queen and she ''submitted to you in fear'', do you think that this has advanced the prophecy?"


    "I don''t know, she''s a ''queen'' and the prophecy said ''kings'' so I''m not sure if it counts... hey Nera, do you know if your father is anywhere in this castle?"


    "Please, leave my father out of this..."


    She''s giving me a bad look, I should not have said that...


    "Anyway, since we''re done here we should leave now"


    "Eh!? Are we not going to take the ''contract crystal''?"


    "What are you... oh, right! The thing we came here to look for!"


    The queen should have it somewhere in her dress, I''ll have to search her.


    "Huh, this dress is way too complicated, I won''t be able to find anything in this"


    I have no choice but to rip apart her clothes if I want to search them properly, but even then, I cannot find that crystal anywhere...


    "Hey! What''s going on here!?"


    A group of people approach as I''m looming over the queen with some pieces of her dress in my hands, this is not a good time...


    forli

 Chapter 45: Luna’s master plan

    "Who are you!? What are you doing to the queen!?"


    "This is not what it looks like!"


    I got caught by a group of well-dressed people, I don''t know who they are but they certainly do not look like guards, some are too young and some are too old, and none of them is carrying weapons.


    One old man in particular steps forward, he''s all red in the face, is he angry about something?


    "Princess Nera! What is the meaning of this!? What do you think you''re doing to your mother!?"


    "I didn''t do anything! It was all her!"


    "Hey!"


    "Not that she did anything wrong either! This is just a misunderstanding!"


    Some of the people on the back are nervously glancing at each other and seem to be planning to run away.


    "That woman looks dangerous..."


    "We need to call the guards"


    ''Shadow bind''


    "Aaah!!!"


    "I''m sorry, I won''t keep you like that for long"


    "This is an outrage! Princess Nera! Release us at once!"


    The old man from before is getting even angrier...


    "I cannot release you, she would not let me..."


    "Hey!"


    "Luna these are all people in high positions in the country, I cannot let them think badly of me" Nera whispers in my ear.


    "That doesn''t mean that you need to throw all the blame at me..."


    Among the people I tied up, there''s a young girl that keeps staring at the unconscious queen and seems particularly terrified.


    "What... what are you going to do to us?"


    "Ah, don''t worry, I promise that I will be gentle with you"


    "Nooooooooo!!!"


    She''s crying...


    "Eh!? You don''t want me to be gentle with you?"


    "Eeek!!!"


    And now she crying even harder, what does she want from me? I don''t get her...


    "How can you talk like that to such a young girl!? Do you have no shame!?"


    I have to give some credit to the old man, he does not seem to be scared like everybody else, perhaps his anger is overshadowing his fear.


    "Are you also the one who activated the barrier earlier?"


    "The barrier? What barrier?"


    "The one who surrounds the city! We saw it get activated just a moment ago, and the water filter was turned off"


    Taking a look out the window, I can see that the city has been covered by a semi-transparent dome that seems to be made of water, don''t tell me that I did that when I was trying to guess how to use the controller...


    "Nera, what is that water filter he was talking about?"


    "Oh, it''s a part of the magic circuit that turns seawater into drinking water, most people in this city get their water from it"


    Did I turn that off as well?


    "For the time being, let''s take your mother to that room over there so we can finish the search"


    I open the closest door to us and drag the unconscious queen there, which means that I''ll leave these other people alone for a bit.


    "Everyone, listen, I''ll be back soon, do not try to do anything weird"


    Nera enters the room with me and helps me search for the ''contract crystal'' but we cannot find it, no matter how hard we try.


    "Luna, it''s not here, what do we do now?"


    "Well, I do not want to kill the queen, but I''m sure that we can find a better way to do things"


    That said, there''s another thing to worry about.


    "But before we do anything else, I need to figure out how to use this controller. I activated the barrier and turned the water filter off, at the moment, nobody can leave the city or get drinking water"


    "Yeah, that''s a problem, but can''t you just reverse what you did?"


    "I need to make sure that I understand how this works first if I do something wrong, I''m afraid that I could even end up sinking a part of the city into the sea like your mother threatened to do earlier, better not do anything reckless"


    "But what if more guards come?"


    "Don''t worry, even if someone comes here there''s no way they''ll be able to beat me"


    "That''s true..."


    "Actually, do you know if we could ask anyone to do it for us?"


    "I''m not sure... all the people who take care of this stuff are demons and I don''t know any of them personally, do you remember how I told you that Kalroth had sent some of his assassins here? I even met one of them earlier, I''m afraid that we cannot trust any demons we don''t know"


    "That does seem dangerous, yes, demon lords have several skills to control their underlings even if they are not close, any demon around here could potentially be a spy..."


    "So, will you be able to figure it out on your own?"


    "Don''t worry, everyone will have water to drink again soon"


    "Wait... Luna, that mirror over there... this is the broadcast room!"


    "Broadcast room?"


    "It''s like a transmitter mirror, but this one sends images and sound to a bunch of panels placed around the city, it''s meant to be used to make general announcements to the city, and it seems like you activated it by accident"


    "Eh!? So did everyone hear our conversation just now?"


    "Well, you need to be right in front of the mirror for it to work, so maybe not... or, since you were moving around so much, perhaps only parts of it were heard..."


    "Uh, I hope that nothing was..."


    It would be very embarrassing if everyone heard me having no idea what I was doing...


    -Silvea-


    After a long and difficult battle, we were able to defeat and capture the assassin, however, Ranna disappeared without a trace, there were a few things that I wanted to ask her...


    But before we could think about celebrating our victory, something strange happened, the entire section of the city we were in suddenly rose into the air! And after just a few moments it went down again, that was scary! What was that about? Wait, why is there a barrier surrounding the city now?


    "Paula, do you know what just happened?"


    "Of course I don''t, why are you asking me?"


    Well, she''s, usually the one of our group who knows things...


    After that we make sure that everyone is safe, fortunately, the people in the mansion did not get caught in the fight.


    "Now we should try to find Ranna, but where do you think that she went?"


    When we were about to start discussing what we should do next, a large panel attached to a tall building illuminated, and the face of the queen of darkness appeared on it, what is going on?


    "Everyone, listen ... do not try to do anything weird"


    What? Do not tell me that she''s planning to make some sort of announcement to the city.


    "I do not want to kill the queen, but I''m sure that we can find a better way to do things"


    I can see an unconscious woman next to her, her clothes are on tatters, is that the queen? Is she threatening to kill her if people don''t do as she says?


    "I activated the barrier and turned the water filter off, at the moment, nobody can leave the city or get drinking water"


    Eeeeeh!? How did she do that? Does that mean that everyone in the city is her hostage now? Could she be trying to take over the kingdom?


    "I could even end up sinking a part of the city into the sea ... better not do anything reckless"


    Sink the city!? How can she be so ruthless... was what happened before just a demonstration? Someone needs to do something, if she''s in the castle there should be many strong guards and knights around, maybe they can stop her...


    "Even if someone comes here there''s no way they''ll be able to beat me"


    Ugh, that''s true...


    "Demon lords have several skills to control their underlings even if they are not close, any demon around here could potentially be a spy..."


    She even has spies in the city!? Don''t tell me... the reason why she destroyed that mountain and intimidated all those demons back then was so that she could get the demon lord title? She must have wanted some servants to help her take over this city... this way we won''t even we able to trust the people in the city...


    "Don''t worry, everyone will have water to drink again soon"


    And with that the announcement ends... wait, the wait she talked about everyone drinking water don''t tell me...


    "Guys... do you remember when she did something to the water in that town back then? She didn''t seem to accomplish anything and we couldn''t figure out what she was after... and now, she has access to the water supply of this city..."


    "It can''t be... are you trying to say that that was all a test for what she was planning to do here?"


    "What... we need to warn everyone! If the people in the capital fall under her control she could end up taking over the entire country!"


    "How did she manage to pull this off, wait, wasn''t the princess there with her?"


    I believed that she had kidnapped the princess because she wanted to use her as a hostage, but could it be that she was actually after the information she had on the workings of the capital and the castle?


    Uh... to think that everything she had been doing since the start was part of her master plan to take over this country... the queen of darkness is even more fearsome than I thought...


    forli


    Could it already be too late to save the Agua kingdom?

 Chapter 46: A complicated situation

    "And you say that they thought I was threatening them?"


    "Yeah! Everyone in the city is panicking, the city guards don''t know what to do and the nobles seem to be going to surrender at any moment now"


    "You really managed to take over the city without even needing to kill anyone! You''re amazing!"


    "You''re incredible!"


    "You''re astounding!"


    The three fairies I met earlier just came flying into the castle to inform me of the ''success'' of ''my plan''... it seems like the people of the city got a glimpse of what was going on in here and ended up getting the wrong idea.


    "Luna... did you just take over the city by accident?"


    Nera has an expression halfway between amazement and disbelief.


    "How was I supposed to know that people were hearing what I was saying? Actually, why didn''t you warn me about that room?"


    "I forgot about it..."


    Uh... sometimes it feels as if people become dumber whenever them being smart would help fix the misunderstandings about me. Is this some kind of curse? Could it be the prophecy''s doing?


    "Whatever, let''s go back there and make another announcement to clear things up"


    "Ah, I don''t think that will work"


    The fairies come flying next to my head.


    "Why not?"


    "The very first thing that the city guards did was take down the announcement panels, they didn''t want you to be able to make demands directly to the citizens"


    Why does everyone keep trying to make this as difficult as it can possibly be!?


    "I need to find a way to let the citizens know that there''s no reason for them to be afraid..."


    "ATTENTION CITIZENS! THERE''S A VERY GOOD REASON FOR YOU TO BE AFRAID!"


    What was that? Is there someone yelling outside?


    "THIS CITY IS NOW UNDER THE CONTROL OF MY MISTRESS, THE QUEEN OF DARKNESS!"


    A stupid looking dragon is flying outside screaming nonsense at the top of his lungs, he''s so loud that I bet everyone in the city can hear him.


    "IT''S USELESS TO RESIST! ANYONE WHO FIGHTS BACK WILL KNOW THE TRUE MEANING OF TERROR!"


    "What is that idiot doing!? He''s making it even worse!!!"


    I need to find a way to remove the barrier at least, after that... I suppose I''ll have to run away like I always do. Why does it have to end like this every time...


    "At least there''s no way that things can get any worse than they already are"


    "Luna! Things just got much worse than they already were!"


    One of these days I''ll finally learn to keep my mouth shut...


    "What''s wrong, Nera?"


    "Look! Just outside of the barrier!"


    What in the world? There''s a massive fleet of ships surrounding the city! And next to them, a few dozen massive creatures are reaching out to the barrier.


    "Nera! What is that!?"


    "That''s our navy''s fleet, it looks like they brought most of the battleships here, they must be taking this situation very seriously"


    The navy? How did they get here so quickly!?


    "And what are those giant things? They look kinda like squids... don''t tell me, are they krakens?"


    "Yes, they are! The aquatic demons work really hard to domesticate them, krakens are not monsters you know, they are normal animals, so they need to be domesticated in the same way that horses are"


    No, you just cannot compare horses with something like that.


    "But the effort is worth it, no other country can match the Agua kingdom in naval combat," She says, with a smug smile on her face.


    "Nera... this is not the time to feel proud about your country, it''s going to be a disaster if they actually attack"


    "Ah, sorry, but it should take them some time to make a hole in the barrier, we still have some time to do something"


    It''s clear that I''m going to need some help, and there''s only one person who could be able to help me right now.


    "Hey, I need to ask you for another favor"


    When I address them, the three fairies quickly form a line in front of my face.


    "Ask as much as you want! We already decided that you are the demon lord we are going to follow from now on"


    "Yeah! A villain who can take over a large city like this so easily is someone worth following"


    Are they being serious right now?


    "If you think that I''m a villain, why are you so eager to follow me?"


    "Well, it''s not as if we''ve ever given the choice to do anything other than work for some villain"


    "Yeah! And you at least are nicer to us than our previous master..."


    "Oh, I''m sorry about that... anyway, I need you to find that pink-haired girl that was with me earlier, tell your friends to search the area around..."


    "Oh, but I''m already here"


    "Ah!"


    Of course she was right behind me... is she ever going to stop doing that!?


    "Ara! I need you to help me! Everyone in the city is panicking! They think that I''m trying to conquer their country! And there are giant squids all around! Giant squids!"


    "You know, I really thought that the worst that could happen was for you to get into a fight with some guards or that someone thought that you were planning to kill the queen, but as always, you managed to surpass all my expectations"


    "Don''t say that as if it was a good thing..."


    "No, I''m serious, it''s really impressive that you were able to take control of the mana circuit and infiltrate the castle so easily, that speech was also quite impressive, for someone who does not want to be a villain, you''re really good at it"


    "Why thank you! I just do what I... wait! No! I''m not good at that at all! This was all just a coincidence!"


    "Ah... your life would be so much easier if you just learned to roll with it"


    "I don''t want to want to learn to roll with it!!!"


    I can see her holding back her laughter, she''s making fun of me...


    "I need to make another announcement for the city to explain everything!"


    "Oh, let me guess, you couldn''t do it because the guards took down those panels earlier"


    "Exactly"


    "And then, you must have seen the dragon yelling so loud that everyone in the city could hear him"


    "It would have been difficult to miss him"


    "But you didn''t think that, since he follows your orders, you could use him to make another announcement, did you"


    "..."


    "..."


    "Could you not have said that in a way that didn''t imply that I''m dumb?"


    "I wasn''t implying that! By the way, did you find the contract crystal?"


    "No, the queen did not have it"


    "Really? I was sure that she had it... did you search her well"


    "Some people might argue that I searched her too well..."


    "More importantly, did you see Ranna anywhere?"


    "No, she was not with the knights when I saw them"


    "Well, we need to find her, that''s more important than anything else"


    I would say that the most important thing is the fleet surrounding us... I bet that she suspects that Ranna has her hat, she only cares about her own stuff...


    "Luna! I know what announcement you should make!"


    "You do?"


    "You should demand that the citizens find Ranna and capture her!"


    "What!?"


    "Go and tell Irvan to tell everyone!"


    "I''m not going to make any demands! That would only confirm that I''m using the city as a hostage!"


    "Well, in that case, we should try to..."


    Arana stops talking abruptly and her face becomes expressionless, she seems to be staring into nothing in particular.


    "Ara? Is something wrong?"


    I wave my hand in front of her face a few times but there''s no response.


    "What''s wrong? You''re scaring me"


    And then she suddenly starts talking with a strange monotone voice.


    An evil ruler torments the wasteland.


    Corrupted by the belief that might makes right.


    But the ruler''s cruelty shall be punished.


    When it brings down the wrath of the queen of darkness.


    The extent of the crimes will be revealed to her.


    And she will be forced to make a decision to kill.


    The evil ruler will then know.


    A terror unlike anything the world has ever seen.


    Arana blinks a few times, I think she went back to normal.


    "Ara, what were you talking about? I already told you that I''m not going to kill the queen"


    "No, that wasn''t me who said that"


    "Uh... I was right in front of you, I could clearly see that it was you"


    "It wasn''t me, that was a prophecy... although only a minor one"


    "Eh?"


    "And if I made a prophecy, that means..."


    Arana takes off her sister''s hat and stares at it for a moment.


    "I knew it! This is Ranna''s hat!"


    She violently throws the hat to the ground and falls to her knees.


    What does she mean ''a prophecy''!? I need an explanation!


    forli


    So I was thinking of a way to retcon that... maybe I should edit that chapter and pretend that she was always taller? Or should I reveal that Luna was wrong about her own height? Or maybe I should give her a title or something that makes her taller...


    Or should I just stick with what I already wrote? I don''t know...

 Chapter 47: The secret of the hats

    While I''m trying to process what I just heard I absentmindedly step in a puddle of water. I must have heard it wrong, did Arana say that she made a prophecy just now? Is she an oracle?


    "Ara, are you seriously telling me that you made a prophecy just now?"


    "We need to find Ranna... she probably has my hat... perhaps we can do a hat exchange."


    "Does Ranna''s hat have anything to do with it?"


    "No, not Ranna''s, I need my hat..."


    Uh... I don''t think that I''ll be able to get anything coherent from her until I get her hat back, but I have no idea of where it is, maybe I could use Ranna''s hat to lure her here?


    Speaking of Ranna''s hat, that puddle of water seems to have moved to just next to it, it''s going to get wet. Wait a minute... I''m not an expert in fluid dynamics, but I''m fairly certain that when water is placed on a sloped surface it usually flows down, this hallway does indeed seem to be slightly sloped but that water is going up!


    When the water notices that I''m staring at it, it begins to tremble a little, of course, I''m not going to let it escape.


    ''Mana corrosion''


    "Ah!"


    As I thought, when I take away her mana, Ranna''s spell gets broken and she''s forced back to her normal form, she immediately jumps to her hat and hugs it to her chest.


    "This is mine... do not take it away..."


    "Ranna! What are you doing here? Give me back my hat!"


    Indeed, just as we thought, she has Arana''s hat. So all we have to do is place each hat on the correct head and order will be restored to the world or something like that.


    "Thank you very much for returning my hat, now if you excuse me I''ll be on my way."


    ''Shadow bind''


    Last time she was able to escape by turning herself into water, but this time she won''t get away, it doesn''t matter how many tricks she knows, she won''t be able to use any magic after I took away her mana.


    "Ranna! It''s been a long time since we last saw each other, you really have grown... a little, how are you doing?"


    "I''ve been doing well... thank you for asking..."


    I believe that this is the first time these two sisters have seen each other in years, but for some reason, they don''t look very happy.


    "So... what exactly did you think you were doing? Do you have any idea of the kind of people you''ve been helping?"


    "Uh... I was only following Cureva''s plan, I know that some of the things that need to be done are really bad, but she said that this is the only way to make the world better for everyone!"


    Who is Cureva? The moment Ranna said that name, I could see Arana''s face contort into an expression of absolute hatred for a brief moment, I have never seen her like that before.


    "Better for everyone? Better in what way?"


    "I don''t know, she didn''t tell me the details."


    "So you''ve been helping out a bunch murderers without even knowing why you were doing it? Didn''t I tell you to never listen to anything Cureva says?"


    "But you tried to steal all of the world relics! Isn''t that why you left? That''s why Cureva told me to take yours."


    "Cureva told you... if Cureva told you to jump off a cliff would you.. why am I asking? Of course you would!"


    Even if Ranna jumped off a cliff, I think that she would be fine if she turned into water, but that''s probably not the point.


    "Our oldest sister approved Cureva''s plan, even if I don''t like it, I have no choice but to obey her..."


    "Of course you have a choice, you should be able to judge by yourself if something is right or wrong, instead of blindly following their orders like a tool you should have left as I did... uh, this is really my fault, I should have taken you with me back then..."


    After that there''s an awkward silence, it feels really out of character for Arana to look so upset.


    "Ara, who is that ''Cureva'' you were talking about?"


    "She''s one of my older sisters, the witch of wind, she''s also the one person at the top of my list of people I want to kill."


    "You have a list of people you want to kill!? Uh... am I on that list?"


    "What are you even... why would you be on that list?"


    "I don''t know, I was asking just in case."


    "Hahaha, Luna, you always know how to improve my mood."


    I don''t think that was funny, my life could have been in danger...


    "So... are you going to tell me what the deal with those hats is? And how did you make a prophecy? Are you an oracle?"


    "Luna... that''s supposed to be a secret, I cannot tell you."


    "After the scene I just saw, you cannot not tell me."


    "..."


    It seems like she''s thinking about it, but this time there''s no way I''ll back down, I''ll make her speak at any cost!


    "Aaaaah, alright, but you''re the only one who can hear this, tell those three to go away."


    Oh, the fairies are still here, did they hear everything so far?


    "We want to know too!"


    "This has nothing to do with you! Go away!"


    Now that I''m alone with the two sisters, it''s time for an explanation.


    "Remember, it is very important that this remains a secret, you ABSOLUTELY cannot tell any of this to ANYONE."


    "Of course! My lips are sealed!"


    "As you might have already heard, Ranna and I are witches. Our race is different from the others, first of all, there''s only six of us in the entire world, and that number never changes, a new witch is born when and only when a witch dies, the truth is that we are not blood-related, but we call each other sisters since there are so few of us."


    Is that true? How can there be a race with so few people?


    "One day I will tell you everything about us, but for now I''ll tell you about the hats. You see, each witch has the duty of protecting one of the six ''world relics'', incredibly powerful items that were each created a long time ago by a different ritual in which most of the world took part, and in order to make them easier to keep safe, they were all made to take the form of hats so that we could hide them in plain sight."


    "What!? So your hat is not really a hat?"


    "Well, four of them have a power that is not dependant on the form they take, so they are just hats with special abilities, for example, Ranna''s hat allows the one wearing it to hear the voice of the world, all the prophecies that are told come from that hat."


    "I thought that the ones who make prophecies were the oracles."


    "That''s what we want everyone to think since we don''t want anyone to target her, but the truth is that all the oracles are the subordinates of the witch of water."


    Really? From the way she looks, I would have never imagined that Ranna would be someone so important... wait, does that mean that the ''queen of darkness'' prophecy was her fault? No, from what I''ve seen so far she probably cannot control what prophecies she makes.


    "And what does your hat do?"


    "The other two world relics are weapons, so they cannot be used while in hat form, look at this."


    Arana takes her hat on her hand and a bright flash comes from it, when I look again, I see that she''s now holding a fancy looking sword with a silver handle and a blade that''s shining so brightly that it looks like it''s made of light.


    "Woah! That looks like a sword a legendary hero would use."


    "That''s because it is. Under normal circumstances my duty is supposed to be to find someone who''s compatible with this sword and hand it over to them, then I would serve as a guide for that person, but because my older sisters decided to abandon their own duties nothing is the way it''s supposed to be right now..."


    "So you''re not going to try to find the person who should get that sword?"


    "The truth is, I think that I already found her, but it''s probably not a good idea to give it to her just yet, she seems to be... easily misguided."


    Arana transforms the sword back into a hat and places it on her head.


    "One last thing, you might have guessed this already, but all witches have the duty to protect their world relic ingrained into their very being, losing it is like losing a part of ourselves, which is really bad because it makes it much harder to get it back..."


    "Oh, so that''s why you become that way without your hat..."


    "So, that''s all for now, are you satisfied?"


    "Yes, I guess."


    I still have a lot of questions, but I''ll save them for later. To be honest, I''m having some trouble processing all the crazy stuff I just learned so it might be bad to add more things on top of that, I had no idea that Arana''s hat was something so important...


    "Now, if you don''t mind, I would like you to leave me with Ranna for a bit. As her older sister I feel that it''s my responsibility to get her back into the right path."


    "Oh, sure."


    "Eh!? Don''t leave me alone with her!"


    Ranna''s face is as stoic as ever, but I can hear a hint of fear in her voice. However, this is a private family matter, I have nothing to do with it.


    "Please, don''t leave."


    I''m glad that Arana was able to reunite with her sister, she caused us some trouble but all is well that ends well, now I can finally relax a little.


    But why do I feel like I''m forgetting something important?


    forli


    So I was told that you''re supposed to add a period at the end of the quotes in dialog, all this time I thought that it was optional so I wasn''t doing it, I did it in this chapter but if I have to edit all the previous ones it''s going to be a pain...

 Chapter 48: Nera’s worries

    -Nera-


    I still have a few more things that I would like to say to my mother, but she doesn''t look like she''s going to wake up any time soon. Luna is already scary enough when she''s calm, but seeing her get angry made me feel as if the blood in my veins was frozen, and I wasn''t even the target of that anger! I don''t think that Luna understands just how intimidating she really is...


    In any case, I don''t think that it would be a good idea to leave the half-naked queen lying there on the floor so for the time being I''m taking her to my room, after all. I wanted to go there anyway, last time I had to leave in a hurry so I left most of my stuff there.


    I''ll leave her on the bed and look for something for her to wear. There''s no way I can dress her when she''s tied up, but I''m afraid of setting her free...


    "Princes Neraaa!!!"


    "Ouch!"


    There was someone already inside my room! I was too careless, I got tackled and knocked into the ground, the other person is on top on me and I cannot get up!


    "Are you alright!? I heard something about you being kidnapped! I was afraid I would never see you again!"


    "Uh? Mari?"


    She''s one of the castle''s maids, Mari. She''s only two years older than me and we''ve been friends for as long as I can remember.


    "Are you hurt anywhere!? Are you hungry!?"


    "I''m fine! Please stop squeezing me! It hurts! And stop crying!"


    "Hey! Isn''t that the queen on the bed? What happened to her!?"


    "Oh, well, you know how my mother and I have had a few disagreements, that''s why I had to leave in the first place. I came back here with... a friend, she got mad at her and she ended up like that."


    "But why are her clothes torn apart?"


    "She did that too, it''s a long story."


    Mari stares at me for a bit with an awkward expression, I wonder what she must be thinking.


    "That ''friend'' you''re talking about sounds really scary."


    "You don''t know the half of it..."


    It''s probably better if I don''t tell her that my friend is the queen of darkness...


    "Can you help me to get her dressed? I think that one of mine might fit her."


    "Just leave it to me!"


    I should take this opportunity to change my own clothes as well, I''ve been wearing the same thing ever since I got kidnaped by Luna.


    "Mari... uh? Did you change my mother''s clothes already? When!?"


    "I did it while you were looking away."


    "I only looked away for like 20 seconds!"


    "Yes, and that''s when I dressed her."


    Woah, she''s even faster than I remember. I mean, the ropes are still around her... was that a trick? Is she planning to become a performer?


    "So, will you introduce me to that friend of yours?"


    "Eh... I''m not sure if I should..."


    "Why not? It''s so rare for you to make friends, I''m curious."


    "It really is rare isn''t it... but with everything that''s going on right now I don''t think it would be a good idea to introduce you to her."


    I mean, if Mari finds out that my friend is the person who just took over the city she would probably freak out...


    "Oh right, I think I heard some commotion earlier, do you know what''s going on?"


    "Wait, you don''t know?"


    "I was busy, I didn''t have time to ask."


    "Well, you see... after my friend left my mother like that, some people misunderstood what she was doing and she got into some trouble."


    "Your friend keeps sounding more and more interesting! What does she look like?"


    "What does she look like? She has long black hair, is really tall and also really pretty."


    "Oh! You sound like you really like her! Tell me, how do you feel about her?"


    How do I feel about Luna? That''s a difficult thing to explain.


    "I... I think that we''re starting to grow close and I should already be used to her, but I''m ashamed to admit that when I look at her I can feel my breathing become erratic and my heartbeat gets faster, I guess I should learn to control my emotions better."


    After everything I''ve learned about Luna, I should no longer get scared by her, but she''s just too intimidating... maybe I''m not a very good friend after all.


    "That''s not something to be ashamed of! You should be true to your feelings! I don''t know what your mother told you but I''m on your side, and I''m sure that your father will support you as well!"


    Maybe she''s right, just because fear is the natural reaction anyone would have in front of Luna doesn''t mean that I cannot be her friend. I should just be honest with her and perhaps someday after getting more used to her I won''t get scared anymore.


    "Thank you Mari, but that reminds me, how''s my father doing? Has he recovered already?"


    "Ah, no, I''m sorry. His condition seems to been getting even worse. Now he feels so weak that he barely gets off his bed."


    I suppose that makes sense, while it''s true that he''s never been able to stand up to my mother, she''s been getting her way too much lately.


    "And did any of the healers find any traces of him having been poisoned?"


    "No, they keep bringing healers to the castle, but none of them can tell what''s wrong with the king. They found no traces of poison, curses, or any other kind of magic, and they''ve not been able to tell what illness he has either."


    My father fell sick soon after Ranna first showed up here, so of course, I suspect that she has something to do with it, but the healers seem to think that this is some unknown illness and not something that was caused by a person.


    "So nobody has any idea then?"


    "The king has already been checked by the best healers in the continent, and they couldn''t do anything."


    "No... the best healer has not checked him yet."


    "Eh? What do you mean?"


    "Mari, go to my father''s room, I''ll be there soon."


    I keep forgetting about it because of how strong she is, but Luna is a healer before anything else, this is probably not a good time, but I think that I''m going to ask her for a favor...


    "Please, princess! Let me talk with you for a moment!"


    "I don''t want to hear anything from you! Leave me alone!"


    "I''m sorry for what I did before! I was wrong! But you need to listen to me!"


    "Are you trying to capture me again!?"


    "No, I''m not!"


    When I was on my way to find Luna I encountered someone I didn''t want to see again. That cat-eared knight from before seems to have snuck into the castle. I wonder what she''s trying to accomplish here... her two friends are not with her.


    "I already told you! I''m not under anyone''s control! Luna is only trying to help me to deal with my mother, she''s the evil one!"


    "I know! I discovered that the queen had been planning to kill some of the nobles who opposed her and that she was really awful to you. You only went with the queen of darkness so that she would help you against her, didn''t you?"


    "What!? Really!?"


    "I was stupid, I let an evil person use me... I wanted to apologize for that."


    "Oh, well, that''s good."


    I was not expecting that, perhaps this girl is not as dumb as I first thought.


    "But just because your mother is a bad person doesn''t mean that you have to help someone even worse!"


    "Uh?"


    "It must have been awful, to have to run away from your own mother... I know that you must have thought that the queen of darkness was the only one who could help you get back at her, but you should not betray your country just for that! There''s a lot of people here who really love you! You need to see that the queen of darkness is only trying to use you for her evil plans!"


    There''s not a face, nor a palm, large enough for this.


    "Look, come here for a second."


    "Eh?"


    I place my hands at both sides of her face and stare at her with my face really close to hers.


    "Luna. Is not. Evil!!!"


    "W-what are you trying to say?"


    "She looks scary but she''s a really good person, all this nonsense about her taking over the city is just a misunderstanding that happened because she was trying to help me bring down my mother."


    "A misunderstanding? You''re not really expecting me to believe that, are you?"


    Ugh, I guess it must be difficult to believe after Luna made a public announcement basically saying that she was taking over the city...


    "L-look, you''re completely wrong about Luna, you should try to give her a chance, and then you''ll see how nice she really is."


    "Has she really deceived you this badly? You need to open your eyes and see the truth!"


    This is like talking to a brick wall. I know that I might not be the best person to complain since I was the same at first, but still...


    Whatever, I don''t have time for this, I''ll just get rid of her.


    "Oh! Luna! I was looking for you! Can you come here!?"


    "Eeek! She''s here!?"


    As expected, she ran away. She fell for that quite easily.


    "Nera! What do you need?"


    Oh, she was actually there.


    "I wanted to ask you... wait, why do you look so flummoxed?"


    "Sorry, I''m still trying to process something, I can''t believe the hat is a sword..."


    "What?"


    "Ah! Forget I said that! It''s supposed to be a secret."


    "Sure, I''ll forget, but in exchange, I wanted to ask you to help my father."


    "Help him with what?"


    "He fell sick sometime before I left and it seems like he''s been getting worse. All the healers who have looked at it have no idea of what''s wrong with him, so I was thinking that perhaps you could do something."


    "Your father is sick!? Why didn''t you tell me earlier!?"


    "Well, there seemed to be more important things going on, and I didn''t know that his sickness had worsened."


    "What could be more important than saving your father? And you know that I''m a healer, of course I will help!"


    Yeah, she really is a good person, no matter what she looks like.


    forli

 Chapter 49: Malice

    Before going to visit Nera''s father I changed my clothes and my mask, I don''t think this will be very effective for hiding my identity but it''s better than nothing.


    Also, the three fairies are following us for some reason.


    "You don''t need to come with us if you don''t want to you know."


    "You''re going to use dark magic to cure someone''s illness, aren''t you? We want to see how you do it!"


    Do they think that they can learn something from just watching? Or are they just curious? Well, I guess there''s nothing wrong with them watching.


    "Nera, will these fairies be allowed to enter your father''s room with us?"


    "No, but we won''t be allowed either. You''ll probably need to put a few people to sleep..."


    Oh, I guess I should have expected that.


    ...


    "Look, there it is."


    Two guards are standing in front of a door.


    "Halt! Who are you!?"


    ''Mind void''


    Inside the room, I can see a man laying on a bed and nobody else...


    Really? Only two guards and nobody else? Isn''t this supposed to be the king?


    "Father!"


    "Nera? You''re back?"


    He really does not look like a king at all. Well, that¡¯s probably because the clothes he¡¯s wearing are rather plain and his face is very pale.


    "Look, this is Luna, she''s a healer. I''m sure that she''ll be able to figure out what your illness is."


    "Nera... I''ve already been examined by dozens of healers and none of them were able to do anything. I don''t know who that masked lady is but you should not get your hopes up."


    "You don''t understand, Luna is in a league of her own, the logic of normal people does not apply to her."


    "Oh, it''s unusual for you to praise someone that much, I guess we could give her a chance."


    Is Nera saying that I''m a weird person? Well, I should try to do my best to heal her father, I don''t want to betray her trust.


    "Sir, could you please tell me what symptoms you have been experiencing?"


    "I feel very tired at all times and have trouble breathing, I keep getting light-headed and at times I feel pain all over my body."


    Let''s see, first of all, I need to check if there''s any magic affecting him in some way.


    ''Mana sense''


    Hmmm, I cannot feel any mana in him other than his own... there are a few small clumps of mana that feel a bit strange, but nothing that could be the cause of his symptoms. However, feeling that mana made me feel uneasy for some reason.


    Then let''s check his breathing, his eyes, ears, throat... his skin seems a bit blue in some places.


    "Your blood pressure seems very low."


    "Yes, some of the others also mentioned that, but they couldn''t figure out the reason."


    After another 15 minutes examining him I still cannot figure this out, I had never had this much trouble identifying someone''s illness. Back when I was doing my research on healing dark magic I used to approach sick people to examine them in secret, I know that it was wrong for me to do that without permission but I needed to practice somehow and nobody would let me do it. I must have done that thousands of times and despite not being able to examine them as I wanted I was still able to figure out what the illness was in a matter of seconds every single time, that''s why I had a lot of confidence in my abilities, and yet, this time I''m at a complete loss.


    "Do you mind if I take a blood sample?"


    "Go ahead."


    The only clue I have is that there seems to be something wrong with his blood, so I will use a magic circle of my own creation to separate everything in this one drop I took from him.


    "This is..."


    "Did you find anything?"


    "It''s a very small amount, but there was some air in that blood."


    "Air?"


    Could this be...


    ''Mana sense''


    This time I focus on searching his blood and I look for wind mana specifically.


    "There''s several clumps of wind attribute mana in your blood. They are all really small and are wrapped by your own mana, making them extremely difficult to detect."


    Whoever this mana belongs to seems to be able to use some really unique forms of magic, I had never even heard of something like this, also, there''s something about this mana that I really do not like.


    "If even you had trouble finding them, it''s no wonder that none of the other healers could figure this out."


    "So that''s what''s adding air to my blood?"


    "Yes, the wind mana is creating some really small air bubbles at random intervals, that''s probably when you feel pain, then they disappear after a short while. The mana must have been used for an air creation spell and then it was placed on something you drank or ate, you could say that it was a magic poison."


    "Can you remove that mana?"


    "That''s easy, I''ll just use ''mana corrosion'' to remove all the mana in your body, your own mana will regenerate after a day, but the foreign mana will stay gone."


    "Isn''t ''mana corrosion'' dark magic?"


    Oh, we didn''t tell him that I use dark magic. Whatever, I''ll just...


    ...


    Uh... for some reason, I have a really bad feeling about this, I cannot explain what it is but my instincts are telling me that there''s something really bad about this magic...


    I think I''ll test it first, I''ll use ''mana corrosion'' on only one of the clumps of mana on his left arm.


    ''mana corrosion''


    "What!?"


    As soon as the mana begins to dissolve it creates a much larger than usual air bubble that seems like it''s going to keep expanding.


    ''Shadow knife''


    "Ouch!"


    "Luna! What are you doing!?"


    "It was a trap."


    "A trap?"


    "That mana is prepared to create as much air as possible if someone tries to get rid of it, I had to make a cut to let the air escape before the bubble got too big."


    That was close, if I had tried to remove all of the mana in his body at the same time... I don''t even want to imagine what would have happened. Seriously, a trap for when someone tries to heal him? Who would even think of doing something like that!?


    This is the first time I''ve felt genuine fear from someone''s magic, part of it is the fact that it almost made me unwittingly kill the king, but that''s not the real reason...


    Magic can be said to be an art as much as it''s a science, it''s possible to tell some aspects of the personality of a mage by sensing their spells, and from this magic, what I feel is an unbelievable amount of malice, almost as if the person that this mana belongs to wants to cause as much harm as possible rather than accomplishing whatever goals they had in mind when they prepared it.


    I hope that this is all just my imagination, I don''t want to think that someone like that really exists.


    "Luna... can you still heal my father?"


    "Ah, yes, I can use my own mana to move all the foreign mana out of his body manually, it will take some time but it should be safe."


    In the end, this ended up taking almost two hours, I wonder if something like this should be called ''magic surgery'' or something like that...


    "Oh, I think that I feel better already."


    "It will still take a few days for you to recover completely."


    "Yes, thank you, who could have known that the queen of darkness would be such a great healer?"


    "Eh!? You know who I am!?"


    "It would have been much more strange for me to not know, don''t you think?"


    Uh, I guess it was really obvious if you think about it...


    "Father, Luna''s bad reputation is just a misunderstanding, she''s really a good person!"


    "Then what was all that stuff I heard about her taking over the city?"


    "That was a misunderstanding as well, we were trying to take the crystal of mother''s contract with Kalroth but she didn''t have it with her and then things got out of hand. Actually, I also wanted to ask you for help to explain everything."


    "So it''s all a misunderstanding then... very well, I''ll do whatever I can."


    "Eh!? Are you really going to trust me so easily!?"


    "It''s not like I have a choice, my daughter seems to trust you and I owe you my life."


    Oh! This is great! With the king on my side, I might be able to get out of this without fighting!


    "Uh... excuse me."


    Oh, the fairies were still here, I had forgotten about them.


    "We have been thinking for a while... that ''contract crystal'' you were looking for, is it a blue and green crystal filled with mana by any chance?"


    "Yeah, I think it looks like that."


    "You see... the truth is that we took something that looked like that from the queen earlier."


    "What!? Why!?"


    "Well, she had been mean to us and that thing seemed important, so we took it to get back at her."


    "You cannot steal anything you want just like that!"


    "Sorry! Sorry!"


    "Well, that''s fine, so you have it with you then?"


    "No, we gave it to that friend of yours with the pointy hat."


    "You gave it to Arana?"


    "No, not the one with the white hat, the one with the green hat."


    "I don''t have a friend with a green hat."


    "But she said that she was your friend! And that you wanted us to give her that thing!"


    "And you believed her!?"


    "Well, yeah, she seemed really trustworthy."


    "What do you mean ''trustworthy''?"


    "She had a very gentle face! I''ve never seen anyone who looks more like a good person than her! Also, she seemed to have an aura that puts everyone around her at ease. As soon as we saw her, we all agreed that she was someone that could be trusted."


    A girl with a green hat... is that someone else Arana knows? I can''t exactly explain it, but there''s something about this that I really do not like...


    forli

 Chapter 50: Nera’s speech

    Nera just left with her father to gather the city''s official so that they can announce my ''surrender''. It would be nice if they could just explain that I was never an enemy in the first place, but most people would not believe that right away and they are all already prepared to fight, so the best strategy to avoid things escalating into a battle is ''surrendering'' first and explaining later.


    That said, I''m feeling very optimistic about this. With the king on my side, I should at the very least be able to stay in the Agua kingdom without having to worry about anyone going after me, that should give me enough time to clear all the misunderstandings about me.


    While I wait, Nera left me with a maid of hers, she said her name was Mari, but she seems to be very nervous for some reason and is staring at me without saying anything. This is really awkward, perhaps I should say something to her.


    "Hum... hello."


    "H-Hi!"


    "Is something wrong? Why are you staring at me like that?"


    "I''m sorry! I''m sorry! Please forgive me!"


    "Why? Did you do something wrong?"


    "Yes... I mean no! I... I don''t know."


    She looks like she''s about to cry, did I do something wrong?


    "Luna!!! Where are those fairies!?"


    Oh, Arana is running towards me, she''s dragging a large white ball behind her, what''s that thing supposed to be?


    Wait, now that she''s closer I think that''s actually Ranna, she''s been wrapped in a ball of white strings and only her eyes are visible.


    "Please... I promise that I''ll be good... please let me go..."


    Her face seems a bit pale, she looks like she just went through some traumatic experience.


    "Ara... what did you do to your sister?"


    "I just punished her a little for all the stuff she did. But more importantly, is what those fairies said true? Is Cureva really here?"


    "You were listening to that?"


    "Yes, I was, where are the fairies now?"


    "They said that waiting is boring so they left. But why do you look so agitated? Is your sister really that bad?"


    "She is! She is really REALLY bad! I was not expecting her to be here... I was sure that it would only be Ranna, why didn''t you say anything about this?"


    "I didn''t know that she was here either, actually, she told me that she was not here."


    "This is bad, we are not ready to deal with Cureva at the moment... Luna, we need to leave this city right now."


    "What!? Leave? But the city is surrounded by soldiers, and they think that I''m holding the city hostage."


    "Who cares about that? Let''s just jump on Irvan''s back and run away as fast as we can, if any soldiers try to get in the way you can easily push them aside. If you''re no longer here, it won''t matter if they think that you were holding the city hostage or whatever, they''ll just claim it back and that will be the end of it."


    When she puts it that way, running away really looks like it would not be a difficult thing to do... but from the way she talks it really doesn''t sound like Arana thinks that this entire incident is a big deal at all.


    However, I''m not willing to abandon the first opportunity to clear my name that I''ve been given so far.


    "I don''t want to leave without fixing the misunderstanding like I always do! This time there''s a real chance that I can finally make things clear, Nera and her father are going to help me explain everything."


    "You don''t understand, we''re not dealing with the type of villain who is just acting out of self-interest and can be anticipated. Cureva is completely insane, there''s no way of knowing what she might do. And the world relic she''s in charge of makes her even more dangerous."


    "What relic is that?"


    "One that influences people''s perception, it can be used in many different ways, but the biggest one that you need to be aware of is that it can change her appearance to make herself look like another person."


    "Oh, so she''s like a shape-shifter?"


    "No, her real form does not change, so it''s closer to the illusion spells of wind magic. But with a normal illusion, there are many ways to see through it like with ''mana sense'' or at least you might be able to notice that something seems strange, the use of her relic cannot be detected or dispelled. Actually, we should all use an appraisal stone just in case."


    Does Arana suspect that I''m not really me? Well, it''s not like using an appraisal stone is too much trouble... oh! I''m level 513 now, I wonder how high it''ll get.


    "Cureva''s relic cannot deceive an appraisal stone at least, that''s why I went and gathered a bunch of them."


    "Oh, is that the reason why you have so many of those things? I''ve been wondering about that dor sometime now."


    I''m starting to think that Arana is a bit too obsessed with that sister of hers.


    "There are other limits to that relic, of course, it doesn''t allow it''s wielder to use skills or spells that they don''t know for example, and it cannot give her the memories or personality of someone she''s copying. If that relic was in the hands of a normal person it wouldn''t be too bad, but Cureva is really good at acting and knows how to use it effectively."


    That does sound troublesome, both illusions and shapeshifters have a lot of limitations, but if she can copy any person she wants at any time she wants then anyone I meet could potentially be her...


    "Um... excuse me."


    Mari the maid taps me on the shoulder.


    "Everything is ready in the audience hall, you might want to go there..."


    Oh, looks like Nera is finally ready.


    "Sorry, Ara! I need to go!"


    "Wait a moment! Luna!"


    I somehow managed to leave Arana behind, I get that she''s worried but I cannot let her mess with this announcement.


    There''s a lot of well-dressed people in this room, I don''t want to be seen so I''ll just listen while hiding in the corner, Nera and the king are standing on the other side of the room, there are some stairs in front of them so they''re higher than everyone else.


    "Is it just me or does the king look healthier?"


    "Didn''t the princess run away from home?"


    "I wonder if they''re going to say something about the queen of darkness."


    Everyone is talking about all kinds of things, it''s really noisy in here, but when the king raises his hand the entire room goes silent.


    "As you all already know, I''ve been suffering from a strange illness for some time. None of the healers who came to the castle were able to do anything to help me, until now. It was my daughter who personally found the healer who finally cured me."


    Hehe, that''s right, I''m glad that I could help. It seems like now it''s Nera''s turn to talk.


    "Recently I ran away from home to get away from my mother, but some of the guards that went with me attempted to kill me, and the one who saved me was no other than the woman you know as the queen of darkness."


    "The queen of darkness..."


    "Are the rumors true?"


    Everyone has started to chatter again, it seems like they have all heard about me... but they should stay quiet and let Nera keep talking.


    "Of course, at first I was absolutely terrified, but after spending some time with her I learned to see past my preconceived notions, she taught me a new way to look at things."


    I was expecting them to go directly to the part where I announce my surrender, well, it''s nice that Nera is praising me like that.


    "Luna! Here you are!"


    Someone taps me on the back and when I turn around I see Nera behind me... wait, what?


    "Nera!? Why are you here!? Or rather, how are you here!?"


    "That''s my line! You said that you had something to tell me in my room but you didn''t go there at all, how long did you want me to wait?"


    "I never said that... but more importantly, who is that over there next to your father?"


    "Eh!? Why am I over there!?"


    She seems even more confused than I am, don''t tell me that she is...


    "She taught me what true power feels like, that a weak kingdom like this one means nothing next to her."


    Oh... OH NO!


    "And that is why, to earn my place at her side, I must show the proof of my loyalty to her."


    Everyone in the room is left speechless, as they watch their princess take a knife out from her pocket and stab her father in the chest.


    forli


    And I don''t feel like I did a good job here... first of all, introducing Cureva''s power in the same chapter it gets used for a twist seems a bit clumsy, but the other choice was to have it come from nowhere and that would be worse. Also, I''m afraid that Luna could seem too dumb for not suspecting that Cureva could have replaced Nera at some point after Arana warned her, and since this is a more serious situation it could be less forgivable, I tried to convey that she was just really focused on finally getting a chance to clear her name and was not thinking clearly, I hope that worked.


    I don''t know, I don''t seem to be able to make it better than this and I''ve delayed this chapter enough already...

 Chapter 51: Murder of crows

    "Let me through!"


    I run to the king as fast as I can, pushing aside everyone in my way. It takes me less than 2 seconds to reach the king, I can only hope I was fast enough...


    ''Mana sense''


    As I thought, it''s the same magic as before, the wind mana has entered his heart, and this time it turned into air and exploded immediately, the actual stabbing barely did any damage compared to this... it''s already beyond repair.


    The only option I have now is to use ''flesh shaping'' to make a replacement heart, but this won''t be as simple as when I do this to myself. This new organ is partially made from my mana, which means that his mana will reject it.  I need to make his body sleep to gain enough time for his own mana to replace mine. That will leave him in a coma for quite some time and I''m not even sure if it''s going to work. This is another one of those things I''ve never tried to do before but, in theory, he should survive.


    "Aaaaah, you cheated again."


    The fake Nera is looking at me with an annoyed expression.


    "What are you talking about?"


    "People are supposed to die when their hearts explode you know. If that ridiculous magic of yours is not cheating, I don''t know what it is."


    I cannot believe this, she just tried to kill Nera''s dad while making everyone think that Nera is the one who did it, and now she''s just standing there without a care in the world. What is her deal? Does she think that I''m going to let her get away with this?


    "You... you''re Cureva, correct? Just who exactly do you think you are!?"


    "Hahaha! You''re as scary as always."


    My intimidation is not affecting her at all, it cannot be simply that she doesn''t think I''ll hurt her since Nera and Arana have both been affected before, but she''s just standing there smiling...


    "Why didn''t you escape when I was attending the king?"


    "I just wanted to give you a chance."


    "A chance of what?"


    "A chance to kill me, of course! You just saw me attempt to kill someone, and let me tell you that I''ve succeeded in the past and will probably do it again in the future. You really should kill me now that you have the chance. Let me warn you, you won''t be able to stop me with any other method."


    What is she talking about? There''s no way I could just kill someone in cold blood, not even her, but I cannot let her escape either. Just using ''shadow chain'' will probably not work, she seems to be confident in her ability to escape... Ranna was able to get away the first time I met her by turning into water, could it be that Cureva can turn into wind? That would explain her confidence, but I already know the way to counter it.


    ''Mana corrosion''


    My spell takes away all of her mana in an instant; even if there are some other unusual spells that she can use to escape she won''t be able to do it now.


    "Bad choice."


    "What!?"


    A very thick smoke comes out from her mouth and blinds me for a moment. How can she still use magic?


    ''Shadow bind''


    Even if I can''t see her I should be able to catch her if I send the ropes in all directions around me.


    When I finally see the smoke off my face I see that a total of five people have been tied up by my spell. None of them look like Nera but Cureva might have changed her appearance when I couldn''t see. Is she one of them?


    "Out of my way!"


    "What is happening!?"


    "That''s the queen of darkness!"


    Everyone else is trying to run away in a panic, I was not paying attention earlier but the room is in complete chaos, people are screaming and running into each other everywhere, and a lot of crows are flying around, where did they come from? However, nobody is able to leave as all the exits have been sealed by large spiderwebs.


    ''White lightning''


    Arana is here, she''s attacking a man with an expression of hatred on her face that I had never seen before.


    "Arana! Long time no see!"


    ''Light spear''


    ''Air cannon''


    So that man is Cureva? How is she using magic? I took away all of her mana...


    ''Mana sense''


    What in the world is this? Those crows are somehow draining the wind mana from the people around us and giving it to her, so the crows are working for her...


    Whatever, I need to go help Arana. Wait, what is that crow doing? It''s opening its beak and inside there is... a metal tube? It seems to be aiming it at me.


    *Bang*


    It just shot me! There''s a gun inside of the crow? It didn''t hurt but now it''s aiming at a woman to my left, I need to stop it!


    ''Shadow knife''


    That was close... and the other crows also seem to be about to attack other people. I just realized, all the guards who were in the room have fallen unconscious, which means that I''m the only one who can do something about all these crows.


    In this room full of people I cannot use any large scale attacks, so I have to hunt down the crows one at a time, and with all this chaos ranged attacks would also be far too risky, so I need to get close to each of them wasting even more time. Even as I keep killing the crows more of them keep coming, at this rate I won''t be able to help Arana at all...


    "Luna! Forget about the crows! You just have to kill Cureva and they will stop!"


    "What!?"


    What is she saying? There has to be a way to catch her without killing her.


    "Hahaha! Do you really think that there''s any chance of her killing me!? If she''s your friend you should know her better!"


    "Please! Luna! I''m begging you! We cannot let her get away!"


    No, even if you beg me, I cannot do it...


    "Oh, Arana, it seems like you think that you have become some kind of ''master manipulator'' or some other nonsense like that, but it''s clear that you are still the same clueless child you have always been."


    Uh, I need to do something.


    ''Mind void''


    Of course, she resisted it by biting her finger; that spell is useless against anyone who knows how to deal with it...


    And I have my hands full dealing with all of these crows, their numbers and speed are at the level where I can only barely stop all of them, if Cureva added to their number just a bit faster, someone could actually die...


    Wait, don''t tell me that she''s doing this intentionally? After all, killing Cureva would stop any number of crows. Even if I don''t want to kill anyone, if I truly was forced to choose between killing her or letting innocent people die there''s no way of knowing what I would do, so she''s making the attacks intense enough to keep me busy, but tame enough to avoid forcing my hand...


    She really has me dancing to her tune, I don''t like this at all...


    ''Air bomb''


    "Ugh."


    "Ara!"


    Arana just got sent flying by a powerful spell, I hope that she''s alright...


    "Well, it was nice to see the two of you, but I have to leave now."


    ''Wind cutter''


    She got rid of the spiderweb blocking the door. The crows were now aiming their guns at Arana so I couldn''t chase after Cureva...


    ''Shadow chain''


    As a last attempt to stop her I bind her with a chain. For a moment it looked like she''d been caught, but the chain just fell through her. Another weird spell...


    I kill the last of the crows just after she gets out of sight.


    "Luna... how long will my father stay asleep?"


    "At least a month, probably much longer, this is the first time I''ve done anything like that so I don''t know. Nera... I''m sorry."


    "No, I''m just glad that you at least saved his life. I don''t know how I will be able to repay you for everything you''ve done for me, but now everyone will think that I tried to kill my father. I wonder if even he will believe that."


    Nera looks like she''s doing all she can to hold back her tears, I''m impressed that she''s able to do it at all.


    "This is all my fault. If I had killed Cureva as Arana told me to we might have been able to prove that she''s the one who did it."


    "No, Luna, killing a person is just impossible for you, I''m the one who''s at fault here. What Cureva said is true; I''m just the same as a clueless child. I was acting so sure of myself when I thought that everything was under control, but as soon as things started to get out of hand I couldn''t do anything at all..."


    "Ara... there''s one thing I want to ask you."


    "Luna..."


    By the expression on her face, I think that she already knows what I''m going to say next.


    "Is this what will happen each time I try to go against the prophecy? Am I going to be punished whenever I attempt to become a normal person? Is that why you wanted me to just follow it?"


    "No, I... I don''t know."


    That''s almost the same as saying yes.


    "In any case, let''s go find the dragon and the fairies, we cannot stay in this city much longer."


    "I guess I''ll have to go with you. Everyone here probably thinks that I''m a traitor..."


    Things went really bad this time, but at least nobody died. As long as we''re alive, we can always try again, I''m not going to give up so easily.


    forli

 Chapter 52: A world of madness

    -Silvea-


    I got myself in trouble again, I thought that I might be able to sneak into the castle and help some of the hostages escape.


    I found a group of people who had been tied up with magic, so I freed them and offered to escort them out of the castle, hoping that the queen of darkness would not find us.


    "Ah! I found you!"


    Why do I always end up running into her? Is she doing this on purpose?


    "She''s here! What do we do now!?"


    "Is... is she going to kill us?"


    Everyone seems to be fearing for their lives, but will she really kill us?


    There''s something that has been bugging me for some time. She''s already had the chance to kill me several times now, and yet she let me get away every single time. Could it be that she is not as brutal as I thought? The princess seemed to be convinced that she was not really evil... maybe there''s a chance that I could reason with her.


    To tell the truth, up until now I''ve always been too afraid to have a talk with her. But, for some strange reason, she seems a lot less scary this time, and she''s already trapped us anyway so there''s nothing to lose...


    "Please! Could you at least let these people leave? They are just innocent civilians, they won''t get in your way."


    "Eh? What makes you think that you can tell me what to do?"


    "No, I''m just asking you to show some compassion..."


    "Compassion? I gave them the chance to be of use to me as hostages and they ran away as soon as they got the chance. Why should I show ''compassion'' to these worms? I should kill at least a couple to teach them a lesson."


    "What!? But the princess said..."


    "Hahaha! Yes, it was really easy to bring that princess to my side, she was emotionally weak after having to escape from her own mother."


    So she was really just deceiving her?


    "But... you let me live every time we''ve met until now..."


    "You''re simply too weak to be a threat me, and watching you cower in fear each time was just too much fun."


    It can''t be...


    "Die!"


    There was a soldier among the group of people I had with me, and it looks like he''s decided to take the chance to stab her with a sword while she was distracted.


    ''Wind slash''


    "UAGH!!!"


    She just cut off his arm! The soldier falls to the ground while screaming in pain as she approaches him. Why did she use wind magic instead of darkness? She must not be taking this seriously at all...


    "I see, so you decided to volunteer yourself to be the first one to die."


    No! I cannot just stand here and do nothing, even if I know that it''s useless I need to try to stop her.


    "Ah!"


    "What!?"


    She''s bleeding... I swung my sword at her and it actually cut her... how is this possible?


    "This can''t be... how did you do this?"


    "I don''t know..."


    "Could you be... I should retreat for now."


    ''Smokescreen''


    When the smoke screen dissipates, the queen of darkness is no longer here. What in the world was that!?


    "Did you see that!?"


    "She injured her! She made her run away!"


    Wait, what are these people saying?


    "No, there''s no way I could fight her."


    "There was some shining mark on her forehead!"


    "She''s like a hero from a legend!"


    What shiny mark? What are they talking about?


    "No! No! Can''t you see that this doesn''t make any sense?"


    First of all, there''s no way that I could ever be a match for the queen of darkness, she also didn''t use any dark magic at all and the way she was acting was completely different from how she usually is.


    But nobody is listening to me, they keep praising me and saying that I''m just trying to be humble, the way they are acting feels crazy.


    This is just wrong...


    -Cureva-


    After getting out of sight I go back to the appearance I''ve been using most of the time recently. When I impersonate an already existing person it is only a matter of time until people realize that something is wrong, so in order to use a fake identity for a long time the best method is to create one from scratch.


    To make the scene more believable I let Silvea injure me for real, I should use one of my special potions to quickly get rid of the wound or the bleeding might give me away. Well, the people who watched how she drove away the queen of darkness will now start to believe that she''s some kind of chosen hero, I even made a meaningless mark appear on her forehead to make it look like she was using some hidden power, that happens a lot in heroic stories after all.


    Well, for now, I need to get back to her with my usual identity, to make it look like I was really worried for her I''ll use some smoke to make myself cry a little and I''ll run to hug her.


    "Silvea! I heard that you encountered the queen of darkness again! Are you alright!? Did she do anything to you!?"


    "Ah! No, I''m fine! I''m sorry for making you worry Paula."


    "I should not have left you alone, I''m sorry."


    "I''m the one who ran off on her own. But Paula! You need to help me! Everybody is saying that I''m the one who made the queen of darkness run away!"


    Of course they are, a kind and brave heroine receiving an unexpected power and defeating the evil villain is exactly the type of story that people want to believe, and since the real queen of darkness just escaped at the same time there''s nothing to contradict it.


    This is something I''ve been observing for a long time. When I was a child I always found it weird how other people seem to view the world in a completely different way.


    They enjoy food that they say is ''delicious'', but to me, it all has the same bland taste. They talk about the beauty of nature, but to me, everything looks dull. They try to avoid being injured, saying that it''s terrible to get hurt, but pain has never been something I particularly disliked. And, of course, they all want nonsense like love, friendship, or happiness, when it''s obvious that all of those things are just made up.


    But I finally understood everything when I met a certain man. People said that he was ''insane'', he believed that the goddess of light had told him to kill monsters that had disguised themselves as humans, he thought that he was a chosen hero, and so he murdered many innocent people and was sentenced to death. Those delusions of his were apparently ''madness'', however, nobody seemed to realize that he was not the only one like that.


    Everybody I meet seems to have similar delusions, believing in nonsense like ''justice'' or ''love'', thinking that they can obtain happiness if they accomplish their dreams, constantly trying to give purpose and value to all the meaningless things in this meaningless world. Everybody is like that, this entire world is a world of madness, and I''m the only one sane, the only one who can see things as they truly are.


    The scene of the brave hero defeating the evil queen of darkness fits perfectly into the delusions people have, and so, they will believe it even if nothing about it makes any sense. If that is not madness, I don''t know what to call it.


    "So you don''t think that you could have hurt her?"


    "Of course not! You know that she''s way too strong for me to have a chance against her. She must have pretended to lose for some reason... Paula, you need to help me clear this misunderstanding."


    Silvea is such a good girl, there''s a lot of arrogant idiots who might have believed that they really were able to win against the queen of darkness. And most of those who would have been able to tell that something was wrong would have just stayed quiet and enjoy the praise and rewards. But Silvea is not like that, she would never accept praise for something she didn''t do.


    These past two years I have been acting perfectly as her friend, she now trusts me completely and depends on me to explain anything that she does not understand. I''ve also gotten to know her well, so I know how to make her stay quiet.


    "Silvea, the entire city is in a panic right now, thinking that you are able to fight against the queen of darkness might help to make them feel safe."


    "But I''m not..."


    "Just wait until things are calmed down and then we''ll explain everything. That is the best way to help all the innocent people who are feeling afraid."


    "I see... if you say so."


    ''Helping innocent people'' is the biggest delusion Silvea has. But by the time we try to clear the misunderstanding, it will be too late, the rumors will have already spread too far to be stopped. Don''t worry Silvea, this is the first step for you to become the world-renowned hero you have always wanted to be.


    Being sane can be rather freeing, knowing that everything in this world is pointless means that I don''t have to fear anything or feel guilty about anything. But most people are not strong enough to accept reality, and so, they willingly remain snared in their madness. As the only sane person in the world, I cannot help but feel a bit lonely.


    However, I know a method to make people see the truth. Madness makes people think that life is a game with happiness as the reward for winning, as long as they think that they can win, they will never be able to escape from their delusions. Only when they lose everything, when they fall into absolute despair, can they see the world the same way I do.


    Right now, there are three people who I''m looking forward to seeing lose all hope.


    First is my oldest sister, the witch of darkness. She believes that she''s smarter and more powerful than anyone and that she''s destined to rule the world. And she''s deluded enough to think that the world will be a better place under her rule. I cannot wait to see how she will react when she''s defeated and all of her delusions of grandeur are completely shattered.


    Second is Silvea. I will make her become a great hero, just as she wants, everyone will praise and support her. But she will not realize that her heroic deeds will only cause innocent people to suffer. I wonder what expression her cute face will make when she finally learns the truth.


    And last but not least is Luna, the ''queen of darkness''. She believes that she''ll be able to make people see her true self and that she''ll be loved. But the madness of the world has already decided that she''s the villain, it doesn''t matter how much she tries to be nice to everybody, she will only receive fear and hatred in return. I wonder if she will end up despising this world as much as I do...


    Of course, I''m not just going to let everyone else remain insane, I want everyone to see the world as I do, and that prophecy might help me with that. All of my sisters are only focused on the part about the queen of darkness''s rise to power, they have not realized that the most interesting part is at the end...


    I need to make sure that everyone loses the game and falls into despair. That is my duty as the only sane person in this world.


    forli


    Maybe I should have given a few more hints about Paula being Cureva, there was really no chance for anyone to guess it. But I wanted to show that she''s really good at acting.

 Chapter 53: A larger group

    This world truly is a world of madness.


    "Luna, it''s just a small tear, Mari will fix it when we stop to rest."


    "You can''t just walk around with a tear in your dress! What will you do if someone sees you!?"


    "There''s nobody here, and even if there were, they wouldn''t care."


    Why does nobody listen to me? Nera''s dress got a tear on it, but she doesn''t want to stop to fix it. That dragon keeps eating food with his hands, I know that he''s not used to staying in human form and that all he eats is rocks, but that''s not an excuse! And earlier I caught Arana drinking from a new canteen when there was still water in the one she had been drinking from before! Who does that!?


    This is madness! And the worst part is that they keep telling me to not pay attention to this stuff, sometimes I feel like I''m the only sane person in the world...


    "Well, actually it''s starting to get dark already, let''s take a break for today."


    We escaped the city by riding the dragon as Arana suggested, getting past the army was even easier than expected, they couldn''t catch up to his speed at all...


    Our group got a lot bigger; we decided to bring Ranna along with us, and Nera''s maid, Mari, also wanted to come with her for some reason. Also, the dark fairies decided to come with us by clinging to the dragon, all 92 of them.


    Since I already promised to teach them (and since we have no other place to go), we decided to head to the village of the dark fairies. One of the demon lords under Kalroth is in charge of the area, He''s the one the fairies wanted to run away from, and if he finds out that they''re back, he might try to do something to them... oh well, I''ll just deal with that when the time comes.


    The dragon is not large enough for all of us to be able to ride him comfortably, so after crossing the border of the Agua kingdom, I said that we should make the rest of the trip on foot. Well, in reality, I just wanted to have some downtime after everything that happened, now that a few days have passed, we are all back to acting as we always do.


    "By the way, shouldn''t we free Ranna already? I''m starting to worry that this is going to be bad for her health..."


    Arana said that we cannot trust her sister entirely just yet, so she''s still trapped inside the ball of string with only her eyes visible. The dragon has been carrying her on his shoulder all this time. Even in his human form, he''s still being used as a means of transport, or is it that Ranna is being treated like luggage?


    "Oh, please do not be concerned about me. This is quite comfortable and I''m being spared from having to walk like everyone else."


    She says she''s fine, but I''m not sure if she''s just trying to be polite about it...


    "Alright Nera, let me take a look at your dress and I''ll just... oh."


    It looks like Arana was going to fix Nera''s dress, but before she could even get her thread and needle, Mari had already done it. It''s hard to believe how fast she is...


    "Mari... you should leave these things to a professional, you know, like me."


    "I''m sorry, you were taking so long that I assumed you had something else to do."


    Uh... Arana looks a bit annoyed. She already seemed to have been bothered when Mari took charge when we were planning our route, and each time we set up camp for the night. Up until now, Arana had been the one who took care of those things. It would be bad if they end up fighting, I need to distract her somehow.


    "So, Ara, you said that this area is called the ''demon wasteland''. Could you tell me anything about it?"


    "Ah, yes. It''s a large area inhabited almost exclusively by demons. To the east, it borders with the Agua kingdom, to the south there''s a beastkin country and to the north and west, there are three different kingdoms mostly inhabited by humans. Kalroth seems to have taken over this entire place just recently and there are rumors that his soldiers have been raiding the beastkin country pretending to be regular bandits."


    "Since we failed to get the contract crystal the queen had we''ll have to get his... do you have any idea of how strong he is?"


    "You should ask that to Ranna, she''s the one who''s actually met him."


    "Oh, right. Last time I saw him he was level 381, that''s insanely strong by normal standards, but still weak compared to Luna."


    "Are you sure about that? I''m not really much of a fighter, and what if he''s actually stronger than what his level suggests?"


    "If there''s anyone who''s stronger than their level suggests, that''s you. Seriously, after all this time you should already have some more confidence in yourself."


    That''s easier said than done. Even with all the fights I''ve easily won it''s really hard for me to think of myself as strong...


    Our conversation gets interrupted by a delicious smell.


    "Alright, everyone! Dinner''s ready!"


    Mari is serving dishes for everybody while all the fairies float around her as if they are hypnotized. Ever since she joined us she''s been in charge of cooking, which is yet another thing that Arana used to do before. I wanted to let Arana cook at least once so that she can still feel useful, but there''s no way I could convince the fairies, they just love good food way too much, and as good as Arana is, Mari''s skills are on a whole other level. I guess that''s to be expected from someone who prepares food for royalty, but to be honest, I think that she''s too good even by that standard.


    "Mari, your cooking really is the best."


    "Thank you princess Nera! I always do my best to improve for your sake!"


    "Yes... I suppose that this is a lot better than what I used to make."


    "That''s right, I did try some of the leftovers you had, and they were rather lacking..."


    Uh... I don''t think that saying that is a good idea.


    "Poor princess Nera, to think that she had to travel with a group with no one who knew how to cook on it... uh? What is this?"


    It seems like Mari just felt something strange and is looking inside her clothes.


    "EEEEK! WHAT IS THIS!?"


    The''s a multitude of spiders crawling all over her body, they seem to have materialized out of nowhere.


    "Where did these things come from!?"


    I guess that will have to remain a mystery. Yes, I''ll just pretend that I don''t have any theories about it...


    The next day we arrived at the village of the dark fairies and we met the remaining 50 that had stayed behind bringing the total number of fairies to 142.


    They seemed to be a bit wary of me at first, but nothing compared to the reactions I usually get. Now that I think about it, fairies have a reputation for being carefree and fearless, so I guess that the amount of fear they had towards me is actually a lot for them...


    But when I demonstrated my skills, they all wanted to learn healing magic from me without exception. It seems like the day I had been waiting for so long has finally arrived.


    "Ara, are you sure that this outfit will make me better at teaching?"


    "Of course! Just trust me, I''m an expert in clothing after all."


    Arana insisted on me wearing an outfit that she says will increase my teaching capabilities. A short skirt and tights, a blouse and a jacket. Also, for some reason, I have to wear glasses that I don''t need as well as high heels that I REALLY don''t need. I don''t know how this can make me a better teacher, but I guess that I should trust Arana for these things.


    "Alright then, everybody is already waiting at the inn."


    As expected, most of the houses in this village are way too small for normal-sized people, but there''s also an inn for any visitors that might come. Well, by inn I mean an entirely empty house with only one large room, but since it is large enough for all of the fairies to fit inside it''s perfect for our purpose. We placed enough small chairs and tables for everyone on top of some normal-sized tables so that we can see each other better.


    Now, the only thing left is to block all the noise from the outside and make sure that nothing can interrupt us.


    ''Black wall''


    Perfect, now that the house is sealed until we''re done with the lesson, nobody will be able to come in.


    Or out.


    forli


    You know, the main reason why I made Arana be a ''tailor and seamstress'' was that I wanted her to make Luna wear a bunch of different costumes, but I ended up not doing it at all until now.

 Chapter 54: Luna’s lesson

    I want to start the lesson, but all of the fairies are chatting with each other. Don''t they know that they should listen to the teacher?


    "Excuse me, could you please be quiet?"


    *mumble*


    *mumble*


    "We need to start the lesson..."


    *mumble*


    *mumble*


    *BANG*


    "Eeeeek!"


    I used a spell to make a very loud noise, it seems like I startled them but at least I got their attention.


    "Alright, is everyone ready to begin?"


    Now they all are silent, I think that means yes.


    "Let''s start with the basics. As you might know, the phenomenon known as ''magic'' occurs when we project our will to the mana under our influence, each attribute of mana is powered by a different ''intent''. Can anyone tell me which type of intent the dark attribute is affected by the most?"


    "I know! It''s the desire to hurt people!"


    "Wrong."


    I know that this is a common misconception, but if even a dark fairy is wrong about this, things are a lot worse than I thought...


    "Me! Me! It''s the desire to alter the natural order of things."


    "That''s close... the correct answer is that dark mana is powered by the desire to make the world be as we want it to be. It''s said that the most powerful dark mages tend to be people who won''t be satisfied with the role that the world has given them."


    "Ooooh."


    Why do they sound impressed by that?


    "Light magic is the opposite, what powers it is the desire to make the world ''as it''s supposed to be''. Because of this, light mana can be used to heal someone even when applied directly without any spells or modifications, after all, the way a person''s body is ''supposed to be'' is without wounds or diseases. If you try to apply dark mana directly on someone''s body without your will being clear and focused, it will attempt to alter their body in a random way, which will result in them getting hurt. That''s why ''dark magic is about hurting people'' is such a common belief, that is simply the easiest and most brainless way to use it."


    "So light mages will always be better healers after all..."


    "Of course not! Light healing is simply easier to use, but dark healing can be much more powerful after being mastered. Now, a lot of people see magic as a mysterious and chaotic force that cannot be truly controlled, do you all agree with that?"


    "Yeah! Magic is such a wondrous thing..."


    "Well, you all better forget about that nonsense."


    "Eh?"


    "To master dark magic you need to be in full control of your emotions and your mana. To do that, you need to learn to see magic as a cold and mundane thing that is governed by logic and math."


    "But won''t that take all the charm of magic away?"


    "We are not here to be charming, we are here to get results. So now I will teach you a spell I created simply called ''dark heal'', a simple spell to close someone''s wounds. You will have to learn the different formulas that determine how to treat each different wound, but the most difficult part will be figuring out how to convert your will into numbers. Things like ''how much do I need to want that flesh to stitch itself together for the intensity of my will to be a 5.5'' can only be learned with a lot of practice. But don''t worry, I will show you the most efficient methods of training that I have discovered."


    ''Shadow dome''


    This spell will block the light coming from the outside so that there''s only just enough for us to see.


    "Uh? Why did you make it dark?"


    "While training one element is better to avoid being exposed to the others. For example, to minimize the influence of the wind element you should try to breathe as little as possible."


    The fairies all look at each other for a moment with confusion on their faces.


    "Hahaha!"


    "That was a good one!"


    "I actually fell for it."


    Why are they laughing? Did I say something funny?


    "Anyway, I have some dead monsters here in my storage that we can use for practice. We can cut them and fix them as much as we want."


    One of the fairies seems a bit worried.


    "Excuse me... just how difficult is this going to be?"


    "Ah, don''t worry, I can guarantee that by the time we leave this place, all of you will be able to use this spell."


    Thinking that one of the spells I created will finally be used by other people, I cannot help but smile.


    But that seems to cause the faces of the fairies to become a bit pale.


    "Luna! What have you been doing all this time!? I couldn''t enter or see what was going on inside that house!"


    As soon as I leave the inn, I see Nera running at me. She seems to be both really angry and scared for some reason.


    "Didn''t I tell you that I was going to teach magic to the fairies?"


    "That was two days ago! Arana kept telling me that everything was fine, but I was so worried!"


    "Why would you be worried? I was just teaching my lesson."


    Nera looks behind me and seems to be shocked by something, it seems that she''s looking at the fairies inside the inn.


    "No more... please..."


    "Water... I need water..."


    "I want to sleep, but water first..."


    They are all crawling around on top of the tables or on the floor, this is quite a sorry sight.


    "What happened to them!?"


    "Nothing, they''re just a bunch of drama queens."


    "Luna... don''t tell me that you made them practice magic for 48 hours straight."


    "It was only 47 hours, the first hour was just theory. But isn''t that about average for a practice session?"


    I would say that it was a little short, but the fairies seemed to get tired really quickly. It''s true that I heard that fairies tend to be rather carefree, they''re probably not used to working hard so I decided to go easy on them.


    "Please... water..."


    It seems like Mari is taking care of giving water to the fairies, she really is a dependable person.


    "And why do they keep asking for water?"


    "While training one element is better to avoid being exposed to the others, so I didn''t let them drink any during practice."


    "What!? Are you crazy!? If you were actually a teacher at a real school, you would have been fired for abusing your students!"


    "But this was really not a big deal at all! Back when I was researching magic I would sometimes spend over two weeks without sleeping, eating, or drinking anything. I would only stop after collapsing and... Nera? Why are you looking at me like that?"


    "..."


    "It cannot be helped. If you ask the queen of darkness to share her power with you, you should be ready for a price that might not be worth paying."


    Now Arana is also here, and she''s talking about me as if I was some evil spirit or something.


    "Well, obviously being a genius is not enough to obtain the level of power that Luna has, it also takes an insane amount of effort. I guess her standards for hard work are also stupidly high."


    "You... if you knew that she was going to do something like this, why didn''t you try to stop her?"


    Mmm, I''m starting to get the feeling that Nera thinks I''ve done something wrong.


    "But it was worth it! I really taught them to use ''dark heal''! Hey, you, can you heal this wound I just made on my hand."


    "Ah! Yes! Healing! Done! Can I rest now!?"


    "Oh... sure, you can rest."


    "That poor girl looks like she''s been traumatized..."


    Oh, I think that I just made things worse.


    "Look, I couldn''t make the training any lighter. To tell you the truth those fairies are not very talented."


    "Not talented!? They learned an entirely new form of magic in two days!"


    "Well, yeah, but I don''t think that they will ever reach my level if I don''t..."


    "NOBODY IS EXPECTING THEM TO REACH YOUR LEVEL!!!"


    Oh, for some reason I seem to have made her angry. I just want this conversation to end already... if only there was something else more important going on that I could use as a distraction...


    *Bang*


    "What was that!?"


    There was a flash of light and a loud noise not too far away from here.


    "Ah! I forgot! The local demon lord somehow found out that the escaped fairies had returned and came here a few hours ago with a bunch of soldiers. Irvan has been fighting them all this time, he insisted on dealing with them by himself but I''m not sure if he''ll be able to do it..."


    "Why didn''t you tell me earlier!?"


    I rush to the source of the noise and see that the dragon seems to be on his last legs already, he looks almost as bad as the fairies.


    "Hey! Are you alright!?"


    "Mistress! I''m sorry, those demons are not very strong, but there''s a lot of them. Since I know that you wouldn''t want me to kill them I''ve been holding back, which makes fighting a lot more difficult than I thought... now I admire you even more for doing it all the time and making it look so effortless!"


    So there''s a demon lord here... I hope that''s distracting enough for Nera to stop asking me about my lesson.


    I get the feeling that it would be bad if she found out about all of the other stuff...


    forli


    I hope it doesn''t look much worse than the color ones. This is much faster to make so maybe I could add more like this if people like it.


    Also, I want to confess that I had not planned all of this stuff about the way magic works in this setting from the start, I only had some vague ideas. So now I''m afraid that there might be something I wrote before that I forgot about and contradicts what I wrote in this chapter...

 Chapter 55: The normal one

    -Nera-


    I didn''t think that Irvan would lose. I guess that there were just way too many enemies. But taking a look around I can see that most of them have already been defeated, now that Luna is here, there''s no way they can win.


    "Who are you!?"


    ''Shadow bind''


    As expected, she just restrained over a dozen demons in an instant. Her lack of common sense can be a bit frustrating sometimes, but she''s very dependable when things start to get dangerous. As long as she''s here, I know that we''ll be safe.


    "Nera, where''s the demon lord you were talking about?"


    "I don''t know, he should be somewhere around here..."


    Before I can start looking for him, the demon lord steps forward himself.


    "Bwahaha! Come out you stupid fairies! I don''t know how you got such a strong dragon to help you, but now it''s time for your punishment."


    Hehehe, I checked his level earlier, it''s only 148, Luna could probably beat him just by glaring at him.


    How can he even be a demon lord with such a low level? Kalroth has probably been trying to give the demon lord title to as many of his underlings as possible in order to become a demon king. There''s no way that this guy could have done it without help.


    Even his appearance is ridiculous. He''s wearing a tacky colorful outfit that looks even worse on top of his fat belly. His face is very pale, almost white, contrasting with his large reddish nose. And his unnatural blue hair is all messy.


    "Alright, Luna. Just beat that guy and let''s not waste any more time."


    "..."


    "Luna? Is something wrong?"


    "S-stay away! Don''t come any closer!"


    "Eh? What are you...?"


    "Eeeeeek!"


    "Luna!? Where are you going!?"


    She ran away! Why is she running away!?


    "Oh, I forgot about that. Luna is afraid of clowns."


    Arana is standing right next to me all of a sudden. I didn''t see her approach, was she here the whole time?


    "What do you mean ''afraid of clowns''?"


    "You just saw it, just seeing a clown makes her go into a panic."


    "You cannot be serious."


    "It was long before I met her, but apparently, she read some horror story about an evil clown when she was little and it left her traumatized. There are some things that you should not give to a child you know."


    "Then why didn''t you say anything earlier!? You saw the clown when he introduced himself!"


    "I told you I forgot! This is not something that comes up very often."


    "Hey! You two! Who are you calling a clown!?"


    Ah! He heard us and got angry. Wait, does that mean that his appearance is not intentional!?


    "Obviously you. The fact that Luna was afraid definitively proves that you are a clown."


    "Arana..."


    "I once tried to dress myself as a clown to pull a prank on Luna, but it didn''t work. You need to be a true clown both outside and inside to make her run away like that."


    "Uh... are you sure that you should be antagonizing him right now?"


    "Are you making fun of me!?"


    "Yes."


    "You... you really must have a death wish."


    He''s getting really pissed... Irvan and the fairies are in no condition to fight, and Luna is not here. Isn''t this situation really dangerous?


    "So, are you going to kill me, mister clown?"


    "Stop calling me that! I am a demon lord! My name is Bonzo!"


    "Even his name is a clown name..."


    "Nera, you said that out loud."


    "Oops."


    The clown lord takes out a gigantic hammer from I don''t know where and he charges straight... AT ME!?


    Why!? Arana insulted him a lot more!


    "Princes Neraaa!"


    Fortunately, his attack is intercepted just in time by...


    "Mari!? How!?"


    She just jumped in and blocked the attack with something that resembles a giant kitchen knife, since when is she able to do something like that?


    "Hehehe, Nera, did you not check your maid''s level? It''s 122."


    "What!? How did you become so strong!? And when!?"


    That level is almost high enough to be an elite knight, but Mari is supposed to be just a maid. I don''t think I''ve ever heard of her training or fighting anything.


    "It was because of you, princess Nera."


    "Because of me?"


    "Yes! You always seem to keep getting into danger and I wanted to be able to protect you. So my loyalty made me stronger!"


    "That''s not an explanation!"


    "Hey! don''t ignore me!"


    Bonzo the clown continues to attack with his hammer, but Mari is able to keep up with him. Still, it looks like she''ll end up losing in the long run.


    "Well then allow me to explain, you might not be aware of this, but that maid of yours is more than just a regular maid."


    "Arana? What are you trying to say?"


    Could it be that Mari has been keeping some secret from me all this time?


    "She''s not just a maid, she is... a battle maid!"


    "That''s not an explanation either! And what is a battle maid anyway!?"


    "Still, it looks like she might need some help. I think that I''ll boost her speed stat."


    ''Speed surge''


    After being hit with Arana''s spell, Mari''s body becomes wrapped in red light and her movements become faster.


    "Ah! I feel great! Hahaha! Bring it on you ugly clown!"


    Now Mari is going on the offensive while laughing like a maniac. I had never seen that side of her before... am I the only normal person in this group?


    "Well, if you excuse me, I need to take care of the rest of the enemies."


    It seems like the other demons are being kept at bay by a small army of giant spiders.


    But really, I am a princess you know, you''d think that if anything I would be the one lacking in common sense. After all, I have been treated as someone special ever since I was born, my life and the education I''ve received have been different from most people, and I''ve never had much contact with the common folk.


    So why am I the most down to earth person in this group!?


    Huh... there''s nothing I can do to contribute to the fight... Mari and Arana seem to have the advantage right now, but there''s still a chance that they might lose. But I cannot think of anything I can do to help, everyone is so strong except me, I guess being ''the normal one'' also means being ''the useless one''...


    No, it''s not just their strength. Luna also has her healing and a lot of useful spells like her storage, Arana and Ranna have a lot of knowledge and can use some really unique magic, Irvan is a great means of transport and Mari is the best maid I''ve ever seen. I really am the useless one...


    "Roll... roll... roll..."


    There''s a strange white ball rolling towards me. Oh, wait, that''s Ranna. For some reason, she''s saying ''roll'' while rolling.


    "Excuse me. I know what you are thinking, just so you know, there is a way that you can help them win the fight."


    "Really!? What way!?"


    "You can release me so that I can fight as well. I would really appreciate that."


    "Oh, that''s what you meant..."


    "I''m sure that if I join them we''ll be able to win quite easily."


    "That''s not the problem. Weren''t you on the side of those guys until just recently? How do I know that you won''t help them instead?"


    "I''m sorry about that. But I had a talk with my sister and I''m on your side now, just ask her."


    I guess I can give her a shout...


    "Hey! Arana! Is it ok if I free your sister!?"


    "Eh? Oh! Sure! That will probably be fine!"


    What does she mean ''probably''...


    "See?"


    "Wait, I just remembered that I don''t completely trust Arana either."


    "That''s a bit sad. You need to learn how to trust people."


    "I don''t have any problems trusting people! I have problems trusting you!"


    I just noticed that she''s actually upside down inside the ball... I think I''ll just ignore that.


    "I''m a lot more trustworthy than you think, betraying the group I''m currently with is something that goes against my nature."


    "You nature?"


    "Yeah, I''m the witch of water, which means that my personality is the correct one for the water element. Water mana is influenced the most by the will to ''go with the flow and not fight back against the current'', that''s why the world relic of water has the power of making unavoidable prophecies. And it''s also the reason why I didn''t go against my sisters before and why I won''t go against Arana or you now."


    Well, that does seem to fit with that I''ve seen of her...


    "To sum up, I''m basically a doormat."


    "Don''t say that as if it''s something to be proud of!"


    Whatever, it''s not like she''s in a position to betray me, after all, Luna is looking at us from behind a tree not too far away, I wonder if she thinks that I didn''t see her. But I know that I can trust her, even if she''s afraid of the clown there''s no way she won''t come if it looks like I''m in danger.


    Those strings were apparently able to seal Ranna''s magic, but they''re rather easy to cut with my knife. And now Ranna is free once again.


    "I''m back."


    "Why are you sitting on the ground?"


    "Give me a moment please, I need to remember how to walk..."


    forli


    As I mentioned in the description of this story, English is not my first language, so now that I''ve written quite a bit, I want to ask you about how good you think my English is. Just ignore the content of the story and choose an option based on grammar and style.

 Chapter 56: Bad with children

    "They seem to be doing really well."


    It occurred to me that if I''m always doing all of the fighting, my companions will never get the chance to grow, so I''m going to stay out of this one for their sake. Just so we''re clear, I''m not doing this just because I don''t want to get close to that clown, if it looks like there''s any danger, I''ll jump in immediately.


    Not that it looks like they need me. Ranna just joined the fight and she summoned a small army of frogs, including many of the ones with bodies that look like muscular men, those are just terrifying...


    Mari is amazing! Not only is she great at cooking but she''s also able to fight clowns! And it looks like she''s winning!


    And Arana is casually directing her spiders to capture the demon soldiers. She doesn''t look like she''s taking this seriously at all...


    "Well, if nothing else, it''s nice to know that they can defend themselves even without my help... uh? Is someone here?"


    Someone is tapping on my back... no, wait, it''s not a person. It''s a skeleton animated with a ''corpse puppet spell''. And it''s not tapping me, it''s trying to stab me with a spear, but it seems like it broke.


    "Who animated you? They should be somewhere around here..."


    Following the faint thread of mana used to control the skeleton leads me to a large rock nearby, someone seems to be hiding behind.


    "Hello."


    "Ah! How did you find me?"


    He looks like a really young boy of around seven years old. Or maybe eight? He has a pair of short horns, sharp teeth, silver hair, and gray skin. A gray demon, if I''m not mistaken. Even though the top of his head only reaches to my belly, he''s still looking up at me defiantly.


    "Stay away! I''m not afraid of you!"


    "Why should you be afraid of me?"


    His skeleton is still trying to stab me with its broken spear, but it doesn''t have any strength at all. This kid doesn''t seem to be any good at using magic.


    "You shouldn''t play around with skeletons, you could poke somebody''s eye out."


    "I''m not playing! I''m a real necromancer of the gray demon tribe!"


    Aw, he thinks that he''s a real mage, what a cute kid.


    "If you want to become a mage, maybe you could try to find someone who can train you."


    "I''ve already been trained by my big sister! I''ll show you what I can do!"


    ''Shadow bind''


    He tries casting that one spell I tend to use a lot. But he only manages to create a single rope, and it turns into dust before reaching me, not because of my stats or because I did anything, he just cast the spell wrong.


    "I-I won''t give up so easily!"


    ''Shadow bind''


    This time the rope actually wraps around me, but he fails to tie it up and it simply falls to the ground.


    "Huh."


    He looks like he''s trying to hold back his tears.


    "Ah, don''t worry, you tried your best."


    He looks so adorable that I cannot help but ruffle his hair a little. I know I shouldn''t but there''s no way I can resist.


    "D-don''t touch me! What are you trying to do!? I told you that I''m not afraid of you!"


    He says that, but he looks really scared.


    "Don''t worry, I''m not going to do anything bad to you."


    I try to reassure him by giving him a gentle smile, and as soon as he sees it, he starts crying.


    "I''m sorry! I was lying! I''m really afraid! Please don''t hurt me!"


    Huh... it looks like I''ve still not been able to master the art of the gentle smile. That''s too bad... I like children a lot, but I''m really bad with them...


    "Please don''t cry. I promise that I''m not a bad person."


    "M-my sister is the high necromancer of the gray demons! If you kill me she will avenge me!"


    "I said that I won''t hurt you... and what does ''high necromancer'' mean?"


    "The gray demon tribe has the best necromancers among all of Kalroth''s followers, and she''s the best of them! There''s no way you can beat her!"


    Mmm, a female gray demon necromancer who''s one of Kalroth''s followers... why does that sound familiar?


    Oh! I remember! I met someone who fit that description some time ago. I think that was just before I fought that annoying ant monster.


    However, that cannot be this boy''s sister. He says that she''s the best necromancer around here, but the one I met was rather mediocre, so she must be a different person.


    "So why are you here anyway? This place is dangerous, some people are fighting nearby."


    "That''s why I''m here! I came with the soldiers to defeat the people those fairies brought with them. Aren''t you one of those? That''s why I attacked you."


    Did he attack me? I''m not sure if what he did can be really considered to be an ''attack''...


    "Don''t lie. You''re too young to be a soldier."


    "I''m not lying! Even if I''m young, I''m strong enough to fight!"


    "No, you''re not. What you were doing cannot even be called real magic."


    I don''t like to be harsh with children, but if he thinks that he''s strong he might get himself into trouble.


    "Then what is real magic supposed to be like?"


    "I can show you if you want."


    ''Corpse puppet''


    I use my mana to take control of the same skeleton he had been using and I reinforce it a little. Then I make it punch the rock that the kid had been using to hide and it cracks in half.


    "W-what? But that''s impossible... a normal skeleton cannot do that..."


    "Well, if you cannot even do something like that you shouldn''t be playing at being a soldier. You could end up getting hurt you know."


    He was probably lying, but if those guys really let a child this young join a battle I''m going to have to give them a scolding later.


    Speaking of the battle, are they still not done? Well, as far as I can see from here, at least Mari has already beaten the clown and now she''s stepping on his head. He won''t start moving again if I get close, will he?


    "Mmm, now that I think about it, this might be a good chance to test my ''fight stopping'' magic."


    "''Fight stopping'' magic? What are you talking about now?"


    "You see, some time ago I was able to stop a battle by scaring everyone with a really strong spell, but I don''t think that I should use something so destructive every time I want to stop a fight. So I came up with another spell that looks even more impressive but is actually not dangerous at all."


    "That''s dumb, a real soldier won''t be scared by a spell that doesn''t even do anything."


    Yes, that''s what I thought as well, this is probably not going to work is it...


    "Well, at least I should give it a try. Wait here for a bit, I''ll be back soon."


    I grow my wings and go flying to the battleground. There''s not a lot of soldiers left but it should be good enough for a test.


    ''Scary spectacle''


    I should probably think of a better name for this spell, if they heard that, they would probably laugh instead of being afraid...


    At least the spell is working. The sky is obscured by a swirling vortex of dark clouds and most of the surrounding light is being sucked into it, causing the entire area to be covered in a blanket of darkness.


    Everyone looks up at me as I stand at the center of the vortex. The dark mana above me descends in the form of black lightning, but it''s so weak that it dissipates before reaching the ground. As I thought, this looks way too silly to be intimidating...


    "Listen! That''s enough fighting. You should all... er... drop your weapons!"


    My magic also increases the volume of my voice and makes it sound more powerful, but I got nervous and it ended up sounding dumb instead... I bet that they''re all going to laugh at me...


    "We surrender!!!"


    "Please spare us!!!"


    Oh! It looks like I lost that bet. They''re actually dropping all of their weapons and surrendering. Arana''s spiders are tying them all without any resistance, I guess that my experiment was a success after all!


    Well, since it looks like this has been solved, I''ll go back with the kid for now.


    "Sorry to make you wait, now we can go to... huh? What''s wrong?"


    "You... I... no..."


    He''s sitting on the ground with a blank expression, and he looks like he''s too terrified to even be able to speak...


    There''s no way that he got scared by my spell, right? I told him that it was not anything dangerous, and he himself said that a soldier would not get scared by a spell that didn''t do anything.


    "You don''t need to be afraid, nobody is going to hurt you."


    "Sis... save me... please..."


    And now he''s calling for his big sister, he''s crying a lot and I have the feeling that if I get any closer to him it will only get worse...


    Also... huh... now that I look at his pants it seems like he just... hopefully, someone will have a change of clothes for him.


    I''m really bad with children...


    forli


    I wonder how many people remember the necromancer that Luna mentioned. Sometimes I like to introduce character or concepts that will become relevant later, but that might not be a good idea for a web novel since people might forget.

 Chapter 57: Disciples of darkness

    The fairies needed to sleep for over 18 hours to recover, their bodies do not seem to be very efficient. After that we decided to have a feast to celebrate our victory, that felt a bit weird since that battle didn''t seem like a big deal, but now that I think about it, most people probably don''t get into as many fights as I''ve been getting into lately.


    And having a feast is not something I''m going to complain about.


    Nera is sitting next to me and asked me why I''m so afraid of clowns, but she doesn''t seem convinced by my explanation.


    "You really believe that there was an evil clown that wanted to eat you?"


    "Yes! It kept following me everywhere for weeks back when I was little!"


    "And no one in the orphanage did anything about it?"


    "No, but that''s because I was the only one who could see it."


    "Luna... you said that you had been reading some horror story just before that. Are you sure that you weren''t just having a nightmare?"


    "It was real! I''m sure of it!"


    I told Nera about the evil clown that terrorized me when I was a child, but she doesn''t believe me.


    "I bet that Luna went for days without sleeping when studying magic even back then. That''s just not healthy you know, no wonder that she had hallucinations."


    "Don''t look at me like I''m crazy! I didn''t hallucinate anything!"


    I already told Arana about that clown before but she didn''t believe me either...


    This is bad, if everyone thinks that this is all my imagination, they won''t help me if it ever comes back.


    "What about you? You believe me, right?"


    "Why are you asking me!?"


    As I thought, that kid from before was not a real soldier at all. He just tagged along with the others in secret so that he could ''prove his worth'' by defeating an enemy. That''s why he was so far away from everybody else.


    He seems to be the type that gets into trouble all the time, so I decided to keep him at my side, but I cannot get him to open up to me, it seems like he''s still afraid.


    "Well, you can at least have an opinion. What do you think?"


    "I think that you''re crazy..."


    "You too!? I swear that clown was real!"


    "Not that! I''m talking about this feast! Since when do the winners of a battle invite the enemies they just defeated to eat with them!? We tried to kill you less than a day ago!"


    "Oh, that. I just thought that, since nobody died, we should at least try to get along."


    A demon lord is someone who rules with fear, which means that it''s very likely that all of these demons only attacked us because they were being threatened in some way. So I felt a bit sorry for them and suggested to let them join our feast after confiscating their weapons. I have a lot of food in my storage after all, and they are so weak that I don''t believe that they pose any danger. Also, the fairy village only has enough room for one prisoner in their jail.


    The only one we locked up is the demon lord because I''m afraid of him... I mean, I''m afraid of him forcing his underlings to start fighting again.


    "See, an adult needs to know how to peacefully resolve conflicts. And I''d say that this is going really well, all of these demons are being really nice and polite."


    "That''s because they''re afraid of you! And I''m also afraid of you! Anyone would be afraid of you!"


    "Well, you don''t have to be afraid. Look, the fairies seem to like me, they even made a bunch of pendants just like mine."


    On the table next to this one, there''s a fairy wearing a pendant with a crescent moon similar to the one I wear. She''s talking to a demon sitting there.


    "You are also a user of dark magic, correct? If you join us, you too can learn about the true power of darkness."


    "I''m sorry... I don''t think that I should..."


    "Only the queen of darkness can teach true dark magic, if you don''t take this chance you will forever live in ignorance."


    "Eh... excuse me, are you talking about me?"


    "Ah! I''m sorry master! I didn''t see you there. I''m trying to recruit some of these people to our group."


    "The correct word is teacher, not master. And what group are you talking about?"


    "The disciples of darkness. See? This pendant I''m wearing has our symbol."


    She points to the crescent moon on her pendant...


    "I''m sorry, I don''t know what you''re talking about. And isn''t that pendant based on the one I wear? Why would you make it a symbol of that group of yours?"


    "Because we''re your disciples. With great pain and effort, we took the first steps into the realm of true dark magic, but we know that we still have a long way to go, all we got was a mere glance."


    So the ''disciples of darkness'' are just those who learn healing magic from me? That seems like a very ominous name for a group of healers...


    "And of course, it is also our duty to bring as many people as possible into our fold. The world needs to learn the true meaning of darkness!"


    "Why are you making it sound like some weird cult!?"


    "We''re not a cult! We''re a group of devout followers of yours who are determined to uphold your teachings and to spread them to as many people as possible."


    "That''s almost exactly what a cult is!"


    I was not expecting this at all! All I did was teach them some of the basics of healing magic. So where did this come from!?


    "Wow Luna, you really did a great job brainwashing them."


    "Luna... just what did you do to them?"


    Arana seems to be enjoying this... and Nera is looking at me with a horrified expression.


    "Ara! Do you know what this is about?"


    "Well, what were you expecting? After going through such an extreme experience, it''s to be expected that the way they view the world would change."


    "No, no, no! This is all a misunderstanding! I just gave them a normal magic lesson. And they are not my followers, they are my students!"


    "Ah, that reminds me. Mast... I mean, teacher, we have already started writing the scriptures and we would like you to take a look and give your approval."


    "Scriptures!?"


    Are they seriously trying to make a religion around me!?


    "Yes, we decided that we should write down the contents of your lessons."


    "That''s just a textbook! Don''t go giving things weird names like that!!!"


    Seriously, I''m already infamous enough as the queen of darkness, the last thing I need is for people to think that I''m some cult leader on top of everything else!


    "Oh, and who is this boy? Are you a gray demon? That means that you can also use dark magic! Why don''t you join us as well?"


    "Uh... no, I don''t want to..."


    The fairy flies close to his face while staring directly into his eyes.


    "You''re still young. If you open your mind to the truth of dark magic now, you might become incredibly powerful in the future!"


    I''ve been wondering... what is that ''truth of dark magic'' she keeps going on about? She said that this is all based on my teachings, but it seems like she made up quite a bit of it by herself...


    "Please, go away..."


    Instead of going away as he asked, she gets even closer, she''s almost touching his face now.


    "Didn''t you see the power of the queen of darkness? Don''t you want to learn from her?"


    "Bwaaaa! I want to go back to my sister!"


    Great, she made him cry, now that he was starting to get used to me...


    "Alright, that''s enough, leave him alone."


    "But master, I was just..."


    "Look, if you want to play at being a cult by yourselves that''s fine, but don''t go around bothering other people."


    I''m going to have a talk with these fairies and see if I can convince them to drop all of this nonsense. You know... I''m starting to think that Nera might have been right when she said that my lesson was a bit too harsh...


    "When my sister gets here, she''s going to beat you up!"


    The boy is still crying but now he''s looking at me angrily.


    "Your sister is going to come here?"


    "I sent an undead messenger, I told her that we lost and I was captured."


    "We didn''t really capture you, you know..."


    "She''s the high necromancer of the gray demons! There''s no way you can win against her!"


    The demons around us start talking to each other when they hear that.


    "Hey, is what that kid said true?"


    "I don''t know, but the gray demon tribe lives close to here. If that''s true she''ll be able to bring their undead army with her."


    "I heard that the current high necromancer can control over ten thousand soldiers. She''s really terrifying."


    "But not nearly as much as that queen of darkness over there."


    Is there going to be another battle this soon? Well, if we have another feast, I won''t complain.


    forli

 Chapter 58: Undead army

    "So, Ara, what can you tell me about the gray demon tribe?"


    "You don''t know about them? They are one of the more numerous and well-known tribes in the demon wasteland."


    "I have heard a few things about them, but if we''re going to get into a fight with them, I would like to have some more detailed information."


    To be honest, the only reason I''ve even heard about them is that they get mentioned from time to time in books about necromancy. I always thought that I would never leave that one city I had been living in my whole life, so I was never interested in learning about the rest of the world. If I had known that one day I would go on a trip, running into trouble everywhere I go, I might have been a bit more interested in this stuff.


    "And why do you think that I have that ''detailed information'' you want?"


    "You don''t?"


    "Of course I do! Who do you think I am?"


    "..."


    "The gray demons live in the southern region of the demon wasteland. Their territory borders the beastkin country, and they have been enemies for a long time since the main area where the gray demons are usually born is inside the forest that the beastkin consider their home."


    Is that so... now that I think about it, that one gray demon I met before had used the spell ''zombify'' on a beastkin, which means that she had killed him. I wonder if that was part of some battle that they had...


    "For the most part, their warriors use dark magic and specialize in necromancy. Because of that, they invented a procedure to imprint a magic circuit into their bodies making them easier for their descendants to control after they die. All gray demons willingly perform the necessary rituals over the course of their life, and then their corpses are used for battle as well as manual labor."


    "Oh! So they put effort to prepare themselves and then offer their bodies? And all of that knowing that they won''t be alive to reap the benefits... that''s very selfless of them."


    "Yes, unlike most other races, they consider a person''s body to be nothing more than a tool, a tool that they no longer have any use for after they die, so they don''t care about what happens to it afterward. Thanks to that, they have access to an undead army that requires very little mana and effort to control. The best necromancer among them is called the ''high necromancer'' and is in charge of controlling that army, the magic circuits on those bodies are attuned to the mana of that individual, allowing them to control thousands of soldiers at once with the use of ''corpse puppet''."


    "I see, I heard the demons say that the current high necromancer could control ten thousand at once. That said... I''ve never tried controlling a large number of bodies at once, but is it really necessary to go to so much trouble with the magic circuits? Just controlling a few thousand the normal way does not seem all that difficult."


    "It IS difficult. For people who are not you, it''s probably impossible."


    "Is that so?"


    I know that I have been told many times that I need to lower my standards when it comes to other mages, but just how low do they need to be?


    That said, I''m very interested in seeing those mana circuits Arana mentioned. After all, we''re talking about the creation of a culture centered around necromancy, and necromancy is not something I could learn much about from books. I''m sure that I can improve my skills at least a little by learning from them.


    "And how long do you think we have before she comes here?"


    "If I have to guess, I''d say that two days. But don''t worry, I''m sure that you can handle it easily by yourself, all of our lives are in your hands."


    "It''s not that I don''t think I can do it, but I would prefer if you didn''t pressure me like that..."


    Just as Arana predicted, after two days the fairies that were on guard duty noticed the approach of a large army.


    "We saw them approach from the southwest, there''s so many of them that they cannot all come at once so they are divided into two groups."


    "Alright, just leave this to me, I''ll be back soon."


    "Teacher! Are you sure that you don''t need help?"


    "Don''t worry, I can deal with them alone. If you come with me all you''ll do is put yourselves in danger for no reason."


    "Even if you say that, I really don''t want to miss this so I''m going with you. Don''t worry, I''ll make sure to watch from a safe distance."


    So Arana is coming with me... well, if it''s her I don''t think that I need to worry, she can take care of herself.


    ...


    From the top of a hill, I can see the enemy army.


    ''Mana sense''


    As expected, they''re all dead bodies animated with ''corpse puppet'', but I had never seen that spell used at such a large scale, there''s a group of around 5000 not far away and I can see another 5000 in the distance.


    There''s a female gray demon at the front that seems to be the only one alive among them, that must be the high necromancer controlling this army. I have to question the strategic decision of placing herself in front of her soldiers, considering that if she''s defeated the entire army will fall apart... but maybe she just wants to be the center of attention.


    That said, she feels familiar for some reason, but I cannot see her face from here.


    "Li----- --u re---s, -ll o--y --ve y-- o-- ----ce t- su-----er."


    When she sees the fairy village she begins to give them a speech, but she''s too far away for anyone to hear her. I''m a lot closer and even I can''t understand what she''s saying... and I''m an elf, I''m supposed to have good hearing. I''ll have to get closer to talk to her.


    "Um, excuse me... wait, it''s you!"


    "What? Who is..."


    She''s the same one I met back then! I was not expecting this. From the impression that she gave me, she''s not someone skilled enough to be considered a ''high necromancer'' or anything similar.


    It looks like she recognized me as well, she seemed so confident just a moment ago but now she''s frozen in fear.


    "It can''t be... the queen of darkness!?"


    "Oh! So you know who I am? My name is Luna, by the way, I didn''t get your name last time."


    "..."


    "Hello? Could you tell me your name?"


    "HAHAHA! I see! So that''s why those fairies were able to defeat a demon lord and kidnap my little brother... it was all your doing! And since you defeated me once before, you think that it will be easy to do it again? But this time I have the invincible army of the gray demons with me! I will make you pay for the humiliation you put me through."


    "Yeah, sure... I also wanted to ask you about the method used to create these soldiers."


    "Fufufu, these are the result of the gray demons determination to stand above the other tribes. They all look down on us just because our average level is lower than..."


    "No, I was only asking about..."


    "...most demons, but our mastery of necromancy and willingness to offer our bodies after death has always allowed us to prove all of those foolish..."


    Oh, no. She''s going into a long speech just like last time, and since I''m the one who asked, interrupting her now would be far too rude...


    "... that our ancestors had to endure for more than 300 years, but now I''ll show to you and all the others that..."


    "NOBODY CARES!!!"


    "Eh?"


    Arana just popped her head from behind a rock and yelled at her.


    "Just shut up and start fighting already!"


    Well, it''s not that I don''t care about the struggles of her tribe, but this girl has quite a talent to make anything she talks about sound excruciatingly boring.


    Now I''m glad that Arana came along.


    "Fine then! I''ll grant you your wish! Now you''ll see what it feels like to fight against overwhelming numbers."


    As she says that, the undead army is already charging at me, then they all fall limply on the ground, just like regular corpses.


    "... just... what?"


    "Oh, I overrode your magic and released them from the control of corpse puppet."


    "You... what?"


    "You know, overriding magic, the thing that you can do against people with half or less of your rank in magic. This is the same thing I did the last time we met."


    I don''t know why she looks so surprised, this already happened once.


    "But there were 5000 soldiers here! You knocked them all out in an instant!"


    "Well, yeah, with a high enough rank, overriding magic does not take any effort at all, and 5000 times 0 is still 0."


    That''s the reason why mages with a rank of 5 or less are not considered good enough to take part in the battle, but to be fair, I was also not sure if I could get all of them until I did it.


    Now she''s looking really crestfallen.


    "This can''t be... the army of my tribe was..."


    Uh... I feel sorry for her. After all the effort it must have taken to get that army ready and all the pride she felt, it was defeated in an instant. I also know what it''s like to put a lot of effort into your work, so I can empathize with her.


    "There was not even a fight..."


    She looks rather pitiful. It would be one thing if the army had been defeated in battle, but to not even get the chance to fight makes it seems like it was all pointless. This almost feels like I''m bullying her.


    "You know... I think that there''s a limit to it, after all, I don''t think that I''ll be able to do the same to the other half of the army. I guess that I''ll have to fight them normally."


    "You... are you toying with me?"


    "No! No! No! I''m telling the truth! It seems like you still have a chance to show me the might of the gray demons!"


    To say that she has a complicated expression would be an understatement. Yeah... I know that my lie was not very good. Not to mention that even if it was true, I could just take her down right now since she''s by herself and right in front of me.


    The more she thinks about this, the worse she''s going to feel. At times like these, it''s better to do what I always do when everything is going wrong and just stop thinking.


    forli

 Chapter 59: Lunacy

    To animate a dead body with ''corpse puppet'' is not something that would take me a lot of time or effort, but there''s a difference between simply doing something and doing it right. I''m hoping that this will show that girl how to properly use magic.


    "Luna... what are you doing?"


    "I''m reanimating some of the dead bodies I took down."


    "But why? Can''t you do the same to the rest of them?"


    "Well... don''t you think that it would be a shame if that army didn''t even get a chance to fight? It must have taken a lot of effort to get them all ready, I feel sorry for her."


    "She''s your enemy, you''re not supposed to feel sorry for her. You should take battles a bit more seriously, even if the enemy is much weaker than you, you never know when something could go wrong."


    "You''re the last person I want telling me that I need to take things seriously..."


    I know that Arana thinks that I''m too soft, but the enormous difference in power makes it really difficult for me to see her as a threat.


    "I already told you before, but you are way too kind. You need to learn to be more selfish or people will take advantage of you."


    "No one ever tries to take advantage of me."


    "That''s because everyone is afraid of you. You''re always complaining about that, but if you think about it, the fear you inspire is the only reason why you can get away with being as naive as you are."


    "What!? That''s not..."


    "Hey! I still have the other half of my army here! Are you going to fight them or not!?"


    "Just a moment please! I''m almost done!"


    I got twelve of the gray demon corpses under my control. I make them adopt a basic battle formation and they advance towards the enemy army.


    "Did you just steal my soldiers from me!?"


    "Don''t you see? This way, no matter what happens, the gray demon army will win!"


    "That''s just completely missing the point! And how did you even take control of the soldiers that were prepared specifically for me? How are you even planning to fight with only 12 soldiers? I have 5000 left!"


    "Uh... I can''t answer so many questions if you ask them that quickly!"


    "Just forget it, I''m just going to target you directly!"


    Some of the undead soldiers are carrying small firearms. They all fire at me at once, but it doesn''t really hurt.


    "H-how are you unharmed!? You just got shot hundreds of times!"


    "Well, none of those gunshots were doing any damage, and hundreds of times zero is still..."


    "Oh, shut up!"


    She''s starting to get really angry... it has to be really frustrating to put so much effort into something you''re not good at. But her approach was wrong from the start, quality is more important than quantity, I''ll have to show that to her.


    Also, it''s not a good idea to make all the soldiers the exact same way, the only difference is the weapons they are carrying. For example, if some of them were a bit more focused on attack power they could be used against enemies with higher defense, and they might have been able to hurt me a little. I could still have defended or healed myself quite easily, but at least it would have been something that resembled a fight.


    Since I had to work from the same base as her I could not do as much as I wanted, but my soldiers are still more varied than hers. By focusing my mana in holding their bodies together, I made six of them highly resistant, those will take care of protecting the others, I reinforced the muscles of three of them to increase their strength and left some unused mana in the last three to make it possible for them to use some magic of their own. Now we''ll see how many enemies they are able to take down.


    "Alright! Advance!"


    Following my order, my soldiers advance towards the enemy army, and when they reach them, they continue to advance, and then they keep advancing more through the enemies... they''re not even being slowed down.


    That''s unexpected. Most of those undead soldiers are between level 39 and 42, weaker than even the weakest regular soldiers, while the ones I animated jumped up to level 130. But that should not be enough to overcome the massive difference in numbers, at least not so overwhelmingly.


    But those soldiers are not just weak, they are not working together at all. It''s not just that they are not using any formations or tactics, normally the soldiers in the back would be supporting the ones in front, instead, all the undead who are not currently engaging seem to be just standing there doing nothing.


    "That army of yours does not act much like an army."


    "And you do not act much like en enemy, why are you chatting with me so casually?"


    Now that she mentions it, having the two commanders standing next to each other on top of a hill while watching over the battle is probably not something that happens very often.


    "You are not even taking this seriously, are you... why don''t you just stop wasting time and kill me already?"


    "I''m not going to kill you."


    Perhaps it''s true that I''m not taking this seriously, but you cannot blame me for that when the difference in strength is this big. That said, this is probably extremely humiliating for her, maybe I could make it look like the fight is a bit more even?


    "Look, one of my soldiers just got defeated, you''re not doing all that bad after all!"


    "You cannot be serious..."


    I don''t think that she bought it, she looks even more defeated than before.


    "Look, I''ve already had enough of this, if you''re not going to kill me or capture me I''m leaving."


    "No, wait! If you want I could teach you how to use your magic more efficiently!"


    "You... you really don''t get it, do you. I''m your enemy! You are not supposed to be nice to me!"


    "Well, yeah, but if two enemies try to be nice to each other they wouldn''t be enemies anymore, don''t you think?"


    "You can only say that because of how unreasonably strong you are! If someone like me tried to be nice to my enemies I would just get killed!"


    "She''s right, you know."


    Huh? When did Arana get here?


    "I''ve been thinking this for some time now... if you keep being so ridiculously nice to all of your enemies, it''s just a matter of time until one of them manages to find a way to take advantage of your kindness and makes you regret it. I''m not saying that you should not try to be a good person, that''s actually one of the things I like the most about you, but you should have a bit more common sense. Even if you think that you were being nice just now, the truth is that you were just being condescending."


    Is that true? That''s not what I was trying to do at all...


    "Are you saying that she''s always like this? It''s not just me?"


    "Yeah, I have to say that watching her always doing stuff like this can be a bit frustrating sometimes."


    "I''m frustrated after seeing it just once! If she really wanted to be ''nice'' she should have just beaten the crap out of me the moment she saw me."


    You know, I don''t think that wanting to get beaten up is very normal either...


    "Yeah, you''re right."


    "Ara, why are you taking her side? You traitor!"


    They''re both standing next to each other talking badly about me, now I''m the one who feels bullied.


    "I''m not taking her side, it''s just that we both agree that you lack common sense."


    "Allowing your enemies to keep fighting because you pity them is not just ''lacking common sense'', it''s complete lunacy."


    "Wait. Luna... lunacy... HOW DID I NEVER THINK OF THAT BEFORE!?"


    Oh, now that she mentions it, that''s really weird. How did Arana never think of that before? She looks completely shocked, this must have been a blow to her pride as a jokester.


    "Anyway, if you want me to defeat you already, then fine, I''m going to capture you now."


    ''Shadow chain''


    I restrain her with a chain and then use my override to shut down all the remaining undead.


    "Ugh, what are you planning to do with me?"


    "I''m going to take you to the fairy village and I''m going to take my time changing your mind. One way or another, I''m going to make you like me."


    "Luna... I know that you mean well, but that really came out wrong."


    forli


    Whenever I make Luna and Arana disagree with each other like this I''m afraid of making one or the other feel frustrating to the readers, it almost makes me want to explain where I''m going with all of this but I don''t want to give spoilers...


    Also, the reason why Arana was so shocked about not thinking about the lunacy think before is that I''m shocked I never thought about it before.

 Chapter 60: A bad friend

    -Arana-


    As I float in the air, I watch over a scene I''ve already seen many times before. A little girl is crying inconsolably next to a woman''s dead body. I''m seeing this from a third-person perspective as if it had nothing to do with me.


    That woman was supposed to be nothing more than her servant, her sisters had told her many times ''just because she was used to give birth to you, that doesn''t make her anyone special''. And yet, the girl couldn''t help but think of her as her mother. Now her mother was dead, and it was all her fault.


    She had been born with a rank 10 in light magic, which allowed her to not only heal injuries but fix broken objects and cast blessings as well. Needless to say, that was a power that many people would want, but the girl was always happy to help anyone who would ask her.


    Her older sisters told her many times to stop being so kind, that people would end up just taking advantage of her. However, the happy faces, the words of praise and gratitude... they were like a drug to her, nothing could be better than the feeling of being loved by everyone.


    But as time went on, people began to take her for granted. At first most of the requests she received were about saving people''s lives, then they kept asking for her help for matters that got less and less important, and the gratitude of those she helped also continued to fade away. Eventually, there was a group of men who thought that they could get her power all for themselves if they kidnap her.


    Four men were somehow able to find her in her hideout, at a time when she was alone without her guards. Her mother tried to defend her but ended up getting killed, she could only cry as they were about to catch her. However, at the last moment, an older girl wearing a green hat, her older sister, killed them all and saved her.


    In hindsight, the fact that her sister could maintain such a calm and gentle expression after having just killed four men should have been a red flag. But the girl rushes to hug her without suspecting anything. I want to tell her to stay away from her, that she was the one who had given them the idea to kidnap her in the first place, the one who told them where to find her, and the one who made sure her guards went away.


    But there''s nothing I can do to change something that happened in the past, I already know what comes next. Having lost her mother, her older sister is the only one left she can get attached to, having been saved by her, she will trust her completely, and since she feels responsible for her mother''s death as a result of not listening to her sister''s advice, she will obediently do everything she tells her from now on. Exactly as she had planned.


    This is always the moment this dream ends, and I''m inside of my body once again.


    Every time I see Luna being naive I end up having that dream as if my subconscious is reminding me that I need to do something before the same thing that happened to me happens to her as well.


    I used to be just as naive as she is, and as a result, I let Cureva use me as a puppet for years, doing what I believed were good deeds, unknowingly hurting a lot of people...


    Had it not been for an unlikely accident, I might have never learned the truth, but I was lucky and one day, Cureva lost her hat for a brief moment. She''s normally able to lie as easily as she breathes, but without her hat, she became completely honest instead, and she told me everything that she had done as well as all the things that truly went through her messed up head.


    After that, I ran away and was all alone for a time, until I met Luna. She was a bit intimidating at first, I''d say that she is the exact opposite of Cureva, one has an aura that makes people trust her, the other has an aura that makes everyone run in fear. That might have been part of the reason why I started wanting to get closer to her.


    I still remember the first time I pulled a prank on her. When I make fun of or prank someone they usually react by simply getting upset, and Luna was upset too, at least on the surface, but for some reason, she also smiled, I don''t know if she realized that herself. Even now, I still see her smile for half a second sometimes when I make fun of her, does she know that she does that?


    At first, I thought that she was into some weird stuff, but when I got to know her better I understood. Everyone Luna meets is afraid of her, that must have made her feel completely lonely and unloved. It''s not that she enjoys being made fun of, but the fact that I can make fun of her so easily is proof that I don''t fear her at all. For most people that would not mean much, but for her... it was the thing she had always wanted, more than anything else. That''s why she became my friend, I gave her something that nobody else did.


    Of course, that was also true about me. After finding out the truth, that the one person I looked up to the most was truly an evil monster, I was convinced that I would never be able to trust anyone ever again. And then I met Luna, her kindness and naivete were so genuine that even I could not help but trust her completely, she was the only person in this world who could become my friend.


    And that is why, deep down, I really don''t want to change her.


    But she''s not someone who can afford to be such a good person. Her power alone would be enough to attract an excessive amount of the wrong kind of attention, and it''s clear that she''s someone who is meant to take an important position in the world. She will get enemies and leeches no matter what she does, she needs to stop being so naive, that''s the only she can avoid ending up like me.


    And how am I even supposed to make her change? Half-hearted measures are not going to be enough. I wish that there was some kind of middle ground, that she could become more assertive without her personality changing much, but I don''t think that''s possible for someone like her... I know that because I used to be the same. The death of my mother was not enough to make me wake up, it took me learning the truth about my sister and everything I believed in being proven wrong. After that, I was not the same person anymore, the same would be true for Luna... she would have needed to kill Cureva to stop her from escaping back then, something that the current Luna would never do. If that happens, the only person who can be my friend might not exist anymore, that''s a really scary thought...


    Or maybe all it would take is for Luna to figure out just how much of a bad friend I truly am. I''ve gone as far as to sabotage some of her attempts to clear the misunderstandings about her, all in a pointless attempt at prolonging the current status quo, as it seems that the fear she makes people feel is the only thing stopping them from exploiting her, the only thing that lets me have it both ways. And, of course, I''ve been planning to use her to stop my older sisters without telling her anything, I''m using her just like Cureva used me... I wonder... when she learns the truth, will she hate me as much as I hate Cureva?


    For now, she''s still acting the same as always. At this very moment, she''s trying to lecture the gray demon siblings.


    "... and that''s why using violence to solve your problems is not a good idea, you need to learn to make peace with your enemies."


    "Sis... is the scary lady going to kill us?"


    "Yes, she is."


    "NO! I''M NOT!"


    At least with these two everything seems to be going fine, but for how long can this last? I''m afraid that if I remain undecided for much longer, the decision could be made for me.


    Or perhaps it''s already too late, that prophecy I made when I was wearing Ranna''s hat sounded really bad...


    It might be possible to stop it, a prophecy can be broken if the individuals involved in it die before the time comes. That''s not an option for the ''queen of darkness'' prophecy, as Luna would need to die, but for this one, all it would take is to kill that so-called Kalroth before it''s too late. However, that''s probably not an easy thing to do, and all I would be doing is delaying the inevitable once again.


    I don''t know what to do, not only am I a bad friend, I''m also a useless one. All I know about making plans or manipulating people is what I learned from being around Cureva for so long, she''s the one who''s good at that stuff. The only thing I''m good for is making it look like I know what I''m doing...


    But that doesn''t mean that I won''t try. First of all, I need information. I''ll ask Ranna to tell me everything she knows about Kalroth, she was around him for a while after all. If I can figure out what''s the most likely way for that prophecy to come true, I might be able to think of a way to get out of this mess...


    forli


    I tried to make her a mysterious character for a while so that it wasn''t even clear if she was evil or not. That made it really stressful each time someone made a wrong assumption about her as I thought that they might be disappointed when we finally got here, and I also feared that people might grow tired of her before I got a chance to explain her.


    All I can hope is that now you can all at least understand why she does the things she does, I''m not sure if I did a good job.

 Chapter 61: The gray demons

    I''ve managed to make some progress with the siblings somehow, well, at the very least I got them to tell me their names. The girl is called Xania and the boy Rax, apparently, most gray demons have an x in their names.


    From what they''ve told me, the gray demon tribe has its territory at the southern border of the demon wasteland, right next to the beastkin country. The problem is that the area in which the gray demons are born is in the beastkin''s homeland, and as a result, the gray demons have been in a constant war with them for a very long time.


    These two have lived a very different life to mine. Growing up in a society that highly values warriors and being involved in many battles... no wonder that it''s difficult for them to get along with someone who is used to living in peace such as myself.


    "So that beastkin that you used ''zombify'' on was one of your enemies?"


    "Not just any enemy, he was the one who killed our parents. I decided to take revenge on him by making him my servant."


    "What!? That''s terrible! You shouldn''t let hatred control you like that... and what if his children decide to go after you next? Can''t you see that this is never going to end if you keep going like that?"


    "Of course it''s never going to end! This is what our existence is like. The beastkin always seal the mana in the forest to prevent gray demons from being born, if we stopped fighting them, our race would become extinct!"


    "Couldn''t you try to negotiate? If the beastkin don''t need that place as much as you do, perhaps you could offer something better in return."


    "You don''t know what you''re talking about. Those guys hate us beyond the point of rationality, they just want to get rid of us."


    She''s making the beastkin sound completely unreasonable. But I already learned my lesson about judging before hearing both sides.


    "Even then, you should not get innocent people involved. Back when you took the horn of the earth, the monster you created almost destroyed a town."


    "What!? Is that true!?"


    "Uh... no, it''s not..."


    Oh? Rax is looking at his sister with an uncertain expression, and Xania seems to be a bit flustered. Maybe this is my chance to show how she''s wrong.


    "She used an artifact to create a powerful monster and sent it to destroy a town full of innocent people."


    "No! That''s not true!"


    "I remember you giving some speech about how they were going to know true fear or something like that."


    I didn''t really listen to it though.


    "That''s..."


    "Sis, is that true?"


    "No, you see... I wanted to obtain a powerful servant to impress lord Kalroth, but I couldn''t control it at all and it started rampaging. So I... I decided to save face by pretending that that was what I wanted all along..."


    She''s blushing really hard, she''s going to turn into a red demon at this rate.


    "In that case, you owe me a huge favor. If I had not been there to stop the monster you would have a lot of deaths on your conscience."


    "Bah, as if I cared about some random people."


    "Sis..."


    "I mean, I do care! I''m indebted to you!"


    Mmm, it seems like her desire to look good in front of her brother might be the key to win her over. I just need to find a way to win him over first.


    "Hey, you said that your name was Rax, right? Would you want to become friends with me?"


    "What are you talking about?"


    He doesn''t seem to be very receptive... think Luna, what is something that children like?


    "Why don''t you come with me for a moment? I will give you candy."


    I smile at him and try to make myself seem as friendly as possible.


    "Bwaaa!"


    "Stay away from my brother!"


    But he starts crying and runs behind his sister. Getting along with children is way too difficult for me after all.


    At that moment, there''s a sudden gust of wind, and something big lands right behind me.


    "Mistress! I''m done surveying the area, there are no more enemies nearby."


    "That''s great, but why are you reporting this to me?"


    The dragon is acting as if he was following my orders even though I didn''t tell him anything, that''s a bit annoying.


    "Is that a dragon!?"


    Rax''s eyes are sparkling... I look back and forth a few times to make sure and yes, he''s indeed looking at the dragon.


    "Yes... do you like dragons?"


    "Of course! Dragons are cool! I didn''t know that you had a dragon."


    I''m not sure if saying that I ''have a dragon'' is the best way to phrase that, it makes it sound like he''s my pet or something... but this might be my chance to get him on my side.


    "So would you two like to have a talk or something?"


    "Yes! I never thought that I would get to meet a dragon."


    "Fufu, of course, it''s just natural for young boys to love dragons."


    That smug look he has right now is extremely annoying, how can a dragon even make a face like that? But this is convenient for me so I won''t complain.


    "Are you sure that he''s not going to hurt Rax?"


    "Don''t worry, he''s an idiot but he''s harmless."


    Xania seems to be worried about her brother, but he seems happy to be able to hang out with that stupid dragon. Kids have really weird tastes.


    "I asked Ranna since she had been around there, and it seems like the reason why the gray demon''s birth area is inside the beastkin territory is that there''s a very intense mana flow that ends there. Could you not redirect it so that it ends inside your territory instead?"


    Arana joined our conversation shortly after, and now she''s proposing a very interesting idea.


    "That''s right! If you do that you won''t have to fight anymore!"


    "Do you really believe that we''ve never thought of that before? First of all, I don''t really think that alone would be enough to stop a war that has been going on for many generations. And second, we would need to go to the source of the mana flow to redirect it and that''s impossible, that place is deep underground."


    "A mana flow that intense should have created a system of caves, there should be a way to get down there."


    "You really don''t know what you''re saying, there are many mana flows in the demon wasteland, that''s why this place is known for its many powerful monsters and demons, and all of them originate from the same general area. All of them combined created an enormous cave system filled with many of the strongest monsters in the world, that''s the place known as the infernal caverns."


    "The infernal caverns? Ara, why do I feel like I''ve heard that name before?"


    "That''s the place where Kalroth was born, the call him ''Kalroth the infernal'' because of that, remember?"


    Oh, that''s right.


    "Yes, lord Kalroth is one of the strongest demons alive, he even managed to unite the demon wasteland under him. And yet, people still call him ''the infernal'', because even with everything he''s done, just getting out of that place alive is still the most impressive thing he''s done. And he was only born somewhere in the middle point of those caverns, nobody has ever reached the bottom of that place, where the source of the mana flow should be?"


    "Well, I see why you don''t think that you can do it, but since I''m here now perhaps I could give it a shot."


    "Did you not listen to anything of what I just said? There are monsters down there that could match entire armies."


    "I just matched one of your ''entire armies'' quite easily just earlier. I think that I''m strong enough."


    "There are rivers of lava that could melt your body just from getting close."


    "That''s fine, I''m never bothered by the heat even in summer."


    "And those caverns form a gigantic maze that even an experienced spelunker would get lost in."


    "Oh, that might be a problem..."


    "And the say that if you reach the bottom you will meet the devil himself."


    "What!? Is that true!?"


    "That''s why exploring the infernal caverns is just suicide."


    It''s funny how the more reasons she gives me to not go there, the more she makes me want to go.


    "Why do you want to do this anyway? This is exactly what I was saying before, you shouldn''t be willing to go this far just to help some people that you don''t even know."


    "She''s right you know."


    "But I like helping people! And this is not just some small favor, just think of all the lives I could save not only now but also in the future if I can pull this off. Or do you want your brother to also die fighting the beastkin?"


    "Well, no."


    "And besides, there''s another reason why I want to go."


    "Another reason? What other reason?"


    "Well, it''s just that... after everything that you said, I''m very curious to see what''s down there."


    forli


    I was not sure about what to call a ''river of mana that comes from underground and goes to the surface'', I''ve seen other stories talk about ''leylines'' but I''m not really sure of what that term means so I just went with ''mana flow''

 Chapter 62: The demon king title

    It seems that the entrance to the infernal caverns is just outside the town where the gray demons live. Arana says that she wants to visit them, so she came along and brought Ranna with her. Now she''s trying to negotiate with Xania to see what we can get in exchange for my help.


    "At the very least you need to promise that you won''t launch any new attacks against us or against the beastkin country. If Luna redirects the leyline to your territory you won''t need to fight anyway, won''t you."


    "I would like to accept that offer, but you need to understand that lord Kalroth is the one who has the last word on that and he will probably disagree even if I try to stop the fighting."


    Normally I would have just helped without asking for anything in return, but Arana insisted that we should take the chance to make some demands. And she was right, when I was trying to convince her to stop fighting earlier she wouldn''t listen to anything I said, and yet, now she''s saying that she would like to accept our offer...


    If I had offered my help in exchange for nothing this would not have happened, is it really possible to help people more by being less kind? This seems very counterintuitive.


    "Just forget about that guy, you should just become Luna''s subordinate instead. She''s stronger anyway, and she would treat you better."


    "Hey! Wait a minute! I don''t want any subordinates. And if I steal the subordinates of a demon lord, won''t he start to consider me his enemy?"


    "Luna... what do you mean ''start''? You''re also a demon lord, remember? Stealing the subordinates from another one is the same as a declaration of war, and you already did that with the fairies, it''s a bit too late to worry about picking a fight with him."


    "What? Xania, is that true?"


    "Well, duh, why do you think that I was sent to deal with you?"


    So I''m already in war with Kalroth? This is bad, I''m in a lot more trouble than I thought...


    "Anyway, as I was saying, you should just switch sides. I could tell before that you were quite desperate to prove your worth to your boss. You will not have that problem with Luna."


    "What problem are you talking about? It''s normal for me to want to please my lord."


    "Don''t try to hide it, I know exactly what your problem is. You don''t have the demon lord title, do you."


    "..."


    "Ara, what are you talking about? Why would not being a demon lord be a problem?"


    "Because Kalroth is aiming to become a demon king, he needs as many of his underlings as possible to obtain the demon lord title. However, a demon lord is someone who gets other demons to follow them by using fear. Even if she''s some kind of leader to the other gray demons, if fear is not the reason why they follow her, she will not obtain that title."


    "Oh! I get it! You wanted to save your tribe from having to serve under some other demon lord, but you couldn''t become one yourself. That''s why you were trying to prove your worth in some other way!"


    "The gray demon tribe number over 20.000 at the moment. I needed a truly impressive achievement to justify having so many demons without a demon lord..."


    "Well, I can understand why he would be desperate to turn more of his subordinates into demon lords. By now he must be starting to realize that it''s impossible for him to become a demon king."


    "Impossible? Why?"


    If he needs 1000 demon lords then he only needs a total of 1001000 demons under his command, no? I''m sure that there are at least a few millions in the demon wasteland alone, and he already rules over this place.


    "Becoming a demon king is a lot more difficult than just ''becoming a demon lord 1000 times''. Do you remember what the definition of the demon lord title is?"


    "Yes, ''An individual who has made at least 1000 demons swear subservience towards them through the use of power and fear''."


    "Exactly, and that''s not something that can be easily achieved by someone who''s already working under a different demon lord. After all, if Kalroth tells some demons to obey the orders of one of his underlings, the reason why those demons will obey is that they are afraid of him, not of his underling, so he won''t get the demon lord title. The only reliable method to get demon lords under his command is to recruit individuals who already have that title, but after a while, there will be fewer and fewer candidates to recruit."


    "I see... I thought that it was weird that there are no demon kings when there are many countries with more than a million people living in them."


    "And that''s not even the biggest problem. The worst part is that demon lords tend to be very ambitious and prideful, it''s not easy to keep them under the control of a single person. The more of them he gathers, the more likely it becomes for a group of them to team up and turn against him, even if he''s strong, he might still lose if a greater number of demon lords properly plan their betrayal, and even if he wins, the number of demon lords under his command will go down."


    "So that''s why you don''t think that this Kalroth guy can do it?"


    "Yeah, it''s just impossible for him. There has only ever been one individual who managed to obtain the demon king title in all of history. Power alone is not enough, you would also need charisma and intelligence, that''s why most of the brutes who usually aim for that title don''t even get close. In fact, the only reason why this guy even managed to get this far is that he had Ranna helping him."


    "Wait, are you saying that lord Kalroth couldn''t have conquered the demon wasteland without the help of this little girl? Are you joking?"


    "Little girl..."


    Oh, Ranna got a bit upset, that seems to be a sore spot for her.


    "It''s true, that guy is not very smart so he really needed me. Now that I think about it I should not have helped a bad guy like him, but Felias said that it was all so that she could take him down and take his place..."


    "Who is Felias?"


    "The witch of darkness, our oldest sister, and ''leader''. As I thought, this ''country'' that Kalroth has created is dependant on having someone stronger than anybody else at the top. If someone even stronger came along and took him down, it would be easy for them to take his place without changing anything else. Felias never wanted Kalroth as an ally, her plan was just to use him as a pawn to take over the demon wasteland without having to dirty her hands, she has never been on this continent after all."


    Just how strong is Arana''s oldest sister? She''s making it sound like she could beat that Kalroth guy easily.


    "But we made it here before she did... isn''t that quite interesting Luna?"


    "I don''t know what you''re thinking but I want you to stop thinking about it."


    "Here we are."


    We finally reach an enormous cave entrance, it kinda looks like the mountain has a mouth... so this is the infernal caverns.


    I can see the gray demon''s town from here, it''s a lot bigger than I thought and it''s surrounded by a really tall stone wall. I guess that they must be used to battle.


    "So I need to move the ending point of the leyline 20 kilometers to the north to make it go into your territory, correct?"


    "Yes, but altering such a strong leyline would take a lot of magic power, are you sure that you can do it on your own? Why am I asking, of course you can."


    "By the way. Was it true what you said about the devil at the bottom of those caverns?"


    "I don''t know, that''s just an old legend."


    Just a legend she says... but something about it makes me feel nervous for some reason.


    "Alright Luna, me and Ranna will go visit that town over there. You can go and have fun in the extremely dangerous monster-infested caverns."


    "Wait, I''m going alone?"


    "Yeah, against monsters as strong as what''s supposed to be down there, I would just be dead weight for you. And chances are that I would end up actually dead."


    "But then how am I supposed to find my way in there!? You know that I always get lost easily!"


    "About that... I suppose I have no choice..."


    "No choice?"


    Arana seems to be conflicted about something.


    "The one you need to find your way is not me, it''s this guy."


    A spider jumps from her opened palm to my shoulder.


    "Longleg? But wait, won''t he also be in danger if he goes into the caverns?"


    "That''s the thing I didn''t want to do... but I guess I have to. I will link him to your life force, that will make it almost impossible for him to die unless you die first. The problem is that to do that I need to unlink him from me first..."


    "Oh, sorry about that."


    I have no idea of what she''s talking about, but it seems important to her so I''ll pretend to care.


    "Just promise that you will give him back."


    "I promise!"


    "And one more thing, I actually have no idea of what lurking in the depths of those caverns. I don''t think it will happen... but the deeper you go the strongest the monsters get, and nobody has reached the bottom before. That means that there''s a chance that you will encounter monsters strong enough to be a threat even to you. Keep checking them with your appraisal stone, and if you think that you are in any danger, forget about your mission and turn around."


    "Don''t worry, the moment I sense any danger, I''ll run away as fast as I can."


    "Right, I probably don''t need to worry about that. I keep forgetting since you are strong enough to not need to fear any opponent, but you have always been quite the coward."


    "You know... you didn''t really need to put it that way."


    forli


    After reading the comments from last chapter I decided to call them leylines after all. I''ll have to go back and edit the previous chapter when I have some time.


    Also, I finally decided on a name for the witch of darkness which was long overdue as her sisters kept talking about her without mentioning her name which felt a bit awkward. I couldn''t think of a name that sounded right for her using the naming theme I used for the rest of the witches, so I altered it a little this time.

 Chapter 63: Into the fire

    ''Torch''


    There''s almost no light in these caverns, so in order to see where I''m going, I have been using the only fire spell that I know.


    By using magic in creative ways I can reproduce the effects of other elements while using only darkness. But there''s one thing that dark magic can never do, no matter how ingenious you are, and that''s making light. There''s a spell that could let me see in the dark, but it requires some concentration which would make it slightly more difficult to do other stuff at the same time. ''Torch'' is a basic spell and is much easier to use, even if it''s from an element I''m not good at.


    "So I should go that way next?"


    Longleg has been sending me in the right direction this entire time. I don''t really know how he does it, being good at mazes is one thing, but how can he tell where to go when he''s never been here before? Well, it''s convenient so I won''t complain.


    "Oh, it''s another one of those monsters."


    So far I have not seen any strong monsters at all. Mostly I''ve encountered dogs with glowing red eyes, large lizards covered in spikes that curl into a ball and roll to attack, and some floating rocks with a single eye that keep trying to bash my head. Nothing out of the ordinary.


    All of them have been below level 50. Well, the monsters are supposed to get stronger the deeper one goes into these caverns and I''m still close to the entrance, so in order to save my mana, I''ve been fighting without using magic. It turns out that a single slap is enough to send any of these low-level monsters flying and kill them instantly.


    However, just a bit further ahead I see something that catches my interest.


    "Is that lava?"


    There''s a small river of lava. I had never seen lava before, and this is different from how I imagined it, this is a lot more gray and viscous looking. Rather than lava, this looks like a bunch of liquefied rocks... which is exactly what lava is so I don''t know what I was expecting.


    ''Heat void''


    Dark magic has no ''real'' protection spell, but it can accomplish something similar with a spell that nullifies certain things. For example, nullifying the heat that comes at me is, in practice, the same as a spell that protects from heat and fire.


    This way I should be able to touch the lava without burning myself... yeah, it doesn''t feel hot at all, I should be able to do that thing...


    "Longleg, wait here a moment."


    I leave Longleg on top of a rock and start taking off my clothes. I''ve read plenty of books that show how tough a powerful monster or demon is by having them take baths in lava and it always makes them seem so cool. I''m sure that my cool factor will also increase if I do it myself, and this is the perfect chance.


    As expected, I''m not getting burned, but... this does not feel like being submerged in liquid at all, it''s more like moving around some really thick mud, and each movement causes flames to come out and hit me in the face. It''s also really sticky.


    "Uh... this is actually rather unpleasant..."


    I need to stay inside for at least a few seconds to be able to call this a bath, but I''m not staying any more time than it''s necessary. Also, I''ll need to clean the bits that got stuck to my skin, my clothes will probably catch fire if I put them on right now...


    "Well, at least from now on I''ll be able to say that I took a bath in lava once, and at the end that''s the most important thing. Hey! Don''t look at me like that!"


    Longleg is sitting there staring at me. He''s just standing still not doing anything, and his spider face cannot make any specific expressions, but I still cannot help but feel that he''s judging me...


    ''Shadow lance''


    "That rock monster was really strong, it says level 131."


    Well, everything is still dying after only one attack, so I wouldn''t be able to tell how strong they are if I was not using an appraisal stone to check them. But 131 is the level of an elite fighter by normal standards. I don''t think that I''m even one-third of the way there yet, if the monsters continue to get stronger at this pace I might actually end up encountering something that''s actually dangerous...


    "Bzz"


    "Huh?"


    Speaking of dangerous things, isn''t that a swarm of mana mosquitoes? Each one of them is only just over level 20, but they are known to be one of the most dangerous monsters to mages. Just by being nearby, they can suck all of your mana, in fact, I can feel them doing that to me just now.


    Magic does not work well against them and they are too numerous and small for physical attacks to be effective either. So they''ll just continue to swarm around you until you are unable to use any magic at all, which can be a death sentence for a mage if there are any other monsters around. And this swarm around me is particularly big, if I don''t do anything I might end up getting in trouble.


    Unfortunately for them, there''s one particular trick I came up with recently that I''ve been wanting to try, and it should be a perfect counter to them.


    ''Poison cloud''


    "Bzz?"


    Magic poison wouldn''t normally work against them, they would just suck the mana before inhaling the poison, that would break the spell before any of it got to them. However, I released my mana before I actually finished my spell. As a result, the mosquitoes absorb all of the mana which then turns into poison when it''s already inside of their bodies, killing every single one of them.


    I came up with this idea after seeing how Cureva made her crows absorb the mana from people, I wanted to have a counter against that in case I ever encounter her again. Also, I have to admit that this is based on the method she used to try to kill Nera''s father...


    Still, these infernal caverns are quite an interesting place, not only do the monsters here have a lot of variety, but the environment is also quite unique.


    As I''ve been descending, the rock walls have been taking on a reddish hue. There are also some large arch-like structures everywhere that vaguely resemble doors, and in some places, it looks like there are even stairs... they''re a bit too convenient to be natural but also not artificial enough to be manmade, I don''t know what to make of this.


    In addition to that, there''s actually more light here than there was near the surface, and I keep encountering lava rivers and pits everywhere. It''s starting to get really hot, so I''m using ''Heat void'' the entire time now, it should also be useful against monsters that attack with fire, a very common form of attack around here, or if I accidentally fall into the lava.


    "Woah!"


    As always, the moment I think that something embarrassing could happen to me, it actually happens, I was distracted admiring the scenery and fell into a pit...


    Wait, I think that I''m actually getting burned, my boots got incinerated in an instant, and now my feet are getting a bit charred. That''s weird... I''m sure that I was using ''Heat void'', is that spell still on? Yes, it''s on... then why is this lava burning me? That didn''t happen before... well, since having my skin burn like this is excruciatingly painful I should probably get out of here first.


    At least I can heal myself easily, and now that I look at it more closely, this is not normal lava. First of all, it''s hotter than the rest, but that''s not the weird thing about it, there''s also a large concentration of fire mana in here, that''s what made it get through my defenses.


    "Interesting..."


    I put my arm inside to test it, and sure enough, it gets burned as well. It''s clear that this is not just your average everyday lava, until I can come up with a better name I think that I shall refer to it as ''advanced lava''.


    Actually, now that I think about it, this is technically underground, so perhaps I should have been calling it magma...


    But now there''s another thing that I''m curious about, when my skin gets burned I can feel intense pain, but for some reason, I don''t really care much about it... I don''t think that''s normal.


    It''s as if my brain is properly receiving the pain signals but then interprets it as not being a big deal. Well, the truth is that it''s not a big deal at all, I can heal in an instant after all, could that be the reason? But a lot of people can use healing magic, and I''ve never heard anything about them being more tolerant to pain...


    Could it be because of one of my skills? Let me see... I do have two skills that could be related to this.


    Focused mind


    Allows one''s mind to focus only on relevant matters


    Self-control


    Diminishes the effect on one''s thoughts and actions caused by emotions such as anger or fear and protects from attacks against the mind


    It could be that one or both of these skills is making my brain be more logical when interpreting the feeling of pain.


    "I need to test this."


    I place a curse on my arm to make it more difficult to heal and then I submerge it in the advanced magma one more time.


    "Ouch! Hey! This time I actually cared about the pain. Which means that this experiment was a success!"


    I heal my arm, which takes a small amount of effort this time, then I notice that Longleg is standing on top of a rock, watching me being happy about getting hurt.


    "Just so you know, this was an important experiment."


    He continues to stare at me motionless.


    "It would be bad if one day I''m paralyzed by pain at a crucial time and it catches me off guard because I''m used to not being bothered by it. It''s important to understand how these things work!"


    I don''t think that he gets it... I know that Arana said that he''s ''linked'' to me now, but I don''t think that he understands me at all.


    forli


    This is also the most dungeon-like place we''ve seen so far, but just to be clear, actual dungeons are not a thing in-universe in this world.

 Chapter 64: Going all out

    This place continues to get crazier and crazier.


    The deeper I go the stronger the monsters become. I don''t think that I''ve even reached the bottom yet and I''ve already seen several monsters above level 300 and even one at 364. And right now I''m fighting a group of monsters all around level 230, normally defeating even a single monster like that would be enough to become famous, but in this place, you can easily end up fighting four or five at the same time...


    They look like floating skulls surrounded by a field of visible mana, half of them are red and use fire magic while the other half are black and use darkness. The latter are the ones that are making this rather easy, not only do their spells not work at all against me, I''ve even been able to take their mana to replenish my own.


    ''Shadow lance''


    ''Shadow lance''


    ''Shadow lance''


    After a few spells I''m able to take them down, and then I see the marks that they made when they hit the walls.


    "As I thought, the rocks continue to get tougher."


    It''s not just the monsters, the environment is also ''stronger'' the deeper I go. If my ''shadow lance'' hits a normal rock it will get completely shattered, but on the rocks around here, it can only leave a small mark. Also, I''ve noticed that the ''advanced magma'' is more common than before, at this point there''s more of it than regular magma.


    "Is that the way?"


    Longleg is pointing to what looks like a set of stairs going down, if the pattern continues the level of the monsters is going to increase again... at least I think that I''m getting near the end, I hope.


    And after going down I see... an exit from the cave leading outside... what?


    "Hisss"


    "Woah!"


    That scared me! A massive snake suddenly entered the cave I''m in. Its body almost looks like it''s made of rocks and there''s magma dripping from a few cracks, is this snake made of magma?


    ''Black wall''


    I react just in time to block its attack. I would call it a fire breath, but the flames are so intense that it actually looks more like a fire beam.


    ''Shadow lance''


    "Hisss"


    Oh! that only left a small wound, all of the monsters before this one got at least somewhat injured after being hit by that spell.


    Let me check it''s level... it says 404! That has to be an error.


    Now it''s trying to bite me, but its mouth is too big to fit inside this cave. The mouth is open and right in front of me... I have to say, that thing is just asking for what''s about to happen.


    ''Shadow blast''


    *Bang*


    "Ugh, I got chunks of snake all over me... actually, I think that this is magma."


    I was about to clean myself when I see the snake leave the cave, which is rather impressive considering that it no longer has a head.


    I follow it and immediately realize two things.


    The first is that this is not outside at all, it''s just an open space big enough that it looked like the outside from where I was before.


    The second is the reason why the snake could still move, it still has seven heads left. That''s not a magma snake, it''s a magma hydra!


    And it seems like it''s about to use that fire beam with all of its remaining mouths at the same time... I should probably stop holding back, there''s nobody around here, and I''m fairly certain that this place can withstand even my stronger spells.


    ''Obliteration blast''


    The combined fire beams hit the sphere of darkness I created but get easily overpowered. When my spell hits the hydra there''s a massive explosion that makes me fall on my butt. It seems like the monster lost five of its heads and the last two took some heavy damage, its body also looks like a mess.


    Still, I''m impressed. The last time I used that spell it destroyed an entire mountain, and yet the magma hydra is still standing.


    ''Obliteration blast''


    But there''s no way that it can survive the second one.


    I have to say, being able to fight without holding back feels surprisingly refreshing. And now that I look around, there''s a lot of monsters around here, all of them at around level 300, it seems like the explosions got their attention.


    50-meter tall humanoid creatures made of stone, dragon-sized bats with their wings on fire, some strange featureless beings that seem to be made of gas, and I think that I see another hydra in the distance.


    I''m all alone in a place that can withstand my full power, surrounded by monsters strong enough to justify using it... I know so many powerful spells that I''ve been too afraid to use, this really seems like the perfect opportunity...


    I put on my ''sky terror cloak'' to manifest my wings without needing to divide my attention to use flying magic. Once I''m in the air I charge at the closest stone creature.


    ''Dimension slash''


    I manifest a blade of mana capable of cutting space itself and sent it flying at the monster. Not only that one gets sliced in half, but also the next three behind it, the blade continues to fly for what I estimate to be another three kilometers before hitting the wall of the cavern and disappearing. Those rocks also seem resistant to this type of attack and my spell had already been weakened by the distance it had traveled, but it still leaves a visible crack.


    The flying monsters are now coming at me from all directions, the bats and the gaseous beings.


    "You''re just making this easier!"


    ''Rain of destruction''


    I raise my hand and send my mana upwards. Two seconds later, hundreds of ''shadow lances'' begin to fall, altering their direction slightly to hit the monsters.


    The bats and the remaining rock monsters got completely obliterated, but the monsters made of gas seem to be impervious to that kind of damage, some of them even manage to get close enough to burn me a little.


    Well, if normal attacks don''t work, I''ll try using curse magic.


    ''Black hex''


    This curse can remove the target''s magic protections, and as I thought, the reason why those things could repeatedly set themselves on fire like that is that they had a protection against fire. Without it, they all get burned out by their own flames.


    But that was just a relatively normal spell, I want to use the strong ones... just as I''m thinking that, I see another group of giant bats approaching, as well as two magma hydras, but these ones seem smaller than the other one... that''s a bit disappointing.


    "Hahaha! Perfect! I needed some more targets!"


    ''Blackhole''


    The stronger version of ''gravity bomb'', my ''black hole'' drags all of the remaining monsters into it, crushing them beyond repair with immense pressure. Only the hydras are able to resist the pull, but they seem to be off-balance, they are vulnerable to another attack.


    "Take this! HAHAHA!"


    ''Obliteration blast''


    ''Obliteration blast''


    ''Obliteration blast''


    "HAHAHA! HA HA! ha ha! ha ha... ha..."


    There are no monsters left in sight, and it seems like the five minutes are up because my wings just disappeared. Huh... what was I doing? I got caught in the moment and started laughing like a maniac, I had underestimated how good it would feel to be able to go all out with my magic. I always hold back a lot so I was not prepared for this...


    This place looks like the scene of a massacre. I feel so embarrassed, it''s a good thing that no one was here to see what I just did or I would never have been able to live it down.


    "Anyway, where should I go next Longleg? Huh, Longleg?"


    Longleg is on my palm and he''s trembling for some reason, I hope that he''s not sick.


    "Ah, I feel better now"


    I didn''t notice because I got caught in the moment, but I actually used around half of my mana back there, that was a lot more dangerous than I thought...


    I had not experienced the feeling of being down in mana since I was a child. Fortunately, I found the leyline that I''m trying to move and it has a lot of dark mana. I took a bit to replenish myself, I hope that they won''t mind.


    The source is near, I can feel it just on the other side of this wall, the sources of a bunch of other leylines are also there, but how can I get through?


    "Over there?"


    Longleg guides me to an opening on the wall, it''s so small that I would not have found it myself.


    Can I even fit in there? Barely, it seems, I somehow manage to squeeze myself through the tight corridor and end up in a large circular room.


    "What is this place?"


    The only other exit seems to be an equally small opening on the opposite side. My goal is right there, I can feel it.


    "GROOOOWL!!!"


    But then I see something really big coming down from above.


    forli


    Then again, this means that Luna will get to meet the devil in chapter 66, which seems more appropriate somehow.

 Chapter 65: First battle

    "GROOOOWL!!!"


    An enormous creature just landed right in front of me.


    "A dragon?"


    No, it might look like a dragon but this is clearly a monster. And to be frank, comparing this thing to the one dragon I know is like comparing a tiger to a house cat.


    First of all, it''s a lot bigger, around 30 meters long I''d say, not counting the tail, I can also sense a very high concentration of mana in its body. It also has a much more monstrous appearance, three pairs of eyes, a deformed mouth that looks half-melted, and a body covered in spikes that point in random directions.


    It can''t be... I remember reading about a monster with that same description in a history book. The ''hell dragon'', a living calamity that appeared a long time ago. It took a group of heroes from multiple kingdoms teaming up to defeat it.


    But the hell dragon from the stories was level 430, and according to my appraisal stone, this one is level... 500! I can''t believe that there was a monster this strong hiding in this place.


    "GROOOOWL!!!"


    "I know, I heard you the first time."


    It''s staring me down, how scary... it looks like I''m staring back at it but I''m actually just not sure of what to do.


    Heh? It turned around, is it going to leave me alone? That can''t...


    "Ah!"


    *Crash*


    Oh, it was only turning around so that it could hit me with its tail. I got sent flying and now I''m not sure of where I am, I think that I got embedded into a wall.


    I only manage to get out just in time to jump out of the way of the next attack. It''s the same fire beam from the hydras only this one is even more intense, it even caused a massive explosion... an explosion breath?


    ''Obliteration blast''


    When I try to counterattack... nothing happens. Why did my spell fail!?


    Ah, it turns out that the hand I tried to cast the spell with is not there, I must have lost it to that explosion just now... and I do need a hand to cast that spell after all. I can make another one easily enough, but this still proves that the hell dragon is capable of hurting me quite badly.


    I now realize that this entire room is a trap, with the only exits being two small gaps in the walls, there''s no way I can crawl my way out while that thing is breathing explosions at me.


    "Huh... this is bad, this monster might be strong enough to be a threat to me, what do you think I should do Longleg? Wait... Longleg!?"


    He''s not here where did he... oh! there he is! He went to the exit, he''s small enough to easily get out after all. Also... it looks like he''s lifting one of his legs... is that supposed to be a thumbs up?


    "DON''T RUN AWAY YOU COWARD!"


    For some reason, the hell dragon stopped moving. Actually, I think that I know why, a bit earlier I decided to put on those gloves that paralyze anyone who attacks the wearer, and it attacked me just know. It''s a shame that I lost one of the gloves along with my hand, I don''t think that the other one will work by itself...


    Huh, it''s starting to move again, the paralysis didn''t last long. If I''m not mistaken this must be what some people call a ''boss'' monster, which means that effects like paralysis are less effective and that it can endure a lot of damage before going down.


    It''s coming! I need to do something fast!


    ''Black wa...''


    I didn''t have enough time to cast my spell, a claw bigger than I am just tore a big chunk of flesh from my shoulder to my leg.


    This monster is much faster and stronger than me... that makes sense, I am a mage, after all, of course I should be keeping my distance from the enemy! How can I fail even at something this basic!?


    No, I know why that is, after only fighting weak enemies I got used to not having to fight like a mage. This is the first opponent close enough to my level to make me need to use even the most basic tactics.


    ''Mana push''


    That spell takes no time at all to cast and it can push the opponent a little while also sending me flying backward. It''s perfect to create some distance.


    Some spells take longer to cast than others, I should be taking the time it will take that monster to close the distance and complete its attack into account when deciding which spell I should be using each time.


    *Ping*


    What!? That noise means that I got a new title or skill, why now?


    I''ll figure it out later, the monster is getting ready to use its explosion breath again, but this time I''m ready.


    ''Black wall''


    As expected, that attack is powerful enough to shatter one of my walls, but it takes long enough to charge for me to be able to make two so there''s no problem.


    That said, the explosion made a lot of smoke and I now I cannot see anything, I can feel the dragon charging at me, it''s probably planning to slash me with its claw again.


    But for some reason, I feel like I can predict its attack. Having seen it move I know its speed, I also know the distance it has to cover, the reach of its claw, the slopes of the ground, the size and positions of all the rocks in this room... I''ve always been obsessed with memorizing all the meaningless details of every single place I go, of everything that happens, I can notice when even the smallest thing is out of place in a room, other people often think that I''m a bit crazy because of it. I certainly never imagined that such a thing could be useful in a fight, or the fact that I''m good with numbers.


    And yet, I think that I might be able to calculate the exact timing and direction of this attack, no, I''m certain of it, is something like that really possible?


    ''Shadow chain''


    "GROOOOWL!!!"


    I did it! My prediction was on point! I caught the claw in midair and chained it to its head. Considering how strong it is, it won''t take long for the dragon to break the chain, but this will give me time for a stronger spell.


    ''Obliteration blast''


    A boss monster can take more damage than what its level would make you think, it won''t be defeated by a single attack, but that clearly did quite a bit of damage.


    Next, it seems like it is about to swing its tail again, I was about to use a spell to block it but... there''s no reason to waste mana. I''ve already seen the speed of that attack, I also know its reach, I know that it will miss if I move just a bit further away.


    Again, I managed to move to the exact spot that would make the tail just barely miss, it''s amazing how precise I can be.


    ''Shadow lance''


    It''s not that I could see it or react to it, I just knew the exact moment when I needed to fire a spell to hit the tail. I had to use a faster but weaker attack, but a point-blank hit to the tip of the tail must have hurt.


    Now it''s trying to stomp me? That won''t...


    "Ouch!"


    Ah, that''s a new attack, it stomped in front of me and fire emerged from the ground.


    That burned a lot of my skin, but it doesn''t matter, I can heal something like that with almost no mana, the damage I took at the start of the fight was also nothing. I''m not only a mage, but I''m also primarily a healer, until now that was not a factor in battle because my enemies couldn''t even hurt me, but the truth is that my healing is far more powerful than my offensive spells.


    But perhaps I should try to figure out if there''s a way to ''heal'' my clothes too, because my dress is gone. I guess I''ll have to fight naked...


    Well, that should not be too hard, I can take damage from an attack when I see it for the first time, but after that, I can include it in my calculations. This ability to perfectly analyze my enemy... is something that I was always capable of doing, I just didn''t know that it could be used in battle.


    I always kept hearing that the best way to learn to fight properly was to get enough practice and experience to be able to develop a ''battle instinct'', but now I understand that that''s not my way of fighting. Something like instinct is better suited for a lowly beast like this one, I''m above that, if anything, the fact that this monster is using instinct to fight is what makes it so easy to predict.


    Huh... I think that I''m letting this get to my head a bit too much. I''m sorry, but this is the first time I''ve been able to look cool when fighting!


    After that I keep countering every one of the hell dragon''s attacks, it never manages to hurt me again. It even tries to use dark magic to curse me, but that doesn''t work on me.


    At this point, it''s clear that it no longer has any chance to win, or rather, it never had a chance from the start. Even if all of its attacks had been successful, I would have only needed a fraction of my mana to heal the damage.


    ''Shadow lance''


    One last attack to the back of its neck finally ends the fight. As I kept fighting, I started to notice a few weak points that I could target to cause a lot of damage without needing to use my stronger spells. Now I feel even more embarrassed about what I did against all of those monsters from before, that way of fighting was so wasteful.


    Well, since that''s done now, I''ll take another dress from my storage and see if I can find that spider.


    "Alright, that should be enough."


    Now that I''ve redirected the leyline I can finally start the journey back. But it seems like this is still not the bottom of the infernal caverns, there''s at least one more room below, and the stairs that lead there actually look manmade...


    But first things first, I want to check my status after all of that.


    Name: Luna


    Race: Elf


    Class: Mage


    Level: 534


    Stats


    Strength: 658


    Speed: 634


    Magic: 2521


    Dexterity: 1882


    Toughness: 865


    Wisdom: 4


    Magic


    Light: 0 (Rank 0)


    Fire: 1 (Rank 1)


    Water: 12 (Rank 3)


    Earth: 8 (Rank 2)


    Wind: 5 (Rank 2)


    Dark: 1207 (Rank 20)


    Skills


    Focused mind


    Self-control


    Fast reading


    Quick casting


    Mana conservation


    Encyclopedic knowledge


    Multi-casting


    Intimidate


    Trap detection


    Battle analysis


    Titles


    Outcast


    Bookworm


    Deranged perfectionist


    Archmage


    Queen of darkness


    Demon lord


    Battle analyst


    Gold explorer


    Level 534... I only got 7 levels since I started traveling and yet I got 20 from these caverns. But I''m probably starting to reach the limit of the bonus from not having fought before so I don''t think that I''ll continue to level up this quickly even if I keep killing monsters in this place.


    Battle analyst


    An individual of great intelligence and extraordinary observation skills who after a long time has fought a battle for the first time


    Grants the battle analysis skill


    Battle analysis


    Allows to use skills of observation, calculation, and tactics in the heat of battle to determine the best course of action at all times


    Oh, so that''s why my fighting skill got so much better all of a sudden.


    But what do you mean ''fought a battle for the first time''!? Do you even know how many monsters I''ve fought already? Why didn''t I get this title until now!? I can think of a few times when that skill would have been useful...


    Gold explorer


    Someone who has been to some of the most difficult to reach places in the world.


    I know about that title, there are also bronze and silver versions of it. You''re supposed to get them after reaching many different ''difficult to reach places'', and gold is the highest one, you''re certainly not supposed to get it directly after reaching only one place. I guess that the bottom of the infernal caverns is really difficult to reach but still...


    So that''s my status as of now, next, I want to check what''s in that last room, I wonder if there are even more monsters.


    ''Mana sense''


    "!!!"


    What was that!? All of a sudden I''m covered by a cold sweat, my blood feels frozen, my whole body is shaking and I''m crying for some reason.


    I didn''t sense any monsters, but there''s something there, or someone... even stronger than the hell dragon I just fought.


    But that''s not what made me react the way I did. There''s also... a thing... I don''t know what it could be, but it is terrifying.


    A thing that should not exist in this world, should not exist anywhere, and yet, it feels very familiar...


    I always thought that if I ever sensed danger like this I would run away without thinking twice. But right now, there''s another part of me that feels even stronger.


    I''ve always been a very curious person, never able to pass on an opportunity to obtain knowledge, that had never been much of a problem until now. I told Arana that I would turn around if there was anything dangerous but...


    "I need to know."


    forli


    Also, I wonder how many action stories there are where the MC doesn''t get into a battle until chapter 65...

 Chapter 66: Vilde

    There''s a wooden door in front of me and the walls are clearly manmade, this place doesn''t look at all like the inside of a cavern at all...


    But as weird as this is, I cannot turn back after coming this far. I gather all of my courage and open the door.


    It looks like a normal room, there''s a table with chairs, a couch, a bookshelf, and in the back there are a bunch of chests full of junk.


    And in the center of the room, a man is standing still staring directly at me. He looks really... red, his skin is red, his horns are light red, his hair is a different shade of red and he''s wearing a dark red cloak. That really looks like how one would imagine the devil looks like.


    "..."


    "..."


    I close the door.


    "I must have imagined that."


    There''s no way that there can be a person living this deep underground, I''m sure that when I open the door again he''ll no longer be there.


    I open the door again and he''s still there.


    "Are you going to come in?"


    "I don''t know."


    He can talk! There''s actually a person living in this place!?


    "Are you the devil?"


    "No, I''m not."


    Ah, good, I was starting to get worried.


    "Then who are you?"


    "I''m just a prisoner in this place, my name is Vilde, it''s a pleasure to meet you."


    "That''s just devil with the syllables switched!!!"


    Is he messing with me?


    "And what do you mean with ''prisoner'', the door was unlocked and there doesn''t seem to be any barriers or seals to stop you from leaving."


    "Oh, the thing that''s keeping me prisoner is far more powerful than a barrier or a seal. It''s a promise."


    "A promise?"


    "I promised to never leave this place, so trapped here I am, and not even the end of the world could get me out."


    Oh, so that''s how it is. I guess all those lords and kings have been wasting their money building prisons and hiring guards if all they had to do was making the prisoners promise to not leave.


    No, wait, the reason why they don''t do that is obviously that the prisoners would just break their promise. He really is messing with me! What level is he anyway? Let me see...


    "What!? You''re level 578!?"


    "Indeed I am. Is that higher than yours by any chance?"


    "Yes, it is! That''s great!"


    "You''re happy that my level is higher?"


    "Yes! I don''t have the highest level in the world! I''m a normal person after all!"


    "No, I''ve only known you for one minute and I already can tell that you are as far away from a normal person as one can possibly get."


    "You didn''t need to be so blunt..."


    "So you defeated that dragon, and yet, you do not look injured or even tired. There was a time when someone as powerful as you would have been called a god. That would have been interesting, we never had a god of darkness."


    What is he talking about? This guy is way too suspicious, and considering his level I would not be able to beat him. I should leave now that I still can.


    "Ah! I''m sorry if I said anything to offend you. Please don''t leave."


    "Sorry, I have to... do stuff... somewhere else."


    "Could it be that you are afraid of me?"


    "It''s nothing personal, but a person who looks like the devil does not feel very trustworthy..."


    "Hahaha, I wish that the world was kind enough to let us all know who we can trust from appearances alone, but that is not the case. The devil does not look like the devil."


    Huh... the truth is that I do not feel any hostility from him. Now that I think about it, being afraid of him just because he''s strong and looks a bit suspicious would make me a hypocrite.


    "Perhaps I could stay for a bit..."


    "Marvelous! I have not had a visitor since... ever, actually. By the way, can I have your name?"


    "Oh, sorry, I''m Luna."


    Vilde guides me into the room and I take a seat next to the table.


    "By the way, earlier I sensed something really scary in this room. Do you have anything dangerous around here?"


    "Dangerous? Not really. At least I don''t have anything that someone like you should be afraid of."


    He has to be lying, there''s no way that he could have something as terrifying as what I sensed and not notice. Does that mean that he''s a bad guy after all?


    "You are not planning to attack me or anything, are you?"


    "Perish the thought! I am a gentleman, I would never fight a lady without her consent! But now that you mention it, perhaps we could have a friendly bout?"


    "No, I don''t like to fight people."


    "Are you sure? You would probably win, I''m quite out of shape after being here for so long."


    "That''s not the problem. I just don''t want one of us to get injured by accident."


    "I see... then perhaps we could have some other type of competition. Do you know how to play chess, by any chance?"


    "Chess? Yeah, I''ve played a few times."


    I learned to play from Arana, she said that she had won some big tournament or something and that she was really good, but after a few dozen games I started to win against her every single time. After that, she didn''t want to play anymore and everybody else was too afraid of me, so I haven''t played in some time. I guess it would be nice to play for a bit.


    "Checkmate"


    "Again!?"


    I lost four out of four games... Arana must have been lying when she said that she was good at chess, this guy is on a whole other league.


    "Don''t feel bad, I have been playing this game for much longer than you."


    "Well, it''s true that I have not played much."


    "So you were saying that you leveled up just from learning magic?"


    "Yes! I didn''t even want to become strong. I got to level 500 without even noticing!"


    "I have to say, that''s hard to believe. To reach such a level with just your own efforts is not something that I thought possible."


    "Then how did you do it?"


    "Well, you see, I just happen to be the manaborn that was formed from the ''seed of fire'', the origin of all fire mana. There were five like me, a long time ago we were known as the gods of the elements."


    "Eh!? Are you saying that you are the god of fire!?"


    He doesn''t look anything like the depictions of the god of fire that I''ve seen, nor does he act like how the god of fire is supposed to. Also, he used the term ''manaborn'', that''s what demons were called 2000 years ago, is he really that old?


    "Hahaha, as I said, that''s just what people said. But they said it with such frequency and conviction that I ended up believing it... I feel so silly thinking about it now." He''s smiling, but he seems a bit sad. "With so much power, us being at the top was the natural order of the world. Perhaps that is the reason why no manaborn formed from the seed of darkness, after all, the dark element is the one that opposes the natural order. And so, it was the power of darkness that finally brought us down."


    "The power of darkness?"


    "Yes, it was one of the world relics, the tools created by the desires of all the living creatures of the world. The first one to be created and the most powerful is the world relic of darkness, the weapon that was used to slay the so called ''gods''. I was the only one who lived, or rather, the only one who was allowed to live."


    Those are the relics that Arana and her sisters are guarding, no? I guess that they are even more powerful than I thought...


    "After a long time, the concept of a ''god'' that people had changed. As I no longer fit the criteria, my title changed from ''god of fire'' to ''king of fire''."


    "Wait! ''King of fire''? That sounds like the ''queen of darkness'' title I have. Don''t tell me..."


    "Yes, back then it would have been ''goddess of darkness''."


    "EEEH!?"


    "And to think that you got it with nothing but your own talent and hard work. Unlike me, your power truly belongs to you and you alone."


    "Oh, I don''t think that it''s correct to say that I did it by myself."


    "No? Why not?"


    "There have been many people who researched magic before me, and they were kind enough to leave the knowledge they obtained written in books. I was only able to reach as high as I did because I had the chance to read those books. So I don''t think that my power belongs only to me."


    "HAHAHA!!!"


    "Hey! Don''t laugh at me!"


    "My apologies. I''m simply astounded by your humility. I have to say, your personality is the exact opposite to what your appearance would suggest."


    "I get that a lot..."


    "Well, that''s a good thing. Far too many great people become rotten from thinking too highly of themselves. As long as you can continue to look at yourself honestly you will never become a villain."


    "I hope so."


    Vilde seems to stop to think for a moment and then takes a look at the other side of the room. There are a lot of chests and crates filled with all manner of strange artifacts.


    "I''ll say... I think that you deserve a prize for making it all the way here. How about you choose something from my collection?"


    "Your collection? Ah! I almost forgot! That horrible thing that I sensed earlier is somewhere among those artifacts, are you sure that you don''t know what it could be?"


    "I really do not know what you could be referring to. Why not take a look around?"


    Take a look around he says, but I have no idea of what any of this stuff is.


    "What is this? A candle that''s already melted?"


    "Oh, those are reverse candles, you light it when it''s melted and the wax will take the form of an unused candle."


    "Why is this book blank?"


    "That''s an aroma book. Instead of using your sight to read it, you smell the pages and you''ll know what''s written."


    "And why does this sword have three hilts?"


    "Because that''s different from most swords."


    "But the extra hilts are pointless."


    "I used to collect things that are unique, not things that have a point."


    This guy is weirder than I thought, is he a hoarder? Well, it seems like there''s only one way to find what I''m looking for, even if I don''t want to do it.


    ''Mana sense''


    "Ugh."


    My body is trembling again, but now I know where that thing is.


    "A mirror?"


    What I find is something that looks like a mirror, but the only thing reflected on it is an ominous dark cloud.


    "Ah, that''s the aura mirror, each person has a unique aura surrounding them and this mirror reflects that instead of... oh! Now I get it! When you used your mana sense, the mirror must have reacted to your mana and it reflected your aura."


    "What? Then the thing I sensed was..."


    "Yes, you were basically sensing yourself."


    No... that can''t be...


    "Then that black cloud..."


    "That''s how your aura would look like if it could be seen."


    "And that horrible feeling I had..."


    "Is how most people probably feel about you, I''m afraid."


    "NOOO!!!"


    The shock makes me fall to my knees. That thing that felt like an unfathomable evil not from this world was me? No wonder everyone is always so afraid... this is much worse than I thought. Is making myself not scary truly impossible after all?


    "Ah, there''s no need to cry, I bet that for most people it doesn''t feel THAT bad."


    "W-why not?"


    "Well, you do hide your aura a bit by acting nice, and just being near you won''t have an impact as big as using mana sense."


    But that doesn''t change the fact that my aura is horrible...


    "I''ve decided, I''m going to take this mirror."


    "Really? What do you want it for?"


    "Training."


    "I don''t think that mirror is something that you can fight."


    "Not for fighting! I mean training to improve my aura!"


    If I can sense my aura then I''ll be able to work on making it less scary. I''m not going to give up without even trying!


    "I see, excellent idea."


    "Well, I should probably be going now."


    "As much as it saddens me to watch you leave, I cannot keep you here forever. But do make sure to come back someday, and if you manage to win a game of chess against me, I will tell you some of the secrets I know."


    forli


    I hope that nobody is angry that the cliff hanger from last chapter was to set up a joke, I saw some people making theories about it.


    You know, I almost forgot that it was Christmas the other day. This year my family did not gather because everybody is afraid of the virus, and there are no decorations or anything on the street. It really does not feel like Christmas at all.

 Chapter 67: A real villain

    -Ranna-


    Since we were with Xania, Arana and I were allowed to enter the town of the gray demons without any trouble. We have been waiting near the southern gate for a few hours, and now, the one we have been waiting for has finally arrived.


    "So that''s the demon king wannabe?" Arana asks me with a sarcastic tone.


    "Yes, that''s Kalroth."


    A group of around 200 armed demons just came through the gate, all of them are really strong looking. Clearly they''re the typical elite force that''s supposed to be really threatening but end up getting easily defeated by the heroes anyway. And yet, you can tell who the strongest one is just by looking at him.


    Red skin, red hair, and red horns, the race of demons he belongs to is rare enough to not even have a name. With the exception of his head, his entire body is covered in bulky black armor, but somehow I can still tell how large his muscles are. He might not be an embodiment of terror like Luna, but the fact he is almost two heads taller than even her, making him tower over his followers, and the look of ''stand in my way and I''ll crush you'' in his eyes, makes him intimidating in a more mundane way.


    Standing next to him there''s a very old orc with a long beard that I remember seeing a few times before. And at the back of the group, there are around two dozen beastkin in chains, all of them carrying a fearful expression.


    Arana taps me on the shoulder.


    "Hey Ranna, is it common for him to take prisoners of war?"


    "Not really... and those do not look like combatants, there are even some children among them. I don''t like how this looks..."


    When Arana heard that Kalroth would be coming back today from raiding the beastkin country, she immediately told us to keep it a secret from Luna. And after that she seemed rather eager to get rid of her, she even went as far as to link Longleg to her... I don''t know what she''s planning, but it cannot be anything good.


    We follow them while making sure to not be seen. They stop in a plaza where Xania had been waiting.


    "My lord. I''m glad to see that you..."


    "Are the rumors true?" Kalroth interrupts Xania''s greeting, looking quite unhappy.


    "I''m sorry, what rumors?"


    "That the queen of darkness has been stealing my subordinates, and that you ran away from her."


    "That''s... that''s true. She was far too strong, my undead army was destroyed completely by her. I''ll need some time to rebuild it."


    "Your army was destroyed?" The old orc has a very unpleasant smile on his face as he joins the conversation. "How convenient, now you have a perfect excuse to not have to fight for lord Kalroth for a while."


    "That''s not it!"


    "If you really fought the queen of darkness and lost, how are you still alive?"


    "Well, I... she..."


    "And, of course, now that you''ve lost your army you''ll be relying on our lord to protect your tribe. Once again you''re trying to take advantage of his power."


    "Of course not! I..."


    Before she could finish talking, Kalroth punched her in the stomach and she fell to her knees. That looked painful.


    "So that''s how it is, you want to take advantage of me, just like everyone else."


    The idea of people taking advantage of him always seemed to make Kalroth unreasonably angry, I wonder what that''s about.


    "Wow Ranna, did you really help a scumbag like that rise to power?" Arana whispers to me.


    "That was only because Felias said that she was planning to kill him anyway, so I didn''t think that he would get far..."


    "Still, would you like an opportunity to make up for your mistake?"


    That sounds suspicious, way too suspicious.


    "What do you want from me?"


    "Not much, just a little help with my assassination plan."


    I knew it! I knew that she was planning something bad!


    "He''s really strong you know. You won''t be able to win against him."


    "Assassination means killing him without fighting, and I have a way to do it."


    "Are you talking about that sword? I guess it might be possible to kill him with that if you catch him off guard, but that won''t be easy, and his guards will kill you as well."


    "Not the sword, this."


    In her palm, there''s a small creature with many legs.


    "A spider? That''s your solution to everything."


    "Indeed, there''s nothing that cannot be done with the right spider. And this one is the right spider to perform an assassination, the black killer."


    "That does not sound familiar."


    "It was not easy to find, this is a very rare and unique spider. Its body is small and weak, it moves slowly, possesses no magic, and is easy to kill, and yet, its level is 141, do you know why? It''s because of its venom and nothing else."


    "A lot of spiders have venom."


    "Yes, but this one''s venom is far stronger, and its bite can pierce anything regardless of the toughness stat. Whoever gets bitten by this will die for sure. Well, except for Luna I guess. And it''s also small and stealthy enough to not get noticed easily, I only need to place it on him and then I can order it to kill him at any time when he''s far away."


    "That''s great, but what does that have to do with me?"


    "I need someone who he considers an ally to get it near him, or else someone of his level would notice the approaching danger."


    "You want me to do it? That''s too dangerous. What if our sisters told him that I changed sides."


    "How could they even do that when you''re the only one who had any contact with him? And they don''t even know that we want to get rid of him anyway."


    "I guess that''s true... but I would feel safer doing this when Luna is around."


    "The entire point of this is doing it when Luna is not around. She could not handle something like this."


    "So that''s why you wanted to get rid of her..."


    "How did you usually give him your advice anyway?"


    "I just showed up, gave some advice, then turn into water and disappear being all mysterious."


    "Well, that''s perfect, here you go."


    She gave me the spider, I don''t feel comfortable holding something so dangerous.


    "Still, there''s no way this will work. A major villain like him cannot be killed in such an anti-climatic way."


    "What are you talking about? Just go already!"


    She pushed me! She actually pushed me! And now everyone has seen me. I stopped listening to them so I don''t know what they have been talking about, but Xania is crying now.


    "Ranna? It''s been some time since you last showed yourself." Uh, now Kalroth has shifted his attention to me. "Do you have something to say?"


    Uh, I need to come up with something fast.


    "I''m here to warn you that the queen of darkness is here and plans to take over your territory. What that girl said was true, you should prepare to deal with her."


    This feels like I''m selling off Luna, but I couldn''t think of anything else and I might get Xania off the hook.


    "Is that so..."


    "If you don''t mind me asking, who are they?"


    Since I''m already here, I''ll ask about the chained beastkin, they have been bugging me all this time.


    "Since I have been turning many of my subjects into soldiers, there''s been a lack of workers lately. So I decided to bring some of our defeated enemies to help."


    "You''re going to turn them into slaves?"


    "If that''s what you want to call it."


    "You know that slavery has been banned in this continent for centuries now, right? The other countries will be outraged."


    "So what? Even if I ignore all of their rules there''s nothing they can do about it; that''s what it means to be the strongest. The only reason why anyone would care about things like morals or rules is that they''re weak."


    He''s even worse than I thought. Unlike Luna, this guy is exactly what his appearance suggests. This is what a real villain is like.


    "Well then, that''s all I have to say."


    The spider jumped at him as soon as I got close enough, so my job is done. I turn into water and go back to Arana. Then he turns to look at Xania again.


    "It looks like you were telling the truth. However, that means that you were defeated in battle again. You remember our deal, correct?"


    "No! Please! I cannot leave my tribe!"


    "I don''t care about your tribe, if you''re too weak to be worth having as a normal subordinate, you''ll have to become a demon lord."


    Is he really saying that she''s ''too weak'' because she lost against Luna? That''s beyond unreasonable.


    "Leave my sister alone!"


    That boy, Rax, just came from nowhere and is standing in front of her sister.


    "Who are you? Her brother?"


    "The queen of darkness is too strong! You could not have beaten her either!"


    "What did you say!?"


    Kalroth grabs Rax''s head and... the bastard smashes it into the ground with enough strength to make him bleed and lose consciousness. When he lifts his boot over him, Xania stops him.


    "Please stop! He''s just a child!"


    "I think that I''ve changed my mind. Perhaps if I take this brat you''ll be motivated enough to kill that so-called ''queen of darkness''."


    "But that''s impossible!"


    "Then I suppose that this boy will have to pay the price for his sister''s weakness."


    After that we leave the town and go back to where Irvan is waiting for us, Arana looks really angry.


    "Agh! I want to kill him so much! But now I cannot do it..."


    "I told you that it would not work."


    "If Kalroth dies after that scene, his goons will think that the gray demons are responsible. I thought that I could just wait for Luna to come back so that she could keep them in check. But if they have Rax with them they will kill him..."


    "Wait, who are you saying that has Rax?"


    Since Irvan was not there, I explain what happened to him.


    "WHAT!? WHICH WAY DID THEY GO!?"


    "I think that they went that way but I don''t..."


    Without even letting me finish talking, he turns around and flies away.


    "What? Where is he going?"


    "Oh, now that I think about it, Irvan played together with Rax for a bit back at the fairy village and they seemed to get along quite well."


    Is that so? But I don''t see what he thinks that he''s going to accomplish...


    Wait... I know what this is. This is the part when the protagonist is not around so until they come back the secondary characters try to fight the bad guy and get beaten one after another.


    Which is probably not a good thing for Irvan...


    forli


    Now I''m going to complain about petty nonsense so feel free to skip this.


    I got number 1 on trending the other day, I have no idea how since I had only released a single normal chapter. And just like every other time my story has been on trending I got a 1-star rating rather quickly, all the other 1 stars I''ve gotten for being on trending before got removed after a few days, but I''m never sure of when one is going to stick. That sucks because it makes me feel like being on trending is not necessarily a good thing...

 Chapter 68: Dragon to the rescue

    -Irvan-


    Those cowards! They are taking advantage of the fact that my mistress is not here to do whatever they want!


    Well, if that''s how it is then as the second strongest it is my duty to teach those bastards a lesson. To think that they would threaten to kill Rax... a kid that likes dragons can only be a good kid, I won''t let them get away with this!


    Since they are a rather large group it wasn''t difficult to find them. At the moment they are walking next to a very strange forest; not only is it strange to see a forest in the middle of this wasteland, but the way the trees just abruptly stop seems unnatural.


    Now, how should I do this? If I take the risk of using my ''burning blood'' skill I might have a small chance of winning against their boss, but that is only if he fights by himself. There''s just no way that I can win against that many strong demons. Perhaps I should try to just fly in, grab him and fly away before any of them realize what I''m doing, but they don''t seem like the type to get easily distracted, and dragons are not exactly known for being stealthy.


    Before I can think of a better plan, a wind spell hits my left wing causing me to fall down. With a beat of my wings, I manage to stop myself from hitting the ground too hard, only to be confronted by four of the demons I had been following.


    "So you noticed that I had been following you."


    "You... you have been flying in circles above us for five minutes. How could we NOT notice?"


    Oh... well, as I said dragons are not exactly known for being stealthy.


    ''Shadow chain''


    I know this spell quite well, but this one feels incredibly weak compared to when my mistress uses it. I could probably break the chains with just brute strength, but not before the two demons that just charged me stab my head with their spears. Are they really just going to try to kill me without even saying another word? In that case, I suppose that I don''t need to hold back.


    *Click*


    "What?"


    "Where did he go?"


    Seeing me disappear into thin air and the chains fall to the ground, my two attackers start looking around with a dumb look on their faces. Of course, my human transformation is way faster than that of any other dragon, almost instantaneous, so their confusion is understandable.


    Before they can realize what happened, I run to their side and turn back into a dragon. From this position, there''s no way for them to avoid my tail sweep, so they both get sent flying for around 30 meters.


    ''Hurricane''


    The wind mage that knocked me from the sky is now trying to push me back, but something like this is nothing more than a breeze to me. A single smack with my claw is all it takes to bring him down, now there''s only the dark mage left.


    ''Shadow lance''


    How weak... no, that did actually hurt a little, but after meeting my mistress every other dark mage is obviously going to feel underwhelming.


    Just when I was about to knock him out as well, I notice around a hundred or so demons threatening me with various weapons and spells. Huh... I''m starting to think that I should not have come here by myself...


    That large man that I assume to be their boss steps forward, sending the unconscious wind mage flying with a kick.


    "Well then, what exactly is a dragon doing in a place like this."


    "Are you Kalroth?"


    "So you''ve heard of me... in that case, you don''t seem to be afraid enough."


    "Why should I be afraid of you? I am a servant of the queen of darkness. You don''t feel very impressive compared to her."


    "The queen of darkness you say? How convenient. Some people have been saying some nonsense about her being stronger than me, I would like to hear your opinion."


    After he makes a gesture to an attendant, he hands him an enormous war hammer. He slams it on the ground, using some skill to increase the strength of the impact and causing an earthquake that makes some of the demons fall over.


    After the dust settles, I can see that a deep crack has been formed on the ground, going on for a few hundred meters.


    "So? Do you still think that she''s stronger?"


    "Yes, she is. It''s not even close, really."


    That seems to have angered him, even though I was only telling the truth. Seeing him stare at me while gritting his teeth makes me think that he''s not very good at intimidating people, my mistress tends to be scarier on accident.


    "Well then... if you still think that I''m weak after seeing that, there''s only one way left for me to change your mind. All of you! Step back!"


    Does he want to fight me? Why? Even if he beats me, it won''t prove that he''s stronger than my mistress.


    Well, if he wants to give me a chance to get out of this situation I''m not going to complain. He seems far stronger than me, but if his class is warrior and he uses a melee weapon I can try to fly high enough to be out of his reach... uh? I was expecting him to stop me, but he just let me get away.


    ''Ranged strike''


    I see him swing his hammer above him, hitting nothing, and yet, I feel a strong impact on the side of my head... that hurts!


    I''ve heard about ''ranged strike'' before, a very rare and powerful warrior skill. To be able to hit something that he didn''t hit... not only is it unfair, but it doesn''t even make sense!


    I crash right next to a bunch of chained beastkin, just outside the weird forest I saw earlier. Rax is also here looking at me with worry... uh, this is shameful.


    Kalroth approaches and gets ready for another strike. This is bad, if he attacks from that angle he might hurt Rax. As I thought, I have no choice but to use ''burning blood''... I need to start another conversation to gain some time.


    "You bastard... so it was true that you''re planning to turn some beastkin into slaves!?"


    "Do you have a problem with that?"


    "I think that a lot of people would have a problem with that?"


    "So what? I can do whatever I want even if others don''t like it. That''s what it means to be the strongest."


    What is this guy talking about? Of course, the strongest can do whatever they want, but ''can'' and ''should'' are two completely different things. Anyone ''can'' do a lot of stuff like rolling around in manure or putting a wasp nest in their pants, but not a lot of people do it.


    There''s something about this guy that feels really disgusting... now that I think about it, the elder dragons often got angry whenever I went around bragging about my strength, and I never understood why. Could it be that they were afraid of me becoming like him?


    ''Hyper crusher''


    Kalroth uses some powerful attack, but it''s too late now. ''Burning blood'' has already activated, boosting all of my stats by 50%. It seems like he was not expecting my sudden increase in speed, so I manage to send him flying with a full-body tackle.


    However, this skill is called burning blood for a reason... I won''t be able to use it for long before my body gets destroyed from the inside, just activating it at all is dangerous.


    "You bastard! ''Ranged strike''!"


    Uh... I was planning to grab Rax and run away with my extra speed before he could recover, but he managed to land on his feet and didn''t fly all that far. With my increased toughness, his attack does not hit as hard as before, but it staggers me long enough for him to get close again.


    I try to stomp on him a few times and he responds with his hammer. Even with the extra strength, I''m still losing, and there''s no way that I can keep this up for long.


    "I cannot do this... please mistress! Help me!"


    At that moment, I feel something strange coming from below me.


    "Ah!"


    "What is this!?"


    "Help!"


    All the demons start screaming as an enormous mass of dark mana emerges from the ground. Did my mistress hear me? No, that''s not it. This is... could this be that leyline that she was supposed to move?


    Everybody has been paralyzed by the dark mana suddenly hitting their bodies, even me and Kalroth, but it looks like Rax was just barely out of range. After a few seconds, I become able to move a little so I take the chance to break the chain that was binding the kid. I attempt to grab him and fly away, but I''m stopped by Kalroth grabbing my tail.


    "Run! Into the forest!" I tell him.


    "But..."


    "Go!"


    He''s going... I managed to help him escape after all.


    "What are you doing!? Chase after that brat!" Kalroth yells to his subordinates.


    A group of demons enters the forest after Rax, but catching him might prove more difficult than they expect. I finally remember what those strange trees are; that''s one of the magic forests where elves live. Finding anyone in there is not going to be an easy task.


    Still, my mistress is amazing! To think that she planned to redirect the leyline here to make it possible for Rax to escape, it must have taken some time for the mana to reach the surface, so she must have planned this in advance. And she did it even though there was no way for her to know where we would be... or when we would be here... or that a random surge of dark mana would help us at all... or that Rax was even going to get kidnapped in the first place...


    My mistress is amazing!


    Now, I can''t wait to see how she planned to get me out of this as well... is the last thought that goes through my head before a war hammer hits the side of my body with tremendous power.


    forli

 Chapter 69: Back outside

    As I had already beaten most of the monsters in the way and I used the same route, the trip back was much faster and easier than going in. Still, when you think about it, it''s strange how quickly I got used to treating even incredibly strong monsters as nothing more than minor annoyances ever since I found out what my level was. Not long ago I would have been terrified of facing even a weak one.


    "Ah, I''m finally back outside."


    It feels nice to breathe some fresh air after the constant smell of sulfur in those caverns. Instead of monsters, I can see some birds flying in the sky, a rabbit is looking at me from a hole, and the skeleton of some large animal is running right at me.


    *Chomp*


    Mmm, I think that someone is moving this thing with ''corpse puppet'', its jaws are big enough to fit my entire head inside. When the mouth opens again I see the one responsible.


    "Xania! I was not expecting you to be waiting for me here. I shifted that leyline like I said I would."


    "You really did it... thank you."


    *Chomp*


    "So, could you tell me what this thing is and why you''re making it bite me?"


    "It''s the skeleton of a dragon, it''s the only thing that I can use against you."


    A dragon? Now that she mentions it, it does look a bit like a dragon... I didn''t realize because it''s missing the wings.


    *Chomp*


    "Xania! How could you do something so horrible!?"


    "I''m sorry, I have no choice..."


    As she says that, she winks at me and subtly points behind her. What is she trying to tell me?


    "No choice? I know that he could be really annoying at times, but he was a good person deep down. I don''t know what stupid thing he did, but you didn''t need to go as far as killing him!"


    *Chomp*


    "Killing...? Wait, you think that this is your dragon? This is just a skeleton I found some time ago."


    "Oh, don''t'' scare me like that. So why did you want to show it to me?" *Chomp* "And could you please stop making it bite my head? It doesn''t hurt much and I can heal immediately, but it''s still a bit annoying."


    "Annoying? I''m trying to kill you!"


    "Eh!?"


    Kill me? That doesn''t make any sense. Even if this thing was strong enough to kill me, which it clearly is not, I could just take control of her magic, she should know that by now.


    She''s pointing behind her again... looking in that direction, I think that I just saw a small head peeking from inside a rock. She said that she had no choice didn''t she... could someone be forcing her to attack me?


    Pushing the dragon skeleton aside, I walk to the rock, lift it above my head and start shaking. A fairy dressed in orange falls from the bottom, passing through solid matter, is that an earth fairy? It seems like the shaking made her all dizzy. As soon as I drop the rock she tries to fly away, but I catch her with my hands.


    "Let me go!"


    "Luna! Don''t let her use a spell!" Xania yells at me, I don''t know what she''s afraid of, but I guess I''ll use ''mana corrosion'' to prevent this fairy from using magic.


    "Xania, could you please explain what''s going on?"


    "I''m sorry to ask you for help again, but my master... Kalroth. He took Rax and threatened to kill me if I didn''t kill you."


    "Really? Even though you were so loyal to him, what an ungrateful boss you have. But you say that you''re going to ask for my help again? Does that mean that you''re going to take my side?"


    "At this point, my only two choices are to either kill you or join your side. I think that I''d rather take the option that does not require me to do something impossible."


    Xania tells me about what happened after Kalroth came back from the beastkin country. It seems like she was put in a difficult situation.


    Well, regardless of her reasons, I''m glad that she finally decided to turn against that awful master of hers. Hurting and kidnapping a small boy, capturing people to turn into slaves... I''m getting angry just thinking about it, I''ll have to teach him a lesson when I get my hands on him.


    "I told you to let me go! Ouch!" The fairy just bit my finger, but it seems like she''s the one who got hurt. "What are you going to do with me...?" And after looking at me in the eyes she suddenly got scared.


    "I don''t know. Xania, who exactly is this?"


    "She was supposed to keep an eye on me. She has a spell that can send a message to a long distance."


    Oh, so she told me to stop her magic so that she could not warn anybody. Well, I guess I''ll have to think of a plan to rescue a hostage, I don''t know if I''ll be any good for something like that... but before that, there was a really loud noise somewhere nearby just now, and I can see a large dust cloud, I wonder what that was.


    "You know, you''re lucky that you fell so close to where I was. If I didn''t heal you, you probably would have died."


    It turns out that the loud noise what the dragon smashing into the ground. Now that I''ve confirmed that he''s alive, I''ll no longer need to be suspicious of Xania.


    It seems like he tried to rescue Rax and got into a fight with that Kalroth guy. He got beaten up quite badly, and then he got sent flying a long distance. Most of his bones were broken when I found him.


    "Mistress... to think that you were even able to calculate the area where I would land. You are even more amazing than I had imagined!"


    "What are you talking about?"


    Still, he put himself in danger to save that kid, I was not expecting such a noble act from him...


    "I''m sorry mistress, I could not escape with the boy. He''s still in danger as we speak."


    "Don''t worry Irvan, you did well enough."


    "You said my name!"


    I know that I decided to not use his name if he wasn''t going to use mine, but I suppose that he''s earned it just this once.


    "Then, you said that my brother ran into an elf forest?" Xania joins the conversation after locking the defeated looking fairy in a cage.


    "Yes, but some of the demons went after him. I''ll take you there!"


    "No, you''re in no condition to fly. Even if I could heal your broken bones quickly, the internal damage you took will take some more time. That skill you used was quite dangerous."


    "How are we going to find my brother in that magic forest? Anyone who''s not an elf always gets lost in those places."


    Why is she asking that?


    "Uh, I think that you''ll be fine if you go with me."


    "Really mistress? I know that the elves can ask the trees to show them the way, but for anyone else, they will move around to block the way. Do you have a plan for that?"


    Is he serious? I point at my ears and realization hits them. Did these two really forget that I was an elf?


    "Oh, that''s right," says Xania. "Normally, seeing an elf outside of a forest would be quite noteworthy. But in your case, the fact that you''re an elf is not even in the top ten most noteworthy things about you so I forgot..."


    I guess I can''t blame them, I also forget that I''m an elf at times.


    An elf forest... normally I would not want to set foot in such a detestable place, much less ask the trees there for help, but I need to find Rax before the demons. I''ll just go in, find him, and get out as quickly as possible. I just hope that I won''t run into any elves...


    "Mistress, are you sure that you don''t want me to carry you? Are you not in a hurry?"


    "Don''t worry, we can get there quickly enough by using this."


    When we left the Agua kingdom, we took a small detour to find Ranna''s car and I placed it in my storage. It seems like it might become useful now.


    "What is this vehicle?" Xania seems to be interested.


    "It''s something called a ''car'', it moves by using fire mana to create small explosions that cause those wheels to spin. It was made in a country from the north continent named ''Mekria''. According to Ranna, that place is known as ''the country of machines''. People there use almost no magic at all, instead, they use mana to power all kinds of contraptions."


    "I had never heard of such a place..." She seems to be rather surprised. "I guess that makes sense, very few people know anything about the other continents."


    I don''t even know much about this continent so I won''t say anything about that.


    "But a vehicle that moves with explosions seems dangerous" Xania seems concerned. "Are you sure that you know how to control it?"


    "Eh... don''t worry. I''ll figure it out as we go."


    forli


    Now I''m free once again, so here''s a chapter. I hope you liked it.

 Chapter 70: Elven forest

    "Luna! Watch out! WATCH OUT!"


    The car goes over a cliff at full speed, but before we begin to fall I use a mana push to send it back to solid ground. Xania looks like she''s going to turn into a white demon, you''d think that with all the times this has happened she would have gotten used to it by now.


    "Am I still alive? How am I still alive?"


    "You''re exaggerating, it wasn''t that bad."


    "Yes it was! We keep crashing into every obstacle we come across, and I don''t think that this vehicle is designed to constantly jump like this... it looks like it''s going to fall apart at any moment..."


    "Perhaps I would need some more practice... at least you have to admit that I got a lot better after figuring out that this other pedal makes the car slow down."


    "That feels like something you should have known from the st- EEK!"


    Xania''s line gets interrupted when a bump on the road sends us flying once again.


    "Please! No more! I want to get off this thing already!" She has tears in her eyes even though she always tries to act tough. I cannot help but feel bad for her.


    "I understand how you feel, you want to rescue your brother as quickly as possible. Don''t worry, I''ll speed up as much as possible!"


    "No! That''s not what I... AAAAH!"


    At this speed, we reach the forest in no time, but I cannot stop in time and we end up crashing against a tree. A big piece of the front of the car broke off, and now that I look, the car seems to be busted in quite a few places... I hope that Ranna doesn''t get angry, I''ll place it back in my storage for now.


    "Hey, Xania, are you alright?"


    She''s standing on her feet and looks fine, but she''s not moving, and somehow I think that I can almost see her soul coming out from her mouth.


    "Don''t you want to search for your brother?"


    "Ah!"


    Xania took a deep breath; did she manage to suck her soul back inside?


    Alright, I don''t enjoy doing this, but I guess I''ll have to ask the trees to tell me if they know where I can find a young gray demon.


    ''That way''


    Well, that was easy. The red tree moves one of its branches with incandescent leaves to point in the direction where Rax is.


    "What''s with that tree? It looks like it''s on fire."


    "That''s a tree that absorbed fire mana from an elf. Have you never seen a magic forest before?"


    "No, my town is nearby but I''ve never seen this forest before."


    "This is not a normal forest. The trees and plants in this place can be influenced by the mana of elves and change their appearance depending on the element. I have only visited one of these places once before, that I remember. I was probably born in one too."


    Fire trees are red and look like they are on fire, water trees are blue and wet, wind trees are very light and swing a lot in the breeze, earth trees almost look like they are made of rocks, and light trees actually emit their own light.


    Xania is looking around with amazement. "So this is a magic forest... wait, something is wrong with that tree."


    The normal tree closest to me is starting to change. The wood becomes a purple color and becomes twisted, black sap begins to ooze from a few holes, and the branches become thin and take the appearance of tendrils with black leaves at the end.


    "What happened? I never thought that a tree could look so... evil."


    "That''s what a tree with the dark attribute looks like, it must have taken my mana... elves usually call them ''cursed trees''"


    "Cursed? So this is a bad thing?"


    "No, it''s the same as all the other trees. But because it looks so scary, there are a lot of superstitions about it. And since the dark attribute is extremely rare among elves, the few that are born with it are exiled as babies."


    "What? Is that the reason why you were sent away?"


    "That''s supposed to be it, but there might be something else to it..."


    We walk for a bit in the direction the tree pointed at until we hear the sound of a tree falling.


    A group of demons is fighting against two elves, all of them seem to be using the wind element to cut down the trees. The elves are jumping on the treetops while shooting arrows from their bows, they could not be any more stereotypical if they tried...


    It''s clear that the elves are outclassed as well as outnumbered, the only reason why this is a fight at all is the assistance of the trees. They are bending their trunks and moving their branches to both attack the demons and protect the elves, as well as releasing the magic stored inside them. Even with that, the demons are still winning, and they look bloodthirsty. If I don''t do anything those elves are going to die.


    ''Shadow bind''


    Since they are spread out I only manage to catch three of them with my first spell.


    "Hey! There''s another elf over there."


    A blue-skinned demon swings a sword at me, it seems like he''s using wind mana to make it sharper, but now that I have the ''battle analysis'' skill there''s no way that it will hit me, I grab his wrist with my hand to stop his attack, and now that I''m touching him, I use ''paralysis'' to immobilize him.


    ''Wind spear''


    Another blue-skinned demon, a female this time, tries to use magic against me, but ''battle analysis'' tells me that this attack is too weak to do any damage so I don''t even bother defending. She jumps behind a tree, and the next moment, a bunch of copies of her start spreading around.


    "Are those illusions?"


    Light magic can be used to create visual illusions, and darkness can affect the mind directly. But there''s no question that the best element for illusion magic is wind. Air is the medium that carries light, sound, and smell, controlling it allows one to manipulate what other people experience.


    But this mage does not seem to be very good at it, her illusions are too obvious, too full of imperfections. I walk straight to the real one, who looks at me with a mix of terror and surprise, I touch her to use ''paralysis'' on her as well.


    The last demon seems to have been restrained by the trees. The two elves jump down and approach me, a man with brown hair and a blonde woman, which means that their elements are earth and light respectively.


    "Thank you for..." The woman stops talking for a moment when she sees my face, her eyes open wide. "You''re a dark elf..."


    "Don''t say that as if we were not of the same race..."


    "You... you''re not supposed to be here, you need to leave."


    She wants me to leave, is it because I''m a ''dark elf'' or because she''s afraid of me? Probably both.


    "You''re going to tell her that after she just saved your lives?" Xania, who had stayed away until now, approaches us with an angry expression.


    "We''re thankful for that. But she''s not allowed to enter this forest, I''m very sorry, but that is the law. We will execute these invaders and then we will lead you out of here."


    "You''re not going to execute anybody, I''ll place a curse of weakness on them so that they won''t cause more trouble, so don''t worry. And we''re looking for her brother, we''re not leaving until we find him. You two go back to your village."


    The elves look at me like they want to say something, but they don''t. "Very well." At least they''re doing as I told them.


    After cursing the demons and letting them go, I''m alone with Xania again.


    "Why did you help those elves?"


    "What do you mean? The demons were clearly the bad guys here, they were trying to kill them and destroy the forest."


    "That''s not what I mean. The elves exiled you from their forest just because of your element, don''t you hold a grudge against them? You also helped me after I tried to kill you, are you trying to become a saint or something?"


    "Is that a weird thing to do? I have all of this power that, honestly, I don''t really think I deserve. I don''t think I have any excuse to let someone die when it''s so easy for me to save them. And look at you, you went from trying to kill me to becoming my ally. Holding grudges is clearly not the way to make people change their minds about me."


    "Still, this is not normal..."


    "You also seem to be misunderstanding something. The elves did me a favor when they exiled me."


    "A favor?"


    "How much do you know about elven culture?"


    "Pretty much nothing."


    Oh! It''s nice to be the one who knows more about this type of stuff for once.


    "The magic forest provides the elves with everything they need. Food, shelter, protection, cures for their illnesses... it can even prolong their lifespans. But there''s a really big catch."


    "A catch?"


    "The mana that we have inside of us is transformed by our every thought and action, this is true for all races, including the elves. In order to make their mana optimal for the forest, an elf has to follow a very specific lifestyle. Do not leave the forest, do not learn any magic or skills except for what the forest wants you to learn, do not get any hobbies or learn a forbidden profession, you are not even allowed to read books, as obtaining knowledge can also alter your mana, and that''s only a few of the rules... there are many more that I don''t even know. The more closely an elf follows the rules, the more they will be rewarded by the forest. For example, elves live slightly longer lives than other races on average and look young for most of them, but an elf that follows the rules can get to live for several centuries... What a joke, what''s the point of having a long life if you are not allowed to do anything with it?"


    "And even with all of that, do all of them chose to stay in the forest?"


    "Not all, but most. That''s why I''m glad that I was exiled, it scares me to think what my life would have been if I had grown up in such a society, my existence could have been as pointless as theirs. In such a conformist environment, it''s no wonder that so many elves have the light element and so few are dark."


    I cannot help but wonder if that''s the real reason why ''dark elves'' are exiled, after all, it''s not impossible to change the attribute of small children by educating them a certain way. But the dark element is the desire to change things, to make the world as we want it to be, it''s possible that our mere presence here could be seen as a threat to this flawless utopia of theirs.


    forli

 Chapter 71: The forest in danger

    "Hey Luna, are you sure that you know where my brother is?"


    "I don''t know where he is exactly, but this should be the right direction."


    The only problem is that when I asked the trees they told me that the village is also that way. I hope that we find Rax before reaching it or things might get complicated.


    "Sis!"


    "Rax!"


    A young boy comes running at us from the trees. Xania seems happy to find her brother safe, she tries to step forward to meet him, but I don''t let her get past me. The boy stops in front of me and looks up at my face, I crouch slightly and then punch him on the stomach sending him flying until he crashes against a tree.


    "Eeeh!?" Xania watches in shock as her ''brother'' falls on his back, reverting to the usual blue-skinned and lanky body of a shapeshifter.


    "That was a shapeshifter?"


    "You couldn''t tell? You were working with one of them before and he was trying to impersonate your brother."


    "But that transformation was perfect. How could you tell?"


    "Perfect? He didn''t look anything like Rax. The eyes were half a millimeter higher, the ears were a full millimeter shorter, the nose was a bit less pointy..."


    "Ok, ok, I get it. You never let anything less than perfection get past you."


    Wind mages, illusionists, and shapeshifters. Are the demons that entered the forest some kind of spy squad? Well, if that was the best that they can do there''s no way that any of them will be able to trick me, at least not if they transform into someone I know. I guess I''m good at detecting illusions.


    A few minutes later we run into another two elves.


    "Are you the one who''s been helping us against those invaders? We would like to invite you to our village."


    I throw a punch at their faces with each of my hands and both shapeshifters get knocked out at the same time.


    Are these guys even trying? I know that I said that they needed to transform into someone I don''t know, but there''s no way that a real elf would invite me to their village or even talk so casually to me in the first place.


    Still, punching them when they looked like that was oddly satisfying... Uh, that''s not something that I should be thinking.


    I ask the trees once again if they have seen Rax. I hope that they cannot be deceived by shapeshifters; I don''t think that they can.


    "Xania, there''s a problem. It seems that your brother is in the elf village."


    "That''s better than the demons catching him. Do you think that they won''t give him back to us?"


    "They will if I''m insistent enough, don''t worry. But I don''t want to go there at all. I guess at least we don''t need to hurry anymore."


    I signal Xania to stop with my hand.


    "Is something wrong?"


    "There''s a demon ahead. He made himself invisible with some magic, did he think that I would not notice him?"


    "Most people tend to not notice things that are invisible..."


    The demon throws two objects at us, I can sense some wind magic on them. Both me and Xania manage to duck in time to avoid them, which is a good thing because several trees get cut down when the weapons fly back to their owner.


    A figure wearing a dark green cloak materializes after turning off his invisibility. Now I can see what he has on his hands, are those boomerangs? That''s an unusual weapon.


    "Luna, I''ve seen that guy before, I think that he''s a demon lord. Watch out, he could be dang... what am I saying, you''re Luna, of course he''s not dangerous."


    "Xania, so you have decided to betray us." He says.


    "I think that it would be more accurate to say that you are the ones who betrayed me."


    "That woman next to you. Is she the so-called ''queen of darkness''? Her intimidation skill is certainly strong, but it won''t work on me."


    Intimidation skill? What is he talking about? I''m not doing anything.


    "Just so you know, there''s no way that you can beat her," Xania warns him with an exasperated tone. The cloaked demon turns to look at me and we make eye contact for the first time.


    "S-stop that! I told you that it''s not going to work! If you are trying so hard to intimidate me it must mean that you must not be all that strong."


    "I''m not trying to intimidate you. All I''m doing is standing here."


    Without saying another word, he throws his boomerangs at me. With my new skill, I can actually predict their trajectory, I wonder if I can catch them with my hands...


    I place one of my hands in front of one of the flying weapons, but it cuts my fingers in half, those things are sharper than I thought. I see a smile on the demon''s face, but it disappears the next moment as my fingers stop falling and move upwards instead, getting reattached to my hand.


    Next, he aims for my face. If I''m not mistaken, those things are only sharp on the edges. If I can grab them from the right angle and with perfect timing, I think that I won''t get cut. I can at least calculate the correct place and time, will I be able to do it?


    ...


    No, I wasn''t able to do it. Both of the boomerangs hit my face head-on, but at least they couldn''t get past my skull. It seems like my body is just not fast enough to keep up with my mind.


    "I see..." My spells are much faster and more precise. As expected, a mage should focus on magic to fight after all.


    "What do you mean you ''see''? You have those things going through your eyes..." Xania''s voice sounds defeated for some reason. She seems to be following the same pattern as Nera of just giving up after getting to know me for a while.


    "I didn''t mean that literally."


    The boomerangs vanish and appear again in the hands of the demon, is that a skill to recover one''s weapons? When he sees my eyes regenerate in an instant he stares at me looking like he doesn''t know what to do.


    "Use that attack again."


    "I... I give up, I don''t..."


    "Use that attack again, please."


    "Yes! Please spare my life!"


    Why is he so scared about me asking him to do something? I even said please.


    This time I''ll use a small mana push to stop the attack. A mana push is nothing more than using one''s raw mana to create a force, it doesn''t even count as a spell so I''ve not even considered using it in battle until now. I know that many other mages use it for its casting speed so I should have probably tried this sooner.


    The boomerangs are sent back. I was only planning to stop them, but it seems like I used a bit more strength than necessary and they end up piercing the ground right in front of the demon, who falls on his butt.


    I walk to him slowly, so that he doesn''t get even more scared than he already seems to be.


    "Thank you for helping me test a few things. I don''t need you anymore."


    He fainted... didn''t Xania say that this guy was supposed to be a demon lord?


    Xania gets closer and looks at him with a thoughtful expression.


    "These guys seem a bit too much just to capture my brother, and they also attacked those elves. Are they trying to take over the forest? But why would anyone want to do such a thing? Is a lot of work for very little reward."


    "Maybe that Kalroth guy wants to control all of the demon wasteland?"


    "That could be... if that''s the case, you might have saved this forest by defeating these guys."


    "I''m not sure if that''s a good thing."


    If I''m honest, I really do not like this place. The way that other elves treat me makes me want to hate them back, and their way of living stands against everything I believe in. But I know that hatred never leads to anything good, I need to stay rational and not let my emotions get the better of me.


    It''s just that... I actually think that getting rid of this forest would be doing them a favor. If they were forced to leave they would get to experience what freedom feels like, perhaps then they would consider changing their ways.


    Uh, just thinking about that makes me feel like a part of me is going away from my body. Of course, that''s all only my personal opinion. It would be far too arrogant of me to assume that my way of living is the correct one, and it''s not like the elves are hurting other people by staying in their forests. I have no right to force others to change their ways, and those demons have even less of a right. I won''t let them destroy this forest.


    "Luna..." Xania taps me on the shoulder and points at some trees that are being transformed into dark trees. It seems like a bunch of my mana just expanded around me. So that''s what I felt leaving my body.


    Now that I look around, the trees that already had an element are unchanged, but there''s a lot of normal trees being transformed, further than I can even see. What''s really weird is that some strange purple fruit the size of my head seems to be growing from those trees.


    "What is that?"


    Some of the fruits fall to the ground, and from inside, small monsters come out. They look just like the imps I summon.


    "Luna, is that supposed to happen?"


    "No, I''ve never heard about anything like this..."


    A couple of imps run to another normal tree and start biting it. The tree then transforms into a dark tree and fruit begins to grow on it as well.


    When I look around again, I see hundreds of imps running around everywhere. What''s going on here?

 Chapter 72: Dark elf

    A mysterious horde of dark creatures is invading the elven forest. They infest the magic trees to multiply themselves, turning them to the dark element, changing the very nature of the forest.


    I don''t know who the creator of these monsters is or what they are trying to accomplish, but their mana feels similar to mine, and they look a lot like the imps I can make. They also seem to originate from the area I''m in.


    "This is bad, if someone sees me here they''re going to think that I''m the one who did this."


    "You ARE the one who did this! Don''t try to play dumb!" Uh... if Xania is going to expose me like that then my plan of pretending that I don''t know what''s going on is not going to work.


    But then what am I supposed to do? Those stupid imps are not listening to me, and for some reason, I cannot dispel them like usual.


    Now my reputation, and by extension, the reputation of dark elves is going to get even worse... It wasn''t enough for my imps to be useless, now they have actually reached negative levels of usefulness.


    "Is this really a bad thing?"


    "What do you mean?"


    "Well, they only seem to be turning the normal trees, and you said earlier that dark trees will help elves in the same way as the other trees. So what''s the problem?"


    Xania has a point. In the end, the only thing that will change is that there will be more magic trees protecting the forest. Even if the elves call them ''cursed trees'' they might change their mind after having them around for a while, and it''s not like they''re going to lose the trees of the other elements.


    *munch munch*


    I turn around to see a group of imp biting one of the earth trees.


    "WHAT ARE YOU DOING!?"


    The imps are not supposed to be intelligent or have free will, right? It''s starting to feel like they can tell what I''m thinking and will do everything they can to annoy me.


    Let''s not panic, with how weak the imps are, it''s going to take them a while to do any real damage to the trees. I need to analyze the situation calmly and come up with a solution.


    "Hey Luna, look. There''s a group of elves coming this way." Looking in the direction where Xania is pointing I see the elves trying to hunt down the imps, how did they get here so quickly!?


    It seems like there''s no time to analyze the situation calmly, let''s use violence instead.


    ''Shadow needle''


    A weak spell is all it takes to destroy one of the imps. The creature then merges with the mana of my spell and takes the shape of a ball, then the ball splits into two smaller balls that then take the form of two imps.


    "..."


    My imps can get killed instantly by any attack... Except for my magic, apparently.


    "Look! It''s the dark elf! She''s making more of them!"


    And the elves saw me doing that. Of course they did.


    "Tell your minions to stop infesting the forest! Otherwise, we''ll... uh... please tell them to stop." One elf starts yelling at me, but after taking a look at me he seems to become a lot less forceful.


    "They''re not my minions, I don''t know where they''ve come from."


    The elf looks confused. "But we just saw you..." He stops talking for a moment when he looks up, I look down, and our eyes met. "Yes! Of course! These are not your minions at all!"


    A girl that was standing behind him pushes him aside. "We just saw you making more of those things, we won''t be intimidated so easily!"


    Even if she says that her body is shaking and she''s avoiding eye contact with me.


    "Alright, it''s true that I made those imps. But it was an accident! I''m trying to make them stop but they''re not listening to me."


    "How stupid do you think we are..."


    "This time I''m telling the truth! I swear!"


    While I''m thinking of a way to make them believe me, Xania grabs another elf by the collar and starts shaking him.


    "Hey, you! Do you know if there''s a young gray demon boy in your village?"


    "I... I think I heard that someone like that had been taken to the village."


    "What!? What do you mean ''taken''!?"


    She''s treating him very roughly, it''s going to be hard to teach her to be less violent.


    "He''s an intruder, so he was imprisoned."


    "HE WAS WHAT!?"


    She''s shaking him even more brutally than before, and the other elves are pointing arrows at her. I hurry up to grab her and drag her away from them.


    "Everyone calm down. You don''t really want to start a fight right now, do you?"


    For some reason, that last line seems to have had a strong impact. All the elves nervously lower their bows.


    Still, the elves who are hunting the imps are doing quite well. But the dark trees do not seem like they''ll stop making more of them, it seems like there was a lot of unused dark mana in this forest, which explains why the imps are not listening to me, even though they originate from my mana and my desire to change the forest, only a small part of the mana they''re made of is actually mine.


    If more and more imps keep being made, killing them won''t do more than slowing them down. Whenever some imps manage to slip past the elves, another tree will be transformed, and they cannot continue to hunt them forever.


    But I think that I''ve found a solution. The trees are not defending themselves because they cannot recognize the imps born from other trees as enemies, however, an elf can instruct trees of their same element to kill them. And the best part is that an elf can communicate with multiple trees at once if they are close enough, that gives me an idea...


    I let Xania run to the village to look for her brother, I hope that she doesn''t cause any trouble...


    "What is that?"


    "This is a magic circuit."


    A group of elves is watching me prepare the circuit with amazement. The way they are acting makes it seem like they''ve never seen a magic circuit before... just how isolated are these people?


    "This will increase the range in which you can communicate with magic, that way you can instruct the trees of the entire forest to protect themselves from the imps."


    "Really? Then why don''t you tell the dark trees to stop making more of those fruits?" An elf asks with a bit of suspicion.


    "I... I already tried, they didn''t listen."


    That''s probably because deep down I don''t want the dark trees to stop being made. I had much more conviction when I gave my first instruction, so I cannot override it, but I don''t want to admit that to them.


    "How do we know that we can trust you?"


    "If I wanted to destroy this forest I wouldn''t need to trick you. Also, don''t you want to know what it''s like to use a magic circuit?"


    They''re curious, I can tell. It doesn''t matter how strict their rules are, the temptation of trying something you have never seen before is strong.


    "Stop right there!"


    An old man is approaching. That''s unusual, old elves are very rare.


    "It''s the elder." I hear someone say in a low voice. Is this man the leader of their village?


    "I thought that I had warned you about this. You should never listen to what a dark elf tells you, she''ll bring death and misfortune to our forest."


    This old man is a bit rude...


    "I don''t want to bring death to anyone, I''m only trying to help."


    "Perhaps, but dark elves like yourself tend to have some very strange ideas of what ''helping'' means. Always trying to lure our people into danger, valuing their lives as little as you value your own."


    "What are you talking about? I value my life quite a bit, and the lives of others as well."


    "You are a dark elf. It''s in your nature to put freedom over security, ambition over complacency, desire over life."


    "Then I must be different from all the other dark elves. I don''t like to take risks and I''ve lived a very peaceful life until just recently."


    "You might have never had to make the choice. Tell me young lady, what are the things you enjoy doing the most? What is it that you want to do with your life?"


    "What I enjoy... reading books and researching magic I guess."


    "Then imagine that one day, it became impossible for you to do either of those things, and the only way for you to do them again is to travel to a distant city. But the trip is dangerous, and you''re just as likely to die as you''re to make it there. Would you make the trip? Or would you settle for another lifestyle that you do not enjoy as much?"


    Uh... this is strange... I never saw myself as a risk-taker, but when I think about it the answer to that question seems obvious.


    "I would make that trip. I''d rather live the way I want to than live safely."


    "And with that, you just proved that you are a true dark elf. Most people would not make that choice, and certainly not so easily."


    Now that I think about it, when I sensed Vilde at the bottom of the infernal caverns, I decided to go see him even if it was dangerous, for no other reason than me being curious. I think that I''ve just discovered something about myself that I''ve been ignoring until now.


    "Still, I don''t see how that''s a bad thing."


    "The problem is that the trees cursed with dark magic are also the same way. Instead of asking them to follow a strict set of rules, they will demand that the elves leave the forest, pursue their ambitions, and go on adventures that put them in danger. Having a long lifespan requires a safe, slow, and consistent lifestyle, not just the blessings of the forest. And so, the forest will not offer a longer life to those who choose to leave, the only thing it will give to those elves is the means of fulfilling their ambitions. Darkness is the element of death, we must destroy all of the cursed trees."


    "I won''t claim to know more than you about magic forests, but I''m sure that destroying that many trees will do quite a bit of damage. And it''s not like the elves have to listen to the dark trees, the rest of the forest will still be around. Shouldn''t people be allowed to choose for themselves?"


    "No, not if their choices could end up killing them."


    This old man really represents everything I hate about elven society... But I won''t let him have his way. I have no right of forcing other people to live their lives the way I want to, but neither does he.


    ''Shadow lance''


    I fire a spell upwards with more power than usual to show my strength and then activate my ''intimidate'' skill.


    "You are NOT going to get rid of the dark trees. If you try to do it after I leave, I WILL come back."


    An expression of true terror appears on the elder''s face, but he''s able to stay on his feet, which is not something that I can say about everyone who feels my intimidation.


    I then turn around to address the other elves.


    "Choose for yourselves how you want to live your lives. But know that if you decide to always stay in this forest, you will not live longer lives, just slower ones. And there''s one more thing I need to say..."


    I just learned something new, it seems that when a shapeshifter gets really scared they lose control of their transformation for a moment.


    It was only for a fraction of a second, and she was near the back of the group, but there''s no way that I would miss it. I approach the ''elf'' and punch her, revealing her true form.


    "I don''t think that you guys are as safe as you think you are."


    forli


    But after last chapter, I didn''t know how to continue, this is the first time that has happened to me. Then I wrote a chapter, didn''t like it at all, and started again, which is also not something I had done before. Then I started thinking about a bunch of stuff that will come later and I can''t decide exactly how everything will go and I just felt that I didn''t want to write for a while...


    Anyway, I hope that the chapter I ended up writing was at least a bit enjoyable and didn''t feel too weird, let''s hope that I don''t have as much trouble with the next few.

 Chapter 73: Captured village

    -Xania-


    Elves are weird. Were they seriously having an argument over which trees they like the most and treating it as if was some deep philosophical question?


    To think that they would waste their time like that while their forest is under attack... it''s clear that they are too used to being protected. And the so-called ''queen of darkness'' is the same, with that power she''s probably never encountered anything that can threaten her, she doesn''t know what it''s like to be in danger. I cannot depend on someone like that, I''ll just go find my brother myself.


    However, I don''t have my undead warriors here with me, I''ll be in trouble if I get into a fight. My skeletal dragon is flying in circles far above the forest, but if I order it to come down the trees will try to stop it. From what I know, they don''t attack animals or sapient beings unless the elves order them to, but an undead would probably be identified by them as a monster. It might be possible for it to force its way through, but that should be my last resort.


    I arrive at the elf village, but something is strange. There''s an orc keeping guard and I do not see any elves... don''t tell me that the demons took over this place already. The strength and numbers of the demons we''ve been encountered are too much if all they wanted was to capture Rax; it seems like they are trying to take over this forest completely.


    He just saw me, I need to get rid of him before he can warn the others... but before I can get a spell ready, he waves his hand and calls to me.


    "Lady Xania! Are you also taking part in the invasion?"


    "Uh? I... yes, I am..."


    "Hehehe, master Garerg''s plan worked even better than expected, those elves are so stupid."


    Garerg? That green old bastard is the one in charge of this invasion? And why is this guy talking to me as if he thought that we''re still on the same side?


    "Actually... Garerg only told me to come here and didn''t explain what his plan is, so I don''t know what''s going on right now."


    "Oh well, then let me explain. You know how the elves depend on their magic trees for everything and cannot do anything on their own? That includes watching for any intruders. Master Garerg figured out that after the trees give a warning about an intruder, they won''t say anything for as long as there are any elves near them."


    I guess that makes sense. If they continued to warn about an intruder that has been found already, it would be more distracting than helpful.


    "And you took advantage of that somehow?"


    "Yes, we made an overt attack to catch the attention of the elves. Then we replaced some of them with shapeshifters without them noticing. Since the shapeshifters were with the elves the whole time, the trees didn''t give any warning, and the elves are too used to being told what to do to notice that anything was wrong. When they made it into the village, they used magic circles to seal the trees protecting it, and most of the warriors had left, so it was easy to take it over and capture the remaining elves."


    "So you captured them... where are the prisoners?"


    "They are all inside that giant tree at the center of the village. Well, it looks like a tree but it''s actually a building."


    If the captive elves are there, Rax is probably there as well.


    Still, a plan like that would have failed as soon as someone thought that their friend was acting weird and decided to ask the trees just in case. It''s clear that living in isolation for so long while being protected by the forest has made the elves weak in more than one way.


    ''Mind void''


    The orc was not expecting an attack from me at all and falls asleep without resistance. He''s probably a new recruit if he doesn''t even know how much I and his boss hate each other, and that geezer was the one who convinced Kalroth to take my brother in the first place...


    All the buildings in the village seem to be made of stone, I was expecting wood but I suppose that the elves do not want to cut down their precious trees. Their houses are also very poorly made, the only reason they don''t collapse is that they have trees holding them in place, literally.


    The only one that seems to be able to stand by itself is the big one that the orc mentioned. I''m not sure if it''s a tree that was turned into a building or a building shaped to look like a tree...


    I approach slowly, making sure to not be seen by the orcs keeping guard. When I''m close enough I use ''corpse puppet'' on a few dead small animals that I was keeping in my pockets and make them get close to the guards.


    "Uh!? A lizard is climbing my body!"


    "A bug just flew into my face!"


    *BANG*


    "AAAGH!!!"


    The bombs that my minions were carrying detonate injuring some of the orcs, but not as much as I expected. They are tougher than I thought.


    "Look! Over there! It''s Xania!"


    As they rush at me, some of the muscles in their bodies start to grow in an uneven and grotesque manner. That must be Garerg''s ''flesh shaping'' at work, and if I know him, there will probably some severe side-effects that his underlings will have to suffer. I''ve never seen him use that magic on himself, after all.


    *Crash*


    But before they can attack me, my skeletal dragon drops on them from above. If the trees around this area are disabled, I can take advantage of that too.


    But I''m not going to stay to watch this fight, I need to find Rax!


    When I enter the building, I see the captured elves. I gag a bit when I see the method that has been used to restrain them.


    Their legs and arms have been fused together with ''flesh shaping'', and their mouths have been stitched shut with their own flesh. They cannot talk but I can see the pain on their faces.


    I knew that the old bastard was twisted, but this is beyond anything I''ve seen him do before. There are even a few children here...


    "Well, if it isn''t the little necromancer girl. Did you come to look for your brother?" Once again I have the displeasure to see Garerg''s ugly face grinning at me.


    I screwed up, I got distracted looking at the elves and lost the element of surprise.


    "What are you trying to do here? Does Kalroth even know that you took over this village?" I ask.


    "Ah, I''m afraid that master Kalroth would not have allowed me to experiment on the elves. He doesn''t understand the value in studying the way their bodies can retain their youth."


    As I thought, hunting down my brother was just an excuse to bring some soldiers into the forest. Hiding the fact that he brought soldiers here would be almost impossible, hiding the exact number of soldiers would be much easier.


    "And where''s Rax?"


    "I have him right here, but I''m afraid that I had some trouble stopping his cries."


    When I see him grab my brother I feel my blood boil. His mouth has been sealed the same way as the elves, and he looks like he''s been crying a lot.


    "Fix his mouth! Now!"


    "That cannot be done. When someone''s body has been altered with flesh magic like this, it cannot be reversed without damaging it even more."


    "You... I''m going to kill you!"


    "Please, calm down. You don''t want your brother to end like these elves, do you?"


    "..."


    "Well then, let''s go outside."


    He makes me walk in front, giving me no chance for a surprise attack. But when I step outside I see something that I was not expecting.


    All of the orcs have been bound by chains of darkness. It looks like they were able to win against my dragon, but then they were defeated by something far more fearsome.


    "Xania! Thank goodness I found you. Don''t run off like that!"


    The queen of darkness is just standing there, seemingly relaxed despite being in enemy territory. Then again, why would she need to worry about something like that?


    "Luna! You need to help my brother! Please!"


    "Your brother? What''s wrong with..."


    The moment she sees Rax, it feels like the temperature drops. I hold my breath as I get the sensation of an icy hand taking hold of my heart.


    "Is that flesh shaping?" Luna gets closer to Rax while completely ignoring Garerg, who seems to have been frozen in fear.


    Now that I think about it, all intimidation auras and skills are more effective the more the user wants to hurt someone. And I don''t think that I''ve seen Luna truly want to hurt anyone until now... Does that mean that all the fear she normally inspires is actually the minimum that she''s capable of?


    She touches Rax''s head and his mouth opens in an instant, looking good as new, but he''s too scared to say anything. Garerg looks like he cannot believe what he''s seeing. That geezer has been studying flesh shaping for decades and he truly thought that this was impossible, but she did it with a mere touch.


    "Xania, are there any more people like that inside?"


    "Y-yes." I surprise myself by being able to answer.


    Luna walks into the building and starts touching each one of the elves, just like she did with Rax. But they all seem to be more afraid of their savior than of their tormentor.


    "Their nerves are being pressed by their own flesh, this must be rather painful..."


    She sounds calm, but I can still feel her anger. Each one of her words feels like a dagger stabbing me.


    "Seeing this, I can understand why flesh shaping ended up becoming a forbidden field of magic."


    After Luna finishes healing the last elf, she calmly walks up to Garerg, who has not moved at all this entire time. She grabs him by the neck and lifts him until he''s eye-level with her.


    "You are the one who did all of that. Are you not?"


    forli

 Chapter 74: Mean Luna

    All of those years I spent researching the forbidden forms of dark magic, I always wondered if it would be for nothing in the end. I knew that what I was doing was illegal, that I would get in trouble if someone found out, but as long as the healing magic I had created could be used to save people I didn''t mind. But what if I never get the chance to teach it to other people? What if nobody wants me to use it on them? Flesh shaping has a really bad reputation, after all. Most people wouldn''t even imagine that it can be used to heal.


    It would be easy to say that people are just prejudiced against dark magic and that they need to be more open-minded. However, that prejudice didn''t come from nowhere. The truth is that there have been so many mages using flesh shaping irresponsibly, hurting people with it, that everyone now assumes that this is the only thing it can be used for.


    The point I''m trying to make is that it should be understandable for me to be upset when I see an imbecile bumbling with some basic flesh shaping he clearly doesn''t even understand to torment innocent people. The way he looked at me when I reversed his alterations makes me think that he didn''t even know that such a thing was possible, which says a lot of how little he can control his own magic.


    "P-please... let go..."


    He''s having a lot of trouble speaking. Grabbing an old man by the neck is probably making me look bad... I got angry and grabbed him without thinking, but with my strength, it would be easy to crush his neck accidentally. I guess it''s a good thing that I have a lot of self-control.


    "You have yet to answer my question. Are you the one who did all of that?"


    "Yes. But I have a good explanation! Please take a look at this."


    The orc hands me a small black cube.


    "What is this supposed to... ?"


    The cube begins to glow red, and the next instant it explodes into flames. A column of fire spins around me, this thing is probably even stronger than a dragon''s breath.


    "Yes! Burn! BURN!"


    "I''m not going to burn just because you tell me to."


    When he sees me emerge from the fire completely unharmed, the orc once again makes that ''this is impossible'' face of his. My ''heat void'' spell allowed me to take a bath in lava when I was in the infernal caverns; this fire was not hot enough to hurt me. But it did singe my clothes a bit in a few places...


    I get closer and stare down at him. "That was not a good explanation."


    "How... What are you? What do you want?"


    "I''m a dark mage, just like you, but not quite as incompetent. And I want to punish you for using dark magic to hurt innocent people."


    "What are you talking about? Are you trying to say that you don''t hurt innocents too? How many people did you have to experiment on to reach that level of skill with flesh shaping?"


    "I didn''t experiment on people, I used meat I bought from the butcher."


    "Wha..." Again with the shocked face, it''s starting to get old. "Don''t be ridiculous, there''s no way to learn flesh shaping by practicing on meat!"


    "I already told you, I''m not as incompetent as you."


    The only thing I needed to practice was how to control the flesh shaping spells themselves, everything else I learned from anatomy books. Can this guy not read? Is that the problem?


    "My dark magic is rank ten! I''m as much of a master as anyone can be! And I''m telling you that morality and compassion are nothing more than shackles holding you back. A dark mage can only gain true power by exploiting the weak! You are not..."


    *Crack*


    Uh, I think I broke something. I can heal him, but now he''s unconscious.


    This is bad, I actually lost my patience and punched him in the chest. I need to put more effort to maintain my cool, otherwise, I could kill someone by accident...


    And now I just remember that there are other people here.


    Rax is crying and hugging his sister. Actually, it''s not just him, many of the elves are crying and hugging each other as well. I suppose that they just went through a very traumatic experience, getting your body twisted like that must be scary. Yes, I''ve decided that that''s the reason why they are acting this way.


    "Xania, can you help me gather the demons around here? I want to place a curse on them so that they cannot cause more trouble, and I don''t want the other elves to kill them when they come back."


    "Yes... of course."


    "Uh? I was expecting you to tell me that I''m too forgiving and that I should kill this guy or something like that."


    "Ah, no... I think that you''ve convinced me, we should be kind and forgiving with our enemies. That''s a very admirable trait of yours! Really!"


    "Oh... well, good."


    I wonder what changed her mind so suddenly, but I''m glad that she finally understands.


    I''m finally done distributing the curses to the demons and all of the elves have returned to the village. They are whispering to each other while taking glances at me, which seems a bit rude.


    "It seems like I have to thank you for saving our village." The elder finally decides to say something.


    "Does that make it more difficult for you to tell me to leave?"


    "I don''t want to be ungrateful, if there''s any reward you want just tell me. But we still must follow the rules."


    "All I want is for you all to take what happened today into consideration. Your life of seclusion in this forest has made you stagnant and weak. And today you would have paid a very heavy price if I didn''t happen to be here; against your rules, I might add. You need to allow the dark trees to stay, and if anyone wants to leave the forest for a time, you should let them."


    He stops to think for a moment. "Some of the villagers wanted to talk to you... Will you try to tempt them to make them leave?"


    "Of course I will. If you don''t like it, try to convince them to stay instead of forcing them."


    The elves that want to talk to me are mostly quite young. They seem to be afraid of me, and it takes a few seconds for one of them to gather the courage to speak.


    "A-are you really a dark elf?"


    What kind of question is that!?


    "I''m an elf with a dark attribute if that''s what you''re asking."


    "If you''re an elf, how did you become so strong?"


    "I''m not strong, you''re weak."


    "And those demons were weak too? You beat them quite easily..."


    "Alright, I admit that I''m a bit strong. But that does not change the fact that you''re weak. I checked your levels before and the strongest is that elder at level 104, nobody else is even above 70. If you didn''t have those trees helping you, you would be completely helpless."


    "But we do have the trees, so it''s fine, no?"


    How can I convince them to leave? Let''s go ahead with my plan, ''shame and berate them until they leave''. It''s time for mean Luna to make one of her rare appearances.


    "Let me tell you about your reputation outside the forest." I hesitate for a moment. "People say that you are weak and that the only reason why nobody has taken over your forest is that nobody cares enough about you to do it. Also, since you never go outside, you are seen as cowards. Calling someone an ''elfling'' is a common insult that means weak and cowardly. Every merchant that gets the chance to trade with you always manages to rip you off, which also gave you a reputation for being dumb. But above everything else, everyone agrees that you are extremely boring."


    Did they buy it? Perhaps I went too far.


    "A-are we really that bad... ?"


    I think that it''s working! Let''s keep going.


    "You cannot even build your houses right, they would collapse if the trees were not holding them. Do any of you even have a unique talent or even a hobby? All of your lives until now have been worthless."


    "Worthless?"


    Some of them are going red in the face. Are they feeling embarrassed? But they seem strangely happy... weird.


    I poke the young man in front of me on the stomach and he falls on his butt making a pained expression.


    "You cannot even take a light poke? You guys are lucky that I''m a nice person, or else I could do whatever I wanted with you."


    "Whatever you wanted? Like what?" Another elf asks eagerly for some reason.


    "I don''t know... Like making you my servants? Or hurting you for fun?"


    Many of the guys and a few girls are blushing and I can hear them breathing heavily. This is reminding me of something, or perhaps someone... and for some reason, I find it disgusting, but seeing me look at them with disgust gives them an awkward smile. I think that something is wrong with them.


    "If we end up leaving the forest, will you help us become stronger?"


    "Maybe, if you can prove to me that you are not completely worthless."


    And again, that seems to make them happy. What is going on here?


    That''s when I notice Xania behind me, with her hand holding her forehead. "Do you really not realize what you''re doing?"


    "Eh? What do I not realize that I''m doing?"


    "Nevermind."


    She''s not going to tell me. I know that my social skills are bad, but I cannot fix them if nobody tells me what I''m doing wrong!


    forli

 Chapter 75: To the next battle

    "So, Xania, how well do you think I did? Was I convincing enough?"


    "I think that some elves will probably try to leave the forest, but not for the reasons you think."


    "What do you mean?"


    "They did ask you if they could become your servants, didn''t they?"


    "But that''s probably because they have no idea of where to go, no? Why else would they ask for that?"


    "Why else indeed..." Xania lets out another sigh. Seriously, what am I missing?


    "In any case, it''s probably going to be a while until anyone actually leaves, I cannot wait that long."


    "Why? Do you need to go somewhere?"


    "Didn''t you say earlier that some beastkin had been kidnapped? I have to go rescue them!"


    I got a bit sidetracked rescuing Rax and saving the elves, but I still need to deal with Kalroth. I need to find that contract crystal for Nera, get him to leave the dark fairies alone since they are my students now, same for Xania, Arana is probably going after him right now, and I think that Ranna also wants him to be beaten to make up for helping him before. There was also now this business with the kidnappings. That''s a lot of reasons for me to go beat up someone that I''ve never even met...


    That weird prophecy Arana made worries me a little, but I cannot just ignore him at this point.


    "Stop saying that you ''have'' to do all of these things. The reason why you keep helping people is because you want to."


    "Well, maybe I''m just weird, but I cannot just ignore someone trying to bring slavery back if I can stop it. What is that Kalroth guy thinking anyway? Didn''t you work for him until today?"


    That question made her stop to think for a moment.


    "This was not something I was expecting, but now that I think about it, I probably should have... A lot of demons romanticize the idea of a demon lord, someone strong enough to do whatever they want and make people listen to them. But if you think about it, a demon lord is just someone who intimidates others with their power to make them obey, even if they don''t want to. Slavery is not too far away from that."


    What she just said does not sound like something that she''s only realized just nownow. It seemed more like something that she¡¯d known for some time, but that she had been trying to ignore.


    "But if he''s such a bad guy, why did you think so highly of him? I remember how you kept talking about how great he was."


    "Someone as strong as you wouldn''t understand... My tribe is surrounded by potential enemies much stronger than us. We have a history of being forced to commit many degrading or evil acts for the sake of our freedom and survival. Being under the protection of someone as strong as Kalroth is like a dream for us, it''s just natural that I would think highly of him."


    "But he was not protecting you out of kindness, he only wanted to take advantage of you."


    "In the demon wasteland, everyone is always trying to take advantage of everyone else. Just so you know, Kalroth was not always the way he''s now, a lot of people tried to trick him to make use of his strength in the past. He once told me that he had decided to never show kindness to anyone ever again, and I could see how that decision made him crueler and crueler as time went on. I have to admit that I was also going on that path until you dragged me off of it kicking and screaming."


    "But you have to admit that you feel much better now." I smile at her, causing her to stifle a scream and look away from my face.


    "You have been getting away with being so nice because all of your enemies have been much weaker than you, but what are you planning to do when you have to face someone without such a large power gap? Kalroth is much stronger than a normal demon lord."


    "He''s still below level 400, no? There were monsters stronger than that in the infernal caverns."


    I know that intelligent beings are harder to beat than monsters since they are smarter, can use equipment, and tend to have a more varied and refined fighting style. But the hell dragon was level 500 and boss monsters are also tougher than regular monsters. I don''t think that Kalroth could be stronger than that.


    "If we were talking about a fair fight there''s no way you could lose, but if you hold back against him as much as you hold back against everyone else, you''re going to be in trouble. And his minions might join the fight too."


    "Well, then I guess I could hold back a bit less."


    Up until now, it''s not just that I''ve been avoiding killing my opponents. I''ve been fighting in such a way that there would be absolutely no risk of anyone dying, most of the time I''ve even made sure that nobody got injured. There''s a lot of room between that and going all out to kill my enemy, it''s not like I need to go from one extreme to the other.


    That said, the idea that I might end up actually killing someone scares me a lot, for quite a few reasons...


    "And what will you do if he tries to use those beastkin he''s kidnapped as hostages?"


    "I admit that could be a problem, depending on the situation."


    "He could make his minions threaten each one of them at the same time. Unless you can stop time or something crazy like that, there''s no way you could save them all."


    "No, I cannot stop time yet."


    "That''s right, and that''s why you need to think... Wait, what do you mean ''yet''?"


    "Oh, I''ve been working on a spell to stop time, but it was a bit more difficult than I expected and I got stuck."


    Xania is staring at me with her eyes wide open. Did I say something weird again? That''s the face people always make when I say something weird...


    "Anyway, I think that I''ll go with you. I''m afraid of what will happen if you try to face Kalroth alone. I already asked the elves to let Rax stay in the village until I come back."


    "That''s great! Let''s get going then!"


    ...


    I just realized something.


    "Hey Xania, do you know where Kalroth is right now."


    "No, how am I supposed to know that?"


    Well, that''s a problem I should have seen coming. Before I could start panicking, I felt Longleg jumping to one of my hands. I had forgotten that I still had him.


    When I lift my hand, he points in a certain direction.


    "Is that where Kalroth is?" He nods. "How do you know that?"


    Instead of answering, he shrugs his shoulders, which does nothing more than raise even further questions.


    After walking for a while, we saw an enormous black castle in the distance surrounded by a small town.


    "Hey, isn''t that the castle that the demon king had in this continent?" Xania said.


    Now that she mentions it, that castle seems very old and is partly in ruins. I think I read that the demon king built one castle on each continent. Was this really one of them?


    The walls are all black with some red highlights, the entire castle is built with very sharp angles and its many towers have very long spikes at the top, giving it a threatening air. It certainly looks like the type of place where you would expect an extremely powerful and terrifying villain to reside.


    I guess it makes sense for Kalroth to make that place his lair if he wants to be the next demon king.


    There are a few demons in the town, but it seems empty for the most part. Soon after we enter, we see a group of three orcs dragging a man with cat ears from a chain.


    I approach them. "Excuse me."


    "Uh? What do you wa-"


    Both the orcs and the beastkin stop moving when they see me.


    "Hey, aren''t you guys Garerg''s lackeys?" Xania seems to have seen them before.


    "Who''s Garerg?"


    "That old orc you almost killed with a single punch."


    She didn''t need to mention that, she just scared them even more.


    "Could you please leave that man with us and leave?" I don''t think this will work, but I''ll try asking nicely first.


    "Oh... of course! We cannot say no to such a beautiful lady!"


    They''re really leaving just like that? They were a lot more polite than I was expecting.


    "W-what do you want from me? The other demons didn''t want me because my illness makes me weak."


    The beastkin man also seems afraid of me. What illness is he talking about? Mmmm... I think that there''s something wrong with his muscles, perhaps I''ll be able to do something when I have more time.


    "Don''t worry, we''re here to help."


    His chain is really weak, so I break it with my bare hands.


    "Help?" He looks at me with doubt.


    "To rescue you and the others who were kidnapped. Do you know where they are?"


    "In the castle, I don''t know where exactly... I know that I''m not in a position to ask for anything. But could you please save my daughter?"


    "Was she captured as well?"


    "No, but she''s probably rushing to this place as we speak."


    "What do you mean?"


    "That girl has been taking care of me ever since I got this illness. She''s incredibly strong, but that made her reckless. And she''s a really good tracker, I''m sure that after hearing about our kidnapping she began to chase after us. That demon lord is too much even for her... please, you need to stop her before she gets herself killed."


    His daughter should be a catgirl, right? I would love to become friends with one of them, but the only one I know does not seem to like me very much... perhaps this one will be different.


    "Don''t worry, I''ll make sure to keep her safe when she arrives."


    forli


    There was this part


    I need to find that contract crystal for Nera, get him to leave the dark fairies alone since they are my students now, same for Xania, Arana is probably going after him right now, and I think that Ranna also wants him to be beaten to make up for helping him before, and now there''s this business with the kidnappings.


    where I used a lot of commas, but I think that it works because I wanted to make it feel like Luna is thinking of a lot of things at once and it''s also kind of a list. I''m not sure.


    Anyway, I have a few days off this week, so maybe the next chapter won''t take as long? I hope so...

 Chapter 76: Sneaking in

    I''ve always been like this, whenever someone asks me for help I always rush to do whatever I can for them. It''s a bit depressing to think that most people are too afraid to ask me for anything, so on the rare occasions when someone is brave enough to do it, it makes me feel a bit better. However, it seems like recently this has been happening more often, does that mean that my social skills are improving?


    That said, the easiest way to stop that man''s daughter from running into trouble is probably to rescue the captives before she makes it here. So we''ll just sneak into the castle which is what we were planning to do regardless.


    The castle walls are full of holes, so it was easy to sneak inside. This place is clearly really old, and yet, these walls feel extremely durable.


    "Hey Xania, do you know if this castle was built with stone taken from the infernal caverns?"


    "How am I supposed to know that? You''re the one who went there."


    "There were some really durable rocks in the deeper parts of the caverns. I was just thinking that these walls feel similar to them."


    I can understand why the demon king would want to build his castle from that material; even I would need to put in some effort to destroy these walls. But getting enough stone all the way up here cannot have been easy.


    Now... how can we find the captives? Longleg can somehow tell exactly where Kalroth is, but when I asked him about the beastkin he just shook his head.


    "Hey Xania, how are we supposed to figure out where the prisoners are?"


    "Shouldn''t I be the one asking you that? Coming here was your idea... Anyway, I guess we''ll have to interrogate one of the guards."


    "Interrogate? You''re not planning to torture them, are you?"


    "What are you talking about? I don''t know what type of person you think I am, but why would I ever need to torture anyone when I have you here? Making someone talk is not going to be an issue."


    "What does me being here have to do with making someone talk?"


    "Are you serious? Look, just grab one of those guys and ask him whatever you want."


    A few stone demons are patrolling the area. They look a lot like golems, except that they are wearing clothes and their movements are a lot less stiff. If they were naked and stood still, it would be easy to mistake them for golems or even actual rocks.


    ''Shadow bind''


    I''ve been using this spell so often that I''ve become very good at controlling the ropes, now it almost feels like I grow some extra limbs whenever I cast it. One of the guards had wandered away from the others, so I used the ropes to grab him from around the corner while covering his mouth.


    I lift him a bit so that we can see each other eye to eye. "Do not scream. I want you to tell me where you''re holding the captured beastkin. Understood?"


    He opens his eyes wide and nods frantically. Seeing something that looks like a golem be so expressive feels weird.


    I remove the ropes covering his mouth to let him talk. "They are in a cage... Go down the stairs in the central courtyard and you''ll find them. Please don''t kill me."


    He talked just like that. Is interrogating someone really that easy? Aren''t there some people who are professional interrogators? I bet it''s all just a scam. For now, I''ll put this guy to sleep.


    ''Mind void''


    "Hey Xania, do you think that he told me the truth?"


    "I think so, it seemed like he was too afraid to lie."


    "Are you sure? I didn''t even use ''intimidate''."


    "If you had used a skill like that he would have been too scared to even talk."


    As much as I want to tell her that she''s wrong, she''s probably right...


    ''Black blur''


    My spell covers us in darkness, making it easier to hide in the shadows. To be honest, I do not have a lot of confidence in my stealth skills, and yet, we somehow manage to reach the courtyard undetected. There are just not enough guards around for a castle as enormous as this one.


    Now, I''ll admit that I''ve not visited a lot of castles, but I was under the impression that most courtyards tend to be filled with flowers or trees or other plants. This one just has a lava pit.


    I don''t know how or why someone would place a lava pit inside a castle, but this seems like a very serious safety hazard for the people living here. For some reason, seeing a lava pit in a castle makes me want to jump over it, but this is not the time to play around so I''ll just walk around it.


    Out of all the doors here, only one leads to a set of stairs going down, that must be the place. This time Xania goes ahead of me and puts the two guards inside to sleep with ''mind void''.


    "I just wanted to feel like I''m also contributing..." She said.


    This does not look like a dungeon, more like a cellar, but there''s a cage that seems to have been brought here from outside. I think that there are people inside, but it is too dark to see.


    "W-who is there? Did someone use magic?" Says a voice coming from inside the cage.


    "Don''t worry, we''re friends. We''re here to rescue you," I whisper.


    "Really? Who are you? We cannot see you from here."


    "I''ll open the cage, just give me a moment."


    What metal are these bars made of? They were really easy to bend.


    Some of the beastkin come out from the gap I opened and we see each other for the first time. Cat ears, dog ears, bunny ears, and many more... This is even better than I expected, I cannot avoid smiling when I see them all in front of me.


    "Alright, let''s get out of here before someo- Wait! Don''t run back into the cage!"


    "S-stay away!"


    "I''m telling you that I''m here to save you!"


    Uh... I''m used to animals not liking me, but does that extend to beastkin as well?


    Mmm, I don''t really have time to convince them to trust me, I''ll have to take them like this. I bend the bars to close them again and pick up the cage with all the prisoners inside, the stairs are really wide so I think that it will fit.


    "You are supposed to be a mage, but you are strong enough to lift a cage with twenty people like it''s nothing..." I don''t know why Xania still gets surprised by this stuff.


    "This doesn''t really require as much strength as you might think."


    As I''m going back to the courtyard, the captives keep sobbing and hugging each other. I''m rescuing them, but they are somehow making me feel like a bad guy...


    *CRASH*


    "Nya! I found you! Kidnapper!"


    Suddenly, a girl jumps into the courtyard through one of the closed doors, leaving a hole shaped like her body.


    "Oops, I forgot to open the door." Eh? How can she forget that?


    A cat beastkin with wild brown hair and little clothing. Could this be her? She seems to fit the description.


    "Hey, is that Karin the ''destroyer''?"


    "You mean the ''living disaster''?"


    "Just when I thought that things could not get any worse..."


    I can hear the beastkin murmuring to each other. That man said that his daughter''s name was Karin, so this really must be her. And she seems to be rather infamous among the beastkin.


    "I''m not a kidnapper!"


    "Liar! I can see you carrying that cage!"


    "Well, I understand how that could cause a misunderstanding. But I''m only trying to save them!"


    I place the cage on the ground and open it again to show that I''ll let them get out if they want, but nobody leaves. Seeing the girl they called a ''living disaster'' get closer seems to scare them even more.


    "You cannyot deceive my instincts! I can tell that you''re evil just by looking at your face!" Karin yells while pointing at me dramatically.


    "That''s not ''instinct''! You just think that I look scary!"


    "Can you two yell a bit louder? There might still be someone in the castle who doesn''t know that we''re here," Xania complains from right behind me. Why is she trying to hide?


    "Hey! Xanya? Is that you?"


    "You two know each other?"


    "Ugh..." Xania decides to show herself. "We have met as enemies a few times. She''s destroyed a couple of my undead armies, but at least she actually fought them..."


    "You have a gray demon with you! I knew that you were evil!"


    Oh, that''s right, the beastkin and the gray demons have a history of fighting each other. But now that I''ve redirected that leyline there''s no reason for them to fight anymore.


    Karin is hissing at me. The way she moves her ears while making an angry face is too cute for me to resist... so I touch her ear with my right hand.


    "NYAAAH!"


    The next thing I know, I''m sent flying and fall into the lava pit. I think that she kicked me, but it was too fast to see. Other than a broken rib that I fix right away, I''m not really hurt at all. This lava is not particularly hot, but my clothes got all burned again... Since a lot of people are watching I''ll conjure some rectangles of pure black darkness to preserve my dignity.


    Is there a way to make her and the others trust me? So far, this has been going about as well as that time I tried to domesticate a wild cat back when I was living in the orphanage...


    forli


    I wonder if I''ve gotten any better at writing in all this time. I don''t really feel like I have, but to be honest, I''ve not really put as much time into the most recent chapters as I did for the first few...

 Chapter 77: Not so different

    I remember how there used to be a bunch of cats that kept wandering into the orphanage, and how all the children there would feed them the leftovers and play with them, all the children except for me of course. The cats would always run away as soon as they saw me approach. It always made me so jealous to see everyone have fun without me... maybe that''s why even now I still keep trying to touch the ears of every cat I meet.


    Karin is staring at me as I emerge from the lava, she doesn''t seem surprised to see that I''m fine. Alright, let''s approach her slowly so that she doesn''t get scared.


    But for some reason, everyone is staring at me weirdly, some of them look like they''re trying to look away but they can''t. Karin looks down at her chest for a moment, then back at me with a shocked expression.


    "I lost!" She lost? What did she lose at?


    "Xania, what do you think she''s talking about?"


    I turn to Xania for help, but she''s also staring at me with wide-open eyes and takes a step back when I look at her.


    "They''re even bigger than I thought..."


    "Eh!?"


    Wait, could it be that the reason everyone is staring at me... Uh... I thought that the dark rectangles were enough to cover me, but apparently, I was wrong. Now I suddenly feel embarrassed.


    "G-give me a moment!"


    I guess I still don''t understand social norms well enough, I thought that as long as my chest and crotch were hidden it would be fine. That catgirl is not covered much more, so why is she alright and not me?


    ''Black wall''


    After hiding myself from view I grab a new dress from my storage. There are a lot of these that Arana gave me, I wonder if she was expecting my clothes to be destroyed all the time.


    And now that I''m looking at my clothes I just remembered that there was one thing I found out that I could do to make the cats panic a bit less...


    I remove the black walls and go near Karin again.


    "Alright, as I was saying, I''m trying to get these people out of the castle. I''m your ally."


    "Mmm, is that true? For some reason, you do not seem as evil as before..."


    I knew that putting on a mask would be a good idea, simply not being able to see my scary face is enough to improve her opinion of me a little bit. This girl is very simple-minded, isn''t she?


    "Then let us leave this place now that we can, your father is waiting outside and he''s worried for you."


    "My father? Did you kidnyap him too?"


    "I didn''t! I didn''t kidnap anyone!"


    "Intruders!" At that moment I hear someone yell from one of the doors and I see a group of rock demons armed with muskets rushing in. I guess that should not be surprising, we''ve been here making a ton of noise...


    "Enemies!"


    Karin wastes no time and reaches the demons with a single leap. She sure seems eager to get into fights.


    The demons open fire on her. My battle analysis skill is telling me that there''s something unusual about their projectiles, I think that they have some skill to increase the power of their shots.


    And yet, they have no effect at all on the cat beastkin. She''s incredibly durable, if that had been me I''m sure that at the very least it would have pierced my skin.


    "NY-HA!


    "AAAH!"


    "Stay away!"


    Her fighting style is... not a fighting style at all. She''s just grabbing her opponents and tossing them around, it''s kind of amazing seeing all the rock demons flying in all directions.


    Should I help her? It certainly doesn''t look like she needs help, but I need to show that I''m on her side.


    Oh, I don''t think that I''ll even make it in time to do anything, let''s try something else. When I see the last demon fly over my head I jump to catch him mid-flight.


    "Nya? What are you doing? Are you not his boss?"


    "That''s what I''m trying to show you. Hey you! Have we ever met before?"


    He looks at me confused. "Eh? I don''t know, I can''t see your face."


    "Oh, sorry." I take my mask off, and his eyes open wide when he sees my face "This girl thinks that I''m your boss. Is that true?"


    The demon seems to think about it for a moment. I don''t know why, this is not a difficult question. "I... uh... Yes! You are!"


    "See? As I told you I''m not... wait, WHAT!?"


    "I''ll do whatever you want! Please spare me!"


    "No, that''s not what I-"


    "I knew it! You are the bad guy!"


    "Nonono, this guy is just confused after being sent flying like that!"


    "You''re lying! Everyone always tries to trick me just because my wisdom is low..."


    "I''m not lying, and my wisdom is also low, you know."


    "That cannyot be, my dad told me that if someone has low wisdom they must be a good person."


    Really? That sounds like something that he must have told her just to make her feel better, but I might be able to take advantage of it. I let the stone demon go and he runs away without looking back, then, I take the appraisal stone from my storage to show Karin my status.


    "See? Only 4."


    "Nya! It''s true! So you must be nyace after all." I''m not sure if trusting people because of such a reason is a good thing, but I''ll take what I can get. "I''ll show you mine too!"


    Karin grabs my appraisal stone and allows me to see what it shows.


    Name: Karin


    Race: Cat beastkin


    Class: Brawler


    Level: 304


    Stats


    Strength: 1116


    Speed: 901


    Magic: 0


    Dexterity: 304


    Toughness: 1043


    Wisdom: 3


    Magic


    Light: 0 (Rank 0)


    Fire: 0 (Rank 0)


    Water: 0 (Rank 0)


    Earth: 0 (Rank 0)


    Wind: 0 (Rank 0)


    Dark: 0 (Rank 0)


    Skills


    Brawler skills: 18 (Rank 10)


    Steel skin


    Air jump


    Advanced eating


    Magic resistance


    Advanced sleeping


    Safe recklessness


    Tracking


    Intimidate


    Titles


    Airhead


    Living disaster


    Shameless


    Bronze explorer


    Master brawler


    Wisdom 3... it''s nice to finally meet someone with less wisdom than me, but from what I know of her, the fact that we are only a single point away feels a bit concerning...


    How can her magic be 0? Is it even possible to have 0 in a stat? She also has two main elements, earth, and fire. That''s very rare, It''s a pity that she cannot use any magic at all.


    So living disaster is an actual title? What does it mean?


    Living disaster


    Someone who fights recklessly and unintentionally causes large amounts of destruction during her battles.


    Grants the Safe Recklessness skill


    Safe recklessness


    During battle, reduces the chances of unrelated bystanders being hurt accidentally to almost nothing, but drastically increases the chances of causing material damages.


    Oh, if that works each time she''s not trying to hurt someone it would explain why she was not surprised about the lava not hurting me, it didn''t seem like she sent me there intentionally after all. I guess that it''s a good thing that someone like her has a skill like that.


    "Eh!? What are you doing!?"


    While I was distracted by her status, Karin got behind me and started touching my ears.


    "Sorry, I could not resist, they are so pointy..."


    What kind of reason is that? Even if someone''s ears look interesting, touching them without permission is just rude... wait...


    I guess that this girl and I really are a lot more similar than I thought.


    ...


    "Uh? Ara?" All of a sudden, I feel a faint trace of magic that reminds me of Arana, but she''s not here. What was that?


    Looking in the direction I sensed that magic from, I see a new demon that seems to have arrived right now. That guy is huge, he''s even taller than me, and he''s wearing a heavy-looking black armor that makes him seem even bigger.


    Those horns and red skin remind me of something... Ah! I know! He reminds me of Vilde. I bet that they are both the same race of demons, whatever that might be. Who could this be?


    "Luna..." Xania approaches me, she looks scared.


    "Is something wrong?"


    She puts one hand on my shoulder and points to the demon staring at us from the door.


    "That''s... that''s Kalroth."


    "Really? That guy?"


    That''s surprising, I was not expecting the big bad to just show up so nonchalantly. That said, I don''t really feel that he''s very strong... I think that''s just because I cannot avoid comparing him to Vilde, but that''s just unfair, I don''t believe that many people would feel strong next to him. It would not be wise to underestimate him.


    And why do I feel Arana''s magic on him? To be more specific... I think that''s the same magic I felt from the spiders she summons. It''s small but it''s there. When Longleg told me earlier where Kalroth was, could it be that he was actually tracking that? And is Arana able to track it too?


    "Hey, who''s that guy?" Karin asks, tilting her head to the side.


    "It seems like that''s the real boss of the bad guys."


    "Really? I finally found him!"


    "No, wait!" She doesn''t wait and leaps straight at him.


    This girl really is too reckless for her own good...


    forli


    Also, if I''m not mistaken this is the first time I''ve shown the status of anyone other than Luna. This story is really just barely a LitRPG isn''t it.

 Chapter 78: Hammer

    Without saying a single word, Karin jumps at Kalroth and attempts to deliver a kick to his head. Not only is she fast, but she also didn''t hesitate for even a moment; it''s as if she didn''t need to think that she wanted to kick him to do it. If that had been me on the receiving end, I would have probably taken the hit right on the face, it always takes me a moment at the start of a fight to switch gears and begin defending myself. Kalroth, however, managed to raise his arm in time to block the kick. The ground around his feet seems to have been cracked from the strength of the impact.


    After an attack like that, you would think that Karin would need a moment to recover. Her opponent was apparently thinking that as he seemed to be about to take the chance for a counterattack. However...


    "Nya!"


    The beastkin girl kicks the air and her body spins in a seemingly impossible way, leaving her facing her target. In that very instant, she throws a punch that she was already winding up during the spin. When Kalroth blocks that punch, she throws another one, and after that, a few dozen more. She really is amazing. ''Savage'' is the word that comes to my mind to describe her fighting style.


    That said, Kalroth is also amazing for being able to keep up with such a relentless assault. He blocks each punch while taking a few steps back, until he finally manages to take a war hammer into his hand that he swings at Karin, forcing her to jump away to dodge, allowing him to finally catch a break.


    "Who the hell are you?" He stares angrily at Karin.


    "I''m here to rescue everyone you kidnapped! I''m sure that I have the right guy this time, your wisdom is above 4 for sure!"


    Kalroth''s brain seems to stop working for a couple of seconds while he tries to process what he just heard. That''s long enough for Karin to finally land a punch on his chest, and she doesn''t miss the opportunity.


    Even with the armor in the way that seems to have hurt him a bit, but it looks like he just got even angrier as a result.


    "First it was that dragon, now there''s some beastkin girl who also doesn''t seem to know who she''s messing with."


    Now he''s the one swinging his hammer wildly. Karin is dodging each attack, just barely, that looks like it would hurt a lot if it hit. How can she stay so calm? That said, with my ''battle analysis'' skill I noticed that there''s a tiny crack in the hammer that seems to be bigger inside. I don''t know if it cracked from use or if it was poorly made from the start, but it looks like it would break if you hit it the wrong way...


    Just now I confirmed that Kalroth''s level is indeed 388. It''s impressive how well Karin is able to hold her own against an opponent 84 levels above her. Since her magic is 0, her stats seem to be more focused on the physical side; that specialization seems to work well for her.


    ''Flash fire''


    "Nyauch!"


    But Kalroth can actually use some magic. It''s not very strong, but aiming it to her face can cause her to lose her focus enough for him to land a hit.


    As they continue to exchange attacks, it soon becomes clear that Karin is going to lose in the end. I should probably do something instead of just stand here watching.


    "The prisoners are escaping! Get them!"


    Oh, I didn''t notice because I was focused on the fight, but some of the beastkin have left the cage and are trying to escape on their own. But some of the demons that came with Kalroth are grabbing them, this is bad... They might try to use them as hostages. A bunch of demons holding multiple hostages in different locations at the same time is exactly the situation I wanted to avoid the most.


    "Where do you think you''re going!?"


    "No! Please!"


    One of the stone demons is grabbing a beastkin woman and is about to smack her. But I rush to them and grab his arm in time.


    "UAAAGH!!!"


    Oops, it seems like I pulled his arm too hard and accidentally broke it. Since he''s all covered in stone I expected him to be a bit tougher, but his insides seem to be organic and as soft as anyone else''s.


    "Aw, I''m sorry, did that hurt? Let me fix that for you."


    "N-no! Don''t do it! Stay away!"


    Uh? He doesn''t want me to fix his arm? Well, I''m supposed to be his enemy after all. Perhaps his pride as a warrior is stopping him from accepting my help.


    The other demons are now looking at me and murmuring to each other.


    "Did you see that?"


    "She didn''t even change her expression when she broke his arm..."


    "Is that the queen of darkness?"


    It seems like I got their attention.


    "Why don''t you all let those people go? I''m sure that you don''t want to get hurt."


    "Eh? Do you also want to rescue these beastkin?"


    "Yeah, I- uh?"


    Xania is tapping my arm, what does she want? She gets closer to whisper into my ear.


    "If they know that you care about the captives, they won''t let them go and will use their lives to threaten you. Just pretend that you don''t care."


    Oh, I see. Now that she mentions it, when I told them to let the captives go some of the demons put knives near the necks of the beastkin.


    "Don''t be ridiculous. Why would I care about some beastkin I don''t even know? You can do whatever you want with them."


    "Nya!? Were you lying before?" Karin somehow managed to hear me from all the way over there despite the fact that she''s in the middle of a fight.


    "Ah! No! I''m just trying to trick these guys so that they let them go free."


    "Oh, I see."


    It seems like I managed to convince her, but the problem is that the demons heard that too.


    "I''m trying to deceive that girl, I don''t really want to rescue anyone." This time I whisper to the demons in a really low voice to make sure that nobody else hears me. I don''t know if I managed to convince them, but from the looks on their faces I seem to have successfully confused them if nothing else.


    "Hey! I found this man wandering alone outside!"


    At that moment, an orc walks into the courtyard dragging along a beastkin that I know. I told him to stay hidden until I came back, but it seems like he didn''t listen.


    "Dad!"


    When Karin sees her father she lowers her guard for a moment, which allows Kalroth to smash his hammer into her side, sending her flying. That doesn''t look good, I think that her arm is broken, perhaps a few ribs as well.


    "Nyagh!"


    She seems to be in pain, but still manages to ignore it and get back on her feet. But that''s enough of this, I think that it''s time for me to step in.


    "And who are you? Why is Xania with you?"


    I step in front of Kalroth and stare into his eyes, it feels weird to have to look up to see someone''s face.


    "My name is Luna, you might know me as ''the queen of darkness''. You have been bothering some of my friends, including Xania here. It might be better if you and your men surrender now, I don''t think that you can beat me."


    "YOU are the queen of darkness? If nothing else, you certainly do look the part. But you have to be insane if you think that I''m going to be afraid of fighting an elf of all things."


    One of his followers approaches the demon lord with an appraisal stone. "My lord... look at her level. It seems like she wants the captured beastkin alive for some reason. It might be better to use them as leverage."


    "Don''t be ridiculous. Such an absurd level cannot be real, she must be using some trick to make the stone show the wrong number.


    And even if it was real, I would never humiliate myself by using hostages to avoid fighting against an elf. Taking hostages is what cowards do when they don''t think that they can win a fight with their own power. Do you really think that I would lose against this girl?"


    "N-no, of course not."


    It seems like he thinks that all elves are weak. I can understand that mentality to a certain point if he only knows about the elves that always stay in the forest, but I don''t really have much in common with those guys.


    "Watch how I smash her then!"


    All of a sudden, he lifts his hammer and brings it down on me. Fortunately, I had already decided how to deal with this when I noticed the weak point in his hammer earlier, so I''m able to react in time.


    I lift my hand extending my index finger toward the descending war hammer.


    ''Shadow nail''


    Not a very powerful spell, but my ''battle analysis'' skill allows me to aim for the tiny crack with almost perfect precision. The force of the swing actually does most of the job, getting the nail into the hammer and then shattering it into pieces from the inside.


    "..."


    Everyone stares at me with their mouths open for a few seconds. All this attention is making me feel a bit uncomfortable.


    "D-did I see that right?"


    "With only one finger..."


    From hearing the demons whisper to each other, I don''t think that they even noticed that I used a spell.


    "Luna... what the hell was that?" Xania speaks to me in a low voice.


    "Ah, no, that was not really a big deal. I aimed at a weak point in the hammer, so it breaking was not as impressive as it looked."


    "That doesn''t change the fact that you just broke the weapon of the strongest demon lord in the continent with almost no effort... and you say that was ''not really a big deal''..."


    Kalroth seems to be lost in thought as he stares at the handle of his hammer. Unlike everyone else here, he''s not showing any shock on his face. Then, he finally opens his mouth.


    "As you can see, my men are holding those beastkin captive. If you value their lives, you better do as I say."


    Well, that''s going to be a problem. But to tell the truth, there''s a part of me that''s impressed by the fact that he was able to say that with a straight face after what he said earlier...


    forli


    Things are going to start getting a bit more serious soon, I''m always afraid when I get to these parts of the story...

 Chapter 79: Anything to win

    "How disappointing... After everything I''ve heard about your strength, I didn''t expect you to be such a coward. Are you seriously going to use hostages to avoid fighting an elf girl?"


    I look at Kalroth while trying my best to make a disgusted expression. He seems to be a prideful man, so I''m hoping that by taunting him like this he will try to fight me fairly, even if it''s clear that he cannot win.


    But it seems like my taunt has had a bigger effect on his subordinates than on him, or rather, it seems to have scared them. Kalroth, on the other hand, doesn''t seem impressed, or if he is, he''s not letting it show on his face.


    "You see, strength is something that can come in many forms."


    "Are you about to argue that you are stronger than me because you have hostages?"


    "That depends, how much do you care about these people? If even half the rumors about you are true, this should not give me any power over you. But something is telling me that you might actually be a fraud."


    He gestures to the demons that are holding Karin''s father to get closer. Then, one of them gives him a black bracelet, and he tosses it to me.


    "That bracelet is a piece of equipment that will prevent you from using magic and will decrease your strength, you won''t be able to take it off on your own, at least not easily. Now, we will cut off one of Adrian''s legs for attempting to escape, unless you put that bracelet on your wrist."


    There are too many hostages... I don''t think that I''ll be able to save them all, at least not safely. And the feeling I''m getting from this bracelet is that it will only decrease my magic stat by around 1200 or so, that''s not enough to stop me from using magic. I think that I would be able to take it off whenever I want, so for now, I''ll do as he says.


    Uh, the strength reduction is more effective than I thought, I almost can''t even move... Wait a minute, did he just say the name of Karin''s father? Did he know him from before? I didn''t know his name.


    "So it was true." When Kalroth sees me put the bracelet on my wrist as he asked, a smirk appears on his face. But I think that I heard some relief in his voice. "Ever since you arrived at the demon wasteland, you have been fighting against many of my soldiers, and yet, nobody ever ended up dead. I knew that something didn''t add up, you sure do a great job at pretending to be some terrifying villain, but it seems like you''re really nothing more than a fraud."


    "I don''t really do that on purpose..."


    Why did this guy of all people have to be the one who manages to see right through me from the start?


    Karin''s father... Adrian, speaks up with a nervous voice. "Look, I''m sorry about what happened back then. If it''s me that you want-"


    "I was not talking to you. And why would I care about something that happened so long ago?"


    So they do know each other. But more importantly, Kalroth just turned his back on me! It seems like he''s lowered his guard because he thinks that I cannot use magic. This is my chance.


    Curses are not very usable in battle. They take a long time to cast, tend to require some form of physical contact with the target, and are too noticeable to be used as sneak attacks. That''s why I can normally only use them on an enemy that I''ve already subdued.


    But at this moment I''m right behind a distracted target, if I cast the spell quickly while concealing my magic I should be able to...


    "UAAAAAGH!"


    I attempted to place a curse of weakness on Kalroth, but something is wrong. He''s screaming and seems to be in a lot of pain, that''s not supposed to happen. And something is pushing back against my curse, it''s not working... I''ll try to use more power to force it through.


    "AAAAH!!!"


    What''s going on? My attempt to cast a curse is doing nothing more than hurt him. Wait, don''t tell me...


    "You... What is wrong with your body? Is this... ''equipment''?"


    I stop my curse, if I had continued, he would have died...


    "Ugh... what do you think you''re doing? You could have finished me off just now."


    "There was some kind of equipment protecting you against my curse, but it was... merged with your body. Perhaps that orc that used ''flesh shaping'' did it without your knowledge."


    "Yes, Garerg was the one who did this. He did it because I told him to."


    "WHAT!? Are you insane!? Do you even know how much damage that is doing to your health? That equipment was draining your life to fight against my curse!"


    "So what? If it helps me win a fight, I don''t care about the rest."


    That doesn''t make any sense.


    "Uh? But what''s the point of winning a fight if you end up dead? Your life is more important than being able to say that you won."


    "Hahaha! Don''t tell me that you stopped your spell to avoid killing me. If you''re not even willing to kill your enemies then you''re even more naive than I imagined. You remind me of someone..."


    "Really? Of Whom?"


    "Perhaps if I tell you that story you will understand... Have you heard about how I was born in the ''infernal caverns''? I spent a long time there... I could not find an exit, or rather, I didn''t even know that there was an exit. As far as I knew, the entire world was nothing more than rocks, lava, and powerful monsters."


    "I see... but why are you telling me this now?"


    "I was strong from the start, but not as strong as I''m now. It would have been impossible for me to survive in that place alone, however, there was someone else. A girl that looked similar to me, and was just as strong as I was. The two of us were able to survive together, but she didn''t get to live long enough to get a name."


    "What happened to her?"


    "One day, we found a group of beastkin explorers in the caverns. We had never seen other people before, so we followed them for a bit. However, they clearly didn''t know how to avoid danger in that place and ended up surrounded by a large group of powerful monsters. We should have stayed hidden, those monsters were too much even for us, but that girl didn''t want to let them die, so we went to help. And what do you think happened next? When the beastkin saw that the fight was not going our way, they used her to bait the monsters and ran away. I did manage to kill the monsters in the end, but she did not survive."


    "..."


    I notice Adrian lowering his head in shame, so they really did know each other...


    "At first, I was angry, I wanted to find those beastkin and get revenge. But after thinking about it more, I understood... When she decided to put herself in danger to save someone else, she let go of her ''strength'' and gave it to them. Those who were willing to do whatever was necessary to ''win'' were the strongest there, and the strongest can get away with anything they want. She chose to be weak, that''s why she lost... Do you understand why I''m telling you this?"


    "Because you think that I''m the same as her?"


    "You do not need to suffer the same fate she did. If you are willing to do whatever it takes to win, I can join you and teach you how to truly become the strongest."


    "I don''t... wait, join me? Don''t you mean that you want ME to join you?"


    "It''s obvious that, if you get rid of those useless morals you have, you will be stronger than me. I will do anything to be on the winning side, even if it means being second to someone else. But that''s only if you''re willing to do the same."


    That''s... not an offer I was expecting to get.


    "Alright, I accept."


    "Hahaha. I almost expected you to be too naive to even be able to lie, I guess that you''re not THAT far gone. But if you want me to believe that you are going to change your ways, you''re going to need to show me proof."


    Kalroth grabs one of Adrian''s arms and twists it until the bone breaks. Then, he pushes him at me while he''s screaming in pain. "Kill him, and I will follow your orders from now on."


    Adrian looks into my eyes with fear as I place a hand on his shoulder, and my ''flesh shaping'' heals his broken arm.


    "W-why? Everything that''s happening is my fault. Just kill me and save the others, save Karin..."


    "No, I cannot do that."


    "So that''s how it is." Kalroth looks at me with a sneer, then signals to his minions. "Everyone, from now on, if you see her move or try to use magic, kill two or three of the captives."


    He walks to me slowly and readies a punch. Wait, if I cannot move or use magic, how am I supposed to-


    "Oof."


    He punched me on the stomach, that hurt... and I cannot heal if I cannot use magic.


    "Do you get it now?"


    Next, he punches me in the face, breaking my nose and causing me to fall on the ground.


    What do I do? The other demons seem to be more scared than anything else, and they do not seem to be enjoying this situation at all. Maybe if I take down Kalroth, I can intimidate them and make them surrender... But there''s no way to know if that would work. If any of them gets the idea to kill one of the captives I might not be able to save them. And with the equipment using his very life to protect him from my magic, I cannot think of a way to defeat him without killing him. Any spell I could use would break him before breaking his defenses; it''s almost as if he''s using even himself as a hostage...


    "That''s right. Even with all of your levels and magic, if you are not willing to take any risks, if you''re not willing to do what''s necessary to win, you are weak."


    He''s going to hit me again. Is there nothing I can do?


    At that moment, suddenly, sweat covers all of Kalroth''s face, and he drops to one knee.


    What''s going on? That looks... like he has been poisoned. But how?


    Longleg jumps from me and runs to the doorway behind me, when I turn around, I see a familiar face.


    "I cannot believe the load of nonsense that you just said."


    "Ara..."


    Arana is talking to Kalroth. Earlier I felt traces of her magic on him, that was... one of her spiders, of course! That''s what poisoned him just now. She must have somehow placed it on his body earlier without him noticing.


    "You know, if a decent person went through the experience you had, the conclusion they would have taken is that being taken advantage of is awful, and would try to avoid doing something similar themselves. They probably would have trouble trusting others in the future and might try to get revenge on the ones who screwed them over, but that''s as bad as it would get."


    "Ara, thank you, but what are you..."


    She doesn''t even look in my direction and keeps talking to Kalroth.


    "You really went out of your way to learn the wrong lesson. And now you''re trying to pass it as some great truth you''ve discovered?"


    She saved me, but why is she ignoring me?


    For a short moment, I see her taking a brief, worried glance at me. That makes me think... is she planning to have him die like this?


    forli


    We''re now at a part of the story that focuses more on drama, but this is something I was planning from the start so I cannot skip it. I hope that you can enjoy this anyway :S.

 Maybe I need a break or something, I don’t know.

    forli


    You see, back when I started this story, I was not expecting to get a lot of readers, and with this being my first story I didn''t expect people to think that it was good at all. But I just thought that I would ignore the ratings and write the story I wanted to write. I was pleasantly surprised that this ended up being mildly popular and that some people actually enjoyed reading it, and writing proved to be a lot of fun.


    But then I became afraid of disappointing all those readers I had gotten, I knew that there were some aspects of my story (mostly the misunderstandings and Arana... ESPECIALLY Arana) that some people could find frustrating, so I stressed myself over how to make it all less annoying while still keeping the story as I wanted it to be, paying a lot of attention to all the complains anyone had.


    I also discovered that ignoring the ratings was A LOT more difficult than I initially thought, it''s by far the most prominent of all the statistics, the representation of how good of a job I''m doing. If it had been low from the start that would be one thing, but seeing how it started high and then keep lowering very slowly over the months just felt... depressing, it makes it seem like all my efforts are just making things worse. And I know that this is just a personal problem and I should just ignore it, but that''s easier said than done.


    And then there''s the worst part, the real reason for this rant, and that''s the people who occasionally read this story that, for a few days, keep leaving comments about how much they hate Arana or how everyone in the story is an idiot, often filled with hyperbole, swearing, and insults (some are worse than others), leaving me feeling like it never mattered how much effort I put into this (I know that it doesn''t look like it, but I really do put a lot of effort into making the misunderstandings seem at least somewhat believable and the characters likable, it''s just hard to do in a comedy about misunderstandings and I''m not really the best writer around). And before you say something like ''it''s just a few people, there are more people who enjoy your story'', you have NO FUCKING IDEA how stressful and frustrating it is to go to sleep or to leave home in the morning thinking ''I wonder how many new insults to my story and characters I''ll get to read when I wake up/get back home'', for a few days each time.


    Because of all of that, writing has been getting less and less fun and is starting to become a source of stress.


    And now, I have finally reached an important part of the story that I had been looking forward to writing from the start, the conclusion to the ''Arana is a bad friend'' side plot (for lack of a better name). Arana was a character that I wanted to be a bit mysterious at the start, making the readers think that she could even be evil. She also likes pranks which would help with the comedy and has a few personality issues that would need to be dealt with eventually, she was manipulated and betrayed when she was young and that led her to become manipulative herself and have trouble trusting others. And at last, in the chapter I was writing now, she and Luna finally get into a fight about Arana trying to kill Kalroth while trying to keep Luna out of it, and Luna confronts her over how despite being friends, Arana keeps trying to manipulate her into doing stuff instead of just asking for help and how she doesn''t seem to really trust Luna. Then, after the current conflict is over, they would have a serious talk (and Luna would also realize some of her own flaws).


    This is certainly not a point in the story where I would normally consider taking a break, but precisely because it''s such an important part, I was stressing harder than usual to make everything feel right. And just as I was writing chapter 80, a complete retard decided to leave the worst of that type of comments I''ve mentioned so far, with the most hyperbolic swearing and insults yet, for a few days before finally leaving a one-star rating and hopefully fucking off. And that has left me thinking ''do I REALLY need to deal with this crap?'' I have to admit that for a moment I was even tempted to just delete the story, but there is just so much I have planned that I still want to write... There''s no way I''ll quit because of such a stupid reason, so perhaps I should just take a break? I don''t see how that would solve anything, but I''m busy IRL now and the last thing I need is yet another source of stress... But none of that probably matters, I''m only feeling this way because I''m being stressed by real-life as well right now, and if I know myself I will probably feel completely different by tomorrow, and I''ll say ''what was I thinking? I don''t need to take a break at all! And I''ve been wanting to write this part of the story for so long!'' But that''s precisely why I''m writing this rant now, because I know that tomorrow I won''t want to do it and I just feel like I need to share all of this with someone.


    So yeah, sorry for making you read this, I guess that I''ll at least give some advice to anyone thinking of writing their own story. Whatever you do, do NOT write characters like Luna and Arana. If you look at the most popular and universally loved novels, you''ll see that the MC is always super clever, never makes a mistake, and never forgives or shows mercy to anyone who tricks them or annoys them in any way. And more importantly, any character that is on the MC''s side will be completely supportive to them, or else they will have to learn just how perfect the MC is or be revealed to be evil. Do not fall into the trap of wanting to write characters with flaws or relationships that are not completely black or white, it''s not worth it.


    I''ll probably end up deleting this post.

 Chapter 80: Idiot

    "M-my lord! What''s wrong!?"


    All of Kalroth''s subordinates are watching in fear and confusion as their master writhes in pain for no apparent reason.


    "You have just been bitten by a small venomous spider I had placed on your body earlier." Arana then turns to look at the rest of the demons. "If the rest of you don''t want to get bitten by the spiders I placed on you, release the hostages and drop your weapons right now."


    Does she really have a spider for each demon? That doesn''t seem possible, some of them are just the guards that happened to be around so she couldn''t have done anything to them beforehand. And I only get that feeling of Arana''s mana from one of them, which means that she''s bluffing.


    Normally I would not expect something like this to work, but it''s obvious that these people are motivated mostly by the fear they feel towards their boss; seeing him writhe on the ground like that must be causing a very strong impression in them.


    "If you don''t listen to me, I''ll start taking you out one by one."


    Arana snaps her fingers at that one guard with a spider. If I''m not mistaken, the venom from that spider is far less deadly than the one she used on Kalroth, but it still causes him to collapse.


    None of the others have spiders on them, but that doesn''t matter, they are all surrendering already. And without wasting a moment, three giant spiders come running, tie them all up and gag them, then run away. They sure are efficient.


    "Luna, could you please escort the captives outside."


    I take a glance at Kalroth. "Ara... Are you planning to let him die just like that?"


    "No, don''t worry. Just leave everything to me."


    "That''s a lie, isn''t it."


    She''s not saying anything... This cannot be true. I know that Arana keeps tricking me all the time, but that''s always for pranks that end up being harmless. She''s never done anything nearly as bad as lying to me to be able to kill someone.


    Arana turns and looks at my face for the first time.


    "I know you too well. You''re going to save him, even if I tell you not to."


    "Obviously! If there are no hostages, there''s no way he can beat me, so what is the problem!?"


    "You don''t understand. There are some people that you just cannot afford to be nice to. If you let this chance go, he will repay your kindness by stabbing you in the back."


    "So I should do whatever it takes to win? You are sounding a lot like him."


    "It''s not the same! Look, just leave for a while and I''ll take care of everything, please trust me."


    She wants me to leave and ''trust her''... I''ve just realized something, I think I know what that bad feeling I had was about.


    "Ara, when you said that I should go into the infernal caverns before. Were you trying to get rid of me while you took care of Kalroth?"


    "I was only trying to protect you. You are too nice to deal with something like that."


    No, I know what she really thinks of me. I''ve suspected this for a while, but I did not want to believe it.


    "You know... you say that you want me to trust you. And I do, I''ve always trusted you. That''s why I didn''t mind all the secrets you keep from me. I believed that there was a good reason for it. But now I see that you simply do not trust me enough to tell me the truth. You only see me as some idiot that will mess everything up, don''t you? You trust me so little that you''d rather try to confront an enemy far stronger than you by yourself than ask for my help."


    "That''s not true! I trust you, I really do. But I was the one who dragged you into this, that''s why it''s my responsibility to deal with the problems that you cannot handle."


    "First of all, you didn''t drag me into anything, I''m here because I want to. And second, I can handle this problem myself. Karin! Come here!"


    "Eh!? What do you want!?"


    The beastkin girl seems to have gotten scared by seeing me arguing with Arana. She''s trying to avoid making eye contact with me.


    "Let me heal your injuries. Then take the captives with you and go as far away from here as possible."


    "But..."


    "No buts! Do as I tell you!"


    "Eek! Y-yes!"


    And now there are no more potential hostages nearby. There''s no longer anything that anyone can use to threaten me.


    Kalroth is really tough, but it doesn''t look like he can survive the poison for much longer. I need to hurry up. But before I can reach him, a large spider monster drops on top of me from the ceiling.


    ''Shadow lance''


    I get it off me, but then I see another two even bigger spiders blocking my path.


    "What do you think you are doing? You know that you cannot stop me with force."


    "Even then, I cannot do nothing while you''re making such a big mistake."


    So she''s even willing to go this far... I have to admit that I have not given her many reasons to think that she doesn''t need to protect me, before she appeared I was getting beaten up with no idea of how to free the hostages. Even then, she''s fighting me to stop me from saving someone''s life, I cannot accept that.


    ''Shadow chain''


    She doesn''t stay chained for long, there''s a sudden flash of light, and the next moment, Arana is right next to me.


    ''Shining web''


    Her spell covers me with a white spiderweb. That magic she just used... did she turn herself into light? That would explain all the times she seems to show up from nowhere, if she can move at lightspeed for even a brief moment it would be the same as short-range teleportation.


    "You don''t understand, I cannot allow someone to die if I can save them, even if they are an evil person. This is not just me being naive."


    "I know, I already know how kind you are."


    "That''s not it, the reason why I cannot kill or allow anyone to die is that I cannot avoid thinking of what it means for someone to die. It''s not just some superstition about life being sacred or some morality that I learned from someone else. Death is something that can happen very easily and cannot be reverted, and yet its consequences are impossible to predict. Anything a person who died had been working to accomplish will be unfulfilled, any potential they had to change or improve themselves will be wasted, and every single person who knew them will also have their lives changed. For someone like me who''s obsessed with fully understanding and controlling every detail of everything I do, thinking about the massive consequences that a single death can have is the most terrifying thing. And for that reason I cannot let anyone die, I cannot just say ''oh, he''s evil, it''ll be better if he dies'', and if you ask me, it is the people who can say that who are the naive ones."


    While she was listening to my speech Arana''s body started to tremble a little, and now she''s looking at the ground.


    "Yes, you always overthink things too much and end up missing the more basic stuff... But Luna, this time there was a prophecy that said that Kalroth is going to end up getting killed by you. I cannot even imagine what he''ll do to accomplish such a feat, and I don''t want to find out."


    "So that''s why you want to kill him so much? Because of that stupid prophecy?"


    My ''mana corrosion'' dissolves Arana''s web without trouble, and I get closer to grab her with my arms. She attempts to turn into light again, but now that I know about that magic it''s not too difficult to deal with. It takes a few seconds to activate and during that time she''s vulnerable to my spells.


    ''Mind void''


    "Luna, please..."


    Arana falls asleep and I look for the small spider on her hat.


    "Longleg, can you also give orders to Arana''s spiders? Please tell them to take Arana somewhere safe."


    He nods and the two spiders that were blocking my way leave, carrying their master.


    Now that my friend is out of the way, I go next to Kalroth, who''s somehow still conscious.


    "I will remove the poison from your body, but only if you promise that you will allow me to place a curse on you and that you will never hurt anyone again."


    "Y-yes, I give you my word."


    I don''t really think that I can trust him, but I can just beat him if he doesn''t keep his word.


    That poison was more difficult to remove than I expected, where did Arana get something like that? But less than a minute after getting rid of it Kalroth has already recovered.


    "What you said earlier... was that true? You won''t let even your enemies die?"


    "Yes, that''s true."


    He seems to be thinking of something, did I manage to get through to him?


    "I see... you really are an idiot."


    "Eh?"


    *Bang*


    It happened too fast for me to react. Kalroth punched in the direction of one of his lower-level guards and some skill of his sent a shockwave that crushed the guard''s head. He just killed him... why? He was his subordinate, no? This doesn''t make any sense.


    Before I could get over my shock Kalroth grabbed another guard and is holding a dagger to his neck.


    "Mmmmm! Mmm!


    "What are you doing? Isn''t he on your side?"


    "You said that you would not let even your enemies die, didn''t you? So he should work as a hostage too."


    Don''t tell me... the reason why he killed that guy was just so that he could prove that he''s willing to do it? What the hell was he thinking to kill someone for such an idiotic reason!? No, he wasn''t thinking anything. I''m starting to believe that I''m the only one who even bothers to think.


    "You better surrender or I''ll kill him too!"


    So Arana was right, like always... Am I actually the one in the wrong for wanting to avoid needless suffering? It feels as if the entire world wants me to become less kind, to be more like a villain.


    "Are you listening to me!?"


    Then perhaps I should give this demon king wannabe a taste of what he wants.


    ''Shadow lance''


    "UGH!!!"


    My spell pierces the hostage and injures Kalroth, causing him to let go and fall to one knee. But that wasn''t a normal ''shadow lance'', its mana also contained a few flesh shaping spells capable of healing the hostage the very instant it left his body.


    That was a dangerous move, I estimate that there was around a 0.03% chance of the hostage dying. Normally, a risk like that would be unacceptable, but someone has died already, we are past the point of not taking any risks.


    ''Share pain''


    When I rush at Kalroth, he stabs his dagger into my arm. My curse then causes the exact same wound to appear on his arm, and unlike me, he cannot heal it immediately. I then send a ''mana push'' at him, making him lose balance and hit his head on the floor.


    "S-stop."


    "Stop? I already stopped Arana from killing you. And apparently, I was an idiot for doing so."


    ''Shadow lance''


    "ARGH!"


    As tough as he is, my spells seem to be hurting him quite a bit, and I''m not even using much power. And looking at his face I can tell that all his confidence from before has been replaced with fear.


    Next, he sends another one of those shockwaves at a guard far away, forcing me to get away from him for a moment to intercept it, is that the only trick he knows? Now he''s taking the chance to run away, but I won''t let him go. He''s never going to hurt anyone again, this time I''ll make sure of it.


    forli


    Thanks to everyone who left a comment on my stupid rant, I was thinking about explaining myself a bit better or maybe address some of those comments, but I just don''t feel like doing that right now... perhaps some other time.


    But the one thing I want to make clear is that I don''t want you to think that I don''t want any criticism, the comments that bothered me just happened to be mostly hyperbolic rude, and unhelpful, don''t stop yourselves from telling me what you really think of my story for fear of hurting my feelings. And really, the thing that caused them to bother me so much is that I was afraid of writing this chapter, if you''ve read it you can probably tell why.


    Oh, and in case you didn''t notice, I drew a new cover.

 Chapter 81: Terror unleashed

    -Kalroth-


    "What the hell was that!?"


    I thought that girl was just some naive idiot, too weak-hearted to hurt anyone. She even went as far as to allow me to beat her up, I had never seen something so absurd.


    But just now... it was as if she transformed into a completely different person, or rather, a completely different thing. I had never felt such an intense killing intent. And when I looked into her eyes, I saw a bottomless abyss of darkness, it was as if the grim reaper was staring into my soul.


    Was that some sort of trick? Some magic to terrify her enemies? Or perhaps it''s the other way around, she was acting before, and only now did I see a glimpse of her true nature. After all, there''s no way that a kind person would be able to reach the level of power that she has.


    Either way, I need to get help. She''s too strong for me to beat her by myself, but my minions are not too far away. The guards that happened to be there at the moment were useless, but among my underlings, there are many who were able to obtain the ''demon lord'' title on their own. Even if her level is a bit higher than mine I should be able to defeat her with their help.


    "Why is it so cold all of a sudden?"


    It feels like the temperatures dropped quite a bit and really fast. And not just that... did everything get darker? I look out a window and see that the sky has turned black. Was it not daytime a moment ago? No, this is not just night, I cannot even see the stars...


    A drop of cold sweat goes down my neck when I look behind and see... darkness. Everything in the direction I just came from is black, and I can see the shadows moving, trying to get closer to me. In the middle, I can make out a figure that is somehow even darker than the complete darkness surrounding it, except for two glowing violet orbs floating where its eyes should be.


    "W-what are you?"


    The abomination that stands before me is not something that belongs in this world. Is this the real form of the queen of darkness? Was she only pretending to be an elf all along?


    I need to get away from her! As I run, I keep stumbling into walls, the various hallways and rooms are twisted as if space itself has been distorted. Or is it just that I''ve lost my sense of balance and direction? The oppressive atmosphere that has enveloped the entire castle is making my head hurt. And the guards and servants who couldn''t withstand it are laying unconscious here and there.


    In the next room, I finally find the four demon lords I was searching for. Their levels range from 270 to 300, the strongest under my command.


    "Hey, boss! What''s going on? Why do you look so scared?"


    I look scared? Who the hell would not look scared after seeing that thing!?


    "Get ready to fight! She''s about to get here!"


    "Who''s about to get here? That scary-looking elf?"


    Damn it, she already caught up. These idiots are not taking her seriously enough... Wait, why would they even think of her as just an elf in the first place? Are they not seeing the same thing I am?


    "Kill her!"


    At least they followed my order and attacked her. A massive wave of magma, a hurricane concentrated into a fist-sized sphere, a silver arrow powerful enough to pierce steel without even slowing down, a rain of stone spears, and my own ''ranged strike'', all reach her at the same time. Even that monster must have taken some severe damage from such an assault.


    The darkness is not letting me see if the attack was successful. However, my subordinates are staring at it with terrified expressions, could it be that they can see? A wave of dark mana rushes at us, almost knocking us down, then I see the dark figure emerge from the shadows, and this time I can see her clearly. Her clothes are torn in a few places but she doesn''t seem to be injured at all.


    "Get out of my way."


    All four of my subordinates hold their necks as if something was strangling them, they collapse after a few seconds. It seems like I''m the only one capable of enduring that monstrous killing intent when it''s being projected at me directly... Wait, ''killing intent''...


    I just realized something unbelievable. All of the strange things I''ve been seeing and experiencing were not the result of magic nor were they real. This is all in my head, this is simply the only way my mind can interpret the indescribable fear that I''m experiencing.


    After all, an intimidation skill relies on people''s sense of danger to scare them, it requires its user to be willing to cause harm for it to work. So how can she intimidate people effectively if she doesn''t want to hurt anyone? The answer is that she can''t, the terror that she inspires in people is something that happens despite her efforts to the contrary. And what I''m experiencing now, is what happens when she''s actually trying to kill someone.


    I have put so much effort to try to become the demon king. Becoming stronger, doing everything I could think of to make others fear me... That''s how it usually works for anyone who tries to become someone extraordinary. It doesn''t matter if it''s a hero or a demon lord, they will have to go out of their way to fulfill that role.


    But that girl is different. The queen of darkness, the very embodiment of terror, is not some role that she''s fulfilling, that is simply what she is. Even if she does not want to.


    I didn''t realize her true nature until now that it''s already too late, and like a fool I made her want to stop holding back. I made her unleash the terror that she had been keeping sealed.


    ''Shadow lance''


    Her spell graces my leg, creating a new wound, but I need to ignore the pain. I have to get to the vault and find that weapon. My mages could identify that it is a powerful tool, but not what it did exactly, and the one who gave it to me was far too suspicious so I never used it before. But now it''s the only hope I have left.


    She''s no longer chasing after me, where did she go? Each time I turn a corner, I feel as if my heart is going to jump out of my chest as I cannot help but imagine running right into her.


    At last, I reach the vault. And when I enter, I run right into her, she was already inside.


    "H-how did you know where I was headed?"


    "I didn''t know."


    "Then why are you here!?"


    "This castle is too big, I got lost."


    ...


    She got lost? But I took the most direct route and I was running, how did she get here before me?


    "Well then, let''s get this done already."


    "ARGH!!!"


    She places her hand on my chest and an excruciating pain fills my entire body for a few seconds until she stops and lets me catch a break.


    "So you''re not just trying to kill me? You''re going to torture me too?"


    "This is not torture, I''m trying to get that equipment out of your body."


    "Equipment?"


    "Yes, the one protecting you from my curses. Taking it out by force when you have it active is going to be really painful for you, and there''s a chance that it will even kill you. So I recommend that you unequip it of your own will."


    "Wait... so you''re trying to curse me? You don''t want to kill me?"


    "No, but if you are going to kill other people then I''m willing to use harsher methods. After all, it''s not as if your life is worth more than anyone else''s."


    So that was not killing intent? The only thing that changed is that she''s now willing to use ''harsher methods''? All the things I felt... that fear that could make my mind snap... That was STILL holding back!?


    "Ha. Hahaha! HAHAHAHA!!!"


    "What''s so funny."


    "Nothing, I just thought that this world is truly doomed if something like you is running free."


    "What are you talking about? Anyway, are you going to let me do this the easy way or not?"


    "Didn''t I tell you earlier? I will do anything to win. Even if it means my death. I won''t make this easy for you."


    "But you were not always like that. You loved that girl you told me about, didn''t you? Can''t you remember that?"


    Did I love her? Maybe that''s right, I remember that it was painful when she died...


    "No, I did not. Her death taught me that winning is all that matters in this world, that''s all she ever meant to me."


    Before she can stop me, I grab the dagger I came here for. A strange weapon that looks more like a spike with a handle.


    "What is that?"


    "This is a magic tool that was given to me by a strange green witch. And it''s finally time to use it."


    I still remember what she told me. ''You still care about many things other than power. Only when you are truly ready to throw away everything else will you be able to use this.'' It made it sound like I would have to sacrifice my life or something even worse.


    I wanted to obtain the demon king title because I believed that such an achievement would serve as proof that I had ''won''. But if I can take this abomination down with me, it would be an even greater accomplishment. So I no longer care about anything else, not even my life.


    After making my decision, I suddenly receive the knowledge of how to use this tool, and I stab it right into my chest.


    "WHAT ARE YOU DOING!? STOP IT!!!" Heh, now she''s the one who looks afraid.


    I was expecting to either explode or turn into a monster, something like that, but that''s not what happened. Instead, I suddenly understood the truth about the world, that nothing in it matters.


    I can feel the fire leaving my mana. It is not fire mana anymore, nor does it have any other element. I didn''t know that such a thing was possible.


    And, of course, I''m not afraid of the queen of darkness anymore. After all, to be able to feel fear one would need to think that life is not completely meaningless, and that would be nothing but madness.


    Yes, the fear in me has left, along with everything else. And my now empty mana is slowly starting to unmake everything around me.


    forli


    Now that it was finally time to write it I couldn''t decide how to do it exactly, and as always I''m afraid of writing these parts of the story that do not focus on comedy. Anyway, I hope you liked it.

 Chapter 82: True demon

    I think that Kalroth just went crazy, he grabbed some weird dagger and stabbed himself with it. That would be crazy enough with a regular dagger, but that thing is causing his mana to start pouring out from every cell in his body. There''s no way that he can survive that, is he trying to kill himself?


    No, that''s not all. I can also feel his mana... change? I have never seen anything like this before, it is as if the fire in his fire mana is gradually disappearing.


    That hollow mana is slowly expanding around him as it tries to escape from Kalroth''s body, it doesn''t seem to be under his control. The tables, the crates, the weapons... everything that comes into contact with the strange mana starts to slowly turn to dust and fall apart. Looking at my hand I can tell that the same thing is happening to my body, if I just stand here doing nothing I''m going to die... Well, not that I care.


    ...


    Wait, what am I saying? Of course I care! I don''t want to die! Why did I even think that? Fortunately, it doesn''t seem like this type of damage is particularly difficult to heal.


    Now that I think about it, there''s one phenomenon I''ve read about that resembles this. Someone''s mana becoming hollow and destroying everything in their vicinity, including the owner of that mana himself. There are only a small number of reports of such a thing happening and none of them were confirmed, so I never gave it much thought until now...


    "Hey! You need to stop this! Take that dagger out of your chest or you are going to die!"


    "..."


    Kalroth seems to be unresponsive, something is clearly wrong with him. Whatever, I''ll remove the dagger myself.


    I remove the strange spike-shaped weapon without any difficulty, which seems to accomplish exactly nothing. The hollowed mana has gathered in his chest and is still transforming what''s left of his fire mana.


    After taking a couple of seconds to use my mana sense and analyze the situation I think that I can tell where this is going. Right now the remaining fire mana is keeping the hollowed parts stuck to Kalroth''s body like glue. Once it has all been converted, it will begin to expand rapidly, and considering the strength of his mana, it will most likely engulf the entire castle. Kalroth will die at that moment, I will probably survive, but the same cannot be said of everyone else around here. I need to stop this somehow.


    ''Mana corrosion''


    That spell normally does the trick when I want to get rid of mana, but against this type, it doesn''t seem to be working at all. I guess that was like trying to neutralize an acid by throwing even more acid at it.


    ''Black dome''


    I try to surround it with a dome-shaped black wall to see if I can contain it, but it falls apart like everything else, all it can do is slow it down a little.


    I''m starting to run out of ideas... at this point, I should probably be starting to panic, but there''s something strange about that mana. For some reason, I don''t seem to be afraid of it at all, even though I know that it is dangerous.


    There''s only one way for me to stop this, I don''t like it but it seems like I have no choice. I have to destroy every part of his body that''s supporting the hollowed mana, that should at the very least stop it from expanding any further.


    ''Shadow lance''


    As expected, my spell was weakened so much by that hollow mana bubble that it did no damage at all. I''ll need something stronger... So I need to calculate how much power I need for my spell to get through without causing too much damage, then I need to control it perfectly to preserve the most vital parts of his body, and then I have to heal him in an instant, with the same mana I used for my attack. And he''s already an inch away from death as a result of the hollowed mana eating away his body... The chances of him surviving this procedure are less than one in a thousand, doing this would be the same as killing him...


    But what else am I supposed to do!? If I do nothing, he''s going to die anyway along with a bunch of other people. Perhaps if I had more time I would be able to come up with something better, but I don''t... I''ve already wasted too much time thinking of useless things, let''s do it now.


    ''Obliteration blast''


    I do my best to cast a powerful spell while limiting its power. My plan somehow works better than I expected and the hollowed mana not only stops expanding, it also transforms into dark mana somehow... I''ll have to figure out how that works when I get the chance.


    As for Kalroth, when I started healing him I noticed right away that he didn''t make it... If only I was better at controlling my magic and using flesh shaping I might have been able to save him, but I was not good enough.


    I just killed a person, didn''t I... And yet I do not feel as if I did. Instead, I feel as if I had just watched him kill himself. Looking at it rationally, that is basically what happened; he used a tool that killed him and would have killed many more if I didn''t stop it. And since I wasn''t given any other valid choice it just doesn''t feel as if I was the one who did it. But is it normal to be rational in a situation like this? Am I heartless for thinking this way?


    I take a look at the spike dagger in my hand.


    "What is this thing anyway?"


    He mentioned a green witch, could that have been Cureva again?


    ''The extent of the crimes will be revealed to her. And she will be forced to make a decision to kill.'' I remember what the prophecy said, and the sudden realization makes me want to punch whoever is in charge of writing these prophecies in the face. It said ''the extent of the crimes''... ''the crimes'', not ''his crimes'', the crime that ''forced'' me to kill Kalroth was not his, it was hers!!! Why did it have to be worded in such a misleading way!?


    This is too much, my head hurts... I think I need to sit down for a moment.


    Arana somehow managed to wake up and find me a lot faster than I expected, but she''s been standing there without saying anything for five minutes now... I guess she just does not know what to say.


    "Ara, since Kalroth is dead and I''m alive, does that mean that I won? Is this what winning feels like? He threw away everything, his morals, his subordinates, even his life... for THIS!?"


    Why did I get angry all of a sudden? And then I calmed down right after. I just cannot decide how I''m supposed to feel.


    "Luna, please do not blame yourself, I''m the one who-"


    "I''m not blaming myself and you are not the one who did anything."


    Before she has a chance to ask me what I''m even saying, I show her the dagger. "He apparently got this from Cureva, do you have any idea of what it is?"


    "Is that what caused his mana to become void mana? Then it can only be the work of demons... But there are not supposed to be any left in this world, so how could she have gotten a tool from them?"


    "What are you talking about? There are demons everywhere."


    "Ah, no. I''m talking about the REAL demons. Do you know how the beings we call demons used to be called the ''manaborn''? And during the war against the demon king, they were renamed after the demons that had not been seen for thousands of years."


    "So the real demons existed?! I always thought they were just a myth!"


    "They were beings from another dimension that invaded our world a long time ago and fought a war against the five gods, who also existed by the way. In the end, they were all destroyed or banished, so they are no longer around. Even I do not know much about them, only that they were made of void mana and could drain the elements from other mana to make more of themselves."


    "The five gods? Then Vilde might know something about this. I guess I''ll have to ask him."


    "Who''s Vilde?"


    "The guy that was called the god of fire a long time ago. I met him when I reached the bottom of the infernal caverns."


    "Luna... It seems like you are not in a good state of mind after what just happened, but that''s not-"


    "I met him! I swear!"


    She doesn''t believe me... her lack of trust has certainly been causing problems, she didn''t warn me about Cureva and she''s still not told me what plans she has for me. We cannot keep going like this, or rather, I should not have let her keep all of these secrets from me in the first place. We need to have a serious conversation after this.


    I take another look at the dagger, could this thing also get rid of my dark mana? Then people would not be afraid of me anymore, and if I also lost my power, I would no longer find myself in situations like these with people''s lives in my hands... If I just stab myself, all of my problems will go away, just like that.


    WHAT!? Where did those thoughts come from!? I don''t want to get rid of my problems in that way. My dark magic is a part of who I am!


    Feeling suspicious, I use my appraisal stone to check the dagger, and it reveals that it''s level 91. This is not the information I would get from appraising a piece of equipment, this is like what I get when I check a person or a monster.


    "Ara, I think that you were wrong about one thing, this is not some tool that Cureva got from a demon." The spike detaches itself from the handle and begins to float in the air. The metallic paint falls off, revealing a semitransparent material underneath. "This is a demon."


    The spike flies at me and I lift a hand to stop it. It pierces a bit into my palm, but that''s fine... It could only do what it did to Kalroth because he literally allowed it to do it, and I am not a complete idiot like him.


    Whatever this being is, it feels like it''s even lower than a monster. Maybe it''s because I''m a healer, but the only thing I can compare it to is some type of virus.


    Just now it tried to do something worse than killing me, it tried to make me deny my existence, and yet, I do not feel angry. For some reason, it seems impossible to feel any anger or fear towards this thing, but I still know that it needs to be destroyed.


    I close my hand, using all my grip strength to crush it. The spike begins to crumble and its void mana starts to become dark until it falls apart and disappears without a trace.


    forli


    Did anyone remember that demons used to be called manaborn? I''m not sure if I''ve mentioned it enough times before this, and I don''t know if I ever implied that the ''true demons'' that they got that name from were their own separate thing. The reaction I was going for with this was ''oh right, that was a thing'', but I''m afraid the one I got was ''wait, that was a thing?''.

 Chapter 83: Confession

    I decided to place Kalroth''s body in my storage. Since he''s already dead there should be no problem, and I''ll need to perform an autopsy to figure out what happened to him.


    After that, I went with Arana to an empty room and asked her to tell me about Cureva. Listening to her story made me understand why she seemed to hate her so much, she even caused the death of her mother... Cureva is even more dangerous than I thought, but that only makes me want to ask this question even more.


    "Why didn''t you tell me all of this earlier?"


    "I didn''t want to talk about that. And I didn''t think that you would really understand what she''s really like..."


    "We keep coming back to this problem, don''t we? Maybe I would be able to understand you and your problems if you actually tried to explain them to me."


    "It''s not so simple. It''s a long story..."


    "Then you should get started already. And make sure to tell me everything that I should know, or I don''t see how I''ll be able to trust you anymore."


    I sit down on a chair. Arana lets out a sigh and sits down as well.


    "The 6 witches have been keeping the world at peace for many generations. It all started 2000 years ago when the demon king had brought the world to the edge of ruin. Even after his defeat the damage he had caused was not undone. It was then that a certain group of women started to work in secret to set things right. With their great wisdom, their mastery of the elements, and the world relics they had in their possession, they negotiated peace with the various armies of demons that had lost their master, they helped the dragons, who had been driven to the brink of extinction to get together and create their own country, and they restored order to the many countries that had fallen into anarchy.


    After proving how much they could accomplish by working together, they decided to form a sisterhood, and in a gathering of various world leaders, they were made permanent custodians of the world relics and many other items that were deemed too powerful or dangerous to be used freely. And then, to ensure that they could continue to protect the world even after their deaths, they made a magic contract with the world itself. When one of them died, their souls were not reborn like normal. Instead, they would impregnate a previously chosen woman with magic in a process similar to the way that demons are born. That allowed them to be born with bodies similar to their previous ones, as well as retain a part of their power and some of their memories."


    "Wait. You have memories from your previous lives?!"


    "Eh... I started to remember a few things after becoming 10 years old, but only a small number of key moments.


    Anyway, as of now, three unusual circumstances have caused my sisters to abandon their duties. The first is Cureva''s... unusual personality. Expecting every generation of witches to be like the original one was a mistake. Even if we are their reincarnations, each time we are reborn we become a different person, it was only a matter of time until one of us came out wrong. The current Cureva is completely unlike the previous ones. It''s not that anyone did anything wrong, there''s simply something in her brain that does not work the way it should. And her evil is like poison, everyone around her becomes a worse version of themselves. Felias was always a bit arrogant, but she would not have broken all of our rules if it wasn''t for Cureva''s misguidance, and even someone as kind as Rana took part in a murder plot..."


    Arana stops talking for a moment and I can tell that she''s struggling to hold back her sadness and anger.


    "But she''s only one of three? What are the other two?"


    "Well, the second is you."


    "ME?!"


    She''s not going to blame me for what her sisters did, is she?


    "Or rather, it''s the prophecy of the queen of darkness. Me and my sisters were entrusted with a great deal of power and knowledge, but it is not our place to rule the world directly, we''re only supposed to help from the shadows, without letting most people know that we even exist.


    But when Felias heard that prophecy, she believed that it was talking about her and took it as a sign that she was meant to become the queen of the world. To obtain the ''queen of darkness'' title, she broke our rules and absorbed the power of the ''seed of darkness'' that would have been the source of the god of darkness that never existed and she was supposed to protect."


    "So she also has dark magic at rank 20?"


    "Yes, and her level rose to above 500. Although I believe that she wasn''t able to master that power until recently."


    "Then what if the real queen of darkness is her and not me?"


    "No, she only decided to do that after the prophecy had already been made, and she had to cheat to get the title. You are the real queen of darkness, anyone who sees you would be able to tell right away."


    "If you say so..."


    "The third and last unusual circumstance was the emergence of an unexpected power. Until now, the dragon country was by far the strongest in the world, and they helped our predecessors in protecting the world. But now there''s another country in the northern continent that has become even stronger."


    Stronger than a country of dragons? It''s easy to forget since the only one I know keeps getting beaten up all the time, but dragons are really strong. An entire country of dragons should be practically invincible, so how can there be a stronger one?


    "Are you talking about Mekria? I think that they call it the country of machines."


    "Uh? How did you know?"


    "I didn''t, that''s just the only country in the northern continent I know about and I wanted to guess something."


    I remember that Rana got her car from that country, it seems like it was a relatively recent invention from there.


    "..."


    "So, what''s the problem with that country becoming strong?"


    "The problem is that when a country becomes so much more powerful than all the others, there''s a good chance that it will eventually start to invade them. Felias was supposed to pull some strings from the shadows to prevent such a thing from happening. Instead, she took advantage of her position to take over and make herself the queen of Mekria. Now she''s planning to use it as a starting point to take over the world.


    When I learned what Felias and Cureva were planning, I knew that it was my duty to stop them somehow, but there was simply nothing that I could do about it. All I could think of was to try searching for the real queen of darkness... That prophecy made her sound like some villain so I was not sure of what to do when I found her, but when I found you, you turned out to be quite different from what I expected.


    You were already level 360 the first time I met you, and your dark magic was at rank 15, I had little doubt that you would eventually obtain the queen of darkness title. Now, you need to understand that with how powerful Felias is, if she also had that prophecy on her side it would be impossible to stop her, but you were on your way to becoming even stronger than her, and the prophecy seemed to match you much better. On top of that, I was certain that if you ended up becoming the ruler of a country you would do a much better job than Felias. My oldest sister is really smart, smarter than me at least, but she''s not as smart as she thinks she is. That''s why I waited until your dark magic reached rank 20, and then... then... I..."


    It seems like Arana finally reached the part that she didn''t want to get to. I already suspect what''s coming next and I''m not sure of how to respond.


    "Arana, if I don''t even know what you did, I won''t be able to forgive you."


    "You were living almost as a recluse and would have never left the city on your own. You also had a very low opinion of yourself and didn''t even realize how powerful you were. If I told you that I needed your help to save the world you would have refused completely. I didn''t know what to do, so I... decided to make that prophecy public knowledge. I revealed myself as the witch of light to the nearest oracle and included an image of you in the prophecy to make people think that the queen of darkness was you and not Felias. I hoped that the journey would teach you what you''re really capable of and what you really want."


    So she was the one responsible for what happened back then. It''s not that I don''t understand her, she has a duty to protect the world and must have been desperate, I was the only option she had. And it''s true that if she had told me all of this back then I would have probably hidden in a hole somewhere for fear of getting into trouble. But I have learned many things about myself since then, now I know that I''m powerful enough to do a lot of good, and that I''m not someone who wants to live a quiet and peaceful life. Having said that...


    "I understand why you did what you did, but I cannot agree with HOW you did it."


    "What do you mean?"


    "If you needed to teach me, there should have been a way to do it without deceiving me, and without forcing me to leave my home against my will. With everything you''ve told me I think that I finally understand you. What you said about Cureva turning everyone into worse versions of themselves... that happened to you as well."


    "Eh?!"


    "The way she used you made you believe that deception and manipulation is the way to make people help you. You think that that''s what smart people do, because that''s what someone who outsmarted you did. You''ve been trying to beat Cureva at being Cureva, but that''s not only impossible, it''s also turning you into a bad person. And if you want me to continue to trust you in the future, you''re going to need to change that part of yourself."


    "I''ve been trying to be like Cureva? That might be true... and you think that I can change?"


    "Of course, and to begin... I want you to show me your status."


    "My status?"


    "Yes, you already saw mine a long time ago. It''s not right for you to know so much more about me than I know about you."


    "I see, but... You want to see it right now?"


    "Yes, right now."


    "Ok then..."


    Name: Arana


    Race: Witch


    Class: Summoner


    Level: 77


    Stats


    Strength: 98


    Speed: 117


    Magic: 240


    Dexterity: 211


    Toughness: 95


    Wisdom: 136


    Magic


    Light: 113 (Rank 10)


    Fire: 0 (Rank 0)


    Water: 0 (Rank 0)


    Earth: 0 (Rank 0)


    Wind: 0 (Rank 0)


    Dark: 0 (Rank 0)


    Skills


    Inheritance of light


    Clothes-crafting


    Spider language


    Witch''s eye


    Quick casting


    Mana conservation


    Encyclopedic knowledge


    Multi-casting


    Titles


    Witch of light


    Relic guardian


    Friend of spiders


    Archmage


    Master of annoyance


    Avenger


    Mmm, seems like her level increased recently. Other than that this is more or less what I expected, that wisdom is so high... But there are a couple of things that I might want to ask her about.


    "So this is where you were hiding!" My thoughts get interrupted by Xania suddenly entering the room. Her hair is a mess and her face looks exhausted... I wonder what happened.


    "Oh, Xania. Is something wrong?"


    "You... are you seriously asking me that after the spectacle you created just a moment ago?! Your intimidation was so strong that it caused everyone in the castle to have hallucinations or just fall unconscious!"


    "Uh... Was it really that bad?"


    "Yes! And now everyone is in a contest to see who can come up with the most ludicrously brutal method of killing Kalroth that they claim they saw you use. Even though I''m sure that none of them saw anything... They''re all also trying to figure out how to best serve you to be spared the same fate."


    "Wait, serve me?"


    Xania looks at me with an expression of complete disbelief and then places both of her hands on her face.


    "You have the demon lord title, don''t you?"


    "Yes, I do."


    "Then you should know that what you just did was a textbook takeover of another demon lord''s underlings. You defeated him one against one and then made sure to terrorize all of his subordinates."


    "That''s not what I was trying to do..."


    "Well, it''s what you did. And now every demon in the wasteland is going to think that you are their new ruler."


    "Oh... Mmm... Uh... EEEEEH?!"


    forli


    I also had trouble with the sheer number of things that I wanted Arana to explain here. This was way too much exposition, so I had to summarize everything a lot and even omit several things that would make sense for Arana to tell Luna now. And even then I had to cut the chapter sort, I guess next chapter will be a shorter one since I had planned for it to be the second half of this one, then again it will probably work better as its own thing.


    So for good or for bad, I''m just glad to finally be done with the whole ''Arana deceiving Luna'' thing. Even if I know that people will still continue to leave complaints in the previous chapters...

 Chapter 84: The queen of darkness

    "Wait! I didn''t say anything about wanting to be their ruler! Why are they jumping to that conclusion?!"


    "I just told you, the demons of the wasteland always follow the strongest. It''s just natural that everyone would surrender to you after showing off your power as you did."


    It seems like I got into trouble once again, and Xania is making it sound like it was my fault...


    "Then I guess I''ll have to go and tell them that this is all a misunderstanding."


    "Of course, you don''t want to become the next ruler..." Xania looks dejected for some reason.


    "Is something wrong?"


    "It''s nothing, I was thinking of what''s going to happen next after you leave..."


    "What is going to happen?"


    "That''s... not something you should be concerned about."


    "Each time the demons of the wasteland lose their ruler, the various tribes start fighting each other in an attempt to take their place." Since Xania didn''t want to tell me, Arana decided to tell me herself. "I''ve heard that there are always a large number of deaths when that happens, so I can understand why Xania was hoping that you would become the next ruler and keep them in check."


    "A large number of deaths?!"


    "Don''t even think of becoming our ruler just to save us! You do not owe us anything, and this is all our own fault anyway."


    "Your own fault? What do you mean?"


    Xania turns her head from me and lets out a sigh.


    "The demon wasteland has some very high concentrations of mana, the demons that are born here are often stronger than both the natural races and other demons. You might think that our power should have given us an advantage, but it has been nothing but a curse.


    We keep saying that strength is all that matters so that we can claim to be better than everyone else. That belief has caused us to be always fighting against each other. Our leaders have only been demon lords that ruled with fear and were only interested in using our strength to attack other countries, just to get completely defeated every single time. We have done very little to improve the wasteland, and the constant fighting has turned this place into a complete mess."


    "That tends to happen to people with strength they didn''t earn," says Arana. "If you don''t know how to control your power, your power will control you. There was a time when the dragons came close to extinction, all because of the arrogance that was born from their power."


    "Oh, do you think that the same thing could happen to me?"


    "Don''t worry Luna. You did earn your power, and it''s clear that you are in complete control of it."


    I hope that she''s right...


    "Anyway, Xania, are you sure that you don''t want me to become your new ruler?"


    "It''s not that I don''t want that. But you should not accept such a big responsibility for our sake. If you don''t want to be our queen, do not feel like you have to."


    "I see, but... I''m not really sure that I don''t want to."


    "EH?!"


    "It''s just that, when I think about it, there are a lot of benefits for me if I do this. I''ve always wanted to teach my magic to people, but much of it is illegal in most places. That''s why I don''t want to abandon the ''disciples of darkness'' who I''ve only started to teach, and if I become the ruler of this wasteland I might be able to expand them further. I would also like to finally have a place to stay, I''m tired of running away from everywhere I go. Oh, and... If I really can make this wasteland a better place, that would also be a benefit for me. I know that this might sound conceited, but being seen by people as some kind of savior has always been a dream of mine."


    "Then, are you going to become our queen?"


    "I don''t know, that decision is too big for me to make right now. And to be honest, I don''t think that I would do a good job as a queen. My wisdom stat is only 4, and telling people what to do couldn''t be any further away from my area of expertise."


    "Thinking about all the rulers we''ve had until now, I cannot see how you could possibly be worse. Believe it or not, Kalroth was above the average."


    "Well, I don''t know... Ara, what do you think?"


    "You already know what I think. Making you the queen of darkness has been my goal since the start. And by that, I mean making you an actual queen. You are perfect for that role."


    "Why are you so sure about that?"


    "Just think about it. If you become a queen, how would you rule your country?"


    Mmm, that''s a surprisingly easy question to answer.


    "I would probably do the bare minimum of ruling and would try to get people who actually know what they are doing to run the country for me."


    "See? You''re perfect!" I don''t know if that''s supposed to be a compliment or... "Also, did you say that your wisdom is only 4? Why don''t you check it again?"


    "What are you talking about? Every time I''ve looked at it, it said-"


    !!!


    It is 6! I looked at my status and it says that my wisdom is 6!!!


    "Xania! Look at this! Am I seeing things or is this a 6?!"


    "It is, but... Isn''t a wisdom of 6 still really low? Even Rax has 17 and he''s still a kid..."


    "But it was 4 before! How often do people increase a stat by 50% in a single day?!"


    "Not often I guess."


    "Right?!"


    I don''t think that Xania can understand my excitement.


    "Well, that''s to be expected. You probably got one from all that happened with Kalroth and another one for finally making me confess." Arana explains. "So, does that make you more confident about becoming the queen of darkness?"


    "Ara... If I do this, I''m going to need your help."


    "Uh? I''ll obviously help you, yes."


    "Yeah, but I need to tell you, that whole manipulation thing that you tried to do to me, you are really bad at it."


    "Eh?"


    "I don''t know if you did it because you felt guilty, but you kept acting in overly suspicious ways, even I noticed that you were hiding something... But you are really smart for everything else, your advice is always great. That''s why I said that I need your help, but I need YOU, I have no use for some crappy knockoff of your sister. I won''t ask you to never keep any secrets from me ever again, but you need to promise that if you need my help for anything you will ask me and not try to manipulate me into doing it, and if there is anything that I should know, you will tell me."


    "Oh, well... Yes, I promise."


    "Good, then... I''m sorry Xania, but I''ll need some time to make a decision."


    "That''s fine. But for the time being... Maybe you should go to the main hall and tell the people who have gathered there that you are not going to kill them."


    Ah, right, the demons in the castle were in an uproar because they were afraid of me. That was the reason Xania was looking for me in the first place.


    Then I should go and greet them. If I''m going to stay around here it is important that I give a good first impression.


    "Hello!"


    "Eh?! Is that?"


    "It''s her!"


    ...


    The moment they see me, all the demons throw themselves to the ground and prostrate themselves. It might be that I''ve already given my first impression when I was chasing after Kalroth earlier...


    I need to get closer and tell them to get back on their feet. But there''s something weird with the ground here... I know that this castle is in a state of disrepair, but what are these rocks I''m walking on?


    Oh, I just realized that those were not rocks. It was a bunch of stone demons prostrating themselves, and I stepped on each of them without realizing it. Uh... now everyone is going to think that I''m stupid.


    "Sorry, I couldn''t tell you apart from the floor."


    "Yes! We know that to you we are no different from the ground you step on."


    So they were expecting me to not notice? They really do think that I''m dumb...


    "I think I made your backs dirty with my soles..."


    "We''re sorry for making your soles dirty with our backs!"


    "That''s the opposite of what I just said!"


    "WE''RE SORRY!!!"


    I don''t think that they are even listening to me.


    "That''s enough prostrating. Everyone rise!"


    "Yes!"


    At least they listened to me this time. But why does everyone look so scared? I should get to the point and do what Xania told me to do.


    "Anyway, I''m here because I have something important to tell you all."


    "Something important?"


    All the demons of various types are staring at me expectantly, it''s making me feel a bit nervous.


    "I''m not going to kill you."


    "..."


    There''s a moment of silence as all the demons stare at each other in confusion and then turn back to look at me.


    "Thank you for your mercy!"


    "We''re grateful for your compassion!"


    Well, I''m glad that at least that got cleared up. But since I''m already here, there''s one more thing I would like to ask them.


    "By the way, if it was up to you, would you want me to become your next ruler?"


    "Of course! There''s nothing we would want more!"


    "You would be the greatest queen we could ever have! No, the greatest queen the world could ever have!"


    "Really?"


    I didn''t want to become their queen against their wishes, but seeing how enthusiastically they are encouraging me to do it, it''s making me think that this is really the way for me to go.


    A lot of things have happened ever since I left my home, and it seems like I''ve changed as a result. Back when I heard that prophecy for the first time, I could not have imagined that one day I would seriously ask myself this question.


    Do I want to become the queen of darkness?


    forli


    I had an idea of using the wisdom stat to signify Luna''s growth. Since she''s so strong, having her level up doesn''t mean much, so that would be an alternate form of litrpg progression. However, I wanted to increase it only in big moments like this one, and it took so long to get here that I feel like it''s already too late to do that...


    Also, I feel bad for the readers that started reading this because of the ''kingdom building'' tag. There has not been a lot of that so far...

 Chapter 85: The other queen of darkness

    -Felias-


    "Tell me, Salama, is it true that the impostor Arana has been herding around killed... what was his name again?"


    "Kalroth."


    It is clear that I have been far too lenient with Arana. I let her be when she decided to run away, even after hearing that she had found some fake ''queen of darkness'' I still wanted to believe that she was not trying to stand against me. But this time she''s gone too far.


    Helping an idiot in taking control of the demon wasteland and then killing him to take his place was MY plan. I needed to do this in order to get a foothold in the southern continent, most people there don''t even know about me. There''s no longer any doubt, she''s really trying to use that impostor to stop me from fulfilling my destiny.


    "Just what is that brat thinking?"


    "Well, she''s the witch of light after all. It''s normal for her to want to stop you from breaking the rules."


    "Bah, those rules are just holding us back."


    The six witches have a great deal of power and influence around the world, but few people even know that we exist. For 2000 years we have been influencing the fate of entire nations from the shadows, which naturally lead to some questions about the morality and potential dangers of our actions, and that''s why our most important rule was to never attempt to obtain direct power and become an actual ruler.


    But just looking at the results of our work it should be obvious that such a restriction is entirely unneeded. Thanks to our influence, the number of major wars has been kept low, many evil practices such as slavery are a thing of the past, and the living conditions of the average person are much better than they used to be. Isn''t it obvious then that if I become the absolute ruler of the world I will be able to stop ALL wars, destroy ALL evil, and transform the world into a perfect paradise?


    Arana didn''t understand. She told me that the progress the world has made has been thanks to many different people, that we only helped a little. And then she gave me a list of individuals who believed they could create a utopia if they had more power, only to end in disaster every single time... But that only happened because none of them were perfect! None of them were ME!


    "Felias, you''ve been staring at nothing for a while now. Did you get lost in your delusions again?"


    "Do you think that we can believe Cureva''s report? If the impostor truly has the ''queen of darkness'' title, her dark magic should be at rank 20. Am I supposed to believe that Arana somehow found some other artifact or something that could raise her rank?"


    "Well, Cureva seems to believe that she did it with nothing but talent and hard work."


    "That''s ridiculous, even I was only able to reach rank 14 before absorbing the power of the seed of darkness. The idea that some random woman was able to reach rank 20 without some form of cheating is absurd!"


    "Yeah, if there was someone as exceptional as that you''d think that there would be a prophecy about her or something."


    "Salama... What are you trying to insinuate?"


    "Nothing, nothing!"


    Bah, I''ll worry about Arana later, let''s focus on the job I need to do right now.


    My sister and I just entered the capital of the Pushver kingdom, a small country just south of Mekria. We''re heading to the castle to pay a surprise visit to the king. Since we do not want to be found out until it''s time, we''re both wearing cloaks and trying to be as discrete as possible.


    Even if we are witches, our appearance matches the races of the originals. This means that I look like an elf and Salama looks like a fox beastkin. Both are exceedingly rare around here, so we made sure to properly hide our features. And yet, people keep staring at us.


    Or rather, they''re staring at Salama. That''s why I told her to wear a black cloak like mine instead of that bright red one. Then again, considering what everyone is staring at, it''s clear that the cloak is not the problem.


    They''re staring at her chest.


    "Is that what you call being discrete?"


    "Fufufu. There''s nothing I can do about it, even if I add more layers of cloth it''s still noticeable. How troublesome..."


    "If you find it troublesome, why did you laugh?!"


    Bah, those breasts are so large that they look more like a deformity. It''s just natural for them to draw people''s attention at first, but after the initial shock, it is my beauty that they would rather admire and-


    "LET ME GO!"


    "Stop fighting already and come with us!"


    "I DIDN''T STEAL ANYTHING!"


    Right in front of the castle, there are a bunch of guards apprehending a young woman.


    "What exactly is happening here?"


    One of the guards turns around to glare at me.


    "Who are you?! This is none of your business!"


    "I cannot just ignore someone being kidnapped in front of me."


    "This is an arrest! She tried to steal my sword!"


    "That''s not true!"


    Stealing his sword? Is that really the best they could come up with? Seeing how pretty this girl is it''s obvious what their true intentions are. Well then, this might be a good way to enter the castle.


    "You seem to be mistaken, I''m the one who stole your sword."


    "What are you-"


    He seems surprised at seeing his sword in my hand, didn''t even notice when I took it.


    "Arrest me instead of that girl."


    "Who do you think you are?! Why would we want you-" The guard seems to notice Salama standing behind me for the first time. "You! You are the real culprit!"


    Perhaps it would be better to kill him right now and save time...


    "Oh, my. It seems like I got caught."


    Salama does not seem particularly upset...


    In the end, we managed to get them to leave that other girl alone and we both got ''arrested''. They didn''t even bother restraining us in any way, just how stupid are they? Shouldn''t they be suspecting that something is off about us?


    The guards take us to meet their captain, a man with no eyebrows who''s wearing jewelry that no guard on duty would normally wear. It also looks far too expensive for what someone of his level should be able to afford, it looks like falsely arresting women is not the only crime he''s guilty of.


    "Looks like you got yourself into some serious trouble miss," he says to Salama, ignoring me entirely.


    "Oh no, I''m so scared," Salama replies with a completely deadpan face.


    "Don''t worry, if you''re willing to do some work I could let you go just this time."


    "No, I think that I would rather have a proper trial."


    "Are you sure? Someone like you could even get some money out of this."


    "I already have enough money, I think I''ll pass."


    "Hey! Who do you think you''re talking to?!"


    The idiot gets suddenly angry for no good reason and tries to reach for Salama''s chest. But before he can grab her, he abruptly moves back and screams in pain.


    "URGH! WHAT WAS THAT?!"


    His hand got burnt badly by Salama''s fire magic, but he''s too stupid to even realize what happened.


    "I''ve already seen enough, you''re nothing more than walking trash."


    "What?!"


    He was already angry because of the pain, and my insult causes him to lash out and try to slap me. With his burnt hand...


    "AGH!"


    Such a lack of self-control... Naturally, he cannot harm me with his low strength. Even if his hand had been fine, he would have only hurt himself.


    With a small push of my mana, I cause him to fall on his back. It seems like at long last he''s starting to figure out that he''s dealing with someone dangerous, and his expression turns into fear.


    "Hey, you! Use the appraisal stone to figure out her level!"


    The guard he spoke to checks my level and then his face turns pale.


    "H-her level... It''s 560."


    "What?! That''s impossible! Don''t tell me that you are..."


    "I am the queen of darkness."


    After learning my identity, the captain begins to pathetically crawl on the floor away from me.


    "Please spare me! I will give all the money I''ve stolen to you!"


    What a disgusting creature... that really was the last straw.


    ''Shadow blast''


    A single spell is all it took, there''s no trace left of the man or the half of the room he was in.


    "Felias... That was far too hasty. Shouldn''t you stop to think a bit more before you kill someone?" Now Salama got upset.


    "Bah, what''s the point in waiting? I am the one destined to rule the world, it''s only natural for me to be able to identify trash at a glance."


    I then turn to look at the other guards, who are staring at me with pale faces.


    "P-please, we were just following orders, we don''t-"


    "Take me to your king, I need to have a talk with him."


    When we start walking, one of the guards runs ahead, probably to give a warning. Indeed, when I see the king, he has a dozen of his strongest knights with him.


    "So you are the queen of darkness? Why did you come here?"


    "First of all a question. Are you aware of the crimes your guards have been committing inside of YOUR castle?"


    "What?! What crimes?!"


    "That''s what I thought... An incompetent ruler can sometimes be even worse than an evil one."


    "Incompetent? Me?"


    "Yes, that''s why I''ve decided to take your country from you."


    ''Dark flare''


    The blimps from Mekria are equipped with some wind magic enchantments that can hide them from sight. Nobody in this country noticed them as they flew all the way into the capital and on top of the castle. When I cast the spell that serves as a signal, a large number of walking machines jump from the four blimps and irrupt into the castle. They tackle the knights that are protecting the king and easily take their weapons.


    "Are those metal golems?"


    "Do not mistake them for mere golems, these are robots, but let''s get to the point. From now on this kingdom will become a new province of Mekria. You''ll be allowed to keep the title of king, but someone else will be in charge."


    "You cannot just come here and say that the country is now yours! What right do you think you have?!"


    "Right? This is not a right. This is a duty."


    "A duty?"


    "This should not be difficult to understand. The most basic principle of morality is that the strong need to protect the weak and the wise need to guide the fools. Nobody in the world is stronger or wiser than me, so ruling the world is my duty."


    "You are mad. Do you expect us to just surrender without a fight?"


    "Oh? Do you WANT a fight?"


    The king takes another glance at his easily defeated knights and then looks at the floor.


    "No, I don''t."


    Of course, there''s nobody who could fight me. After all, I wield both the power of the old gods and the weapon that was used to destroy them. Conquering the world should be an easy task.


    And no impostor will be able to steal my throne from me.


    forli


    One thing I wanted to do with Felias was giving the impression that Luna could potentially become like her if she were to lose her humility. I wonder if anyone got that impression when reading this chapter.

 Chapter 86: Chosen hero

    -Silvea-


    The sky was suddenly covered by dark clouds, making it difficult to believe that the sun was shining just a moment ago.


    In the distance, an enormous dark figure towers over even the tallest buildings. While I can tell that its shape is similar to a woman''s, the solid black color makes it impossible to recognize any of its features, except for the two glowing violet orbs on its face.


    The figure is moving closer to me. As it walks, a wave of shadow emerges from its hand and causes a section of the city to disappear. I can hear people screaming all around me.


    "Please! Help us!"


    Why are they asking me for help? I''m just a knight apprentice, there''s nothing I can do against that thing.


    "Are you not the silver knight?!"


    No, I''m not a hero, you should not put your trust in me.


    The dark figure is looming right above me, I''m far too scared to run away or even scream. Its black hand reaches down for me. Looks like this is the end...


    I feel it grabbing my ear, and then begins to pull.


    "Ouch! That hurts!"


    Why is this monster trying to rip my ear off?


    "Silvea! Don''t fall asleep here!"


    "Eh?"


    The one tugging my ear was actually my friend Paula trying to wake me up, so that was all a nightmare? Roul and captain Leon are also here, where was I again?


    Oh, right! This is the council of kings. Every year there''s a gathering of rulers of various countries in which they discuss matters that affect the entire continent. Well, even if it''s called the council of ''kings'' there are many countries that are not ruled by kings and most countries usually send a representative anyway. But this year many more rulers than usual decided to come in person, and that''s because of two obvious reasons... Just a few days earlier there was a prophecy that announced the goddess of wind will attend this meeting. Nobody even knows when was the last time anyone saw a god.


    As for the second reason, the queen of darkness is going to be the main topic to be discussed today. That''s why I was told to come here, because everyone thinks that I somehow got her to run away back in the Agua kingdom. But that''s a mistake! I should not be here at all!


    "Captain! You need to tell them that I''m not anyone special!"


    "It''s already too late for that... And to be honest, you have been far more successful at dealing with the queen of darkness than I was."


    Poor captain... even now, nobody has any idea of what the curse that the queen of darkness placed on him was. But he did manage to chop off her head, shouldn''t that count as a partial success at least?


    "Ah, young lady! I''ve been looking for you." An old man with a long white beard calls to me. He''s walking with his eyes closed, but doesn''t seem to have trouble navigating his surroundings.


    "Master Alber. Can we help you?" Captain Leon greets him.


    Alber? Wait... a blind old man... Is that the grand mage Alber? At level 375 with rank 10 in both wind and water magic, he''s the most powerful mage in our continent. Or at least he was, before the queen of darkness... And he''s also supposed to be over 200 years old, but doesn''t seem THAT old...


    "Well, there were a few things about the report of your encounters with the queen of darkness that I did not understand, so I decided to ask the two of you directly."


    "What would be the problem?"


    "If I''m not mistaken, the queen of darkness has been described as the type of villain that would kill anyone without batting an eye. And yet, you." He turns to point at the captain. "Fought a battle to the death with her and lost. And you." He points at me. "Repeatedly got in her way and were completely overpowered every time."


    "Yes, that''s correct."


    The old man strokes his beard for a moment. "Then how are you both still alive?"


    So that''s it, a completely obvious question that I have no idea how to answer.


    "Silvea followed her for some time, she should know her better than me." Captain! Don''t pass the problem to me!


    "I guess that she just enjoys toying with us..."


    "So you don''t know."


    "I don''t know."


    I stare at the ground in shame as he strokes his beard a bit more.


    "Well then, I''ll be seeing you in the meeting. Sorry for bothering you."


    And now I feel even more inadequate than before...


    During the meeting. I''m told to stand a bit behind the chair in which the king of my country is sitting. Seriously, what am I doing here? Being surrounded by all these important people is overwhelming...


    The first one to talk was the representative of the beastkin kingdom located in the great forest to the south of the demon wasteland, it seems like they were involved in an incident with the queen of darkness just a couple of weeks ago. I don''t really know much about that country, my family came from the mountains to the west of the continent.


    A few citizens of that kingdom were kidnapped by the demons from the wasteland. Since they said that the queen of darkness was involved I assumed that she was the one behind it, but she crushed the kidnappers instead. That''s weird. A hero of their country named Karin rescued everyone and escorted them back to their homes, and the king wanted to congratulate her in person. But apparently, there was an accident when they met which resulted in the hero being exiled from her country and the king being unable to attend this meeting, I wonder what happened.


    Next was the queen of the Agua Kingdom. It seems like she was traumatized by her encounter with the queen of darkness. I feel a bit bad for her, her own daughter betrayed her...


    "She''s clearly recruiting an army of demons! We need to stop her before it''s too late!"


    "Are you crazy?! We cannot start a war because of some woman who has not even done anything yet!"


    "She tried to take over the Agua Kingdom!"


    "And then she left without doing anything. Are we even sure that she was trying to take over? That queen seems kinda crazy."


    That''s basically what the discussion has been so far, but those who are against picking a fight with the queen of darkness greatly outnumber those who want to do something about her. They seem to think that they can beat her easily even if she attacks them. They have not seen her and are not taking her seriously enough...


    Suddenly, a strong gust of wind interrupts the conversation, and I see a white and pink feather fall on my hand.


    A woman with pink hair dressed in green is standing at the opened window. A gentle expression adorns her beautiful face, her crystal blue eyes make me feel at ease just from looking at them, and the pair of white and pink wings on her back give her a strange air of divinity. Is this a goddess? I bet that''s what everyone in this room is thinking right now. And yet, I cannot help but feel like she''s strangely familiar.


    "Please, stop yelling at each other. You all must stand together to face the threat looming over our world."


    Her voice is sweet and very soothing, listening to it makes me feel like she''s someone I can trust.


    "Who are you?" Someone asks.


    "My name is Sefne. I believe my presence was announced by a prophecy."


    "Sefne?! You claim to be the goddess of wind?!"


    "Indeed. I have foreseen that the queen of darkness will cause a great deal of suffering and destruction in the near future. I have come to offer guidance to defeat her and protect the people of the world."


    Uh? It''s true that there was a prophecy, and I cannot imagine anything other than a goddess having such an aura of kindness around her. But is everyone really going to believe that she''s who she claims to be without any evidence?


    "Well, there''s a simple method to test if you are really the goddess of wind." That old man from before, Master Alber, speaks up. "The goddess of wind should be able to take control of any wind magic, even if it''s rank 10."


    Without saying another word, he gathers a large amount of air into a sphere the size of his fist and throws it at her. Is that an air bomb?!


    However, the goddess simply places the palm of her hand in front of it and the spell is sent back the way it came from. Master Alber seems surprised for a moment, but then conjures a gust of wind that cancels the spell.


    "Are you satisfied?"


    "..."


    Everyone in the room is murmuring to each other, she actually just gave proof of being a real goddess... But master Alber has a very serious expression and is staring daggers into her. Wasn''t he supposed to be blind?


    "Well then, let''s get back on topic. The queen of darkness might seem invincible, but there''s a hero with the potential to defeat her, the silver knight. And that hero is in this very room right now."


    Ah, thank goodness. If she identifies the real silver knight, people will finally stop expecting me to become a hero and fight the queen of darkness.


    The goddess is pointing with her index finger. It seems like the silver knight is standing right behind me, I should step aside. When I move, she also moves her hand and continues pointing at me...


    There''s nobody behind me, is there...


    "So it really was her?"


    "This cute girl is the chosen hero?"


    "She doesn''t look very impressive."


    Nooo! The rulers of the continent are all staring at me!


    "I ask for your help to make her gain power. I will also provide various powerful relics to help her in her quest."


    No, even if I get help, I''m not a hero. I should say something, but the pressure is too much for me to be able to speak.


    "Also, it would also help if you let the people in your countries know about her. Everyone must know that she''s the chosen hero that will defeat the queen of darkness."


    No! Anything but that! This has to be another nightmare. Somehow this is even worse than the nightmare I had before...


    "Paulaaa! Please save meee!"


    My friend Paula is hugging me while the tears keep pouring from my eyes. She missed the meeting, but she''s already been told about what happened and she''s the person I always rely on when I need advice.


    "I don''t see the problem, you''ve always wanted to become a hero. Didn''t you promise your father that you would become one before he died?"


    "But they think that I can fight the queen of darkness, and that''s impossible!"


    "Didn''t you already injure her once? She even ran away."


    "About that... I thought that it was weird and just now I thought of something crazy."


    "Something crazy?"


    "That goddess from before... She really seemed to want to prop me up as a hero for some reason. And then I remembered that the queen of darkness back then was using wind magic instead of darkness. So I thought... what if that queen of darkness was really her in disguise, trying to make it look like I could fight her? Wind magic is good for illusions after all."


    Paula looks like she doesn''t know what to say, was my theory really that crazy?


    "Well, even if that''s true, it''s probably just part of the goddess''s plan. Perhaps she wanted to stop people from losing hope."


    "But that doesn''t change the fact that the queen of darkness is invincible and I''m far too weak."


    "Oh, Silvea, you underestimate yourself too much. I''ve no doubt that you will become a great hero soon enough."


    "You really think so?"


    "Yes, just remember all the stories about heroes you''ve read. The villains are always so powerful that they seem invincible at first, but always end up losing."


    "And you think that the queen of darkness is also like that?"


    "Of course... She''s the villain. And the fate of the villain is always to be crushed at the end."


    When she said that last line... For a fraction of a second, I caught a glimpse of a very twisted and cruel smile on Paula''s face, but that doesn''t seem like her at all...


    I must have imagined that.


    forli


    When I was thinking about the story before I started writing, I was planning on Felias being the main antagonist, and Cureva would be Arana''s nemesis. But I realized that Cureva would work really well with the theme of appearances being deceiving and she ended up with a much bigger role.

 Chapter 87: Rain

    I never would have imagined that I would become the owner of a castle one day... I didn''t even say that I wanted it, everyone just kind of agreed that this place belongs to me now.


    Well, after traveling for so long it feels nice to have a home again. And I got a big room all for myself, with a big, comfortable bed, and water dripping from the many leaks in the ceiling... It''s been raining non-stop for 3 days now. Apparently, this only happens once or twice a year in this part of the wasteland so it''s a bit unlucky that it happened just after I arrived.


    Also, this place really is in need of some repairs. Having been built with stone from the depths of the infernal caverns, this castle is far more durable than most. But it is also 2000 years old and it seems that there have been a lot of battles here with high-level combatants that have been damaging the construction little by little, there are cracks and holes everywhere. Fortunately, there were some buckets in a storage room that I''ve been using to collect the water.


    "Bucket number 4 is filling the fastest."


    A large and imposing castle with exceptionally strong walls, with cracks and holes all over it. It almost feels like this is a metaphor for me...


    And if I agree to become the queen of the demon wasteland this will probably become my permanent residence. I need to make a decision soon... I was hoping that something would happen to make the decision easier, or that I would suddenly come to some deep realization. Instead, I''ve been here in this room for a few days now and I still have no idea of what answer I should give.


    That''s not to say that I''ve just been sitting here doing nothing, I have a lot of things on my to-do list after all. So I tried to perform an autopsy on Kalroth''s body, learning more about void mana seemed like the most urgent thing to do. But when I opened his body I discovered that it was mostly hollow, no organs, not even bones, I have to admit that it was a bit disturbing... I guess I should have guessed it from the lack of weight.


    However, the void mana in him had formed a few crystals that had been somehow maintaining the shape of the body, so I decided to experiment on them instead.


    And what I discovered from those experiments is that void mana is dangerous, in more than one way. At first, I attempted to use my magic to analyze the crystals, but it appears that when any form of magic is used on void mana the result is always the same. The void mana causes the spell to vanish, but if the spell is too powerful, the mana will change from void to the element of the spell. And that happened with any spell I attempted, it made no difference if it was an attack, an analysis spell, or a curse.


    The next thing I noticed was that just being near void mana causes people''s emotions to become less intense. It only affects me slightly, but when Nera came to visit there was a moment when she almost looked like a doll. That gave me quite a scare, so I decided to keep the crystals away from everyone else.


    But the biggest scare came when some of the crystals I had left close to each other fused together and turned into another one of those void demons. That one looked like a featureless cube instead of a spike.


    It attacked me with some strange magic that made me feel like I had become... less. After disposing of the demon I checked my status and my level had been reduced by 2. Fortunately, the effect was temporary and my level returned to normal after 30 minutes, but if I ever encounter a large number of those demons and they all use that magic at the same time things could get really dangerous.


    In the end, I placed the few crystals I had left in a locked room surrounded by magic circles with the strongest sealing effects I can produce. Performing experiments that most people would call dangerous is nothing new to me, but this is the first time I''ve truly felt that I didn''t know what I was dealing with...


    And so, I''m now in my room watching how the buckets fill with rainwater. I should pour some of the water in bucket number 4 into number 2...


    *Knock*


    "Luna, are you there?"


    "Nera? You can come in."


    Since Nera is a princess, she might be able to help me figure out if becoming a queen would be a good idea, but I was afraid of talking to her after the incident with the void mana.


    "So, have you made a decision yet?"


    "No. But are you feeling well? I''m sorry about what happened..."


    "You mean the void mana thing? I already told you that it wasn''t a big deal."


    "I see..."


    Even if she says that she''s fine I still feel bad, she could have been hurt because I didn''t take enough precautions.


    "So Luna, have you ever seen a rain spirit?"


    "A rain spirit? No. I''ve never been interested in spirits."


    "Well, there''s one at the window in my room right now. Do you want to come and see it?"


    "I don''t think I can right now..."


    "Oh, are you busy with those experiments of yours?"


    "No, I''ve already finished for now."


    "Then are you focused on deciding if you want to become a queen?"


    "Actually, I wanted to ask you to help me with that. Since you are a princess you should know what it''s like to rule a country, no? And the Agua kingdom also has a lot of demons living in it."


    "It''s not really the same. The demons living in the Agua kingdom have a mindset closer to the humans there than the demons here. The demon wasteland has a rather... unique culture. Other demons often try to distance themselves from the ones living here."


    "Yeah, I know that the demon wasteland does not have a very good reputation."


    I suppose that''s something I have in common with this place. But I don''t think that I''ve done as much to earn my bad reputation...


    "To be honest, even if you become their queen I don''t think that this place can even be called a country the way it is now. It''s just a collection of tribes that do not even have any laws in common."


    "That''s true..."


    After taking a look at the buckets, I pour some of the water in bucket number 1 into number 5.


    "What are you doing?"


    "Nothing, it''s just that the water is dripping from some leaks faster than the others."


    Nera seems confused for a moment, then she seems to realize something.


    "Luna... are you pouring water from one bucket to another just to make sure that they all fill at the same pace?"


    "Of course, yesterday I didn''t pay attention and one of them overflowed long before the others, it was a disaster."


    "Don''t tell me that this is the reason why you didn''t want to come with me."


    "Yes, if I leave, bucket number 4 is going to..."


    "Didn''t I tell you to stop obsessing so much over stupid things?"


    "It''s not stupid! These buckets all have the same capacity, so they should all contain the same amount of water! It''s just common sense."


    "Let''s go, I want you to see that rain spirit before it leaves."


    "Wait! Nera! don''t pull my arm!"


    It seems like I have no choice but to leave.


    Nera''s room is connected to another room, where her maid, Mari, is staying. She''s looking at us while trying to hide behind the door, but we can see her clearly. Does she think that we don''t know that she''s there?


    "Look, that''s the rain spirit."


    Floating just outside the window there''s something that looks like a semitransparent octopus with a large eyeball where its head should be. Looking at it while it taps on the window is somehow making me feel more aware of the fact that it''s raining.


    "You can hear it, right? Is it saying anything to us?"


    "It''s just trying to let us know that it''s raining right now."


    "Eh? But we can see that. What''s the point of it telling us?"


    "It doesn''t matter if there''s no point. A spirit just does whatever its nature tells it to do, and this one is supposed to inform living creatures about the rain."


    "That seems dumb..."


    "You should not think of spirits as if they were people or even animals. They do not possess free will, and they are incapable of learning or understanding anything that they are not supposed to know."


    "That''s horrible."


    "It would be horrible if it was a person, I told you that it''s not."


    "So why did you want to show me this?"


    "You seem to be having trouble making a decision, so I thought that seeing something that cannot make any decisions at all would help."


    "I don''t see how this is supposed to help me."


    "Well, just think about it. This spirit cannot decide to not tell us about the rain because it cannot understand that we already know about it. Making a decision requires knowledge about the thing you''re deciding, otherwise, you might as well just pick something randomly."


    "I see... So the reason why I cannot decide if I want to become a queen is that I don''t understand what becoming a queen would really mean."


    "Xania knows the demon wasteland much better than me. I bet that she could help you."


    "You''re right. I should have a talk with her."


    But do I have enough time? Bucket number 4 must be around halfway full by now...


    "Luna, stop thinking about the buckets."


    "I wasn''t thinking about the buckets."


    "Yes, you were."


    "Yes, I was..."


    forli


    And from there I just made everything up as I went. That''s not how I usually write and when I do I always feel like the chapter is a bit all over the place.

 Chapter 88: List of troubles

    "So... What do you need me to tell you?"


    After finding Xania, we all sat around a table and I got a pen and paper to take notes.


    "I need you to tell me what you know about the demon wasteland. I don''t have enough information to decide if I should become the ruler of this place."


    "Oh, what exactly do you want to know?"


    "Well, I... Nera, what exactly do I want to know?"


    "You could start with how many people live here, what are the different tribes, or what their culture is like."


    "There''s no way to know for sure, but it''s believed that there are somewhere around 800.000 demons in the wasteland. As for the tribes, there are hundreds of small ones. But there are 12 tribes that are considered to be the most important so you only really need to- Wait... Luna, what are you doing?"


    Xania suddenly stops talking and I notice that both she and Nera are staring at my hand in awe.


    "Uh? I''m writing down what you''re telling me."


    "But... You''re writing as fast as I''m talking... How can you move your hand like that?"


    "I don''t know, I''m just writing."


    Why are they looking at me like that? I understand them being amazed when I use some powerful spell or something, but this is just writing...


    "A-anyway. As I was saying, the 12 biggest tribes in the demon wasteland are the gray demons, the blue demons, the orcs, the orks, the fairies, the minotaurs, the Arachne, the blood demons, the rock demons, the naga, the high slimes, and the apple folk."


    "The what folk?"


    "However, even if the tribes are named after races of demons, that doesn''t mean that all members of a race are in the same tribe or that all tribes are made exclusively of one race. For example, there are many smaller tribes of gray demons on other parts of the wasteland. There are also some races with very few members, some of them only have one or two members and don''t even have a name."


    "Right, like that race that Kalroth and Vilde are from."


    "Now, I''m afraid that other than the gray demons I don''t know much about what each tribe is like. Other than the way they fight, of course."


    "Do you fight them often?"


    "This is the demon wasteland, everyone is fighting each other all the time in this place."


    "Can''t you try to be a bit less violent?"


    "Anyone who tries to avoid fighting will be seen as weak and everyone will try to steal their stuff. Then there are all of the old grudges that the tribes have against each other."


    "Grudges? What grudges?"


    "The most recent one is from a year ago. Some undead birds we use for delivering mail were starting to decompose and the smells were getting pretty bad. So I tried to send about a hundred or so of them flying to some distant location to get rid of them, but I made a miscalculation and their bodies fell apart when they were right above the town of the minotaurs... They got really mad after that, it seems like they only got rid of the smell just recently."


    "I think that even I would hold a grudge over something like that... You should try to learn how to use magic properly one of these days."


    "I know how to use magic properly! By most people''s standards, I''m really good! Dark magic is notoriously difficult to control, not everyone can be like you. You''re just... Uergh." Mmm, how do I spell ''Uergh''? "You don''t need to write that!!!"


    "So... does stuff like that happen often around here?"


    "Yes, and naturally, it tends to result in even more fights. Normally it''s just a small brawl and nobody gets killed, but sometimes it escalates into an actual battle."


    "There must be a more peaceful way to solve your disputes. Then again, Nera did tell me that you do not have any laws."


    Xania turns her head to look at Nera. "You said that? We do have laws! We are not THAT barbaric..."


    "I didn''t say that! I just said that you don''t have a common law in the wasteland."


    "Oh, that''s true. Each tribe has its own laws, but they tend to be very similar to each other. At the very least everyone forbids murdering members of the same tribe. And killing outsiders is also forbidden if there''s no good reason to do so, although each tribe has a different idea of what counts as a good reason... Other than that, around two-thirds of the laws that are made are usually various rules for fighting."


    "Your culture really seems to be centered around fighting," I point out.


    "You''re realizing that NOW?"


    "Still, you do have laws. Which means that strength is not the ONLY thing that you care about."


    "About that... Maybe I should also mention the fact that our law enforcement leaves a lot to be desired..."


    "What do you mean?"


    "Us gray demons are a bit better than most of the other tribes. When there''s a crime, we at least perform an investigation and try to find the real culprit. And sometimes we even manage to do it."


    "Wait... are you saying that the other tribes don''t even try to find the culprit? Then how do they enforce their laws?"


    "If the crime was committed in public and the culprit was seen then the local demon lord will just beat them up. Otherwise, the demon lord will just beat up whoever they think seems the most suspicious, if they are one of the decent ones."


    "That''s the decent demon lords? What do the bad ones do?!"


    "They just beat up whoever they like the least."


    "Does that even count as law enforcement?!"


    I know she said that it was bad, but this is just too much...


    "Since the demon lords are the strongest, they just do whatever they want and call it justice. In the end, everything in the demon wasteland is decided by force... The only time that changes at least slightly is when someone exceptionally strong manages to unite the tribes, but those individuals always end up starting a war against someone else.


    That''s why I was hoping that you would become our queen. Nobody could dispute your power, and you probably would not start any wars."


    "What do you mean ''probably''?"


    Uh... I feel like this decision is only getting more and more difficult. The more I learn about the demon wasteland, the less qualified to fix its problems I feel. And yet, it''s becoming more and more obvious that this place needs my help...


    "This keeps getting more and more troublesome."


    I notice someone else entering the room. "Well, then you are not going to like what I''m here to tell you."


    It''s Arana. These past few days I got the feeling that she was avoiding me as if she was too feeling too ashamed to talk to me. It was weird seeing her like that.


    "Is something wrong?" I ask with a hint of concern.


    "Not really. But I''m here bringing you even more trouble."


    "Oh! I''m glad that you''re back to normal Ara."


    I might often complain about her, but the truth is that I cannot feel at ease if she doesn''t act like her usual self.


    "Hey! This time it''s not my fault! I''m only here to inform you."


    "Inform me of what?"


    "There are two things, first is that I found some prisoners in the dungeon. They were apparently thrown in there by Kalroth''s men, and I don''t know which ones are guilty of any actual crimes. Since you''re going to become the queen, you should decide what to do with them."


    "I''ve not decided to become the queen yet..."


    "Also, a lot of them are injured. I think that some might have been tortured. I healed them with my light magic, but that wasn''t enough for them all to recover completely, so I thought that you might want to finish them off."


    "Don''t word it like that! And why didn''t you tell me sooner?!"


    "I only found out about it just now. I actually checked the dungeon the first day just in case, I didn''t imagine that there would be another one on the other side of the castle... And the demons guarding the prisoners didn''t think that we would be interested."


    "Then I guess I''ll have to go now. But what was that other trouble you needed to tell me about."


    "A bunch of elves just arrived at the castle, they want to see you."


    "Me? Why?"


    "They say that you told them to leave their forest."


    I have a bad feeling about this...


    "Oh, I did convince some elves to leave, yes. But why would they come here?"


    "To become your servants, apparently."


    "MY SERVANTS?!!!"


    "They say that you recruited them as your servants."


    "I didn''t recruit anyone!"


    Just what are those guys thinking? And why is Arana smiling like that?! She really did go back to normal...


    forli


    I''ve had a lot of work these last two weeks and I couldn''t write...

 Chapter 89: A man of gold and silver

    I decided to visit the dungeon first. I''m going to need some time to mentally prepare myself before dealing with elves again.


    For some reason, Nera and Xania are also coming along with me and Arana, I guess they have nothing better to do. We had to walk all the way to the other side of the castle to go down some stairs in a small hallway, now I understand why Arana didn''t find this place earlier.


    "Ugh. This place is completely flooded."


    Xania complains about the ankle-deep water we''re having to walk through. Nera doesn''t seem bothered at all, I think that she likes water in general.


    The leaks around here are even worse than in my room. But since there are no buckets, it''s all evenly flooded... Mmm, what an interesting strategy.


    "Luna, stop thinking about dumb things and focus. The prisoners are over there." It''s a bit rude of Arana to just assume that I was thinking of something dumb. Yeah, she''s right, but still...


    I can see 17 demons of various races chained inside the cells. They don''t seem to be in very good shape, even from here I can see some injuries.


    "Are you sure that I should go in? They don''t seem very friendly."


    "So what?"


    "Is it really safe for a girl to go alone into a cell full of dangerous prisoners? What if I get attacked?"


    "..."


    All three of my companions stare at me with blank expressions.


    "Hey! So just because my level is a bit high I''m not allowed to worry about my safety?"


    "Don''t worry Luna, I''m sure that you''ll be fine."


    At least Nera is trying to support me, even if she doesn''t seem to be taking this seriously either.


    "Also, Ara, you said that I need to separate the real criminals from those that were imprisoned unjustly. But how am I supposed to do that?"


    "That''s easy, just look into their eyes and ask them why they are here."


    "I don''t really have time for jokes right now."


    "I''m not joking. I''m certain that you can make anyone confess by staring at them hard enough."


    That can''t be true, right? If that''s all it takes to make someone confess no criminals would be free.


    I guess I''ll give it a shot... Let''s start with that orc over there. He''s all covered in scars, also, there''s a wound on his stomach that seems to have gotten infected...


    "W-what do you want?"


    Why does such a tough-looking guy look so scared just from me getting closer to him?


    "Why did they lock you in here for?"


    "I didn''t do anything! I think that master Garerg just doesn''t like me for some reason."


    Garerg... I think that I''ve heard that name before. Mmm, it was probably not anyone important. Also, I get the feeling that he''s lying to me. I do as Arana told me and stare into his eyes.


    "What are you trying to hide?"


    "W-well... Maybe the reason he doesn''t like me has something to do with me trying to stab him on the back that one time..."


    Oh, so he''s here for attempted murder. That does seem like a good reason to lock someone up I guess. But I should still heal that nasty wound he has.


    "Alright, let''s get this over with."


    "NO! PLEASE FORGIVE ME!!!"


    When he sees me place my hand on his stomach while getting ready to use my magic, he starts shaking his head around like crazy. I still managed to heal him easily, but he knocked himself out by hitting his head on the wall...


    "Next one."


    All the prisoners stop breathing for a moment when they hear me say that. Seriously, why is everyone so tense?


    After interrogating the rest of the prisoners, I found out that only 7 of them were here for a good reason. The others were just imprisoned for not going along with Kalroth''s rule. There were also two gray demons that were here just for being Xania''s subordinates.


    There''s only one prisoner left. He didn''t seem to be as scared as the others so I left him for last.


    He appears to be a rock demon, but he seems different from the others. Instead of being covered by the usual most common rocks, he looks like he''s covered by gold and silver.


    "So, why are you-"


    "You won''t get a single coin from me!"


    "Eh?!"


    Before I have time to process what I just heard, Xania steps forward.


    "Hey, I know this guy. You''re mister Oron, right?"


    "I remember you. I believe that I did business with you once, correct?"


    "Uh, Xania. Do you know this man?"


    "Yes, he''s a merchant that became rich by trading between the demon wasteland and the surrounding countries. Since I''m something similar to the leader of the gray demons, he came to make some deals with me."


    "Then why is he here?"


    "Some subordinates of that Kalroth guy caught me while I was traveling. They have been torturing me so that I would tell them where I''ve hidden my fortune."


    "They tortured you?!"


    Now that he mentions it, the layer of gold and silver covering his body is cracked in several places, and I can see traces of many small injuries that have been recently healed with light magic. That was probably Arana''s doing.


    "I didn''t give them anything, of course."


    "Why not? Isn''t your life is more important than your money?"


    "No, it''s not." He says as if that was the most obvious thing in the world.


    "It''s not?!"


    "And I''m not going to give anything to you either!"


    "I''m not trying to steal your money!"


    "Aren''t you the queen of darkness? I heard that you once stole candy from a baby and then forced the baby to buy it back for two gold coins."


    "What kind of rumor is that?! That''s too stupid to possibly be true!"


    What''s wrong with this guy? Why does he care so much about money?


    "Hey, Luna," Arana whispers into my ear. "You should try to recruit this guy. We''ll need someone who knows how to make money once you become queen. And he looks like he might even be able to balance you out."


    "Balance what out? And why are you assuming that I''ll become the queen?"


    "The queen? Are you planning to become the queen of this wasteland?" Oron asks with sudden interest.


    "I don''t know, I have not decided yet."


    "Why not? Do you have something else that can make you more money than becoming the queen?"


    "Uh? No, I don''t."


    "Then what are you having doubts about?"


    "I don''t want to become queen to get money! I''m just trying to figure out if this place will be better off with or without me."


    "That''s also easy to answer. Just look at what happens to merchants trying to get some profit around here. If you were the queen you might be able to do something about it."


    "He''s right, you know." Now Xania speaks up. "Thanks to him we were able to get medicine and food that''s not normally possible to obtain in the wasteland. He even sold rice to us, I''ve never eaten rice before."


    "I see. Now I understand why you want me to become the queen, you wanted to get more rice!"


    "It''s not just for that!"


    "There are many resources that can only be found here in the demon wasteland, but there are no other merchants doing business in this place. I was able to make a fortune because I was the only one willing to take the risk."


    "What risk are you- Oh, right."


    At this point, I don''t think that there''s any good reason to keep this man imprisoned, so I remove the chains and finish healing his injuries.


    "Still, I''m not a merchant. I am only considering becoming queen to help in solving the various problems of the demon wasteland, and hopefully, make everybody else stop seeing the demons that live here as the bad guys. I''m not doing this for the money."


    "Don''t talk as if those things were mutually exclusive. After all, there''s no such thing as a problem that cannot be solved with money."


    "I can probably think of a few!"


    "Being from the demon wasteland myself, I was also met with mistrust when I first started working as a merchant in the surrounding nations. But everyone changed their minds really fast when they realized just how much they stood to win by doing business with me. When I got enough money to create my own company, I even got several humans and beastkin as my subordinates. As long as the pay was good, none of them seemed to have any problem working for a demon from the wasteland."


    "I see... So if I had enough money, I could pay people to not be afraid of me? I had never considered that option!"


    "I don''t think that''s really viable, it would be WAY too expensive." Arana destroys my hopes once again.


    Oron takes out a silver coin he had hidden in his shoe. He turns around and I can hear him whispering something. What is he doing?


    "Mmm, you don''t seem to have much money, but I''m being told that you might be a decent person after all. If you are willing to do some proper business instead of stealing everything by force like those demon lords this wasteland has been cursed with, I would be willing to help you."


    "Oh, thank you."


    He''s being told that I might be a decent person? Who''s telling him that?


    "Well Luna, now that we are done with the prisoners it''s time to go meet the elves." Arana reminds me. Even if I didn''t want her to.


    "Sure... Anyway, it was nice to meet you, mister Oron."


    "The feeling is mutual."


    As we leave, I can hear him mumbling something again. Am I imagining things or is he... praying to his coin? What?


    No, that can''t be, I must have heard wrong.


    forli


    I could barely fit half of the stuff about Oron in this chapter. I guess I''ll have to finish introducing him later.

 Chapter 90: The law of the forest

    The rains seems to have stopped, at least for now, so I decided to go outside to greet the elves and ask them what exactly they want from me.


    Also, for some reason, Irvan is here in his dragon form.


    "Mistress! I came back!"


    "Oh, good."


    Did he leave?


    "I told him to watch over the elves during their trip," Arana says to me in a low voice. "this is the first time they''ve left their forest and the demon wasteland is full of strong monsters, so I wanted to be safe. But I told him that it was your order, so act as if you knew about it."


    "Ah, well done Ara."


    There''s a total of 12 elves here, 8 males and 4 females. That''s less than the amount that seemed interested at first, I suppose that leaving the only place you''ve ever known is not an easy thing to do.


    It''s probably more difficult the longer someone has lived there. That''s probably why most of these guys are young even for human standards. Except for a man and a woman on the back, those two seem to be much older than the others and are separate from the main group.


    Still, I have no idea how I''m able to tell their ages. An elf grows up at the same rate as a human at first, then maintains their youth for most of their life and only starts looking old near the end. Also, if they stay in the forest following all its laws, they can maintain the same appearance for centuries. So there''s no way to tell the age of an elf just by looking at them, I wonder if I have some instinct for it since I''m an elf too.


    "You are all soaked. Were you walking in the open under the rain?"


    "Ah, we didn''t know that walking under the rain would make us wet. Things really are different outside the forest."


    One of the elves said something strange... Is it because the trees of the magic forest always protect them even from the rain?


    It seems like living in a weird place for a long time has made them weird.


    "Anyway, you need to go inside and change clothes. You''re going to catch a cold."


    "What''s a cold?"


    Uh... Is it possible that these guys have even less common sense than me? Or maybe it''s just that all elves are idiots and cannot catch colds.


    "Mistress, one more thing. The elves told me to bring this to you."


    Irvan shows me an old orc tied with ropes, the same one who tried to take over the forest. He seems to be trying to avoid making eye contact with me.


    "And what am I supposed to do with him?"


    "I don''t know. They just told me that they had no idea of what to do with him."


    And they thought that I would?


    "Eh... Just lock him in the dungeon for now."


    "Right away!"


    Arana was somehow able to provide a change of clothes for everyone. Most of the elves seemed excited by the idea of wearing a style of clothing that they had never tried before, but that older couple refused to change.


    They seem really nervous as they approach me, and I can see something small moving just behind them.


    "Excuse me. We would like to talk with you."


    "Do you need- Ah!"


    I saw her! There''s a very small girl hiding behind them! I guess that she must be their daughter, she doesn''t even look two years old. Also, I''m sure that her hair was black, don''t tell me that she is...


    "It''s about our daughter, Mona. As you can see she... cannot stay in the forest." So she does have a dark attribute. "Since you seem to be in a similar situation to her... We thought that you might be able to help her."


    The little girl is so scared of me that she even has tears in her eyes, well, that''s the reaction I always get from children. That said, the woman''s reaction is not much different, she also looks like she''s about to cry.


    "What exactly do you want from me?"


    "Those kids were talking about becoming your servants... If you have enough influence to have servants, then you should be able to provide a place for her to stay, right?"


    "That''s not entirely correct... But yes! I promise that I would do my best to find a place for all three of you."


    "That''s not..." The woman then turns to talk to her daughter. "Hey, Mona, why don''t you go play over there?"


    The little girl nods and goes running to the other elves. She still stops a couple of times to look at me with a worried expression... I''m just never going to get along with children, am I?


    "The only one who needs a place to stay is Mona. We... we will return to the forest."


    "What?"


    I must have heard that wrong... right?


    "There''s no choice. We are not allowed to leave the forest."


    "So you''re going to... Abandon your daughter?"


    "There''s nothing else we can do!"


    "There are other elves here that decided to leave just to see what the outside world was like! And you''re telling me that you won''t do it even to stay with your daughter?!"


    "They cannot leave either! They... they just can''t! And we cannot leave..."


    The man then steps forward.


    "Look, we love Mona, we really do. But there''s nothing that can be done. Dark elves need to leave, and all others must stay, that is the law of the forest."


    "A law that you care about more than you care about your daughter, it seems."


    I''m such an idiot, I should have known that this is what was going on from the first moment I saw them. This... this is really happening again...


    "We have two other children! We cannot leave them behind!"


    "Then bring them here too! I promise that I will do anything in my power to give all of you comfortable lives. I... I''m going to be the queen of the demon wasteland, you and your children will be under my protection!"


    "We cannot take our children away from the forest, and we cannot leave either... I''m sorry."


    Even as I keep offering my help they insist that leaving the forest is impossible... And if I think about it, it''s obvious why they are acting this way.


    These people have probably been living in that forest for centuries. But saying that they are centuries old would be misleading. People become wiser with age because of all the different things that they experience, but what happens when every day is the same as all the others? Instead of learning new things, everything they think they know will just get reinforced in their minds.


    Most people would think that a parent who abandons their child is an awful person. But these elves would be considered awful people by their peers if they didn''t do it. That is the law of the forest, and after such a long time, it is unquestionable for them.


    "Please, don''t do this. Don''t abandon... your daughter. I beg you."


    "You are mistaken if you think that we are doing this because we want to."


    So this is really going to happen again. Is there nothing I can do?


    What if... What if I forced them to stay with her? I''ve already made other people do as I told them before by intimidating them... But this is different. Stopping someone from killing someone else is not the same as making them change their entire way of life.


    However, if I don''t... Will that girl have to endure the same solitude I had to go through?


    "Please, excuse me one moment."


    ...


    What should I do? It''s easy to be a ''good person'' when it''s clear what the right thing to do is. If someone is to get killed it''s obvious that I should save them, if someone has an injury or a disease I just have to heal them. This, however, is not that simple... Being strong doesn''t mean that I have the right to impose my morals on other people, but I also cannot let that girl suffer. I know full well what being abandoned feels like.


    If they only stay together because I''m threatening them, what kind of family would that even be? Can someone be forced to be happy?


    And what about the next time I face a situation like this? After I''ve already used my power to get my way once, the next time will probably be easier... I''m afraid that I might start walking on a very dangerous path.


    "Ara, what should I do?" So I decided to ask Arana for advice, as I always do when I have no idea of what to do.


    "Fist of all. I want you to know that solving this issue is not your responsibility. Did you even consider the option of telling them that you won''t help?"


    "I didn''t... I don''t think that I can ignore this Ara. Not when I see someone in the same situation I was in."


    "You really resent your parents for leaving you alone, don''t you?"


    "I''ve already told you many times that I don''t care. I''m glad that I got to live outside of one of those forests. That said... Every time I saw how everyone I met seemed to be afraid of me, I kept thinking that at the very least, no matter how scary I am, there should have been SOME people who were fine with me. At the very least, my family should have been fine with me... But I didn''t have one."


    Arana lets out a sigh.


    "Well, let me ask you this. If you accept to find a place for that girl, what are you planning to do?"


    "Clearly I cannot take care of her myself. Especially not when she''s so afraid of me... But I can ask those other elves to do it. They know her, after all, and they did say that they want to be my servants, so they should listen to me."


    "You realize that you won''t be able to do that if you go back to traveling, right? And you cannot stay here without becoming the queen, not when all the demons think that you have conquered this place. The same is true if you want to force those two to stay with her. This means that, if you accept this responsibility, you will be forced to become the queen of the demon wasteland."


    It seems like Arana was serious about not deceiving me anymore. She could have just kept quiet about this and let me trap myself.


    "That''s fine, to be honest, I was probably going to end up accepting in the end anyway."


    "In that case, the answer is obvious. You might be able to intimidate people sometimes to stop them from doing something bad, but we both know that you are incapable of becoming a tyrant that tells other people how to live their lives. And don''t worry, we will make sure that the girl is properly taken care of, she''s not going to be alone."


    "You''re right... Thank you."


    I did try to convince them one last time, I even got to my knees and begged them, but it was no use.


    In the end, I got a bit angry and told them to never show themselves around here again. If they don''t want to raise their daughter they have no right to call themselves their parents or be a part of her life. I hope that I didn''t seem too unreasonable...


    "Huh... bucket number 4 ended up overflowing."


    When I return to my room, I find exactly the scene I had been fearing. But after everything that has happened I don''t care anymore, I need to get some sleep.


    ...


    ...


    No, I actually still care. I should have more important things in my mind, but I seem to be incapable of ignoring this. There''s really something wrong with me...


    And now that I think about it. If I''m so bothered by imperfections, instead of the buckets I should be more worried about all the holes and cracks in the walls and ceiling!


    ...


    Great, now I won''t be able to stop thinking about it... Uh, I''ll go back to it tomorrow, I really need some sleep. I just accepted the role of queen of darkness, and I still don''t really know what that means...


    forli


    So yeah, I just wanted you to know that I''ve not lost interest in this story. The reason I''m not writing more these days is that I just can''t.

 Chapter 91: Guesswork

    I was hoping to be able to at least get near Mona, but it doesn''t seem like that will be possible. The girl''s fear of me is already bad enough, but the worst part is that each time she sees me she starts calling for her parents... I don''t want to remind her of them.


    So I decided to let the other elves take care of her for now. Since I agreed to become queen I probably won''t be able to do it myself anyway. And it seems like they were not joking about becoming my servants, after all, they even started calling me mistress like Irvan, which seemed to annoy him for some reason.


    "JUST HOW STUPID ARE THEY?!" But not as much as that newspaper annoyed Arana. She''s been completely furious ever since she read it. "You''d think that the rulers of the continent should be able to tell when a swindler is trying to scam them!"


    Apparently, there was a meeting of the various rulers of this continent just the other day, and the ''goddess of wind'' showed herself there. Arana seems convinced that it was actually Cureva... I know that it must have been an impostor since Vilde told me that the real goddess of wind was dead, but it''s not as if we have any actual proof that it was really Cureva... Eh, it was probably her.


    "But isn''t something like this to be expected of her?"


    "What worries me is how fast she did it, there''s no way she could have known for certain that you were going to become the queen of the demon wasteland. Was she just guessing? Or did that simply not matter to her plans? I have no idea of what her goals are."


    "At least she didn''t tell them that they should go to war. So it''s not really as bad as it could have been."


    "If she had told them to go to war, they would not have believed that she was the goddess of wind."


    "Eh? Why not? It''s not as if the goddess of wind is known for being a pacifist or anything like that, and she already told them that I''m evil."


    "It''s not that. The issue is that the idea that you are both powerful enough to warrant all of their countries joining forces against you and that they are going to have to fight against you is not something that they''d want to believe. On the other hand, ''I''m a goddess and I''ll have a hero solve all your problems with minimal effort from your part'' is something that they were all happy to believe."


    "That makes no sense. Wanting something to be true does not make it more likely to be true."


    "People are not that rational. They might not have believed something completely absurd, but all Cureva needed to do is provide enough ''evidence'' to make them think ''Well, I guess it COULD be true''."


    I see... Cureva really knows how to manipulate people. But Arana is also really smart, she was able to figure it out so quickly.


    "And the one she appointed as a ''hero'' was that cat girl we''ve met a few times, right?"


    "Last time, we encountered Cureva when she was around, and now this... And that girl also seems to be compatible with the world relic of light. This cannot be a coincidence, there''s a very strong possibility that Cureva is in contact with that girl. But she probably does not know anything about my sister, if she did, she would have tried to hide their connection a bit better. Other than that there''s also that guy who used wind magic against her in the meeting."


    "Couldn''t that just be that Cureva has-"


    "Don''t even say that."


    "I''m just saying that if his magic was rank 10 and it was turned against him-"


    "Cureva''s wind magic is NOT rank 20! That''s ridiculous!"


    "Well, I have rank 20 magic..."


    "Yes, and it''s about time you accept that you are pretty ridiculous."


    Uh...


    "So you think that he was her accomplice?"


    "It could also be that she has some trick that I don''t know about. But seeing how his action resulted in Cureva''s goddess performance being more convincing, the most likely possibility is that they are just working together."


    "I see... But that ''Alber'' guy is a really famous mage, right? Even I''ve heard about him."


    "He was the most powerful mage in this continent until you showed up. Ranna, tell us what''s known about him."


    Ranna''s face is hidden by the papers that she''s holding.


    "The ''grand mage'' Alber was born in the Magnel kingdom just over 200 years ago, in a village near the border with the demon wasteland. However, that village was destroyed in an attack by demons, he lost his family and became blind as a result."


    If that''s the case, he must really hate the demon wasteland...


    "After that, he dedicated himself fully to studying magic and gained the title of ''Archmage'' at the age of 18. Then he joined the army and took part in a ''preemptive attack'' against the demon wasteland. However, that was his only battle as a soldier, he left the army immediately after.


    He continued to develop his magic in the next few decades and managed to reach rank 10 in both wind and water magic. Unlike some other mages that prefer to be left alone, he continued to help the Magnel kingdom in any way he could and became a popular and influential figure in the country.


    His attitude towards the demon wasteland seems to be somewhat contradictory. Each time someone proposes another attack against the demon wasteland like the one he took part in, he uses all of his influence to stop it. However, he''s also famous for hunting down the strongest demon lords. Ever since the time he left the army, there have been a total of seven powerful demon lords such as Kalroth that attempted to unite the wasteland and attack the surrounding countries. Alber killed 4 of them before any armies even had the chance to start fighting."


    Hearing Ranna talk for so long with that monotone voice of hers is almost hypnotic... If I understand correctly, it seems like that man always goes after the rulers of the demon wasteland. Does that mean that he''s going to come after me?


    "I wonder how Cureva could have taken someone like that to her side..." Arana seems to be focused on suspecting him, but I''m not so sure about that...


    "Luna, could I have your attention?" Ranna taps me on the arm, it seems like she cannot reach my shoulder. "If it''s not too much of a bother, would you mind giving me back my car?"


    "Your car?"


    "Yes, since it was so big we decided that you would use your storage magic to store it. But now that we have an entire castle, that no longer seems necessary."


    Ah, that''s right, I was keeping Ranna''s car in my storage. Ranna''s car...


    Oh. OH!!! Oh...


    "Uh... I think that you made a mistake. M-maybe someone else put it in their storage?"


    "I do not think that there''s anyone else around here that can store an entire car."


    "W-well. I don''t have it!"


    "Luna..."


    She''s squinting her eyes. She''s not buying it... I need a distraction.


    *CRASH*


    "Thank goodness! I mean. What was that noise? I must go and investigate! We''ll continue this conversation in a few years!"


    "Luna! Wait!"


    Ranna tries to chase after me, but I can run faster.


    "So it was you. I was not expecting to see you again this soon."


    "Sorry, I forgot to open the door before entering..."


    "You really need to stop doing that."


    That noise was Karin breaking a door. I don''t know what she''s doing here, I thought that she had gone back to the beastkin country.


    "Please! I nyed your heeeeeelp!"


    "Eh? Wait. Stop crying and tell me what happened."


    "I... sniff. I''ve been exiled!"


    "Exiled!?"


    "I have nyowhere to go! Please, let me stay here! I could be your bodyguard or something!"


    "I don''t need a bodyguard. But we do have a lot of room in this castle."


    "Luna, wait." Arana grabs my arm and takes me to the side. She talks to me in a low voice. "Do you know how much any country would give to have someone above level 300? There''s no way that they would get rid of her without a very good reason?"


    Does that mean that Karin did something bad?


    "Could you please tell me why you were exiled?"


    "After I brought those prisoners back, the king came to meet us. I had nyot seen him in a long time so I gave him a hug."


    What? I know that giving a king a hug is not very appropriate but is that a good enough reason to exile her?


    "That doesn''t seem like such a big deal."


    "It''s nyot! The king is really tough! He can heal a few broken bones in no time!"


    "Oh."


    "But they told me that this had already happened too manya times."


    "Oh."


    "And that they told me ''don''t hug the king'' just seconds earlier."


    "Oh. Well, it will be fine."


    But then Arana takes me to the side again.


    "Luna, we already have too many things on our hands right now. We cannot take care of her. Didn''t you see what she did to that door? She''s going to turn the castle into a mess."


    "I promise that I''ll keep her under control!"


    "And don''t you remember how much she ate last time she was here? I don''t know if we can afford to feed her."


    "I''m sure that we can get enough food somehow."


    "She could be dangerous, you heard what she just did to that king."


    "Don''t worry, if she breaks your bones, I''ll fix you right away."


    I give Arana a thumbs up.


    "THAT''S NOT VERY CONVINCING!!!"


    "Please, Ara. Can we keep her?"


    "You only want her here because her wisdom is even lower than yours, don''t you?"


    "That''s only half the reason."


    "Are the ears the other half?"


    "There''s also the tail... But more importantly, I''m sure that she''s a good person."


    "Ah... Fine, just don''t say that I didn''t warn you."


    Looks like I managed to convince her. Arana worries too much, I''m sure that Karin will not cause any trouble.


    forli


    What was this chapter about?

 Chapter 92: The job of a princess

    "Nyaaaa... I feel weak."


    "That''s the point. Since you don''t seem to be able to control your own strength, I thought that a curse could do it for you."


    "But I don''t like being weak..."


    "Don''t worry, if you need to use your strength, all you have to do is say the word ''cat'' and the curse will stop making you weaker. Then, when you no longer need it, say ''nap'' to activate the curse again. This way you won''t need to worry about breaking any more doors."


    If Karin''s problem is that she''s too strong, using a curse to limit her strength is the most obvious solution. And with her being able to activate or deactivate it at will, the negative aspects of being cursed are gone.


    I bet that anyone watching earlier would have been thinking ''Oh, Luna is being naive again, thinking that Karin won''t cause any trouble, she never thinks these things through. Well, look at that, I did have a plan to keep her under control.


    "It''s nyot my fault that all those doors are so delicate!"


    Karin shakes her fists wildly as she says that, and accidentally hits the wall behind her.


    *Crash*


    She made a huge hole... Wait, wasn''t she supposed to be weakened right now? Her muscles are very well defined, I can tell that my curse is not doing anything to them just by looking... Wait, is it because she said ''deliCATe''?


    "Maybe we should make the keyword a bit longer."


    Actually, now that I think about it, she should not have been able to make a hole this big even if she has her full power. These walls are made of the same type of stone found deep into the infernal caverns. No, now that I''m taking a closer look, this wall seems different from the others, is it a fake wall? It seems like someone was hiding some stuff.


    "There''s a lot of weird things in here." Karin walks in without any hesitation and grabs a strange-looking dagger. Wait, that''s not a dagger, that''s a- "NYA!!!"


    ''Shadow lance''


    So Kalroth had more than one of those void demon things... This one wasn''t able to pierce Karin''s skin, but that was still scary.


    "Are you alright?"


    "Hey! There''s monya in here!"


    If she doesn''t even care then she must be fine. There really is some money and other valuable objects in this room, but the thing that I''m the most interested in is a small crystal that feels strangely familiar.


    This is a contract crystal, isn''t it... It has to be the other half of the contract between Kalroth and Nera''s mother. So it was hidden in here, that explains why we weren''t able to find it sooner.


    "Karin, can you go tell Arana about this place? I need to bring this to Nera."


    "Who are Arana and Nera?"


    "Ah, Arana is that girl with the white hat that was with me earlier, I don''t think you have met Nera yet... Anyway, you just need to find Arana."


    "Sure! I knyow where her room is."


    I guess I can rely on her for some things.


    I decide to go see if I can find Nera in her room. But before I get there I see Nera''s maid, Mari, who''s walking around with a troubled expression on her face. When she sees me, she comes running towards me.


    "Oh, it''s terrible! Princess Nera has been kidnapped!"


    "It wasn''t me!"


    Mari stares at me and blinks a few times.


    "I didn''t say that it was you."


    "Oh, of course. Because me kidnapping Nera would just be ridiculous, hehe."


    "They left a note. They want you to go to a room on the other side of the castle."


    They want me? I wonder what this is about.


    Two gray demons, a man and a woman, were waiting in the room that was mentioned in the note when I arrived. They each are wearing a cloth around their heads, but I can still clearly see their faces... However, they don''t look like anyone I''ve met before.


    "..."


    "..."


    We have been staring awkwardly at each other for a minute now. They seem to be a bit nervous, their bodies are trembling and they keep gazing in all directions. But they are supposed to be the kidnappers, now? Shouldn''t the victim be the nervous one?


    "So, why did you call me here for?"


    "Eek!"


    The woman lets out a high-pitch scream and crouches behind the man.


    "I told you that this was a bad idea!"


    "P-please calm down Lexa, it''s too late to back down now!"


    "Don''t say my name, you idiot!"


    "Even if he doesn''t say your name, I can still see your face."


    "S-stop acting tough! We have your girlfriend, so you better do as we say!"


    "My girlfriend? Nera is not my girlfriend."


    "Don''t try to play dumb!"


    Mmm, that''s weird. I wonder what could have given them that idea.


    "So, what are your demands?"


    "Our demands?"


    "You kidnapped my friend and told me to come here. That means that you have some demands for me, no?"


    After a brief pause, the two gray demons look at each other as if they just realized something.


    "Oh... That''s funny... We got so excited after having found the weakness of the queen of darkness that we never stopped to think what we wanted to get out of it."


    "I see... You should probably just give up before you embarrass yourselves even more."


    "Hey! Don''t forget that we still have your girlfriend. If we don''t tell you where she is you''ll never see her again!"


    "Isn''t she in the room next to this one?"


    Hearing me say that, the woman starts to panic.


    "It''s all over! She is too smart for us!"


    "That can''t be. How did you know? Do you have some spell to keep track of her?"


    "No, I can see her through that crack in the wall." Nera is also looking at me through the crack, but since she''s tied and gagged she cannot say anything. She''s struggling against her bindings, I think that she wants me to release her. "Please wait a moment, I''ll help you as soon as I''m done dealing with these two."


    "W-what are you going to do with us?"


    In the end, they didn''t hurt Nera so I''m not too angry. But I''m supposed to be their queen now, if I let my subjects go free after committing a crime it would set a bad precedent.


    "I''m afraid that I''m going to have to punish you."


    "PLEASE DON''t KI-!!!"


    "You are going to have to pay a fine for this."


    "A... a fine?"


    "You want us to pay a fine for kidnapping your girlfriend?"


    I can tell by their shocked expressions that they were not expecting this. Did I go too far? No, if I don''t do this nobody will take me seriously as a queen. Also, if I don''t punish people for kidnapping Nera it would encourage people to do it even more, the poor girl is going to end up spending more time kidnapped than free.


    "And... How much do we need to pay?"


    Oh, actually I have no idea, how much should a fine for kidnapping be? I don''t even know how much money the inhabitants of the demon wasteland have, there does not seem to be much of an economy around here.


    "You''ll have to decide that yourselves."


    "What? Ourselves?"


    "This fine is your opportunity to show me that you''re sorry for what you did. Just choose the amount that you believe will show how sorry you are."


    I smile at them to show that I trust in them making the right decision, they respond by flinching a little and nodding their heads repeatedly.


    Neither of them moves a muscle as I leave the room, they must be in shock after receiving such a severe punishment... No, I cannot go back now.


    I enter the other room to release Nera, a quick check confirms that she''s not injured.


    "Ugh... Why does this keep happening to me?"


    "Is it normal for you to get kidnapped so often?"


    I get that she''s a princess, but still...


    "I wonder if this is a punishment for taking part in those fake kidnappings..."


    "Fake kidnappings?"


    "Ah, well, I guess I don''t mind telling you, but it''s a bit complicated."


    "Don''t just leave me hanging after saying something like that."


    "How do I explain this..." Nera looks up while scratching her cheek, seemingly deep in thought. "Do you know how a lot of stories revolve around a hero that has to save a princess?"


    "Yeah, that does happen a lot."


    "There''s a reason for that. You see, the truth is that being saved by heroes is actually the job of a princess."


    "Eh... I''m sorry, I don''t think I follow."


    "The main purpose of a royal family is not really to govern a country, we have various ministers for that. Our main purpose is to provide stability to our country, keeping some strict rules of succession to make sure that there are no fights over who gets to be the ruler like what happens here in the demon wasteland. But when any random citizen can potentially reach a high level and become a force of their own, the most reliable way to maintain peace is to make sure that those ''heroes'' will feel an obligation to protect the royal family, or more specifically, the princess. That''s why so many stories are written to further that narrative."


    "A narrative? That''s not a very romanticized way of wording it."


    "Most of my training as a princess was to learn how to act like someone who should be protected by a hero. And to help sell the idea that I need protection, I took part in a few fake kidnappings."


    So the whole ''kidnapped princess'' thing is really just a ploy to keep strong people loyal... All of this sounds like some dark secret that she should not tell anyone, I guess she must consider me a close friend to be so open about it.


    "Well, I''m not really a hero, but I''m pretty strong. I''ll do my best to protect you."


    I bring my face closer to Nera''s and stare into her eyes to show my sincerity. And then her face gets all red for some reason.


    *Gasp*


    Who gasped just now? Oh, Nera''s maid is looking at us from the hallway.


    "Mari?"


    "I''m sorry, I didn''t want to disturb you."


    "No, wait! It''s not what it looks like!"


    Before Nera can say anything else, Mari has already left.


    "Luna... If you do things like that, then it''s no wonder that people will misunderstand..."


    "Misunderstand what?"


    "Nevermind."


    Nera lets out a sigh, did I do something wrong?


    "Still, does it not bother you to have to deceive people like that?"


    "I don''t like it, but if it''s to maintain peace in the Agua kingdom, then I''ll do what I must."


    She really loves her kingdom, and yet she was forced to leave... Oh, but now that I found Kalroth''s contract crystal she''ll be able to prove her mother''s crimes and clear her name!


    "Nera."


    After I give this to her she''ll finally be able to go back home.


    "What is it?"


    She''ll go back... Unlike me, who will have to stay here...


    "Uh, where did you get that book you''re holding?"


    It''s not that I don''t want to give her the crystal, obviously. It''s just that... This doesn''t feel like the right time to do it. Yeah, that''s it, I''ll definitely give it to her later.


    "Oh, this? I found it in the castle''s library."


    "There''s a library in this castle?"


    Now that I look closely, that book seems very old, and it doesn''t look like any book I know about.


    "Yeah, it''s full of old books like this one. Most of them are about subjects I don''t know about."


    A library... It''s been such a long time since I last went to a library. And you''re telling me that there''s one in this castle that''s full of old and rare books?!


    "L-Luna, why are you making that face? You''re scaring me."


    forli

 Chapter 93: Welcome home

    You don''t really know how important something is to you until you lose it.


    All of this traveling around has been an interesting change of pace for me, and it has allowed me to do and see many things that I never imagined before. But I also lost so many of the things that I had always taken for granted.


    Basically, I was starting to get homesick, I don''t think I''m made for that kind of lifestyle after all. And that''s why the sight in front of me is moving me to the point of bringing tears to my eyes, I seem to have finally found a place I can call home.


    "There''s really a library in this castle."


    I was not expecting to find something like this in a castle that used to belong to the demon king and has been mostly inhabited by muscle heads. It''s not anywhere near as big as the one I used to work at, but it''s full of interesting and rare books I have never seen before.


    That said, after being disused for so long this place is in quite a sorry state. The books are not properly arranged, the shelves are damaged and dusty, and... There are books on the ground. This is unacceptable.


    Well, I don''t mind having to organize all of this a little. Ah... The smell of old paper, the sound of each book sliding into place, the gentle touch of the leather covers, the sight of all the books being ordered by name and theme, the taste of... I''m not actually tasting anything, but anyway, I had missed all of these sensations so much.


    It didn''t take long to make this library at least somewhat presentable. And now, it''s time to actually read something.


    "I don''t know where to begin."


    There are some novels here, I wonder what kind of fiction demons write? Or manaborn, I guess, they were still called that when these books were written. Or perhaps I should read some historical accounts to see what things looked like from their point of view. No, it''s obvious what the most interesting thing in this library is.


    A collection of notes, the research of a dark mage named Zanon that called himself a ''manaborn'', meaning that it''s at least 2000 years old.


    I have to say that this is quite impressive. I used to think that the reason all of the writings on dark magic I could even find seemed so lackluster was that the prejudice against the dark element made people not want to put much effort into it. But recently I was told that I was the one who was out of the ordinary... This means that this Zanon guy could not have been ordinary either because even by my standards this seems somewhat acceptable. Well, a lot of it is obsolete or based on disproven theories, but that''s to be expected considering how old it is.


    But not all of the research here is about dark magic, there''s some other interesting stuff.


    Let''s see, first of all, I found some notes of the investigation of some special locations around the world. The infernal caverns are one of them... while there are earth and dark leylines in there, the fire ones are by far the most numerous and powerful. And apparently, there are five other locations where one can find a similarly high concentration of leylines for each of the other elements.


    In the west continent, there''s the ''green kingdom'', a massive forest where the plants grow to gigantic size as a result of the great concentration of earth mana.


    In the north continent, there''s the ''frozen labyrinth, where a large number of passing clouds were frozen in the sky and held in place by wind mana, creating an icy maze floating a few kilometers above ground. As there are not many walls around there, it''s important to watch one''s step.


    The east continent has ''pandora tower'', a structure formed as a result of light mana''s propensity for order arranging the nearby mountains into a shape that appears manmade. Also, there are apparently a lot of spiders in there, I don''t know what to think about that...


    Then, in the middle of the ocean, one can find ''the dreaming isles'', an area that all ships try to avoid due to the gigantic monsters that live there and the fact that people tend to be unable to avoid falling asleep when they are there, a curious effect of large concentrations of water mana.


    And finally, if you dive down from the dreaming isles and descend a few thousand meters under the sea, you''ll end up in ''the infinite abyss'', a place where no light can reach and the large amounts of dark mana have broken the very laws of reality. The monsters that lurk there are twisted abominations that seem to have been taken from the nightmares of a madman and space itself has been twisted in ways that a mortal mind cannot comprehend. It sounds like an interesting place, but swimming a few kilometers underwater seems like it would be complicated.


    All of those locations are filled with powerful monsters, like the infernal caverns, with ''pandora tower'' and ''the infinite abyss'' being particularly dangerous. They are places that cannot be explored by normal people, so the information gathered here is quite valuable.


    "Uh... I''m afraid that, now that I know they exist, I''m going to end up in at least one of them somehow..."


    Moving on, there''s also some research done on a strange phenomenon that occurs when a demon dies. Their element will spread into the surrounding area, not their mana, but their element itself, and that causes the surrounding mana and any spells being cast to very faintly take on the traits of that element.


    For normal demons, that effect is so minuscule that it''s almost impossible to notice. However, it''s more pronounced for demons that were formed from mana that came from near the source of a leyline.


    There''s also a copy of a record from the death of the manaborn that people called the goddess of water. For an entire day, in an area around her the equivalent to half of the continent, every spell anyone would cast took on the properties of water magic. People called it the day of water, many mages attempted to recreate something similar by various means but nobody was successful, and after a long time, everyone forgot about it.


    But there''s more, after the elements return to normal, it''s possible to observe the appearance of... void mana... The amounts are really small and it''s impossible to detect unless you''re specifically looking for it, but the weird thing is that the void mana in these cases is not normal mana that loses its elements, instead, the mana appears from nowhere as if it was entering our world.


    And the creation of void mana is the part that interested that Zanon guy the most. That''s weird, you''d think that the possibility of altering the elements would be the thing anyone would focus on, what did he want void mana for?


    Now that I think about it, everything about him is weird. Why would his research notes have ended up in this castle? And if he was such a talented dark mage, how is it possible that I''ve never heard of him until now?


    Anyway, let''s take a look at the notes that actually talk about dark magic. He also seemed to have invented a few spells of his own, so perhaps I''ll be able to find something new I can learn.


    Mmm, most of these spells are basically weaker versions of ones I already have. I don''t think this would even work for raising my level or anything. I guess that it makes sense since all the knowledge he had access to was from 2000 years ago.


    "Ah! This is..."


    I found a good one! A really good one! A spell that belongs to the field of dark magic that deals with the manipulation of space, ''Black gate''.


    In theory, this spell should be able to connect two distant locations in space and create a portal that can be used to move from one to the other instantly. And to make it better, the fundamentals are the same as my ''storage'' spell, so it should be easier for me to learn.


    But let''s not get ahead of myself. I don''t think I need to say that a spell such as this would be incredibly useful, but that also means that there have probably been a lot of people who tried to create something like this before. Since I don''t think that anyone has, it must mean that it''s incredibly difficult. Actually, I myself attempted it once but I didn''t even know where to begin.


    Of course, having the notes of a mage that already did it should make this way easier, but there''s a problem. Half of the pages that explain how this spell works have been badly damaged and are unreadable. I guess it cannot be helped, after all this time I cannot expect everything in this library to have survived intact.


    Mmm, looking at the bright side, this will make it more interesting. As long as I have something to go on from, I should be able to figure out the rest myself. After all, researching magic is the one thing I do best.


    forli


    I noticed that most of my recent chapters felt very disconnected from each other. I think that was in part a result of there being so much time between them, I couldn''t help but try to make them feel more self-contained since I wanted them to feel more complete since there were some big gaps between them, also, the gaps made it more difficult to keep track of everything. But from now on what I''m planning next is more similar to the structure I used to have.

 Chapter 94: Luna figures it out

    Dark mana flows along the extended fingers of my left hand. After leaving from my fingertips, it begins to spin in a circle twisting the fabric of space. One gate has just been created, but since there''s nothing it connects to, it just looks like a black circle floating in the air.


    I repeat the process with my left hand to make a second gate, now all that''s left is to connect them. Since I''m touching both of them, it''s easy to simply follow the instructions and move a small amount of the mana from one gate to the other. One side of each gate continues to be solid black, but when I look at the other side now I can see my own head from behind.


    "They really are connected."


    Hehe, I can touch the back of my head with my nose. Now let''s test if I can erase them, it could be dangerous if they just stayed there forever.


    ...


    After a few tests, I was able to confirm that I can indeed erase the gates whenever I want. I don''t even need to be in contact with them or even see them, the only exception is when there''s a solid object going through them. When I tried holding a pencil halfway into a gate, I couldn''t close it no matter how hard I tried, I also started to feel a force pushing the pencil out that kept getting stronger with each passing moment. I guess that''s a good thing as it means that nobody will be cut in half accidentally, but it also means that I won''t be able to use this as an offensive spell against monsters. Also, as it appears that the distorted space tends to go back to normal by itself, the gates will most likely close on their own after a few hours, I left a few open to test that.


    Anyway, what I''ve done so far was the easy part. Next, I need to figure out the part of the notes that had been destroyed, or I won''t be able to use these gates to travel long distances. Because right now, I can only create them directly in front of my hands, this means that I need to walk to the spot where I want to make the second one, which completely defeats the purpose of having gates in the first place.


    Normally, it''s possible to cast a spell at a distance by first preparing some mana so that it becomes ''mana that will turn into the spell'' and then sending it to wherever one wants the spell to happen. But the ''mana that will turn into a gate'' can only be sent to a distance of around half a meter at most, and the only way to increase this range is to prepare more mana in a similar state to push the mana for the spell. The problem is that this extra mana can also only move for half a meter, and the mana that does the pushing needs to be twice the amount that''s being pushed.


    How can I explain this? Let''s say that, to make a gate, one unit of mana is required, and that unit can move half a meter on its own. To move a full meter, I would need another two units to push the first one that extra half, a total of three, and if I want a meter and a half, I''ll need six more units to push those three for a total of nine. Basically, for each half of a meter, the mana cost of the spell will triple. Needless to say, if I want to use these gates to travel a larger distance, the amount of mana necessary will quickly become absurd, a distance of a hundred meters would require several times the amount of mana in all of the universe.


    And yet, according to these notes, this spell should be able to let me go even from one continent to another. This cannot be a problem with the amount of mana I have available, there has to be a more efficient way of doing this, but what could that be?


    A way to easily send that mana a long distance away...


    A long distance... wait! Don''t tell me...


    Yes! Mana can also travel through the gates! This means that with an extra ''in-between'' gate for each half meter, I could open a gate anywhere I want.


    With the technique of instant spell replication, casting the same weak spell a few thousand times in an instant is easy for me, as long as all the parameters of the spells are exactly the same and it''s not something like an attack spell that can interfere with its copies. But something tells me that this is going to severely limit the number of mages that will be capable of creating these gates... Anyway, with this method, the cost of the spell should increase linearly with the distance instead of exponentially, I only need two units of mana for each meter.


    ...


    "That''s still way too much."


    Agh! I thought that I had it! Is there any way that I can reduce the cost?


    Well, the bigger the gate, the more mana it needs. If I make the gate as small as possible... But it needs to be big enough for me to be able to pass through it. Maybe I could make it narrower and go sideways.


    "Uf."


    Uh... My chest is getting stuck. Now that I think about it, is it possible that I''m actually wider front to back rather than shoulder to shoulder?


    No, no, what am I saying, that would be ridiculous. And this still uses way too much mana anyway. There has to be something that I''m still missing.


    Mmm, actually, I only need one gate to be big enough for me, all the others only need to let mana go through them. And I just remember that those notes also mentioned how to make a gate for only mana, I didn''t know what that was for when I first saw it. In reality, trying to open a normal gate would fail if there were any solid objects in the way, so this was necessary anyway.


    And... It''s STILL not enough. There''s a limit to how compact I can make this mana while keeping it capable of making a large gate.


    But the last step is obvious, there''s a way to activate a spell without having to send all the mana it needs. All I need is for the mana to already be there.


    That is to say, I need to leave a magic circle with the ''black gate'' spell ready at each of the destinations I might want to travel to. Then, I''ll only need to send a minuscule amount of mana to activate it. This means that I''ll only be able to travel to places I''ve already been and left a magic circle at, but I will be able to go from one continent to another in an instant as the notes said.


    That said, this is one of the more complicated spells I''ve seen.


    A multi-step spell that requires space manipulation, instant spell replication, and magic circle crafting. Not to mention the mana control and accuracy necessary to activate the second gate from such a long distance. It''s going to take me a lot of practice to be able to master it.


    Maybe the reason why such a useful spell was left forgotten in this library is simply that nobody other than Zanon was able to pull it off.


    "Well, I better get started then."


    "Uh? Where am I?"


    "Luna! You''re awake!"


    "Nera? Why am I in a bed?"


    "We brought you here. Do you have any idea how worried I was?"


    She looks like she''s about to cry. Why would she be worried? All I did was practice the ''black gate'' spell for a bit until becoming somewhat decent at it. Then I decided to rest.


    "I don''t get it."


    "You locked yourself there for a week! And when I decided to check on you, I found you unconscious on the floor!"


    "I wasn''t unconscious, I was taking a nap."


    "On the floor?!"


    "There were no beds in there."


    What was I supposed to do? Leave the library?


    "And you have been sleeping for 24 hours! How is that a nap?!"


    "I was tired, I had been practicing magic nonstop."


    "For a week?! Without rest?!"


    Nera is making her usual ''I cannot believe what I''m hearing'' face. I guess it cannot be helped, being a princess, it''s normal for her to be shocked when she learns what the schedule of a regular person is like.


    "I tried to tell her that this was normal for you, but she didn''t listen." Arana is also here, trying to hold back her laughter. "Just so you know, while you were having fun with your books, we''ve been working hard trying to turn this place into an actual country."


    "Oh, sorry."


    "Don''t worry. It''s not as if I was expecting much of you when I asked you to become a queen." Did she really need to word it like that? "But we''re going to need you to show your face soon."


    "Show my face?"


    "You need to be introduced to the various demon lords of the wasteland." Explains Nera. "Xania already called for the leaders of the major tribes, we''re expecting them to arrive in two days."


    Oh, then I would not be able to do more research for the time being. That''s a pity, I wanted to find out more about that place called ''the infinite abyss'', or about that story about the ''day of water''...


    Wait a minute, ''day of water''...


    "We''ll need to get you ready to cause a good impression."


    There are times when I''m not paying attention to something important that should have been obvious, and then the realization hits me at an unexpected time.


    ''When the day of fire arrives, death and despair will rule.''


    The second to last line of the prophecy... And the ''day of water'' was when de goddess of water died...


    "However, two days should be enough. As long as you don''t get sidetracked with anything else."


    "THE DAY OF FIRE IS THE DAY THE GOD OF FIRE DIES!!!"


    "Eh?"


    "VILDE IS GOING TO DIE!!!"


    "Who?! What?!"


    "Ara! I need to borrow Longleg again! I have to go back to the infernal caverns!"


    "Sure, he''s been getting so bored lately that the inside of my hat is filled with webs."


    "Wait! You cannot go now! What about the meeting?!"


    "I promise that I''ll be back before two days."


    "But we need to get you ready."


    "Sorry, this is more important."


    Maybe Vilde knows more about all of this. At the very least, I need to warn him. His death has been prophesied.


    forli


    When Luna was traveling around before I didn''t want to make movement too easy, but now I think that it''s fine to unlock fast travel.


    I wasn''t going to reveal what the day of fire was until much later. But I realized that it wouldn''t make much sense for Luna to never ask Vilde about it, and considering his motivations, it wouldn''t make sense for Vilde to not tell her. So I decided to make her find out this way instead, I needed an excuse to send her back to him anyway.

 Chapter 95: Compromise

    At this moment, I''m about to lose a game of chess.


    Some people might think that I should have more important things to do right now, but there''s no helping it. I asked Arana and she told me that the wording of ''WHEN the day of fire arrives as opposed to ''IF'' means that it''s going to happen no matter what. Since Ranna knows a lot about prophecies she might be able to help me come up with a plan, but first I need to know more about what the day of fire is exactly.


    And if there''s one person that should know, it would be Vilde himself. That''s why I came running down here as fast as I could, it certainly took me a lot less time to reach the bottom this time around. But then Vilde reminded me of the deal we made last time, that he would tell me everything he knows if I could beat him at chess. Which is bad...


    "And I believe this is checkmate."


    ...Because it doesn''t look like that''s going to happen anytime soon.


    "Uh... Since I got a bit closer to winning than last time, could you tell me at least a little bit?"


    "You''re already aware of the rules. I would not want you to get used to being able to bend them whenever it''s convenient for you."


    "Convenient for me?! You know that you''re the one who''s going to die, right?"


    "That does seem to be the case, yes."


    "Then why are you so calm? I was expecting a bigger reaction when I told you about the prophecy."


    "I''ve already lived far longer than I should have." He says with a shrug of his shoulders. "That said. My demise might indeed bring about some... Problems. And it seems like we''re not going to have as much time as I first believed."


    "So? Will you-"


    "First things first. I need you to share what you already know. Did you say that you''ve already made yourself acquainted with some demons?"


    "Ah, yes. I also wanted you to take a look at this."


    I brought the last large chunk of crystalized void mana I have left. My guess is that Vilde might have something to say about it.


    "This is..."


    "It''s void mana."


    "I see, I''ll take care of it right away."


    Without a moment of hesitation, he begins to inject fire mana into the crystal with the apparent aim to destroy it.


    "W-wait a moment! Don''t destroy it!" I try to grab it back, but he doesn''t let me. At least he seems to have stopped breaking it.


    "Perhaps you are not aware, but void mana is extremely dangerous. You should always dispose of it as soon as possible if you ever find any."


    "I know that it''s dangerous, but I need it for my research!"


    "Why would you want to research something like that? Void mana is the antithesis to life, nothing good can come from it."


    "That''s not something I can know for sure unless I properly study it. And even if there are really no benign uses for void magic, I could also find more effective methods to fight against it."


    "If you have faced a demon you should have already experienced the nature of their powers. They do not merely attack your body and mind, but also your very soul. Do you not fear that you might end up obtaining knowledge that you are not meant to have?"


    "I don''t believe in knowledge that I''m not meant to have."


    "Mmm, I see."


    With a small smile, Vilde passes the crystal back to me.


    "Are you really ok with giving this back to me?"


    "Why not? You seem to be quite determined in your pursuit of knowledge. And I already had my chance to face the demons a long time ago, a chance that I wasted. I have no right to deny you the opportunity to use your own methods."


    "You fought against the void demons?"


    "Indeed. I would go as far as to say that fighting demons was my purpose, the reason why I exist. Which I suppose makes me a complete failure. And the demons are also the reason why I had to live for so long."


    "The more I hear you talk, the more I think that I need to hear what you know about the void demons."


    Something about what I just said seems to have sounded strange, causing Vilde to raise an eyebrow.


    "May I ask why you keep referring to them as ''void demons'' as opposed to just ''demons''?"


    "Oh, I just decided to call them that to differentiate them."


    "To differentiate them from what?"


    "Ah, that''s right. If you have been in this cavern for such a long time, you probably don''t know about the manaborn''s name change."


    "Name change?"


    This is the first time I see Vilde look upset. He looks a bit scary like this.


    "Well... let me explain."


    I told Vilde about the war against the demon king and how everyone started calling the manaborn ''demons''. His mood only seemed to get worse as he listened.


    "And the manaborn just accepted that? If this is a jest, it''s not funny."


    "I''m serious, I know that it sounds weird but it really happened."


    "Well, it shouldn''t have happened. It would be no wonder if such a wretched name caused the manaborn to become less kind."


    "Uh, is the name of a race something that can affect their behavior?"


    "Words are a powerful thing, they can easily alter the way we perceive reality. To be given a name with such bad connotations can change the way people think of themselves. And that is especially true for those that are born from mana, after all, mana responds to the feelings of living beings."


    "I see..."


    I still think that he''s exaggerating. Then again, this makes sense. If he dedicated his life to fighting demons, it''s normal for him to be upset when learning that his kind is now named after those very same demons.


    "You mentioned that you had become an actual queen?"


    "Yes, of the demon wasteland."


    "It would be preferable to call it the manaborn wasteland. Since you are a queen, you should be able to change the name back to manaborn."


    "No, I don''t think that I can do that..."


    Vilde lets out a sigh.


    "Could you promise that you will at least keep it in mind?"


    "Uh, sure. But in exchange, could you tell me what you know about the ''day of fire''?"


    The former god of fire stops to think for a moment, stroking his goatee.


    "I didn''t want to burden you with something like that this early, but my imminent death might indeed diminish the time we have available. Perhaps we could reach a compromise."


    "A compromise?"


    "If you cannot win a game of chess, then how about a fight? I won''t tell you everything just yet, but I will share what you need to know."


    "Uh, I don''t think I want to fight you..."


    "Do not fret, it will be a mere friendly match. And I won''t even ask that you defeat me. If you manage to hurt me once, I''ll be satisfied."


    "But if I fight someone as strong as you, I won''t be able to afford to hold back. What if I end up hurting you?"


    "You talk as if you were afraid of your own power."


    "That''s because I am! Just imagine if I lost control. With how strong I am, I could kill a lot of people and nobody would be able to stop it. I''m terrified of my power."


    "Good, make sure to keep it like that."


    "Eh?"


    That''s not what I was expecting him to say.


    "What you said is true, your power is certainly dangerous, but it might also be necessary in the near future. It''s good that you fear your power. If that was not the case... Well, let''s just say that you might end up locking yourself in some cave for the rest of your life. But that''s all the more reason why you should learn how to use it, you need to experience what a serious fight is like. And I''m the perfect opponent for you, after all, I possess the ''immortality'' skill, so there''s no need to fear hurting me."


    "Did you say immortality?"


    "Well, that skill is not as absolute as the name suggests. For someone like you, it would be a simple matter to find a way to kill me. But killing me by accident is impossible, you need not worry."


    "Uh... If you put it that way I don''t seem to have a choice. Alright, I''ll fight you."


    The moment I accepted the fight, Vilde turned around and covered his mouth in an attempt to stifle a sound... I think that I just heard him squeal, that can''t be right...


    "Marvelous! It''s been so long since I last had the chance to wield Helen."


    "Is that... Is that your weapon?"


    I don''t know where it came from, but Vilde is holding a strange pitchfork with three prongs. Just from looking at it, I can tell that it''s made from some powerful materials, I don''t think that''s just a farming tool.


    "Precisely. Do you have weapons and equipment of your own?"


    "I do, but nothing that could be considered adequate for our level."


    "In that case, I''ll let you borrow some of mine. Pick whatever you want from that pile over there."


    "You know. If I ever have some time I really should help you organize this room... Actually, are we going to fight in this room? You said that you cannot leave."


    "That arena where you fought the hell dragon is as far as I can go. In fact, it was made in case there was someone I needed to fight."


    "I see, in that case, I''ll start looking for some equipment I can use."


    Now that I think about it, this is the first time I''m fighting someone that I''ll probably lose against. Uh... now I''m starting to get nervous, I said that I didn''t want to hurt him but perhaps I should be more worried about myself.


    "Seeing you get so tense over a mere spar is proof that you need this. It would be terrible if the first time you found yourself in a serious fight was against an opponent that actually wanted to kill you."


    He''s trying to make it sound as if he was only doing this to help me, but he cannot hide how excited he is about the idea of fighting me...


    Just what did I get myself into.


    forli

 Chapter 96: Bad habits

    After choosing the equipment I wanted, I head to the arena following after Vilde. The walk is giving me time to doubt my decision to accept the fight and now I''m starting to regret it.


    "You seem to be distressed, is there anything the matter?"


    "I''m just thinking that I don''t really know how to fight properly, I''m worried that I''m going to do it wrong."


    "Yes, you''re indeed doing it wrong."


    "We haven''t even started yet!!!"


    "Our match began when you selected the equipment you wanted to use. That pendant you are wearing grants some protection against fire if I''m not mistaken."


    "Yes, it seemed like an obvious choice."


    "You are not entirely wrong. However, it''s usually a better idea to choose equipment that will cover your weaknesses rather than something that does what you are already capable of doing. I believe that you are already able to protect yourself from heat and heal burns."


    "Well, that''s true, I did take a bath in lava once. But if you ask me, I don''t really know what my weaknesses are."


    "And that''s what we will be finding out shortly. Other than that, you also do not seem to be aware of how important information can be. There''s no reason for you to make that pendant so visible, and you should have attempted to make some inquiries about Helen when I let you see her earlier."


    "Are you talking about your pitchfork? I already figured out what it does. You use it to deflect spells by grabbing them the same way a farmer would pitch hay."


    Vilde stops walking for a moment, looking surprised.


    "How do you know that?"


    "I was just wondering why you would choose a pitchfork as a weapon... Then I felt how some tiny amounts of mana were getting stuck between the prongs, and from that, it was easy to figure out its function."


    "To be able to make such a deduction from such a brief look... impressive."


    When we reach the wall, Vilde activates a hidden switch and a rock sinks into the ground, allowing us to enter the arena without needing to squeeze ourselves through the gap.


    "Very well then, let''s begin. Defend yourself!"


    "Uh, wai- AGH!" He suddenly stabbed me in the arm! "Don''t attack without any warning like that!"


    "I most certainly did warn you. That was more of a warning than any enemy would have given you."


    "That''s true, but still..."


    "Now, you need to treat this like a real fight. Make sure to be constantly on guard."


    "Okay... I underst- AGH"


    He stabbed me again!


    "It doesn''t seem like you understood. You need to take-" ''Shadow lance'' "-this fight seriously."


    Ugh, he dodged it so easily... I wanted to pay him back with a surprise attack of my own.


    ''Blazing hell''


    Vilde jumps back creating some distance between us and throws a fireball at me. It doesn''t seem very strong, with my high magic stat making me resistant to magic attacks, something like that should not even be able to hurt me at all, so I do not bother defending.


    "Why are you allowing that to hit you?"


    "It didn''t seem dangerous."


    "If I may offer some advice. You should never, ever, treat an attack as ''not dangerous''."


    "Oh, but people are always using attacks against me that do nothing even if I don''t defend myself."


    "And yet, it appears that those attacks were dangerous after all, they have caused you to develop quite a bad habit."


    Unexpectedly, it does actually set me on fire, but it''s not hot at all. Neither I nor my clothes are getting burned... Oh! Now I get it, these flames do not affect physical things at all, the only thing that''s on fire is my mana.


    Wait, my mana is on fire!


    ''Shadow lance''


    That was scary, but I was able to use the burning mana to cast a spell to get rid of the fire. Vilde was able to deflect it with his pitchfork, just as I thought.


    "You were able to discriminate the mana that was on fire and use it for a spell, and all of that almost instantly. I have never witnessed such skill... It''s difficult to believe that you can be so good at magic yet so bad at fighting."


    "Uh, thanks?"


    I''m not sure if that was a compliment or an insult... I guess I''ll have to show him just how skilled at magic I really am, now it''s my turn to cast a spell. But if I go with something simple he''ll just dodge or deflect it, in that case...


    ''Rain of destruction''


    With this spell I can make hundreds of ''shadow lances'' fall down on him at the same time, I can even control them a little to attack from the sides as well. This should be much more difficult for him to deal with.


    However, before I had even started, he made another big jump and got his back against a wall. Now, none of my attacks will be able to come from behind.


    Swinging his pitchfork at an incredible speed, he deflects every single one of the shadow lances without any difficulty. With each swing he grabs multiple lances and then throws them away, he tries to aim for me most of the time but that''s pointless, I can easily get rid of my own spells.


    Eventually, I realize that all I''m doing here is wasting my mana, so I stop making lances. He sends the last one at me, I guess I''ll make it disappear like the others... wait, why is the pitchfork flying at me?!


    "Ugh!"


    He threw the pitchfork at me so that it was hidden behind the lance! I didn''t see it until it was too late and it got stuck in my stomach. Eh?! I can feel more of that mana-burning fire coming out from the tip! This is bad, it''s going to be much harder to get rid of it if it''s inside me...


    No, I need to calm down, just do it like before.


    ''Shadow lance''


    I did it!


    "Your mana control is truly astounding! I wonder what your limits are."


    Hundreds of flames of various colors manifest all around Vilde, is he planning to copy my last attack?


    ''Bullet hell''


    The flames are flying at me in various patterns, they look pretty but now''s not the time to admire them.


    ''Shadow nail''


    As much as I try dodging them or stopping them with weak spells, there are just too many flames. When my mana starts burning I do my best to get rid of them but this time I end up losing a substantial amount.


    "You are doing such a great job at getting rid of my flames, and yet, they are still able to make a dent in your mana. Do you understand now? What your weakness is?"


    "My weakness? I don''t understand."


    "Then let me ask you. How much mana do you think a level 500 mage has compared to a level 100?"


    "5 times as much?"


    "Precisely. And yet, a single level 500 is far more powerful than 5 level 100s. Do you know why that is?"


    "Because they can use their mana 5 times more effectively so it feels like it''s 25 times more. And since their spells will be 5 times stronger it''s more like 125... Not to mention that they''ll probably know better spells and might be able to use more mana from their surroundings to complement their own..."


    Most people usually get the impression that I have an immense amount of mana, but it''s really more quality than quantity.


    "And yet, the actual amount is still only 5 times more. At high levels, the amount of mana of a mage is very small in proportion to the power they have. That''s why attacks against their mana from opponents of their level are very effective."


    "Oh, I never thought about that."


    "And that''s especially true for you. You can heal yourself easily as long as you have mana, so normal attacks don''t mean much to you. But a pure mage such as yourself will be as good as dead if you ever run out of mana against an enemy of your level. That is the more likely way in which you can be defeated, any smart opponent will aim for that. And yet, you choose an amulet that only protects you from the type of fire that burns your body. Did you even consider taking something to preserve or restore your mana?"


    "No, I never had to worry about my mana until now, so I didn''t even think about it..."


    "And that''s another bad habit born from only facing weaker foes. Now, let me show you the other method to defeat a powerful healer, an attack that damages you in a way that cannot simply be healed."


    ''Frozen hell''


    "Uh? Is it getting cold?"


    Oh, now that I think about it, fire magic can control heat. But being able to remove heat must require very high skill.


    "By removing the heat from your body I''m also removing your energy. Soon you will not be able to even move."


    T-this is bad. It''s s-so cold, my body is trembling. I need to land a hit on him before it''s too late, b-but he''s avoided all my attacks so easily until now... Wait, what if...


    "H-hey, are you sure that nothing I c-can do will kill you?"


    "I''m absolutely certain, you don''t need to hold back."


    S-some of the monsters in the infernal caverns were able to survive at least one of my ''obliteration blasts'', and Vilde is stronger than them. If I m-make it so that the area of effect covers the entire arena, he will not be able to avoid it. I will also get hit, but I can heal.


    ''Oblit-''


    *Smack*


    "Agh!"


    He kicked me in the face! I was sent flying and my spell was interrupted.


    "What did you expect would happen when you try to use such a slow spell against an opponent that''s standing right in front of you?"


    "Uh... N-normally I''m always able to finish my spells."


    "Looks like we found yet another bad habit."


    It''s getting colder and colder, I need to... Wait a second, ''rain of destruction'' is also a slow spell, and yet, he let me use it before, is it because he knew that he could deal with it? Now that I think about it, it''s weird that he knew to jump to the wall before I even started to cast it. Don''t tell me...


    I prepare to cast a ''shadow lance'', but I''ll make it curve so that it comes from the right. As soon as I decide that, he holds his pitchfork to block an attack from the right.


    I change my mind and prepare to cast a ''shadow lance'' that will come from the left. And as soon as I decide that, he holds his pitchfork to block an attack from the left.


    I didn''t even move during any of that, I was only thinking about what I was going to do...


    "D-do you have a skill that predicts what I''m going to do?"


    "At last you realize! Yes, after taking part in more battles than I can count, I obtained the ''battle master'' skill. It allows me to sense my opponent''s intentions, but don''t you have a similar skill? One that you obtained from merely one battle?"


    "You m-mean ''battle analyst''?"


    "That''s correct. With the gap of experience between us, that skill is the only thing that can give you a chance to match me."


    After saying that, he begins to gather a large amount of mana that sinks into the ground.


    ''Hell beneath''


    "You know, if you don''t want people to think that you''re the devil, you should not put ''hell'' in all of your- AGH!"


    A massive explosion from under me launches me into the air and I land face first in front of Vilde.


    "Why are you not using that skill?"


    "I d-don''t know how to activate it..."


    "It appears that your subconscious does not think of this as a real battle... And yet, you should be able to activate your skill by simply willing it, battle of not. Why did you not practice until you could?"


    "I don''t know, I g-guess I just assumed that it would activate when necessary."


    "You ''assumed''?! Mmm, it appears that we have finally found the worst of all the habits you got from only facing weaker foes. You assume that every fight you get into is going to be easy."


    Is that true? I''ve only faced enemies weaker than me, all my fights have been easy, until now...


    I''ve done nothing but embarrass myself this entire fight. Is this really who I am? Someone who can bully the weak but will fall over as soon as things get a bit difficult?


    No, I won''t accept that.


    Perhaps my fights have been easy, but it''s not like I''ve never faced any difficulties in my life, and I always did my best to get through them. Why would this be any different? There must be a way for me to win, I''m just not trying hard enough.


    That''s right, I''m such an idiot. He told me that this ''frozen hell'' was not something I can heal and I just accepted it! What was I thinking?! My ''flesh shaping'' is not just for healing wounds, I can also use it to raise my body temperature and get my energy back!


    And as for ''battle analyst''. That''s nothing more than me focusing on the battle and using my mind to analyze it. If I want to activate that skill, I only need to do that!


    "Mmm, I see that you are not giving up yet."


    ''Bullet hell''


    Why did this spell give me so much trouble before? The flames move in patterns that are easy to predict, and they are not even all that fast. I can see it! The optimal path to dodge and deflect them all!


    "Oh! Excellent!" Vilde seems happy to see me deal with his attack.


    "That''s not all!"


    ''Swamp terrain''


    As expected, predicting my spell, he jumps before the ground becomes swampy, but the fact that he could predict my attack also makes HIM predictable. I knew that he would jump, so I prepared to cast two spells at once.


    ''Gravity bomb''


    ''Shadow lance''


    He cannot dodge in midair, and even if he uses his pitchfork to deflect the ''gravity bomb'', I prepared it so that the force of gravity will make him spin into the ''shadow lance''.


    However, by twisting his weapon after stabbing it into the spell, he reverses the spin, which allows him to dodge. So it won''t be so easy...


    Now he''s conjured a flame behind him that is pushing him towards me. I can tell that I''ll be in trouble if I don''t get away, so I use a mana push with all my might to send myself flying, creating some distance before he lands.


    Vilde is by far the toughest opponent I''ve faced, he said that I only needed to hurt him once, but even that will be difficult. However, that cold from before is now completely gone, and my confidence has grown. I know that I can do this.


    My opponent looks at me with a wide grin on his face.


    "It seems that you''re finally done warming up."


    forli


    When I was first writing this chapter I capitalized the first ''a'' in ''arena'' twice. I think that my brain thought that I was writing Arana''s name.


    Also, longest chapter so far by quite some margin.

 Chapter 97: Trying harder

    -Vilde-


    The young dark queen seems to have fallen on her rear-end once again. At first glance, it looks as if there''s nothing she can do to defend herself as I rush at her, she''s using both of her hands to support herself and no mana is being gathered in them, it should not be possible to cast a spell in time. However, a skilled mage can use magic with more than her hands, and the way that she''s twisting her leg is rather peculiar.


    She''s clearly attempting to bait me, she even went as far as to allow me to injure her, an option only available to healers of her caliber. But I''m afraid that her ploy is far too obvious, and so, I avoid sinking Helen too far into her body and prepare to deflect her magic.


    ''Shadow chain''


    The spell emerges from her foot. In this short time, she''s already deduced that non-damaging spells are more difficult for me to foresee and is trying to use that to her advantage.


    Unfortunately for her, mages casting from their feet is not anything new to me. And now that she''s truly defenseless, I prepare to cast another mana-consuming flame. Only to be interrupted by a sudden feeling of danger.


    ''Shadow chain''


    She had yet another spell ready I didn''t notice, this one emerging from the tips of her hair. Now, that IS something new to me, it''s not quite as powerful as her usual magic but it does manage to catch me by surprise. I can only barely avoid it by using a mana push like she did before and then rolling a bit on the ground. Not a very elegant dodge.


    "Not bad, not bad at all. But you should still be capable of much more."


    At least, compared to the absolute disaster from before, the way she''s fighting now is like night and day.


    I always knew that the one to finally reach the bottom of these caverns would not be a normal person by any means. And yet my expectations still fell short.


    When this beautiful young lady first opened the door of my room I thought for certain that she was using her strongest intimidation skill on me. I still find it hard to believe that the aura of terror that surrounds her is entirely unintentional. That cold and dark exterior of hers that allows her to make even veteran warriors fall on their knees with a mere glance is nothing more than a facade.


    And yet, the meek personality beneath her cold exterior is not all there is to her either. In this battle, we are beginning to uncover what lied dormant in the deepest parts of her mind, and that is, the hearth of a winner.


    ''Never give up until the end.'' A common principle that every warrior takes for granted but almost none can live up to. I have seen it many times, when someone feels that defeat draws near, they start to fall apart. When things get difficult, they begin to think less and less about how to win, their thoughts focusing instead on how much they wish for it all to end. Eventually, they convince themselves that victory is impossible and stop trying to win at all. I''ve seen this happen even when people''s lives were on the line.


    The best that ordinary people such as myself can do is to use any willpower we have to endure that pressure. But there''s a very small number of people who are the opposite, people who not only have no problem resisting but instead thrive under pressure, who always respond to hardships by trying even harder, the natural winners.


    I believe that those traits are related to the dark element. If only we had someone like that we might have been able to defeat the titans back then, but dwelling on the regrets of my past will do nothing to improve the present.


    This girl is, without a doubt, one of those natural winners. She most likely enjoyed the many challenges she encountered while studying difficult spells, to the point that they might not have felt like challenges at all. But when it comes to fighting, she only encountered easy battles and became spoiled as a result.


    I''m glad that I was able to provide the challenge she needed, just during this fight she has improved immensely. As I keep making things more difficult for her, she continues to reveal more of her true skills, I wonder if she''s even aware that I''ve been progressively increasing the speed of my attacks.


    That said, the pressure that she''s sending my way now that she''s seriously trying to fight me is beyond anything I''ve ever felt before. I''ve faced stronger opponents that, unlike her, were certainly trying to kill me, yet none of them were nearly as intimidating as this dark queen. In particular, the moment she gathered her determination to do her best against me was quite terrifying. I was caught off-guard, but fortunately, I was able to just barely retain my composure... Had my fear appeared on my face, it would have damaged my image.


    I do wonder where that fear even comes from in the first place? Normally one would need to at least have some ill-intent to be able to produce a substantial level of intimidation, but this girl does not seem to have even an ounce of malice in her.


    Truly, I could not have asked for anyone better to entrust this world to after my apparently imminent death. As the civilizations of this world continue to develop over the course of time, the average level of each individual will increase as well, that''s why I always expected someone to eventually reach the so-called ''gods''. But that would still require quite the extraordinary individual, not leaving much room for choice, so I''m glad that the first person to reach me was such an outstanding young girl.


    There''s only one small complaint I have...


    "Ah! That pitchfork is deflecting all of my spells..."


    She said it again! Does she not realize how rude she''s being?


    "That''s why HELEN has been my companion in more battles than I can remember."


    She doesn''t seem to have gotten the hint. Is using a weapon''s name no longer part of common courtesy in this era? Or is she simply unfamiliar with the common sense of a warrior?


    Well, I suppose I will ignore this one impoliteness and focus on the fight. I want to see just how high the queen of darkness can reach.


    -Luna-


    I got close a few times, but I''m still not able to land a hit on him... He''s faster, stronger, and more experienced than me. And I''m convinced that he''s not even using his full power yet, he''s probably planning to keep the fight at a level where I''m capable of landing that one hit on him. Am I really going to lose a fight that my opponent wants me to win?


    No, that cannot be, I''m still not doing my best.


    The only thing that gives me an advantage over him is my healing, it lets me attack him without fear of being hurt. Actually... There''s one more thing I have, I have the spells that were created by the many mages that lived while Vilde was locked in that room. Many of the spells I''ve been using seemed to be completely new to him, but when all is said and done, if all a spell does is come out from my hand and fly at him, he can just use that pitchfork to defend himself regardless of what the spell actually does. If I really want to get him I''ll need something a bit more unique...


    So that''s what I was still doing wrong, I know so many spells and yet I keep using the same obvious ones again and again. I need something that he cannot possibly be expecting, I need THAT spell... But first I have to set things up.


    ''Swamp terrain''


    "This again?"


    Once again he jumps in the air to avoid being trapped and prepares to stab me as he lands. This time I can also feel him prepare to use a mana push to change direction in midair if necessary, but he won''t need to do that.


    ''Shadow lance''


    I make the lance curve so that it comes from the left and he deflects it without a problem. He can probably tell that I''m preparing another spell in my left hand, and with the dexterity that he''s already shown many times, he shifts his pitchfork to stab at it as he falls, exactly what I wanted. I knew that he had trouble predicting spells that do no damage.


    ''Black gate''


    The difficult part of that spell was creating gates at a distance. As long as I can touch both of them, I can do it in just one second. But that''s still long enough for him to react, so I needed to do it when it was no longer possible for him to stop himself, when he was attacking while falling. And so, the pitchfork goes into the gate in my left hand and out of the gate in my right hand, stabbing into his leg.


    "Ah!"


    It seems like he got surprised and ended up falling on top of me. He gets up immediately to look at his leg, at a small scratch that is bleeding slightly.


    "You are incredible! What was that spell."


    "Oh, I didn''t create that spell. I learned it just the other day actually..."


    "But the way you used it was simply marvelous! It seems like you managed to win this challenge after all."


    He says that I won but... Uh, I cannot believe what I''m about to say.


    "No, I don''t feel like I won anything. You were taking it easy on me, weren''t you?"


    "That''s correct. After all, I did need you to win so that I could tell you what you need to know."


    "Even then, I''m still not satisfied. I want you to show me your best. I want to see how far I can really go. I want to prove that I can hit you even when you are fighting seriously."


    Vilde raises an eyebrow after hearing that.


    "Is this really the same girl from before who didn''t want any fight at all? After all you had to struggle to land that one hit. Are you really asking for an even tougher fight?"


    "I cannot believe it myself, but yes. That''s what I''m asking."


    "Hahaha! Very well! But do remember that you literally asked for this."


    ''Sunfire cloak''


    Vilde''s body starts to glow a bright orange and emits an unbelievable amount of heat. Just from being in from of him, I can feel that my skin is starting to burn.


    ''Heat void''


    To think that I have to use the same magic that allowed me to bathe in lava just to resist the heat of that spell...


    No, that is not a spell, it''s a skill. And the heat is just a secondary effect. My ''battle strategist'' skill is telling me that all of Vilde''s stats have greatly increased just now.


    ''Bullet hell''


    "That again? I already figured out how to deal with-"


    Oh, this time is different. Before there were hundreds of those flames, this time there are thousands, and they are moving twice as fast.


    I do my best to dodge and block as many as I can, but I cannot deal with all of them. Still, as long as I keep my focus I should be able to keep the loss of mana to a min-


    "Ugh!"


    Without waiting for his spell to end, moving too fast for me to react, Vilde rushes to me and pins me to the ground with his pitchfork. And so, I cannot defend myself from the rest of the flames.


    This is bad... I still had half of my mana left before that attack and now I have less than a third.


    "It could be said that speed is the greatest advantage of the fire element. Do you still wish to continue? This does not appear to be possible with your current fighting skills."


    He''s right, the way I''m now, it seems impossible for me to land even one hit on him when he fights like that. He moved way too fast just now...


    And yet, for some reason, that thought is making me smile. And when that smile appears on my face, I see Vilde take half a step back. If I didn''t know any better, I would think that he got scared for a brief moment.


    "Then I guess I''ll have to try even harder."


    forli


    I''ll write the next chapter faster!

 Chapter 98: Luna vs Vilde

    Why is it that I don''t like fighting?


    Whenever I fight a person, it feels like I''m doing something wrong. Not only am I constantly worrying that I might accidentally kill someone if I don''t hold back enough, but there''s also the constant feeling that all I''m doing is bullying people much weaker than me... The battle itself is just me being stupid until I use a spell that defeats my opponent without any resistance. And when I win, that''s just what anyone would have expected, it never feels like I accomplished anything.


    But this time it''s different.


    Vilde is stronger than me. I can fight without holding back! All the powerful spells I spent so long learning are finally something that I need! And most importantly, I''m actually the underdog in this fight, it seems like it shouldn''t be possible for me to get even one hit on him, which means... If I somehow manage to do it, I will have surpassed myself.


    That said, I don''t know how I''m going to do it. My greatest strength, my healing, has been rendered useless by those mana-burning flames. I would like to say that Vilde is just a bad matchup for me, but that is probably not the case... He has a lot of combat experience, I bet that he has many different fighting styles and is only using the one that works the best against me.


    ''Bullet hell''


    Uh... He''s using that spell again. I might be able to defend against it if I push ''battle analysis'' to the limit, but he''ll just rush at me again, and he''s too fast for me to react while dealing with the flames.


    Think Luna, out of all the spells you know, is there anything that could help? Any defensive magic will just get burned down by the flames. Wait... that just made me think of one particular spell. I''ve never used it in battle and this is definitely not its intended use... It seems crazy, but I think that it should work.


    ''Explosion sigil''


    This spell places a magic sigil that can mix with the opponent''s mana and cause it to explode. Normally, it is used to deal with defensive magic, but this time I''m going to place it on my own body. If I''m not mistaken, those flames that attach themselves to mana should explode even faster than normal magic.


    *Bang*


    "What in the world?"


    Vilde seems surprised, it seems like he doesn''t know any spells similar to this one.


    As the thousands of flames reach me, I become engulfed by the constant explosions. However, my mana is not being burned.


    With this, I have converted the attack against my mana into mere physical damage. My body is being damaged, but this is something that I can easily heal. And the best part is that Vilde cannot get close while his own magic is exploding all around me, this should give me the time to cast a large spell.


    ''Obliteration blast''


    I get blown away by my own attack, most of the left side of my body is missing. But as I figured out earlier, the area of effect is large enough to cover the entire arena, not even the ''king of fire'' will be able to avoi-


    "What in the world?"


    He''s... running away from the explosion. There''s not enough room to dodge on the floor so he''s running upwards, on the wall... And he''s actually fast enough to escape an explosion that can destroy an entire mountain in a few seconds.


    Now he''s coming right at me, and he''s getting even faster!


    ''Shadow lance''


    I predicted his trajectory correctly, and he still dodged me so easily...


    "Ugh!"


    This time he hit me with the side of his pitchfork instead of stabbing me. I feel a few bones break and I''m sent flying towards-


    "Agh!"


    He appeared in front of me and hit me again! How can he be so fa-


    "Ouch!"


    What''s happening?! He moves way too fast! I cannot even stop flying before getting hit again!


    He continues to appear in front of me to hit me again and again, keeping me in the air. It''s like he''s playing a game of tennis against himself and I''m the ball... This is bad, my bones keep getting broken and the heat from his glowing body is burning my skin despite my protection. If this goes on I''m going to spend all my mana healing myself!


    I need to calm down. Even if he''s fast, there are only so many ways he can move if he wants to keep hitting me like this, I should be able to predict his movements with ''battle analysis''.


    ''Shadow lance''


    Again I predicted correctly but he dodged, his reflexes are too good. Should I use a ''mana push'' to change direction? No, he''ll just pursue me, he''s too fast for me to escape. It might work if I attack at the same time and he''s forced to dodge, but my magic won''t be as effective if I split my focus like that.


    Wait, I just remember something. If I use ''that'' I should be able to fly in any direction I want without needing to use magic.


    Before the fight, I took a ring that was supposed to make me able to run faster, it ended up being quite useless and I lost it when my body got damaged earlier. That means that I should have some free room for other equipment. And so, from my storage, I take that war scythe that Arana enchanted to be ''impossible to dodge'', I almost forgot that I had it.


    Of course, even if it cannot be dodged, it can be blocked, and I don''t think that it will be strong enough to injure Vilde, so I won''t even try. However, if I aim for some rock in the distance, it will drag me in that direction, and I can still use my magic at the same time.


    ''Gravity bomb''


    I manage to get away while he''s dealing with my spell. I never knew that having my feet on the ground could feel so relieving.


    ''Burning hell''


    But it seems like my opponent is not going to allow me even one moment of rest. Earlier he kept taking breaks after each exchange, but ever since he started to fight ''seriously'' he''s been showing no mercy.


    The fireball he''s conjured this time is enormous, I''d say around 50 meters in diameter. If I make it explode it will do a lot of damage, and Vilde won''t let go of the chance to attack while I heal. But I can tell that he''s ready to strike wherever I dodge.


    ''Night''s cloak''


    It was already hard to see through the fireball, and now I''m using a spell that dims not only light but even sound and smell. This way he won''t be able to tell which way I''m dodging. And yet, it seems like he was able to sense movement somehow, and so he dashes to the left of the fireball.


    And with a swing of his pitchfork, he smashes the imp I summoned and tossed to the left just before I dodged to the right.


    ''Shadow lance''


    I finally got to catch him by surprise, he only barely manages to deflect my spell. With a swing of my war scythe that aims for a rock on the floor next to him, I fly closer. I need to be careful to not aim for him directly, my weapon is clearly much weaker than his and will probably break if they clash.


    And so, I continue to cast spell after spell against him while the scythe allows me to move in unpredictable ways. He might be fast, but I''m starting to notice how every time he defends or attacks, the posture that his body ends up in limits the ways he can attack or defend next. With ''battle analysis'' not only can I predict his movements, but I can also tell how to use my spells to limit his next moves even further. In a strange way, this is somewhat similar to that game of chess we were playing earlier. But I think that I might be abusing ''battle analysis'' a bit, my head is starting to hurt.


    "Hehehe. You appear to be enjoying this quite a bit, were you not supposed to dislike fighting?"


    ''Black gate''


    I just realized that by swinging the scythe through one of these gates I can make my movements even harder to read.


    "I''ll be honest, I don''t even know what I like anymore."


    I make a mistake in my calculations, and Vilde manages to get behind me.


    ''Shadow lance''


    He dodges the spell I fired through my body as if he was expecting it. But it gives me time to turn around.


    "I''d say that you never hated fighting at all, or perhaps I should say that you didn''t know what a fight was like. No, the thing that you hate is violence, something very different."


    "Are you saying that this is not violence?"


    I need to see further ahead, I need to push ''battle analysis'' to the limit. Ugh... I always wondered what people mean when they say that thinking too hard makes their heads hurt. Could this be it? I''ve never felt anything like this, it''s as if my brain is going to explode. I suppose that I had simply never reached my limit before.


    "Violence is merely people trying to hurt each other, and so, the most important quality required to excel at violence is WANTING to hurt your opponent, something that you appear to be quite bad at. This, on the other hand, is almost the opposite. To excel at fighting you need to understand your opponent, be able to tell what they are thinking. And as you put all of your being into the fight, all of your worries and fears are cast aside, all that matters is finding out the winning move, reaching your limits, and surpassing them. Isn''t it a wonderful feeling?"


    This is it, I''m almost out of mana, I need to get him now.


    "I suppose it doesn''t feel bad."


    My face is right in front of his, this is my chance.


    ''Black gate''


    One gate on my right hand, the other right behind my head. And then, I use the strongest mana push I''m capable of.


    *Bonk*


    The headbutt is far too fast and powerful for even Vilde to react to. I almost lose consciousness for a moment and I can see everything around me spinning as I fall on my butt. Vilde is still standing, but his forehead is bleeding slightly, mine is bleeding a lot.


    "I did it! I got a hit!"


    "Can it really be called a ''hit'' when you got more hurt than I did?"


    "Don''t try to make excuses now! You''re not taking this away from me!"


    "Hahaha, I was merely joking. But I was not expecting you to be able to keep up with my full power like that, you have surpassed my expectations. Congratulations."


    He says that, but even after pushing myself to the limit the best I could do is a tiny wound that has already closed, it seems like his body can also heal fast. But I know that even if the current me cannot beat him, I can still become stronger, just thinking about it makes me excited.


    I will surpass him one day.


    forli

 Chapter 99: The titans

    Uh... My head still hurts. This is not something that I can heal with flesh shaping... Maybe I went a bit too far during that fight, and ending it with a headbutt might not have been a good idea either.


    At least I was able to recover my mana by taking advantage of that leyline around here. But there''s no way I''ll be able to recover the dress I was wearing, all the fire and explosions have reduced it to rags. I guess I should be grateful that it didn''t get completely destroyed, I probably wouldn''t have noticed considering how intense the fight was.


    Seeing how I keep on having this problem, it''s about time that I try to come up with a solution. And so, I tried to make a dress of darkness to cover myself, from my chest to my tighs. It''s not ideal, this thing only blocks light, so I''m still only wearing the few strips of cloth that remain from my dress.


    "Quite the convenient method to change clothes you have."


    "This is actually the first time I''ve done this. I got the idea a moment ago."


    "The first time? ... It''s difficult to get used to the ease with which you use magic."


    "Look, I need to return soon so let''s get to the point. What did you need to tell me? What''s going to happen when you die?"


    "Ah, that... How to explain? I suppose I should start from the beginning. Tell me, how do you imagine that void mana comes to be?"


    "How it comes to be? Isn''t it just mana without an element?"


    "Yes, but normally, such a thing should be impossible. The elements are tied to the will of life, and all mana seeks to be dyed by them. In a world as full of life as this one, such a thing as mana that fails to obtain an element should not be possible. For void mana to exist, a force that keeps the elements away is required."


    "But if the elements are the will of living beings... What kind of force could affect something like that?"


    "A will to not live."


    To not live... That does indeed sound like...


    "What are the demons exactly?"


    "Those beings come from a different plane of existence, one in which there''s no life that can give color to mana. They require void mana to multiply, and to obtain it they will attempt to deceive people to make them fall into evil or despair. Long ago, the demons decided to invade our world with the intent of wiping out all life. The five ''gods'' were born at around that time, as if in response, and we fought against them."


    "Wait, did you say ''decided''? Are those things capable of making decisions? They didn''t seem intelligent to me."


    "Most are not. However, with the will to not live present in the void mana of this world, they created six beings that were the very embodiment of the weaknesses of people''s hearts. They called themselves ''the paths to the void'', but that''s a bit too abstract, so we called them ''titans'', as they were all quite large. Those creatures did not possess their own will either, they merely mimicked the intelligence of the sapient beings that they came from, but it was enough for them to lead the demons. I suppose another way to explain would be... Have you seen a great spirit before by any chance?"


    "Uh, no... I''ve never seen a great spirit and I know next to nothing about them... Actually, I''ve don''t know much about regular spirits either."


    "Oh, well, simply keep in mind that demons are similar to spirits and the titans are similar to great spirits."


    "So they are similar to something I know nothing about. Good to know."


    "I''m surprised to learn that you are capable of sarcasm... Back to the point. There was a war against the demons and the people of the world rallied behind us, but even our best efforts proved to be insufficient. To this day I still ask why it was that no god of darkness was born. Ambition, willpower, and chaos are all also an important element of life, without it, we were incomplete. And so, five gods had to face six titans, we were not able to win."


    I''ve already seen his power first-hand. He couldn''t win even when he had four more like him at his side?


    "Then why is it that we''re all alive right now and there are almost no demons around?"


    "That''s because the titans... offered us a deal... It was enforced by something far more powerful than the magic contracts you might know."


    Vilde''s expression becomes somber.


    "What was the deal?"


    "The titans would leave this world and not come back until all of the five gods were dead. In exchange, we had to forbid our followers from studying dark magic. That deal didn''t appear to make any sense, but considering that we were on the brink of defeat, it was too good to pass... We were such fools..."


    It''s true that the gods were said to have rejected dark magic, but it was because of a deal?


    "Those abominations were born from the weaknesses of sapient beings, they knew us better than we knew ourselves." Vilde continues. "We believed that the war was hopeless, but in hindsight, that was not the case at all. The people of the world had all united to help us, their will kept giving more and more power to the elements we used to overcome the void. And I''m certain that, eventually, they would overcome their fear of the darkness and a dark god would finally be born. The void titans must have come to the realization that they were making the world stronger by giving it a common foe, and so, they decided to leave.


    And so we were left as the most powerful beings in this world. Never could we have imagined how difficult it would be to retain our righteousness in such a situation. By being so obviously evil, the demons had made it far too easy to be good. And even if they were no longer here, they could still tell us their lies."


    "Lies?"


    "Indeed, lies, lies and misunderstandings are the source of all evil. And the demons are the biggest liars of all, how else could they convince someone that it would be better to not be alive? Without the enemy we were clearly meant to fight, we were left with no purpose and far too much power... Power by itself does not corrupt, but lies do, and people with power are in a position to be lied to more than anyone. Those who wanted to take advantage of us, those who were afraid of telling the truth, and the mindless worshippers that were blinded by our power. They told us far too many lies for us to see through them all. They claimed that we were perfect beings and everything we said was right, and eventually we ended up believing them.


    For the time being, I would prefer to avoid going into details. What you need to know is that we fell into evil and many of our followers turned against us, exactly as the titans had planned. We lost the very thing that gave us a chance to win, and at that time, the world relic of darkness came into being. That thing had a mind of its own, no matter how many times we defeated its wielder, it would escape from us and come back with some new power in the hands of someone else. One by one the gods died, the titans would soon be able to return to a weakened world.


    But something didn''t go according to their plan, the last wielder of the relic knew about the deal and was far more rational than they had anticipated. She spared my life after defeating me and made me promise to never leave this place... This was meant to be both my punishment and a way for me to stay alive long enough for someone capable of opposing the titans to appear."


    "I see, so that''s why you are here. And when you die, those titans will come back bringing all of their demons with them... Uh, that''s really bad, isn''t it?"


    "Ah, worry not. By now, there''s already someone in this world that I''m certain will be able to take care of that problem."


    "Ah, well. Then I wish them the best of luck."


    "Don''t try to play dumb, you know that I''m talking about you."


    "But I can''t do that! I can''t even beat you!"


    Seriously, how am I supposed to deal with an enemy that five Vildes couldn''t win against?


    "And here I was under the impression that you enjoyed a challenge."


    "Not when the world is going to end if I lose!!! Can I even beat them by myself?!"


    "No, that''s absolutely impossible."


    "Eh?"


    "The void titans are the embodiment of all the evil and despair in the world. To even think that you could fight them by yourself would be the height of arrogance."


    "Than what do you want me to do?!"


    "You need to make the rest of the world stronger as well." From his pocket, he takes the black queen piece from the chess game we played earlier. "The queen might be the strongest piece, but you can''t win the game with her alone. You will need allies to support you."


    "Have you been carrying that piece the whole fight just so you could make that point now?"


    "However, if you wish to avoid my fate, you must be selective with the people you surround yourself with." Says Vilde, completely ignoring my question. "You need people that will always tell you the truth, and won''t be afraid to call you out when you do something stupid. A devout follower that does nothing more than offer praise is like a poison for the soul."


    "Well, it''s too late to get rid of Irvan, but I have plenty of people telling me the truth. Even when I don''t want to hear it..."


    "Marvelous! Then there should be nothing to worry about."


    "I still haven''t decided if I''m really the right person to fight those demons..."


    "Oh, you are. And even if you were not, it''s far too late to have doubts now that the fight has already started."


    "What do you mean by that?"


    "I''m not aware of what the titans have been doing since I''ve been a prisoner here, I imagine that they must have been working to corrupt whoever the world put in charge of guarding the elements after us... However, they seem to have turned their gazes to you now. That prophecy you showed me makes it clear, they obviously had some influence on it."


    "They influenced the prophecy?!"


    "Last time they had many troubles deceiving people as a result of being so obviously evil. And now, the one individual that could become the biggest obstacle to their invasion is someone that inspires terror in everyone she meets. Therefore, they most likely will attempt to make YOU the villain this time... By making you evil or, if that fails, by convincing everyone else that you are evil. And that''s why that prophecy was so ambiguous about your villain status."


    "Uh..."


    As if I didn''t have enough trouble getting people to accept me, now I have some embodiments of evil working to make it even harder. That''s just great...


    "And that will be all for now. Although, before you leave, I would like to teach you a certain skill that might help you identify the void element."


    "A skill? I don''t know, I''m supposed to go back soon."


    "Does that gate spell of yours not allow you to return in an instant? And this skill should only take a moment for you to learn, seeing how your ''battle analyst'' already gives you most of what you should need for it."


    That does sound interesting... But what was it that I needed to do? I had to go back soon for something, but with everything that has happened here, it got out of my mind.


    Oh well, if I can''t remember right away, it''s probably nothing important.


    forli


    So I went with titans, it sounds strong, and a titan is the sort of thing a god fights.

 Chapter 100: First impression

    ''Black gate''


    I''m still down in the caverns, and yet, I can see the room in the castle where I left the magic circle for the gate. It looks like it worked... Not that I''m surprised, I had already done some tests earlier, but this is my first time actually using a gate to save myself some travel time.


    *Crash*


    Uh?


    *Bang*


    What''s going on?


    *Boom*


    There''s a lot of noise outside. Did someone drop a plate or something? I''ll go take a look.


    As soon as I open the door to the courtyard I see a large brown object flying at me.


    "Guak!"


    Something heavy knocked me down and now I''m laying on my back... Is this a person? Yes, he''s all hairy but humanoid in shape. He probably didn''t notice that I''m here since he stepped on my face to get back up and left running.


    "Just what''s happening here?"


    There are a bunch of dem- manaborn in the courtyard casting spells and trying to hit each other with various weapons. Is the castle under attack or...


    "Ah, you finally decided to show up."


    Xania is sitting on a bench right next to me. I got distracted by the battle and didn''t see her.


    "Uh... Do you know who all of these people are?"


    "They are the leaders of the various tribes of the wasteland. Did you forget that they were supposed to come here to meet you today? That''s why I''m here too since I''m something similar to a leader of the gray demons."


    Oh! That''s why I was supposed to come back quickly!


    "But why are they fighting?"


    "What did you expect? If you put all of these guys in the same place, it''s normal that they would start beating each other up."


    This is NORMAL?! If these are really the leaders of their tribes you''d think that they should be a bit more responsible...


    "Well, I''m glad that at least you are not fighting."


    Back when I first met her, she seemed to be quite aggressive. It''s nice to see that she''s learned since then and is behaving even during this brawl.


    "Eh..."


    Xania makes an awkward expression and her gaze shifts to the side. What is she looking at? There''s an ork over there that''s fighting against some wolves. Actually, I think that those wolves are dead... Wait.


    "Xania!"


    "He started it! A-anyway, since everyone is here now, you should take the chance to introduce yourself and become the queen officially."


    "What do you mean ''officially''?"


    "I mean that you need to beat up all of these guys. To prove that you are stronger than them. That''s what it takes to officially become the ruler above other demon lords"


    "Don''t try to drag me down to your level! I''m not some brute that fights people for no reason!"


    "It''s not for no reason. Just think of this as your crowning ceremony."


    Do I really need to do this? Well, I guess I should at least stop the current fight.


    "Hey! Everyone! Stop fighting!" They are not listening... "I said STOP!"


    I tried to use ''intimidation'' to get their attention and it seems to have worked a bit too well. Everyone is looking at me now... This is embarrassing.


    "W-who are you?"


    A blonde fairy dressed in yellow is the first one to speak.


    "It''s her! The queen of darkness! It''s an honor to meet you again!"


    A rock demon seems to recognize me. He gets on his knees in a hurry, and so does a translucent woman standing next to him. Ah, no, she didn''t get on her knees, the bottom half of her legs just turned into a puddle.


    "Do I know you?"


    "You don''t remember? We''re two of the four demon lords that got in your way when you were chasing after Kalroth."


    "I''m sorry, there were a lot of people around there and I wasn''t really paying attention."


    "But we were his 4 strongest followers, didn''t we leave any impression at all?"


    "Even if you say that... Everyone just fell over without any resistance, so I couldn''t tell."


    "I understand." Says the woman with a trembling voice, she''s sweating a lot, it almost looks like her body is made of liquid or something. "Even if an ant is much stronger than all the other ants, you wouldn''t be able to tell the difference when stepping on it."


    The two of them seem to be getting even more scared than before.


    "Ah, actually, there''s a very noticeable difference between the strongest and weakest ants. I know that from experience."


    And now they went from scared to confused. I guess that''s an improvement?


    "You cowards! She just looks to me like the type that makes herself look scary to hide how weak she actually is."


    A humanoid bull around as tall as I am is approaching me with an aggressive expression. He''s carrying a club in his hand, I guess I''ll have to fight after all... Maybe I should try using the skill Vilde just taught me.


    ''Appraisal''


    {Race: Minotaur, Class: Warrior, Element: Earth, Level: 268}


    How convenient! Now I don''t need to point that appraisal stone at people, and this gives more information than just the level!


    Vilde said to pay attention to the element, to see if it ever appears empty when I use this skill on a person or object, but this time it seems fine.


    The minotaur swings his club at me, but this time I was ready to use ''battle analyst'' from the start, so I can predict its trajectory and avoid it by simply tilting my head to the side.


    "Agh, so you can dodge."


    A warrior of that level should have physical stats higher than mine. But I have ''battle analyst'' helping me... I wonder if I can beat him without using magic.


    Left, down, left, right... Is this guy really a level 268 warrior? His attacks are so easy to read... Maybe it''s just because I cannot help comparing him with Vilde.


    I can also see his weak points. After just a few punches to his joints, he falls to his knees.


    "What was that?! Those were not even proper punches!"


    "Oh, sorry, I don''t really know much about punches. I''m a mage."


    "A mage?! That''s impossible!"


    I let him see my mana to prove what I said. He stares at me with a look of bewilderment.


    "Wait, now that I look closely... Are you the one who stepped on my face a moment ago?"


    "What... I... No... S-sorry!"


    Ah, I made him run away. Uh? There''s a strange feeling in my chest.


    "Ha! I got you now!"


    Behind me, there''s a girl. But the bottom half of her body is that of a spider.


    {Race: Arachne, Class: Mage, Element: Light, Level: 255}


    There''s a thread of light connecting my chest to hers.


    "What is this thread? I don''t recognize this spell."


    "I''ve connected your life to mine! If you kill me now you''ll die too!"


    "Oh, but what did you do that for?"


    "Because now it does not matter if you are stronger than me! You cannot kill me without killing yourself!"


    "But I wasn''t going to kill you anyway. This doesn''t really make any difference at all."


    The arachne stops to think for a moment. Her face goes red and she detaches the thread for me, then she walks away looking ashamed.


    "What a weird girl."


    "Ufufu. Looks like it''s my turn next."


    It''s a woman with another strange lower half, a snake this time, , all her skin is green and the only two pieces of cloth she''s wearing just barely cover her chest and her crotch.


    {Race: Naga, Class: Rogue, Element: Fire, Level: 258}


    "Do you want to fight too?"


    "Ah, no. I only wanted to take a closer look at you."


    She''s standing upright leaving only a small amount of her tail on the ground to make herself look taller than me. It doesn''t look like it would be easy to keep her balance...


    "Is it really necessary to get this close?"


    "Mmm, what a beautiful face. So beautiful that it''s scary."


    She''s placing her hand on my face. This is awkward...


    "Sorry, could you please stop- Uh? I feel weird."


    "Every powerful warrior has ways to avoid or endure damage, but none can deal with this. Nothing feels better than having someone proud and strong at my mercy as I see their face twisted by the most intense pleasure they have ever experienced."


    Pleasure? Ah, right, that''s what she''s doing. She''s sending a strong sensation of pleasure directly into my brain.


    "I see. A non-violent attack like this would bypass most defenses."


    "Yes, and now even you will be overwhelmed by this sensation."


    "Nn. I never thought of this method to take down an enemy."


    "Erm... I said that you''ll be overwhelmed..."


    "You said that, yes."


    "D-did my spell not work?"


    "It did work. I''m clearly feeling all of that overwhelming pleasure you mentioned."


    "Then why are you so calm?!"


    Of course, in the same way that my brain can ignore pain when there''s no point in feeling it, it can also ignore this fake pleasure.


    The naga''s enticing expression from before is gone. Now she looks all flustered.


    "Cute."


    "Eh?!"


    "Ah, sorry. It''s just that seeing that troubled expression after you were so confident before makes you seem cute."


    "W-what are you saying?!"


    Her face turns red, making me want to poke it. But the moment I do, she falls on her back.


    "Ah!"


    I knew that it would be hard for her to keep her balance.


    "You sure are strong." There''s a high-pitched voice, it''s that fairy from before. "But no matter how strong you are, you''ll still need me."


    {Race: Fairy, Class: Mage, Element: Light, Level: 240}


    "What do you mean?"


    "Everyone needs healers! And there''s no better healer than me! Unlike these idiots, I can be useful even to someone as strong as you are."


    Right, I think I heard that the light fairies were the best at healing. That''s why they have the highest status of all fairies while the dark ones have the lowest.


    "Eh... Actually, I can heal too."


    "Don''t lie! Your element is darkness!"


    "I can heal with dark magic, let me show you."


    ''Gravity bomb''


    "EEEK!"


    She got scared for some reason even though that spell was targeting my arm and not her. It got twisted to the point that my bones are sticking out, this should be enough to show my healing.


    "Look, as good as new."


    Just by twisting it the opposite way I could easily fix it.


    "Wha- Ho- Eh..."


    The fairy floats away backward without moving her gaze from me. I wonder if she''s feeling sick.


    "Alright, who''s left?"


    A blue-skinned man dressed in a purple robe approaches me. When I try to move, I notice that my feet are stuck in something.


    "Ha! I got you now!"


    "You too? Everyone''s ''got'' me today."


    {Race: Blue demon, Class: Weaver, Element: Water, Level: 265}


    "You stepped into my trap. Water is the strongest element when there''s time to prepare. Not even you will be able to escape from my gel."


    Indeed, my feet seem to be stuck in what looks like some kind of blue crystal. It looks like a lot of time was spent preparing this, it might be a bit difficult to get rid of it.


    "I see."


    "Now the gel will continue to expand until your entire body gets covered by an-"


    *Chop*


    Yeah, I guess it''s easier to just cut off my feet and regrow them after getting out.


    "Ah, sorry, I wasn''t listening. What were you saying?"


    "N-nothing. Never mind."


    Mmm, he seems to have given up as well. I think the only one left is the ork that Xania was attacking earlier.


    "So, do you want to-"


    "Nonono, I''m fine!"


    "You''re not afraid of me, are you?"


    "D-do you want me to be afraid of you?"


    "No, I don''t."


    "Then no! I''m not! This is just... Respect! Yes, that''s it!"


    "Oh, good. And what about the rest of you?"


    I look and all the other dem- manaborn around here, and they all nod in agreement.


    Thank goodness. I was worried that I had scared them, but it seems like I was able to give a good first impression after all.


    forli


    So I decided that I''ll make another character poll.


    This time Luna and Longleg are banned because including them is just unfair. Other than that, there are a few more characters now, I wasn''t sure of who should be included so this is a bit arbitrary.

 Chapter 101: Dress code

    -Felias-


    "P-please... I cannot do this... I need to get away from her..."


    "What are you so afraid of?! Aren''t you supposed to be a demon lord?"


    "But... I had never seen anything so terrifying before. What if she finds out I''m a spy?"


    "How is she going to find out? All you need to do is stay around her and tell me what you see her do, you don''t need to do anything that she can ''find out''."


    Back when we first started to use Karo- Kalno- that guy to help us get a foothold in the southern continent, I decided to prepare a spy of my own without Ranna or Cureva knowing. I had forgotten about her until now... But since I seem to have been betrayed by Ranna and some impostor dark queen is trying to steal my throne, she now has a chance to prove herself useful.


    And yet, that slime is apparently so scared that she wants to run away. After everything I did to help her increase her level and status, she''s now trying to refuse to keep her end of the deal? Bah, I can''t believe that she fell for some stupid tricks, how can she believe that she really cut her own feet? Even with the power to make them regrow, no sane person would ever do something like that.


    Still, it''s not normal for someone to be this scared after a mere demonstration of strength. From the way she''s described, every single one of her words and gestures seemed to have been planned to make her seem as terrifying as possible. That ''Luna'' must be quite good at psychological manipulation, I know from experience just how difficult it can be to intimidate someone, it''s not something that can happen by accident.


    "I could get caught when giving my reports..."


    "Just make sure that you are alone, it''s not that hard. And it''s not as if you are using a transmission mirror, these ''phones'' Gerard designed cannot send images but they are much more discrete, and very few people even know about their existence."


    As soon as I mentioned his name, I hear the familiar sound of spinning cogs, as if someone was setting the time on a clock, and I see the high technomancer, Gerard, enter the room.


    The sound comes from the mechanical limbs that take the place of his legs and arms. I don''t know how much of his head he replaced, but those ridiculous goggles he wears are clearly part of his face.


    If I''m not mistaken, it was only his legs that didn''t work and needed to be replaced, but he modified his body as much as possible to get as far away from ''nature'' as he could... Knowing the history of this country, I can understand why the people of Mekria hate nature, but this guy takes it way too far.


    "Analysis tools. The ones you asked for. Are almost ready."


    That monotone voice and lack of expression always creeps me out. I used to think that Ranna was bad until I met this guy.


    "Good, send them to the slime girl."


    "Eh?! To me?"


    "That fraud must have used some trick to increase the rank of her magic. Soon you will receive the tools that you need to expose her secret."


    "But you said that I didn''t need to do anything!"


    "You don''t. The machines will do all the work for you."


    "That''s not the problem!"


    "I will go now. I will fi- fi- fi-" *Clank* The sound of metal hitting metal is heard when Gerard punches his own head. "I will finish the preparations."


    "Are you feeling alright? It''s not like we are in a hurry, you can get some rest if you need it."


    "I do not need to rest."


    "Really? You shouldn''t force yourself."


    The technology to change body parts for machines has not been perfected yet, so I can''t help but worry.


    "I do not need to rest."


    "Alright, if you say so."


    Without saying another word, Gerard begins to walk away. But his left leg is not bending properly and he almost trips a couple of times.


    Maybe he needs some oil instead of resting...


    -Luna-


    "So you''re telling me that you''re late because you were fighting against the god of fire?"


    Nera''s expression makes me think that she doesn''t fully believe me.


    "It''s true! I can take you to see him later if you want! He''s called the king of fire now though"


    "You want to take me to the infernal caverns?"


    "Eh... I''ll open the black gate somewhere safe. Probably..."


    "Haha, even if there''s really a former god down there, he would probably still be no match for Luna."


    Arana doesn''t seem to be taking this very seriously either.


    "Eh... Actually, he was stronger than me."


    ""Uh?""


    Is it just me? Or do they look like they find him being stronger than me harder to believe than him being a former god?


    "And he said that the void demons are going to invade this world again soon?"


    Now Arana sounds concerned, why can''t she make up her mind?


    "Yes, and to prepare, I need to turn this place into a stronger country. And have people start calling the demons ''manaborn'' again, if possible."


    "Well, that''s all the more reason to focus on the ceremony."


    Nera wants to go back to the topic that she''s interested in. Xania said that proving my strength is all it takes to become the queen here, but Nera insisted that if we want to turn this into a proper country we should also have a more official ceremony. If nothing else, it seems like her maid has made sure that there will be a lot of luxurious food and sweets, so I decided to agree with Nera and have that ceremony after all.


    But since the more casual dresses I normally wear are apparently not good enough for this, Arana has made some new clothes for me to try. Nera is also here to give her judgment, these two know much more about fashion than me after all.


    "Uh, Ara, is it normal for it to take this long to put on a dress? I don''t think I could even do it without your help."


    "Of course, you cannot compare a regular dress to a ''queen dress'' like this one."


    "If you say so... It just seems a bit too ''elaborate'' to me."


    After some time, she finally finishes getting the dress on me. There is so much cloth on me that I''m having a lot of trouble moving at all, but against all odds, I manage to slowly make my way to the door. Now it''s time for Nera to give her opinion.


    "..."


    Her gaze goes from the four layers of the skirt to the spikes on the shoulders. After taking a look at the headgear that''s just over twice the size of my head, she notices all the skulls embroidered into the many folds on the three meters of diameter of the dress.


    "Is this too much?" Arana asks Nera.


    "WAY TOO MUCH!!!"


    "Too bad, I wanted to see Luna show up in front of everyone wearing that."


    "Take this seriously!"


    Arana extends her hand towards me and there''s a flash of light, then she places her hand on a sheet of paper... Oh, is this that light spell that lets you keep a copy of an image?


    Taking the dress off also takes us some time, but the next one takes almost no time. That''s probably because there''s barely any dress to put on, just a few pieces of cloth covering my crotch and my breasts. Is this even a dress? I guess I''ll hear what Nera has to say.


    "NOW''S TOO LITTLE!!!"


    "Jeez, there''s just no way to make the princess happy."


    After shaking her head, Arana once again does the thing with the flash of light and the sheet of paper, I''m not sure if I should let her keep this one...


    Anyway, let''s see if the third time is the charm. This dress seems a lot more normal than the others, only a bit more elaborate than what I usually wear.


    "Mmm, this one looks good."


    Maybe it''s just because she''s comparing it to the other two, but Nera looks satisfied with this one. I do have some doubts though...


    Normally I wear dresses that press my breasts into my chest to make them look a bit more modest. But this one seems to be designed to emphasize them instead, and the gap in the middle goes down almost to my navel. The skirt also has a gap that leaves my left leg exposed.


    "Are you sure this is good?"


    Nera looks up at me. "Yes, it makes you look a bit more... imposing."


    "Do I really need to look imposing? Also, the biggest problem I have is with the shoes."


    "Why? It''s normal to wear high heels with this type of dress."


    "But it''s difficult to walk like this! I think I''m going to trip and faceplant on the floor... And more importantly, these things are making me look even taller than I already am! Are two meters not enough?!"


    "Actually." Says Arana, with an expression of badly hidden amusement that I''ve learned to fear over the years. "When I took your measurements earlier, you were 205 centimeters tall."


    What? I must have heard that wrong. Tell me that I heard that wrong.


    "Ara... Is this a joke? Are you saying that I got even taller?"


    "Congratulations."


    "Don''t act as if this is a good thing! I''m not supposed to be growing anymore!"


    Uh... What was I expecting? The only way for me to look scarier than I already am is to get even taller, so of course it was going to happen!


    200 was such a nice round number...


    forli


    Remember ages ago when I mentioned that I wanted to make Luna taller? Well, I finally did it, more or less...


    Technomancer is such a cool-sounding word, it''s my favorite out of all the mancers.


    Also, I named that guy ''Gerard'' because it sort of sounds like ''gear''. I think my naming sense has hit a new low.

 Chapter 102: Cream puffs

    -Drepe, leader of the high slimes-


    I should have never accepted that deal.


    Yes, it''s true that I was able to become a demon lord thanks to that witch. But I thought that all I would have to do in exchange was to spy on Kalroth! Nobody said anything about this embodiment of terror that calls itself an elf!


    And now we''re celebrating a crowning ceremony for her similar to the ones human kings usually have. Well, that''s what it is supposed to be, but this does not seem to be different from the feasts we often have, all we''re doing is eating...


    Wait, those people over there... Are they elves? So the rumors were true. I heard that she destroyed their village and forced the survivors to become her servants. She''s a dark elf, so I get that she was angry about being abandoned, but isn''t that going a bit too far?


    Maybe I can get some information by asking them.


    "Em, excuse me."


    "Woah, a woman made of water?"


    All of a sudden I got their full attention.


    "It''s slime actually... Sorry for bothering you, I heard that you were brought here by our new queen and I got curious. Could you tell me about what happened?"


    "Oh, that? Our village was attacked and then we saw her. She looked so angry, I had never been so afraid of anyone in my entire life!"


    What?! So it was true?!


    "A-and she told you to become her servants?"


    "No, we''re the ones who asked her."


    "Uh?"


    "Her unapproachable beauty, her overwhelming power, her aura of superiority... It all combines to make one want to become her slave, does it not?"


    "..."


    "Ah, but she hasn''t given us much attention ever since we came here. We were hoping for a little more abuse..."


    They were HOPING for more abuse?! What did she do to them to make them so broken?


    She''s even more terrible than I imagined... But I need to learn more about her personality. Even leaving aside my job as a spy, it would be better to know her well for my own safety.


    Let''s see... She''s over there... She already looked imposing in the more casual dress she was wearing before, but now she''s changed to something more expensive looking that accentuates her curves and height, making her seem even more intimidating. You can tell that everyone here cannot help but feel inadequate when standing near her. Even the way she walks seems very deliberate as if she was paying close attention to every single step.


    Fortunately, I''m able to melt my body into a puddle until only my head remains. This way, nobody will notice that I''m following her.


    "Uh, Drepe? Why are you following the new queen?" Says a random demon.


    "Shut up."


    ...


    She''s eating another one of those cream puffs. There are all kinds of food here but she''s only going after those things. Well, seeing how elegant and graceful she is I guess she must be accustomed to attending high-class parties. It wouldn''t be surprising for her to be a picky eater.


    But now it seems that all the cream puffs are gone, except for the one the boss of the orks has on his plate. Uh? She''s approaching the plate while his back is turned as if she was being careful to make sure that he doesn''t notice. And she is... she''s taking the last cream puff from him...


    It looks like she''s trying to be stealthy, but there''s no way that he didn''t notice something as blatant as what she did, not that he would dare to call her out... Ah! That''s what it is! By taking his food in such an obvious manner she''s asserting her dominance by making him pretend not to notice.


    She can pull off these psychological tricks so easily. She must be used to dominating others.


    Now she''s approaching a pair of ''maids''. Obviously, we have no maids around here, but we needed a few for the party. Some nagas were chosen for the job, not because they knew what to do, but because they already had the uniforms. I don''t know what they used them for before...


    "These tables here are not aligned properly."


    What is she talking about? Those tables look perfectly fine to me. The two maids also look confused, but they seem too scared to contradict her.


    "S-sorry, please let me fix it."


    "Stop. What are you doing? You''re making it worse!"


    "Eek! Please forgive me!"


    I still don''t see what the problem is. Is she doing this just to scare them? The maids grab the table again with trembling hands.


    "You''re moving it the wrong way."


    "W-we are?"


    Yes, this is clearly just bullying. I guess it must be fun to scare people like that. Is this a hobby of hers?


    "Just let it go, I''ll fix it myself."


    "No, you don''t have to..."


    And now she''s making it look like they are so useless that their queen needs to do their job for them. Is she trying to give them an inferiority complex?


    "Ah, also, it looks like those plates over there are not evenly... Nevermind."


    She stopped when she saw that the maids were starting to cry. Did she actually show some mercy? That can''t be... She must have just decided that she was already done with them.


    Where is she going now? Oh, she''s leaving the room. Uh, she''ll probably notice if I keep following her in the hallway, I should probably leave it for now.


    All the people near the door move aside in a hurry, almost in a panic, to let her through. She leaves with a confident stride, each one of her movements is a picture of elegance and grace.


    -Luna-


    "Ouch."


    Uh... I tripped and fell rolling down the stairs. It''s so hard to walk on these heels... Luckily there was nobody around to see me, that would have been embarrassing.


    I should just switch back to my boots. But Nera wanted me to try wearing more elegant clothes... I guess I''ll take this as a chance to practice. Still, I need to pay attention to every single step, my movements are all so stiff that everyone watching me was probably containing their laughter...


    "I believe the kitchen was over here..."


    If Mari is in there maybe I can ask her to make some more of those cream puffs.


    ...


    Ah, too bad, there''s nobody here.


    Uh? there''s something on the floor, it''s a bit dark in here... Are these apples? Did someone knock over a fruit barrel?


    There are also a bunch of apples on the table, isn''t this way too disorganized? I guess I''ll pick them up since I''m here.


    "Mmm."


    After grabbing one, I notice how sweet and juicy it looks. Maybe I''ll try a bite.


    *Chomp*


    "UAAAAGH!!!"


    "EH?!"


    It was a lot harder than I expected, but more importantly, before I could finish biting into it, the apple began to scream.


    And when I nervously turn it around, I see that there''s a face that looks carved into the other side. Now that I look closely, it also has tiny hands and feet.


    The apples on the floor also begin to move and to talk.


    "She noticed us!"


    "She''s going to eat us!"


    W-what is this?! What are they?!


    {Race: Apple folk, Class: Helper, Element: Earth, Level: 21}


    Oh, that''s right, I think I heard that this was also a type of manaborn. But I didn''t expect them to actually look like apples...


    Anyway, I should probably explain myself before they misunderstand.


    "Ah, sorry, you looked delicious so I-"


    "NOOO!!!"


    It looks like I made it worse.


    "Excuse me, my lady."


    Another apple folk just jumped on the desk, this one has a face that looks strangely... handsome?


    {Race: Apple folk, Class: Magic brawler, Element: Fire, Level: 289}


    Woah, so strong, and ''magic brawler''? I wonder how he brawls with such a small body.


    "I understand that you have a difficult time controlling your hunger..."


    "No, I was just-"


    "...But could you please show some compassion for your new servants and let that child go?"


    This is a child?! This is bad, now people are going to say that I eat children.


    I wonder if my flesh shaping will work on him. Ah, it does, I managed to heal the bite. After that, I place him back on the table.


    "Thank you very mu-"


    "Out of my way fruit brains!"


    A woman just entered the kitchen. Red hair done in a ponytail, red eyes, and what looks like red veins can be seen through her skin. A pair of very long fangs can be seen when she opens her mouth. She''s kicking the apple folk on the floor, sending them flying as she walks.


    {Race: Blood demon, Class: Assassin, Element: Darkness, Level: 352}


    Ah, her level is higher than any of the other demon lords.


    "Zerana, I didn''t expect you to show yourself here. You never answer Kalroth''s calls."


    "Ha, I didn''t give a shit about that moron, but if this queen of darkness is really as strong as everyone says she might end up making even me kiss her ass. That''s why I''m going to get rid of her right now."


    "Uh, maybe you shouldn''t be talking about that right no-"


    "We''re going to poison her! I''ve been told that she was eating these things, I put enough verpa toxin in this one to kill a hundred bearturtles. You fruit faces were helping with the food, right? You''re going to help me!"


    "I think... I''d rather not..."


    "Eh? You better not make me ''persuade'' you... Also, who''s that long chick over there? A friend of yours?"


    Long chick?


    "That''s... obviously... our new queen."


    "Oh."


    I see, so she planning to assassinate me. More importantly, she has a cream puff on her hand! So there was still one left.


    "So, if I understand correctly, you were going to give that to me."


    "Y-yes, I was. Got a problem?"


    "Yay! Thank you!"


    She seems to be a bit confused and doesn''t give me the cream puff. So I take it from her hand.


    "You heard what I said about the poison. Didn''t you?"


    Ah, yes, the poison is giving it a bitter taste, it''s ruined the flavor a little. But I can still feel the delicious sweetness fill my mouth with creamy happiness.


    "Don''t worry, it was still delicious."


    forli


    Anyway hope you like the chapter. I feel like I might be introducing too many characters lately but don''t worry, most of them won''t have a very big role. You don''t need to remember them all.

 Chapter 103: Anger issues

    Thinking about it normally, most people would probably feel very strongly about having someone try to kill them. As for me, I''m already used to it, which is a bit disconcerting now that I think about it...


    "So... Your name is Zerana, right? Why did you try to poison me?"


    "Oh, that was... I was testing your strength! The others also tried to fight you, didn''t they?"


    Mmm, is that what it was? I don''t buy it.


    "There''s a difference between fighting and just trying to kill me. And I''m not convinced that poisoning someone is a good way of testing their strength."


    "W-well. I''m different because my class is assassin you see. This is just the way I fight."


    "Really? Well, I think I''d rather not be assassinated, so you have to promise to not do it again."


    "Ah, of course. I promise that I will not try to-"


    *Woosh*


    With a quick and unexpected movement, Zerana closes the distance between us and her hand sinks into my chest.


    Thanks to Arana, I have a lot of experience in dodging people who try to grab my breasts, it got to the point I even made her give up on it. And yet this girl did it without even giving me a chance to react, how impressive.


    And now that I''m paying attention, her hand didn''t actually break my skin. It somehow went through my body and now she''s grabbing my heart.


    "HAHAHA! You lowered your guard! Now if you don''t want me to squeeze your heart until it bursts and drain all the blood from your body, you better-"


    "Let go."


    Even if I''m impressed by her skill, I''m still a bit annoyed. I mean, she just broke her promise before she had even finished making it, that has to be a record.


    And why did she say that poison was the way she fights if she can do this kind of stuff?


    "What did you say?"


    "Get your hand out of me."


    "You know that I''m grabbing your heart, right?"


    "Now."


    For a few seconds, we both stare into each other''s eyes, I can feel her hand trembling more and more inside me. Eventually, she turns her gaze away, and soon after, removes her hand from my heart and takes a few steps back.


    "Guh... To think that I would lose in a match of intimidation..."


    Oh, she was using intimidation? I wasn''t.


    Why is she clenching her teeth and making an angry face? I think that I''m the one who should be angry in this situation.


    "Hey! Pipsqueak! Come here a moment." She yells at the hallway.


    Another blood demon, a rather short guy, comes running to answer her call.


    "Miss Zerana! Did you call m- Ompf."


    And she immediately punches him, first on the stomach, then on the face, sending him crashing against a wall.


    "Ah, now I feel better."


    "What are you doing?! Why did you hit him?!"


    "Cause I was pissed off. What''s the problem?"


    I go help the guy to get back up while she acts like she didn''t do anything wrong.


    "You cannot beat up your subordinates just because you are angry at someone else! That''s just wrong!"


    "Why? She''s stronger than me, so she''s allowed to do that, no?"


    He says that and looks at me as if I just said something weird.


    "Eh?"


    Why is he taking the side of the person who hit him instead of the one who''s trying to help him?


    Look, I know that I''m not the sharpest person when it comes to understanding social interactions. But I''m pretty sure that most of what she''s been doing these past ten minutes would be considered extremely improper by the vast majority of people.


    "Is this perhaps your first time meeting blood demons?" Says the apple folk leader from before, I forgot that he was here...


    "Are they always this... Aggressive?"


    "For the most part, yes. They are the most violent of all the tribes and they worship strength to a much greater degree than the rest of us, but they refuse to accept that anyone can be stronger than a blood demon to the point of delusion."


    "Hah?! Are you trying to pick a fight you fruit-brained... fruit?!"


    And she immediately proves him right...


    So, if I understand correctly, the blood demons are to the rest of the demon wasteland what the demon wasteland is to the rest of the continent...


    Anyway, I''m not going to let her attack the apple guy. The truth is that she''s not given me a very good first impression, and I''m starting to find her quite annoying.


    ''Shadow chain''


    "Gah?! What are you doing?! Let me go!"


    "Look, I understand that you have your own culture and beliefs and I don''t want to say that it''s wrong when I know almost nothing about them. But you are going to be my subordinate from now on, so we''re going to have to work together. And I don''t think that''s going to be possible with the attitude you have been showing me so far."


    "So what? Are you going to beat me up until I start kissing your ass?"


    She didn''t listen to a single word of what I just said did she...


    "I think I need to get some help."


    "Wait! Don''t pull the chain all of a sudden! Don''t drag me on the floor!"


    I dragged Zerana all the way back to the hall where we are having the feast and left her at the center of the hall, now everyone is staring at her, looking like they don''t know what to say.


    But Xania is the first one to break the silence.


    "Hey, isn''t that the boss of the blood idiots? Did she do something bad? Is this a public punishment? I would like to make some suggestions."


    She seems strangely excited to see her in chains, I guess they must know each other.


    "So this corpse digger is your underling? I should have known, she is too weak to survive on her own so she always bends the knee to anyone who seems a bit strong."


    "Says the coward who kept hiding in her hole when Kalroth was around."


    "YOU of all people are calling me a coward? You can''t even fight without hiding behind the corpses of your dead grandpas."


    "Well, I guess sometimes your cowardice does get offset by your stupidity."


    "Hah?"


    "Haaah?"


    "Mmm, I see that the two of you are very similar in a way."


    Both of them turn to look at me right after I make my comment, their eyes are almost bloodshot.


    ""I''M NOTHING LIKE THIS IDIOT!!!""


    They even said the exact same thing at the same time...


    "Anyway, let''s get to the point. It seems like you have some anger issues that are very likely to cause problems with your coworkers in the future."


    "Coworkers? What are you talking about?"


    "I''m talking about the leaders of the other manaborn tribes. That''s why I brought you here so that you can share your feelings with each other. To begin, could you tell everyone why is it that you wanted to kill me?"


    "Hah? Because I don''t want you to tell me what to do."


    "I see... Tell me, how does it make you feel to have to follow someone''s orders."


    "What are you? My therapist? Go look for some pampered noble girls in a human kingdom if you want to talk about feelings."


    "Mmm, if you don''t open up a little we''re not going to get anywhere..."


    As I''m trying to think of a way to make her talk, I see Arana stumbling her way to me. She''s wearing an elegant white dress that I''ve never seen before and her face is all red.


    "Luna! Let me... let me do it. I''ll make her spli- spirt- spit it all out!"


    "Ara, are you drunk?"


    "I''m fine, I''m fine. Look, Luna, look... I know a spell that can make a blood demon talk..."


    "Really?"


    Zerana scoffs at her. "Oh, really? What are you planning to- GYAAAAAAH!!!"


    A light comes out from Arana''s hand... And does nothing. Isn''t that just a basic spell to make light?


    Oh! Now I remember reading something about blood demons. They are one of the strongest races of manaborn, and the strongest as a group, as they are not even all that rare. And yet, they could never win a war against any of the natural races, because of their crippling weakness against light magic.


    Even the sunlight can apparently make them weaker. But I never imagined that it would be so bad that even a tiny light would produce such a reaction.


    "So... so are you going to answer Luna''s question?"


    "Alright... Having you give me orders would piss me off because I know that I''m stronger- AGH!!!"


    She did it again.


    "Tell the truth." That pouty frown Arana''s making... I''ve never seen that expression on her before.


    "Look, if you want to execute me I would understand, but do we really need to do this in front of everyone?"


    "..."


    Ignoring Zerana''s pleas, Arana prepares her light for the third time.


    "I... I''m afraid of looking like a lapdog of someone stronger than me. The rest of my tribe looks up to me and I don''t want to disappoint them..."


    So Arana''s ''spell'' was to just torture her until she talks. Except that it doesn''t look like she''s actually hurt at all, just afraid of the particularly pure light magic Arana uses.


    Actually, I think that Zerana is more afraid of Arana than she is of me. As should be the case for everybody if you ask me.


    "I see... Well, if your only problem is with me then it''s fine, you can keep trying to assassinate me if that helps you relieve your stress. But you will have to follow my orders, and I won''t allow you to hurt anyone else."


    "You say that I can keep trying to kill you? Are you suicidal or is there something wrong with your head?"


    "No, but it''s obvious that you are going to fail anyway, so I don''t care how many times you try. But just to be clear, you can only go after ME. If you get anyone else involved... Well, let''s just say that I''ll stop being so kind to you."


    "Y-yes... Understood..."


    I tried using my intimidation skill when I said that last part and Zerana''s face went even paler than it already was, making the red veins under her skin more visible.


    Uh... I think I took the title of ''scariest person'' back from Arana in her mind...


    "Hehehe, that was sooo funny. Let''s make her tell us all of her embarrassing secrets next!" Says Arana with a stupid grin on her face, Another new expression...


    "No Ara, I don''t think you should do that... Actually, I think that you should go and rest for a bit, you look like you''re going to fall flat on the ground at any moment."


    "Uh, sure... I''ll rest here."


    "Eh?! Wait! You should go find a bed, don''t rest on me!"


    She fell asleep while hugging me...


    It feels a bit weird to say this, but Arana is surprisingly cute when she''s drunk.


    forli


    I wonder if there''s even a point in me writing a story like this, since apparently the readers in this website only want to read about mass-murdering assholes.

 Chapter 104: Human?

    Uh... people are giving me weird looks as Arana keeps clinging to me in her sleep. I think I''m hearing some whispers of ''I thought she was with that human princess'', not sure of what that''s supposed to mean.


    I carefully lift Arana without waking her up and place her on a bed Longleg has prepared. I wonder where he got that from...


    "So, let''s move to the next point. I would like for this place to become an actual country and not just a collection of tribes. That means that we need to have some common laws. I''ve already written down the obvious ones like ''no killing'' or ''no stealing'', but does anyone have any suggestions?"


    Oh, I see a lot of hands going up, I was not expecting that. But let me make sure of one thing.


    "Any suggestions that are not related to when or how you should fight each other?"


    And all the hands went down, of course.


    Well, if any more rules need to be made, that will become apparent with time.


    "Next... We need to talk about how to improve the economy of the wasteland, or rather, we need to create one. And for that, I''ve asked for help from an expert."


    When mister Oron steps forward I start hearing more murmurs, it seems like merchant is not an appreciated profession around here.


    "Unlike what many believe, the demons of this wasteland have much more to offer than mere strength. For example, my own tribe of rock demons often dig many useful gems that cannot be recreated with alchemy from our mines. The arachne can make high-quality clothing, the blue demons know how to mix many types of potions and medicine, and so on. If we could establish trade with the surrounding countries, each tribe would have something to offer, with one exception..."


    "Hah? Who are you looking at?!"


    You Zerana, he''s clearly looking at you.


    "As you might already be aware, the reason why we don''t trade with other countries, or even much between ourselves, is the fact that this place is considered ''highly dangerous'' by most merchants. And the blood demons are the greatest contributors to that reputation."


    "Now you''re trying to make me look like the bad guy? You tried to make us pay a fortune during the outbreak of snake shadows!"


    Did she say ''snake shadows''? If I remember correctly that''s the name of a deadly and contagious illness that affects manaborn and causes some long and thin dark spots to appear all over their bodies. I''ve never looked too much into it since the cure is already well known, a flower that grows on some mountains mainly on the western part of this continent. Why would an outbreak of snake shadows be a problem when there''s such an easy and effective cure?


    "I tried to sell it for the appropriate price considering the risks."


    "And why would we pay so much for something that we need? Especially when we were so much stronger than the ones trying to sell it?"


    "If you didn''t rob all the merchants that come close, the prices would be much cheaper! The only reason you didn''t have enough of those flowers back then is that you scared everyone who could have brought them here away! Why is this so difficult for you to understand?!"


    From Oron''s exasperation, I can tell that this is not the first time they''ve had this discussion.


    Does Zerana believe that selling something is worse than stealing it? That doesn''t even begin to make sense to me... But if the blood demons are not interested in business, maybe we could point that aggression of theirs in a more useful direction.


    "That''s enough. Zerana, from now on you will not rob any merchants that come here. In fact, your job, and the job of the rest of your tribe, will be to protect them."


    "What?! And why would we do that?!"


    Uh, if Oron was not able to change her mind, there''s no way that I can come up with anything that can convince her. Or rather, my mind has suddenly gone blank and I cannot think of any reasons at all.


    I need to say something...


    "Because I want you to."


    Ah, that''s embarrassing. We both awkwardly stare into each other''s eyes for a few seconds until she looks away.


    "Fine! You win! I''ll do it!"


    Oh, she was more reasonable than I expected.


    "Good, but one more thing. If any of those merchants were to be attacked by bandits or monsters, I will consider that to be your responsibility. Is that clear?"


    "..."


    Zerana seems to be too scared to respond. But I don''t think that I was saying anything scary, I was just explaining her duties to her.


    "Well then, that will be all for today."


    Some people are breathing sighs of relief and saying stuff like ''we survived''. Aren''t they a bit too dramatic?


    Then Nera comes running and tries to stop me from leaving.


    "Wait! Are you not forgetting something?"


    "Forgetting what?"


    "The dance! After the feast, there''s supposed to be a dance in these celebrations."


    "Oh, uh... Does anyone here know how to dance?"


    The only response I get is a lot of uhs and ehs, and people trying to look the other way. Needless to say, I don''t know how to dance either, less so in these high heels.


    I''m sorry Nera, but I think that you expect way too much from us.


    It''s been two days since the celebration, and I''ve decided that it''s finally time to give Kalroth''s contract crystal to Nera.


    Even if I don''t want her to leave, it''s not good to selfishly keep this a secret from her. And so, this time I''m going to give it to her for sure, I''m DEFINITELY not going to get sidetracked by anything dumb.


    But I''m a bit uncomfortable with being followed. That high-slime girl has been chasing me around everywhere for the last two days. I wonder what she wants, is this what they call a stalker?


    The way she''s acting makes me believe that she thinks that I''ve not noticed her, perhaps I should say something.


    "Excuse me, can I help you?"


    "EEK!"


    She''s trying to hide further back into the corner... I''m sorry but no, no matter how you look at it, after I''ve already said something to you and you let out a scream in response, it''s already too late to hide.


    When she sees me get closer, she tries to get further back. But she runs into a strange-looking man that I do not recognize.


    His shoulder-length disheveled black hair, his long face, and the black goggles that seem to be embedded into it give him a really weird appearance. Even more strange are his limbs that seem to have been replaced by mechanical ones, a sound of spinning cogs can be heard when he moves them.


    {Race: Human?, Class: Technomancer, Element: Darkness, Level: 171}


    "I''m sorry that I have to tell you this, but your humanity seems to be in question."


    "Humans. Elves. Demons. Are all part of nature. It is preferable to become something else."


    The high slime is staring at him with an expression of disbelief.


    "You? What are you doing here?!"


    "I deemed the analysis of this individual to be of great importance. Too important to be performed by an amateur. I decided to perform the analysis personally."


    "So, do you two know each other?"


    "Correct. She is a spy from my country. She is supposed to spy on you."


    "I see... I guess I''ll deal with that later."


    "NOOOO!!!"


    She melted into a puddle and now only her head is left. Well, I think that she''s ok.


    The ''not sure if human'' gives me a pair of bracelets, but they seem to have some strange magic circuits in them. And also... non-magic circuits?


    "Please put them on. We will begin the procedure shortly."


    "Uh... What is this procedure for? I don''t think I needed to have anything done on me."


    "You are a subject with an abnormal level of magical prowess. This abnormality must be analyzed. For the sake of science."


    "Oh, well, if it''s for the sake of science then I guess it cannot be helped."


    I put on the two bracelets, but one of them is almost a full millimeter longer than the other... I should say something about this.


    "Please wait. I will adjust the device."


    Before I can say anything, he does something to the bracelet that was longer and now it is exactly the same as the other.


    Mmm, I think that I might be able to get along with this guy.


    "So, what do I do now?"


    "Make your mana flow through your body. As if you were going to cast a spell. The mana must also go through the devices."


    "Like this?"


    He adjusts something on his goggles and looks at the bracelets.


    "Subject has an extremely high quality of mana. And complete control over it. Dark magic rank 20 confirmed. The nature of the mana is a close match to the mana produced directly by the subject. Matches the pattern of magic that has ranked up by standard means. The theory that the subject ''cheated'' to obtain her level seems highly unlikely."


    "Oh, I guess that went well then?"


    "Moving to the next test. Please stay still for a moment."


    Now another device emerges from the top of his goggles. Light comes from it and moves all over my body... It''s a bit embarrassing to be watched like this.


    "What are you looking at exactly?"


    "Subject''s brain activity appears to be unusually high. Physical stats seem low for her level. The subject also seems to inspire fear in those who observe her. I am experiencing an unexplainable intense terror at the moment."


    "You say that, but you don''t seem to be scared at all."


    Or rather, he doesn''t have any emotion whatsoever on his face.


    "Luna! I knew that I was hearing your voice. What are you doing here?"


    Nera came out of her room. Oh, that''s right, I was on my way to see her.


    "This man is analyzing my magic. Though I''m not sure of what exactly that means."


    "Analyzing your magic? I don''t think that''s something that you should just let people do. Especially if you are not sure of what he''s analyzing."


    "Well... But he said that it was for the sake of science!"


    "So he told you that, and that''s all it took for you to agree to subject yourself to some weird experiments? I think that''s a bit too naive even for your standards... Anyway, who is he?"


    I turn my head to take a look at the strange man''s inexpressive face, then I turn to look at Nera again.


    "I have no idea."


    "..."


    It seems like Nera was just left speechless, or rather, she''s not moving at all.


    Well, thinking about it again, letting a complete stranger perform an analysis of my magic is probably not something that I should have done. I guess I can understand why she would react that way.


    I''m sorry Nera, but I think that you expect way too much from me.


    forli

 Chapter 105: The country of machines

    Very well, let''s think about this, who could this man possibly be?


    He said that his country wanted to spy on me... That does not narrow it down at all. But there are probably not many that could use a demon lord as a spy, I can only think of Arana''s sisters.


    There are also those strange machines that I''ve never seen before, they seem unusually advanced.


    "Ah, you must be from Mekria."


    "That is correct. My name is Gerard. High technomancer of Mekria. Under the direct service of Queen Felias."


    Yes! I got it right.


    "Wait, so you deceived me?"


    "I did not. All I said was true. I did not even make any misleading statements."


    Uh, he''s right, I''m the one who just accepted everything he wanted.


    "So, Nera. If he''s an enemy should we have him arrested or something?"


    "Eh? I... don''t know."


    "Arrest me? For what crime?"


    "Well, you..." He didn''t really commit any crimes, did he... "Trespassed into the castle?"


    "I did not. I asked the guards. I was allowed to enter."


    Yeah, I guess we have not made it clear who should be allowed to come in and who should be kicked out.


    "So what were you after? You were collecting data about me... I suppose that you are trying to find a way to defeat me."


    "That is incorrect. I believed that you would be sympathetic to my goals. The first being the advancement of science."


    "Ah, yes, I''m all for advancing science."


    "The second being understanding the truths of our universe."


    "Of course, I also want to know all those truths."


    "And the third being the destruction of nature."


    "Yes, let''s dest- Wait, what?"


    "The destruction of nature. The ultimate goal of all sapient beings. Are you aware of the history of my country?"


    "I... I''m sure that Nera can explain it to me."


    I give her a pleading look, she knows more about the history of other countries than I do.


    "Right... Mekria... If I recall correctly, it is a country of mostly humans and dwarves located in a cold and desolate area of the north continent. The largest magic forest in the world used to be located there, protected by many powerful spirits and elves that gave them directions. The power of the forest could provide the people with warmth that could save their lives in the cold winters and improve their harvest so they could avoid famines."


    "Oh, shouldn''t that make them love that forest?"


    "There was a problem. In that harsh environment, some famines were particularly bad, and some winters were particularly cold. In those instances, the people attempted to take more than what they were allowed to in order to survive, and the elves used the spirits to punish them with natural disasters, all in the name of protecting nature.


    No explanation was given as to the reason why taking what was needed to survive was wrong, and many innocents died each time that happened. The people of Mekria began to hold a grudge against the elves, and against the very concept of ''protecting nature''.


    They decided to focus on the improvement of their technology, to do that, they rejected the use of magic other than to power and use their machines. That restriction they gave themselves allowed them to develop faster than any other country, and eventually, they became able to overpower the elves and their spirits. Most of the elves were killed in revenge, and when their machines became capable of giving the warmth and food they needed, they burned that magic forest to the ground."


    "That is partially incorrect. Our ancestors did not overpower the spirits. They merely learned how they work. Spirits are like machines. No free will or intelligence. Only act according to a set of patterns. They can be controlled if they are understood."


    I see, so that''s how Mekria became the country of machines.


    "So... You must hate elves like me, no?"


    "That is incorrect. I believe that the actions of our ancestors were a mistake. We would allow the remaining elves to join us and take advantage of our technology if they were to ask. We hold no grudge against them. Those elves from the past were merely slaves of the true evil in that story."


    "The true evil... Are you talking about... nature itself?"


    "That is correct. Nature is the reason why all of those tragedies happened. Only when nature is replaced with machines can people know peace and prosperity. The history of Mekria is proof of it."


    "You say that. But even if improving technology makes people''s lives better, I don''t see why nature needs to be sacrificed."


    "Nature is a tyrant that enslaves all living beings. Violence will always be part of our lives for as long as we need to kill other living creatures to eat. We will always be in conflict with each other for as long as we are in need of the same resources that nature says we must have. And those that are weak will be the ones to die.


    I was born unable to walk. I am one of those weak ones that would have died without the help of machines. Because the law of nature is that only the strong survive. And that is why nature must be destroyed.


    We must escape our prisons of flesh and become machines ourselves. I cannot accomplish that on my own. But you have mastered the art of flesh-shaping. If we were to work together there is a chance that we could succeed."


    Eh? He wants to work with me?


    "Uh... I''m not sure if I''m interested. I don''t want to destroy nature, whatever that means for you. And I''m already busy becoming the queen of this place and stopping an invasion of void demons. You might want to look into that as well by the way."


    "I am not familiar with those void demons. But the rule of a queen is only temporary. A scientist can change the world forever. We do not need to be enemies. And I believe that you might be underestimating us."


    "I''m not, I don''t really have an opinion about you."


    I mean, I''ve never seen the machines from Mekria fight or anything, so there''s nothing for me to base an opinion of them from.


    "When it comes to a potential conflict. You seem to only be concerned about Queen Felias. Her high level makes that understandable. But from studying you earlier I could tell that our queen will not be necessary. The technology that my country has developed with years of hard work is powerful. You would not be able to defeat us."


    "Oh. You really think that?"


    "To be more precise. We would be able to subjugate an average individual with the same powers you have quite easily. Perhaps you can surprise me by using them in a more intelligent manner. But I doubt that you could win against us.


    I do not wish to leave having collected that data and not give anything in return. I shall leave you with this gift."


    A white humanoid figure then comes into the hallway, it''s something similar to a golem, but not quite... Gerard is using some magic to control it.


    ''Appraisal''


    {Unknown golem, Element: Fire, Level: 53}


    I don''t think that appraisal is working correctly, it shouldn''t say ''unknown'', I don''t think that''s a golem, and something tells me that it''s much stronger than level 53...


    "What is this?"


    "A standard-issue pearl combat unit. A robot. An example of the tools used by the combatants of our country. Feel free to study it as much as you want. It might help you to understand what we are capable of. And I would appreciate it if you were to suggest any improvements."


    I''ve only looked at it for a brief moment but I''m stumped. I don''t understand the magic that he''s using to control it. And right away I can tell that this is not something I could easily recreate... And most importantly, the design is very optimized, this is the first time I''ve looked at someone else''s work and I cannot see any obvious flaws. Is it because I''m not familiar with this technology?


    "That will be all for now. I will be taking my leave. Please keep my offer to collaborate in mind."


    "Oh, of course. It was nice to meet you."


    Nera and I decide to accompany him as he leaves. The truth is that I''m a bit curious about the method he used to come here. Did he use a car like the one Ranna had? Ah! I should have asked if I could get a new one for her.


    Instead, he gets into a strange vehicle, one that has a large balloon on top and a relatively small cabin... I believe that it''s a blimp?


    Except that there''s a very complex magic circuit on it, the design is... impressive. It should be able to increase the effect of fire and wind mana crystals immensely, I... I don''t think that I would have been able to make a better one.


    The blimp slowly lifts into the air, and then.


    *BOOM*


    A loud sound like an explosion is heard behind it as it leaves at an astounding speed, and for a moment there''s a cone-shaped cloud behind it. Nera seems to have gotten scared by it.


    Don''t tell me that was...


    "W-what was that?!"


    "Nera... Do you know what that sound meant?!"


    "No, I don''t, I really don''t. Do you?"


    "If I''m not mistaken... That vehicle was traveling faster than the sound it produced!"


    This is simply amazing... I had already lost hope of ever finding someone who could surpass me as a researcher, even in a field completely different from mine.


    But this... So this is what is possible with the hard work of generations of the people of Mekria... Can I really measure up to them?


    It already felt great to know that there was someone like Vilde that I could look forward to surpassing in terms of combat. But to think that there was also someone who could challenge me in this area... After everything I''ve seen ever since I left my home, I was starting to lose hope.


    I know that Gerard and Mekria are potential enemies, I should not be happy to learn that they are this powerful. And yet... I cannot help but feel excited.


    forli


    I always thought that the people being punished would not learn why their actions were wrong as they never get to see their consequences and are instead just being told to not do it by a more powerful being. And with all the people that die, they would end up seeing the ''guardians of nature'' as tyrants.


    So I wanted to write a story in which the act of protecting nature with violence ended up completely backfiring. I don''t think I''ve ever seen a villain with this particular motivation.

 Chapter 106: Pawnch

    "So, you found the contract crystal that proves my mother really sold out our country..."


    Nera doesn''t sound too happy about it. Well, even if she already knew about this, seeing the proof of her mother''s wrongdoings must still feel bad.


    "So, now that you can clear your name... I guess you will be going back home, right?"


    Hearing me say that makes her expression change into a sly smile.


    "Uh? What is that sad face for? Are you worried that I''m going to leave you?"


    "Yeah, it''s natural to want to go home now that you can, no?"


    "Well, I''m not sure if I can just yet. It might be better to give the crystal to some people I trust and wait for them to sort out this mess first. And even if I could, I don''t think I should."


    "Eh? Why not?"


    "Because I think that I might be more useful here... There''s such a powerful country being founded and you are going to be our neighbors. It''s in our best interest for your country to be functional, instability makes it more likely that your subjects might cause trouble. And it would also be nice for you to be indebted to the Agua kingdom. So I think that doing what I can to help is a better use of my time than going back home and doing nothing all day."


    "I see."


    "And more importantly, you are my friend. So I want to do anything I can to help you."


    Uh?! So she''s letting go of the chance to go back home for my sake? Because we are friends?


    "N-Nera!"


    As tears fill my eyes I''m overcome by my emotions and jump to hug her.


    "Mfh! I can''t breafe!"


    Ah, I got a bit careless, most of her head seems to have disappeared into my chest.


    "Sorry, are you alright?"


    "Ah... Ah... I''m fine... Anyway, there''s one thing I don''t understand."


    "What is it?"


    "You said that you were looking for me yesterday because you wanted to show this to me. So why didn''t you do it until today?"


    "Oh... Well, we ran into that guy, and after that, I got distracted with trying to figure out how to move this thing."


    I gesture to the robot I got yesterday, the one I''ve been studying all night.


    "And how did that go? Did you do it?"


    "Fufufu, that technology is not to be underestimated, but you shouldn''t underestimate me either!"


    That Gerard guy seemed to think that I would have a tough time figuring out how to control it, but I figured it out in one night.


    After altering the magic circuit hidden inside the neck of that machine, it now reacts to my mana. I make it wave its arms to demonstrate.


    "Oh, you really did it."


    "Yes, but unfortunately, that thing is controlled by fire magic. Since my fire magic rank is 1 I cannot control it very well. And even if I can control it, I still don''t understand how it works, I could not make another one."


    "But can you use it to fight?"


    "Eh... Kinda. I used the imps to test it, but that hardly counts as a ''fight''."


    "The imps? You mean the ones you summon?"


    "Yes, let''s go outside and I''ll show you."


    After summoning various imps all around the courtyard, I''m ready for the demonstration.


    I ordered them to attack the machine when it gets close to make it look similar to a real fight, but as expected, they cannot do any damage.


    "It seems pretty durable, no?"


    "Uh, no. These guys would not be able to do any damage even to a small child."


    Let''s start fighting back. To begin, I use some fire mana to send the signal to throw a simple punch that instantly makes an imp explode into a cloud of black smoke. Next, it shoots a fire beam, my lack of fire magic prowess means that it''s not very strong, but it''s still enough for an imp. After that, I have the robot repeatedly punch more imps as they jump at it.


    "You said that you can''t control it well, but that was faster and more precise than an average golem."


    "It should be capable of a lot more than that, it also has some weapons that I have not figured out yet."


    "Oh... Uh? Luna, look over there."


    Nera points to a strange-looking imp that just entered the courtyard. No wait, that''s not an imp, it''s a small child, an elf child with black hair... That''s right, this is Mona, the girl that was left here by her parents.


    What is she doing here? She''s staring at the robot with sparkling eyes.


    "Hello?"


    As soon as she hears me call out to her she runs away. An older elf boy comes running and she hides behind him.


    "I''m very sorry! I was supposed to watch over Mona but she went off running when she saw that... metal man that was punching those black monsters. I will accept any punishment!"


    "I''m not going to punish you for something like this."


    "Ah, I guess it couldn''t be so easy..."


    Nera walks up to the little girl. She gets on her knees to get close to her height and gives her a gentle smile.


    "Do you like the robot?"


    "Pawnch!"


    Mona punches the air, trying to copy what the robot was doing earlier.


    "You like how it punches? It''s cool, right? Do you want to see it do it more?"


    "Yes!"


    "Well, then you need to ask Luna, she''s the only one that can make it move."


    "Uh..."


    After taking another quick look, she gets one more step away from me.


    "She''s scawy."


    "Well, if she wants me to, I can make it-"


    Nera makes a gesture that I believe means that she wants me to stop.


    "She''s very nice you know, if a cute girl like you asks her, she will make the robot punch more for sure."


    She seems to be deep in thought for a few seconds. Then, she starts walking slowly and gets closer to me, but still not too close, and lifts one arm to point at the robot with her finger.


    "Pawnch!"


    I repeat the same performance from before, summoning a bunch of imps and making the robot pawnch... I mean punch them really fast.


    Mona has a bright smile as she watches it and even makes a few small jumps out of excitement. She''s too cute for me to hold back, I want to hug her and pinch her cheeks, but that would make her hate me even more...


    "So, do you still think that I''m scary?"


    The little girl looks up at me for a moment with a thoughtful expression and then points her finger at me.


    "You''re scawy!"


    Uh, children can be really blunt.


    I have an idea, I''m not sure if she would like this but I think I''ll give it a try.


    "Hey, do you want to punch some imps too? You can be just like the robot!"


    "Pawnch like the obot? Yes!"


    I make a couple of imps jump around menacingly, but this brave girl hits them without any hesitation, her form is surprisingly good for a child this young, but she forgot to close her fist.


    Even the strength of a little girl is enough to turn the imps into smoke in one hit. I''m only making them move around her, but I get the feeling that they would lose just as easily even if I told them to attack seriously.


    Anyway, now that there are no imps left it''s my turn.


    "Not bad, but can you also defeat the dark queen?"


    I get in front of her, looking ready to attack.


    "Ah!"


    As Mona lets out her battle cry I receive a light tap on my left leg. By using a mana push, I send myself flying several meters into the air before hitting the ground.


    "Ouch, you''re stronger than I thought! Are you actually a hero?"


    "Hahaha."


    She''s laughing and jumping in place after sending me flying. It looks like she forgot that she was afraid of me and is just having a good time.


    This is great, I had never been able to play with children before, they always start crying as soon as I get close. Nera sure is smart, using her love of the robot to blackmail her was a great idea!


    Mona comes running at me again, but this time I''m ready for her. I grab her and lift her up.


    "Aha! I got you!"


    Ah, holding a child feels even better than I thought, it''s as if all the stress I''ve been accumulating recently is suddenly being healed. But I did this without thinking, I hope that I didn''t scare her.


    "Hahaha."


    She''s laughing, so I guess it''s fine. I put her back on the floor and give her a head pat.


    Nera then comes closer with the other elf behind her.


    "See? I told you that she was nice."


    "Un."


    Mona nods to her, I really managed to win her over!


    "We can play again some other day if you want. Since we are both dark elves, we should get along."


    "Yes!"


    And with that, I''m left alone with Nera again.


    "Luna! What was that smile you made when you were holding her?!"


    "Eh? Did I smile? Uh, I hope I didn''t scare her..."


    "Nonono! That was a very nice smile! You actually looked like a nice person for a moment!"


    "Really?!"


    Is that true? Did I really manage to make a good smile without noticing? Could I finally be getting close to not being a scary person?


    "Quick! Do it again! Before your face forgets how to do it!"


    "Uh, sure, I''ll try..."


    I do my best to make a nice and gentle smile. And Nera takes a step back while barely managing to hold back a scream.


    "N-no... That''s... Not it..."


    "Oh..."


    It looks like I still have a long way to go...


    forli


    I would like to say that after I''m done with the stuff I''m doing right now I''ll write more, but it feels like I keep telling myself that and then something else pops up that stops me from writing.

 I need to rant about the ‘humans suck’ trope.

    forli


    I''m sorry for posting this, it has nothing to do with my novel, but this is something that I just cannot stop thinking about. This trope is the main reason I''ve decided to stop reading web novels since it''s so prevalent that I know I''ll keep encountering it no matter how hard I try to avoid it, and the only thing I''ll get out of reading is getting angry.


    But that''s not enough, I''m still obsessed with it, and this new chapter I''m writing is reminding me of it even more so I really need this rant.


    In fantasy web novels, humans always seem to be the weakest race, without the gifts other races get and the shortest life spans, which makes them the underdogs that feel natural to root for, they are also used more often than everyone else as the faceless victims of slaughters that we are not supposed to care too much about, and that makes me sympathize with them more than with the others. And yet, many stories portray humans as completely evil, without changing the fact that they are the underdogs. Even when they are not evil they are at least not as good as the other races.


    Having a completely evil race is always going to at least feel a bit wrong, but when the evil ones are something like demons, they will often be stronger so they can work as villains. But when this is done with humans, they will be weak as well as being evil, it tends to come across like the author just wanted an ''inferior race'' to make all the others look good for being born better. It''s like having a story with some snobby and rich nobles fighting against a rebellion of starving poor people where the poor people are all cartoonishly evil and the story cannot stop pointing out how much better and cooler the nobles are.


    I admit that I didn''t always hate this trope as much as I do now, but the more web novels I read, the worse it gets in my mind, I think there are two reasons for that.


    The first is how poorly done this tends to be. The humans are often evil in cartoonish and unrealistic ways, and since they are so weak, they don''t even work as bad guys (even a story with an op protagonist will at least have the bad guys be a threat to normal people if only to make the protagonist look better. These humans will not even do that so there''s not even any point to them). I can never help but see the author pulling the strings of these ''humans'' every time I see it.


    The second is the fact that this is just everywhere. Humans are always the weakest race in fantasy. And humans being evil is WAY more common than demons being evil at this point (which is why it annoys me to no end when people call it a ''subversion''). And the thing is, even novels that don''t make all humans evil will still make them not as good as the other races, so it still reinforces the trope.


    And the worst part is that I seem to be the only one that cares about this, other people think that portraying humans this way is ''fine''. I don''t think that it''s ''fine''.


    It''s not ''fine'' to have supposedly good characters that see humans as ''insects'' because they are always trying to do bad stuff but are too weak to succeed (which doesn''t even make sense btw). A race that thinks of another race as ''insects'' is always going to come across as unlikeable assholes, and trying to make them """""justified""""" by having all humans be over-the-top cartoon racists is a very bad way to fix it.


    It''s not ''fine'' when a story (often jokingly) acts as if a character would be justified to exterminate the humans, and the humans should be glad that the character is too nice to do that.


    And it''s definitely not ''fine'' when a character does kill a large number of humans while laughing and insulting them for being weak, but the humans are still supposed to be the bad guys...


    So yeah, saying that I hate this trope from the very bottom of my soul would be a massive understatement. This trope has completely destroyed any joy I ever had reading web novels. And I just cannot stop thinking about it... I feel like I''m in a downward spiral, the more I overthink it, the more I discover new reasons to hate it, and the more I discover new reasons to hate it, the more I overthink it.


    I just barely scratched the surface here. It would take too long to go into all the double standards where the same action is often portrayed as more evil when a human does it, the way that this has become so overdone that humans are expected to be the evil ones at this point, or the way that many stories try to pretend that humans are not underdogs because there are more of them (because instead of long lifespans, super strength or powerful magic, humans should be glad that they were given the greatest gift of all: being disposable).


    Anyway, sorry for making you read this, I just needed to get this out of my system.

 Chapter 107: Being better

    -Xania-


    The place we call the ''cursed fields''... This region of the demon wasteland used to be all fertile farmland where the minotaur tribe grew their crops.


    However, just over 700 years ago there was a battle here, the gray demons fought against the minotaurs. My ancestors attempted to cast a combined spell far beyond their capabilities and accidentally cursed the land itself.


    All the plants that attempt to grow here end up melting into black goo, and a strange purple smoke comes out from the ground, making anyone who breathes it feel sick. Needless to say, nobody has been able to grow anything in this land ever since.


    After the loss of such an important source of food, not only the minotaurs but also the tribes that used to trade for it have been holding a grudge against the gray demons. Well, that is only one of the many grudges that each tribe has against the others here in the demon wasteland, but it''s still shameful to think that my tribe was responsible for creating a place where nothing living can grow.


    Yes, this is a place where nothing living can grow... Or at least it was, until an hour ago.


    "Ah!, looks like this worked better than expected."


    I can hear the voice of my new queen, but I cannot see her, the grass that just grew here in a matter of minutes is taller than me and it''s blocking my vision in every direction...


    I thought that I should tell Luna about this place. The curse here was supposed to be equivalent to dark magic of rank 13, so even her rank of 20 would not be enough to take control of it. But since she''s such an expert when it comes to dark magic, I figured that she should still be able to do something.


    And as soon as she took a look around this place, she said that she could try ''reversing'' the curse. What is ''reversing'' a curse even supposed to mean? I''ve never heard about anything like that before. And yet, it didn''t take even an hour for this place to become a jungle of grass and weeds.


    "Every time I think that your magic cannot get any more ridiculous, you do something like this..."


    "Hahaha. Well, the curse was very old, and it was made by accident so there was no willpower behind it, it wasn''t hard to modify it."


    Ugh... She''s always so irritating. This curse has been a thorn on our side for over 700 years and she just came here and fixed the problem in an hour. And she''s talking about it like it wasn''t a big deal, this is so frustrating...


    "So... Is all of this sudden growth a result of ''reversing'' the curse?"


    "That curse had been stealing energy and earth mana from the plants that tried to grow here, so there was a lot of it stored, that''s the reason for what just happened here. I''m sure that any crops that get planted here from now on will grow bigger and faster than normal, but first, we''ll have to get rid of all of these weeds."


    At this point there''s just no denying it anymore, she''s a god.


    Even if she''s just a ''normal'' mage that ''just happened to become very good at magic'', what she did here just now is a feat that only a god should be able to do.


    That said, we should not have needed the help of a god.


    What makes this such a godly feat is the fact that she could do it by herself in a mere hour. But we didn''t need to do it with only one person, we have had plenty of mages that should have been interested in getting rid of this curse. And we didn''t have an hour to do it, we had 700 years...


    We should not have needed anyone''s help, but we all kept trying to throw the blame on someone else or pretending that it was not our problem, doing nothing to actually fix the issue. And it got to the point that we needed a god to come and fix all of our problems for us... Are we really that pathetic?


    Yes, I think that''s the reason why Luna always makes me feel so frustrated. She keeps making all of my flaws so obvious...


    I was angry because I knew that other countries look down on us, and I thought that if someone like Kalroth made us ''stronger'' we could get back at them. It''s frustrating to think that I never did anything to solve our actual problems.


    "We''ll take care of the weeds, I have some of my underlings here with me, and we brought a few hundred zombies with us."


    "Eh? We''re going to take care of this field?"


    One of those underlings of mine is apparently nearby, not that I can see him with all of this grass.


    "Yes, we are."


    "But I thought that this was part of the territory of the minotaurs, are we going to take it from them?"


    "No, we need to do this to start paying our debt back to them. And more importantly, we''re all part of a real country now, we should help each other when we get the chance."


    "I see..."


    "Xania! I''m so happy to hear you say that! I knew that you could become a good person. Anyway, if we need to get rid of the weeds, then I could-"


    "You ''could'' nothing!!! WE are going to take care of this!"


    "Eh? But I have a spell that-"


    "JUST LET US DO SOMETHING USEFUL!"


    "Uh, ok then. I guess I''ll be going back to the castle."


    From the dark mana I sensed and the fact that she seems to have disappeared I assume that she used that ''black gate'' to go back, another crazy spell...


    Just what is going to happen to the demon wasteland? She already said that she wants to change our name back to manaborn, and if she keeps doing stuff like this, it might actually stop even being a wasteland...


    After making the undead work all day we''re still not close to being done, this place is quite large and the grass is tougher than I thought.


    "Hey, boss! Someone is flying over there!"


    "Uh?"


    I can indeed see the figure of a man wearing a long gray robe flying in the sky, and he''s coming down to us. Now that he''s closer I can see that he looks a bit old and his eyes are closed, is it safe to fly when he cannot see?


    Wait, he''s flying with wind magic... And he cannot see... Don''t tell me that he is...


    "All of you! Get away from here!"


    "Eh? You want to be left alone boss?"


    "I know who that man is... This could be dangerous. Go away, now!"


    By the time he lands in front of me, my subordinates have already left.


    "Good evening. Sorry for appearing without any warning, but as I was flying I couldn''t help but notice the jungle of grass right where there used to be a curse stopping plants from growing."


    "You... You are Alber, the ''Grand mage'', correct?"


    "Oh! It always feels nice to be popular with girls. And if I am not mistaken, you are Xania, the current high necromancer of the gray demons."


    Uh, it really is him, and he even knows who I am.


    This is bad, this is the guy that killed four of the rulers of the demon wasteland that wanted to invade the rest of the continent, he''s a symbol of terror around here.


    The pressure that I''m feeling from being near the greatest enemy of the demon wasteland is... almost nothing. After getting used to my new queen, everything else seems tame.


    "Well, there''s nothing for someone like you to do here, our new queen is not planning to start any wars. In fact, she just fixed this field so that we can take care of ourselves."


    "It''s a bit mean to assume that I could only be here because I''m expecting a war. I only wanted to get permission for an official visit from the second prince of my kingdom."


    "An official visit? Since when do you guys treat us like a real country?"


    "Time will tell if you can become a proper country. For now, this is just an excuse to allow me to meet your queen and figure out what she''s all about."


    "You sure admitted that easily...."


    In any case, I can breathe a sigh of relief. It doesn''t look like he''s planning to kill me.


    "And what is your opinion of her? All the rumors and testimonies I have heard are... contradictory, to say the least. Is she as evil as people say?"


    "No, she is scary, but she''s not evil in any way. If anything she''s way too nice for her own good."


    "Is that so... Well, figuring that out is the second most important reason why I want to visit this place. Some people tend to lose their rationality when they are scared. And some other people are really bad at causing a good impression, like you, for example."


    "Me? What''s that supposed to mean?"


    "You were worried when you saw me and tried to cause a good impression, but you didn''t attempt to get those undead out of sight. Are you not aware of what most people think of undead?"


    "I know that they hate that we don''t ''respect'' the dead, but a dead body is nothing more than a tool that''s no longer being used, so why should I be ashamed of making them useful."


    "What you just said is what gray demons are taught since childhood. But for someone who is not used to it, seeing a walking corpse will cause a natural reaction of fear and revulsion, and that includes the rest of the demon wasteland. Tell me, do you want the customs of your tribe to be accepted by the others?"


    "Yes, obviously."


    "And what have you done to achieve that?"


    "Why would I need to do something? Being afraid of the undead is stupid, they are the ones that need to learn."


    "See? That''s the problem. For people to understand each other requires effort from both parties. The tribes of demons often complain about not being understood, but they do nothing to explain themselves or understand the others. If you want to become a proper country, this stubbornness is the biggest obstacle you will need to overcome."


    "What do you care if we can be a country or not? Are you not supposed to hate us?"


    Everyone knows the story of his village being destroyed and his family being killed by demons from this wasteland when he was a child. Why is he trying to give me advice?


    "Hahaha, I guess I did, for a while, but my mentor taught me the folly of that way of thinking."


    "Your mentor?"


    Looking at this guy, you''d think that he should be the mentor. I guess even he was young at some point.


    "She taught me a lot about wind magic and rationality. She understood better than anyone the way that people think and the pitfalls that often lead them to evil and misunderstandings, and how to lead them to become better versions of themselves. That''s why I found it so strange that she..."


    "That she what?"


    "Nevermind, let''s just say that finding out what happened to my mentor is the number one reason I wanted this visit. Tell your queen to let us know if we''re allowed to come, if the answer is yes, we''ll be here a week after receiving it."


    And he left just like that. Flying back the way he came.


    Well, that was not someone I was expecting to have a conversation with today. I wonder where all of this is going...


    forli


    Anyway, I want to thank all the people that replied to my rant, I know that it must have been annoying to see me post something that has nothing to do with this novel, but I really needed to do it. I kept seeing how nobody complained about that trope while complaining endlessly about others that don''t bother me too much and I felt that I was going to explode.


    In particular, it''s true that part of the problem might be with the type of novels I''ve been reading and the fact that I mostly read on this website. Hopefully, that trope is not as popular elsewhere.


    I also want to thank the people who tried to explain why the trope does not bother them as much. I kept arguing back because I''m far to obsessed with it, but I really appreciate that you helped me understand your perspective.

 Chapter 108: Emergency mining

    "Uh... Maybe I should have given myself some time to prepare before giving an answer."


    When Xania told me that the representatives of a neighboring country had requested permission for an official visit, I said yes without giving it a second thought. After all, this could be a chance to clear out a few misconceptions that they might have.


    But now that I think about it, clearing out misconceptions is not something I seem to be very good at. I should have said that I needed some time to get ready.


    I suppose we should get as ready as we can in what little time we have. And there''s one problem that I''ve been ignoring until now, a problem that I need to fix if I want to give a good impression to our visitors.


    "This castle is full of holes."


    Normally, it would be impossible for me to live in such a place. I remember how seeing any small crack on the wall made me unable to sleep until I fixed it. But there''s something about this place that makes it feel like it''s supposed to be like this.


    So I''ve been able to overlook it until now, but not anymore, we need to do some emergency repairs. And since this castle was built using rocks from the depths of the infernal caverns, I''ll open one of the black gates I left when I last went there.


    Mmm, yes, I think around here should be fine. Deep enough but not near the bottom, so the monsters should still be manageable for my helpers.


    ''Black gate''


    Transportation is one of the most obvious uses for these gates. I cannot imagine how difficult it must have been to get enough stones to build the castle in the first place, and I can only bring people strong enough to deal with the monsters there.


    "Alright, we''re going down there."


    "Nyes!"


    First is Karin. Seeing how she keeps breaking the walls, it should be easy for her to get those rocks.


    "Are you ready to do some quarrying?"


    "I don''t knyow what that word means."


    "It means punching the rocks to turn them into smaller rocks that we can bring with us."


    "Ah, I can do that!"


    Eh... I''m sure she''ll be fine. Next, I have someone who should know more about geology.


    "Irvan, you know how to tell the rocks we need apart from the others, right?"


    Dragons eat rocks after all, so this should be instinctual for him.


    "Of course mistress! I''ll make sure to find gems that are worthy of your glory!"


    "That''s not what we''re doing at all! Did you even listen to me?!"


    "Umf, the dragon is being ridiculous."


    And that''s the last person, Ronuck, the boss of the rock demons. He''s an expert geologist, and he''s not a crazy fanatic of me like Irvan is.


    "There''s no such thing as a gem that is worthy of our queen''s glory! And to suggest that some worthless servants like us could find them is an unforgivable insult to her!"


    Oh, he''s worse.


    "A-anyway, now that we''re here let''s begin- Uh?"


    I killed all the monsters I saw around here just a moment ago, but a bunch of creatures that seem to be made of mud are coming crawling from a tunnel. It sure doesn''t take long for the monsters to come back in this place.


    {Mudlord, Element: Earth, Level: 202}


    I guess they are called that because they are a stronger version of some other monster, but it''s weird that all of them are apparently ''lords''.


    "I''ll take care of them, mistress!"


    "Nya! I''ll beat them up before you can!"


    "Wait, what are you-"


    Irvan transformed into his dragon form and is trying to melt them with his breath. The monsters are trying to crawl over his body, but Karin is using some strange fast punches that seem to work well on non-solid opponents.


    Uh, did they forget what we''re here for? I could get rid of them much faster, but they seem to be having fun so I guess I''ll let them play for a bit.


    At least Ronuck is still with me.


    "So, you said you knew what we''re looking for?"


    "Yes, of course. The castle was built with meldstone from these caverns, we need to get more of it if we want to fix it."


    "Meldstone?"


    "There''re some over there. See? You can tell them apart by the black and red pattern."


    "I see, they really are easy to recognize."


    "Meldstone merge with each other when exposed to intense heat. All we need to do is put some into the holes, bring some strong fires, and the castle will be as good as new. Also, constant heat will force the meldstone into maintaining its current form, that''s why the ones in these caverns are so tough to break."


    Mmm, if that''s the case I wonder if it would be possible to achieve a similar effect by having a magic circuit in the castle that keeps circulating fire mana into the stone? If it works it could help prevent future holes, but it might cause things to get too hot during summer...


    Also, I think I have an idea that could make the collection easier.


    Ouch, are there mosquitoes down there? something bit me in the back. Are the monsters not enough?


    "NYAH!!! HOT!!!"


    Oh, looks like those two are done with the mudlords and are now fighting some burning skeletons. That does not look like something one would want to punch but Karin seems to disagree.


    {Bonefire, Element: Fire, Level: 211}


    Who names these things?


    Anyway, as I was saying, I think I know how to break these rocks more easily.


    ''Heat void''


    If meldstone is held together by heat, then a spell that removes the heat from an object should make it very brittle, and this is the spell that allowed me to bathe in lava.


    *Poke*


    *Crash*


    Indeed, just a small push is all it took to break a large rock.


    "As expected of our queen, to be able to destroy the infernal caverns with just a finger."


    "No, no. Didn''t you see me use a spell just before I- Ouch!"


    The mosquito again! This time I quickly try to catch it with my hand before it flies away, but I find myself grabbing something stuck on my back.


    "Uh? Is this a knife? Where did this come from?"


    Ronuck points to the ceiling.


    "It was her, she''s been stabbing you for a while, but since you were not saying anything, I thought that you wouldn''t want me to bring it up..."


    "Oh, it''s Zerana."


    So she was hiding by holding onto the ceiling, did she follow us through the black gate? Maybe she thought that this would be a good place for today''s assassination attempt.


    "I thought that draining your blood with the Moito knife would at least do something..." She says as she jumps down.


    "Ah, so it wasn''t a mosquito, it was a mosquito knife."


    "I said MOITO knife! It''s a powerful weapon of the blood demons that can drain the blood of its victims!"


    "Yes, of course. Well, I wanted to talk to you anyway. We''re going to be receiving an official visit from another country and I want you to promise that you won''t cause any trouble."


    "And why do you want to tell me that? What makes you think that I''m more likely to cause trouble than anyone else."


    "..."


    Instead of answering, I give her back her mosquito knife.


    "Fine, I''ll try, but I won''t make any promises."


    "Good. So now that you are here, will you help us carry these rocks back to the surface?"


    "You want the leader of the blood demons to work as a porter?!"


    "Yes. Please?"


    "Shouldn''t you ask me to help those two idiots over there instead? They seem to be in trouble."


    Irvan and Karin are now fighting a swarm of large blue bats.


    {Batzu, Element: Dark, Level: 159}


    They are weaker than the previous monsters, but there are a lot of them. They let out some high-pitched screeches that make my ears ring even from here, but seem directed at the two combatants.


    "Nyaaa... My head hurts."


    "Ah... Where am I? Who am I?"


    That attack seems to have affected their minds in some way, their attacks don''t seem to even be aimed at the bats anymore. Or rather, they are just hurting themselves, Irvan is smashing his head into the walls and Karin just went too far with a high kick and ended up kicking her own face.


    "Eh?! Where did this wall come from?"


    "I didn''t knyow that a kick from a bat could be so strong..."


    Ugh, I''m not sure why, but there is something about seeing them hitting themselves that feels extremely frustrating.


    Alright, that''s it, I''ll take care of the monsters myself.


    I step in front of Karin and Irvan, they are so confused that they don''t seem to notice me walking past them.


    ''Ravaging wave''


    From the palm of my hand, a black wave of mana completely fills the tunnel, shattering rocks and eliminating all the bats in an instant. It then continues to advance getting rid of the monsters that would have been next to attack.


    Mmm, I decided to put some power into it because I wanted to make sure that the monsters would leave us alone for a while, but I might have gone too far, the tunnel is over twice as wide now as it was before.


    "..."


    It seems like Zerana wants to say something but she''s unable to talk for some reason.


    "Are you alright?"


    "Ah... W-wha... what... that''s... what was that... wa..."


    Mmm, she already got 5 letters back. Looks like she should recover soon.


    "What the hell was that?!" Zarana is staring at me with her mouth wide open.


    "An offensive spell, to get rid of the monsters."


    Why is she asking me that? I don''t think this is difficult to understand.


    "But... If you can use such powerful magic, why didn''t you use it on me? Or on anyone else?"


    "Eh? Because I don''t want to kill you. I already told you that I hope that we can get along."


    She looks back at the recently expanded tunnel, then back at me.


    "I''ll be a porter..."


    "Uh?"


    "You said that you wanted me to help you carry those rocks, no? Fine, I''ll help."


    "Really? Thank you!"


    I knew that she would end up saying yes after I said please. Being polite really goes a long way.

 Chapter 109: Irrational fear

    -Alber-


    I''m over 200 years old, and it still doesn''t seem like I''ll be able to retire any time soon...


    Even after all this time I still remember the destruction of my home as if it was yesterday. The loss of such a small village was not a big deal in the grand scheme of things, but for me, it was the most important event in the history of the world. And that is why I cannot retire, I simply cannot allow another tragedy like that to happen again.


    But there''s no end to the imbeciles that think of themselves as superior beings just because they were able to reach a high level. It''s always easy to see them coming if I pay attention to the signs... but this ''queen of darkness'' doesn''t make sense to me.


    She successfully mixed her mana in a town''s water supply and then left without doing anything with it, she then defeated the knights that were chasing after her but didn''t hurt them at all. She took control of two small tribes of manaborn but seemingly forgot about them. She destroyed part of a town, again without hurting anyone, for seemingly no reason. And when she was about to take over the Agua kingdom she again left without doing anything.


    She seems to have a pattern of causing a big commotion and then just leaving without doing anything. And for someone who''s described as extremely powerful and evil, there is a severe lack of casualties among the many people who have tried to attack her. And yet way too many witnesses have testified about her viciousness for it to be all a misunderstanding... I simply have no clue of what''s going on here.


    And that''s why my only choice is to meet her in person and figure her out myself.


    "So that''s the old castle of the demon king."


    "Uh... It''s a lot more intimidating than I was expecting, my body is telling me not to go in."


    Ren and Rena, brother and sister, I was told to bring these two young knights with me. Both of them are above level 200, but it seems like this is their first time in the wasteland.


    On the other hand, I''ve been here many times, but even I have to admit that the castle seems a lot more ominous than usual... I can sense something truly terrifying lurking inside, the demon lords I''m used to cannot even compare.


    Mmm, it seems that the cracks and holes than used to be all around this castle have been fixed. My wind lets me confirm the state of the walls much better than if I was actually able to see. And I think that the repair was recent, was this done to prepare for our visit? The previous occupants would not have cared about something like that.


    Two rock demons guide us to the room where their queen should be waiting for us. We stop in front of the door.


    "Master Alber... I can sense a sinister presence on the other side of this door. I think we might get attacked if we go in."


    "Mmm, it''s too late to turn back now. Don''t be scared, but be ready for whatever we might face."


    I''m trying to act tough, but the truth is that I''m afraid as well, this level of pressure is simply not normal... And to think that I believed that after everything I''ve experienced nothing could scare me anymore. Now I''m being intimidated by someone I''ve not even met yet.


    Well, no point in delaying it, let''s open this door.


    I immediately sense the terrifying being of pure darkness on the other side of the room and get the feeling that I''m about to die. Let''s calm down, I need to use my wind magic to figure out what it actually is.


    Uh? It''s a girl sitting on a chair, a very tall elf girl.


    The moment she notices me, she quickly swallows something that was in her mouth. Then she uses spatial magic in a hurry, is that a storage spell? To put away what seems to be a box full of cream puffs that she was holding. Uh... what?


    {Race: Elf, Class: Mage, Element: Dark, Level: 540}


    It has to be her, that level is unbelievable... If I end up having to fight her I will have no other choice than to use that spell, even if doing so will undoubtedly kill me...


    She seems to notice the wind I''m using to ''see'' her and starts looking around the room for five seconds before staring at me.


    It can''t be... noticing that wind is already difficult enough, but realizing that it was my doing in such a short time should not be possible. If she really figured it out she must have a lot more to her than just raw power.


    There are two more girls here, one is a human standing next to the dark queen... I believe that she''s the princess of the Agua kingdom that ran away with her recently. The other is a really strong blood demon hiding behind a curtain, is she waiting for an ambush? It doesn''t seem like such a thing should be needed.


    "Uh, hello. I was not expecting you so early. Please take a seat."


    "Ah, no thank you, your majesty. We are only here to introduce ourselves. My name is Alber, and these are the knights Ren and Rena. Our prince has not arrived yet."


    "My name is Luna. It''s a pleasure to meet you."


    Such a commanding tone. She''s only introducing herself, and yet each one of her words feels intimidating as if demanding absolute obedience.


    The princess then whispers something into her ear.


    "Luna, calm down. You always speak with a scary voice when you are nervous."


    "How can I calm down? He called me ''your majesty''..."


    "You are supposed to be a queen you know. You should get used to that stuff."


    "I guess... Anyway, you should be careful. That old man is using wind magic to sense his surroundings, including sound. I think that he can hear us even if we whisper."


    So she really is onto me. But that conversation was strange.


    "First of all, there''s one thing I would like to make clear. You might have heard some bad things about me, but that''s nothing more than a mere misunderstanding."


    "A misunderstanding?"


    "Yes, you can rest assured that I''m not a threat to your country. My only goal is to turn the demon wasteland into a prosperous country."


    That''s strange. How can she be saying that she''s not a threat while still having that intimidating aura around her? My two companions don''t seem to believe her.


    "I''m glad to hear that."


    "For now, you can discuss the details of your visit with Nera."


    That''s a weird job to give to a princess... I get the feeling that she''s the only one around here who knows how to deal with royalty.


    She approaches us, and then.


    *BANG*


    The chair that the queen of darkness is sitting on explodes.


    "WAHAHA! That stupid princess finally moved away. So what do you think of my special bombs?!"


    The blood demon just came out from her hiding spot. Is she the one responsible for that explosion? I don''t understand what''s going on.


    The powerful explosion seems to have wounded the dark queen, she''s bleeding from both the left and right sides of her waist as well as her left shoulder.


    Wait, her wounds seem to be fixing themselves. The blood is flying back into her body and her flesh is twisting and closing the wounds. It''s a bit unnerving to watch, but in just a few seconds she''s as good as new. Is that the dark healing I''ve heard about?


    "Zerana... I thought I told you to not cause trouble for our guests. And more importantly, you placed two bombs on the left side of the chair and only one on the right?! What were you thinking?!"


    She seems angry. Was that an assassination attempt? The pressure from before has increased, and the knight siblings are hugging each other.


    "D-does that matter? I just happened to only have three bombs on hand so I only put one on the right."


    "YES! IT DOES MATTER! IF YOU HAD THREE BOMBS YOU SHOULD HAVE PUT ONE ON THE CENTER!!!"


    "EEEK! S-sorry?"


    "I''m going to let it slide this time. But if you try another assassination attempt as sloppy as this one I will have to punish you."


    "Guh."


    I''m having trouble understanding what I''m hearing... Why does she care more about the way the bombs were placed than the fact that one of her subordinates just tried to kill her? I think that understanding this girl is going to be harder than I thought...


    "She was far more terrifying than I thought."


    "Master Alber, what should we do?"


    Something is clearly wrong... Back there we were all too scared for no apparent reason. Even before entering I thought that I was sensing killing intent from her when in reality she was just eating cream puffs. Her conversation with the princess was also very casual... So where was that intimidation coming from?


    And then there''s the interaction with the blood demon. She didn''t seem to care much about an assassination attempt. That didn''t seem at all like the behavior of a ruthless person. She did prove to be quite... I guess I''ll call it eccentric, but not ruthless.


    The important thing is that just being around her seemed to cause an irrational fear in all of us that made us believe that her intentions were much worse than what her actions would suggest, which means...


    "I think I''ve figured it out."


    "Eh? Figured out what?"


    "I was confused because there were too many reports about her cruelty while all the evidence pointed to the contrary. It didn''t seem possible for it to be all a misunderstanding when so many people seemed so certain about it, but it also didn''t make sense for there to be no victims of such a terrible villain. But now that I''ve met her in person and experienced the same fear that everyone who''s met her before must have felt, I finally understand what''s going on."


    "Right! Now it''s clear that she''s even worse than we thought!"


    "No you id- It''s the opposite!!!"


    "T-the opposite?!"


    "That fear we felt was completely irrational, it wasn''t the result of anything she did or said. People often twist the facts in their minds to justify their emotions. And if everyone who meets her experiences that same terror, they will misinterpret all of her actions as something that would make that fear reasonable, while ignoring any evidence to the contrary. It''s hard to believe, but now that I''ve experienced it myself, the idea of everything being a misunderstanding no longer seems as nonsensical as before."


    "B-but what about the prophecy?"


    "The prophecy? That thing was so vague that it could mean a hundred different things. You should probably just forget about it."


    The two are looking at me as if they thought that I''ve gone senile. Ugh... This is why I cannot retire, people always have a hard time thinking rationally when they experience intense emotions.


    Well, to tell the truth, I''m also the same. As much as we''d like to think that can become intelligent or wise, it all goes out the window when our emotions get the better of us. The only thing that makes me different at all is the fact that my mentor taught me how to realize when I''m having irrational thoughts. The only path to wisdom is realizing that I''m not wise.


    And speaking of my mentor, there is another reason why I wanted to come here. I heard that there are two witches in this castle.


    I need to ask them if they know what happened to the witch of the wind.

 I cannot write…

    It''s already been two months since the last time I posted a chapter. The thing is, I was going to write one two days after the last one, but I couldn''t, and I want to explain why.


    Back when I began writing I was naive enough to think that I would be able to ignore my ratings and popularity (I never expected those to be high). But as people kept pointing out the things that were wrong in what I had written (mostly Arana) and my ratings began to decline, I''m ashamed to admit that I became obsessed with ratings and with any criticism.


    The worst part is that I became very resentful of other stories when I saw them get away with stuff that I believed to be much worse than the things I was constantly being criticized for (the ''humans suck trope'' being the most prominent example). That reached its peak when I saw that a story that I honestly consider a contender for the worst I''ve ever read had a rating of 4.7. I ended up losing my cool and leaving some nasty comments that escalated into a full fight. As much as I try to forget about that incident the truth is that I''m not over it at all...


    And here''s the issue, in a site with standards as low as this one, where so many bad novels get ratings of 4.7 or even 4.8, what does it mean to have a rating of 4.5? And the truth that I''m forced to admit is that my novel is garbage, and when I try writing a chapter I''m forced to recognize that every single sentence I write is awful. I can try to tell myself that ratings don''t matter as much as I want, but that won''t change the fact that this story I''m writing is really, really bad.


    So most days I wake up thinking "TODAY is the day I''ll finally write my next chapter, I''ll just keep all negative thoughts away and focus on writing", then after writing a sentence or two I remember the fact that my novel is awful and the fact that I''m posting it in a site where 99% of stories are about justifying genocide against ''humans'' and cannot bring myself to continue, but then I think "it''s ok, TOMORROW I''ll write it for sure". That is the loop I''ve gotten trapped in several times this year, and I''ve been trapped in it for the last two months...


    Many times I thought that I could just power through it. I also thought that if I posted a rant about my most hated trope to get it out of me it would stop bothering me so much, but it didn''t work... I don''t know what to do anymore, there''s so much stuff I have planned that I still want to write about even if it''s bad, but I just can''t do it...

 Chapter 110: Rational fear

    forli


    But I don''t really know much about how to set it up, if anyone can/wants to help me I would appreciate it.


    Anyway, for now, I finally managed to finish writing this chapter, it''s really been the most difficult one yet.


    So that was the man who has been keeping the demon wasteland in check all this time. I just barely remembered to use appraisal on him before he left.


    {Race: Human, Class: Mage, Element: Wind/Water, Level: 375}


    I cannot tell for sure unless I see more of his magic, but that wind magic I felt seemed very advanced. His level is lower than Kalroth''s, and yet I get the feeling that the old man would have easily won had he needed to fight him.


    Well, he still feels weak if I compare him to Vilde.


    "Hey, Luna! I already took care of Zerana."


    "Oh, thank you Xania."


    The other day, Arana gave me some threads infused with light magic in case I needed to keep Zerana in check. Since she''s made it clear that we cannot trust her to behave, I told Xania to tie her up somewhere, she seemed strangely happy about it.


    "Hehe, you should have seen her face when the mud splashed all over her."


    "Uh... Where exactly did you tie her?"


    Xania and Zerana seem to be very close. They are always yelling at each other and never miss an opportunity for a prank.


    Before we can continue that conversation, Nera comes back running.


    "Luna! Prince Sette is almost here, you need to get ready."


    "Prince Who- Oh! The second prince of the Magnel kingdom! The one I''m supposed to meet today!"


    Fortunately, I remembered who he was just in time. Nera was about to get annoyed with me again.


    "Just make sure to behave as I taught you and you will be fine."


    "Yes, of course..."


    Nera seems to really like all of that ''proper etiquette'' stuff, but it''s just too boring to me, and I''m never able to focus on things I find boring. I cannot let her know that I got distracted by a butterfly when she was giving me that lesson earlier... Well, I''m sure I''ll be able to improvise.


    "Where is he now?"


    "Getting closer to the west gate."


    "Alright, let''s take a look."


    ''Black gate''


    I prepared some small magic circles in various hidden places. The black gates I can open with them are too tiny to be noticed but still allows me to see and hear through them.


    There are a lot of people that appear to be knights, are they bodyguards? Well, I should appraise anyone that comes here anyway, you never know when one of them will have ''witch'' as race and ''wind'' as element.


    {Race: Human, Class: Soldier, Element: Earth, Level: 112}


    {Race: Human, Class: Guardian, Element: Light, Level: 106}


    {Race: Human, Class: Warrior, Element: Earth, Level: 127}


    "Most of these people are barely above level 100, isn''t that too weak to be protecting a prince?"


    "Above level 100 is not weak, what are you talking about? The knights that used to guard me were also around that level."


    "But there are a bunch of people above 250 around here and they were really easy to beat."


    "Those are the strongest in the demon wasteland. I think that your sense of scale has gotten a bit twisted after only interacting with strong people..."


    There''s a young man dressed in expensive-looking clothes that doesn''t seem to be a knight.


    "Hey Nera, is that the prince?"


    "I''ve never seen him before, but he probably is."


    {Race: Human, Class: Bard, Element: Earth, Level: 17}


    "He''s only level 17, I thought that all mature humans were level 20 as a base even if they have never trained."


    "Yeah, I''ve never done any fighting and even I''m level 23... Maybe that''s part of the reason why everyone who''s met him has such a low opinion of him."


    "A low opinion? I wonder why that is?"


    As soon as I ask that, he turns to say something to one of his guards.


    "Ugh, we still have the stink from when we crossed the gray demon territory earlier. I guess people who play with corpses all the time wouldn''t care about hygiene."


    "Your highness, someone could hear you say that."


    "So what? The gray demons are too dumb to even know what hygiene is."


    "I''m going to rip off that nose if it bothers him so much." Xania is trying to aim a spell through that tiny gate, but Nera is holding her back.


    "You said that you were going to behave! Don''t attack our guest over something so petty!"


    "Still, the smell of fish from that time we went to the Agua kingdom was even worse. It''s no wonder that even that idiot princess took the chance to leave that dump as fast as she could."


    "Let me strangle him, just a little."


    "Didn''t you just say to not get angry over petty things?!"


    And now Xania is the one holding Nera back.


    Mmm, something is wrong, what are the odds that he would coincidentally say the precise things that would make the people that just happened to be watching at this precise time angry? I have a bad feeling about this...


    "Prince Sette, you need to be more careful. We are in a very dangerous place."


    "You don''t need to tell me to be careful, I always watch my every step wherever I go."


    *Splosh*


    And now he just stepped into a puddle just after saying that.


    "Kya!"


    Ah, that puddle was actually slime. I believe her name was Drepe, I guess that she needed to watch the visitors too, being a spy seems like a tough job.


    "What''s this?! Let me go!"


    "I-I''m trying!"


    After flailing around in a panic he got completely stuck in the slime. It looks like it might be difficult to separate them.


    "What are you all doing?! Can''t you see that I''m being attacked?!"


    "But your highness... That looks more like you are attacking her."


    "Agh! Let me go or I''ll use this ''magic torch''!"


    "No! If you set my slime on fire it''s going to-"


    *BANG*


    Woah! I wasn''t expecting it to explode. It wasn''t a strong explosion, but it still managed to send him into a nearby empty barrel. His guards are now struggling to get him unstuck while Drepe is picking up all the pieces of slime that she lost just now.


    Mmm, something feels seriously wrong with this whole situation. First, he says some stuff that makes the people listening angry at him, and then he proceeds to make a fool of himself. It''s almost as if... as if...


    "Man, that guy is a total clown." Xania finishes my thought for me.


    "That''s it! That''s why I was having such a strong bad feeling... "


    "Eh?"


    "A clown is coming this way! I need to hide before he finds me!"


    "No... Wait... Just wait a second! That''s not the type of clown I meant."


    "A clown is a clown. And from all the strange coincidences that we just witnessed, his clown factor must be particularly strong. We need to do something before it''s too late!"


    "What the hell is a ''clown factor''? And too late for what?"


    "I''m not sure, he might do something like... Release a bunch of multicolored balloons in the castle!"


    "He''s not going to do that, and who cares if he does?! Why are you so afraid of clowns anyway? You are several times stronger than that guy and all of his guards combined!"


    "Being strong is not going to help if he takes out one of those clown horns and starts honking at me..."


    "HE''S NOT GOING TO DO THAT!!!"


    This is bad, Xania doesn''t believe me and is only getting angrier the more I try to explain... I guess that it''s common for people to be in denial in the face of an impending disaster.


    "Nera, you believe me right?"


    "Uh... But I thought that you were only afraid of literal clowns, not figurative ones. I don''t think that this is such a big deal..."


    "Not a big deal?! What if he has one of those fake flowers that splash water at people?!"


    "He doesn''t have anything like that! Stop being stupid already!!!"


    Now even Nera is getting mad... There''s no other choice, I need to show them some solid proof.


    I do not have any pies in my storage... I guess a cream puff will have to do. Still, a pie would work better. I should see about getting a few cream pies after this, you know, for emergencies.


    "Nera, let''s do a test. Take this and throw it against that wall."


    "How many cream puffs do you have to be willing to waste them like this?"


    Ugh... I wouldn''t be asking her to do this if I had a choice... This is a necessary sacrifice.


    "Just throw it, please."


    "Ok, whatever."


    The moment Nera throws the cream puff, something strange happens. First, her aim slips, and the pastry''s trajectory leads it to the door instead of the wall, and then...


    "Why is there so much noise in here? What is goi-"


    ...the prince opens the door to our room and gets his face covered in cream.


    "..."


    "..."


    We stare at each other for a moment, and then...


    "AAAAAAH!!!"


    "AAAAAAAAAAAH!!!"


    *Bang*


    Fortunately, he decided to retreat and closed the door with a slam.


    "Luna... You are way too big to hide behind me."


    "You''re right, I should hide behind Xania next time, she''s a bit taller."


    "I don''t think she''s tall enough either, and that''s not really the problem here."


    "Yes, now that you have seen how strong his clown factor is, do you realize what the problem is?"


    "Eh... I don''t know..."


    "Didn''t you feel as if there was a force that got you to throw the cream puff at his face?"


    "Now that you mention it..."


    "Hey, tell the truth, you actually aimed for the door, right?"


    "I didn''t, and even if I did, what are the odds that he would open the door at that precise moment?"


    "S-so you think that he really has a ''clown factor'' that caused all of this?"


    "N-no, there''s no way..."


    Xania and Nera are starting to sound a bit nervous.


    "No, that''s impossible! It makes no sense! It must have been all just a coincidence!"


    "That''s right! It was a coincidence after all!"


    Oh, they still refuse to accept the truth, I don''t know what else I can do to convince them.


    Xania scratches her head. "With all of this nonsense, I forgot that I was supposed to be mad at him. Why would they send someone like that as a diplomat? You were supposed to be something like royalty, right? Do you have any ideas?"


    "What do you mean ''something like''... I don''t know what those people are thinking. Considering his personality and Luna''s reputation, I don''t know how they can be expecting him to make it out of here alive... Maybe they thought that this visit was too dangerous and decided to send the least useful member of their royalty. Or perhaps they just want to get rid of him and let Luna be the one responsible. But the implications of that would be pretty bad for us, if they are not afraid of angering her they must be thinking that she''s planning to attack them anyway..."


    "Woah! Do you really think that his own family would want to kill him?!"


    "Ah! No! No! I don''t really know them after all! I was just doing some baseless speculation, I''m not accusing anyone of anything!"


    Even if it was just a guess, she might not be far off the mark. At least it seems likely that his family does not appreciate him very much.


    "I see... I was wrong."


    "Eh?"


    "I was also rejected by my family because of some traits I didn''t choose to have, and I of all people should know better than to judge someone because of a bad first impression. Nobody should be rejected so completely, even if they are a clown!"


    "Luna..."


    "Well, you have to admit that it was a really bad first impression."


    "Even so I cannot accept it... I cannot accept that they would send him to die just because everyone is afraid of him!"


    ""YOU ARE THE ONLY ONE THAT''S AFRAID OF HIM!!!""


    Amazing! They both said the exact same thing at the exact same time without any practice.


    "So, you say that the people from his country would not expect him to come back alive because of my reputation? Which means that, if he does, they will realize that my reputation must be wrong!"


    "Well, not necessarily."


    So I have to conquer my fears to prove that I should not be feared either...


    Well, all I have to do is make sure that the prince safely completes his visit to the demon wasteland and then goes back home unharmed. How difficult could that be?


    forli


    Now I''m finally using it, but I don''t even know if there''s anyone who wanted the clown thing to come back. And this chapter ended up also feeling forced no matter how I tried to write it.


    And there''s also the fact that I''m introducing an ''annoying'' character, a type that is written so poorly in so many stories and I personally dislike. I don''t know if I was able to write it in a good way, it''s bad when the readers are the ones who get annoyed, and it would be particularly bad for this character since I''m planning to do some other stuff with him.


    There was also the part where one group of people was watching another group and I had so much trouble trying to make it clear what was going on without pointing out who was saying every single sentence.


    Anyway, at least this is done now, sorry for everything.

 Chapter 111: Ghost rose

    -Arana-


    "I feel like I''m losing my popularity."


    The first visit from royalty from a neighboring country is such an important event, so why is it that I''m not with Luna right now? There''s no denying it anymore, Nera has taken my place as Luna''s closest friend... I need to do something about this.


    "Hey, Longleg, what do you think I should do to get closer to Luna again?"


    "..."


    "No, I don''t think that she''d want a caterpillar, she prefers eating sweet things."


    "..."


    "I can''t even do that, I only have two legs."


    Ah... I don''t think that Longleg will be able to help me. It''s unfortunate, but spiders don''t seem to be very good at being popular with most people. I need to ask someone else.


    "Hey, Ranna, do you have a moment for your dear sister?"


    "Ranna is not doing anything important right now."


    "Say, do you know what Luna is doing right now?"


    "Ranna has been busy, Ranna has not been paying attention to anything."


    "Ok, why are you talking about yourself in the third person?"


    "Small and expressionless girls are supposed to be cuter when they talk in the third person, Ranna is trying to increase her popularity. Is it working?"


    "No, it''s actually a bit off-putting."


    "Oh, well, then I''ll stop."


    I guess she''s not good at this either.


    "Anyway, have you noticed that Nera seems to have taken my place lately?"


    "Yes, that''s normal."


    "Normal?"


    "Nera''s status as the most normal person among Luna''s friends makes her the best choice to play the straight man to her antics. It''s just natural that she would be the one that ends up spending the most time with her."


    "But I''m also a great comedic foil for her! You know, I can make fun of all the silly things she does or play pranks on her."


    "The problem is that Luna is far too likable. Having someone else be annoyed at her nonsense is clearly better than having her be the one annoyed at your nonsense."


    "N-no, it can''t be..."


    So that''s it, I have been replaced by Nera.


    I thought that she would leave as soon as she got the chance to go back to her home, but it seems like she was here to stay. And as long as she''s here there''s no way that I''ll get my position back... If only something could happen that would force her to leave. Like, for example, there are some accidents that could happen that might-


    "You''re thinking something dangerous aren''t you."


    "I wasn''t thinking anything dangerous."


    "But you were about to."


    "Come on, there''s no way that I would do something bad just to get back my popularity."


    "..."


    "I''m your sister, you know me!"


    "Yes, I know you."


    To think that my younger sister would trust me so little, I''m hurt.


    "Ugh... It''s not even just Nera. She now has Xania for when she needs someone that''s not as nice as her, Nera''s maid is in charge of cooking, and that devil guy she met is apparently a better mentor than I am. What is there even left for me to do?!"


    "You still make her clothes."


    "I guess..."


    Well, I''m indeed the only one that can make clothes capable of containing Luna''s body, when she tries to wear something else it always tears off, particularly around the chest area.


    And that is why none of those usurpers can get as close to Luna as I am. They don''t know the softness of her skin when I take her measurements, or what it feels like to know that the clothes I made are caressing every inch of-


    "Now you''re thinking something perverted."


    "When did you become a mind reader?"


    "I''m only reading your face."


    Sometimes I get the feeling that Ranna doesn''t really respect me as an older sister.


    "Excuse me, could you give me a moment of your time?"


    Ah, an interruption, just in time.


    Oh, it''s that old man that met with Luna earlier. I believe that he used to be a disciple of Cureva, so I''m not sure if I can trust him. Granted, it was a previous incarnation of Cureva, but still...


    "I imagine that a conversation between two witches must be a serious issue. I apologize if I''m interrupting something important."


    "We were discussing the political consequences that this meeting could have on the rest of the continent. But I suppose that we can also make some time for you."


    "..." For a moment, it looked like Ranna was about to say something.


    "In that case, I''ll go straight to the point. If I''m not mistaken, the two of you have cut ties with the rest of the six witches and are now hostile to them. I wanted to know what that''s all about."


    "What''s that about? It''s about the witch of darkness, our supposed leader, being an arrogant idiot that betrayed our principles and is allowing herself to be manipulated by the witch of wind, your supposed former mentor, who is a complete psychopath in this incarnation."


    "I see... That''s more or less what I feared. When I saw her recently pretending to be the ''goddess of wind'' I could tell that she wasn''t planning anything good."


    "Didn''t you help her do that? By making it look like she had been able to override your spell."


    "Oh, no. That is actually the thing that concerns me the most... She took control of my spell by erasing its ''will''. With what I believe must have been void magic."


    I had a few guesses for what he was going to say but this nonsense was not one of them.


    "What are you talking about? There''s no such thing as void magic, it doesn''t even make sense as a concept."


    "Indeed. Magic is fundamentally about manipulating mana with willpower to create a spell, and each element contains a different type of will. Void mana is defined as not carrying any will from a living being, so ''void magic'' seems like a contradiction. And yet, I clearly sensed her cast a spell with void mana."


    "That''s really hard to believe. If a void spell existed, it would be something that killed its caster."


    "I understand, I wouldn''t believe it either if I had not been there myself."


    "Ugh... We also found out recently that Cureva had been messing with void demons..."


    "But that was not the first time I''ve heard about a ''goddess of wind''. Have you heard about the ''ghost roses'' that recently appeared in the Magnel kingdom?"


    "I believe that''s the name of some drug? But what does that have to do with anything?"


    "A drug... That''s not too far off the mark. People who are stabbed by its thorns have their emotions dulled and stop caring about other people, those who have social anxiety in particular tend to become addicted. However, this is far from a normal drug, this rose contains void mana, which should never happen in nature."


    "Void mana again?"


    The old man hands me a transparent box he had in the pocket of his tunic. Inside, there''s a white rose, and by white I mean the entire thing is white, not just the petals. It''s even partially transparent, no wonder people call it a ghost rose.


    "They first appeared in the country 10 years ago. At the time there were rumors of a beautiful and kind young girl that handed over white roses that could help to ease people''s suffering, her otherwordly presence caused her to start being called ''the goddess of wind''.


    When the side effects became apparent, those roses were banned in the country, but very little is being done to enforce that ban. After all, the king and queen were among the first to become addicted."


    "Wait, stop there. First void mana spreading around a country and now you tell me that the king is also compromised? The six witches are supposed to keep watch for things like that! How is it possible that I haven''t heard anything about this until-


    Wait, Ranna, who was the one in charge of watching over the Magnel kingdom?"


    "That would be... Cureva and her subordinates."


    It can''t be...


    "I see, it appears that my suspicions were correct. Whatever it is that happened to the witch of wind, the demons of the void seem to be closely related to her."


    Ugh... I''ve been obsessed with Cureva for so many years, how am I only finding out about all of this void stuff now?


    All this time I felt satisfied by thinking that Cureva was just evil and didn''t feel the need to ask for details. That might have been a mistake.


    "And what exactly are the side effects?"


    "Various changes in behavior. The victims tend to isolate themselves and become unable to have normal relationships with other people... I''ve known the king ever since he was a child, he used to be a kind-hearted man who loved his family. But ever since he started using those flowers, he began to see his own children as nothing more than political tools. He even seems to consider his second son to be completely useless, I suspect that he sent him here precisely because he sees him as the most disposable one."


    "Just being stabbed by these thorns can do all of that? It seems hard to believe."


    I take a closer look at the ghost rose, and feel something wrap around my neck.


    <You. It was you!>


    W-what''s going on? The rose seems to have been replaced by something... something enormous... I''m not able to perceive it properly, but whatever it is, I''m being strangled by it! I can feel many small thorns piercing my neck.


    <You are the one who took her away from me!>


    That voice sounds like it should be angry but I feel no emotion in it. When I try to speak, no sound comes out.


    <Soon she will be mine again.>


    The rose returns to its regular form and everything goes back to normal. I feel around my neck with my hands but I don''t find any of the wounds that I was expecting.


    "Arana, are you alright?" Ranna looks at me with concern and the old man looks just as confused.


    "Didn''t you see that thing just now? Didn''t you hear that voice?"


    "What are you talking about? You just started touching your neck out of nowhere."


    So that wasn''t real? No, there was definitely some powerful entity just here a moment ago. But I''m the only one who noticed? What was that about?


    -Luna-


    "Alright, I''m ready. I have obtained the weapons I need to face a clown."


    "Weapons? All you''ve done is ask Mari for some cream pies." It seems like Nera doesn''t really understand the true power of her maid.


    "A thrown pie is a clown''s greatest weakness, now I''m ready to fight back if something goes wrong."


    "Then why are you eating one of them just now?"


    "Yf nffd o gwep" Uh, I shouldn''t speak with my mouth full. "I need to get some energy first."


    "You know, you''ve been eating a lot of sweets ever since Mari joined our group. I don''t understand how you''re not getting fat."


    When she hears Nera say that, Xania takes a closer look at my chest.


    "Now that you mention it... Is it just me or did her boobs get bigger recently?"


    "Uh, I think you might be right."


    "S-stop staring at me like that! Sweets are needed to fuel powerful magic, that''s why I won''t get fat no matter how many I eat."


    "I don''t think that''s true."


    "It''s true for me."


    They don''t seem to be buying it, but since I''m the best mage in here, I should always be right about these things by default.


    "Anyway... Now that you got what you wanted, are you ready to go and talk with the prince?"


    "No, but I guess I don''t have I choice..."


    I cannot delay it any longer, it''s finally time to go and face my most difficult battle so far.


    forli


    I said last time that I might make a discord for the story but I''m not sure if anyone is really interested... I think I''ll make a poll.