Living as a wizard in Einroguard, a grand school of magic hidden high in the mountains, I thought I’d seen everything. But today was different. I never expected to find a demon, right here in a dusty corner of the library, begging for help.
The demon, small and hunched with leathery wings, looked up at me with wide, pleading eyes. ‘Is it because I look scary?’ I wondered to myself.
“-I’m not crazy!” the demon hissed, his voice trembling slightly. “Aren’t you from the Wodanaz family? Everyone knows they are experts with demons.”
“Shhh!” Lee Han quickly put his hand over the demon’s mouth, silencing him. “What are you talking about?” he whispered, glancing nervously around the quiet library. He didn’t want anyone to overhear this strange conversation.
Demons, beings from another dimension, had senses humans couldn’t even imagine. Their sense of smell was especially strange. It allowed them to see things hidden from human eyes, like Lee Han’s true family bloodline, even when he used magic to change his appearance.
Despite being silenced, the demon seemed desperate, pleading earnestly.
“-Please, help me. I am Orlauch, the duel banner bearer and jester of His Excellency, Lord Pride.”
Usually, demons didn’t reveal their positions so easily.
Information was the strongest weapon for humans dealing with demons.
Knowing what kind of demon one was facing allowed a wizard to exploit its weaknesses. It was clear the demon was truly desperate.
‘How peculiar.’
“The black mages here aren’t that threatening, though.”
“-Black mages? That’s not what I fear right now!”
Orlauch exclaimed as if he were hearing the most absurd thing.
Orlauch wasn’t a weak demon who would be frightened by a few mages. Wasn’t he the honorable duel banner bearer of Lord Pride?
“That’s not what you fear? You little… Are you looking down on Einroguard’s Black Magic Department?”
“-N-No, that’s not it!”
Lee Han’s outburst made the demon quickly apologize.
There weren’t many places he could turn to for help right now.
“-What I fear is an angel.”
“!”
Lee Han was greatly surprised by the name of the being he least expected.
An angel?
In fact, angels were rare to encounter in the Empire. It was the opposite of demons, who were relatively easy to find (so common in some families that they were practically as abundant as pebbles on the road).
The reason lay in the tendencies of the two dimensional races.
Demons were deeply interested in the souls of humans and always sought opportunities to descend into the Empire.
In comparison, angels had no interest in other dimensional races and were solely focused on the rules and laws they had set for themselves.
This reclusive race of heavenly beings was truly rare to meet.
It wasn’t easy for a wizard to make a contract, or even visit them. How could one contact those who desired nothing?
Therefore, the Empire’s wizards wisely targeted demons. The desire-filled demons couldn’t avoid contracts with wizards, no matter how much they suffered.
But to hear the name of such a race here…
“Angels rarely clash with other races, though? What on earth did you do?”
He wondered if he had invaded their base and committed a massacre.
But Orlauch denied it.
“-Angels wouldn’t come out of their dimension and chase me for just that.”
“…I see.”
Lee Han shuddered at the unexpectedly astonishing ecology of angels.
Even if one invaded their base and committed a massacre, they wouldn’t bother chasing if you just fled their territory.
Orlauch hurriedly explained what had happened.
“-Under His Excellency’s orders, I was searching for the most beautiful cloth in this land of humans. But at some point, I realized someone was chasing me. It was an angel.”
Although he was a fairly powerful demon, Orlauch wasn’t confident in combat.
In comparison, the angel specialized in combat and chased him relentlessly, giving him no rest.
Cornered, Orlauch eventually entered an underground ruin and hid himself in an ancient artifact.
Fortunately, the angel didn’t seem to be able to track him there, but…
“Ah, so that’s why you ended up being sold off like this.”
“-That’s not important. If the black mages take me out, the angel will resume the chase!”
The demon trembled.
He had planned to coax the owner of this mansion and hide well for a while, but if the black mages forcibly took him out, things would be different.
If the angel found him in the process…
“-If you help me, I will work hard for the usual time. Please, help me!”
‘Huh?’
Lee Han, listening to the story, felt a sense of doubt.
Come to think of it, shouldn’t this negotiation be with the black mages, not him?
If he offered to serve diligently as a slave, the black mages would have agreed to the negotiation…
“But why did you talk to me? There were other black mages around.”
“-Aren’t you a member of the Wodanaz family?”
Orlauch wondered why a wizard who inherited the Wodanaz family’s bloodline would ask such a question.
There were wizards who were good at handling demons. Countless wizards had failed trying to manipulate demons badly.
In that regard, the Wodanaz family was one of the most experienced and specialized families in the Empire when it came to handling demons.
Orlauch himself had even served under the family in the distant past.
Naturally, from a demon’s perspective, it was a much better choice to entrust his life to a trustworthy demon expert master than to reveal his weaknesses to unheard-of black mages.
If he had to live as a servant anyway, wouldn’t a trustworthy master be better than trusting black mages he had never met?
“…You’ve worked for the family before?”
“-Haven’t you seen my true name in the family’s old demon registry?”
“How am I supposed to remember every single name in such a thick registry!”
Lee Han got angry at the demon for no reason. Orlauch shrank back and quickly lowered his head.
After quickly stopping his seniors’ work, Lee Han called Dirette and explained the situation.
“Dirette… Sir. Something unexpected has happened.”
“?”
As he quickly explained the story he heard from the demon, Dirette’s face turned serious.
An angel was involved in this story, unexpectedly.
“But that’s fascinating.”
“You mean the angel?”
“Yes. The angel, but also the fact that the demon is telling the story in such detail. That’s not common.”
Demons usually hid such situations, as information could be a weakness.
Even if an angel was chasing him, he would have kept his mouth shut rather than revealing additional weaknesses to a stranger.
Unless he had faith in the other party, or acknowledged them to some extent…
“That’s right. He said he was a subordinate of Lord Pride, didn’t he? Since you’ve faced Lord Pride before, maybe he recognized you?”
Dirette offered a plausible guess.
Lee Han had blocked the descending Lord Pride, albeit with the power of the Spirit King.
Since the Duke himself was impressed by his skills, it wouldn’t be strange if his subordinates had heard about Lee Han.
“Indeed. A truly insightful guess.”
Lee Han answered shamelessly.
He really didn’t want to say that the demon had come to him because he had been used by the Wodanaz family before.
“But hasn’t quite a bit of time passed? Could the angel still be tracking him?”
“If he was tracking him even before he was trapped in the artifact, there’s a high chance he’s still tracking him now.”
Dirette answered firmly.
One or two hundred years wasn’t a long time for a race like angels. There was a very high possibility that he was still chasing the demon.
“……”
Lee Han was horrified by the unexpected answer. Meanwhile, Dirette gathered the students and explained the situation.
“This demon seems to have been marked by an angel for pursuit. If we carelessly bring him out, we might have to face an angel.”
“An angel?!”
Kohlti was startled. The other students were just as surprised.
An unexpected name had suddenly popped up.
“Shall we search the area?”
“It’ll be hard to detect. Besides, magic to deal with angels is rare.”
There was a lot of anti-demon magic in the Empire, but magic to deal with angels was rare.
Dirette hadn’t learned any magic to track angels either. What would he use it for?
“But it’s really surprising that the demon is telling us the details like this.”
“He must have quickly submitted after seeing Nago-nim’s strength.”
Kohlti explained as if he were proud instead.
If they had come alone, the demon might have resisted instead of submitting, and things could have escalated.
If the angel sensed the conflict and came to the mansion, things would get out of hand from that point on.
Thanks to Stedal Nago, who made the demon submit with his mere presence and reveal the secrets he was hiding, the task became easier.
“Isn’t that right, Nago-nim?”
“Too much talk.”
“Y-Yes, sir!”
Kohlti shut his mouth, but the other students’ thoughts weren’t much different.
Dirette knew the circumstances (though it was a misunderstanding), but from the students’ perspective, who didn’t know the circumstances, it was incredibly surprising.
With no conflict or confrontation, he made the demon submit with his mere presence and reveal the secrets he was hiding.
They had never heard of such a thing. He seemed to be no ordinary combat mage.
“Hmm. Yukbertire has related magic, but sending a letter and having her come would take too long…”
“She’s in the capital.”
“…Why is she in the capital?!”
Dirette exclaimed in shock at his junior, no, Stedal’s words.
The other students were startled.
Was it okay to treat that fearsome combat mage so casually?
“Ah, no. Ahem. Why is she in the capital?”
Realizing his mistake, Dirette cleared his throat. Kohlti apologized directly on behalf of his rude friend.
“I apologize. Dirette isn’t usually like this.”
“…It doesn’t matter, just be quiet.”
Annoyed, Dirette slapped the combat mage on the back and signaled him to follow.
Once they were alone, Dirette asked in a serious voice.
“Why is Yukbertire in the capital?”
“That’s what I’m saying.”
Lee Han said, watching Dirette’s reaction.
It was easy to snitch, but he was worried that the blame would fall on him.
In fact, he could have done it moderately, but he wanted to see Professor Verdus walking on all fours, so he participated too deeply.
“What do you mean, ‘That’s what I’m saying’? She must have chased you!”
“!”
Lee Han was surprised to realize that his inner thoughts had been exposed.
“How did you know?”
“How? It’s obvious if she came to the capital with her personality.”
“I’m sorry.”
“Why are you sorry? She’s the one who should be sorry for chasing you all the way here. I thought she was reflecting a bit…”
‘Phew.’
Lee Han sighed in relief.
It seemed he hadn’t noticed that he had volunteered because of Professor Verdus’s quadrupedal walk.
If he had said that, he might have been treated the same way as Yukbertire.
“…If she’s in the capital, it’ll be easy to call her.”
Dirette, who had been grumbling constantly, barely regained his composure and muttered.
He wanted to hit his friend on the back of the head, but he had to prioritize the immediate task.
“Shall I call her?”
“No. Let’s just borrow the artifact by sending a paper bird. I feel like we’ll fight if we see each other’s faces.”
Yukbertire put the celestial detection artifact and the magic tome in her bag and moved her feet.
Dirette respected her busy schedule and asked her to send only the artifact, but Yukbertire showed a generosity that she rarely showed only to those she acknowledged.
She was going to cast the magic herself.
This consideration, which even took into account the possibility of Dirette making a mistake, was one of the best in Einroguard.
Yukbertire thought so in her mind.
“What? Did she come in person?”
“!”
Yukbertire paused as an unfamiliar mage standing in front of the gate spoke to her.
This mage, who exuded a fierce aura, seemed to specialize in magical combat, with no gaps visible in his entire body. Yukbertire was slightly intimidated.
“Who are you?”
“None of your business. Go inside.”
“…!”
How rude, this mage!