Chapter 319: Isn't This Macht? (Patreon)

Water seeped out through cracks in the rock and slid down the rough, uneven wall. In the end it dropped to the floor and shattered into a few glittering droplets.

Aura stared at the rust-eaten iron bars, expressionless and silent.

The bed under her backside was still a slab of cold stone. There wasn't even any bedding, just a pitifully thin straw mat.

"Why is this Empire prison as bad as the one in Graf Granat's Domain? Where's the great Empire's pride?"

This wasn't Aura's first time in a human prison. She picked up the lunch that had been shoved in not long ago.

On an iron tray sat a ceramic cup of clear water and a few square lumps that looked like bricks. Bread? Probably bread. The only thing that caught Aura's attention was the pale purple dried fruit.

The fare was a little better than Granat's.

Crunch.

It was like gnawing on a brick.

Aura grabbed a handful of the dried fruit and tossed it into her mouth.

"Bleh!"

Sour and bitter, without a trace of sweetness.

She took back her earlier assessment.

What Aura didn't know was that this secret-recipe hard bread and dried fruit was a mixed field ration currently in fashion across the Northern. It tasted awful, naturally, but it was nutritious enough.

Thud.

She flopped onto her side on the stone bed, crunching away at the bread in her hand like a machine.

Before long, Aura heard the cell door open.

She sat bolt upright, her pale purple eyes fixed on the corridor, where footsteps kept coming.

An acquaintance had arrived.

Aura hurriedly put down the bread and gulped two mouthfuls of water. She sat primly on the edge of the bed and composed her expression.

A tall Demon Race member passed her cell, led by two fully armed knights. He wore a dark green formal coat with a gold sash and a steel-blue cape draped over his shoulders.

"Well, well. Isn't that Macht? Haven't seen you in a while. How did you end up like this?"

Macht's wrists were cuffed. At her provocative words he stopped dead, then slowly turned his gaze toward the cell beside him.

The movement made both knights draw their swords warily. If Macht so much as twitched, they would cut him down.

"I won't do anything. I just have one request. Could you put me in the same cell as her? I'd like to catch up with an old friend."

The Greater Demon, who hadn't said a word the whole way, ground out his first sentence through clenched teeth.

The moment Macht said it, Aura's mocking look collapsed.

"Oh my, Macht. I'm just surprised that you, a lord no less, ended up in a shabby dump like this."

Aura had no wish to share a cell with Macht. She didn't want to fall asleep and wake up as a golden statue.

The two guards didn't lock the two Greater Demons together. Instead they put the suddenly quiet Macht in the cell across from Aura's.

Once the footsteps in the corridor had faded completely, Aura struck up a conversation with Macht across the way.

"How did you let the Empire catch you so meekly?"

Macht sat on the edge of the stone bed with his eyes on the wall, showing Aura only his profile. He spoke slowly.

"It's only temporary. Once my name is cleared, I'll walk out of here."

The candlelight flickered. The two Demon Race members fell silent for a while.

Aura's voice echoed through the dungeon once more.

"Macht, have you ever met someone who uses all kinds of strange magic, three spells at a time? Someone who can change his appearance and voice at will?"

"Grausam the Miracle? He's the only one who can change his appearance."

Macht answered almost before she finished.

Grausam was younger, but both were among the Seven Sages of Destruction, and his magic was simply too eerie. Macht held him in a certain awe.

"I don't think it was Grausam. I fought him myself. In both Mana capacity and the sheer trouble of his magic, this one was stronger than Grausam."

Aura's earnestness made Macht shift where he sat.

"You're serious?"

"My excellent subordinates and I together couldn't hold that guy."

"I never expected you to value your subordinates. You weren't like that before. To you, they were expendable."

"Spare me. Can you think of anyone or not?"

"Heh, sounds interesting. The old-timers older than me are either dead, or… the only one I can think of is Qual."

"It can't be him."

The battle of that day was still vivid in Aura's mind. That man hadn't used his full strength. From start to finish, he had been toying with her.

Apart from Nanoda and the one who had subdued her, it was the first time Aura had felt so insulted.

"I'm bored anyway. Tell me about him, Aura. This guy."

Macht's voice drifted over from the cell opposite.

*

"Damn it! Why can't we get out?!"

"It's barrier magic! Aaaaagh!"

Outside Gaderia's north gate, fallen soldiers and bloodstains lined the road, stretching on like an endless river.

And at the end of that river…

"Haaah~ When was the last time I nearly ran out of Mana?"

"Devil…"

The last mage's Defensive Magic was punched through by a Demon Race arm. Defenseless, the mage couldn't even loose an attack spell before shadow wrung his head off.

The slaughter lasted a mere three hours.

An army of ten thousand, and not one survivor.

It was as if a red rain had fallen. Scarlet spots dotted the ground. Fallen horses twitched where they lay, and torn bodies in every kind of ruin were scattered everywhere.

The impostor stood amid the mountain of corpses and sea of blood, arms hanging, and slowly exhaled a foul breath.

A scene of carnage. An asura's slaughterhouse.

The devil slowly raised his blood-soaked hands and pressed them to his forehead. They slid down that false face, then dropped heavily.

The scribbled-over cheeks began to squirm, and a voice came slowly.

"I had no choice. I wanted to see a good show too, but… I don't want to die. Ha ha ha."

Writhing shadows rose and swallowed the laughter. When they fell and scattered, the figure had vanished from the spot.

The devil had left the mortal world.

On the city wall, the black cocoons of shadow burst open all at once. The people inside, as if they'd just been dragged from drowning, collapsed to their knees, gasping for air.

Was this bad luck or good?

Schräg clutched his wound and dragged himself against the wall. When he saw the scene below, even a Demon Race member who had been through his share of battlefields stared wide-eyed.

"What… happened here?"

The Mana lingering on the battlefield shook him to the core.