After Karelvo drove the stake into my chest, I imdiately sensed an unusual feeling, as if the stake had taken root deep within my body. Gradually, the roots started to converge towards the engraved tattoo, and it dawned on that Karelvo now had complete control over , overwriting Orvo’s spiritual art.
Perhaps satisfied that the stake was functioning correctly, Karelvo patted my face in a familiar and inappropriate manner before proceeding to stake the other demons as well. Unlike , who had a strong resistance to pain, the demons scread in agony.
“All right then. I’ll send you failures back to the front lines tomorrow. Hahahaha!”
Karelvo left with an eerie smile. What kind of judgnt led him to label us as failures? What happened to Orvo? Co to think of it, why was he here? I knew nothing, being trapped in the cage.
The prison was once again occupied by demons only, and the previously cheerful atmosphere had vanished. It was natural, as we had been staked without knowing the reason. The young demons, in particular, cried silently. The ox and horse appeared to be sulking, perhaps due to the pain they were experiencing, and had drifted off to sleep. There was no one around to lift our spirits with a song. What should I do?
“Uuu, it hurts… Hey, dad, what’s going on?”
“I don’t know. It looked like they were fighting up there, maybe so kind of internal dispute broke down between the spiritualists? That guy complained about his foolish little brother or sothing like that.”
“What’s certain is that we were just stripped of our ownership by the spiritualist from earlier. And tomorrow, we’re set to be sent back to the front lines. Everyone, get so rest to prepare for tomorrow.”
“Zald’s right. Let’s all get so sleep.”
As Tigar and Zald sumd up the situation while answering Leo’s question, the demon squad mbers began to fall asleep one after another. They seed exhausted after being staked, and it didn’t take long for all of them to start snoring.
Surrounded by the sounds of their slumber, I tried to sharpen my senses and gather so information from above, while doing my daily routine of control training. To my surprise, the presence of Orvo, who had existed until Karelvo arrived, had completely disappeared.
(Has he really passed away? No, it should be considered that he was killed. And undoubtedly, it was Karelvo who did it. To kill his own blood brother… well, I can’t say much about it since I have killed dozens, or even hundreds of my own siblings just after birth. But more than that, what happened to Mika?)
Although I had always harbored thoughts of killing Orvo soday, he died without my knowledge, leaving with a slight feeling of regret. However, my greater concern at the mont was Mika.
He had been instruntal in providing for and had been the first human to give proper food. Given his kindness and lack of harm towards , it was only natural for to worry about his well-being.
(…Found him. But he seems to be weakened considerably. I can sense a strong presence near his side and another presence, which must be Karelvo; alongside them there is also another weak presence, just like Mika’s. Am I able to hear what they’re saying?)
I closed my eyelids and sharpened my hearing to its maximum capacity. Utilizing the vibrations that my exoskeleton picked up from both of my feet, I was able to tune in to the conversation occurring above us.
“Why, why did you do it?! Master Orvo was your younger brother! How could you kill him…?!”
“There’s no ‘why’. This foolish brother of mine stole my research and refused to return the stolen materials. So, I had no choice but to kill him. That’s just the way it is. It’s the truth.”
“…By colluding with the Empire to distort the truth? By branding Master Orvo as a thief? Did you, did you hate him that much? Hating your brother who is better than you?”
“Silence!”
As Karelvo shouted in rage, a dull thudding sound and the splashing of liquid could be heard. It seed that Mika had been struck with a stick or sothing. He was hit repeatedly, over and over again.
Haa, I see now. Karelvo was apparently planning to team up with the Empire to steal Orvo’s research results. Moreover, he even claid that he was the one who discovered the thod for creating demons, and it seems he’s going to treat Orvo as a thief for stealing it. It’s such a despicable thing to do.
What’s the reward for all of this? Is he going to mass-produce demons for the Empire? Even if that’s the case, can Karelvo properly inherit the research he took from Orvo? I don’t know, but at the sa ti, there’s nothing I can do. Everything will turn out the way it will.
While I was speculating about the situation, Karelvo continued to beat Mika without getting tired. I thought Mika was going to die like this, but then I heard a snapping sound. The stick he was using must have broken. Finally, Karelvo stopped hitting him, breathing heavily as he threw the stick away. The sound of it clattering echoed throughout the void.
“Don’t get ahead of yourself, as a servant! Well, fine. You can never lecture again anyway,” said Karelvo.
“Heh… are you going to kill too?” asked Mika.
“No, not quite. You’re going to see even more hell. You will beco a demon… the last demon that Orvo created!”
As Karelvo spoke, there was a sound of tal rubbing against tal. Then Mika’s weakened presence disappeared, and so kind of spiritual art was activated.
From listening to the conversation, it was clear that Karelvo had turned Mika into a demon. And not just any demon, but the last one created by Orvo… one who would be treated as our peer.
Karelvo hated Orvo enough to kill him, so there was no way he would treat Orvo’s creations with any kind of respect. He had even said earlier that he would simply throw us into so other battlefield. Ah, I didn’t want to die.
The spiritual art had dissipated, signaling the end of Mika’s demonization. Karelvo shouted at soone outside the room to co in and take Mika away, and the sound of dragging followed. They were carrying Mika, who had fainted. The sound grew louder as they descended into the underground prison.
The demons seed to sense the approaching group, and apart from the sleeping ox and horse, they all seed to be awake. Like always, I pretended to be asleep while keeping a watchful eye on the intruders.
“Heavy… where should we put him?”
“How should I know? Just throw him in the back.”
As expected, it was Mika who was being dragged by the imperial soldiers, one on each arm. He had been knocked out by Karelvo earlier, but Orvo’s spiritual demonization art managed to heal his wounds, leaving his face unblemished.
However, his clothes were in tatters, drenched in blood, and his complexion was ghastly. He had lost one of his masters, Orvo, and been betrayed by the other, Karelvo. Mika even lost his humanity. All of this had happened to him in just one day. When Mika wakes up, he will never be the sa again. I let out a deep sigh in my heart,
As they observed the scene, one of the demons spoke up. “Hey, isn’t that…?”
“Yeah, that’s the guy who cooked us those delicious als,” another replied.
Surprisingly, the demons seed to know Mika. Their reaction wasn’t one of rejection but rather of confusion and concern. It seems like when he wakes up there will be no arguing.
The demon squad mbers remained awake for a while, but seeing Mika in his unconscious and unmoving state, they eventually decided that it would be better to sleep than to wait and see, and they drifted off again.
“Uu… is this…?”
The next morning, Mika was the first to wake up. He took stock of his situation, realizing he was in a prison surrounded by demons and sharing a cell with .
“You are…Ah right, so I beca a demon by Master Karelvo; hahaha…,” he muttered to himself with a bitter laugh.
Mika’s smile was devoid of any real joy and his exhaustion was evident as he leaned against the wall, his gaze fixed blankly on the ceiling. It was no surprise that he felt listless given that everything he had known until yesterday had been taken away from him in an instant.
I empathized with Mika, but it was hard to fathom the depth of his pain. I didn’t know what to say to comfort him, and even if I did, he would probably just reject my voice. There was nothing I could do.
However, the other demons in my cell were different. The ox and horse stirred awake and slowly made their way over to Mika. Without hesitation, they rested their faces against his cheek and rubbed their cheeks on his shoulders and arms.
“Moo moo.”
“Neigh neigh.”
“You guys are… I see. You’re the successful test subjects, demons who can take on beast form.”
Mika’s soft smile returned as he gently stroked the heads and necks of the ox and horse. Then, the two leaned in closer, as if asking for more.
The pair of ox and horse began to make noise in high spirits, causing the other demons to stir awake from their slumber. Despite feeling perplexed at the sight of Mika playing with the ox and horse inside the cell, they all sensed the impending arrival of soone heading towards the basent before they could ask any questions.
“Rise and shine, you monsters! Get up already!”
The arriving imperial soldiers opened the cell with a bored expression, then pushed us out with their haughty deanor. We couldn’t resist, so they did as they pleased.
Finally, the imperial soldiers opened the cell where I was kept. They ordered Mika to lift my cage. Without hesitation, Mika obeyed and lifted my cage, bringing the ox and horse with him as he left the cell.
The demons walked down the hallway, up the stairs to the surface, and out of the mansion. There, we found a significantly smaller carriage than the one we had ridden before. On the carriage, there were weapons used by the Lugall and Kadaha squads, as well as various sundries. What was going on?
“The transport carriage you were using has been repurposed. From today on, you’ll be using this wagon. You’ll sleep and live under the tents located in the back of the wagon. Understood? We’re departing now. Our destination is the east, on the coastline front.”
The imperial soldier spoke unilaterally, placing my cage onto the new wagon and tethering the ox and horse to it before quickly starting their march. The coastline…did that an we’re heading for the sea? My knowledge of the sea was limited to the massive puddles the invaders crossed on their large ships.
But I was going to see that sea for the first ti in my life, and that thought made feel a little excited.
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