Just a few minutes ago—

“…”

In a small storage room somewhere, she suddenly snapped back to herself.

“…………………?”

Like a delinquent student jolted awake by the teacher’s roar, she shuddered hard. Her muddled mind snapped into focus—no, not really focus. She still felt like she was wrapped in fog. Waves of haze and dizziness kept crashing in, and she had to pinch herself viciously just to barely stay conscious.

Where… am I?

What happened?

She tried to remember, but her memories were covered in thick mist. Nothing would come into focus; her head was a complete mess.

And then—

“—Nngh!”

A sudden, stabbing headache made her clutch her head in agony. It hurt. It hurt. It hurt so much. This had to be what it felt like to have your skull slowly chiseled open. It was unbearable.

Deep breaths—deep breaths—deep breaths—calm down—then think, what happened—

Her father, lying on the floor, chest split open, dead.

Anhans, lying in a pool of blood, chest split open, dead.

“Aaaaaarrrrrghhhhhhhh!!!”

The only things that came to mind first were painful memories. She couldn’t stop the scream that tore out of her. Right. Her father was dead. The person she liked was dead. What was she even doing here?

Go back. Just go back first. Why was she here? What had happened? She had to find someone and ask. The headache had to just be temporary!

But the pain only grew worse.

——————————————

Under the five’s shocked gazes, Ellen staggered back into the main hall. Cold sweat poured down her forehead; she looked seriously bad.

“You guys… so you really are still here… Tell me… what on earth…”

“Don’t come any closer!!!!!!!”

York instantly stumbled back a few steps like he’d seen a ghost. At the same time he yanked several magic scrolls from his pocket and wedged them between his fingers. Nerlis quickly ducked behind a big chunk of rubble and released several flying insects. Liliana and Nia rolled awkwardly into a corner by the wall. Chloe snapped out of it like waking from a dream and started weaving a spell in a panic.

“Huh? You guys… wh—”

“I said don’t come any closer!”

York bellowed. At the same time, Chloe fired a volley of ice spikes at Ellen. Ellen barely managed to swing her sword and knock them aside, but in her current state she couldn’t fight at all. The impact sent her crashing onto her backside, gasping for air.

“You… you guys are insane! Why would you—”

“Why? Why don’t you tell us why! Why’d you rather butcher your own companions just to get the Great Secret Treasure? You’ve already collected the hearts of three family heads and it’s still not enough? You couldn’t just take the treasure and leave quietly and spare us? Why do you have to show yourself in front of us again! Are you that set on wiping us out!?”

“…Huh? Huh? N-no, what are you even—nngh!”

The headache cut Ellen’s words off. She grabbed her head again, groaning in agony.

“Drop the act already. At this point, what else are you trying to pull!”

“I… ngh… I… seriously have no idea… what you’re talking about! And… why is it only you guys…? Where are Molly and Lux? Where… did they… nngh! Aaaargh!!!”

“…?”

“York, wait a sec. She’s acting really weird.”

“Yeah…”

All five of them now noticed just how wrong Ellen’s condition was. The way she writhed in pain didn’t look like an act, and she really did seem to know nothing.

“That’s strange…”

Chloe slowly walked up beside York and whispered, “Her mana is all over the place. It’s fluctuating wildly. You can’t fake that…”

You can’t fake that.

In other words… Ellen wasn’t lying. She really didn’t know anything?

But just a few minutes ago, she’d clearly killed Molly and indirectly gotten Lux killed. Her eyes then had been perfectly clear—York was sure he hadn’t imagined it.

So was that person not Ellen at all? Was it the killer in disguise? Could the killer transform into anyone?

“What the—”

Gulp.

The girl swallowed hard. After struggling with herself for a long time, she finally made a desperate decision, one that would definitely destroy everything she’d built up until now.

“I know…”

Liliana slowly raised her hand.

She was trembling from head to toe, her face even paler than the other four. Her expression and voice both carried a kind of “to hell with it all” despair.

“Liliana, you mean…”

“Yeah… I think… I can’t keep hiding it.”

As she spoke, she cast a glance at Nerlis for some reason.

“Actually, I figured out a while ago how the killer did it, but… I… I didn’t dare say anything… But it’s come to this already…”

She’d known for a while how the killer pulled it off!?

“Everything… is in this book.”

Liliana slowly lifted her blouse. Under the silky fabric trimmed with fine lace, around the area of her lower abdomen,

there was a small booklet tucked into a hidden inner pocket.

——————————————

“Hhss… ha… nngh… it hurts, it hurts, it hurts!”

Ellen lay by the wall, rolling over and over, clutching her head and groaning nonstop. Chloe fussed over her anxiously while trying to figure out what was causing her so much pain. York and Nerlis were poring over the little booklet.

The booklet had a brown cover, scarred with many scratches. The pages inside had gone yellow with age. It was clearly very old. The script used seemed to be an early form of the common tongue. Hard to read, but not unreadable.

The two flipped through the pages, their eyes widening more and more. Even York, who didn’t know that much about magic, could tell just how forbidden this thing was.

“‘Astroth’… who’s that supposed to be?” York lightly traced the name carved on the inside of the cover.

“I’ve seen him mentioned in chronicles and the like.” Nerlis frowned slightly. “Astroth was a ‘Demon King’ who lived about four hundred years ago.”

“Demon King!?”

York nearly threw the booklet away. A Demon King. A Demon King’s relic. Who knew what kind of danger might be hidden in it!

Above high-class magicians was a whole new realm: Sorcerers. True Sorcerers were worlds apart from mere magicians—a qualitative evolution. Above Sorcerers were Great Sorcerers, who were already among the highest beings in this world. Only the true giants among Great Sorcerers, the standouts even among the elite, would be granted the title of “Sage.”

On the Mystic Warrior side, Battle Spirits corresponded to Sorcerers, and Great Battle Spirits to Great Sorcerers. The standouts among Great Battle Spirits were given the title of Battle Emperor. Battle Emperors and Sages alike were the absolute top-class powerhouses of this world—Marae.

But not every powerhouse was respected.

“Sage” and “Battle Emperor” were honorifics, titles given to those admired and revered by countless people. Yet the world also had people who were unbelievably strong but feared by all—maybe because they were cruel by nature, maybe because they toyed with forbidden arts, maybe because they’d committed too many atrocities… all kinds of reasons.

For those “who clearly possessed strength or achievements enough to rank as Sages, but were widely acknowledged as a disaster upon the world,” there was a specific title—“Demon King.”

“I remember, too…” Hearing this, Chloe, who was tending to Ellen, couldn’t help chiming in. “Records say Astroth was first praised by the masses as the ‘Sage of Medicine.’ He was the research type, not very good in a fight, but he made many major contributions to potionology at the time.”

“Then why did he…”

“Later, near the end of his life, his thinking apparently grew more and more extreme. He became obsessed with forbidden experiments, using tens of thousands of innocents as test subjects… In the end his Sage title was stripped, and he was branded a Demon King.”

“…”

York’s hands shook as he held the booklet. If this really was the genuine work of that medical Demon King, then the knowledge inside would be priceless.

But—

“It probably isn’t his original work…”

Liliana muttered.

“I found this book by accident in an old storeroom at home. At first I also thought it was the Demon King’s original, so…”

“So?”

“S-So of course I studied it carefully! Is that really my fault? I’m a magic user, after all. How could I not be curious about a Demon King’s research? But, but… ugh…”

Forcing herself to push down her excitement, Liliana let out a long sigh.

“I did a bunch of secret cross-checking and found out it’s not the original. It’s probably a copy secretly written by one of his disciples or servants. Most of the results recorded are fragmented and incomplete. Only a handful are relatively complete…”

She suddenly cut herself off.

She clenched her skirt so hard her knuckles turned white. Tears spilled down her cheeks in big drops, her lips trembling as she stared straight at—Nerlis.

“…Liliana?”

“Don’t say my name! I… I just… ngh… anyway!”

She jabbed a finger at Nerlis and screamed hoarsely, “If you want me to atone… fine! You… you’re right… If you read it, you’ll probably… no, you’ll definitely wish you could kill me! But we’re settling that after this whole mess is over! I-I-I’m not running!”