“Pardon?”
“I asked whether that would be enough to keep you alive.”
The prince crossed his legs and looked down at the professor.
“I need a justification as well.”
“A j-justification……?”
“You handed students over to the demons and attempted to kill the Liberation Army in a suicide bombing. What would the Liberation Army and the people of the Empire think of me if I simply took you in?”
“Th-then……?”
CLINK.
Theodore threw an object down before Arthur Blanco.
It was a restraint collar coursing with divine power.
The Temple used such collars to enslave apostates who had served demons but were spared execution.
“Th-this is…….”
“If you wear it, no one will be able to question how I can trust you.”
In other words, he was ordering Arthur to become the prince’s slave.
The corners of Arthur Blanco’s eyes trembled.
He had lived as a successful professor who ruled over others like a tyrant.
“M-Mas…….”
He wanted to tell them to kill him instead.
The last remnants of his pride boiled within him.
Arthur Blanco squeezed his eyes shut and shouted.
“……Master!”
The survival instinct that had brought him this far—
The same instinct he had used to fatten himself by draining his students and assistants dry—now dragged him into slavery.
THUD.
He struck his forehead against the floor and shouted.
“Please take in this worthless slave!”
THUD. THUD.
“Please!”
Khh.
Julian closed his eyes and savored the moment.
‘Describe how it feels to enslave the enemy who murdered you.’
Was this what they called the sweetest taste imaginable?
A smile unconsciously spread across his face.
Even the pain that had made his body feel as though it would shatter after his excessive use of divine power seemed to disappear.
He gave the order.
“Put the collar on him.”
The glowing restraint was fastened around the middle-aged professor’s thick neck.
It was absurdly glittery, like a playful gift one might present to a favored concubine, and even had a bell hanging from its center.
“Ugh…….”
Theodore looked disgusted as he fastened it.
Arthur Blanco’s face turned crimson with humiliation.
“Slave.”
Julian called to him in a low voice.
“Yes.”
“Your master is addressing you. Look at me.”
Gulp.
Arthur Blanco forced his head up and met Julian’s gaze.
Julian smiled.
“From now on, whenever you insult me or entertain thoughts sympathetic to demons……”
SLAP.
Without warning, he struck Arthur Blanco across the cheek.
The bell hanging from Arthur’s neck rang clearly even though it had not moved.
JINGLE.
Julian bared his teeth at the sound.
“The bell will ring like that.”
“…….”
“And my loyal personal guard will not be able to ignore it.”
The moment Julian finished speaking, Theodore seized the collar and poured divine power into it.
BZZT.
A mild electric shock coursed through Arthur Blanco.
“Haa! Hah!”
Sweat dripped from the tip of his nose.
Julian spoke.
“What should we do if the bell rings too often?”
“I will correct him personally. We cannot have Your Highness dirtying your hands on someone like this.”
“Indeed. That would be better. I am not very skilled at regulating the strength of my divine power.”
Cold sweat began pouring down Arthur Blanco’s face.
He lowered his head and cried out.
“I-I will behave!”
“Of course you will. Discipline your thoughts properly as well. Understood?”
“Y-yes!”
The sight of Arthur Blanco repeatedly nodding with an expression as though his soul had been threshed out of him was deeply satisfying.
‘That boy should have seen this too. What a shame.’
Julian remembered the junior assistant who had nearly been blown apart while wearing a burlap hood.
‘I nearly had to watch him die right before my eyes.’
How unjust would it have been for two assistants to die because of the same professor?
Julian frowned.
‘I hope the others have not suffered the same fate.’
He had spent more than ten years enslaved as an assistant.
There were many people he had known at the academy.
‘I have to rescue them quickly.’
That was not all.
Julian had threatened Arthur Blanco by saying that he would ruin the man’s life even if he escaped into the Empire, but the truth was that Julian was still a powerless Third Prince.
He had to become the headmaster, rescue the academy, and acquire enough authority to exert influence throughout the Empire.
‘This is not the time to relax merely because I have had a small taste of revenge. I cannot fail here.’
He had to reclaim the Main Building and the Headmaster’s Office and seize control of the Academy Magical Defense System.
He needed information.
Julian looked down at Arthur Blanco.
“Now prove that you are useful.”
He added one final word.
“Properly.”
Arthur Blanco flinched.
***
Meanwhile.
Paimon, who had fled to the Headmaster’s Office on the second floor of the Main Building, could not contain his fury.
“To think that I was driven back by a mere human brat!”
Who was he?
He was no nameless lesser demon.
He was Paimon, the strongest of the Demon Kings in the Demon Realm.
Yet he had been forced to flee before a human boy who still had down on his face.
It was all because of that damned divine power.
Paimon glared at the flames still burning along the edge of his clothes and irritably shook his sleeve.
“Why has that filthy bloodline of God come all the way here?!”
CRACKLE.
Embers scattered from the end of his sleeve.
“Ugh.”
Several sparks must have flown toward the iron cage, because the person imprisoned inside let out a quiet groan.
The demon turned toward the cage.
“Yes.”
The corners of Paimon’s lips rose.
“You also had the audacity to use flame magic against me.”
The demon seized the young mage’s head as though he intended to crush it.
“Do you wish to die, mage?”
“Ugh…….”
With his head held tightly and his face pressed against the bars, Sion answered.
“Then kill me.”
He was destined to die regardless.
Whether he was stabbed in the back by one of his supposed allies while fighting or had his head crushed after being captured by a demon made little difference.
-Sion, you know what House Etain is doing. They are sending you into the Liberation Army to have you killed. Leave the family instead. Why would you throw your life away at your age?
The boy’s eyes darkened as he recalled his friend’s words.
Upon seeing those eyes, Paimon licked his lips like a predator that had discovered wounded prey.
“Every human brat I meet seems to have lost all sense of fear.”
Despite the meaning of his words, the demon’s voice sounded delighted.
Such a young and powerful human, with eyes filled with hopeless resignation.
Did he not smell delicious?
“You were abandoned, were you not?”
Sion flinched.
Paimon whispered softly.
“Do you not desire revenge?”
“…….”
Although the boy stubbornly kept his mouth closed, his entire body had gone rigid, and he could barely breathe.
Paimon smiled leisurely as he savored Sion’s response.
He understood very well how strong but young and inexperienced humans behaved after being abandoned.
Within their minds, they might spill blood hundreds or thousands of times and reduce everything to a sea of fire.
Yet deep within their hearts, they still wanted to return.
They wanted to be loved, understood, and forgiven.
‘Then their towering pride forces them to deny those feelings.’
The more intelligent and powerful a human was, the less capable they were of accepting that they had been discarded.
They were ashamed that they remained emotionally attached to those who had abandoned them.
Therefore, a demon needed only to—
Use those emotions to give them a gentle push from the edge of the precipice.
Paimon tightened his grip on the red hair in his hand and yanked Sion’s head upward.
“Can you see that?”
Forced to raise his head, Sion looked toward the center of the Headmaster’s Office.
“!”
A colossal serpent falling headfirst.
The black snake had wrapped its entire body around a radiant egg.
“It is His creation. We have endured for five years for the sake of that object.”
Paimon continued.
“You are a powerful mage. Surely you understand what that is.”
“…….”
The demon whispered to the future Archmage.
“If you were to take possession of it…… who could possibly stop you?”
***
A quiet office in one corner of the Main Building’s first floor.
“Master.”
Arthur Blanco prostrated himself deeply before Julian.
Many things had happened before he reached this state.
-Oh? I hear the bell ringing.
-Look at those filthy eyes. At this rate, even your eyes will start ringing like bells.
-Lower your eyes. Raise them. Lower them again. Once more. Eyes down.
-Good. They look a little clearer now. Behave yourself, understood?
-It seems Theodore’s divine power is not too much for you. Shall I loosen my own hands next?
Moreover, if the prince lost to Paimon now, Arthur would unquestionably become a dissection toy for lesser demons.
However repulsive it might be, he had no choice but to side with the prince rather than the demon.
Still lying prostrate, Arthur Blanco arranged his face into a respectful expression and spoke.
“Master, this lowly one humbly begs permission to speak.”
“Granted. Speak quickly.”
“At present, the Main Building is controlled by the Demon King Paimon.”
“A Demon King?”
Demons ruled the Demon Realm through the law of the strong devouring the weak.
They were sensitive to rank, and their classifications were clearly defined.
The demonic hierarchy consisted of four levels.
Demon Lords.
Demon Kings.
Legion Commanders.
And the nameless lesser demons and demonkin that made up the overwhelming majority.
Demon Lords stood at the peak of the Demon Realm’s pyramid. Each was said to possess a unique symbol and Authority.
Demon Kings were the kings and grand dukes of the Demon Realm. Although their supernatural abilities did not rise to the level of an Authority, they were still immensely powerful.
Legion Commanders were renowned nobles of the Demon Realm who commanded legions of demonkin within their territories.
“I have heard that even a Legion Commander possesses a lesser supernatural ability, Master.”
“A supernatural ability?”
“Yes. Something such as glimpsing briefly into the future.”
“Hmm.”
After hearing the explanation, Julian rubbed his chin.
“Then Paimon is a Demon King, making him a second-rank being within the demonic hierarchy. He should be an extraordinarily powerful demon, yet he did not appear that strong.”
“That is…….”
Arthur Blanco hesitated.
Theodore immediately poured power into the divine restraint collar around his neck.
“Eek! I-I will explain, Master! Th-this is only my personal theory!”
Arthur said that demons seemed unable to exercise their original strength in the Human Realm.
They required human emotions to act, which seemed to be why they tormented people and drove them toward ruin.
“Th-this is only my conjecture, but demons with human contractors appeared more stable, Master. The more their contractors suffered or tormented other people, the more power the demons seemed capable of using.”
“……Continue.”
Julian and Theodore gestured for him to proceed, listening intently.
Arthur Blanco continued explaining his theory.
When Paimon first descended into the Human Realm, he had been powerful. Even the demons occupying the other buildings had seemed intimidated whenever they saw him.
However, Paimon had kept the Main Building almost entirely empty for five years, and his presence had gradually weakened.
“So Paimon was stronger at first, and the reason he grew weaker was that he lacked a human contractor and could not feed upon negative emotions?”
“That is how it appeared to me, Master. The demons occupying the other buildings drain the students through every method imaginable, while their contractors rampage as though they own the world. The Main Building, however, was always empty.”
Theodore also asked a question.
“If that is true, why did Paimon insist upon leaving the Main Building empty?”
“I do not know, Master. He enjoys tormenting humans as much as any other demon.”
Arthur Blanco pointed toward the staircase as though he could not understand it either.
“He would not even allow me near the second floor. He often shut himself inside the Headmaster’s Office alone.”
“The Headmaster’s Office.”
Julian fell into deep thought.
Arthur Blanco’s explanation was plausible.
‘Paimon’s behavior did indeed contain traces of desperation.’
His attempt to detonate Arthur and the students also made more sense if he had intended to feed upon the Liberation Army’s fear and shock first.
“……In that case.”
Until now, Julian had assumed that Paimon abducted Sion Etain merely because he was a powerful mage.
Since the demon could not directly touch Julian because of his divine power, it had seized Sion, who had performed the next most powerful attack.
However, Arthur’s explanation raised another suspicion.
“Why did Paimon take Sion Etain?”
“!”
“Does he intend to turn a powerful mage into his contractor? Or does he plan to control Sion and force him to slaughter the Liberation Army?”
Either possibility would be horrifying.
Theodore and Arthur Blanco imagined flames consuming the entire Main Building.
Their mouths went dry with tension, and they unconsciously looked toward the prince.
Julian rose.
“This is no time to rest. We are going to the Headmaster’s Office.”