Rose kneeled down and bowed her head in a graceful gesture, not caring that she was greeted in a bare stone room with no furniture or plaster in the interior.
“You are a demon, aren’t you?”
“Yes, I am honored to have an audience with the newest and highest ranking demon.”
Rose’s skin turned an earthy color, veins appeared all over her face, and the knight’s ceremonial clothes turned into rags that looked like they had been weathered for a thousand years.
“[An Arc Demon]…”
I didn’t know if she wanted to collaborate with me or if she was summoned, but this girl seemed to be a pretty high-ranking demon.
“Why is a demon working for Silver Church? Don’t you feel anything when you see that Chimera?”
“Nothing? I don’t care about the lower demons and spirits, you know?”
Rose said without hesitation with a giggle.
This… there was something wrong with Rose, a demon, or perhaps it was the fault of the Queen, who made a contract with her.
Demons and spirits were like white and red blood cells if we put the world as an individual. If they mutated maliciously, they would be like cancer cells, and neither demons nor spirits would instinctively accept them.
Maybe I should get rid of it now?
“Oops, wait a minute. I have no intention of antagonizing you.”
Sensing my murderous intent, her tone was light and dismissive, but she spoke quickly and said she wasn’t an enemy.
“After all this time? After all you have done to the Holy Kingdom?”
“That is partly for the convenience of the human side, and partly because the Queen wanted to keep this country in check in order to bring you into the Silver Church.”
“As a hostage, right?”
“Yes, Yurushia-sama, unlike most demons, loves humans like pets, doesn’t she?”
“So what? And you are saying you don’t want to antagonize me?”
“As a demon, I swear upon the Supreme Demon, the God of the Demon World, if only you would come to my country, I will do nothing more.”
I guess this could also be a demon’s way of thinking. It must be an odd thing for a normal demon to have feelings for a human.
“Nope, it’s too much trouble.”
“Huh?”
Rose’s face, which had been smiling at me, distorted like a piece of clay when I refused in a light tone.
“I don’t understand. Do you really want to live among people so badly? I can’t even eat people as I like because I have to be constantly messing up my perception, or I’ll look suspicious.”
Rose, who had started to mumble and complain, thought about something for a bit, and then looked up with a smile, as if she suddenly had a good idea.
“Right, Yurushia-sama hides her true identity from people, right? If that’s the case, then what would you do if I went berserk here? Would you destroy me by exposing me as a demon? How many tens of thousands of people will die before I am destroyed?”
Rose thought I couldn’t do anything about it because I was hiding my true identity, so she smirked at me in a threatening and agitated way.
If it were true, she would have the upper hand in negotiating with me, but her nature as a demon takes pleasure in playing with the minds of others, and she was trying to agitate me, who was higher ranking than herself.
But you see…
I’m… a demon too, you know?
Dogoooooooong!!!!
“Gyaaaaah!?”
I grabbed Rose by the neck and slammed her down against the stone wall with such force that the stone floor was hollowed out like a mortar.
“Kuha!”
“Oh, you look like you’re in pain. What’s wrong?”
I ask with a laugh as I put so much force into Rose’s neck that it feels like it’s going to break into a thousand pieces.