After Karelvo drove the stake into my chest, I immediately 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 me that Karelvo now had complete control over me, 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 me, who had a strong resistance to pain, the demons screamed 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 judgment led him to label us as failures? What happened to Orvo? Come 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 some kind of internal dispute broke down between the spiritualists? That guy complained about his foolish little brother or something 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 some rest to prepare for tomorrow.”
“Zald’s right. Let’s all get some sleep.”
As Tigar and Zald summed up the situation while answering Leo’s question, the demon squad members began to fall asleep one after another. They seemed 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 some 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 someday, he died without my knowledge, leaving me with a slight feeling of regret. However, my greater concern at the moment was Mika.
He had been instrumental in providing for me and had been the first human to give me proper food. Given his kindness and lack of harm towards me, it was only natural for me 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 seemed that Mika had been struck with a stick or something. 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 claimed that he was the one who discovered the method 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 same time, 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 me again anyway,” said Karelvo.
“Heh… are you going to kill me too?” asked Mika.
“No, not quite. You’re going to see even more hell. You will become a demon… the last demon that Orvo created!”
As Karelvo spoke, there was a sound of metal rubbing against metal. Then Mika’s weakened presence disappeared, and some 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 some other battlefield. Ah, I didn’t want to die.
The spiritual art had dissipated, signaling the end of Mika’s demonization. Karelvo shouted at someone outside the room to come 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 seemed to sense the approaching group, and apart from the sleeping ox and horse, they all seemed 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 same 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 meals,” another replied.
Surprisingly, the demons seemed 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 members 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 me.
“You are…Ah right, so I became 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 someone heading towards the basement 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 demeanor. 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 mean 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 time in my life, and that thought made me feel a little excited.