Once Aura had been read from the inside out, Frieren finally released her — but what followed was a sense of helplessness.
After all, while Aura's mories held a fair amount of information... none of it was anything that could prove decisive in bringing down Fíliya.
She had lived by Fíliya's side every single day, and yet she knew nothing of Fíliya's goals or inner thoughts?
Aura, you really are useless.
Frieren thought venomously.
Miss Edel's expression, too, had gone rather sour. She had read through it again and again — the happy, ordinary days Fíliya and those demons had shared together. It left her feeling, unavoidably, a little annoyed. Or perhaps, ever so slightly... jealous.
"It seems we can't get anything more useful out of her. So what do we do with this... lump?"
Frieren said coldly.
"Hah?! — A LUMP?!"
The mont Aura heard that, she was so furious she nearly shot to her feet, forgetting entirely what position she was currently in.
"What else would you call yourself? Look at you — aren't you basically just a lump of excess flesh?"
Frieren's gaze remained utterly contemptuous.
"...F-fine... Fine, Frieren, I get it now — you're jealous of Lady Aura's figure! Ha! You're flat as a cutting board, so you resent anyone with actual curves!"
Just as Aura, face blazing with indignation, was about to rise to her feet and properly argue her case with this insufferable elf — a sword appeared without warning, pressing against her throat and cutting the motion short.
The shock jolted through her. She twisted her head to look — and found herself staring straight into Himl's smile, which, from where Aura sat, looked exactly like the grin of a demon.
Fine. When you're under soone else's roof, you bow your head. You're all ganging up on , and I'll just have to swallow it!
For a while after that, the group conferred on what exactly to do with their captured demon.
In the end, the decision was handed down by the one all of them revered — the legendary great mage, Flam.
"Can she be kept under control? If so, I think we should bring her along when we go to et Fíliya."
That was Flam's word on the matter.
Upon hearing it, Edel imdiately nodded with complete confidence. While she had been examining Aura's inner world, she had already figured it out — this demon with the enormous curved horns, and equally impressive proportions elsewhere, had virtually no ntal resistance to speak of.
And so, wearing a rather unsettling smile, Edel slowly closed in on Miss Aura.
"What are you doing?! What are you doing?!"
Miss Aura recoiled in alarm, her backside scraping a shallow groove in the dirt as she scooted away.
"Why, taking control of you, of course. Hold still, and don't worry — a little dizziness is perfectly normal."
Edel said this with a perfectly pleasant expression.
"You can't be serious!"
Aura bit her lip, her face a storm of humiliation and fury.
Was this really where her storied reputation would co to ruin? Her greatest specialty was Magic of Obedience — and now the tables had turned completely, and she was about to be controlled by so little human girl?
But there was nothing Miss Aura could do about it for long.
Just as Edel had said — while Aura herself was quite skilled at controlling others, she had essentially no resistance whatsoever to being controlled in turn. Edel broke through Aura's ntal defenses with ease.
Of course, it helped that Edel was surrounded by so many formidable fighters that Aura couldn't even muster the will to resist in the first place.
...
The party to subjugate the Demon King was finally able to press onward.
It was a journey to save the world — and yet, after everything that had just transpired, the heavy atmosphere within the group had been thoroughly shattered. So naturally, idle conversation filled the road ahead.
"Co to think of it, we haven't run into a single monster along the way."
Himl's tone was almost wistful.
"You're right — it's not just the Far North, either. Not a single monster anywhere near it, either... Is it because the Demon King is here, and they don't dare co close? But that doesn't quite add up — when we ca through last ti, the Far North had plenty of monsters lurking around."
Eisen added.
"Mm... if you look carefully, there actually are traces of monster activity in these parts. Faint mana signatures remain, too."
Frieren surveyed the surroundings and offered her assessnt.
"So the monsters ran away?"
Fern asked, curious.
"No. The more likely answer is... they were hunted clean by the demons gathered here."
Flam, leading the group from the front, spoke with certainty.
"?"
Fern blinked — clearly that possibility hadn't crossed her mind — then seed to understand, and nodded slowly.
"Fíliya gathered every demon on the continent here — so where does their food co from? The Far North has virtually no natural resources to speak of."
"Ah, I see. The Association has been keeping a close eye on this situation recently. We had assud that such a massive concentration of demons might an a large-scale offensive... but so far, there hasn't been a single report of demons attacking villages, preying on humans, or raiding supplies."
Falsch finally found his opening to contribute.
"Mm. Looking at it from that angle, Fíliya... truly does have the ability to keep the demons in check. She's likely brought about no small change in them. A problem that plagued humanity for a thousand years, and this child has already solved it... Oh — my apologies."
That last apology was because Flam realized that in the middle of a subjugation mission, she had just instinctively praised Fíliya — which felt rather ill-tid.
"In any case... let us continue forward."
The group moved on, and before long they arrived at a village.
Even with their minds already braced for what they might find, the sight before them still left everyone struggling to believe their own eyes.
A great crowd of demons, going about their work in perfect, unhurried order — each one building their own ho. The arrival of the subjugation party hadn't caused so much as a ripple. It was as though no one even noticed them.
It was only when a demon approached — one whose total mana was clearly well above average, though still so distance from the level of a true Greater Demon, sothing closer to a squad-leader tier — that the group finally snapped out of their stupor.
The squad-leader demon had already spotted Lady Aura in the crowd, standing there under mind control. After a mont of looking down as if in thought, it chose to selectively ignore Lady Aura's existence entirely.
"The Demon King has given her instructions: all guests from the human side are to proceed forward. She has already made preparations to receive you. The Demon King also asks that the human guests refrain from disturbing the demons' everyday lives."
After delivering that ssage, the squad-leader instinctively glanced once more at Aura — and at the tall figure of Macht — before vanishing swiftly from sight.
Himl and Frieren looked at each other. In both their eyes was the sa helpless resignation.
Only now did Himl truly understand what it ant to draw your sword and find nothing to cut at.
There were indeed a few dozen demons ahead — but it was nothing like the harrowing scene they had imagined, of being surrounded on all sides by hundreds of demons. Instead, these were... ordinary villagers? With not a shred of hostility, not the slightest desire to fight?
Neither Himl nor Frieren — nor anyone else — could bring themselves to strike first under these circumstances.
Himl slowly sheathed his sword, then shook his head.
"Let's keep moving. That girl called Fíliya said she's waiting for us, didn't she."
____
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