* * *

The knights interrupted Lawrence’s attempts to use the summoning circle but did not stop him entirely. Ector decided it was better to overlook Lawrence’s retreat and allow him to regain his power than to kill him here.

Cadel also did not order his subordinates to pursue Lawrence. Instead, he stayed by Garuel’s side, fearing that he would charge Lawrence.

“You didn’t go after him. He was screaming that he was going to kill you.”

Luckily, Garuel didn’t chase after Lawrence; he simply watched him disappear. When Lawrence was out of sight, the corners of Garuel’s mouth tugged up in a sigh.

“I don’t yet have the strength to kill him in one fell swoop like Sir Yozen, so alas, it’s on hold for now.”

“Good thinking. ……By the way, where’s Yozen?”

Ashvka’s death was quickly followed by Lawrence’s escape, so Cadel didn’t keep an eye on Yozen. When he looked for him later, he was nowhere to be seen.

“Yozen! Where are you?”

Cadel shouted at the top of his lungs. Cadel’s face hardened with the anxiety that was creeping in.

“Darling! I got him!”

Lydon called Cadel from out of nowhere. When Lydon said he didn’t see Lawrence running away, he immediately chased after him and harassed him. In Lydon’s hands, wide-eyed and reminiscent of a cat who’s just found a funny toy, was Yozen, shielding his eyes with his arms.

Lydon tossed Yozen to the ground, his eyes twinkling as if he wanted Cadel’s approval. Cadel patted Lydon’s head a couple of times, then looked at Yozen’s condition.

“Where the hell have you been that Lydon picked you up, and why are you covering your eyes again?”

“Don’t look.”

“What’s wrong? Are you hurt?”

Cadel tugged at the arm covering his eyes, but it didn’t budge. If something was so bad that Yozen didn’t want to be seen, he deserved to know.

As Yozen continued to try to hide, the separated Van and Lumen joined the group. Soon surrounded by his comrades, Yozen barely spoke as Cadel ordered his subordinates to remove the arm covering his eyes.

“It’s been a while since I’ve used my skills, I’m still feeling the effects, it’s disgusting……….”

“I’ll be the judge of that. You don’t have to show me unless you’re hurt or uncomfortable, but I wouldn’t find it repulsive if you had six eyes in here. Didn’t I say something similar to you a while ago?”

“It’s different to see it in person.”

“Then show me. Why are you so afraid of my reaction already, Yozen?”

Cadel had no intention of forcing him to reveal what he was trying to hide, but he also had no intention of letting his self-esteem suffer from unnecessary worry.

“Just me. Come on.”

He said soothingly, pulling his face close to Yozen’s, and the hesitant Yozen slowly lowered his arms.

And then, like a bursting thread, dark energy enveloped the corners of Yozen’s eyes, and in place of the pupils was a black abyss.

The dark energy pulsing from the corners of his eyes and the darkness that surrounded them was certainly spooky. But Cadel was more concerned with the lowered eyebrows, the tightened mouth, and the uncontrollable twitching of his lips than his strange eyes.

“Not repulsive at all. It’s pretty.”

“……There’s no way it’s pretty.”

“You think I’m lying? Then listen to my heartbeat, my breathing, whatever.”

Yozen’s tension eased slightly at the stroke of Cadel’s brow. He accepted Cadel’s touch and began to slowly channel his dark energy. With Cadel’s calm patience, Yozen quickly regained his composure, but the other subordinates watching them were unimpressed.

“What a fox. Sticking by the Commander like that, any second now he’ll be burying his face in Commander’s chest to hear his heartbeat.”

“Not bad, Sir Yozen. You know Knight Commander’s weaknesses very well.”

“Are you all just jealous of Yozen? You can’t afford to be, so you’re making a big deal out of nothing. You must be insecure about your relationship with the Leader.”

“Ahaha! Lumen, are you crying?”

Now that Cadel had pushed the other subordinates aside in favor of Yozen, all they could do was express their timid jealousy.

Fortunately, their jealousy didn’t last long. Just as Yozen was wrapping up his dark energy charge, Ector, who had also come to check on his men, found Cadel.

“You are indeed an elite knight. I have seen many battles, but never have I been so impressed with an individual’s skill as I was today.”

Ector was quite impressed with Yozen’s performance in defeating Ashvka, and he continued to heap praise on him. The real party, Yozen, ducked out of sight as soon as he saw Ector approaching.

“Thanks to the help of the Guardian Knight Order, we were able to do it. If you hadn’t stopped Ashvka’s movements, my subordinate would have had a hard time.”

Cadel continued to talk to Ector with an air of humility he didn’t really want to display. Ector, who had been laughing heartily, suddenly averted his gaze and cleared his throat. Before he could ask why Ector’s face suddenly stiffened, he heard a familiar voice behind him.

“The Scarlet Scales Knight Order is at it again, isn’t it? I really tried to hold out until the end this time, but damn it……. I wasn’t expecting that.”

It was Dreyfe. He looked like a mummy with bandages all over his body and resented the fact that he had been taken down by Ashvka.

“Better to take it easy and survive than to go all the way and die. You almost died.”

“It doesn’t matter because I’m alive thanks to someone.”

“That’s true. Where is your gratitude?”

“……Thanks.”

Dreyfe pouted his lips in a timid bow and rolled his eyes. He turned to Ector, who stood tall and stiff with a stern expression on his face.

“I apologize, Commander. I was caught off guard.”

“A man leading a battalion of soldiers is caught off guard? Look back at the battles you’ve been in where you’ve had little time for such excuses.”

“……Yes.”

“I hope you don’t make the same reckless mistake of rushing in without a second thought again.”

It was a far cry from how Ector had treated Cadel, but he could at least offer a word of praise to a man who had fought so hard. Cadel wondered if Ector was always so ruthless when dealing with his subordinates.

While he was thinking about it, Dreyfe returned to his men, demoralized by Ector’s tirade. Cadel watched Dreyfe’s back as he walked away, stunned, and tried to come up with a compliment of his own.

“……I’m also late in thanking you, but thank you so much!”

As soon as Cadel turned his head, he saw the hulking figure bending down from the waist to offer his thanks.

Pardon? What, what suddenly happened……. You shouldn’t do that, Sir Ector, there are many eyes on you.”

Embarrassed, Cadel stooped down to help Ector to his feet, the last thing he wanted was for rumors to start that ‘The Commander of the Guardian Knight Order bowed his head in front of the Commander of the Scarlet Scales Knight Order’.

Barely able to get Ector’s face to lift, Ector revealed a simple expression of relief and gratitude, not a trace of his earlier coldness. He grasped Cadel’s hand with a cauldron-like grip and shook it violently.

“My little son was going to die, so my mind was blank for a moment, and if it hadn’t been for you, I would have dropped the battle and everything and gone to rescue Dreyfe.”

“Pardon……? Son……?”

“I will never forget this favor. I promise you this, not as a knight of the Empire, but as the father of a son.”

Could it be that Ector was now calling that cranky and arrogant Dreyfe his son? From appearance to personality, there was no resemblance. Cadel’s body, stunned by this unexpected blood connection, swayed like a paper doll in response to Ector’s enthusiastic gesture.

* * *

Smack!

A sharp slap echoed through the room, a sharp blow to the flesh.

Smack! Smack!

At the end of each successive blow, a ragged, heated breath hung in the air, like a growl. Emilia wiped her red, swollen palms and stared at the man kneeling before her.

“You have lost everything, Lord Lawrence. No allies, no dignity, nothing you’ve saved. Is this what the House of Highweald is made of?

“……I apologize, Your Majesty, and I will not make any excuses; it is all my fault.”

“If it were my father standing here instead of me, My Lord, your head would have been separated from your body before you could utter your apology.”

Emilia took a small, deep breath, her eyes flashing with killing intent. Both of Lawrence’s cheeks were red and swollen to the point of black and blue after his regenerative powers had been terminated, but he did little to elicit her sympathy.

“If I do not, it is not because I am kinder or more generous than my father, but because I have a very calculated judgment that your presence might be of some use before this war is over.”

“I will prove it to you.”

The eyes that held Lawrence’s were bloodshot with fatigue and stress. Emilia swiped a hand across her face, which had been haggard for days.

“I need time, Lord Lawrence.”

Her eyes glinted through the slits in her hands, a sinister glint of fury mixed with madness. The frustration of the past few days had been steadily eating away at her sanity. She had a hysterical urge to leap to her feet and rip the humans’ throats out alive and drink their blood.

“The magic circles we planted in the Human Realm have been disarmed one after the other due to the failure of our previous tactics, and the demons who flocked to the Empire have drowned in defeat. Nothing is going according to plan.”

“…….”

“I realize, of course, that imagination and reality are different. But I didn’t expect to be interrupted like this like I’d been spied on, everything.”

“Please don’t be crushed―”

“I’m not looking for consolation, Lord Lawrence.”

She interrupted sharply, her finely polished features revealing a wry smile.

“At this rate, the humans will destroy all of the magic circles, and then try to seal the Demon Realm once more. The Stone of Peace. You remember that cursed object from the gods, don’t you?”

“Of course. There is not a demon who does not remember the shame of that day.”

“The humans will try to find the stone again. Those six hateful humans and one fairy who went on a rampage with the gods’ protection on their backs. They’ll try to find the stone they left behind and perform the sealing ceremony.”

Emilia let out a small gasp. It was hard to accept that they had been cornered this early in a war they had prepared for so long. But she had to admit it. The victory was still in the hands of the humans, and in order to liberate the Demon Realm, they had to be prepared for the worst and turn the tables.

“We need to find out where the stone is in the Human Realm before they do. We need time to explore.”

“If we take the stone from them, the sealing won’t even have a chance to begin. If the Demon Realm is open, there’s always a chance…….”

“We won’t take it from them. It’s enough to prevent them from finding the stone.”

Meeting her determined gaze, Lawrence’s eyes widened as if he realized something.

“One stone from the Human Realm can’t seal it. They’ll have to come down here themselves, and we’re a race that has spent our entire lives defending this dark place.”

In the past, humans who have gotten their hands on the ‘Stone of Peace’ needed to infiltrate the Demon Realm to seal it. But even the talented Seven Knights were unable to preserve their lives. The ‘Stone of Peace’ that remained in the Demon Realm today was a relic of the Seven Knights and evidence of their murder.

If they could destroy the humans who descended to the Demon Realm to obtain the stone, and take it from them. This time, it would be the Human Realm that would be sealed.

The Demon Realm had no place to retreat. Under Emilia’s command, they had no choice but to move forward, risking their lives.

Lawrence, who had accepted her will, slowly opened his mouth.

“Before that, there are some humans you should know, Your Majesty.”