Chapter 131: You’ve changed a lot since I last saw you, Leon (2)
What would it take to bring the reincarnated hero to the Academy?
First of all, I don’t have a relationship with her.
It would be insane for me, a stranger, a blind man, even a dark elementalist, to approach her and say, “Hero, it’s dangerous here. Please come with me to the academy.” It would be insane.
Originally, there had to be a crisis for her to decide to leave on her own.
However, I’ve already compromised the demon’s intelligence network.
Therefore, it will be quite a while before a ‘natural crisis’ comes to the hero.
This is not good for me, who knows the future and wants to solve the case easily.
So, what should I do to convince her?
First, I need to remind her that she is a hero.
You are a hero after all, and this place is not safe at all. Not for you, not for others around you.
To make her realize this simple fact, I need to create a “crisis”.
“Madame, would you be willing to raid an orphanage in a nearby village?”
“An orphanage…?”
The woman raises her eyebrows in question at my stammered request.
I needed a good ‘script’ to bolster my persuasion.
A good script needs a good actor to back it up.
Even if the hero is in the body of a young girl who can barely handle the power of a holy sword, clumsy demons are no match for her.
It would be an alien sight to see demons crushed in an instant by a little girl’s tiny fist… That’s what a hero is, a being who stands in opposition to demons.
Therefore, the demon that will be my ‘actor’ must be strong enough to create a crisis where the hero needs my help, but weak enough that I can control it so that it cannot directly harm the hero or those around her.
I was hoping to find just the right demon, and the woman in front of me was just that.
Thanks to my senses, it wasn’t too difficult to find her.
I scattered my senses around the city as best I could.
In a small town in the middle of nowhere, I came across a demon called Madame, who was dressed in an outlandish outfit that made it hard to tell where to look, and who seemed to be controlling the area.
“Jorgal…you’re from the branch where this latest ‘disaster’ happened?”
The woman asked, reading off the name on the trump card I’d handed her, the ‘ID’ I’d gotten from smashing the demons’ intelligence agency earlier.
‘Well, it was a disaster for the demons.’
Apparently, information about the massacre had spread among the demons. Maybe it’s because it’s a big deal.
“I was traveling on business at the time, so I was lucky to escape with my life. Cannibalism? It was horrible. Oh, and I haven’t gotten a new card yet.”
“Hah, you’re a lucky guy, and all of a sudden, an orphanage… I’d love to hear more about it.”
The woman’s eyes narrow as she snaps her fingers and returns the card to the table.
“Hmm… Madame, I suppose you’ve noticed?”
I rap my fingers on the table and say something meaningful.
The woman smirks.
“Hmph, it’s a bit odd that the least you can do for me is raid an orphanage that probably doesn’t even have a few children, when that would be enough for a bunch of cowards holed up in their ‘nest’.”
Madame was subtly sending strong magical energy my way, testing me to see what kind of demon I was, but none of this was even remotely pressuring me.
If I withstood her pressure without a hitch, she would naturally consider me a demon of unusual power.
It would be assumed that a demon of this level of power would have a high position in the intelligence community, where weaker demons are commonly known to work.
I had walked into a trap of my own making.
In response to Madame’s question, I mentally pictured Edward and gave her the best ‘wicked’ smile I could muster, the one I’d seen on him so often.
“I can’t tell you what it is right now. You don’t have to if you don’t want to, but… I just want you to know that I came to you first out of respect.”
“Respect…”
“If you won’t do it, I’ll ask someone else and you won’t get anything in return.’
It puts the pressure back on her.
When negotiating, it’s important to appear confident and relaxed even if what you’re selling is a poisoned apple.
Unless you bite into it, you won’t know if it’s poisonous or overflowing with sweet juices.
And if you’re showing a fresh apple with a glowing red color…
“…I’ll give you a hint: the Demon King’s resurrection is just around the corner, and we haven’t been sitting around waiting for it either, especially the Chief of Staff.”
“Chief of Staff…?!”
Madame, who had been talking to me, sticks her head in, her voice rising.
I craned my neck back, raising my index finger to my lips at her overbearing behavior.
“…You have a loud voice.”
At my small whisper, Madame swallows hard and looks toward the door in the center of the room. She seemed to be concerned with her men outside the door.
I smiled again, this time with a devious grin.
Only this time, it wasn’t intentional, but genuine.
The raised voice was a good sign.
Any demon with a brain who heard me and would come up with one word.
‘Hero.’
I gave her a moment’s pause before opening my mouth, drawing a circle on the table.
“…I assume you know about bridles.”
“Ha… of course I know that.”
Now that I had nothing to hide, I mentioned the word ‘bridle’ in a straightforward manner, which elicited an incredulous chuckle from the woman.
“Okay, that’s all well and good… There’s one thing I don’t understand, though.”
“What?”
“Jorge, why would you want me to do this? It would be easier for you to do it yourself, you can take the credit and it wouldn’t be a hassle… This is too suspicious to be true, isn’t it?”
In short, why would you give someone a winning lottery ticket that you didn’t scratch?
Demons are basically selfish and greedy beings.
‘It’s a hassle.’
I thought there would be only uneducated demons who didn’t know anything about the fringes, but this woman, Madame, had a lot to say.
Of course, it was within my expectations but I had a very convenient excuse.
“First of all, we don’t know for sure. It’s just something that needs to be confirmed… My orders from the Chief of Staff are to keep my involvement under wraps, so given my affiliation, it’s not something I should be involved in.”
“Why did the Chief of Staff make that choice?”
“I don’t know, but one thing’s for sure, the Chief of Staff I know doesn’t give orders for nothing.”
There was silence after that.
Madame was torn, should she bite into this apple or not?
“Madame, I don’t think too hard about it. If you think about it, we’re just raiding a small orphanage, and if we find the treasure chest, it’s good for you and good for the demons, and if we don’t, it’s just that.”
I emphasize that there’s no risk.
“Do you really think raiding one of the lesser orphanages is going to put Madame in any danger? And for my information, that treasure chest is not going to be a ‘mimic’ – from what I’ve researched, it’s still just a ‘child’.”
I flattered her since there is no need to be afraid when you have power.
“But if you don’t want to open the real treasure chest, that’s okay, because there are plenty of others who can.”
Finally, let her know that she has competition.
She realizes that her hand is closest to the sweet apple, and that she’s at the front of the race.
“…Ha!”
Madame sighs.
It’s getting hard to give up.
There’s definitely something fishy going on here, but it doesn’t feel like there’s any risk, at least not from what she heard.
‘Maybe it’s a feeling.’
Even though I’m pounding on the stone bridge, I think I can ‘cross’ it.
Even if the stone bridge collapses, the water is shallow, so I think I’ll only get my feet wet.
This is because the premise is flawed and there’s something she’s overlooking.
Could this blind man in front of her not be a demon?
But her thoughts don’t go that far.
She thinks it over slowly.
What kind of ‘human’ would easily find a demon who was hiding his true identity, and then, while emitting a ‘dark aura’, show his demon ID and ask to raid a human orphanage?
For what?
Why would they do that?
Trapped in the intricacies of this truth, she would never reach the center.
“…Okay, I’ll do it.”
And so she bites into the apple.
The deadly poison in the apple will spread through her body and kill her.
Well, if she hadn’t accepted the apple, I would have drawn my poisoned dagger at this point since I don’t see any reason to keep her alive.
“Very well, then, without further delay, let’s call it a night, and I’ll come back to you then.”
I smirked and pushed myself up from the chair.
I opened the door and turned to leave when Madame asked one last question.
“By the way, I’ve been wondering all along… how do you do your job when you look like that?”
How do you work for an intelligence agency when you can’t see, she said.
At her question, I scratched the bandage over my eye and opened my mouth.
“Haha… That’s a late question, actually… I can see.”
“Hmph… What a joke… What do you say, Jorgal, when we’re done here, why don’t you have a drink with me?”
Madame licks her tongue, tempting me.
“Hmmm… shall we?”
If she can have a drink after her throat is cut, I might have to consider it.
That’s how we end the conversation, and when I slip out of the building and into the shadows, Sierra flicks my head.
Apparently she didn’t like our last conversation, even though I gave her a heads up about what I was going to do.
…Anyway, with that, the ‘actors’ are ready.
All that’s left is for the script to play out.
It’s a pretty extreme script, but I figured that if it wasn’t for this, it would be very difficult for me, a dark elementalist, to convince the hero.
Still, I’m not too worried, as everything will be under my control.
‘Is it because I’ve done so many strange things?’
Sierra trusts me completely on this one.
Well, I’m comfortable with it.
***
In the woods, not far from the orphanage Rei, the reincarnation of the Hero Leon, sneaked out of the orphanage again tonight to train her body.
As she stood in the dark forest with only a lantern and two fingers on the ground, the blond girl couldn’t shake her worries.
‘My cheeks, my cheeks, my cheeks…’
Her mouth was filled with a candy that she had been saving for a while.
It was urgent for Rei to build a body that could handle the holy sword properly.
Now she had succeeded in summoning the holy sword, but she had yet to wield it properly.
Compared to the young girl’s slender body, the holy sword was heavy and bulky.
Ugh…
At that moment, an unknown aura swept through Rei, accompanied by a light breeze from the trees.
‘This is…’
Recognizing its identity, Rei immediately stood up and stared off into the depths of the forest.
The aura she detected was familiar, it was the thick, foul aura of demons that was emanating from that direction.
‘…There are many.’
Closing her eyes and sniffing her nose, Rei counted the demons.
Why would they be grouped together and headed for such a quiet, unremarkable village?
There was only one possible reason, at least as far as she could tell.
Rei raised her arms as her tiny, dainty hands were revealed.
As she clenches her fist, her knuckles slowly glow with a pure white light.
‘They’re weak…’
A bare fist would have been enough to take them on.
How and when they had found her, Rei had no idea, but she didn’t have time to ponder that right now.
-Boom.
The sound of something light leaping echoes through the forest, and Rei’s newest creation is gone in an instant, leaving the lone lantern to illuminate the forest around her.
Rei’s first battle in this life has begun.