"I heard before that he seemed to be looking for something? Something related to guilt, maybe?", Aura, who was not angry but instead found it boring, spoke casually about what she had heard back when she encountered him. After saying that, she added another sentence.
"Also, Schrag the Lightning and all his subordinates were apparently wiped out by Macht some time ago when they attacked that city. If there's no need, we should probably stay far away from him. That guy is a real pain."
"A general of the Demon King's army? He really has no sense of kinship at all."
"Who would care about that sort of thing? Don't tell me you do?"
"That's true too…"
Although he was left speechless by the retort, he still directly changed direction. Borrowing a passing carriage, he ignored Aura's stunned look and took the two of them straight into the city.
There was no helping it. Even though Aura said that, he still wanted to see what was really going on with that guy.
After all, demonkind that actively interacted with humans were extremely rare, and he was very curious about what kind of situation the other party was in.
"Ash-sama and Aura-sama are both very willful people," Linie rested her cheek on one hand inside the carriage and sighed.
Her casual remark immediately earned an annoyed glare from Aura, "Have you really been taught badly? You're actually lumping me in as willful now."
"But Ash-sama said I could say whatever I want."
"I was the one who adopted you, wasn't I?"
"Umm… I'm sorry, Aura-sama," After thinking for just a moment, Linie lowered her head and apologized, looking a bit dejected.
Hearing this exchange, Ash, who was driving the carriage, could not help lifting the curtain and looking back.
"Aura, don't bully Linie. She's still a child."
"Tch! L0licon. You only ever cover for Linie."
"What l0licon? Where did you even learn that word?", He shook his head with a headache, but could not be bothered to argue further with Aura.
After all, Aura had seemed to be stuck in a rebellious phase ever since she was little. No matter how he tried to educate her, it always backfired. At this point, he had long since given up on wasting his breath.
———
Weise is a massive fortress city on the empire's border.
Nobles who lost in the empire's power struggles basically all came to this city, and like most nobles of this era, they crazily plundered the wealth of the populace.
The exploitation was so excessive it could be called draining the pond to catch the fish. Every year, many citizens were literally starved to death in poverty. This was intelligence Ash had obtained in the past, but such situations were extremely common in this world and not strange at all.
After all, in this era, someone like him, who considered his own moral standards merely average, was already regarded as a very decent good person.
However, once he passed through the gates, what appeared before him was an unexpectedly prosperous city.
On the main streets, residences and shops of various sizes and styles stood side by side along the road. Most of the residents he saw looked quite ordinary, without the signs of being excessively exploited. There was none of that overly weary, busy, sorrowful, numbed atmosphere.
This made him, full of curiosity, quietly pass through the city streets and bring Aura and Linie to the lord's mansion.
But just as they stepped onto the spacious green grounds, a male demon suddenly appeared silently before them.
He had large horns on his forehead, a huge cloak draped over his left shoulder, and a build that was not exaggerated for demonkind. He was fairly tall.
He was clearly within their magic detection range, yet they only realized his presence when he actually appeared in front of them. In terms of precision of mana control, he had already surpassed Flamme's level.
At least the Flamme he knew did not have mana control as refined as this demon's. The sense of danger he gave off was even stronger than that of the Sage of Corruption.
The hero party could not defeat the Sage of Corruption even together. If this even more terrifying being were to follow the Demon King's orders and eliminate the hero party, the only possible outcome would be total annihilation. Even Ash, as he was now, did not want to confront him head-on.
He had once heard Frieren say that about six hundred years ago, Macht had easily defeated her. He had not killed her, simply letting her go as an insignificant nobody. Otherwise, Ash would never have met Frieren.
Even now, Frieren still could not imagine defeating him. At a fundamental level, she did not believe it was possible. After all, six hundred years had passed, and Frieren's rate of progress clearly could not be faster than Macht's, who had been much younger back then.
A monster whose mastery of magic had already surpassed humanity's peak, honing himself with the goddess as his goal. That was the Macht of the Golden Land.
As for Aura, who was also one of the Seven Sages of Destruction… Ash glanced at Macht, then flicked his eyes toward Aura, silently withdrawing his gaze with a sigh.
He had not said anything at all, yet just that look was enough to make Aura angry.
"Ash! What's with that look? Are you looking down on me?"
Macht, who had been watching Ash all this time, finally seemed to notice something. He glanced at Aura briefly, then quickly returned his gaze to Ash, narrowing his eyes.
"So young… What brings you here?"
"I came because of Schrag the Lightning," Ash completely ignored Aura, and Macht, after that brief glance, focused entirely on Ash.
"Schrag? Was he your friend?"
"No."
"Then why did you come? Don't tell me it's for revenge on behalf of your kind. Even if you're an odd one, you shouldn't have that much kinship."
"I just think excessive slaughter by our kind isn't very good. Well, that's just a polite excuse."
To have his identity as demonkind seen through at a glance surprised Ash. After testing the waters a bit, he could not help smiling.
"I'm a bit interested in what you're doing here."
"Before I answer that, shouldn't you tell me who you are?"
"Ash. You could say I'm Aura's older brother," As he spoke, he glanced sideways at Aura.
Hearing a human concept spoken from a demon's mouth made Macht frown, "Older brother?"
"You don't know?"
"I know the concept, but…"
"In practice, it just feels that way, since I'm the one who raised her, literally from diapers," He claimed all the credit for himself, making Aura, who was already annoyed, explode in anger.
"You raised me? I'm the one who raised you, didn't I?"
"Alright, alright. Adults are talking, don't interrupt all the time," Ash wore an annoyed expression as he habitually grabbed Aura by the horns and shook her until she got dizzy, tumbling into Linie. Only then did he look back at Macht and return to the main topic.
"So? What are you doing here?"
"Now is about the right time…"
Macht looked back toward the distance, at the elderly male noble who had noticed these uninvited guests, and smiled.
"It doesn't matter if I tell you. I've fallen in love with humans."
"Uh… that's really shocking," He froze for a moment, then subconsciously followed Macht's gaze toward the old man nearby.
Although it seemed unlikely, because of Macht's gaze his thoughts still drifted, and he wondered whether he should respect someone else's preferences.
"So I want to understand them better, to try to figure out what guilt is."
"Huh? Guilt? I thought…"
"You thought I liked Gluck? I do like Gluck."
"Let me confirm something," Macht's strange phrasing made Ash press his hand to his head, trying to organize his chaotic thoughts, "When you say like… you don't mean anything weird, right?"
"Weird?", Macht was genuinely puzzled by his confusion.
"Forget it. Looks like I've dealt with too many nobles. My thinking's gotten dirty."
Looking at the bewildered Macht, Ash shook his head hard, trying to throw out the strange scenes he had recently seen in noble households and make his thoughts a bit more upright.
If one were to ask how strange those scenes were, there had been a male noble who kept more than ten boys. When he was discovered, all of them were completely naked, indulging themselves.
Similar incidents were not uncommon among nobles, making it hard for him to understand. They did not like beautiful girls, but instead liked men and boys? At least personally, he did not think he would ever get tired of beautiful girls.
His odd behavior made Macht stare at him for quite some time before speaking slowly.
"I think it's unlikely, but you wouldn't happen to understand guilt, would you?"
"I can, more or less."
"Really?"
"Why would I lie?"
"I want to doubt it, but… it's strange. The look in your eyes feels like a mixture of human and demon," Macht stared at him, paused slightly, then grinned.
"In that case, if I kill a strange guy like you, would I be able to figure it out?"
"That's the conclusion you come to? You really are a textbook demon,"
Ash froze, then smiled as well.
However, the other party did not reply and instead fell silent.
A chilling cold spread at that moment, silently seeping into every inch of space.
It was as if the two sides had reached some unspoken understanding, staring at each other in silence, neither showing the slightest wavering.
Yet within this still tableau lurked an overwhelming sense of crisis. Even the air seemed filled with the prelude to thunder and lightning, making every breath heavy and difficult.
Neither moved, yet torrents of mana had already begun swirling around them, constantly colliding.
Fallen leaves were blown high into the air, and even the glass of the distant mansion trembled, creaking nonstop.
As a demon, Aura naturally understood how fickle demonkind could be.
For example, the Macht before them had casually killed a demon general. In that regard, she herself was no different.
Even now, almost simultaneously with Linie, she manifested scales and twin swords, without any mental preparation, ready to help Ash kill the opponent.
However, just as the tension reached the breaking point, when both sides seemed ready to act and Aura was even thinking about striking first, the elderly noble in the distance, leaning on a cane, walked toward them through the waves of impact produced by the colliding mana.
"Could you wait a moment? Macht, are you and your friends planning to tear this place apart too?"
"How could that be, Lord Gluck. I was just greeting a unique and promising junior," Macht reined in his surging mana, then leaned slightly toward Ash and gave a small bow.
"Let's leave it at this for now. If we fight here, not only Lord Gluck, but your two companions would suffer as well."
"Who are you calling companions?"
Being looked down on was bad enough. Now Aura, proud as ever, completely exploded and charged forward, ready to fight him.
Ash casually grabbed her horn and forcibly dragged her back, "Forget it, Aura. Let's stop here today. Don't we still have proper business to attend to?"
"That's true," Aura crossed her arms, wearing an expression that said he was lucky, "Today I'll let it go for Ash's sake! And since we do have proper business. Otherwise I wouldn't let this end so easily. But there won't be a next time! If I run into you again… be ready to pay with your life!"
Aura's arrogant threats were enough to give Ash a splitting headache just listening to them.
After all, the things she said sounded exactly like what a street punk who gets chased and beaten would say. Or maybe saying things like that was why they got chased and beaten in the first place.
In any case, he just felt incredibly embarrassed now, to the point where he wanted to pretend he did not know Aura at all.
As for Macht…
"Quite the strong sense of pride," Macht responded with a mocking calmness, completely ignoring Aura, who was being dragged away by the horn by Ash, who was now walking faster.
While dragging Aura, Ash found it unexpectedly easy. The resistance he felt was far less than he had imagined.
That made him suddenly realize, she had absolutely known he would grab her, which was why she had been spouting threats and acting like she was about to single-handedly kill the guy.
This gave him an inexplicable sense of regret. He should not have grabbed her just now. He should have let her see how she would have ended it herself. He felt like he had grabbed her too early.
"What are you thinking about? That look on your face is way too agreeable… and seriously, how long are you going to keep holding my horn?", Only after they had moved far enough away from Macht did Aura slap his hand away, arrogantly declaring,
"If you hadn't stopped me, I would definitely have shown him who's boss!"
"Then maybe I shouldn't have... forget it. Let's just handle the proper business first."
He had been about to say that he would not stop her and let her try, but figured Aura definitely would not go back anyway, and it would just turn into another argument. That would only be more trouble for him.
So he cut himself off and wisely said nothing more.
Linie, who did not understand what was going on, clapped her small hands and praised emotionlessly.
"As expected of Aura-sama. Truly impressive."
"Hmph! Of course. I already said he was lucky."
Aura nodded smugly, deliberately flicking the ponytail that hung naturally over her shoulder.
Ash hesitated beside them for a moment, then simply reached out and rubbed Linie's head, completely giving up on complaining, and continued toward the battlefield to take care of proper business.
———
Near the battlefield, far from the earlier fortress city, on a high platform created by magic and concealed with illusion, while Aura was collecting dying soldiers, Ash, who had nothing to do but accompany her, suddenly recalled Macht's words, "Now is about the right time," his desire to understand "guilt," and the elderly noble he "liked," whom he even addressed as lord.
All of these details, combined with Aura's comment on the way here that Macht had been serving among humans in that city for over thirty years, suddenly connected in his mind.
And in that moment, he came up with a bold hypothesis.
[🎉 Shoutout to Fanisa & Luck for joining p@treon. Thank you very much.🤗]
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