Five assassins. Two were dead.
The ones captured by Lugner and Linie had each, at the very last moment, bitten down on the poison capsules hidden in their teeth and killed themselves.
The remaining three had gone down too quickly to reach their poison. Once the capsules were extracted, they were bound hand and foot and thrown into Gaderia's dungeon.
Gaderia's people were a hardy, no-nonsense folk — crime was virtually unheard of, and the territory had always been well-ordered. Now, the long-empty dungeon had acquired three new residents.
"Aura, use the Magic of Obedience on them."
"Why can't you just let me beat them senseless?! Torturing humans is what I do best!"
Aura, swathed in bandages from head to toe, was visibly seething.
"I can see you're looking to settle a personal score," Nanoda said flatly. "Getting information about whoever's backing them comes first."
She already had her suspicions — she simply wanted confirmation.
— Outside the dungeon.
"You were injured?" Linie asked, looking at the bandaged arm Lugner was carrying.
He gave a small nod. "Mm. You as well?"
Linie nodded in turn. Even now, her body — her face and cheeks included — was still marked with small wounds that hadn't fully healed, marring features that were ordinarily striking.
The two Demons stood in silence for a long moment. Then Lugner spoke.
"They were difficult to deal with. These humans who appeared out of nowhere — they're specialists at dealing with Mages. The old me wouldn't have stood a chance."
"Same for me."
Originally, as Aura's direct subordinates — her Guillotine Executioners — their strength had already surpassed that of ordinary Demon generals.
But without Qual and Nanoda's prior training, even they would not have been a match for those assassins.
The conversation ended there.
— Inside the dungeon.
Aura had completed the Magic of Obedience. However, the three assassins possessed such extraordinary willpower that they managed to temporarily resist even Aura's forced compliance.
"Let me take their heads off. They'll be far more cooperative once that's done," Aura said, a vicious gleam entering her eyes.
Every time she thought back to how wretched she'd looked that night, she felt as though whatever remained of her dignity as one of the Seven Sages of Destruction had been ground into dust on the floor.
Fortunately, only Nanoda had seen it.
"If you take their heads off, how exactly are we going to get anything out of them? Step aside — I'll handle it."
In the end, it wasn't until Nanoda had thoroughly beaten all three of them to the edge of unconsciousness that the information finally came out.
Unsurprisingly — it was the Empire again.
In response, Aura launched into a furious verbal tirade against the Northern Empire's Emperor — from across the room, for good measure — directing her full venom at the man she held responsible for everything.
With the compiled confessions in hand, Nanoda left to go over them with Aaron.
Before she went, she left Aura with one parting remark.
"As long as you don't kill them — do whatever you like."
She was fully aware that these people were nothing more than cold-blooded killing instruments, shaped and deployed by the Empire. But that didn't mean she was willing to simply let them go after they'd hurt her companions.
The disappointment that had been clouding Aura's expression lifted at once.
Nanoda really does care about me~
—
Three days after the assassination attempt on Aura.
The Emperor, who had received no word from his agents, was growing anxious. His fingers tapped against the armrests of the throne — faster and faster.
"Your Majesty... I believe they have already failed," Wolf said respectfully at his side.
"What?! They were supposed to be several times more capable than the shadow guards — and this is all they amounted to?!"
The young Emperor stilled his habitual tapping, his regard for these Mage-assassins curdling into contempt.
At the same time, he found Wolf's deferential manner oddly jarring. The man before him bore no resemblance to the lunatic who had conspired to seize the throne and murder his own father. They seemed like entirely different people.
Wolf said nothing. He knew the truth: those assassins had been genuinely formidable. It was simply that the one in Gaderia was something else entirely.
But he had no intention of fully revealing Gaderia's true depth.
The way he saw it — that was precisely what made things interesting.
"Hmm... Wolf, do you think I should dispatch the army right now and sweep Gaderia off the map? Our Empire once drove off Demon forces that had the entire imperial city under siege. Are we really going to be afraid of one little Gaderia?"
After a brief pause, the Emperor let his ambitions show. Newly enthroned, he was hungry — for victories, for renown.
"Your Majesty, I believe... that would not be advisable."
"And why not?"
"The great Mages who drove back the Demons back then — they have either retired with age, or..." Wolf trailed off suddenly, as if catching himself.
"Go on. I swear I won't hold it against you."
"...Were largely purged by the late Emperor."
The words landed like cold water thrown over a flame. The young Emperor felt something drop in his chest.
"That..."
Just then, Wolf — white mask and all — leaned in close to the Emperor's ear. One hand settled firmly on his shoulder.
"Which is precisely why only I can help you."
As he spoke, Wolf reached out and gave the jeweled crown atop the Emperor's head a casual, deliberate flick with one finger.
All that earlier deference, in hindsight, had clearly been a performance.
Suppressing the resentment rising within him, the Emperor forced out a response.
"And what exactly is it that you can do, Lord Wolf?"
Inwardly, he was cursing Wolf's insufferable insolence.
Strangely, now that he sat upon the throne, this young Emperor no longer feared Wolf as he once had. He stood at the very pinnacle of the entire Northern Empire now.
"Even without those Mages, the Northern Empire's knights alone are enough to sweep the entire northern frontier clean. When we first drove out the Demons and pushed our borders outward, wasn't it the knights who did most of the work?"
Wolf looked at the young Emperor — whose boldness and bluster had swelled considerably — and suddenly burst out laughing.
"Hahahaha. How very entertaining."
"Wolf!"
The Emperor's furious voice rang out through the chamber where only the two of them stood. The laughter stopped dead.
"Your Majesty, leading a knight's crusade into battle is not what I am offering. There is a more important matter — one that only I can help you with." A trace of genuine seriousness entered Wolf's voice.
"Hmph. Let's hear it."
"Don't you find, Your Majesty, that the capital is overrun with useless nobles? They hoard their wealth and their knights, yet accomplish nothing. I can help you persuade them to contribute their share — for the sake of the imperial house, for the sake of this war."
The anger on the young Emperor's face receded. His eyes narrowed slightly.
Despite his contempt for Wolf, he couldn't deny the man's capability. Wolf had already put him on the throne — and now this new proposal set his mind racing.
He had noticed this problem even when he was still a prince.
The late Emperor, in his efforts to suppress the court Mages, had cultivated a faction of nobles — and those nobles had grown increasingly bloated with power over time, quietly beginning to slip beyond anyone's control.
"You're certain you mean 'persuade'?"
"Persuasion comes in many forms~," Wolf said, his tone laden with implication.
All at once, a thought struck the young Emperor. This might be the perfect opportunity to deal with several thorns in his side in a single stroke.
"Very well. I authorize you to find a way to 'persuade' them. This war can wait until after you've settled those nobles."
Hearing those words, the corners of Wolf's mouth beneath the mask curled into a slow grin.
There were interesting things to do again.
____
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