1068: Metelmam

The demon knight lost his balance and fell out of the sky after we cut off his right arm and wing.

Fran chased him down for a follow up.

「You little bitch!」

「Hah!」

「Shit, damn you! Get away from me!」

「Teya!」

The demon knight’s wounds started regenerating immediately. The same applied before his manifestation, but it seems the regeneration inhibition of life magic doesn’t do much. Perhaps that’s true for all creatures that are not standard lifeforms, such as antidemons and demons.

Still, it didn’t change anything. Fran slashed off his wings and limbs before he could fully regenerate and regain his balance.

Fran’s perfect timing prevented the demon knight from ever getting back up into the sky. He ended up falling straight into the forest still spinning wildly.

After the sound of cracking branches and rustling leaves, I heard a loud crashing sound. It seems he collided into the trunk of a tree at full momentum.

The demon knight’s bones snapped along with the tree’s trunk. The combination of both contributed to the unpleasant sound.

Fran went to the crash site and found the man lying on the ground. He had lost his right arm, left leg, and both wings, while vomiting a large amount of blood from his mouth. The huge tree he collided with was crushed in the middle and toppled over.

With his mana levels greatly diminished, the man seemed unable to regenerate. His life force felt pretty weak too, so he was barely holding on to life.

Fran began interrogating him after stopping the bleeding.

「Who are you?」

「…」

「What’s your name? You have a demon, so are you from Phyllius? Or Raydoss?」

「…」

He seemed very tight-lipped, as expected from his knightly appearance. Rather than attempting to lie, he simply stayed completely silent.

Which means Principle of Falsehoods is useless against him. Not much I can do. What’s more, the man quickly made up his mind.

「Kill me.」

「You got it, boss.」

「!!」

His head suddenly exploded. At the same time, his left breast swelled up from the inside for a moment.

『Damn, he just killed himself.』

「Nn…」

The demon must have destroyed the man’s head and heart from the inside. After all the effort we spent capturing him alive…

I appraised his body one final time, but there wasn’t much to see. The man’s name was Rayus, and he had a bunch of skills related to demons.

A search of his belongings revealed nothing to indicate his affiliation. We also found no trace of the demon that seemingly killed him.

I can’t even tell if it’s still hiding inside the corpse somewhere. I tried putting it in storage, and that worked, so maybe not…?

「Let’s go to the village.」

『Yeah, don’t think we’re gonna get any more info here. They definitely know we’re coming due to the fight though. Be careful.』

「Nn.」

「Woof!」

We hid our presence as much as possible before heading for the village of Metelmam. There were no signs of enemies on the way. If the village had been occupied by Raydoss troops, it seems they did not set up any patrols.

Maybe they were really confident that the demon knight would protect them?

We easily reached the village, but quickly noticed a few unusual signs. I didn’t sense anyone inside the houses. Were they dragged somewhere else, like in Dars?

I scanned over a wider area and found a group of people gathered at the back of the village. We sneaked through the village in that direction.

（…Raydoss soldiers?）

『Yeah, but what’s with their bodies…?』

We saw men who seemed to be Raydoss soldiers lying on the roadside, already dead. However, their condition was strange.

There were three corpses, and each was in a different state.

One of them had purple spots on his body, and an expression of anguish on his face. He was obviously killed with a fast-acting poison.

The remaining two both suffered traumatic injuries, but different kinds. One had a deep cut across his torso, with all his internal organs spilling out.

The other, however, had his torso twistedand bent, turning him into a human croissant. Their pain-filled expressions indicated that this was done while they were still alive.

Poison, cutting, and this mysterious power. So there were three different people with these powers hiding in the village somewhere? Well, I guess we could do the same thing if we tried. The demon knight we defeated might be able to cause the latter two.

But if that demon knight defeated the Raydoss soldiers for us, why didn’t he let Fran enter the village?

Maybe Raydoss occupied the village, and Phyllius took advantage of the situation to steal the village for themselves? But weren’t Kranzel and Phyllius on friendly terms…?

While I was contemplating this, Fran was getting close to her destination.

It seemed to be some kind of a town meeting square. Well, more like a large open area without a roof. Over a hundred people were tied up and sitting on the ground.

The men had their arms and legs bound, while the women and children only had their hands tied. Everyone looked weak and tired. There were a few guys who clearly weren’t villagers, so maybe they were adventurers?

No, not just that. There seemed to be random bandits from the nearby region captured here as well. The dirty and barbaric equipment they wore indicated that they were neither villagers or adventurers.

The square didn’t have anyone from Raydoss, although three people stood out.

One of them stood at the entrance of the meeting square, probably in charge of guarding the prisoners. He seemed to be human, but he had the same armor of the demon knight we fought earlier. Maybe he’s also a demon knight.

The bigger problem was the two further back. A young boy and a young girl with beautiful blond hair were standing in the center of the square. We recognized them.

（Flut and Satia?）

『Yeah, it’s definitely them.』

Fran’s friends, Prince Flut and Princess Satia, were discussing something with troubled looks on their faces.

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