Chapter 152: Zagoras and Echis (2)

“…Why?”

“I can’t tell you why, except that I can’t have anything to do with Cadet Zetto’s curse… If that’s all you have to say, please leave, I’m busy with the Knights.”

“…”

Mouthing my answer, Aizel raises a trembling arm to the desk… and then leaves the room.

“……”

I sat dumbfounded, staring at the door she’d left through.

There was no lie.

No, I would rather have been able to spit out a lie.

Aizel Ludwig, a classmate of Zetto’s at the Academy. She had platinum hair and golden eyes.

I’d noticed the forcefulness of her public classes, but I had no idea she was connected to the leader of the Black Hand.

Zetto is a fascinating man. No wonder he has so many people who care about him.

Should I be glad that I wasn’t the only one who noticed his curse, and that it was her “destiny” to break it, not mine?

Why did the Lord have such a plan?

My head was spinning.

I haven’t done any research on how to do it, but hopefully she can find a way to do it.

Shaking off my thoughts, I push myself to his feet and step outside.

As I open the door, a woman in robes bows.

“How did the conversation go?”

I smile and answer vaguely as she holds out her robe to me.

“It went well. Did you hear anything else along the way?”

With that, I threw on my robes and headed straight for the investigation headquarters.

Inés, who was right behind me, whispered.

“…I got it.”

“Is that true?”

We were finally making progress in our quest to destroy Delion.

***

Three women sat in a conference room at the temporary investigative headquarters of the Knights of the Silver Wing.

Bernice, the Saint of Innocence.

Ines, the Order Leader.

And Ecline, the deputy leader.

Stacks of papers cluttered the conference room’s desks and against one wall were a number of notes with information about Delion, the deputy leader of the Knights of the Golden Lion.

They were currently conducting a secret investigation into him based on information from the Honorary Knight Zetto that Delion was a demon.

“”……””

A stern silence hung over the room as the matter was discussed.

Since they were investigating a Templar from another country, perhaps even an ally, the investigation had to be conducted in complete secrecy to avoid confrontation between the nations, so while it was inevitable that the location would be known to the Intelligence Guild, the information inside the investigation headquarters would not leak out.

Soon, a knight entered the conference room and held out a stack of papers to Bernice.

“This is what you asked for.”

The knight who handed her the papers bowed slightly and left the room again, and Ines spoke up.

“These are the reports submitted to the Alliance, containing the entry and exit records of all the Knights of the Golden Lion and their recent activities. I’ve been transcribing them, leaving the originals intact.”

“…The informant must have gone through a lot of trouble, have you all read them?”

Bernice, who had been holding the papers in her hands at Inés’ explanation, asked.

“Yes, but it was strangely neat.”

“There are no entries or exits that indicate predation, which is consistent with his recent behavior.”

Inés spoke first, followed by Ecline.

There was insufficient evidence that Delion was a demon but what they were investigating was none other than human predation.

Preying on humans was one of the things demons can’t give up.

Demons accumulate magick by sucking the life force out of humans. Moreover, demons instinctively seek out strength, so human corpses inevitably appear wherever they are.

It had to be assumed that most demons who set foot on human soil did so with the intent to prey on humans, so if Delion was one of them, he must be doing just that.

Bernice looked at the papers and as Ecline and Ines had said, there were no anomalies in Delion’s personal logs.

“…But while it’s clean for Mr. Delion alone, there are some things that don’t add up when you look at the entire Order.”

Inés says this to Bernice, who is still looking through the papers, and Bernice tilts her head.

“Lately, the words ‘no survivors’ have been appearing in their slaughters with noticeable frequency.”

At Ines’ next words, Bernice glanced at the internal reports of the Knights of the Golden Lion.

“Hmm…Definitely. No matter how incompetent and slow to react, this is enough to make me wonder if the Knights of the Golden Lion aren’t even worthy of the name… It’s too frequent… Missing demons is one thing, but the low survival rate of new recruits is another.”

“No survivors… could it be…”

Ecline’s voice trailed off with meaning.

What could happen if the vice-captain of a knight order that was supposed to hunt down demons was a demon?

What if the demons were found, but he deliberately missed his own kind, devoured the humans in their place, and then blamed the demons for their deaths…?

Or maybe the demons never showed up in the first place, and Delion killed the humans and reported that he missed the demons.

As the three women’s minds raced with possibilities, Bernice, who had been studying the report, found a clue.

“…Is it a coincidence that all of the areas reported as having no survivors are slums?”

Bernice, who often travels to the slums to help people who are struggling to get proper medical care, was able to recognize this.

“In the slums, no one would care if their neighbor disappeared overnight if they were killed by a demon. It’s a good place for predation, where you don’t make a lot of noise.”

“But even then, the Templars would have been there, too, and he could have pulled the wolf’s wool over their eyes perfectly.”

Ecline questioned Bernice’s speculation but Inés has a theory.

“…No, I think it’s entirely possible. If the entire Templar Order is bending to his will, the conditions are right for him.”

“Does that explain the remarkably low survival rate of new recruits…?”

“Perhaps he’s weeding out those who might go against his wishes, those he can’t recruit.”

“If all of this is true, he’s quite cunning and clever, so it’s not out of the realm of possibility, and his sophistication should be factored into the equation since he joined the Demon Slayers in the first place, but this report seems insufficient as evidence. Unless we catch him in the act…”

Bernice summarized the conversation between Ecline and Inés.

Yes, it was just a speculation, and the situation was still up in the air but now that it was clear that Delion was a demon, they were going over their research from scratch to see if they had missed anything.

Then Ecline spotted something.

“Wait a minute, can I have this…”

Ecline holds out the paper she’s been reading to Inés and Bernice, who are looking through a stack of papers on the desk.

It was a log of the entry and exit of the Knights of the Golden Lion.

Ecline points to a section of the paper and speaks.

“…Delion seems to have been entering the orphanage at regular intervals in the name of donations, but if he was truly a demon, would he have been handing over donations to the orphanage as normal…? It could be a cover for the fact that he might be investigated at some point, but if not…Orphans in an orphanage…isn’t that quite similar in nature to the slums, and it’s only recently that there have been no survivors of demonic exterminations in the slums… Maybe even before that…”

“…He was preying on orphans?”

Ecline nodded faintly at Ines’ conclusion.

“But the younger ones lacked vigor and would not have been qualitatively enough for him.”

That was true, a young child would not normally even be considered for predation by the demons, as their bodies lacked the vital energy of a robust adult. The same goes for the elderly.

At Bernice’s words, Ecline shifts the stack of papers on her desk a bit, revealing a map.

“But it’s a fairly large orphanage in the capital of the Kingdom of Terracia… Well, as we know, it’s overflowing with children who lost their parents in the war… It’s a horrible story, but the numbers are there. And if the ledger is helping, it’s probably more stable than the slums.”

Pointing to the map, Ecline said.

“The orphanage would normally be a stable source of humans, but for whatever reason, he’s gotten desperate and has been raiding the slums frequently…with the intention of tarnishing the Templars’ reputation.”

“”……””

A hush fell over the room after Bernstein’s theorem.

It was an unpleasant story, even for their hypothesis.

But if it was true, there was no time for them to sit back and relax.

“I’d like you to investigate the orphanage. Using the date of his visit as a baseline, if there are any children who were sent for adoption on a nearby date, we’ll have to trace them backwards. And since there’s a good chance that the orphanage’s director and Delion are in cahoots, I’d like you to keep this investigation quiet.”

At Bernice’s command, Ecline and Inés briefly reply and leave the room.

“…”

Bernice remained in the conference room, quietly controlling her anger and hoping that their hypothesis was just a hypothesis.

***

Despite her wishes, as the orphanage’s investigation progressed, it was becoming increasingly likely that Delion was a demon.

No, it was almost certain that their hypothesis had been correct.

They traced the children from the orphanage back to where they had been sent for adoption.

They visited homes that were supposed to have adopted them, only to be told that no such child existed.

On top of that, the adoption rate was ridiculously high.

In the name of adoption, the orphanages were filled with new orphans. It was a cycle of sorts.

It was shocking, even if the kingdom of Terracia was being left to rot by an old king.

Perhaps it was because the world didn’t pay much attention to the overflow of orphans.

Delion must have known this, too, and had come to take advantage.

He was a very clever man.

It was a cunning move, as if he knew what the public cared about and what they didn’t care about.

Eventually, Bernice decided to confirm her theory and arrested the director of the orphanage that was supposedly providing orphans to the demon Delion.

It was an arrest, not a formal investigation, so it was a kidnapping but it didn’t matter.

Even if the director had no connection to Delion, there would still be questions about where all those children had gone.

He was tied up in ropes and shivering when he came face to face with Bernice in a basement, unable to speak.

He felt as if Bernice’s pink eyes could see right through him and quickly assessed the situation.

‘It wasn’t the bandits.’

The silver-armored women around him were the Knights of the Silver Wings, which meant that this silver-haired woman was none other than the saint.

As sinful as he was, he tried to hide it as best he could, but there was no escaping Bernice’s power.

Bernice asked him straightforwardly.

Did he ever offer orphans to Delion, the deputy leader of the Knights of the Golden Lion?

The answer came back.

“…False.”

Bernice replied with an indifferent glance.

Somehow, the director, who knew that Bernice was a saint but not of her powers, had come up with a lie to get out of the situation.

Not that reciting the truth would make any difference.

“Don’t you know what kind of person Lord Delion is…! You dare to suspect the vice-captain of a kingdom’s knight order as a demon!”

“With that answer, it is also confirmed that Delion is a demon.”

The director suddenly realized the meaning of ‘innocence’ in Bernice’s title.

Somehow, Delion had been found out to be a demon but the director thought quickly.

‘I’m not going to die right away…’

They’d need a witness to touch Delion anyway.

But just as he thought that Bernice leaned over and made eye contact with the Director, who was still on his knees.

“Do you really think you’re not going to die, that you’re going to go to jail, that somehow you’re going to use your connections to get out, and that’s it?”

“…”

It hit the nail on the head.

“Unfortunately, you will die today.”

‘Why?’

Just as the question flashes through his mind, Bernice turns away from him.

“Your life means nothing once it’s been established that Delion is a demon, and his head will be further proof. Besides, I don’t want you to live another day, another minute, another second. I must do it for the sake of the children who died in vain.”

And with that, Bernice’s chilling sentence was delivered and a short, green-haired woman approaches him with her sword unsheathed.