Chapter 112

Chapter 112

At the Scene of a Kindred Massacre (End)

Langlok, the demon who had been digging into the Hero’s reincarnation, had to desperately swallow the sentence about to leap from his twitching mouth.

“You are not Jorgal.”

The smile of the man wrapped in snow-white bandages entered his sight. Langlok did not even try to imagine what meaning that smile held.

He was busy enough protecting his own safety.

Whatever had happened to Jorgal, who had always been obnoxious anyway, was none of his concern.

Demons were cunning, and Langlok was no different.

“Ahem... Here is your card, Mr. Jorgal.”

Langlok returned the card to him and cleared his throat. The man lowered his head slightly, then placed the card inside his clothes.

“Then, I am busy, so I will be going now...”

Just when Langlok turned around with those words...

“Uh... excuse me...”

The bandaged man’s voice came from behind him. Langlok wanted to pretend not to hear it, to ignore it, but the moment his voice rang out, his arm was caught.

He should definitely be blind, so how had he accurately caught his arm? But Langlok had no time to wonder about that.

“...Haha. What is it?”

“I wanted to ask if you could introduce this place to me, if you do not mind.”

“I am busy...”

“...You will introduce it to me, yes?”

Langlok tried to quickly continue speaking in order to leave, but the man indifferently cut him off.

Langlok gulped.

Because he was red-horned, because he had stood at the bottom of the food chain, because he had been among the weakest of the weak, he could sense it.

In the voice of the man before him, whose eyes were covered by bandages, clear “killing intent” could be felt.

“...Th-that would be best. Ahaha...”

Langlok smiled awkwardly and glanced at the guard over there. The guard was sitting at his post, picking his nose.

Barely holding back a sigh, Langlok began guiding the way.

Langlok was quick-witted.

His mind turned quickly.

He recognized that this blindfolded demon, who had come while hiding his identity and claimed to be a recruit, was dangerous.

Whatever the purpose of this man, this demon, might be, something very bad would happen in this place tonight.

That was what he guessed.

But even Langlok would never know for the rest of his life that, the moment he turned his gaze away from the guard, with one gesture of the blind man’s hand, the guard’s shadow swallowed the guard.

Even as Langlok walked ahead down the corridor, he worked hard to grasp the intention of the man following him.

What Langlok had only now noticed was that he could not guess what color that man’s horn might be.

From the intimidation he faintly felt at his back, from this pressure that tightened his breath, he could tell at least that there was a tremendous difference in level between himself, who was no more than red-horned, and him.

Of course, that had little meaning.

Because demons weaker than red horns did not exist.

“...Come to think of it, I have not heard your name.”

The man’s question came quietly from behind Langlok as he followed.

“Ah, I am Langlok...”

He could not refuse the man’s question.

No, he had no intention of refusing it.

Langlok judged that, even if he could not know what the man intended to do, there was no need to get on his bad side.

Soon, Langlok opened the door to the hall and entered.

“This is the hall. Everyone gathers here to work.”

The hall was still a noisy mess, with bundles of documents flying here and there.

Not a single person looked at Langlok or the bandaged man who entered through the door.

The man who stepped into the hall lost the smile on his lips. He was no longer smiling.

Soon, his mouth opened.

“...There does not seem to be any other exit... This will make things easy.”

The man muttered strange words, saying things would be easy.

“Why is he asking about exits...?”

The moment that question formed in Langlok’s head.

The lips of the man he had been tilting his head to stare at, visible beneath the snow-white bandages, gently opened.

“Shadow Stitching.”

The moment the man’s chant rang out, the movements of every demon in the hall stiffened.

The demon who had grabbed another demon by the collar and was swinging a fist, the demon who was looking over documents and touching his chin, the demon who had just raised his body from a chair to stand.

And Langlok, who stood beside him.

Everyone was frozen, unable to move.

It was as if time had stopped, but time had not stopped.

Their mouths could move.

Immediately, the muttering voices of those who had not yet grasped the situation, the ones on the stupider side even among demons, filled with doubt and irritation, could be heard.

At last, the bandaged man, who had stood there blankly listening to their murmurs, raised his hand from below to above.

“Manifestation.”

With the man’s voice, all the “shadows” in the hall grew viscous like sticky liquid and boiled up.

Then from somewhere in the hall came a strange and unpleasant sound.

—Crunch!!!

In that moment, a bizarre silence flowed through the enormous hall.

—Crunch...

—Crunch...

To those who could not even turn their heads, the sound of something being chewed through to the bone settled vividly in their ears, and the pupils of those who had confirmed its identity with their own eyes trembled violently.

Because Langlok stood near the entrance, he could see the entire sight.

“Fear” leaked from Langlok’s mouth.

“Wh-what... what is that...”

Something black that had surged from the floor spread a massive maw wide and chewed up the entire space where a demon had been standing.

Its shape was so strange that he could not even begin to guess what to call it.

Langlok rolled his eyes and took in the man standing beside him.

“...This is that man’s doing.”

That much was clear.

Then once again, “it” surged from the floor, from the shadows, and swallowed one demon.

But this time, perhaps because it had not swallowed properly, half of the demon’s body fell away, and the demon’s upper body dropped to the floor.

—Aaaaaaagh!!!!!!

The demon’s scream followed.

That scream was announcing the beginning of the “massacre.”

The demons grew frantic.

Rules or not, they revealed their horns and used demonic energy, struggling desperately to move even one step.

But red horns.

Red horns darker than those.

Even the young “branch chief,” whose horns were close to dark red.

Not one person in that place could move.

The shadows boiling beneath their feet had surged from the floor and begun tightly binding their bodies.

—Crunch!!

Once again, “it” chewed up several demons.

An end they could not resist.

The crunching sound of bones being chewed through, and the pained groans of demons, bestowed despair upon those who were still alive.

Watching this, Langlok quietly asked.

“Why... are you doing this... to your own kind...”

Despite his question, the bandaged man bent his knees and was stroking something resembling a black “dog” that had appeared from nowhere.

Just as another death pierced their ears from across the hall.

The man straightened and opened his mouth.

“You said your name was Langlok, yes... How many humans have you eaten?”

“...How many...”

“You have never counted, I assume. After all, no one counts how many times they have eaten in their life.”

“...”

“It is the same for me. You are ‘nutrients’ that become my strength, and the scene unfolding before your eyes right now would not be especially wrong to call a ‘meal.’”

As the man continued speaking, he approached Langlok.

Now Langlok did not need to roll his eyes to see his form, his expression.

Because his eyes were covered with bandages, he could not tell whether the man was angry, or if he had no expression at all.

What was certain was... he was not smiling.

“...So how does it feel? The feeling of falling from predator to prey.”

At the man’s low question, Langlok could not answer anything.

His breath clogged as if his throat had tightened, and no voice came out.

Cold sweat beaded on Langlok’s forehead.

A rapid panorama of his life flashed before his eyes.

When Langlok stood there dazed, giving no answer, the man soon turned his back on him.

“...So please scream. That is the only thing I wish from you.”

Following the man’s final words, the shadow beneath Langlok’s feet boiled violently.

Langlok sensed it.

And screamed.

***

A quiet silence lingered in the hall.

The demons who had reeked of foul stench vanished without leaving so much as a crumb.

“I wondered if I would have to set fire to it...”

Thanks to “Shady” chewing up demons and desks alike, there was no need to handle any bothersome cleanup.

He had cleaned the hall very neatly.

In the empty hall, Shady could be seen.

[ Is that truly the Shady I knew...? ]

Sierra opened her eyes wide and murmured.

...It was understandable.

—Gruuulk...

Gone was the Shady with cute, fluffy fur, and in his place, some bizarre-looking “black thing” was burping.

That was Shady in his Manifestation state. I did not know which of the two I should call Shady.

Both, perhaps.

There was something I wanted to test, and to do that, there was no need to carry a weapon in and be suspected, so I had hidden Sierra outside for a while.

Thus, after finishing the cleanup, I had now brought Sierra in.

In any case, during this battle... though I did not know whether it could be called a battle, I had planned to handle it using only Shady’s power without using Sierra.

Shady’s power was satisfying.

The binding technique’s performance was excellent, and Shady’s Manifestation, as expected, was mighty.

They were weak demons, not named-level enemies, but demons were still demons. There were also quite a lot of them.

Shady’s power carried out a one-sided massacre against such demons.

The only pity was that this was not a power that could grow further from here.

If there was anything that could be called a drawback...

“Hsss...”

I wiped away the blood that had welled up and flowed from my mouth.

It consumed quite a lot of stamina.

At a rather dangerous level too.

Whatever else, “Manifestation” had a large cost.

Well, unless it was a special situation like this, I did not think I would use it often.

I killed the demons as painfully as possible.

It was to honor those who had died at their hands.

Thanks to the barrier I had received from Eclin on the day of the induction ceremony and set up in advance, the demons’ screams would not leak outside.

In the end, I had to see my goal as achieved.

At this level, their information network had been dealt a major blow, and their reaching the Hero would also be delayed at least a little longer.

Though their levels were low, there were many of them, so I obtained a large amount of experience by disposing of them.

My level rose by six at once, reaching level 45.

As a bonus, I tested whether I could fool demons using Shady’s energy.

“Why... are you doing this... to your own kind...”

Well, judging by the reaction, he seemed to have been fooled well enough.

At the moment, I was deliberately spreading Shady’s energy throughout the hall.

It was to confuse the demons who would come here.

And also to gain “infamy.”

Demons store the vitality of living beings in their horns and convert it into demonic energy. Among them, humans are considered to be of the highest quality.

But would you believe there is one creature more efficient than absorbing the vitality of one human, a creature of even higher quality than humans?

That is “demons.”

Cannibalizing one’s own kind is an act strictly forbidden even among demons.

For me, it was enough to make them recall a nightmare-like past, that a demon who devoured its own kind had appeared.

When I decided the time was right, I withdrew Shady and hid my body inside the shadows.

I did not forget to remove the soundproofing barrier.

With this, no evidence or witnesses regarding me would remain in the area.

This place was now nothing more than the scene of a nearly perfect crime of kindred cannibalism, as far as demons were concerned.