At first, everything seemed normal upon entering the mountain forest.
Such lush, wild mountain forests were incredibly common throughout the Fiore Kingdom.
With vast territory, sparse population, limited productivity, and no strong governmental organization, even after several generations of effort, the people of Fiore Kingdom might not fully develop the entire realm.
Thus, attracting more population was still necessary.
"Chirp chirp!"
From the dense, sky-blocking foliage, the sounds of insects and birds continuously arose.
Marco's crows patrolled the skies, searching for any suspicious targets.
However, due to the thick vegetation, this method yielded minimal results.
They could only confirm the absence of large, strange structures or phenomena.
After the crows had circled the area extensively, Marco directly ordered them to dive into the forest, weaving back and forth through the jungle.
The night was deep, but it posed no trouble for the crows.
On the ground, Marco and Mirajane advanced with torches, acting quite boldly—their main goal was to attract attention.
In this mountain forest, finding a suspicious target was quite challenging.
Having the suspicious target come to them would save a lot of effort.
Confident in their skills and courage, the two weren't afraid of being ambushed by the "demon" and openly ventured deeper into the forest.
"Why is it hiding here?" Mira was puzzled.
These demons were all mad, driven solely by destructive desires.
Whenever news of a demon emerged, it was often accompanied by massacres and the destruction of towns.
It was rare to find one hiding in a mountain forest like this.
"Maybe it's not in good condition?"
Marco didn't quite understand either, mainly because he hadn't encountered many demons.
Various books provided limited descriptions of them.
To make matters worse, Hibiki had returned to Blue Pegasus, so he couldn't even consult that database for relevant information.
'I really should make better use of this Celestial Spirit summoning ability. If my students could also forcibly summon Celestial Spirits, they could use them to relay messages remotely. Unfortunately, ordinary Celestial Spirits can't open gates on their own, so they don't qualify as messengers.' Marco thought to himself.
Thus, they still needed to quickly develop "magic phones"—it was becoming an obsession for him.
He frequently urged the development master, Warren, about it, whether Warren was busy or not.
"Caw!!!"
While Marco and Mira acted as bait, wandering through the forest to lure out the demon, the crows flying around made a discovery.
They found a cave emitting intense magical fluctuations, which looked highly suspicious.
"Even if it's not a demon, it could be a powerful magical beast. Shall we check it out?"
Marco immediately decided to go take a look.
"Alright."
Mira didn't hesitate and followed Marco closely.
She knew that with Marco here, there wouldn't be any real danger.
The two quickly made their way to the cave discovered by the crows.
Over a dozen crows were stationed around, keeping a close watch on the cave to ensure the creature inside wouldn't escape.
"Go."
Upon reaching the cave entrance, Marco didn't rush in recklessly.
He first sent the crows inside to scout and assess the situation.
The cave wasn't large; squeezing both of them inside would be quite difficult.
Clearly, it wasn't the den of a large creature.
"Caw!!!"
Two crows flew directly into the pitch-black cave, where neither moonlight nor starlight from the sky could penetrate.
"This ability is truly remarkable."
Though it wasn't Mira's first time seeing Marco control these crows, she still found it fascinating.
Such abilities were rare, and she had never heard of any magic that could manipulate beasts.
If she had to compare, "Take Over Magic" could somewhat be considered similar, as it involved absorbing the power of magical beasts, animals, or demons for one's own use.
"Celestial Spirit Magic" could also loosely be categorized as "beast manipulation," though it controlled Celestial Spirits rather than beasts.
Thinking about it this way, Marco's ability to control crows didn't seem so strange after all.
After all, this was also Celestial Spirit Magic—more precisely, the more advanced "New Celestial Spirit Magic," which far surpassed the capabilities of traditional Celestial Spirit Magic.
"There really is a magical beast here." Marco suddenly spoke, interrupting Mira's train of thought.
The girl glanced at him, a hint of disappointment in her eyes, as it was merely a magical beast and not their target—a demon.
"ROOARRR!"
Provoked by the two crows, the magical beast inside the cave grew agitated and charged out after them.
It was a humanoid magical beast, disheveled and crude in appearance, resembling a goat monster.
It had withered, branch-like horns on its head and exuded an eerie aura.
Both Marco and Mira immediately recognized the source of this strange magical energy.
"It's a demon!"
The magical beast was shrouded in a demonic aura, but it wasn't a demon itself.
It seemed to have been tainted by that sinister dark magic.
"Good, good. Finally found you." Marco chuckled, his gaze fixed on the humanoid goat monster's right hand, where it clutched a flute in its strange claw.
"LULLABY"—a demonic flute with a skull featuring three eyes at its tip, identical to the one held by the magical beast.
"Is this the demon?" Mira looked skeptical.
Though the beast resembled a demon, its strength was pitiful.
It snarled at them, but its magical energy fluctuations were only average.
"No, it's the flute—the legendary LULLABY."
Marco shook his head slightly and pointed at the flute tightly gripped in the beast's hand.
The flute clearly didn't look ordinary.
"LULLABY? The curse-killing magic? It's actually a demon?"
Mirajane's expression grew even more astonished.
Clearly, she had heard of the curse-killing magic "LULLABY," but the fact that it was a demon truly surprised her.
In the past, there had been incidents where "LULLABY" caused disasters, but records only treated it as an inanimate object—a flute capable of unleashing a terrifying "curse-killing magic."
There were no records suggesting it was a demon.
Mira stared intently at the flute, trying to detect any signs of life, but she found none.
To her, it looked just like an ordinary flute.
"Whoosh!"
With a wave of his hand, Marco shot out a vividly crimson rose.
Wrapped in Star Magic, the "Royal Demon Rose" pierced straight through the beast's head, leaving a gaping hole.
"Thud."
The beast collapsed to the ground, effortlessly defeated.
The flute it had been clutching tightly rolled out of its hand.
"....."
Mira looked warily at the flute.
"What should we do now?" Mira asked aloud.
The flute still appeared docile, showing no unusual movements.
If it truly were a demon, it was quite the actor—remaining completely unresponsive under these circumstances.
"These stupid demons always believe they can corrupt every person who holds them."
Marco chuckled and walked directly toward the flute.
Truth be told, he could probably guess what this LULLABY was thinking.
---------
Read 50 chapters ahead and support me on patreon.
patreon (.)com/Newbietranslator