"…So you actually succeeded?"
Looking at the Demon Person Sezer standing obediently beside Duanmu Huai, Shizuka had a completely dumbfounded expression on her face. She never would have imagined that after merely sleeping through the night, this Demon Person would now look like a newly married little wife who had just entered the household—standing meekly behind Duanmu Huai, not daring to breathe too loudly, practically like a well-behaved pet dog!
"Mm. Theory combined with practice—finally got it done."
As Duanmu Huai spoke, he casually reached out and patted Sezer on the head, just like patting a dog. Yet the once-arrogant Demon Person from yesterday now kept her head lowered, saying nothing at all.
However, inside her heart, she was cursing nonstop!
Theory combined with practice my ass! If I weren't a Demon Person, you'd have killed me long ago!
Sezer still vividly remembered how terrifying Duanmu Huai had been last night. She had even personally witnessed her own belly being stretched until it was completely deformed! If it weren't for the Demon Person physique, she would've already been disemboweled and turned into a corpse!
Ever since becoming a Demon Person, this was the very first time Sezer had hated being one so intensely…
But still—what exactly had happened afterward?
No matter how much she thought about it, Sezer couldn't understand. She had originally assumed Duanmu Huai was like those people who hunted girl monsters—trying to make her submit, corrupt, and fall—hence those methods. At the time, Sezer had been quite confident.
Even if I can't beat you, you can kill me—but wanting me to sincerely become your familiar? Don't even think about it!
I'm one of the Twenty-Four Demon People, don't I have any dignity?!
Therefore, after Duanmu Huai had tormented her to the brink of death, then held her head and stared straight into her eyes while chanting the Beast Tamer's incantation for subjugating magical creatures, Sezer had still been full of disdain.
You want me to become your familiar? Dream on!
Yet what Sezer had never expected was that the instant her eyes met Duanmu Huai's gaze, the mental bulwark she had built collapsed completely.
It was an utterly unreasonable fear and submission—like a fragile little white rabbit encountering a massive tiger. No reason was needed at all. From the deepest part of her heart, an incomparable terror erupted. At that moment, Sezer had even wanted to kneel down, worshipping him with her whole being, as if standing before her was a peerless god!
By the time Sezer regained her senses, she had already responded to Duanmu Huai's contract and become his familiar!
Humiliation ahhhhh!!!!
If she could, Sezer truly wanted to fight Duanmu Huai to the death. But unfortunately, after becoming a familiar, Sezer was essentially Duanmu Huai's pet dog—no, even worse than a pet dog. A pet dog at least gets called over only when the owner feels like it, and sometimes the owner still has to coax it. But after Sezer became Duanmu Huai's familiar, her power of life and death was entirely in his hands. Whatever he ordered, she could do; whatever he forbade, she absolutely could not!
That said, whether it was Bunny, the maid, or Makina, they were all harmless types, so Duanmu Huai had simply let them roam freely. Sezer, however, was different—she was a Demon Person, an enemy of humanity. If Duanmu Huai hadn't wanted to verify his hypothesis, he would've twisted her head off long ago.
So now, aside from staying by Duanmu Huai's side, Sezer could do nothing at all. She couldn't kill people, nor could she attack Duanmu Huai's companions.
"Alright, let's go. Let's try to get back to the Fortress City today."
Duanmu Huai summoned the Electromagnetic Giant Rhino, then set off again with the three of them, heading toward the Fortress City.
Naturally, Duanmu Huai didn't stay idle along the way. He interrogated Sezer nonstop. The poor Sezer didn't want to talk—but now that she was Duanmu Huai's familiar, whether she spoke or not… wasn't up to her anymore.
From Sezer's mouth, Duanmu Huai and Shizuka finally learned the background of this Demon army—
This force was led by Demon People from the Kibres faction, one of the two major factions in the Demon Realm.
And there were also three Demon People leading the army.
Hmm… if Duanmu Huai remembered correctly, the ones who had previously invaded Leazas were from the Hornet faction, and there were also three of them.
Do Demon People just like forming three-man teams or something?
As for the struggle between the two Demon Realm factions, Duanmu Huai was fairly familiar with it. Hornet was the daughter of the former Demon King Gai, while Kibres was the leader of the Four Heavenly Kings of the Demon People.
Before his death, Gai had summoned someone from another world, intending to pass the throne to her. But she ran away instead, leaving the Demon Realm leaderless. As a result, the Demon People split into two factions.
The Hornet faction wanted to follow Gai's will, bring the runaway Demon King back to inherit the throne, and opposed attacking humans.
The Kibres faction, on the other hand, believed that since Gai was dead and the new Demon King had fled, Kibres might as well become the Demon King himself and unify the world!
Simply put, the Hornet faction was relatively friendly toward humans, while the Kibres faction was far more dangerous.
Of course—that was only relatively friendly.
Leazas had still lost plenty of people back then.
Which clearly showed that Demon People and humans simply couldn't piss in the same pot.
Alright, enough digressing—back to the point.
This time, the invasion of Seth was led by three Demon People from the Kibres faction. One of them was Ra·Sezer, while the other two were Camilla, one of the Four Heavenly Kings, and Gik.
Among the three, Sezer served as the vanguard general, Gik was more like a strategist, and Camilla was the true mastermind behind the operation.
Hearing this, Duanmu Huai couldn't help but think of someone…
"Do you Demon People always pick brainless types as vanguard generals? Like Satra or something…"
"You know Satra?"
Hearing Duanmu Huai say this, Sezer was visibly shocked.
"Of course. When she invaded Leazas before, I fought her over by the Free Cities and chased her off. Haven't seen her since… Even when I killed Nos and Aizel in Leazas, she didn't show up…"
"I do know that Satra returned to the Demon Realm to recover after being seriously injured…"
Sezer stared blankly at Duanmu Huai, completely speechless. There were only so many Demon People in total. Even though they were split into factions, information still circulated. She naturally knew about Satra returning to the Demon Realm heavily injured. At the time, it had caused quite a stir—after all, that was a Demon Person! A Demon Person with an invincible barrier! Who the hell was so badass that they beat her back to the Demon Realm?
Before that debate even settled, news came that Nos and Aizel had died in Leazas, shocking the entire Demon Realm. Those three were core members of the Hornet faction—two dead, one gravely injured was a devastating blow.
Not to mention the death of the former Demon King Jill, which had also shaken the Demon Realm.
But who had done it all—there was very little intelligence.
Only now did Sezer realize that it had all been done by this man?
Then that meant…
"Lord Jill was also killed by you?"
"What? Got a problem with that?"
Duanmu Huai glanced at Sezer and asked calmly. Sezer hurriedly shook her head with all her might.
The former Demon King died in your hands—what opinion could I possibly have?
Now Sezer finally understood why this man had such outrageous ideas. Even Demon Kings and Demon People had died by his hand—him wanting to capture a Demon Person as a familiar suddenly didn't seem that outrageous anymore.
This guy is ruthless.
Duanmu Huai didn't care much about the grudges between Demon People. What interested him more was something else.
During his fight with Sezer, Duanmu Huai had seen a group of angels standing behind her. This had completely baffled him. Why would angels stand on the Demon Person's side? Was it like those web novels where the Creator God had some shady dealings with the Demon race behind the scenes?
Could he follow this thread and locate the Creator God?
The result…
After Sezer explained it, Duanmu Huai realized he had misunderstood.
The angels under Sezer's command were indeed angels.
But in fact, they were girl monsters known as Angel Knights!
That's right—by nature, they were actually magical creatures!
According to Sezer, Angel Knights were born like this:
As mentioned before, there was a race on this continent called the Kala—which, in Duanmu Huai's view, were basically elves.
When Kala reached a certain age, they would evolve—either into angels or into demons.
And by the way, this "demon" didn't refer to the Demon race, but rather girl monsters known as Demons.
Good grief—this world really took wordplay to the extreme. Angels that aren't angels, demons that aren't demons.
Even Sezer herself, before becoming a Demon Person, had been an Angel Knight. That was why she could command Angel Knights in the first place.
Compared to other girl monsters, Angel Knights weren't particularly brutal, but they were quite formidable in combat. That was why they had been brought along for this operation.
"Hmm…"
After hearing Sezer's explanation, Duanmu Huai fell into thought.
To be honest, he was rather envious of these Angel Knights.
He knew very well that no matter what organization you ran, appearances mattered.
At the very least, in most human civilizations, if you started out with a bunch of angels, the other side wouldn't immediately assume you were the bad guy.
Of course, categorizing angels as magical creatures like this was pretty rare.
Duanmu Huai had previously contacted the Heavenly City of the Holy Capital, but they were too far away to provide much support for now. So when he saw the angels under Sezer's command, an idea formed in his mind—
Could he bring these angels under his own banner?
If I had a whole group of angels holding the front line, wouldn't that look way more impressive?
(End of Chapter)