Chris Demon.
Head maid of the 'Scorpio Palace Maid Corps,' one of the six head maids granted the name 'Demon.'
"Back already? I thought it'd take a bit longer."
Dark let out a lazy yawn.
Life at the Duke's estate was simply too comfortable — comfortable enough that he couldn't muster any real motivation from deep down.
Thinking about it that way, Alvit's 'summer tutoring' didn't sound so bad after all.
At least it would keep him disciplined and restrained.
Otherwise, who knew how much his 'Sloth' or 'Gluttony' or whatever else might spike.
Seeing the question in his eyes, Trina reached into her robes and pulled out a Magic Guide Card glowing faintly with gold light, flashing it before him. "The Twelve Golden Holy Vestments share a connection with one another. The closer the distance, the clearer the sense. She's already returned to the estate."
"I see."
Dark nodded slightly, then said decisively, "Then let's head back."
He was equally curious about the 'forest warden' they'd encountered atop the Magic Guide Motorcar.
...
Though the Magic Guide Spirits all seemed reluctant to leave, they hurried back regardless.
Before long, the group crossed the mountain behind the estate and returned to the back garden of the Duke's residence.
A maid was already waiting by the pool, and she came forward at once.
Dark glanced at her. "Report."
"Yes, young master," the maid said immediately. "Head Maid Chris has returned. The Duke is waiting for you inside the manor."
"Understood." Dark nodded at her.
He didn't head straight for the manor, though. Instead he pointed toward the Magic Guide Spirits and turned to Aurora. "Could I ask you to keep them company a little longer?"
Aurora nodded obediently. "Mm."
"Good." Dark's face broke into a smile.
Then, from among the Magic Guide Spirits, he found Drifloon. "Drifloon, come with me."
"Floon—"
Drifloon cried out happily and flew right over.
Not to be outdone, DemiDevimon swooped down and landed on Dark's shoulder.
Dark reached up and patted its claw, saying nothing about it.
Then he followed Trina, hurrying toward the manor.
Inside the manor, Alvit and Claire were chatting leisurely, with City Lord Montielfali standing nearby.
When Dark came into view, Alvit waved at him. "Back so soon?"
Dark nodded. "Where's Chris?"
"Follow me."
Alvit glanced at Drifloon floating around Dark, then led the way deeper into the manor before exiting through a back door.
After turning several more corners, she reached out and tapped an empty space in the air. A door appeared out of nowhere. "Let's go."
Alvit pushed the door open and stepped through.
Dark had always known the Duke's estate had a basement, but only today did he actually learn how to get into it.
The stairway leading down was clean and even, and magic lamps along the walls lit up on their own, bathing the underground passage in bright light — nothing like the eerie atmosphere he'd imagined.
"What's down here?" Dark asked curiously.
The corner of Alvit's mouth curved up. "A cold storage vault."
"A cold storage vault?" Dark blurted out in surprise. "I thought it'd be..."
"You thought it was a dungeon?" Alvit couldn't help laughing behind her hand. "Why would I put a dungeon in my own home?"
Dark fell silent. "Fair enough."
But City Lord Montielfali's face showed the same awkward expression, which at least kept Dark from feeling alone in his assumption.
It seemed no one who came down here ever guessed it was merely cold storage.
The deeper they went, the more the temperature noticeably dropped.
Dressed lightly for summer, Dark actually began to feel a chill.
Without quite meaning to, he edged a little closer to City Lord Montielfali — and sure enough, it felt less cold.
Alvit noticed but said nothing, simply continuing on down.
When they finally reached the bottom of the stairs, another door stood before them.
Alvit pressed her palm against it and poured in mana. The door slowly swung open.
A blast of freezing air rushed out at once.
But right behind it came a wave of warm air, forming a flowing barrier that held the cold at bay.
City Lord Montielfali smiled at Dark and gestured for him to go ahead.
Dark accepted the gesture and stepped through the doorway.
The moment he did, he realized both sides of the vault were lined like freezers — packed with countless frozen magical beasts!
This was nothing like the cold storage he'd imagined.
As they walked on, more and more beasts came into view. Not a single one showed any sign of injury; their 'corpses' were preserved in perfect condition.
In fact, Dark couldn't even be sure they were corpses at all.
'Surely this isn't some kind of gene bank for preserving biodiversity?'
But just as that thought crossed his mind—
Alvit spoke slowly. "I caught every one of these beasts myself. Each is boss-tier. They aren't dead — body and soul alike have been frozen solid. Unless every block of sealing ice is melted, they can never wake."
City Lord Montielfali asked curiously, "What's the point of going to such trouble?"
Alvit shook her head. "As we all know, magical beasts originally came into being when the Demon race corrupted wild animals. Now that the Demon race is nearly extinct, the beasts haven't shown any sign of large-scale decline yet — but in truth, quite a few beast species are already endangered."
"For any Magic Guide Master who needs a specific beast material to complete a Magical Transmutation, that's actually fatal."
"So I built this vault, to capture and preserve some of the rare, endangered beasts — to keep a spark alive, so to speak. That way, the Magic Guide Cards that need them as raw material won't ever go out of print."
"So it really is a gene bank!"
Dark was stunned, and couldn't help but feel awe at how far-sighted Alvit had been.
As Magic Guide technology advanced further and Magic Guide Masters grew more powerful, the once fearsome and terrifying magical beasts would probably become the weaker party over time — reduced to prey, to be culled at will.
In an age where Magic Guide technology was exploding in growth, hoping for 'sustainable development' from Magic Guide Masters was simply impossible.
In fact, the early signs of this were already showing.
Some materials that once weren't rare at all now had a price but no supply — impossible to buy at any cost.
Only at St. Marian, with its special dungeons, could one still buy nearly every kind of material.
Dungeons outside St. Marian simply didn't have that same refresh mechanism.
...
They continued along the passage.
After walking some distance, Alvit slowed her pace.
And Dark spotted Chris standing further ahead on the path.
Chris had just returned from a long trip, yet there wasn't a trace of fatigue on her face — as though the whole thing had been effortless for her.
Her small frame, so at odds with her age, radiated in silence a vast, web-like presence that spread outward.
The instant the group arrived, she reined it in at once, and her presence vanished entirely, as though she'd never been there at all.
"Chris, where's the man?"
Alvit broke the silence.
Chris didn't move. "Inside."
In a chamber originally meant for sealing beasts, a fully bound man lay curled up.
Cold mist drifting in from all sides had formed layer upon layer of frost across his face.
A little longer, and he'd have frozen solid just like the beasts.
Dark walked briskly to the outside of the chamber, studied the man carefully for a moment, then turned to Drifloon. "Is this the one?"
Drifloon immediately darted inside, circled the man once, then flew back out, crying loudly. "Floon!"
"Looks like it is." Dark couldn't help but admire the result.
With so little information to go on, Chris had managed to pinpoint a Magic Guide Master who was far from weak, in such a short time — genuinely impressive.
But both Alvit and Chris herself seemed to take it in stride.
Alvit simply praised her. "Well done. Now tell us who this man is."
Chris began. "He belongs to the Cult of Knowledge."
"The Cult of Knowledge?" Alvit frowned. "That's not some evil cult, is it?"
Chris nodded slightly.
Hearing this, Dark asked, puzzled, "Wait, what exactly is the Cult of Knowledge?"
Claire picked up the explanation. "It's a sect that deifies 'knowledge' itself, worshipping knowledge in its purest form. It emerged about three years ago. Its core members are all fairly seasoned Magic Guide Masters, and there are even mages among them."
"Over these three years they haven't shown any sign of danger — they've even set up schools in remote villages, teaching poor children the basics for free. Because of that, not even the Holy Church has been able to brand them heretics."
"So that's the kind of sect it is?"
Dark frowned, instinctively sensing how thorny a group like this could be.
Claire traced a '4' shape over her chest. "This is their prayer gesture. Because its strokes resemble a cross, it's hard to spot at a glance."
Dark filed the detail away, then asked, puzzled, "So how did Chris find him?"
Chris turned to look at him. "I followed your lead, went to Ashen Mist Forest, and found that forest warden. But he knew nothing when questioned, so..."
Dark asked curiously, "So?"
Chris smiled faintly. "So I knocked him out."
Dark: "...?"
Chris pointed at her own chest. "My 'Scorpio' armament can fire poison needles. One type can control a person's mind. Once he was unconscious, he had no way to resist — I drove a needle into his temple, turned him into a temporary puppet, and made him confess everything..."
As Chris recounted this calmly, a chill ran through Dark.
Once the ranger fell under the needle's control, he spilled everything he'd experienced over those past few days, down to the smallest detail.
Using that as a foundation, Chris compiled every suspicious lead, analyzed and cross-referenced them in detail, and eventually narrowed the list down to thirteen possible suspects.
Then the Scorpio Palace Maid Corps under her command split up to investigate, tracking down every trace connected to those thirteen suspects.
After layer upon layer of elimination, the suspects were finally narrowed down to just one person.
Then Chris made her move directly.
She didn't wait for nightfall — she struck at high noon, when the sun was at its brightest, emerging straight out of the man's own shadow at a speed he had no chance of reacting to, and drove a needle into the back of his neck!
The poison hit instantly, so fast the man didn't even register what had happened before he collapsed in a heap.
Afterward, another maid dressed him in a binding suit designed to seal off mana.
Chris then used that same terrifying mind-control needle again, forcing him to blurt out everything on his mind.
The whole method, honestly, wasn't complicated.
What made it terrifying was the sheer efficiency of the Scorpio Palace Maid Corps, combined with Chris's poison needles!
Against that kind of needle, without proper defenses set up beforehand, there was no such thing as a secret.
This was nothing like brute interrogation through torture — it was terrifying in an entirely different sense.
But thinking it over, it made sense.
This was, after all, the signature Ultimate Move of the 'Scorpio Sacred Vestment,' one of the Twelve Golden Holy Vestments.
If it didn't have that level of power, it wouldn't deserve the name 'Golden Sacred Vestment.'
...
Having come to terms with this reality, Dark asked again, "If that's the case, there shouldn't be any need for further interrogation. So what was his objective?"
But the moment the question left his mouth, he caught a strange flicker in Chris's eyes.
It gave him a bad feeling.
Chris continued, "This man's name is Ignaz Cooper. He's a Magic Guide Master, but not from any academy. He's been with the Cult of Knowledge for six years — one of the original core members."
"Wait." Dark cut in. "You're saying the Cult of Knowledge has actually existed for six years?"
"That's right," Chris said. "It's no secret. They founded the sect six years ago. At first it was mainly about exchanging knowledge, but it gradually grew, and three years ago it started actual activity."
"There's no single leader in the Cult of Knowledge — only thirteen elders, and every decision is made by the thirteen of them together. This Mr. Ignaz Cooper is the personal disciple of one of those elders."
"So his standing is fairly high, then?" Dark said.
Chris nodded. "Not bad at all. Otherwise the Cult of Knowledge wouldn't have entrusted him with that task."
Dark pressed. "What task?"
At that, a strange look flickered across Chris's face again — but the corner of her mouth kept twitching upward, clearly holding back a smile. "After six years of growth, the Cult of Knowledge apparently felt the sect lacked unity, that it needed a spiritual figurehead. So they planned to put forward a Divine Son."
Dark hesitated. "A Divine Son?"
Chris nodded. "Yes, a Divine Son!"
She went on, "Each of the thirteen elders would nominate one Divine Son candidate, and from those thirteen candidates, one would finally be chosen as the true Divine Son!"
"And Mr. Ignaz Cooper's teacher had set his sights on you, young master. But once Ignaz Cooper learned who you were, he let a bit of greed get the better of him."
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