"What's going on?! What happened?!"
A panicked figure came crashing between Fíliya and Solitär.
Naturally, the person with absolutely no sense of timing was Miss Aura. The battle between Fíliya and Serie had been nothing more than a sounding-out for both parties — but the fact that half the Demon King's Castle had been reduced to rubble in the process was very much real.
Behind Aura, Linie's small head peeked out with quiet curiosity, stealing a glance at Fíliya.
"Where's Tot?"
Fíliya didn't explain anything first. She asked about something else entirely.
"Out cold. Sleeping like a dead pig."
There was a distinct note of grievance in Aura's answer. She had the vague, nagging feeling that Fíliya was paying just a little too much attention to the new addition.
"Is that so. To think there exists a member of the Demon Race even lazier and more carefree than Aura — genuinely fascinating."
"What's that supposed to mean?"
Miss Aura was not pleased.
"Exactly what it sounds like."
"Tch. Linie — am I lazy?"
Aura clicked her tongue and turned to Linie with an expression that demanded validation.
What followed was Linie's head rotating away — slowly, mechanically, like a puppet whose joints had seized up — pointedly looking at absolutely anything else in the room.
"...Fine. Forget it. What in the world was all that noise just now?"
Aura decided not to pursue that line of inquiry any further.
"You already know the answer. At that level of mana — do you really need me to explain who showed up?"
Fíliya looked genuinely puzzled.
"...I... look, I just wanted something to talk about, alright? Since you turned into... this, you talk way less than you used to. Someone has to keep the conversation going."
Seeing that Fíliya had seen straight through her, Aura dropped the pretense entirely and switched to an expression of practiced innocence.
"Is that so."
Fíliya responded with nothing more than a puzzled nod, her thoughts drifting inward.
...So I talk less now? Then how much did I used to ramble on?
"You actually went and fought Serie... and came back looking completely fine. That's incredible. Does this mean no matter what kind of trouble we get into from now on, you can keep us safe?"
Aura asked with another look of open curiosity — and, mimicking something Fíliya used to do, bumped her lightly with her shoulder.
"Of course. I'll protect all of you."
Fíliya gave a quick, decisive nod — though she watched Aura's gesture with a faint sense of strangeness.
She understood that Aura was imitating her. But... why had she ever done that in the first place? She couldn't quite recall the reason anymore. Was it to express closeness? Something else?
...Whatever.
Fíliya didn't linger on the question. She simply turned and began walking in a particular direction.
"?! Where are you going?"
Aura scrambled after her with a bewildered look. Solitär and Linie followed suit without a word.
"Somewhere."
"...Right."
Nobody was satisfied with that answer. Obviously she was going somewhere — the question was where. Was it so hard to just say it? This girl was getting more and more fond of leaving people in suspense.
That's what Aura thought, anyway.
"At the same time I issued the proclamation to the human side, I also sent a separate notice to the Demon Race. You all received it, didn't you?"
Fíliya still had no intention of explaining her destination. Instead, she turned to confirm something else with the three of them.
"Yeah... a voice suddenly went off in my head just now. It took me a second before I realized it was you."
Aura nodded, then pressed further.
"You said [All members of the Demon Race must heed this directive and arrive at the Demon King's Castle within three months]... but is that even possible?"
If Fíliya wanted to become the Demon King, gathering every demon on the continent made a certain kind of sense — what Aura couldn't figure out was how she intended to make any of them actually listen.
The Demon Race was simply not capable of uniting.
Even the previous Demon King had only managed to gather followers through brute force, then let those subordinates each govern their own faction — a patchwork of divided rule. And even then, there had been plenty of demons who paid the Demon King's orders no mind whatsoever, doing exactly as they pleased. The prime example of that had been Macht.
"Why wouldn't it be possible? Including young ones, there are currently 1,175 demons remaining in existence. They're scattered across the continent, yes — but their ranges of activity are concentrated mostly in the central and northern regions. With the flight capabilities of the Demon Race... three months is more than enough time to reach the Demon King's Castle, as long as they aren't deliberately dragging their feet."
Fíliya saw nothing wrong with the timeline she'd set. Unlike Frieren, demons weren't the type to get distracted and waste time along the road for one reason or another.
"That's not what I mean!"
Aura felt the beginning of a headache coming on. She genuinely couldn't follow this anymore. Wasn't this girl supposed to be sharp? How had talking to her become this exhausting?
Does turning into a demon come with intelligence degradation as a side effect?!
What I'm getting at is obviously not about the time!
Aura bit the corner of her lip and pressed on.
"I'm saying — those demons won't pay any attention to your orders! You tell them to arrive in three months, and they'll just... do it? And besides, right now, apart from the few of us standing here, absolutely nobody recognizes you as Demon King!"
"Demons — as a species — if you're not standing right in front of them and threatening them with your fists, they won't take you seriously! Look!"
Aura said it with heat, even producing a notebook from somewhere and thrusting it into Fíliya's hands.
"This is your own research journal — how can you have forgotten it?!"
Fíliya blinked, looking down at the notebook now in her hands.
This was exactly what she had used at the very beginning to research and document the behavioral patterns of the Demon Race. When had it ended up with Aura?
"I gave it to her."
Solitär stepped in with the explanation.
"I see."
Fíliya nodded — but she didn't open the notebook. She simply handed it back to Aura.
"In other words, I need someone to act as a drover and prod this rabble along for me. Using the threat of their lives... to force every demon to make their way to me. Understood."
Fíliya nodded again, her expression perfectly calm — but for Miss Aura, that calmness was precisely the problem.
The thing was, this girl's emotions were just too steady. The old Fíliya would have fired back a quip without missing a beat — something like "Look at you, Aura, actually daring to talk back to me. Let me show you what happens next" — and then proceeded to grind her into the floor.
...Aura absolutely denied being a masochist. She wasn't hoping for Fíliya to do anything to her. It was simply that the Fíliya in front of her right now felt... somehow dull.
"Lady Fíliya needs time."
At that moment, Linie — as though she had seen right through what Aura was feeling — spoke softly, the words directed only at her.
"I know... I know that, obviously..."
Aura let out a quiet sigh, and could only hope that the girl in front of her would find her way back — sooner rather than later — to the person she recognized.
____
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