"And yet... if that's who you are now, why do you even need followers around you? At this point, you can do anything you want, can't you?"
Solitär voiced the question aloud, her tone carrying a low, subdued weight.
Because — even if she could still just barely maintain the posture of an older sister — she couldn't help but wonder what value she actually held for Fíliya anymore.
"Mm... of course there's meaning in having all of you by my side. Not just for me — even for this world, your presence carries a very... positive effect."
Fíliya turned to face the group, and smiled.
Everyone leaned in and listened closely.
"Without you all, I'd probably go mad. And who could say what an insane [Demon King] might do to this world — especially one with [Immortality]? Just imagining it is terrifying, isn't it?"
Her expression remained perfectly calm as she said it.
But everyone understood what she meant.
The [Magic to Inscribe One's Being into Every Passing Moment] — it truly was a remarkable thing. Everything Fíliya had described up until now had been the [benefits] of this magic.
So then — what were the drawbacks?
The answer was obvious. It meant that Fíliya bore every emotion from every single slice of time, all at once.
When she suffered in one moment, that suffering was multiplied countless times over.
When she felt lost in one moment, an emptiness — a deathly stillness — would seep into every part of her, lingering without end.
Joy and hope on one side, ruin and despair on the other — inside Fíliya's mind right now, there had to be a torrent of intertwined emotion vast enough to shatter any ordinary person in an instant.
"So... we misunderstood you."
Solitär murmured the words, her face carrying a look of quiet disbelief.
She had initially assumed that Fíliya's emotional detachment was a consequence of having become part of the Demon Race.
But now the truth was plain — Fíliya's emotional withdrawal was a self-protective mechanism, forged through countless battles against the countless fractured versions of herself, each bound to a different passing moment.
Her mental fortitude was already extraordinary — and yet she had still been forced to dull her own sensitivity to emotion, just to survive the torment of every single second.
"Alright, why all the long faces? If I can tell you this much, doesn't that mean I'm doing just fine right now?"
Seeing the forlorn look on Solitär's face, it was Fíliya who moved to offer comfort first.
"...I suppose so."
Solitär drew a slow, steady breath, and chose to honor what Fíliya was asking of her — to stop dwelling on it and let it go. She cast a quiet glance around at the others, silently conveying the same message.
"Good. Then let's return to what we were discussing... It seems the humans have already begun constructing defensive lines. That simply won't do — how can anyone be allowed to obstruct humanity's pursuit of [desire]?"
A faint, contemptuous smile touched the corner of Fíliya's mouth as she spoke.
"Allow me to go and destroy the human defensive lines. I want to be a force for Lord Fíliya."
Almost before the words had fully left Fíliya's mouth, Linie shot to her feet.
"Oh? Linie volunteering for the front lines? That's a surprise. I appreciate the gesture — but I already have someone else in mind for that particular job. None of you have any assignments right now. Just stay close to me for the time being."
Hearing that, Linie obediently settled back into her seat.
The atmosphere at the table lapsed into silence in the wake of such a jarring revelation. It wasn't that no one had anything to say — it was that no one quite knew what the right thing to say even was.
"Mm... actually, there's something I've been curious about for a while."
It took Fíliya breaking the silence herself to dissolve the awkward stillness.
"Hm? What is it?"
For some reason, whenever Fíliya was the one to speak first, Solitär felt her own mood lift alongside it.
"What does human flesh actually taste like — to the Demon Race?"
"—!"
It wasn't just Solitär — even Aura and Tot went momentarily rigid with shock.
"Mm. If I want to eradicate the Demon Race's cannibalistic nature, I'd need to understand why human flesh is so irresistible to them first, wouldn't I? And the best way to understand that... is to eat some."
Fíliya's tone was completely matter-of-fact, as though she saw nothing unusual about any of this.
"I understand your reasoning... Would you like me to find some human remains for you? Near cemeteries or battlefields, there should be quite a few unclaimed bodies."
"Mm. If I'm going to eat, I'd prefer something fresh."
Fíliya's words left Solitär briefly stunned. She didn't believe for a second that Fíliya would willingly eat a living person.
Sure enough, Fíliya followed up immediately.
"But I suppose that's out of the question for now... What a shame I didn't set aside a small piece of myself back when I was still human — that would've unlocked the [I Eat Myself] achievement, at least."
As she said it, Fíliya made the deliberate effort to squeeze out a small smile in Solitär's direction.
Solitär could only sigh.
She understood now — Fíliya was suffering with every passing second, and yet she was still going out of her way to piece together terrible little jokes, just to put her at ease.
"I'll go find you a corpse."
"No need. I'll find one myself."
Fíliya stopped her again.
This left Solitär mildly perplexed.
She genuinely couldn't work out why Fíliya had taken to stopping her so often lately — particularly whenever she was about to leave the Demon King's Castle.
"Aren't you worried your movements will attract Serie's attention?"
"Of course not. Sustaining Mana Detection across such a vast range is exhausting — once she's confirmed there's nothing she can do about me, she won't bother keeping it active day after day out of sheer boredom. And even if she is that bored, I don't particularly mind. It just means I'd get to play with her for a little while."
With that, Fíliya vanished from the room in an instant.
Before Solitär had even a moment to process it, Fíliya reappeared — cradling the body of a young woman in her arms.
"A girl who fell on the Southern Nations' battlefield. There were plenty of other mangled bodies nearby besides her — she was one of the more intact ones."
Fíliya offered the brief explanation in a flat, neutral voice, then set the unknown girl's body directly onto the dining table.
"When you used to eat humans — how did you go about it?"
In that moment, Fíliya looked exactly like an eager student, asking the group with complete sincerity about the procedure of cannibalism.
"..."
Solitär, Aura, and Linie clearly had no desire whatsoever to revisit those memories.
Only Tot assumed a thoughtful expression — then slowly replied.
"Generally... you'd start from the arm. Personally speaking."
"Is that so."
Fíliya gave a small nod, then slowly opened her mouth — and gently bit into the corpse's forearm, tearing away a small strip of flesh.
After a brief moment of chewing, she immediately spat the fragment out, then incinerated the remnants with fire magic.
"I see..."
She quickly took the tissue Solitär held out and wiped her mouth.
This was the first time she had truly grasped just how... mm. Palatable humans apparently were to the Demon Race.
The body had been dead for a full day — already faintly beginning to decay — and yet there had been no foul odor whatsoever.
And even though it was raw flesh, chewing it had carried the texture of cooked meat. Well-prepared cooked meat, even.
No wonder the instinct to consume humans was carved into the very soul of the Demon Race. Humans truly were exceptional prey for them.
But knowing that was enough.
Fíliya had already worked out how she intended to eradicate this deep-rooted affliction in the Demon Race.
And what came next was quite simple.
"Would you like me to bury her?"
Seeing the contemplative look on Fíliya's face, Solitär stepped forward once again, wanting to do something to help.
"Mm... why would I bury her?"
Fíliya turned the question back at her.
"?"
Solitär tilted her head, puzzled.
"She's only been dead for a day — the soul should be easy enough to call back. She might not even have reached [Aureole] yet... So I've decided to resurrect her. I did do something rather unpleasant to her body, after all — consider it a small form of compensation. I'll bring her back first, then ask what she wants. If she wishes to return to the human world, that's perfectly fine."
"But if she's willing to stay... wouldn't that make her our very first [citizen]?"
A small smile returned to the corner of Fíliya's mouth as she said it.
____
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