Rathalos imprisoned the demon and took it to Ethan who was forced to walk out of the seclusion.

To his shock the demon was quite obedient and released everything he knew without much resistance. Ethan listened to all of it and then looked at the demon with a flat expression.

"You aren’t kidding me right?" he said.

The demon froze and looked at the white haired and blue eyed man standing in front of him with a cold stare directed his way.

Karev, which was the demon’s name, had the look of someone who had already accepted that his situation was not great and was trying very hard not to make it worse.

"I swear. I am just on scouts," Karev said.

"A Mythic realm scout," Ethan said, raising his brows slightly.

"Yes. Believe me, I had no ill intention. I am from the neutral side," Karev said and his voice carried the particular urgency of someone telling the truth specifically because lying was no longer a viable option.

Ethan turned and looked at Rathlos with a questioning expression. Rathlos shrugged his shoulders with complete ease. "How can I know? I am not a demon."

Ethan looked back at Karev. "So tell me why are you here?"

"As I said I was sent to scout things. The situation on the Demon continent is quite bad right now," Karev said.

"Bad?" Ethan had a bad premonition settled in his chest and something clicked in the back of his mind. "Is it something about that disease?"

Karev’s expression shifted slightly and he nodded. "Yes. It’s about that. The disease affects the young and drains their potential. One needs a human heart to craft the elixir to cure them. That is the primary reason the demons attacked. It wasn’t because of greed but to protect their own. Though I can’t say that some of them hadn’t gone completely mad and just wanted to quench their bloodlust."

Ethan did not say anything and just nudged Karev to continue with a slight tilt of his head.

"As I said I am from the neutral side and I didn’t want this war. We came up with a way to make a deal instead," Karev said.

"A deal. What deal?" Rathlos asked, his eyes narrowing slightly.

"We need human hearts but killing and waging war is far too destructive so we want to strike a deal. Every day people die naturally. We will provide compensation to their families in exchange for the heart. In this way we can have a steady supply and their families would be taken care of as well," Karev said.

Ethan’s expression became complex as he processed that. It wasn’t without logic on its surface but the reality of it was messier than that. Not many families would be willing and while some might actually jump at the opportunity for compensation, the same arrangement could just as easily give cover to mass murder scenes that would be hard to distinguish from natural deaths. The more he thought about it the heavier it sat.

Whatever the case it wasn’t his place to decide something of that scale.

"Why don’t you go to the demon side and offer the deal directly to the Emperor?" Ethan said.

"It’s because the other Royal faction isn’t willing. They want war. However the sudden outbreak has paused things for now," Karev said.

"Is the situation that bad?" Ethan asked.

Karev did not reply and that silence was an answer in itself.

"Is there no other cure?" Ethan asked.

Karev shook his head slowly.

Ethan looked at him for a quiet moment and then waved his hand. "Let him go."

"My Lord?" Rathlos turned with a clearly shocked expression and the look on his face said plainly that he did not like this at all.

"He hadn’t caused any damage and he wasn’t behind the monster unrest either. That was because of my battle with Volcanus. Since he hasn’t caused any real harm it won’t sit right with me to kill him," Ethan said simply.

Karev’s eyes went wide and he nodded furiously. "Thank you. Thank you for sparing me."

"Don’t be thankful," Ethan cut him off flatly. "If we meet again I might kill you for real."

He might be making a wrong decision but for some reason his heart didn’t want to kill this guy and he wasn’t letting him go easily.He ordered Rathlos to blindfold him and take him out.

After Karev left Ethan went straight to Mareti and laid out everything he had heard. Mareti listened with his arms folded and his brow pulling tighter the further into it Ethan got and by the end of it his expression had settled into a deep frown.

"I can’t seem to recall anything about such a disease. In my thousand years of life this is the first time I am hearing about something like this," Mareti said.

Ethan’s expression dropped. Even this man did not know about it.

"Then if we had samples could we find a cure?" Ethan asked.

"That I can’t say with any confidence. The probability is very close to impossible honestly since this isn’t my field of study," Mareti said and then paused. His expression shifted into something uglier and more uncomfortable than his usual look of mild dissatisfaction. "Those people from the Mage Tower might find some breakthrough however."

"However, what?" Ethan said.

"What if this is a man-made disease and not a natural one?"

His words landed and the room went completely silent.

Karev’s words had given Ethan more than just information. They had given him a direction to think in and the direction was not a comfortable one.

The demon side was not doing well and they had stopped attacking. That meant one of two things. Either they were pulling back to prepare a much larger offensive or they were consolidating into a defensive position. Neither option suggested that the situation was settling down and the silence from their side felt less like peace and more like a held breath.

....

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