Even after all the things he had experienced since entering Einroguard, Lee Han had never imagined he would encounter a demon he had never seen before asking him for help.

‘Is it because of my fierce impression?’

—I am not insane. Are you not of House Wardanaz blood?

“Shh. What nonsense are you spouting?”

Lee Han quickly silenced the demon, worried that someone else might overhear.

As beings from another dimension, demons possessed a sense of smell that worked on principles different from those of mortals. Thanks to that, it had seen through Lee Han’s bloodline despite his changed appearance.

Despite being scolded, the demon seemed quite desperate as it pleaded earnestly.

—Please help me. I am Orlagh, banner-bearer of His Majesty the Pride Duke’s dueling banner and tent jester.

Generally, demons did not reveal positions like that first.

Information was the strongest weapon mortals had when dealing with demons.

Simply knowing what sort of demon one was facing allowed mages to target that demon’s weaknesses. The fact that it had revealed so much made its desperation clear.

‘How peculiar.’

“The dark mages here aren’t such threatening people.”

—Dark mages? That is not what I fear right now!

Orlagh shouted as if that were the most absurd thing it had ever heard.

Orlagh was not so weak that a few mages like these would frighten it. Was it not the honorable banner-bearer of the Pride Duke’s dueling banner?

“Like these? You bastard. Are you looking down on Einroguard’s dark magic school?”

—Th-that is not it!

When Lee Han got angry, the demon quickly apologized.

There were not many places Orlagh could ask for help right now.

—What I fear is an angel.

“!”

Lee Han was greatly surprised by the name of a being he had never expected to hear.

An angel?

In fact, angels were beings rarely encountered in the Empire. They were the complete opposite of demons, which were relatively easy to see. In some families, they were as common as stones rolling on the roadside.

The reason lay in the nature of these two dimensional races.

Demons took a deep interest in mortal souls and were always looking for opportunities to descend into the Empire.

By contrast, angels had no interest in races from other dimensions and were devoted solely to the rules and laws they had set for themselves.

This celestial race, living a closed and reclusive life, was truly difficult to encounter.

Not only was it difficult for mages to make contracts with them, even visiting them was no easy matter. How could one approach beings who wanted nothing?

Therefore, the mages of the Empire wisely targeted demons. No matter how much the mages suffered for it, demons full of desire could not avoid their contracts.

And yet the name of such a race had appeared here.

“Angels rarely have reason to clash with other races, right? What on earth did you do?”

He wondered whether Orlagh had invaded their training ground and committed a massacre.

However, Orlagh denied it.

—Angels would not leave their dimension to chase someone over something like that.

“...I, I see.”

Lee Han shuddered at the ecology of angels, which was far more astonishing than he had expected.

Even if someone invaded their base and committed a massacre, as long as that someone fled their territory, they would not bother chasing after the culprit.

Orlagh hurriedly explained what had happened.

—I was wandering this mortal land in search of the most beautiful cloth by His Majesty’s command. But at some point, I realized someone was chasing me. It was an angel.

Though Orlagh was a fairly powerful demon, it was not a demon confident in battle.

By contrast, the angel chasing it seemed specialized in combat and pursued without giving it so much as a moment to breathe.

Gradually cornered, Orlagh eventually entered an underground ruin and hid inside an ancient artifact.

Fortunately, the angel could not track Orlagh that far and stopped the pursuit, but...

“Ah. So that’s how you ended up being sold here.”

—That is not the important part. If the dark mages extract me, that angel will resume the pursuit!

The demon trembled.

Orlagh had intended to seduce the owner of this mansion and hide well for a while, but if the dark mages forcibly extracted it, that would be a different matter.

If the angel found Orlagh during the process...

—If you help me, I will work faithfully for the customary period. Please help me!

‘Huh?’

Lee Han felt puzzled as he listened.

Come to think of it, could this kind of negotiation not be done with the dark mages instead of him?

If Orlagh said it would serve faithfully as a slave, the dark mages would probably agree to negotiate too...

“But why did you come to me? There are other dark mages here.”

—You are of House Wardanaz blood, are you not?

Orlagh seemed to wonder why a mage who had inherited the blood of House Wardanaz would ask such a question.

There were mages skilled at handling demons. Countless mages had met ruin after carelessly trying to handle demons.

In that respect, House Wardanaz was one of the families in the Empire with outstanding experience and expertise in handling demons.

Orlagh had even served that family long ago.

Naturally, from a demon’s perspective, entrusting its life to a reliable demon-handling expert was much better than revealing its weaknesses to dark mages it had never heard of.

If it had to serve as a servant anyway, a trustworthy master was better. How could it trust dark mages it had never seen before?

“...You worked for my family before?”

—Have you not seen my true name in the family’s old demon registry?

“How could I remember every single name in a registry that thick!”

Lee Han got angry at the demon for no reason. Orlagh cowered and quickly bowed its head.

***

After urgently stopping the seniors’ work, Lee Han called Diret over and explained the situation.

“Senior Diret... sir. An unexpected situation has occurred.”

“??”

When he quickly explained the story he had heard from the demon, Diret’s face turned serious.

An unexpected angel was involved in this matter.

“But that’s interesting.”

“The angel?”

“Ah. The angel too, but I mean the demon telling its story in such detail. That isn’t common.”

Since information could become a weakness, demons tended to hide even situations like this.

No matter how much an angel was chasing one, if a demon wanted to keep its mouth shut, it would keep its mouth shut. There was no reason to babble additional weaknesses to strange mages.

Unless there was trust in the other party, or some degree of recognition...

“Right. It said it was a subordinate of the Pride Duke? Since you’ve faced the Pride Duke before, maybe it recognizes you?”

Diret offered a plausible guess.

Though he had borrowed the Spirit King’s power, Lee Han had once stood against the descended Pride Duke.

Since the Duke himself had admired that skill, it would not be strange if the Duke’s subordinates had heard about Lee Han.

“Indeed. A truly sharp deduction.”

Lee Han answered shamelessly.

He really did not want to say that the demon had come to him because it had once been used by House Wardanaz.

“Still, hasn’t quite some time passed? Would the angel still be tracking it?”

“If the angel was tracking it before it was trapped in the artifact, there’s a high chance the tracking is still active now.”

Diret answered firmly.

A hundred or two hundred years was not very long for a race like angels. There was a very high possibility that the pursuit was still ongoing.

“...”

Lee Han was startled by the answer, which differed from his expectations. Meanwhile, Diret gathered the students and explained the situation.

“This demon here seems to have been marked for tracking by an angel. If we extract it carelessly, we might have to face an angel.”

“An angel?!”

Koholti was shocked. The other students were equally surprised.

A completely unexpected name had suddenly popped up.

“Should we search the area to see if one is nearby?”

“It would be hard to detect one. Besides, specialized magic for that is rare too.”

The Empire had many anti-demon spells, but magic for dealing with angels was uncommon.

Diret had never learned magic for tracking angels either. What would be the point of learning such a thing?

“But it really is surprising that a demon would spill the details of the situation like that.”

“It must have surrendered quickly after seeing Nago’s strength.”

Koholti explained as if proud on Stedal’s behalf.

If they had come alone, the demon might not have surrendered and might have resisted, complicating matters.

If an angel sensed the conflict and came to the mansion, that was when the situation would truly escalate.

Thanks to Stedal Nago making the demon surrender with his mere presence and forcing it to reveal the secrets hidden inside, the job had become much easier.

“Right, Nago?”

“You talk too much.”

“Y-yes, sir!”

Koholti shut up, but the other students were thinking much the same thing.

Diret at least knew the circumstances, though that knowledge was based on a misunderstanding, but from the perspective of students who knew nothing about the situation, it was absolutely amazing.

Without any conflict or confrontation, he had made a demon surrender with his mere presence and forced it to spill the secrets it had hidden.

They had never heard of such a thing. He really was no ordinary battle mage.

“Hmm. Yukbeltire does have related magic, but if we send a letter and call her here, it would take too long...”

“She’s in the capital.”

“...Why is she in the capital?!”

At the words from the junior—no, from Stedal—Diret shouted in shock.

The other students were startled.

Was it all right to treat that fierce battle mage so carelessly?

“Ah, no. Ahem. Why is she in the capital?”

Realizing the mistake, Diret cleared the throat. Koholti directly apologized on behalf of the rude friend.

“I’ll apologize. Diret isn’t usually like this.”

“...It doesn’t matter, so keep quiet.”

Annoyed, Diret patted the battle mage’s back and signaled for him to follow outside.

When the two faced each other alone, Diret asked in a serious voice.

“Why is Yukbeltire in the capital?”

“That’s what I’d like to know.”

Lee Han said it while gauging Diret’s reaction.

Tattling would be easy, but he was worried the backlash might reach him too.

Strictly speaking, he could have done things in moderation, but he had participated too deeply because he wanted to see Professor Verdus crawling on all fours.

“What do you mean, that’s what you’d like to know? She must have followed you, junior!”

“!”

Lee Han was surprised to realize his inner thoughts had been discovered.

“How did you know?”

“What do you mean, how? With her personality, if she came up to the capital, it’s obvious.”

Diret was truly an excellent detective.

Just from knowing that the friend was in the capital, Diret had figured out the purpose and actions.

“I’m sorry.”

“Why are you sorry, junior? She’s the one who should be sorry for stubbornly following you and taking on the job. I thought she might have reflected a little...”

‘Phew.’

Lee Han let out a sigh of relief.

It seemed Diret had not noticed that Lee Han had volunteered because of Professor Verdus crawling on all fours.

If he had mentioned that, he might have been treated the same as Senior Yukbeltire.

“...If she’s in the capital, it’ll be easy to call her.”

Diret, who had been grumbling continuously, barely regained composure and muttered.

Diret wanted to smack that friend on the back of the head, but the immediate task had to come first.

“Should I call her over?”

“No. Let’s send a paper bird and just borrow the artifact. I think we’ll fight if I see her face.”

***

Yukbeltire packed the celestial detection artifact and magic tome in a bag and set off.

Diret had respectfully asked her to simply send the artifact, considering her busy schedule, but Yukbeltire showed a generosity she rarely displayed except toward those she acknowledged.

She would go there personally and cast the magic herself.

This consideration, which even took into account the possibility of Diret making mistakes, would surely rank among the finest in all of Einroguard.

Yukbeltire thought so to herself.

“What? You came in person?”

“!”

When an unknown mage standing in front of the main gate spoke to her, Yukbeltire hesitated.

This mage, who emanated a menacing aura, seemed to specialize in magical combat and showed no openings anywhere. Yukbeltire felt slightly intimidated.

“Who are you?”

“You don’t need to know. Go inside.”

“...!”

What a rude mage!