44 Chapter 37: Let's Make the Demon Lord Stronger Part 3; The Demon Lord's Dream

Ciel: "There we go."

*slash*

I used my right hand to cut my other arm using a high speed chop. It's actually Gale Manipulation, though. Red blood gushed out from my severed hand without any delay.

Ohh! It's actually red. I thought that now that I'm not human, it'll be different.

Fleur: "…!? Awawawawa??? Wh-What are you doing all of a sudden, Master????"

Ciel: "No, I mean… You have to use Heal."

Fleur: "Even if you say that in this situation…!"

Fleur pitter-pattered around the place, while flailing her hands around and thinking of something to stop the bleeding from my severed hand. She tried covering it with a cloth torn from the one she uses as a bed sheet, but…

Ciel: "Oww…!"

Fleur: "Wah?! I-I am very sorry!!"

Ciel: "Hahaha. Just kidding. It doesn't hurt."

I have my Pain Resistance Skill after all. Mufufu.

Fleur: "Muuu…~~~!!! O-Oh light of benign sacred light, g-grant this child a relief from agony, Astre Magic: Heal!!"

She begrudgingly used Heal, while puffing her cheeks and with tears in her eyes. Those tears have trickled down her cheeks as her eyebrows contorts to the middle. I guess, I teased her too much with that.

Nonetheless, my hand is now healed.

It healed.

But…

Ciel: "So it didn't grow the lost limb, huh?"

Fleur: "Of course, it would not! What were you thinking! Was Master actually an idiot?? Now you lost your hand forever!! Really… *sniffle* What were you… Uu…"

Oh my, my… I made her cry. But to think she would get riled up like this…

I guess that was too much for her… What the heck am I doing?

Actually, I'm testing the capabilities of this world's healing abilities with the skill Heal.

Fleur can use all the healing magic skills from the Advanced Astre Magic. They are the skills a person can acquire after leveling up their Magic skill to level 6 upwards. Those skills then are Called Advanced Magic skills.

For Astre Magic skills, they consists of supporting magic that can either heal or enhance abilities.

For the first skill, which is Heal, I was trying to test its limits. Whether it can restore severe wounds or not.

I guess it can't. But it closed up the wound to a degree, so it's not really a failure.

Also, it looks like it doesn't heal the target out of nowhere. As a substitute for the loss of the body, it will use more energy from the body to heal. In short, it doesn't create a healed state, but it just hastens the healing process.

That's why right now, I feel tired because of it.

Anyways, let's attach the arm back and have Fleur at ease. The more time passes, the more time for me to realize how I made a grave mistake.

I use Liquid Body and placed the severed arm over the cut, then used Regeneration as a finishing touch.

Upon doing so…

Ciel: "Voila! Good as new."

Fleur: "*sniffle* Eh… Eh? Wha…"

Ciel: "I can do this just fine. Sorry about that, Fleur. I made you experience something unpleasant."

She hurriedly touched my once severed hand and checked for wounds. After confirming that I'm really unharmed, she breathed a sigh of relief and flopped down to the ground.

…

… Ah.

Darn. I think I just did a cruel thing to Fleur…

How could I forget about her trauma…? I made myself think that she's already fie, but…

She's right. I'm such a damn idiot.

Of course she'll get scared at the look of a grave injury such as this. She once did wake up from her berserk state with her hands full of blood, like what she told me before.

What am I doing making her watch something like that again…?

Aaahh. Can someone please punch me in the face…?

Ciel: "… I'm sorry, Fleur. I won't do that again."

Fleur: "*sniffle* N-No. I-It's my fault that I get easily bothered… I'm sorry…"

This girl…

She even think that such things are her fault.

Why is she still on earth and not in heaven?? She's already an angel, dang it. For one, I think she should be lecturing me already. But now that she has calmed down, she initially came to the thought of it being her fault.

Really, Fleur. I'd rather have you get angry at me.

She's too good for this world…!

Fleur: "Master… Are you certain you are truly fine…?"

Gazing at me with tear filled eyes… and tear-filled voice…

Ciel: "I-I'm fine. I'm really sorry. I won't do it again, I promise."

That look was bad for the heart…

Ciel: "A-Anyways. What about Curea?"

Hearing my inquiry, Fleur wiped her tears and fixed her slightly disheveled hair. She's about to stand up so I reached my hands and pull her up.

Fleur: "Uhm. Curea only cures status ailments, as it does not heal."

Ciel: "Status ailments?"

Fleur: "Yes. For example, Fear, Malice, Confuse, Distress, Paralysis, Sleep, Poison, and Nightmare. However, the range of dispel depends on the power of the caster."

Hmhm. I see. So those Curse skills are actually the catalyst of a status ailment. I just thought they're simply a Curse and are skills that are unable to be dispelled unless the caster stops it.

If that's the case, then Curea is a must have.

Fleur: "As for the other Astre type magic skills, they focus on ability enhancement and wide range healing."

Ciel: "I see."

It's not like I want Fleur to focus on healing, since I can get by from my own Regeneration and some skills. But I want her to be ready for the worst and of course, for herself. It's not like I will always be with her.

Now that I'll be training her, I want her to be able to stand up on her own.

Ciel: "Well then, let's proceed to the offence, shall we?"

Fleur: "Yes, Master!"

She curled her hands into fists and brought them close to her chest.

Ciel: "That's the spirit."

And so, we spent our time wandering around, looking for monsters. Same old cave style surroundings, with few Glow Stones from here and there. As for the monsters, there are some Matamons, Deredafi (Salamander-like monsters), Skull Hounds (They're… Hounds), Cotris (A chicken looking monster), Armored Elephant (You know what an elephant is), and others.

I make her fight them, while supporting her from behind. Whenever it would seem like she could not handle the monster alone, I'll step in that instant. But as much as possible, I want her to get used to fighting by herself.

I teach her physical attacks, the easiest way to deal with monsters, and possible techniques to counter attacks. All of these are from my own experiences and book knowledge.

She would sometimes use magic, but it seems like she's still not used to utilizing it in battle. She would end up getting too focused in chanting the Causa, forgetting the monster in front of her.

Oh. From time to time, I use Soul Consume to get skills from the monsters.

<Scale Armor skill acquired>

<Enhanced Senses skill acquired>

But while I watch her fight, I see her wear a complicated expression. I got a bit worried, so I asked.

Ciel: "Wait, Fleur. Are you okay?"

Fleur: "Yes… But…"

As I wait for her response, she brought her hands in front of her and looked at them. They're shivering.

… I see.

Ciel: "Fleur… You don't have to do this if you think you can't."

To be clear, the Demon race consists of intellectual monsters gathered all over the world. They are monsters who've reached a hundred percent Intelligence Level.

However, they may be intellectual and are able to think for themselves, but they were still monsters. They are almost the same as these monsters we are killing right now. It's like we're killing her kin.

That must be what Fleur is contemplating right now.

And as to killing her kin, it would remind her of the time when she killed her own people before. How she killed her own parents with her own hands.

Fleur: "… I will do it."

But betraying my expectations, she still wants to go through with it.

… This girl is really strong. I could not help but smile.

Fleur: "To get even more stronger, I have already resolved my heart for this. You see, Master…"

Ciel: "Yeah?"

Fleur brought her hands close to her chest, tightly gripped.

Fleur: "I… I will become stronger and become a proper Demon Lord!"

With her eyes gazing into mine with great resolve, she uttered those simple, yet resounding words. She paused for a while, so I waited for her to speak again.

Fleur: "I will become a Demon Lord like Mother and lead the Demis. This may be somewhat presumptuous of me… However… This time, I want to be someone who will be able to protect them. I will not ever let the same mistake happen again."

Ciel: "… I see."

Is this how it feels for a father to see his daughter grow…? It's kind of lonely, yet uplifting. It just makes me all the more want to support her.

Fleur: "That is why… I will become even stronger. Even if the path I will take will leave even more corpses behind. I will carry that burden with me. That is the dream I want to pursue."

She must have thought about this countless of times already. It's not an easy choice to make. To take the path which she knows is thorny and painful.

It's rare to see someone who has the same resolve and is willing to carry that burden.

But she wants to go through it, nonetheless.

Not to stay behind and mope around with her failures, but to stand up and take a step forward for a brighter future.

She really is the Judgement Arcana.

Ciel: "Very well then, Milady."

I kneeled down, reached out my hand, as if to wait for her to take it and invite her for a dance. I looked at her straight in the eyes and…

Ciel: "Will you be willing for me to partake in that dream of yours?"

Fleur: "…! U-Uhm… I-I'm not your… Well… Uhm… Y-Yes. Obviously. I will not have it any other way."

She stumbled and stuttered quite a bit. But after regaining her composure, she smiled and agreed, gingerly taking my hand in the process.

Now that's Fleur. Cute, easily embarrassed, clumsy, yet she tries her best. And that smile of hers at the end.

That alone makes me think that I made a good decision about this.

And that is how I, Ciel, have decided to help this cute, yet clumsy Demi Princess to reach her dream of becoming the proper Demon Lord that she wants to be.

That'll be my primary goal for now. Yep.

…

..

.

Purin: "Milady, thou have to carefully chant thine Causa, purin. Causa is the generator of the gate for the Crysaztel to be safely converted into magical power, purin. If thou failed to chant it perfectly, it will hinder thine full potential to cast magic, purin."

Fleur: "I understand. I will try it again."

This time, after reaching a certain wide space inside this labyrinth-like interior of the mountain range, Purin is the one who's teaching Fleur.

We've decided that I will be teaching Fleur about her skills and any physical type fighting and Purin will be the one to teach her magic. Since, well, I can't use magic.

She had already been taught about the basics back in her school and is quite talented. But the actual use of her advanced skills that she acquired from her dark age is something she haven't done yet. And not to mention, she hasn't used it yet in practical battles. She's still a beginner in magic in that sense.

As for my own teaching regime, I've been teaching her close combat quarters, which I learned from reading books.

Although, to be honest… Being looked at with sparkling eyes while asking me to teach her CQC is… scary.

I mean, I don't have any experience of it before! Much less having experience of teaching someone! I only use the moves and techniques I've read from books and apply it to practical use. Ahaha…

Good thing my current body is cooperative with this. Perhaps being physically capable at fighting really helped. It's like I'm already used to fighting in the first place.

But I've been teaching her based from memory alone. I was really on my wits end when she suddenly expects me to teach her a powerful killer move or something.

Well, I just told her to hold that thought off until after we got out of the mountain range.

At any rate, I'm taking watch over the place while Purin teaches Fleur.

And, yeah…

Something… No. Someone is approaching. And they're a group.

I'm using Detect at the moment and I can see all of them clearly using Magical Perception.

Ciel: "Purin, Fleur. We've got company. Prepare."

Purin: "Company, purin? Art they not the usual monsters, purin?"

Fleur: "You look serious, Master…"

Of course, I would be.

Ciel: "They're not monsters. They're…"

Humans and Aelves.

…

..

.

Chapter End