Today Slackness

Today is the last day I will release multiple chapters in a single day. Starting tomorrow, the regular schedule will be one chapter per day.

There will be 2 bonus chapters for each 100 votes reached...

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Unified Dynasty Era, Year 24, February 18th, the weather was clear and Aura was slacking off.

"It's time to work."

Aura heard the noise under the bed and reluctantly opened her eyes.

She struggled to get up from the bed, and watched with sleepy eyes her diligent roommate, who had already combed her long pink hair that reached her thighs and covered her whole body. She was cheerfully putting on her shoes and getting ready to leave.

Perhaps because she was a demon, Serie had placed her in a room with Zanze to keep an eye on her and prevent any unexpected trouble.

Zanze didn't mind.

Aura, however, was very unhappy.

Having been accustomed to being served and living freely and unrestrained because of the magic of obedience, Aura found Zanze's regular routine annoying. Zanze would wake her up every morning, remind her to eat, and scold her for staying up late.

"Awake?"

"Help me comb my hair."

"Can't the great demon even comb her hair?"

"Help me dress."

"Can't the great demon even handle simple human tasks like dressing?"

"Help me put on my shoes."

"Can't the great demon have some hygiene awareness? I was the one who cleaned your boots last time, remember?"

Zanze, having lived with Aura for over a month, knew the character of this stupid demon. If left unchecked, she would probably braid her hair in front of her eyes, have her clothes fall off halfway through the day. As for shoes - she would probably come to the library barefoot.

She was a completely useless demon!

"Zanze, carry me."

"…Aura, I need to remind you, I'm only helping because I can't stand your sloppiness, not because I'm your slave."

"Ah, isn't it?"

"What's with that surprised look on your face?"

"Huh? I thought I already used the spell of obedience on you."

"If you had, Serie-sama would have made sure you understood the consequences."

"Hey, if you hadn't been under my obedience spell... why do you still follow my orders?"

"It's not an order, just pity for a useless demon."

"Then please pity me more!"

"…Shameless."

"Please, if you agree to be my slave, I'll do anything!"

"…"

Zanze had learned from dealing with Aura that not a single punctuation mark of a demon's promise could be trusted.

She placed a specially made hat on Aura's head, pressing it down to cover her face, finally silencing her shameless requests.

It was a wide-brimmed lace hat in purple, matching Aura's hair color. Though overly ornate, it cleverly concealed Aura's horns.

Except for the first day, Aura had worn this hat whenever she met people. Besides Zanze and a few others who saw her on the first day, no one in this small town knew Aura was a demon.

Aura held the hat with both hands, complaining, "Be gentle, my horns are sensitive."

"They won't break, so it's fine."

Zanze remained indifferent, her attention was not on Aura. After putting the hat on Aura, she opened the door and prepared to leave.

Aura gently touched her left horn and followed.

Demon bodies healed quickly. The axe wound that had nearly severed her horn had already healed. The new horn looked identical to the old one.

——

Entering Serie's permanent palace, Aura suddenly felt that something was wrong with the atmosphere today.

Looking around, she noticed piles of books surrounding Serie's throne.

'This is extremely abnormal.'

Today, Aura and Zanze hadn't started categorizing and moving books from the ancient tree to Serie, so the area around her throne should have been empty.

"You've arrived."

"Serie-sama, we are here."

Serie's voice came from above. Zanze responded, and Aura looked up to see Serie perched at the top of the book mountain, not sitting on her throne as usual.

Like an agile cat, she stood on the pointed tip.

"Zanze, Aura, do you notice anything wrong with these books?"

Zanze casually pulled out a few books from the pile, frowning. These were books Serie had already read and categorized into the underground tower. Why were they here again?

Besides that, she found nothing wrong.

On the other hand, Aura, seeing the titles of five or six books, immediately realized what was happening. Her legs trembled, and she began sweating profusely.

These were all books she had tampered with, deliberately blacking out all knowledge related to the future human magic system.

Aura thought Serie wouldn't notice. 'It had clearly been classified into the underground tower, so why... why was it dug out again?'

"Aura, you're sweating a lot. Are you hot?"

Serie noticed Aura's condition first and asked, squinting at her.

"Uh—ah—yes, the weather is very hot—"

Aura removed her lace hat and fanned herself. Perhaps it was because of the crisis that the demon's instinct to preserve their lives kicked in again. Aura, who was not good at hiding her emotions, managed to remain expressionless and indifferent like other demons.

Serie's probing gaze stayed on her for a while before shifting away.

"All these books have one thing in common: a passage on a certain page has been blacked out."

Crash!

Aura felt as if struck by lightning. Her pupils trembled, and countless possible punishments that Serie would inflict on her if her little tricks were exposed emerged in her mind.

The lightest punishment is to cut off her hands. From now on, she can only use her feet and mouth to meet all her needs in life. It is estimated that she will need Zanze's help for the rest of her life.

In that case, she would find a way to make Zanze her slave.

That wasn't a problem.

If she begged, Zanze would surely agree!

—As a selfish and cold-hearted demon who is extremely good at imitating the pitiful appearance of humans to gain sympathy, this kind of thing is easy for Aura.

At worst, she would have her horns broken, limbs severed, and be kept like a bug. She could only hope Serie wouldn't take away her ability to hear, see, and speak, so she could still plead for mercy and secure a comfortable treatment.

Aura's thoughts raced, but only a few breaths passed in the outside world. After examining the expressions of her two assistants, Serie finally focused on Aura.

"Aura, do you have any idea what's going on?"

"I don't know..."

"Tell the truth."

Aura took a deep breath, her eyes firm, and she was ready to die:

"It was all Zanze! It has nothing to do with me!"

She pointed at the stunned Zanze with clear eyes. Just from her sincere expression, it was impossible to tell that Aura was lying.

"Huh?!"

Caught off guard by the two gazes directed at her, Zanze hurriedly picked up a book from the ground, flipping through several pages to find the blacked-out sections, scratching her head in confusion.

She had no memory of this.

But demons were deceitful, and Aura was particularly notorious among them. There was no reason for her to credit Zanze with such an act.

Could it be that she had truly forgotten after working while drowsy and mixed things up?

'What?!'

The one who was even more shocked than Zanze was Aura. She had thought that her sloppy lie would be exposed on the spot. Unexpectedly, after flipping through several blacked-out books, Zanze began to doubt her own memory.

Was it possible that Zanze, exhausted from working the past few days, had mixed up what she had actually done?

'Chance!!!'

"These were all blacked out by Zanze while she was dozing off. I saw it with my own eyes!" Aura swore solemnly.

'Sorry, Zanze. If you get your hands cut off, I'll make good use of you as my slave!'

'Even if you only have a pair of legs left, I am willing to give you the right to serve me and will never despise you!'

'If things really develop to the worst, I will eat you who I raised like a bug with tears in my eyes and turn you into a part of my body. Oh my king, I, Aura, actually have such deep feelings for a human. There should be no demon who can imitate humans better than me, Aura!'

Aura contemplated this, her face remaining expressionless.

Serie approached Zanze, running a hand through her pink hair. Zanze looked up, her innocent, watery eyes staring at Serie.

Serie grinned:

"Well done, Zanze!"

"The annotations you made pointed out a feasible way to make magic accessible to all humans. If my subsequent verification goes well, your name will be recorded in the history of human magic."

"It's just that the ink pen you used to mark the words was too dark. Haven't I told you to break that habit? But this time, you did well, so don't worry about that minor mistake."

"Uh???"

Zanze tilted her head.

She had broken that habit a month ago after Serie had told her how troublesome it was to restore blacked-out sections with magic, and she had started using non-obscuring paint for annotations.

'Did I push myself too hard these days, working in a half-asleep state and fall back into bad habits?'

Zanze didn't dwell on it, her surprise quickly turning to joy.

This news from Serie was unbelievable for any human mage. It was enough to drive even the most rational mage into a ecstasy.

Not because of personal honor, but because humanity would finally have the means to compete with demons. The era where everyone could become a mage was approaching!

"Ahahahahaha!!!"

Zanze, unable to contain her excitement, refrained from any disrespectful gestures towards Serie. In her excitement, she hugged the person closest to her except Serie. Her small body burst out with amazing strength, and she actually lifted the demon, who was a head taller than her, off the ground and spun her around.

After several spins, she released Aura.

Aura's expression looked odd.

"Aura, are you unhappy?" Zanze asked, tilting her head.

"I am so happy..."

Aura forced a smile that wouldn't come.

Her eyes were empty and void.

Demon King-sama, Aura has committed an unforgivable sin against the demon race, a crime so grave that even death cannot atone for it... Forgive me, Demon King-sama, Aura must forget all this to survive.

I can't stay here any longer.

Otherwise, there is no telling what future knowledge Serie will gain.

Aura lowered her head, her purple hair covering her eyes.

She had to secretly escape from here.