Chapter 71 - The Two Masks

Daily life at the academy went rather ordinary.

I returned to the dormitory right after class and stood still with my sword drawn in one corner of the room.

Sierra was counting seconds next to me.

'Slowly...'

...Around this time, when you want it to be.

Blood gushed out of the mouth.

I immediately stopped running.

After wiping the blood from his mouth and applying a lead, he immediately lay down on the bed behind him.

"How many seconds... Did it increase?"

Then she turned her head towards Sierra and asked.

[It has doubled. I can last 18 seconds now. The fact that her mastery of Chapter 2 has also improved noticeably... The original woman has not done anything special as her teacher... It's really commendable. ]

Sierra came up to me and stroked my hair with a bright smile.

Fortunately it was

I looked at the status window in the air without saying a word.

〈 Zeto 〉 Lv.33

Skills you have

-Ghost Sword Lv.22

-Sierra Ryu Reverse Heaven (Incomplete) Lv.5 - [Ghost Sword Art] Effect is being applied

-Excellent Senses Lv.7

- Weakness Detection Lv.MAX - [Eye patch that pierces reason] Effect is being applied

-Acupuncture Lv.3

Remaining Skill Points: 3

Item being worn

-Eye patch that pierces reason [Legendary]

-Bracelet with Origin [Epic]

-Yodo (妖刀) 'Sierra' [Belonging]

-Necklace containing the protection of the warrior [Epic]

-The Veil of Night [Unique]

-Tears of the Dead [Engraved]

The skill points obtained this time were consumed.

However, as he had done so far, he spent 4 skill points on the ghost sword technique, but the level of Reverse Heaven did not rise.

I tried to raise it by 1 point just in case, and it was only after the level of Demonic Swordsmanship rose 2 more levels that the level of Reverse Heaven rose.

In the end, there were only 3 skill points left after 9 left.

It seems that the required level of Yeokcheon has been increased to 1 level per 6 levels instead of 1 level per 4 levels of demon swordsmanship.

'I thought it wouldn't be long before I learned Chapter 3...'

I don't know if it's a good investment yet... Where is the increase in experience in the 'eye patch'?

Raising the level was enough.

If the required amount of level increased, it meant that it was a good skill, so I decided to think positively.

'If it's like this...'

After finishing the calculations in my head, I talk to Sierra.

"I was thinking of taking care of one of the demons today..."

Sierra's eyes narrow at my sudden words.

[ Demons...? Are you going to fight demons? How long has she been fighting the lich and is she going to roll her body again? She believes in the power of the bracelet, and she is very worried that she may not be overdoing it...]

Immediately afterwards, Sierra spurred me on.

'I guess I couldn't take a break.'

Still, it was something I had planned for a long time. It was better to deal with him before it was too late.

Eisel Ludwig.

It was her process to keep her alive.

Among the demons who were aiming for Eisel's life, he wanted to kill the one who could be considered weak.

They are sharing information with each other, so I didn't touch it because I thought it would be difficult in many ways if I missed it once.

It may have been quite early, but it was because of the judgment that it would be possible to catch it now.

[Disciple, have you ever dealt with demons? ]

"There is nothing."

At her astonished reply, Sierra puts her own forehead and closes her eyes.

"It's okay, Richie was new too, what."

Sierra tried to alleviate her concerns, she added, and smiled at her.

They were opponents who had been fighting a lot in the game, but since they had never actually fought, it wasn't a very wrong statement.

Asmodian.

A race that looks very similar to humans, but has devil-like horns on its head.

Horns were able to contain and store the life force of living creatures to increase their demonic energy, which is their strength.

The shape of the horns are all different, but the more demonic energy they have, the more the horns turn black.

They mainly drew life from humans.

The reason was that the quality of beasts and monsters was lower than that of humans.

As the demons killed humans, they became stronger and stronger.

A god to serve, a way of living, and a race that inevitably collides with mankind.

That was the demon.

Sierra listens to me and walks around her room tapping her lips with her finger.

He seemed to be worrying about something.

Then she stepped in front of me and opened her mouth.

[ ...I'm not saying you're trying to enter the land of demons, you're talking about those who hide among humans. ]

Sierra gave her correct answer and I nodded her head.

Among the demons, there were those who could cover their horns.

As she said, they hid their horns and sneaked into the human land, living and breathing among humans, killing humans and gathering strength.

Those who hid their horns hid the magic that flowed from their bodies, making it difficult to distinguish them from humans.

Of course, the human side knew this and dealt with it.

For example, the Sacred Church, which serves the Lord Heneris, created an order of knights to capture the demons.

It was the saintess who managed the knights.

At the time of the war, it was the saintess' role to cast large-scale healing magic on the battlefield, but at the same time as the truce continued, it had to be seen that an espionage war was under way invisible to her eyes, so it seemed that the saintess was given that role.

By the way, the former saintess lost her life during the war.

The saintess who appeared after a while was 'Bernice'.

Considering her 'skills' as a saint, she could be regarded as a fairly excellent ability to sift out demons.

However, it is too late for them to hope that even the demons who are targeting Eisel will be wiped out.

Reporting won't work either.

It was not a system that was weak enough to listen to information from people whose identity was uncertain.

Those who were aiming for Eisel were particularly cunning.

So, if you want to get rid of them and reduce the number of cases, you have no choice but to take direct action.

In the case of her saintess, it seems that when she later contacts her, it will be decided whether or not she can borrow their power.

Sierra brushes her dark hair and she comes close to me and she hugs me.

There was not much strength in her body.

Then she put her face close to my ear and opened her mouth.

Then Sierra's soft voice echoes in her head.

[Even the original daughter cannot stop it... Our disciple has a bad habit of trying to carry it alone...]

"..."

[You must promise with the original woman that you will take enough rest after this work is over. ]

"...All right."

It certainly seemed like it would be a good idea to take a break after this job.

There must be so many questions.

No question came out of her mouth.

Sierra was just giving me a warm hug.

***

Recently, a drama adaptation of a fairy tale in which a saint appears as the main character has gained great popularity in theaters.

Oswald plays the role of a saint, who can be said to be the main character in this work, and has recently been raising his stock price as an actor.

Oswald took his place when the male actor originally assigned to the role suddenly disappeared.

However, this was all the work of Oswald, no, the demon Crektar.

Yes.

Oswald was a demon, not a human.

His name as a demon was Krektar.

Even though he is a demon, he was active as an actor who spread his face widely, not just hiding among humans.

Thanks to his acting as an actor, he often shared places with nobles, so he was able to extract information from humans.

On the one hand, he liked theater, which was human culture.

He liked and loved acting.

Oswald felt exhilarating joy and happiness with the act of performing two acts at the same time, acting as another character in the play while playing a human among humans.

The demons around Oswald were in a position that he didn't understand, but he didn't care much about it.

He didn't think it was worth talking to stupid people who didn't know art.

"Then Oswald! We go first."

"Yeah, everyone did a great job this time too. Don't be late for morning practice. I'll practice a little more before I go."

"You work hard every time. Take care of yourself sometimes."

Oswald gave a warm smile and waved to his fellow actors as they left the waiting room.

Among them, there was a guy who made a mistake in today's play.

Didn't like it.

He ruined his play.

As Oswald watched him leave the waiting room, he pondered whether to pluck out his vitality and kill him like the guy who dared to usurp his role.

He finally shook his head and cleared his head.

'Only once. Just one more mistake.'

It's not too late to go and deal with it then.

It was cumbersome because the play had to be stopped for a while if an actor disappeared while tickets were selling briskly like now.

Soon he turned his head and looked at a letter lying on the table in the waiting room.

The sealing wax that was tightly closing the envelope contained magic, so it was impossible to open the letter without using the power of demons, demonic energy.

It was a letter from his fellow demons.

He blew demon energy into the wax around the time his fellow actors had completely disappeared, releasing the envelope's sealing magic.

"Let's see..."

He took out the letter and read it slowly.

In the letter, there was a story about a test subject they had in the past.

"...Are you still alive? Eisel... Did you even openly wear the surname Ludwig?"

Oswald, who was reading the letter, muttered with a fishy smile.

Seriously, that wasn't good news.

Eisel Ludwig.

The only survivor of the Ludwig clan.

It was a story of more than ten years ago that her bad relationship with her continued.

The fact that Eisel, the demon's test subject, was alive was a headache in many ways.

So, it was a letter containing the contents of a meeting in the near future.

"Did you go to Innocence Academy...? You made a good choice, it wouldn't be easy to mess with the academy."

After reading the letter, he folded it and fell into a moment of reminiscence.

When young Eisel, who was being experimented on by them, has an expressionless face, the memory of her pointing out that such an expression is not natural comes to mind.

Oswald told her at length about how to appear natural to her people and how to improve her performance.

"...Didn't she? She would have acted out and staged her own death."

Oswald was ecstatic that Eisel had fooled him.

But in the end he had to kill her.

She shouldn't have been alive.

Her being alive meant their failure.

If it went wrong, the head of the corps commander would be blown away.

Still, the demon who sent him the letter seems to have a plan in mind.

'Even if he's a boring guy who doesn't know anything about art, he's smart and competent, but he's the most competent, so he'll come up with a solution right after the meeting starts.'

Oswald clicked his tongue as he burned his letter.

I wondered if my life as an actor was going well, but I didn't know that something like this would happen.

Around the time Oswald burned all the letters, he heard signs of someone approaching the waiting room.

Soon, a man enters the waiting room.

Was a stranger.

'...Is he blind?'

The black-haired man had bandages wrapped around his eyes.

The stylish black coat went well with him.

"Hmm. What's going on? This is the actors' waiting room... Did you get on the wrong track?"

"Nice play, Mr. Oswald."

The blind man answered Oswald's question.

'What, was it a follower...'

Oswald did not quite understand why a blind man could say that he had seen the play well, but since he could hear the lines, he wondered if it was because he had a good tone of voice.

"Thank you for liking it. But, as I said before, this is a waiting room where only theatrical actors can enter."

Oswald gave good advice to the blind man.

He wanted to take care of his image as an actor.

This was no longer a big deal because he had recently become famous and had a lot of weird followers.

However, the words that came out of the blind man's mouth offended Oswald.

"...I wonder if the acting was a little clumsy."

The blind man was daring to point out his acting skills.

"...What part did you feel that way?"

Oswald's brow furrowed, but he decided to listen, wondering what he was going to say.

Instead, he was going to take his life as a reward for teasing his tongue.

Then the blind man smiled and opened his mouth.

"Perhaps his acting as a human, Oswald, was a bit obvious."