Demon Storage.

Far below the surface, some demons walked casually within the cold confines of the gray walls composing the storage.

A place where their main source of protection came not from impenetrable defenses, nor some excellent geography.

But from their presence… Or, their lack of it.

Out of the ten individuals in the well-hidden facility, three of them sat on a round table, with two of them facing each other. A chessboard and two sets of pieces rested on the wooden piece of furniture. 

"Woah, Queen to c6? A trade, this early…?"

"Tell me about it," replied one of the players, who moved one of his white rooks to d1.

"You're not even avoiding it, Harnold…"

"I know, Mindo. Just let him take her," answered the demon, only to glance at the left, where a hallway quietly awaited.

A frown appeared in Harnold's face, as he motioned his finger towards his lips, and manifested his Ego.

An ocean blue spear, surprisingly long, appeared in his hands. 

The other two demons immediately grew alarmed. One of them retreated towards the depths of the dark yet modern facility, whereas the other stayed with Harnold.

Harnold raised one of his fingers, and worry appeared on the other demon's complicated expression. Summoning his weapon, a purple, clawed gauntlet appeared on his left arm.

He raised four of his fingers, and one fell.

After the second one, both demons steeled their resolve.

Third one… One of them swallowed some saliva.

And on the last finger… They rushed to confront their opponent.

The duo charged towards the hooded intruder, fearlessly.

Only to halt as soon as the loner summoned… a rapier. A blue rapier, as calm as the waves of the sea in a refreshing noon of summer.

Harnold's hands trembled uncontrollably, and his weapon vanished in a mere instant. As his eyes lay on… That.

"W-… Wh-"

"Harnold? You're already…?"

"R-rulton… D-don't-"

Rulton didn't bother to listen to his friend, and shakily advanced towards the blue figure. A step at a time.

He would fight, unlike Harnold. Even if it sank him down to the deepest corners of the seas, he wouldn't give up.

The blue figure merely stood there, waiting.

"C-come on! You're not setting a step further into our home!!" yelled Rulton, angrily.

The cloaked figure took a step, scaring the hell out of both demons. And another.

The demons' eyes widened. Their bodies crawled back shakily, akin to worms, all while their heartbeats accelerated.

Yet, their backs met the cold, metallic wall.

"...!"

With shaking teeth, Harnold stared at the blue rapier.

He observed, as the incarnation of death drew closer to his friend's face. And he couldn't do a single thing. 

In front of that monster… There was nothing he could do.

Even Rulton dismissed his weapon. 

… Mindo, along with the other demons, had arrived, only to see an unexpected scene.

The strongest fighters in the facility, consummated by horror, as they kneeled in front of a stranger.

Fear took over most of their expressions, but a few clenched their teeth, and prepared to attack…

That is, until a peculiarly tall one emerged from the crowd. 

With shaky steps, he approached the other two demons, Harnold and Rulton. And voiced a single sentence.

"We… We give up."

***

[Jean's POV?]

A few minutes after Randall went into that place, he came back for us. Walking in, we spotted the ten demons present in the facility kneeling, and begging Randall for mercy.

A particularly strong duo, both of which seemed to be somewhere around Grade 5, hollowly waited for something to happen.

… As it usually happens whenever I see this sort of overwhelming victory, dread broke into my mind.

'What would our situation be like if Randall wasn't on our side, but… theirs?'

Shivers ran down my body with that thought alone.

"... So, let's get this straight. If we were to spare you, would you willingly abandon the Queen's army?" questioned Randall, once again.

"Y-y-yes! We'll even help you c-carry all of the supplies here!" Nodded the leader, eagerly.

'That… would be helpful, actually. This place is pretty stacked, after all.'

Hiltden seeds, some Repemtite, weapons, gold coins, potions, blueprints… Even a few Dwarven artifacts.

One of these was a crossbow, similar to Randall's. It had a few compartiments on top, along with a small circle on top of the thing Randall calls a "trigger"...but I'm not quite sure of their purpose.

There's also a relatively large cannon, resting on one of the corners… It resembled a dwarven War Mortar, though the designs are fairly different.

'The dwarves would have added more gears onto it… So I guess it was only used roughly as inspiration.'

Then again, their designing philosophy may have changed since my last visit. It did happen almost a decade ago, after all…

… Anyway, the last one I recognized immediately was a giant gray cube. It had a hole on top, sealed with a metal lid. Oddly enough, that thing emitted some vague traces of Mana.

… There's also some wheels lying around.

"... Wait, how are we meant to bring all of this back to Fegendale? We're quite deep underground." 

The leader of the demons in this facility, Ricardo, gave me a reply. "We'll carry it all out."

He and the other nine got to work, while we watched.

I requested Hiyoshin to watch over the demons, while I pulled him aside to talk.

We did keep Hiyo and the other demons in our field of view, just to make sure they don't pull a fast one on us by ganging up on her.

"Are you sure this is a good idea?"

"Probably not…"

"Then… Why?"

His solemn brown eyes couldn't even face mine. But at least he kept talking.

"Back in my world, we had this question called 'the trolley problem'. A group of five people were tied down to a railroad, along with a lone individual on another track. There is a moving, unmanned train, which is directly moving in the same tracks as the group of five."

I didn't really know what some of those terms meant, but I let him talk. 

"... While it is impossible to stop the train, there is a lever nearby. If you pull it, the tracks would change towards the rails where the lone individual is at."

I still kept quiet, given how it looked like he had more to say. 

"Now, with that information, you have to make a choice. Would you leave the lever alone, letting the train run over those five people? Or pull it, and… kill one person?"

His expression turned particularly grim by the time he uttered that last sentence.

… And sadly, I didn't understand a thing. Thus, giving him a genuine answer wouldn't be possible.

I casted my eyes away, towards the demons' work area, and saw they were doing fairly well. 

'What should I tell him?...'

… I wanted to say something, but no words flowed out of me.

"... You know, Jean. A long time ago, I used to discuss this sort of dilemma with a dear friend of mine. We'd spend hours upon hours doing nothing but discuss this dilemma."

He almost smiled.

"I didn't put that much thought into it back then, since we did it for… entertainment, I guess?... Hah, if only I had known that the value of those discussions would only grow as time passed."

The light in his expression slowly withered away, akin to a flower without sunlight or water.

".... Jean. Where do you think she's now?"