Six Month Later
A certain purple-haired demon strutted through the grand hallway with the pride of a conquering general.
Aura's workplace was moved back from Hohenburg to Kribi.
Of course, it wasn't because Aura's education reforms in Hohenburg had ended, but because her work had expanded—from a single pilot project in Hohenburg to a wider range of implementation.
After observing the results of Aura's reforms over the course of a year and a half, Serie recalled her from Hohenburg to Kribi, entrusting her with the supervision of reforms in every branch academy of the Magic Association across the Kingdom.
Aura had finally completed the first step in consolidating power, entering the very heart of authority within the Magic Association's headquarters in Kribi, now holding the position of Minister of Education.
Oh, and Aura's personal secretary, Sheila, also entered Kribi.
The reason why Aura promoted Sheila to the position of Vice Minister of Education was, of course, because she was kind-hearted, cared about her subordinates, and was benevolent, so she promoted Sheila out of kindness.
Certainly not because every reform policy in Kribi had actually been drafted by Sheila, while Aura merely ensured their strict enforcement—and without Sheila, she'd risk being exposed before Serie.
Aura still remembered Serie's question the last time they met.
"Were these reform ideas all proposed by you?"
"That's right."
"It doesn't look like something Aura would come up with, does it?"
"I'm the one who came up with them!"
"No one helped you? You did it all on your own?"
"All by myself!"
Aura straightened her back, her expression firm and proud. Her confidence was so overwhelming that even Serie couldn't help but believe her wisdom.
Serie expressed newfound respect for her, patting her shoulder in praise and urging her to continue her efforts.
Of course, Aura hadn't taken credit out of vanity or greed—no, not at all.
She merely thought Sheila was still too young and too eager for recognition. Such reckless ambition could be dangerous. It would be better for her, a 500-year-old demon, to took responsibility for those accomplishments instead.
Aura swore in her heart that sooner or later she would return the credit to Sheila.
After all, no matter how shameless Aura was, she couldn't possibly steal the achievements of her loyal subordinate, right?
Does she look like some bad boss who would send her subordinate to their deaths?
Did she ever do something so drastic as to chop off the heads of her subordinate and not stop until the flesh rotted?
Of course not, right—
Since she'd sworn it, Aura would keep her word. She'd confess everything to Serie when the time was right.
As for when that "right time" would be—
Naturally, that would be the day Aura was confident she could defeat Serie and trample on her pride without dying for it.
Probably in about… two thousand years.
"Miss Aura, didn't you say that once we arrived in Kribi, you'd take on part of the administrative work?"
"Did I say that?"
"Yes, you did! That's exactly why I resigned from my position in Hohenburg to follow you here—because you promised to help share the workload once we arrived."
"No, no, no—I said that after I've had enough rest, I'd help share the workload."
"And when will you have enough rest?"
"Oh, perhaps in about two thousand years."
"Bulshit!! I'm going to report this directly to Mistress Serie!"
"Fufu, a little assistant like you, dreaming of an audience with Serie? Keep dreaming!"
"Miss Aura, didn't you know? President Zanze promoted me to Vice Minister of Education a few days ago. I may still be one rank below you, but I do have the authority to meet Mistress Serie."
"You can't go!"
"Miss Aura? I've been meaning to ask, why do you always stop me from meeting Mistress Serie? Every time there's a report, I could easily accompany you to provide more accurate updates, since I handle most of the department's work myself… You're not hiding something from me, are you?"
"N-no… of course not! Hahaha! Sheila, you're my most trusted aide! How could I hide anything from you?"
"I'm becoming more and more suspicious that you're hiding something."
"....."
"Wait—Miss Aura, why are you crying?! H-hey, don't… don't do that! Fine, fine, I won't go! I won't see Mistress Serie, alright? Why are you always so strict with others, yet cry so easily in front of me? Please, don't cry, I'm not going anywhere—"
"Because tears… work very well on Sheila."
Aura wiped the tears from the corner of her eyes. A single droplet clung to the back of her hand; she brought it to her lips and licked it away.
At that moment, Aura's expression was calm and composed. None of the previous sobbing remained.
Aura was skilled at dealing with humans. Though she still couldn't fully understand them, she had learned through observation how to exploit their weaknesses and use her own strengths to capture their hearts.
Ever since she began to feel emotions similar to humans, she had mastered this art.
Her early experiments on humans like Flamme and Zanze hadn't gone well, but Aura didn't believe it was due to a flaw in her methods—rather, those two were simply too familiar with her; they could see through her act.
But with others, the results were very different.
Since arriving in Hohenburg, she had tested her methods on Gal, Andro, and Sheila. She has become more aware of human weaknesses. Encouragement worked on Gal. Harshness worked on Andro. Tears worked on Sheila.
Aura has more and more ways to deal with humans, and most of the time, they can achieve results beyond expectations.
Take right now, for example—
Just moments ago, Sheila had been demanding that Aura share her workload and even threatened to report her to Serie. But now, she was hugging Aura from behind, gently stroking her hair, softly promising she'd never go to Serie again, and not bringing up work at all.
'I have come to fully understand the human heart.'
'Fufu… Fufufu… hehahahahahahaha—'
"Miss Aura, please don't say things like 'tears work very well on Sheila' again. That doesn't sound like something a human would say… it sounds more like something a demon would."
Sheila was a head taller than Aura, and standing just behind her, her gaze naturally fell upon the conspicuous purple hat atop Aura's head.
It had been a gift from a certain orange-haired mage after her arrival in Kribi. The two seemed to know each other well. Though for some reason, when Aura saw that mage, she had started trembling.
Without a word, she had obediently swapped out her straw hat for this one.
Sheila's eyes lingered on the purple hat. She lifted her hand, intending to tip it up and take a look beneath—but halfway through, she stopped, letting her hand fall back to her side.
Her gaze drifted away from the hat and down to the girl before her—the one who, from a distance, seemed too flawless to approach, yet up close revealed a personality so insufferably difficult that it drove people mad.
Such contradictions, contained within one single person, amused her.
And besides—those words, "Tears work very well on Sheila," truly did sound like something a demon would say.
But if Aura really were a demon, she would never have said it aloud.
Demons might fail to understand humans—but they weren't fools.
Which only made Aura all the more fascinating.