"The demon's soul is red."
"???"
Fujita's words shocked me. That means this also proves that the classification of soul colors based on race might actually be true.
Fujita once said that some souls in the castle were red.
"Are there other demons around here?"
"Yes, I can see a few of them."
Fujita told me about them: two knights who were surrounding the restrained demon (not the ones holding him down), a maid with a terrified expression, and a fat nobleman watching the demon's capture.
Fujita said their souls were red.
Even though demons and humans—or demi-humans—were not on friendly terms, they also weren't outright enemies. Only the church and the elves had openly declared hostility against demons.
Even so, demons were extremely rare on this continent. Just as humans didn't want to go to the demon continent, demons also didn't want to do the opposite.
But with their numbers being this high inside the castle, it raised many suspicions.
Keil knocked the demon unconscious and ordered a few knights to take it to the prison. After that, he approached Fujita and me.
"Fujita, we have to report this to His Majesty."
Hearing Keil's words, Fujita nodded and then warned me with a very serious expression.
"You're right. Flitz-san, be careful!"
"...."
Fujita was right. He had good reason to stress that to me. I recalled something he once told me.
After hearing Fujita's statement, Keil realized that Fujita had already told me about demon souls.
"Flitz, for now, please don't tell anyone about this."
"Alright."
I gave him a positive answer, and after that, we went our separate ways.
At first, Keil invited me to meet King Cyrus as well, but I refused.
That was because I needed to prepare a few things.
**********
That night, I was awakened from my sleep by noises outside. When I wanted to see what was happening, someone knocked on my door.
I immediately got into a ready stance, in case it was someone unwanted.
"Master, it's Mel. Are you still inside?"
The voice I heard from behind the door was Mel's. Her tone sounded filled with caution.
"Yes, come in, Mel!"
After I told her to enter, Mel slowly opened the door and looked around carefully. After observing the situation, she quickly rushed over to me.
"Thank goodness you're safe, Master!"
"What's wrong, Mel? What's happening outside? I can hear a commotion."
"The cult is attacking the capital. Come, Master, follow me. We must evacuate to a safe place."
The cult? Why are they here?
After saying that, Mel pulled me out of the room.
As we ran toward the evacuation point, I didn't see anyone in the corridor, but I could hear sounds of battle in the distance.
After a few minutes of running, we finally arrived in front of a room. After catching her breath, Mel spoke to me.
"This is the hidden room, come inside, Master!"
I looked at her doubtfully, but still followed her into the room.
As soon as we entered, I suddenly felt a wave of energy and a strange transition. At that moment, what I saw was a quiet forest, completely different from what I expected.
"What? Teleportation?"
Yes, without a doubt, it had to be teleportation magic. We had been transported to this forest.
"So, where are we now, Mel?"
As I asked, I turned to look at Mel beside me. She was also looking at me. Our eyes met, and I realized her pupils were different from before.
What was once brown had turned red.
I see. That confirmed it.
Without hesitation, I drew a weapon from my storage. The weapon was metallic gray with glowing blue circuit-like patterns, no longer than 40 cm.
I aimed it at Mel. At the tip of the weapon, small sparks of electricity flickered before firing a laser at her.
"???"
Too slow to react, Mel was blown back, creating several meters of distance between us.
If you're wondering why I didn't hesitate to attack Mel, it was because I already knew she was a demon.
When Fujita awakened his power, he told me about souls that were red—and that my personal maid, Mel, had a red soul.
And with the incident of the demon's capture earlier that day, we understood the meaning of a red-colored soul.
Not long after, I saw Mel stand up and ask in bewilderment.
"Why didn't that work on you? I was able to hypnotize the other heroes!"
So she just tried to hypnotize me! But too bad, it didn't work, and that surprised her.
Though I also didn't know why I couldn't be hypnotized. Since I had never been in a hypnotized state before, I couldn't be certain what the real reason was. Was it because of genetic modification, or something else?
More than that, while Mel was shocked by that, I was shocked by something else.
Why was she still perfectly fine after taking my shot?
I checked the area where she had been hit, but only her clothes were damaged, revealing her still unscathed skin.
This is bad. Could it be that none of my weapons work on her?
"Mel, why are you doing all this?"
"Hmm, how should I explain it? Honestly, I just wanted to see what the heroes looked like."
"That's all? Then why did you bring me here and try to hypnotize me? It seems like you wanted to kidnap me."
"Oh, that's because of an agreement."
An agreement? What did she mean?
Seeing my confusion, Mel began explaining the deal.
"I made a pact with the cult to kidnap one of you. By handing over a hero to them, they promised to give me something in return. Well, though I don't really care what they give me."
I see. I had read in books that the cult was an organization founded by humans with the goal of resurrecting a forgotten god.
Every being on this planet fought against them for many reasons. So, they had joined hands with demons for this assault.
I didn't know what the cult had offered demons to make them want to cooperate, but it seemed Mel's cooperation with the cult was simply for her own amusement.
"Mel, if you—"
"By the way."
Before I could offer Mel a suggestion, she cut me off and spoke with a delighted expression.
"You're a Voidstrider, aren't you?"
"Voidstrider? What are you talking about?"
What was Mel saying? Voidstrider? I had no idea what that was. Was she misunderstanding something?
Seeing my puzzled expression, Mel said to me:
"Why do you look so confused? You must be a Voidstrider, right? No wonder my hypnosis didn't work on you."
"It seems you're mistaken about that, Mel. I don't know what a Voidstrider is, and I'm not one."
Mel tilted her head and spoke with certainty.
"What are you saying? Don't deny it. You're definitely a Voidstrider! ...Ah, I see!"
Eh? Now what? Mel nodded as if she had just understood something. She continued, saying something that shocked me deeply.
"I get it now. You must be hiding your identity from the other heroes! But you don't need to hide it from me. I know you're not from the same world as those heroes."
WHAT!? How did Mel know that!?
"Why are you so surprised? Aside from you, I've already hypnotized the other heroes and dug out the information they had. The weapon you used doesn't exist in the information they gave me, and my intuition tells me you're a Voidstrider. Even if my explanation sounds doubtful, my intuition is always right!"
Hearing Mel's explanation still left me unconvinced. I had to keep denying it.
"Mel, I think you really are misunderstanding."
I tried to deny it, but she grew frustrated.
"AARGH. Why are you still so stubborn? You'd better just stay still. Let me capture you and bring you to my teacher, and I'll prove that I'm right about you."
Frustrated, Mel began walking toward me. I could feel a huge surge of mana enveloping her.