Somewhere in the Southern Nations — inside an abandoned building far removed from the noise of the world.
"In the end, you went through with it. You always push yourself too hard."
Solitär looked at the girl beside her, and couldn't quite keep the worry off her face.
She didn't know exactly how much strain the magic had put on Fíliya — but the pale, hollow look on the girl's face and the cold sweat soaking her hairline were real enough to make the answer obvious.
"I'm... not pushing myself. I'd already made up my mind to do this a long time ago. I just kept putting off the actual decision..."
Fíliya's voice was faint, slightly unsteady. She braced one hand against the wall beside her, and with the other, slowly reached up to touch the top of her own head.
"...Not bad at all. Just like I imagined. Horns really are better when they're on the smaller side — if they'd come in any bigger, I'd have wanted a refund."
She said it with forced lightness, throwing out the little joke like she always did. But none of the other three could manage to laugh along with her.
"Ahh... so this is it, isn't it. We were this close to being treated as heroes, and now we've just tumbled straight into the abyss. We might actually end up on a wanted list across every human nation..."
Aura looked genuinely stricken.
"Oh? That's what you're worried about?" Fíliya propped herself up a little and turned to Aura with a faint smile, then raised a finger and pointed to the pair of small, neat horns on her own head — a rather close match to Solitär's in size and shape.
"I... at this point, honestly, nothing you do surprises me anymore..."
Aura gave a helpless shake of her head.
"Isn't it something..." Solitär murmured softly in agreement. "I never imagined that the ultimate goal of 'Fíliya, the Great Lover of the Demon Race' was to become one herself... I'll admit, when I realized it, even I was taken aback."
"Actually, there's something I don't quite understand..." Aura's curious eyes drifted back to Fíliya. "Turning yourself into a demon — fine, I can almost follow that. But why did you also turn the Emperor into one while you were at it? Please don't tell me it was just because you didn't like the look of him."
"Of course not. What I did to the Emperor had nothing to do with personal feelings. Whoever happened to be sitting in that seat — I would have done the same thing to them."
"Hm?"
That answer only deepened Aura's confusion.
"Because that man is the Emperor of the most powerful nation on the continent," Solitär stepped in at that point, offering the explanation to Aura with a calm, measured voice. "And it happened in full view of everyone — in front of high nobles, senior officials, and the upper echelon of the Continental Magic Association. There is no more effective publicity than that. That's what she was thinking, isn't it?"
"...Publicity?"
The word left Aura blinking blankly.
"Exactly. 'The Demon Race possesses the power to transform humans into demons.' That is the message Fíliya wanted to send to the entire world."
"But... can't humans do that thing where they... control the narrative? Suppress the information? Would something like this actually spread?"
Aura's expression was skeptical.
"You can't wrap fire in paper forever. News this significant is nearly impossible to bury completely. And even if they tried their hardest to suppress it — I've already prepared a fuse to set the powder keg alight regardless. Besides..."
Fíliya paused, and a thin, contemptuous smile crept across her lips without her quite meaning it to.
"For people who already hold power and wealth — the truly powerful, the ones who have everything — there is only one thing left in this world that can still hold a fatal attraction for them."
"...Lifespan? Longevity... or even immortality?"
The realization hit Aura immediately. 'Becoming a demon' didn't just mean rapidly gaining extraordinary power — it also meant acquiring the long life that humans had always dreamed of.
Looked at that way... 'becoming a demon' could genuinely become a fatal temptation for certain humans. The thought sent a small chill through Aura — followed almost immediately by a new wave of confusion.
"But... why do any of this in the first place? I don't understand... Why would you want to use something like that to test humanity?"
Fíliya didn't answer right away. Instead, she crossed the dim, decrepit room to its far corner and picked up a jagged shard of broken glass from the floor.
She looked at the slightly unfamiliar face staring back at her from the makeshift mirror, and gave one slow, quiet raise of an eyebrow.
"It seems... the effects of becoming a demon are a little more significant than I anticipated."
She said it softly, then let the glass shard drop. A moment later, she pressed both hands to her head, as though trying to hold back a sudden, splitting pain.
"What's wrong?!"
Solitär was at her side in an instant. Aura and Linie both turned toward her with expressions etched with concern.
"...I'm dizzy. And I can barely lift my arms. I'm going to need some time to rest."
Fíliya's chest rose and fell in shallow, labored cycles. The color had all but drained from her face.
"I see... Then we'll leave it at that for now. Let me tidy up the room. This place should be outside of Serie's detection range, at least, shouldn't it?"
Solitär took her gently by the arm and guided her slowly toward the bed. She eyed the dust-covered mattress, and without a word, swept a quick cleaning magic across it — then carefully lowered Fíliya down onto it.
"Mm."
Fíliya gave Solitär one last small nod — and was asleep almost before she finished the motion.
Watching it happen, Aura found herself with nothing to say at all.
It was the first time she had ever seen this girl look so utterly defenseless.
She sat down quietly at Fíliya's side. Then, without quite thinking about it, she reached out — and gently touched her fingertips to Fíliya's cheek.
...This girl. She's one of us now. Completely.
With some nameless, complicated feeling she couldn't have put into words, Aura withdrew her hand. She stood, and found herself meeting Solitär's eyes.
"So... what in the world is she actually trying to do? She went and did all that without explaining any of it, and then just lay down and went to sleep. What an unbelievably selfish creature."
"She really is," Solitär agreed, with a small, composed nod. "The sheer degree of her willfulness is probably on par with the God of Magic herself."
"But I think I understand what she's trying to do."
"Oh?"
Aura's curiosity flared back to life.
"Hasn't she said it herself? That she wanted to play the role of the one who sets the questions. This time," Solitär said quietly, "let's cooperate with her little act of madness — and do it properly."
As she said it, she turned her gaze toward the sleeping Fíliya — and the look in her eyes was something between deep affection and something that could only be called anticipation.
It was plain to see: in that moment, Solitär had given up — completely and without reservation — the secret of longevity she had guarded for a thousand years.
At the mere thought of standing at Fíliya's side in whatever came next, pitting themselves against the very pinnacle of the human world — she felt, inexplicably, a stirring of excitement she hadn't felt in ages.
...And so, for a time, the three demons took turns keeping watch over Fíliya. They brought the abandoned building into quiet order, made it livable — and even managed to spare enough hands to venture out to the smaller towns further away, places the human wars had not yet touched, to buy what they needed for daily life.
All of it was preparation. All of it was waiting.
Waiting for that girl to wake up.
____
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