Frieren: Understand Humans, Aura!

My name is Aura.

Race: Demon, Gender: Female.

No parents, currently single.

Age: 513 years old, young and energetic.

I have a regular routine, work diligently, and became one of the Seven Sages of Destruction at a young age. Even the Demon King praised my talent.

Maybe my temper isn't great, my emotions fluctuate a lot, and other demons say I have a slight mental illness. But I think being able to laugh and cry is normal. Other demons have a single expression from birth to death. That kind of facial paralysis is what's abnormal, okay?!

Some humans call me cruel and arrogant, but those are all rumors. If you don't believe me, ask my subordinates. They never say bad things about me and always follow my orders meticulously. Their obedience is entirely due to my personal charm and has nothing to do with the obedience balance I hold.

Some people also reported that I abused my subordinates, but I did nothing to them except chopping off their heads. Where did the abuse come from? I don't understand.

I love playing the violin, but I've stopped recently because my neck has been inexplicably itchy.

Apart from liking to cut off other people's heads, I have no bad habits. But that's also for work. Subordinates just need to follow orders; keeping their heads is pointless. It's better to take them off and return them when they retire.

As for when to let subordinates retire, sorry, I've never thought about that.

Some say my scale is rigged, but that's a complete lie. Where's the rigging? It's always been long on one side and short on the other. If you can't match my magic power, reflect on whether you've worked hard enough. Over these years, has your magic power grown? Don't make blind accusations. Sometimes you need to reflect on yourself., okay?

I've lived for 500 years, 500 years of hard work. No one understands magic better than I do. No one can hide from me. Saying that Frieren's magic is stronger than mine is all fake news. Don't believe the rumors!

Eighty years ago, one of the demon directors, Schlacht, led the Seven Sages of Destruction, including me, to fight the strongest hero of the opposing company. Seven senior executives were taken, and the director disappeared with the enemy, still missing. Three of us barely survived.

So—

Even if I laid low for eighty years and only came out after Himmel, the hero, died, so what? I bled for the company! A great contributor! Can't an executive enjoy a little break?

Sigh...

The Demon King is dead, the company is in shambles, and I'm trying my best to revive the situation. Laying low is also a tactic.

I heard that recently the company's former technical backbone, Qual, died. Good riddance! He leaked the company's core technology, the killing magic. Those human mages are shameless, learning it, changing its color, and turning it into anti-demon magic. Despicable! Do they not understand patents?

In summary, due to the sudden appearance of the hero and his party eighty years ago, the company leader is gone, many key members are dead or fled, and now it's just me, alone, hiding outside the northern countries.

I, the pillar of the company, the genius young demon, Aura, will never give up!

A mere hero means nothing to me. As long as I hide for a hundred years, guess what? He'll die of old age! Hahaha!!

Now I stand before a human count's territory called Graf Granat. Despite the ancient barrier set by the great mage Flamme a thousand years ago, I, a demon with flexible moral standards, will send someone to negotiate. Standing on the moral high ground, I refuse to believe he won't open the gate for me.

Though there was a hiccup, with the elf from the hero's party inside the city, it doesn't matter.

I, Aura, a demon who has work hard for 500 years, one of the Seven Sages of Destruction!

She, Frieren, with her short stature, baby face, and flat chest, clearly hasn't lived as long as I have.

I'll lure her out, exhaust her with manipulated human soldiers, and with caution upon caution, how could I lose? With 500 years of magic, could Frieren really defeat me in an instant?!

At this moment, I stand amidst a mountain of corpses. The flat-chested elf's magic is unstable due to frequent purification spells.

I'm in the clear!

Though, I don't know why, when I kindly reminded this foolish elf that "Himmel is dead" and she no longer needs to adhere to his principles, I felt a chill down my spine. But Himmel is indeed dead, so I'm not afraid of her at all. 80 years ago, if Himmel hadn't knocked down my balance, Frieren would have long been under my obedience magic.

I'm absolutely in the clear!

The sword is drawn, the balance in my hand is tilting with our magic, just as I expected. Frieren's magic is indeed small and weak, completely inferior to mine. The balance is tilting towards me, the obedience magic is activating, I've already touched Frieren's soul.

I absolutely can win!

——

Huh!

I was deceived.

"Can we reconcile?"

Looking at the suddenly swelling white magic orb in my hand, roughly double my own magic, I could only muster a formulaic smile, tilt my head, and plead.

"I'll do anything to survive."

As expected, I was rejected.

Understandably, Frieren is called the "Executioner" among demons because she is a cold, ruthless, and unforgiving elf. She won't spare any demon, and I, Aura, am a noble great demon, dedicated to the demon cause my whole life, the most loyal demon in the world.

"I can help you kill demons—"

"Frieren, be rational. Think about how useful an absolutely obedient Aura could be!"

Ah, she finally hesitated. I knew talking would work. With the cunning accumulated by demons over thousands of years, and my unparalleled wisdom, watch me make Frieren willingly let me go in three sentences.

"You like humans because of Himmel, but Himmel is dead. What use is there in being nice to humans?"

"Take me to Himmel's grave, maybe I can use obedience magic to animate his corpse."

"For Himmel, think about what you should do."

Hmm...

Things seem to be getting worse. I've never seen this expression on the face of the usually expressionless and ruthless elf. Good news, she won't let me commit suicide. Bad news, she plans to do it herself to prevent any loopholes in the obedience magic.

Damn it, there are no such loopholes!

Even worse news, Frieren thinks just beheading isn't safe enough and plans to split me vertically with her sword, destroying my brain and spinal cord.

Damn it, demon life force isn't that strong; beheading is very safe!

Even worse news, I think she doesn't intend to start from my head.

"Frieren, please... ah... forget it, relying on others is useless. You're forcing me, Frieren!!!"

I've finally decided to use that move, placing a weight on my side of the balance.

Obedience magic is influenced by external forms. Just as the hero once interrupted my balance placement to stop the magic, I can add physical weight to change the magic's effectiveness.

Hmm... theoretically it's feasible, but in practice... I've never tried it. Obedience magic is an extremely precise soul magic, and distorting the external form can also distort my soul. When interference occurs, stopping the magic is the best option, as I can't predict what impact a distorted magic will have on my soul.

But now, any impact doesn't matter.

"…Success, Frieren! Five kilograms of weight is enough to match your thousand years of magic! The balance is tilting, oh my, this is a strange feeling, my body feels light, like I can do anything!"

"There's nothing to fear anymore!"

Blood trickled from my nose and eyes. I knew the obedience magic was taking effect, albeit very reluctantly. But the weight I added to my side has indeed transformed into the equivalent of my magic. With enough weight, I could even make gods obey.

I, Aura the Guillotine, can do anything!

Raising my hand, pointing at Frieren, my vision seemed doubled, with many strange figures appearing. Overly excited, I shouted words that had long been suppressed in my heart:

"You, Frieren, as a great mage, were always tricked by a mimic monster, deceived short-lived races' emotions despite being an elf. Serves you right to be flat-chested for over a thousand years! You trash woman, commit suicide!"

"And you, human magic ancestor Flamme, hiding your magic despicably despite your outstanding talent to deceive and ambush older demons. No honor, despicable! You fraud, commit suicide too!"

"And you Serie, the great mage of the mythical era, who has lived for who knows how many years. You are just old woman who has been single since the mythical era. You elves are all frigid. You deserve to be exterminated. You should commit suicide too!"

"And you, rotten sage Qual, an outdated relic. Your killing magic was stolen by humans. You useless waste, commit suicide too!"

"And you, omniscient Schlacht, got ambushed by the southern hero despite foresight ability. Why didn't you warn me about Frieren hiding her magic? You riddle man, commit suicide too!"

"And you, Demon King, an idiot wanting to understand humans and coexist. Killing to understand humans is even more idiotic. Because of your foolish leadership, the demon race is doomed! You old fool, commit suicide too!"

I probably do have mental issues.

But, I've long wanted to curse the Demon King and the mythical elf Serie.

Oh right, there's another one to curse.

"You, creator goddess, leaving a holy sword for humans but no blessing for demons. Clearly, you are just a symbol fabricated by priests, an imaginary mascot. I believe the scriptures you left 1,600 years ago are also made-up. All that talk about hidden codes containing the Goddess's magic is just humans' own fantasies. A 3% decoding rate? Priests might as well be inventing magic from gibberish. You fake goddess, you should just kill yourself!

"You all should kill yourselves!

Thump!!

A pillar of orange light flashed like lightning, and scorching energy instantly engulfed the demon with purple hair holding the scales.

Clang!

When the light pillar faded, only a few strands of purple hair and a broken scale remained.

"Has Aura gone mad? What was she babbling about?"

The white-haired, twin-tailed elf expressionlessly stepped on the purple hair on the ground.

Clang!!

Frieren kicked the broken scale away. In her vision, no matter how many weights were added to one side, the scale never tilted towards Aura's side.

As more weights were added, Aura's nose and mouth bled, her mental state deteriorated, and she couldn't even hear the command to kill herself.

In the end, Frieren had to use the anti-demon magic to deal with her.

"What a strange demon."

Frieren thought.

In the memory of this thousand-year-old elf, among all the demons she had encountered, only Aura had such vivid and lively emotions.

The most human-like.