Stray

Bagelmaurus desperately wanted to escape.

It simply couldn’t figure out the thoughts of the superior demon named Nemo Light. At first, it did feel that the contract was a bit strange. After its powers was taken away, the contract that should have been completed was now stuck in a delicate state. Through the remnant magic that was still there, it could still sense the existence of Nemo, but it could no longer do anything other than that.

If Light was a human being, it could still ponder on what went wrong with its magic. However, Light wasn’t human, which meant one thing. If Light wanted to, he could take away its powers. It was pretty sure that Light was much stronger than itself. Even if Light didn’t mind that its flesh had fallen to that of an intermediate demon, Bagelmaurus didn’t want to take this risk.

Even if it became a brainless parrot, it was better than losing this piece of flesh entirely.

These idiots didn’t understand anything. The gray parrot stuffed its head into its wings and ignored Debby Light who had just stepped into the room. Humans didn’t know as much about demons as they thought. This Black Chapter team had no idea what an unreasonable monster they were facing.

Generally speaking, the strength of a superior demon is proportional to the size of its body. Assuming that Nemo Light was really a complete superior demon, judging from his size alone, his strength was not much stronger than the foggy Pandorater; rather it might even be under Pandorater.

Adrian Cross should also be aware of this law, so he tolerated Ramon’s naïve proposal. Bagelmaurus groaned angrily. If the former Knight of Judgment could feel everything it perceived, he would be desperate to report the situation to the Holy Church right at this moment.

Bagelmaurus didn’t know how powerful Nemo Light could be when he’s full of hostility, but it recalled exactly where the familiar aura that came from the bottom of the Abyss. It was like dead air that was so thick it almost condensed into an entity filled with nothingness that seemed to swallow everything.

After all, a superior demon is just an ordinary creature. There was no race born with such terrifying aura. That aura does not infect anyone casually. It was born from the cruelest battle. As a member of the most risk averse race in the entire Abyss, Bagelmaurus was very familiar with this aura. That is not a level of endless battles that Pandorater can survive.

But Nemo Light claimed that he crawled to the surface as soon as he was born.

He was lying; he must be lying. If this was a lie, then the statement about the body must be the same— After all, there was only one exception in the Abyss where body size and strength are completely disproportionate.

The gray parrot suddenly shivered fiercely.

“Hey, Dylan…” it muttered in a low voice. The blond young man raised his eyebrows and squinted at it.

“…When was the eighteenth generation Demon King defeated?” Absolutely impossible, Bagelmaurus thought. However, an unknown chill kept climbing up its back. It couldn’t help asking, “I heard that it should be the nineteenth generation now.”

“More than 20 years ago.” Jesse Dylan turned his gaze back to Debby in the center of the room. “The nineteenth generation? No one has information on it in these years. The last expedition was fruitful so the next one shouldn’t be this soon. Why? Do you doubt…” He seemed to suddenly become interested and lowered his voice, pressing his beautiful face up close, “Mr. Light is the nineteenth generation Demon King?”

“No!” Bagelmaurus held back its scream. “He… He must be a wanderer. He can’t be that thing!”

“You should be a little more confident in yourself, cute little guy.” The smile on Jesse’s face became more obvious. “Maybe your guess is correct.”

“But if that’s true, Aurora… Aurora didn’t respond yet.” It was almost paralyzed by its absurd conjecture. Fortunately, there was still a lifeline for it to grab. “…You’re playing around with me!”

“Oh, yes.” Jesse coughed lightly. “Who made you look so serious? I couldn’t help it, sorry.”

But the gray parrot wasn’t fooled by him.

“You’re not going to ask me who Aurora is?” It stared suspiciously at the beautiful face of the blond young man. “Do you know who Aurora is?”

“Guess.” Jesse replied carelessly, turning his gaze back to the center of the room again…

“…Nemo, does your team choose people based on their faces? I like this idea.” Soon after entering the door, Debby stood in the center of the room and glanced around. “What were you doing just now? Why does everyone look…uh, unhappy.”

“Nemo just finished seeing the doctor, so we were just asking about the situation,” Ann quickly answered.

Hearing the word “doctor”, the girl lowered her head slightly. “Ah…yes, Nemo can’t remember what happened before he was adopted. So this is why you’re here to find Ms. Nadine.” Her voice was getting smaller and there was a subtle awkwardness that was slowly spreading.

“So?” The girl took a few breaths and quickly changed the subject. “Nemo, have you recovered your memories?”

“It’s been restored.” Nemo tried to squeeze out a less suspicious smile, but it only caused his face to stiffen. “It’s nothing special— I was just lucky, just like we guessed when we were kids.”

Debby narrowed her eyes. “Are you sure? When I was a kid, I guessed you survived by breathing fire.”

“…It’s almost as Old Patrick had guessed.”

Debby looked at him up and down, and then glanced at the gray parrot next to the blond young man who was pulling its feathers. It took a long time before she said “oh”.

“Does Horizon have to kill Nadine?” Seeing as Nemo couldn’t hold it together any longer, Ann solemnly switched topics. “Don’t worry, I’m just asking. After all, you did stop me from asking the innkeeper further questions. I don’t think you’re acting in a completely cruel manner.”

“We investigated it. She hid from everyone in this village and didn’t even tell her best friend the truth. They all thought Nadine is her own ‘grandmother’.” The smile on Debby’s face dimmed a little. She jumped to the table in the room and sat down, dangling her legs. “Although I don’t know the reason… she worked so hard to maintain the status quo, so there is some motive.”

“Miss Light,” when Debby stepped into the room, Oliver spoke for the first time, with inexplicable tension in his voice, “according to Ms. Nadine, the client should be just an ordinary patient. Things should not reach the point where they are irreparable.”

“As far as I know, there is no remedy.” Debby stared at Oliver’s face for a few seconds. Her legs stopped swinging, and her expression became a bit more formal. “Judging from the regulations of the Mercenary Guild, the Eastern Witches are a hostile race and a potential threat. We swore to the tin badge that we would not let go of any dangerous elements that might harm our compatriots. Unless she could throw away all her power… but we all know that’s impossible.”

“Why?” Nemo sat down on the edge of the bed. Seeing that Debby was no longer struggling with his memory problems, he finally breathed a sigh of relief.

“Have you ever seen a flower off itself, brother?” The girl shook her head. “I have to give you some magic books. The library of Roadside Town is full of useless things… The previous generation of Eastern Witch will extract the life span of her offspring through a root system. You should know this. The connection of the root system obeys Woodruff’s Theorem, and they keep getting those nasty roots.”

“Just counter it with homologous power,” Nemo heard himself spoke. Before he could react to whether “Woodruff’s Theorem” belonged to the lingua franca, the words had already leaked out of his mouth. It was as natural as finding an old toy that had been forgotten from a dusty box. A mix of runes and magic array swept through his mind like a wind.

“…If it creates just the right recoil while it absorbs, it’ll destroy the loop nodes of the root system in sequence, targeting the original source. The roots will then be cut off. Woodruff’s Theorem will still hold true.”

Like Bluebird’s language, knowledge from unknown sources was churning in his mind.

Debby was silent for a while. “…Did a rich man donated a lot of money to the library?”

Shit.

Cold sweat suddenly appeared from Nemo’s forehead. He hadn’t recovered from his procedure and his chaotic thoughts made him completely tongue tied so he looked to Oliver for help…

“We’ve been to many places,” Oliver said very sincerely. “As you know, Nemo has always liked reading.”

“Oh, I thought my brother was in charge of logistics for the team.” Debby coughed. Oliver’s innocent expression was surprisingly convincing. The suspicion in the girl’s eyes gradually dissipated. “Uh… That approach is theoretically feasible, but with all due respect, Ms. Nadine isn’t that strong. To destroy the nodes, the root system must be observed, and no one can see the roots of the Eastern Witches.”

“I know you want to help her,” Debby straightened out the robe, “but for Nemo’s sake, I would advise you— you’d better not get involved. Believe me, you are not the first people to want to do this. Our commander is a mission madman. He will not be merciful because of… certain things.” She gave Oliver a meaningful look. “I don’t really want to talk about the ending of those people so don’t ask.”

She ended the topic decisively.

Apart from this, the atmosphere was relatively light. Nemo chatted with Debby for an hour while Oliver listened carefully and would interject from time to time. Adrian watched the first ten minutes numbly before leaving the room while Ann stayed where she was staring at the small gap on the edge of the wooden table in a daze.

Suddenly, a suppressed cry pierced the gradually darkening sky.