“Huff! Huff! Huff!”
After draining three Blood Slaves in a row, Feng Lie finally healed his wounds and, panting heavily, withdrew from his Berserk State.
A wave of weakness and exhaustion swept over him, but now wasn’t the time to worry about that. The trap strategy had failed completely. After this battle, not a single opponent had died. Staying in Lilburg was no longer an option—only returning to the Snowfield would keep him alive.
Feng Lie, who had charged through life with brute force, had, on a whim yesterday, tried out a plan offered by Lil. Now, he regretted it deeply.
“I knew it. Why waste so much brainpower? The Demon Race should just speak with strength. That Demon King and his ‘Eye of Truth’—what nonsense. If strategy really beat brute force, why is he gone?”
A moment of cleverness had cost him a lifetime of muscle. He decided, from now on, he’d forget all about tactics. Once he got back to the Snowfield, he would gather all his tribesmen and launch a full-scale assault.
“Did you all hear me? Once we’re back, summon every single Wolf Beastman at once!”
But no one replied.
Feng Lie opened his eyes and found his personal guards had vanished. All around him was silent—utterly still, not a sound to be heard.
He jerked his head back and saw a pink-haired Human girl quietly watching him.
“Feng Lie, I’m very disappointed in you.”
A gentle female voice spoke.
Feng Lie felt that he could bite through her delicate throat in a single snap, yet for some reason, cold sweat trickled down his back.
“Who are you?”
Ella didn’t answer. She simply drove her sword into the ground. In the silver moonlight, the pale white bones of the blade exuded a chilling, terrifying aura.
“Necroblade, Bone Summoner—how could it be?” Feng Lie was shaken. “Who are you really? How did you get that sword?”
Ella replied softly, “It’s my sword. Why shouldn’t it be in my hand?”
“Demon King Aio? They say you lost to the Human Hero Squad—those people just now.” As he spoke, Feng Lie seemed to understand something. “So this is how you survived? No wonder everyone says you disappeared.”
He bared his fangs. “Now that you’ve cast aside your Demon Race identity, what are you here for?”
Ella let out a light sigh. “As expected, you don’t get it. And that makes sense—how could someone with your brains understand?”
“What do you mean?”
She didn’t answer right away, but turned her gaze into the distance.
“Do you know why the Human Hero Squad came all the way here? They’re a special unit meant to hunt high-value targets. Why travel so far to this frozen wasteland just to clean up a little fish like you?”
Feng Lie was stunned by her words.
Especially since he’d just fought that Sword Saint girl—without going all out in Berserk State, she clearly had the upper hand. If the whole squad attacked together, he’d have no chance at all.
Feng Lie didn’t know about the “training-through-battle” arrangement, so he found her words convincing. It really was like this.
“W-why?”
Ella gave a sweet smile. “Because I heard about your self-proclaimed kingship in the Human Kingdom’s Capital. That’s an act of rebellion against me, and it made me very angry. What you probably don’t realize is, with my current appearance, I’ve already infiltrated the upper echelons of the Human Kingdom. By influencing their decisions, I was able to dispatch their most elite special squad to wipe you out. For me, it was effortless.”
Feng Lie was utterly shocked—his wolfish eyes wide open.
“How could you pull off something like that? Don’t tell me… back in the Dark Forest, you lost to them on purpose?”
This was exactly the reaction Ella wanted. She neither admitted nor denied it, only slowly raised the white-bone sword.
“Since you chose to be a traitor, you were ready for this, weren’t you?”
“W-wait, Demon King, I—”
Slash—!
A flash of cold light, and the blade sliced through the wolf’s neck. From the wound, vengeful spirits surged, tearing it apart completely.
“You couldn’t beat me even in Berserk State. Did you really think you could fight back now that you’re weak?”
Returning the white-bone sword to the void, Ella lifted a hand to smooth her pink hair and straightened up, revealing a sweet, gentle smile.
The far-sighted, always-in-control Demon King had finished her act. Now it was time to go back to being the good girl.
—
Lilburg had no clock tower, and the villagers no longer kept any big roosters. Maybe there had been, once, but now there was nothing left. This dawn arrived quietly, without a sound. When one happened to look up, it was already light.
Celes and the others returned at just this moment.
“Ella, are you still here?” Zero rushed in, unable to wait.
“I’m here.” The pink-haired, thunderous beauty replied obediently, “I was guarding your things for you.”
“That’s great. Our side’s tactics worked perfectly too. Oh, Ella, did you know? When we went looking for Feng Lie just now, we found him already beheaded. That huge wolf’s head was lying on the ground, eyes wide open, like he died with a grievance. I wonder who did it…”
Zero squatted down beside the girl, excitedly describing the scene.
“Probably infighting,” Celes added. “His trusted followers must have taken advantage when he was weak. Feng Lie’s usurpation set a bad example for his subordinates.”
Ella covered her little cherry mouth with one hand, her bunny-like eyes blinking. “How cruel they are.”
The mission at Lilburg was complete—it was time to leave. Standing atop a house and looking out, one could see the corpses of over a hundred Wolf Beastman warriors lying silently across the fields. That was all.
To set the trap, the Wolf Beastmen had already disposed of the original townsfolk’s bodies. It hadn’t taken much effort, since Lilburg’s population had always been small.
“After this, the Kingdom will send people to clean up and move in new residents,” Celes thought aloud, then added, “or maybe they won’t.”
From the moment Feng Lie led his army to seize Lilburg, the tug-of-war between the former Demon King and the Human Kingdom at the border had ended. With Feng Lie’s death, the Snowfield would soon fall into chaos, and the old threat would temporarily fade away.
“Ella, wait a second,” Zero called to the girl about to board the carriage, placing something in her palm. “This is for you.”
A small white flower.
“When Celes told us to retreat, she said to get as far away as possible. So I ran toward the Snowfield,” the Assassin Girl beamed, cheerful as ever. “I never thought I’d find this flower there, so I brought it back.”
Was it really just ‘by the way’? Hard not to suspect you went there just for this.
“Thank you,” Ella picked up the little white flower and examined it closely. “This should be called Fairywood.”
“Huh? That’s perfect, because you’re just like—”
“Zero, enough chatting.” Celes leaned against the first carriage, calling from afar. “We still have a long road ahead.”
“Got it, coming!”
Zero had wanted to say something nice, but was cut off by Celes without mercy, so she could only turn and slip into her own carriage compartment.
The convoy set off, bound for the King’s City—to return to the very heart of the Human Kingdom.