After securing another passage, Sitri spoke with a sullen expression.
“This time, you can’t just get by with something like an avatar.”
“Is it really that difficult to obtain?”
“Of course! Demons at the level of the Grand Justiciar have extraordinary power, even in their avatars!”
Sitri grumbled as if stating the obvious.
From the start, the customers of Mammon Corporation’s ‘Intelligent Entity Development’ service were never Archdemons.
Even the first passage had been obtained by leveraging Dantalion’s name to borrow one used by Mammon Corporation’s executive-level demons.
“If you’re just planning to give advice, this level should be sufficient.”
“Where does this passage lead to?”
Dantalion asked while pointing at the mirror. If it led to a place teeming with sinners again, he might end up breaking another mirror.
Sitri had considered that possibility as well.
“This one connects to a spirit entity. You can use a bit of power, but if you push too hard, the spirit will faint, breaking the connection.”
“A spirit, huh… That does make sense. Spirits are excellent at channeling divine energy.”
“This is the closest one to the last passage, so handle it gently.”
There was a reason spirits were revered as divine messengers.
Dantalion reached out toward the mirror, attempting to establish a connection.
A moment later, his consciousness linked with the spirit through the mirror…
‘A raven? That’s unusual.’
Dantalion inwardly praised Sitri’s choice. Ravens, as symbols of death, were well-aligned with Hell.
More importantly, as a spirit, the raven possessed three eyes.
Using its wide field of vision, Dantalion scanned the night sky, tracing Joanna’s presence.
It would be great if she was just peacefully asleep at home.
‘She’s wandering the streets at night?’
Following her presence down to the streets, Dantalion flapped his wings and surveyed the area.
Then, a crimson glow caught his eye.
Perching on a suitable rooftop, the raven tiptoed toward the railing.
Peering down from there, he saw Joanna being struck by an assailant and sent flying against a wall.
Assessing the enemy’s level, Dantalion muttered unconsciously,
“Did I give her too little power?”
“Excuse me?!
What kind of insane talk is that?!”
Sitri, who had been watching through the mirror, was horrified.
Did Dantalion think it was common to encounter opponents of that caliber in the mortal realm?
Observing Sitri’s reaction, Dantalion nodded.
‘I see, it’s not a lack of power but a lack of experience.’
That wasn’t a problem.
If she lacked experience, he could supplement it for her.
Avoiding a crisis of this level would be no issue.
Focusing his mind, Dantalion spoke to Joanna.
[Duck.]
The command wasn’t heard through her ears but conveyed directly to her mind.
Joanna instinctively obeyed, lowering her head to evade the enemy’s sword before delivering a kick to his abdomen.
Confirming that her opponent had staggered back, Dantalion repositioned himself to observe her response.
But then…
‘Why is she smiling?’
Her reaction seemed a bit strange.
Joanna’s vision was still obscured.
Yet, she felt no fear.
[Step forward to the left and lower your body.]
No pair of eyes could be more precise than the one giving her instructions.
Following Dantalion’s command without hesitation, Joanna stepped forward.
Swish!
Joachim’s sword whistled past her shoulder, leaving a chilling sensation in its wake.
His face twisted with frustration upon realizing his attack had been read once again.
How the hell was she fighting better with her eyes closed?!
“Stop fucking around!!”
Gripping his sword tightly, Joachim swung his blade at Joanna’s face.
As if expecting it, Joanna lowered her stance.
‘Gotcha!’
Just as he anticipated, he followed up by driving his knee—reinforced with aura—toward her head.
It wasn’t perfect aura; due to neglecting his training, its quality was rough at best.
However, it still carried enough force to shatter stone—let alone a human skull.
[His knee is coming. Use your power to counter and aim for his chin.]
“Understood!!”
At that moment, a crimson energy flared from Joanna’s toes.
As her foot shot toward his knee, Joachim bit his lip.
‘I’ll endure it!’
He instinctively knew that if he failed to withstand this, he’d lose control of the fight.
But it should be fine.
He had already analyzed Joanna’s strength moments ago.
If he could block her aura-enhanced kick and create distance, he could still turn the tide—
Crack.
Joachim’s knee twisted violently as his bone snapped and pierced through his skin.
Joanna’s power was closer to divine energy than aura.
Her unwavering faith only made it stronger.
“AAAAAGHHHH!!!”
Joachim, of course, had no way of understanding this.
The excruciating pain made him scream like a terrified child.
‘He’s… weaker than I expected.’
Dantalion felt a twinge of surprise.
Having never fought a human directly before, he struggled to gauge their strength.
“G-GUAAAH?!”
“Hmph.”
Even though the situation slightly differed from Dantalion’s guidance, Joanna performed admirably.
Approaching the collapsing Joachim, she struck his chin with the pommel of her sword.
His jaw shattered, and teeth scattered across the ground.
“Ghh… ghhk…!!”
His agonized cries echoed through the alley.
But in this part of town, people were used to hearing screams.
They simply assumed someone would feast well tonight and turned a blind eye, waiting for the noise to cease.
Joanna was about to grant their unspoken wish.
“Well… that must hurt a lot.”
“Ghkk… hhk…”
Wiping her face with a waterskin, Joanna looked down at Joachim.
Tears streamed from his fear-stricken eyes as he instinctively reached out, despite knowing he couldn’t stop her.
“P-please…!”
Naturally, his words were incomprehensible.
Several of his teeth were missing, and his mangled tongue barely functioned.
But anyone could understand the desperation in his pitiful expression.
However…
“You’re begging the wrong person for mercy.”
Thud.
Joanna didn’t show mercy to sinners.
There wasn’t nearly enough mercy in the world to go around even for the righteous.
Piercing his heart in one swift motion was the least she could do.
Watching this unfold, Dantalion nodded.
‘Mercy is only for those who deserve it.’
The name Joachim carried too much blood and sin.
Over a hundred murders.
Countless acts of assault and plunder.
As a Grand Justiciar of Hell, Dantalion deemed Joanna’s execution more than justified.
“…Wait, wasn’t our goal to get Joanna to restrain herself from killing?”
“Oh.”
Right.
He was supposed to stop her from doing that.
Snapping out of his thoughts, Dantalion directed the raven toward Joanna.
He planned to scold her for straying from their intended path.
[Joanna, it’s unfortunate that we meet again under such circumstances.]
“Savior!”
Recognizing the raven as Dantalion’s messenger, Joanna dropped to her knees.
She didn’t care that the ground was soaked in blood.
She didn’t care that the splattered blood from piercing Joachim’s heart had stained her face.
Caw.
Like a devout follower offering prayers in a temple, Joanna clasped her hands together with reverence.
“I have waited and waited for this moment!!”
[…Uh, well…]
Her sparkling eyes left Dantalion speechless.
He had come to reprimand her, but how was he supposed to do that when she was looking at him as if expecting praise?
Thrown off by the unexpected enthusiasm, Dantalion awkwardly cleared his throat.
[Ahem, it’s not good to have my face exposed, so let’s move for now.]
“Yes!”
Responding boldly, Joanna quickly disposed of anything that could reveal her identity—stray hairs, footprints in the dirt, sword marks that could be traced back to her.
After skillfully erasing all traces, she disappeared into the darkness.
Watching her, Sitri commented,“I think it’s already too late.
You could probably pass as a prodigy assassin trained from childhood.”
[Ahem!]
With nothing to say in response, Dantalion simply cleared his throat and controlled the raven.
The city had many places to hide.
The place Joanna chose was none other than the city’s underground sewers.
However, it wasn’t the filthy, foul-smelling, unsanitary kind that one might expect.
“These were sewers built separately for the nobles.
But they forgot about their existence and abandoned them, so the water here is clean and it’s quiet.”
Aside from being damp and covered in moss, the place was as good as a freshwater spring.
Joanna pulled out a loose brick and retrieved the belongings hidden behind it.
Spreading out a clean blanket, she removed her hood and checked the wounds on her body.
This was one advantage of being the daughter of a knight’s household—she could always pass off her injuries as training-related.
As she applied medicine and wrapped bandages around herself, Dantalion observed and remarked,
[You seem quite skilled at treating wounds.]
“Yes, I used to treat people fairly often in the past. I can handle minor bruises and cuts myself.”
Albert took meticulous care of his followers and their families.
Not out of kindness, of course—it was simply because fresh sacrifices made the best offerings.
It was less about compassion and more about maintaining their “freshness.”
Regardless of his intent, Joanna had spent a lot of time treating people.
That is, until shortly before she was chosen as a sacrifice—when there was no one left to heal.
Her gaze drifted toward the flowing water.
Memories were like ink dropped into a clear stream.
Even as life carried them away, their traces never completely disappeared.
[Do you not resent me? If I had arrived sooner, perhaps I could have saved them.]
Even painful memories bloom into nostalgia with time.
People who endured hardship together tend to remain in one’s heart the longest.
Joanna turned her head away in silence.
Then, looking at Dantalion through the raven’s eyes, she shook her head.
“No, I don’t resent you, my savior… No, Lord Dantalion.”
She had prayed to many beings.
At first, she prayed to the gods she knew by name.
The priests always said that sincere prayers would bring salvation.
When no salvation came, she prayed to gods she didn’t even know the names of.
She begged, every day, for someone—anyone—to take her away from that hell.
When that failed as well, she prayed to the god Albert worshipped.
At least that god gave Albert power.
But in the end, the one who answered her prayers was someone completely unexpected.
That was why she did not resent Dantalion.
She was simply grateful for her salvation and wished to follow his will.
‘What a peculiar child.’
Dantalion could only find her devotion fascinating.
Her name in the Red Book remained perfectly balanced on the scales of sin.
Perhaps the talent he had witnessed in her that day wasn’t just her strength,
but this unwavering heart of hers.
‘Which is exactly why I cannot let her bear all this burden alone.’
Resolving himself, Dantalion spoke through the raven’s beak.
[Do not try to carry everything alone.]
“What do you mean?”
Sensing the gravity of his words, Joanna knelt down.
With perfect posture, she gazed intently into the raven’s eyes, ready to listen.
Dantalion looked at her with satisfaction.
[Changing the world with one’s strength alone is nearly impossible.]
[That does not mean individual effort is meaningless. It simply means that no one can achieve great things alone.]
“Something one cannot accomplish alone…”
Joanna repeated the words, deep in thought.
He was right.
Even if she caught a wanted criminal today, a new one would appear within days.
If the city had truly committed itself to eliminating crime, someone like Joachim would never
have been allowed to roam free in the first place.
[There is nothing greater than meeting people, speaking with them, and sharing happiness. So…]
“Lord Dantalion?”
At that moment, a sulfur-colored light flickered in the raven’s eyes.
Like a bolt of lightning in the darkness, the glow flashed and disappeared.
The raven, having lost its strength, collapsed.
“Caw…”
“Are you alright? It must be exhausting to deliver his words.”
Joanna hurriedly caught the raven, checking its condition.
She pulled out a loaf of bread and a waterskin, which she had set aside in case of hunger.
She dropped a bit of water into its beak, then tore off small pieces of bread and fed them to it.
The exhausted raven swallowed them hungrily.
The sight was rather endearing, and Joanna couldn’t help but smile.
As she fed the raven, she organized her thoughts.
‘I don’t know what he was trying to say at the end, but I understand the meaning of his first words.’
Changing the world with one’s strength alone was difficult.
Joanna interpreted that message in her own way:
‘He’s telling me to help others who, like me, are waiting for salvation.’
If Dantalion had heard this, he would have nodded in agreement.
After all, every time Joanna killed a criminal, it only increased her burden and added more work for Hell’s Justiciars.
Why would he encourage that?
Yes, up to this point, it was fine…
‘And I should also gather people to help me bring judgment upon the sins of this world.
That way, I can cleanse the world little by little.’
…But now, her thoughts were veering slightly off track.