One week had passed since Mina left the ruins.

  At Netherim Fortress in the northern reaches of Pandemonium, vast quantities of supplies were being carried in one after another—food, weapons, horses, and fuel.

  In the plaza before the fortress, numerous tents had been erected, fires burned here and there, and steam rose from cooking rice.

  Amid all this, the King of the Frontier, Verglies, had shut himself away in the commander’s office, maintaining his armor and sword. Preparing for the battle that would begin tomorrow.

  “Tomorrow is the decisive battle at last. I’ll drag that queen, Lilisia, right off her throne.”

  Verglies spread a map across his desk and sat down in his chair.

  As he studied the map with a hard stare, he sensed a presence in the corner of the room. He looked up and fixed his gaze on the dim corner.

  “Who’s there…?”

  When Verglies called out, a small figure slowly stepped forward. A girl.

  As she emerged into the light, Verglies’s eyes widened.

  It was Mina.

  She wore a shoulder bag slung across her body and had a small black kitten perched at her neck. Judging from her appearance, she didn’t seem to harbor any hostile intentions.

  Mina stopped about two meters from Verglies’s desk.

  “Well, well… what a welcome visitor.”

  Verglies flashed a grin.

  “…I never expected you to come looking for me…”

  Mina’s expression was slightly stiff.

  “I’m sorry for showing up unannounced.”

  When Mina bowed her head, Verglies smiled warmly.

  “No, I don’t mind at all. So, what brings you here?”

  Verglies leaned back deeply in his chair, smiling pleasantly. He spread his arms wide as he spoke.

  “I’m the man who tried to kidnap you, remember? So why would you come to me of your own free will?”

  Verglies rested both arms on the armrests. Then Mina, her expression tense, spoke.

  “I want you to stop the war.”

  The smile vanished from Verglies’s face. He propped his chin on one hand and fixed Mina with a sharp gaze.

  “Does that mean you’re willing to help persuade your grandmother?”

  Mina shook her head.

  Instead, she pulled a file from the shoulder bag she carried and placed it on Verglies’s desk.

  Verglies glanced down at the file, then looked back up at Mina with a piercing stare. Mina pointed to the file.

  “I was asked to give this to you… by my father.”

  “By Lucariel?”

  A faint tremor of surprise entered Verglies’s voice. Mina stared steadily at his face.

  “A message for you was left inside the ruins.”

  He regarded her in silence for a time, then finally picked up the documents and opened the file. Mina continued.

  “My father was researching ways to apply ancient relics to the present day inside the ruins. These documents were what he left behind there… and he asked that they be delivered to you.”

  Verglies flipped through the pages.

  “This says that the ruins Lucariel managed were actually a device for collecting magical energy…”

  Mina nodded.

  “Auerios used that facility to gather magical power. The power that was given to you came from there as well.”

  Support the creativity of authors by visiting the original site for this novel and more.

  At the mention of Auerios’s name, Verglies’s eyebrow twitched upward. His eyes alone shifted to fix on Mina.

  “Don’t speak Lord Auerios’s name so casually. And what of it? A device that automatically collects magical energy… sounds like a fine piece of equipment to me. He’s simply distributing what it gathers, isn’t he?”

  Verglies smiled, but his eyes did not.

  “Besides, this whole ‘magical energy collection device’ business sounds dubious. Magical energy is life itself. The idea of harvesting it… it has to be nonsense.”

  Verglies leaned back in his chair. Mina took a step forward and slipped the shoulder bag off, clutching it to her chest.

  “What if I told you I have the actual device? Would you like to see it?”

  Verglies sat up with a start and stared at the bag in Mina’s arms.

  “You don’t mean you brought it here?”

  Mina gave a small nod, then drew a compact device from the shoulder bag. It was a metallic apparatus roughly the size of a Rubik’s Cube.

  “It’s surprisingly small. I’d imagined something far larger…”

  “If you want to know whether I’m telling the truth, I can activate it right here and now. But you have to promise me you won’t get angry.”

  “Why would I get angry?”

  “Because… the crest on your chest is going to ache—badly.”

  Verglies gently touched his left chest.

  “Fine. Do it.”

  Mina nodded and held the square device up before her face.

  “Here I go.”

  Mina pressed her finger into the indentation at its center. The instant she did, the color drained from Verglies’s face.

  “Ugh!”

  Verglies doubled over, his face twisted in pain.

  Seeing this, Mina immediately switched it off.

  “Are you all right?”

  Verglies was silent for a moment, then quickly raised his head and shot Mina a glare. His already pale complexion had turned even whiter.

  “I’m fine…”

  Verglies exhaled heavily and slumped back against his chair.

  “I did feel my magical energy being drained just now… but how does it work?”

  Mina shook her head.

  “The device is reacting to the crest engraved on your chest and drawing out your magical energy through it.”

  Verglies grimaced with distaste, pressing a hand to his left chest.

  “It’s true that Lord Auerios engraved this crest. …When I grant magical power to my subordinates, I follow the same process, so naturally, they all bear crests on their chests as well.”

  Verglies rose from his chair and planted both hands on the desk.

  “But I was told the crest was an inlet for supplying magical energy.”

  Mina watched him steadily and gave a small nod.

  “The crest is indeed a circuit through which magical energy flows. But what you weren’t told is that when you die, your magical energy will be reclaimed through that crest and returned to the device.”

  “Are you trying to say this war was engineered by Lord Auerios so we’d all slaughter each other? Ridiculous. This war is certainly something Lord Auerios desired. But the crest theory is a stretch too far. For it to work, every soldier on both sides would need to bear the crest.”

  As her persuasion stalled, Mina felt the tension building in her arms. She leaned forward urgently.

  “You say that, but every angel under Auerios’s rule in the Celestial Realm has been branded with a crest—under the pretense of managing their personal information. And the same applies directly to Grandmother’s kingdom, where so many fallen angels have gathered. Every new fallen angel receives a crest.”

  Mina marched right up to Verglies and jabbed her finger into his chest.

  “The only ones who might not have been branded are the demons who originally lived in the Demon Realm. But someone went and carved crests into them too. How many chests have you branded, exactly?”

  Verglies flinched at her words.

  “The amount of magical power varies by rank, but… it’s a great many.”

  “A great many—how many? You understand there’s a world of difference between a hundred and a thousand, right?”

  Verglies fell silent.

  Then, averting his gaze from Mina, he said in a small voice:

  “Approximately ten thousand.”

  “Ten thousand?!”

  Mina couldn’t help raising her voice.

  “If those crest-bearers fight each other and die… all their magical energy goes to Auerios!”

  Verglies shot her a fierce glare.

  “So what of it!”

  “So what? If what I’m saying is true, then in this war… it’s actually better for Auerios if you lose!”

  “That’s absurd!”

  Verglies sprang from his chair.

  “I’m waging this war on Lord Auerios’s orders!”

  Having said that, Verglies fell silent. Seeing this, Mina pressed on.

  “Think about it carefully… my grandmother doesn’t have a crest.”

  “So you’re saying Lord Auerios would be happier if I died?”

  A quiet fury seeped across Verglies’s face.

  “You’re trying to undermine our morale and drive a wedge between Lord Auerios and me!”

  Faced with Verglies’s rage, Mina wore a troubled expression and shook her head.

  “You’ve got it wrong!”

  Mina lifted the kitten from her shoulder and cradled it against her chest.

  “You started this war because you want to make things better for the frontier lands, didn’t you? I don’t think you’re in the wrong. But if what I said gives you even the slightest pause, then at least take two or three days to think it over before going to war!”

  Mina took a deep breath. Before she knew it, she had drawn right up to Verglies’s side. She grabbed his arm and shook him as she cried out.

  “Once you start this war, there’s no going back!”

  Mina released his arm and stepped several paces backward. When Verglies looked up, his eyes met Mina’s. Her gaze was bright and resolute.

  “A way back, you say?”

  Verglies stared down at the documents spread across his desk.

  If what she said was true, launching the war now would be far from wise. If Auerios desired mass casualties, it was clearly more convenient for him if Verglies’s side lost.

  And if Mina was right that Auerios was pulling the strings from the shadows, the battle could easily be steered against him at any point.

  Just then, an idea flashed through his mind.

  He could seize Mina right here and now.

  If he captured Mina, it wouldn’t matter which path he chose going forward. If he decided to remain loyal to Auerios, he could present her and the device as offerings. It would also give him leverage in any negotiations with Lilisia.

  Verglies was still mulling this over when he looked up—and Mina was already gone.

  “Ah—!”

  Verglies broke into a wide grin.

  “Heh. Clever girl.”

  Still smiling, he lowered his gaze back to the documents.

  By chance, the page that lay open before him read:

  *“Lucariel has also developed a device capable of erasing the crests…”*