Chapter 14: Let’s Incite the Coward, Part 6

「How?」

That was everything that Zana managed to squeeze out of her throat.

「How were you able to free yourself?」

「Long story short: we knew something like that would happen eventually.」

「Huh?! Uwaaah!」

Suddenly, Lilu’s decapitated head spoke to Zana, and she reacted in the only was possible: by screaming.

「Sorry, I just couldn’t resist.」

Aur says as he picks the head up, looks at it with an uninterested look, and tossed it behind him over his shoulder. Then an arm extends from his shadow, out of which Lilu appeared, looking at it with a somewhat disgusted expression.

「No way.. a fake?!」

「And a rather good one, wouldn’t you say?」

「You noticed with enough hints, right, Sofia?」

「Yes, and I just couldn’t help myself but to laugh when it occurred to me.」

The designs of the bracelets Mari was wearing were different than the original.

Spina, who’s still sitting on a chair had no ring on her finger.

And Yunis was reading a book.

Those were subtle hints, but they were quite enough to notice that something was quite not right to the observant eye. At first, Sofia felt that something was wrong with Mari for some reason, and when she found out what it was, finding the differences in the rest of them was a piece of cake. And, as she said, it made her want to laugh so bad that she ended up doing it despite the grievous situation she was in.

「B,But my ice is blessed by the Moon Goddess herself! And you were definitely frozen solid by it! No flame should be able to free him from such a prison!」

「So what you’re saying is, everything but an ordinary flame could, right?」

With eyes shining with red light, Mari took of the wig she was wearing, revealing a storm of bright, crimson hair.

「『Red-Haired Flame Princess』, Jeanne Ark, back in action~~!」

A Heroic Spirit who commanded the flames stronger than even those of the demon world. She melted the ice out of everything in the room, flashed a whimsical smile to everyone present and ended the possession, returning Mari’s body to its original shape.

「Why, why were you able to orchestrate everything like that?!」

Zana lashed at Aur with hostility, but soon froze completely. She knew that Lilu could detect whether or not she was telling the truth or was lying, that’s why their meetings were always organized in the rooms with specially crafted barriers. And besides, Lilu was here in the guest room the entire time without knowing anything, so there was no way for her to...

「Did you knew beforehand...」

「That you would do something as bold as to openly stab me in the back? No.」

But the Demon lord just shook his head.

「Then why..」

「We did not expected it, but that was no reason not to prepare.」

Spina said to Sofia, who was visibly confused.

「The most important thing is to always be prepared for the unexpected to occur, and act to deal with it as swiftly as possible.」

Hearing her say that as if it was something so obvious like the fact that sun rises in the east, Zana felt crushed and overwhelmed.

「So, what..?」

Zana asks in a trembling voice.

「Why did resulted to using fakes? And more importantly, were all of you just standing there in the cold?」

If they were somewhere inside the castle, Zana would’ve noticed them without any problems. But that did not happen.

「Well, it’s not like we didn’t do similar things before.」

Aur’s biggest disadvantage is that his combat capabilities are extremely poor. And even though he created his stone cube to somehow compensate for that weakness, it is inevitable that somewhere along the line he’s bound to find enemies that he could not beat alone, and would have to resort to using help of people like Yunis or Nadja.

He could always have an escort with him, but there are bound to be times when such a thing will not be possible. And besides, it was more conveinient for his allies to teleport to him than to walk with him all the time.

「Sister.. why are you doing something like this?」

Eve asked her the same question again, and again she does not answer her.

If it was just about opposing Aur, then she could’ve understand it. Whether it was out of ambition or purely for profit, she had more than enough reasons to do something like that.

But she made it more than obvious that it was not the case here, that there was something more behind it. There was no point in dragging that hostage situation, and most of all, she’s apparently not using her power of 『Best Result』 granted to her by the Moon Goddess Marina. If she used that from the start, the situation would’ve never take such a bad turn.

「Well, I wanted Sofia to kill me, but you clearly have something else in store for me.」

Aur knew that even if she used her power, it wouldn’t have changed much. The 『Best Result』 referred to what was best for the Moon Goddess Mariana. In other words, the Goddess did not agree with what she was doing right now.

「Demon Lord, if you still intend on playing gentle with me, then let me tell you right now, if you don’t kill me, I will just do the same thing again, but more thoroughly.」

Zana looked Aur in the eyes and said in a dark voice. It was a cheap provocation, but not the one he could not answer to.

「And of course, I won’t forgive you. Never.」

Aur just sighted in his mind.

「So I guess I’ll just have to make you my slave to shut you up for good.」

That was his response for her.