“Still, before I kill him, I need to know one thing in particular,” I said.
The director sighed, turning in my direction. “Just ask later. Can’t you see we’re a little busy?” She pointed toward the demon, who was slowly but surely walking in our direction.
It was grinning in my direction, flashing his pointy teeth in my direction. His entire appearance had completely changed, his skin was completely charred, coupled with his eyes and his now extremely huge mouth. I had no idea how he managed to keep this disguise for so long, but I wanted to know…I wanted to know more than ever.
“Are you sure you don’t want to keep him alive? We could interrogate him.”
She shook her head. “The Emperor wants him dead.”
I nodded slowly, debating whether following the Emperor’s decision was the best plan. Learning more about how he managed to infiltrate the Royal Academy would have been much more interesting, and also a lot more useful in the future. Killing him right now might restrict the knowledge we can gather on them. But at last, he was the Emperor, we needed to follow his decisions…for the time being.
“We’ll talk about it later,” I finally said, dashing toward the demon. “Now, I can finally kill you.”
Derek laughed in my face. “You think you can beat me in my demonic form?”
“Yes. You’re not even a high-ranked demon. Do you even know a little bit about my powers?” I smiled. “Do you even know who I really am?”
The demon shook his head, indicating he had no idea who I was. This gave me some ideas about him. If he didn’t know me, it meant he had never seen me on the battlefield and no demons had contacted him. It also suggested he had been sent here years ago.
I turned to the director, who was busy maintaining the mana barrier. “How many years has it been since he became a professor at the Royal Academy?”
“Five years ago. That’s when we hired him.”
I nodded. Things were definitely bad. Demons had potentially started infiltrating society five years ago. They could be anywhere, and no one knew. This would become a major problem, and the Emperor better have some explanations for me.
Demons were not a light subject to joke about. At least, not with me around.
“I see. Five years. That’s a long time.”
Derek laughed even more. “Are you starting to realize that you’ve already lost?”
“No,” I replied instantly, my voice cold and distinct. “As I said, you don’t even know about me. All you demons are ignorant.”
“Why would we know about some random soldier?”
I smirked. “Exactly, you are ignorant.”
The director, tired of maintaining the mana barrier, called out, “Caedrel. Quick. I can’t keep this up much longer.”
I clicked my tongue. “Tsk. Fine, I’ll get on with it.”
In an instant, a dagger appeared in my right hand, and I dashed to Derek’s right side. He didn’t even see me as I reappeared beside him. “Am I still a random soldier?” I held my dagger under his neck and smiled. Just as he was about to answer, I cut his throat. His head fell off his body and rolled away on the ground.
“Ah…feels good to kill a demon after all this time.”
“Caedrel,” the director called out. “Change his appearance. Make sure he looks human.”
I looked at her, annoyed. “Sure. I don’t want to throw the world into a panic.”
I bent down over the demon’s body and used one of my developed powers—Camouflage. It had been useful for spying on others without them knowing. However, the skill had a short duration.
After using the skill, Derek’s body regained his human appearance. I gave Alexandra a warning.
“This appearance will only last five minutes. After that, he’ll become a demon again.”
She clenched her jaw and nodded. “It’s fine. I’ll deal with it. Thank you.”
“Whatever. Just remember. You owe me one.” I kicked Derek’s head away, and the barrier dropped, revealing Derek’s dead body in the middle of the arena.
All kinds of noise erupted around me—children, adults, some whispering, some shouting. It was total chaos, panic was slowly taking over everyone. I wanted to leave but couldn’t just yet.
“Is that a dead body?!”
“He killed Professor Derek?” One of his students pointed at me.
“He’s a monster.”
“Are you sure that Professor Caedrel is the monster? Didn’t you see the black charred skin on Professor Derek’s body?”
-Boom!-
-Boom!-
Two loud sounds made everyone calm down. They came from the Emperor.
“Silence.” He pointed at me. “You. Come, I need to talk to you in private.”
It seemed I would have my discussion with the Emperor sooner than I thought.
“Sure,” I shrugged, walking toward the Emperor, who was already leaving. Just before exiting the arena, he gave one last order. “The banquet is over. Everyone should be out of here in less than five minutes.”
I frowned. I wasn’t sure how he had learned about the time limit of my Camouflage skill since the director hadn’t gotten close to him, but he did. So, that was good, I guess.
Everyone gulped as the maids and butlers guided them toward the exit. It seemed I would be alone with the Emperor for the time being. As I was about to catch up to him, I glanced at his daughter. She didn’t seem shocked by what she had seen, which was surprising considering she probably hadn’t seen anyone die before. But, well, she was my most talented student. Who knows what she had done in the past?
I gave her a little wave and bowed to the Empress, who wasn’t sure how to react. It seemed she had no idea that demons were still part of our society.
‘Hm, hiding it even from your wife, huh? You really don’t want this information to spread…interesting. Well, whatever, it’s none of my business. I’ll finally be able to learn why I was hired as a spy and that’s all that matters.’
