My Childhood Friend the Demon Knight Hates Me - Episode 22: Elucidation
22 Elucidation
Translator: Lioness
Editor: Arya
My brain slowly woke up as if surfacing to the water top, as I opened my heavy eyelids, the first thing I felt was the coldness from the floor and the pain from my wrists, which seemed to be bound behind my back.
…… Oh, that’s right.
I was trying to hold Marina back, and sure enough, I got caught.
I was kidnapped by a demon.
It was quite a response, like tying a woman up then rolling her around on the floor.
On top of that, my body was still wet by the water from Uur’s water bed earlier, making me feel numb and cold.
There were a particular number of people who were also tied and lying down, still unconscious. There were young men who looked gaunt, and strange women who looked pale. I’m sure they were all the kidnapped spirit users. I wonder if they had been locked up inside here for a long time. ……
From my distance, I found Marina, thankfully she seems safe in the meantime.
I crouched down and managed to look around.
I was pondering if this building had once been used as a warehouse. The wooden walls and pillars were starting to decay and fade. There were barrels with crates piled up in the corner of the fairly large space. All of them were covered with dust and cobwebs, indicating that they had been left there for a lot of years.
The Queen’s treasure sword was carelessly thrown away which lay beside the luggage right now. It looked like the luggage had been left there for the time being because it was a problem.
There were no lamps to be seen nor any lights in the room.
Rather, the moonlight above dimly illuminated the warehouse from a small window near the ceiling.
The most eye-catching part was the center of the —- room.
Lying on the floor spattered with black ink was a giant magic circle.
Within those double circles existed writings with tons of numbers and other arcane symbols, creating an obvious appearance like that of a satanic ritual.
Exactly ten reddish-black stones with suspicious glow were placed at equal distance along the circle.
It seems that …… Roa’s hunch to the number of sacrifices were correct.
The air was muddy everywhere, plus I couldn’t feel the spirits at all. I’m very certain that the demon’s possession was wandering around the warehouse like a stealth barrier.
It was the reason why the spirits couldn’t find out the location of their kidnapped users.
I tried calling out to Uur in my mind, it was hapless to hear no answer.
But if I had the Queen’s blessings working on me, possibly my buddy Uur could trace my presence.
If that seems to be the case, …… I should pretend to be unconscious and stay quiet until help arrives.
I was pondering this when I suddenly heard sounds of a shoe clacking from my blind spot, resulting in my shoulder to shake in fright. “Oh?” A rather calm voice sounded in my ear.
Then the sounds of the certain shoes stopped beside me.
I gave up and looked up only to find a man with a calm appearance standing there.
He was about 30 years old.
He was wearing a dark blue shirt with a large chest collar and slender black trousers. He was also wearing a loose-fitting red cloth wrapped around his waist, which I had never seen someone wear before. Perhaps, he was not from this country.
The black hair, which was the same as Wraith but less lustrous than him about the length of the shoulder, was tied together with a leather strap. He looked solemn and sincere, however I couldn’t sense a single light from his eyes … maybe he couldn’t see.
Still, what I was doing seemed to be a sign, as he mysteriously tilted my neck.
Whereas that innocent-looking gesture seemed eerie.
“It’s weird. If I had that butterfly technique, I wouldn’t be able to wake up for another two hours. Even if I wake up, my consciousness will be blurred … Isn’t the devil’s technique difficult for you?”
“… Are you the culprit of ‘Demonic possession’ who kidnapped the people here, including me?”
I ignored his question, suppressed my fear and with my trembling voice, I asked him as forcefully as I could. The man simply affirmed, “Yes, I am.”
“That’s great. You know about demonic possession.”
I stared at him quietly, and he quickly pointed out the magic circle.
A glimpse of a black butterfly mark seemingly upside-down on his chest was apparent through the gap of the collar.
“Ten spirit users. It could have been anyone, a genie. Just as we entered the Holy Bell Festival, the black butterflies; the servants of the devil, were released into the capital on a moonlit night. The black butterfly will make them hallucinate about ‘someone important’ to them. I was calling the elementalors who got caught from it as a sacrifice of the ritual here … No way, Marina arrived as the last one. ”
“I was surprised to see an extra one like you.” The man cowered in a funny tone. I was stunned by him.
He said it could have been anyone, a genie, but he sounded as if he knew Marina. Then I caught a glimpse of his fingers.
The ring was made of citrine, which produced a graceful glow even in dimly lit spaces.
It was the same as the one that was on …… Marina’s finger.
I remember what she said to me that day.
‘He is older and his hometown is the nerf kingdom, but he has a blind lover that he met in another country.’
I don’t think …… is this the culprit?
“You are, Marina’s lover … right? You were fooling Marina.”
“You knew Marina, didn’t you? It was just a coincidence that both of you became so close. It’s just that the demonologist who possessed me, told me about a demonic ritual in order to make a certain wish come true. I had been looking for an opportunity to perform it for a long time, and Marina seemed to be available. It was fortuitous that I unexpectedly became friends with her.”
The man smiled wryly, “You’ve given me a lot of information. This place was originally owned by the Levion family,” the man said while smiling vexedly.
He was very light-hearted, but he didn’t see anything wrong with me knowing the outline of his plan. Instead, the man said it happily, as if he wanted someone to hear what he had to say.
Roa explained to me that demon possession could lead to the demon taking over your body and your consciousness as you assimilate with it. This man may have been half raped by the demon and might not be able to reason anymore.
…… Even though he can not be forgiven for that.
Marina was totally elated talking about this man.
“…… What wish would you go this far to even perform a Satanic ritual in order to make it come true?”
It was a question that came out carelessly from my mouth before I could even have time to think about it.
My question sank heavily into the dim room with the suffocating space like the bottom of the water.
For the very first time, the man who had been in an unnaturally good mood and had never once stopped smiling, right now had shown his wavering emotions reflecting on his lightless eyes. The slightly sad expression on his face was the most human expression I had ever seen from him.
He turned his back on the moonlight and his lips slowly trembled.
“I’m sure you’re aware of the fact that there’s no such thing as an ancient ritual that takes this much time and effort to prepare, which also requires the lives of ten people with special powers as spirit users beg the devil for it. It’s a ritual to bring a dead person back to life. ……”