The Dungeon

"You won't stop me anymore, will you, Himmel?"

"Mm..."

"Why do demons, who have no concept of family, use the word 'mother'?"

"Because that makes you lower your guard. It's a word as wonderful as magic."

The Count's estate.

Lügner sat in the reception room, with his subordinates Draht and Linnie standing behind him, waiting for the arrival of Count Grausam.

"Count Grausam is certainly slow."

The male demon Draht, having waited for a long time, couldn't help but speak.

"It is merely human diplomacy."

Lügner picked up the black tea on the table, took a sip, and said indifferently.

More than Count Grausam, Lügner cared about that elf.

That gaze, as if looking at a fierce beast, made him think more than a bit.

"Come to think of it, that elf looks somewhat familiar..."

Frieren's previous words echoed in Lügner's heart, and he muttered:

"A fierce beast that cannot be communicated with? That is a truly fitting description."

"For demons who feed on humans to speak the same language as humans, there is only one reason..."

"Sorry to keep you waiting, Lord Lügner."

Granat's arrival interrupted Lügner's train of thought.

"Please follow me to another room to talk in detail," Grausam said softly.

Lügner had no reason to refuse, and followed the Earl to a very neatly kept room.

"Where is this?"

"My son's room." Granat walked into the room and picked up a sword displayed on the table.

"He was exceptional, and always made a fuss about inheriting the family business early to make things easier for me."

Lügner's gaze swept quickly across the entire room, roughly understanding the intentions of the Earl before him in his heart.

"Where is your son now, might I ask?"

Granat gently stroked the sword bestowed upon his son by the ruler, and said calmly:

"Ten years ago, he fell in battle against Aura."

With that, the tip of Granat's sword pointed at Lügner's throat.

The surrounding guards also drew their weapons respectively, surrounding the three demons in the center.

Lügner grew even more certain of his own guess. After adjusting himself for a moment, he said in a sorrowful tone:

"This room is cleaned very well. It must be the same as it was ten years ago."

"So what of it?" Granat gripped the hilt of the sword in his hand tightly.

Seeing that the Earl did not attack directly, Lügner's sorrow, brewed for a moment, arrived right on cue.

"My father also died at your hands, and I have kept his room looking just as it used to to this day."

Seeing that Granat remained silent, Lügner pressed his advantage while the iron was hot and said, "Let us put an end to all this, Lord Granat."

"We share the same language; please, I beg you to give us a chance to converse."

Granat looked at the sincere Lügner and put away his sword.

Placing the sword back onto the rack, he said in a somewhat heavy tone: "Take them to the guest room; let me consider it."

The servant bowed to Granat before leading Lügner and the other two toward the guest room.

After the servant left.

Linnie poured tea for Lügner and asked with curiosity:

"Lord Lügner, what is a father?"

Lügner gave a light chuckle: "Who knows..."

He felt his performance was quite good, accurately seizing the soft spot in the Earl's heart and securing an opportunity for the upcoming peace talks using the same reasoning.

As long as Granat opened the barrier set up by Flamme, Lord Aura's army could completely destroy this city.

"Humans are insufficiently rational after all..."

Lügner drank his tea with satisfaction, only to find that Draht was missing. He asked, "Linnie, where did Draht go?"

"Chew, chew," Linnie said while eating exquisite human-made desserts, her words muffled:

"He went to deal with the elf the Lord was somewhat concerned about just now."

The dungeon.

The guard had just seen Fern and Stark off and was standing guard at the entrance. Seeing Draht, although somewhat nervous, he still spoke:

"Lord Draht, it is not very appropriate for you to come to this place. Please return to the guest room first."

Draht looked expressionlessly at the guard before him.

With a slight twitch of his finger, a thread composed of magic swept across the guard's neck.

"Thud, thud."

The guard's head parted from his body.

Draht walked leisurely through the dungeon, searching for the cell where the elf was locked up.

Soon, Draht found that cell, opened the door, ignored Rienta standing to the side, and looked straight at Frieren.

Rienta: "? What do you mean, ignoring me."

Neither of them paid any attention to Rienta, who was stamping her foot in exasperation nearby.

Frieren put away the grimoire in her hand and said indifferently: "Is the ludicrous peace-talk game finally coming to an end?"

"It's only just beginning." Draht looked at the elf before him, the magical threads in his hand already enshrouding Frieren's neck.

She was merely an elf; once this unstable factor was resolved, ending the peace talks and conquering this city would be as easy as turning over one's hand.

"I'll say this in advance: I am very strong."

Frieren noticed the thread at her neck, but did not care.

"Stronger than me?"

"I am stronger than Aura the Guillotine."

Rienta looked at the two people confronting each other, feeling somewhat speechless.

Lord Frieren is clearly being quite chuunibyou too.

Draht said no more, his fingers urging the magic thread to hoist Frieren high up into the air, but unexpectedly, it did not sever her neck as he had imagined.

"Interesting. A thread composed of magic?"

Frieren, cosplaying a teru teru bozu, looked expressionlessly at Draht.

"Today's demons really are quite hopeless; practical combat experience is far too scant."

With that, she raised her hand and used Offensive Magic to directly blast Draht's right arm to pieces.

Frieren dropped down and did not stop at all; Draht's other arm also left his body.

"You stinky wom—"

Before he could finish speaking, Frieren had already grabbed Draht by the throat.

"Wait, I have words to—"

With a "boom," Draht's head vanished.

The moment Frieren made her move, Rienta used Defensive Magic.

Seeing that Frieren had already finished the battle, she then canceled the Defensive Magic.

Looking at the somewhat bloody scene, she silently cast a Cleaning Magic on Frieren.

Frieren shook her hands and said with a cold expression: "That's one taken care of."

Rienta: "?"

What is going on? Why does it feel like Frieren somehow looks rather cool?

Rienta fell into deep contemplation.

The bloodstains on Frieren's body had already been cleared away by the Cleaning Magic, and the demon's corpse on the ground had also dissipated.

"Rienta, let's go tell the Earl that this demon attacked us. That way we probably won't have to keep serving time."

Frieren had originally thought she could have a little more time to study grimoires, but she hadn't expected this foolish demon to be in such a rush to deliver himself to her.

With that, she took the lead and left the cell.

Yet she discovered guards with their heads separated from their bodies right at the dungeon entrance.

Seeing this, Rienta retrieved two black hooded coats from her Personal Space, handed one to Frieren, and skillfully put one on herself as well.

"Let's go into the city and find Fern and the others first."

"Mm." Frieren helplessly took the garment and put it on.

It was fine for them to break out of prison, considering demons had attacked them, but now the guards were also dead; if they couldn't prove the demons killed them, things would get very troublesome.