The Holy City Summer Campaign?

"Frieren is inside."

Heiter stepped aside, clearing the way into the house.

"What happened a very long time ago for us probably feels like it happened only recently to her."

It sounded a little sad. The same journey was a memory from more than half a lifetime ago to a human, yet to an elf, it might have been no different from a long trip taken a few years earlier.

Lorenzo suddenly thought of how Frieren normally had no sense of time at all.

But on second thought, she even forgot where she had put a grimoire a few days earlier. Living longer apparently did not necessarily mean remembering more.

"I hope Lady Frieren still remembers."

Fern had clearly thought of the same problem.

Hopefully, she wasn't using eighty-five percent of her memory to remember 103,000 grimoires...

Everyone entered the house. Frieren was sitting at the table, with the grimoire she had been deciphering for years still open in front of her. She only looked up when she heard their footsteps.

"Zanze? What are you doing here?"

Frieren looked at the woman before her and asked in considerable confusion.

"Lady Frieren, the preliminary results of the investigation into the Windwing Dragon attack are in. It was the work of a Demon named Breda. I wonder if you know anything about him?"

Zanze dispensed with excessive pleasantries and went straight to the reason for her visit.

"Breda..."

Frieren repeated the name under her breath and thought carefully for a moment before finally speaking.

"Oh, that fellow who can control monsters. What, is he still alive?"

"I'm afraid that seems to be the case. Have you fought him before, Lady Frieren?"

Zanze continued questioning Frieren.

"I've only crossed paths with him a few times, and I've heard other Demons mention him."

Frieren spoke.

She could actually remember that too? Apparently, it wasn't 103,000 grimoires she remembered. It was more like 103,000 Demons.

"He's one of Grausam's trusted lieutenants. Grausam is one of the Seven Sages of Destruction."

"Grausam?"

At that, Heiter seemed to remember something and gave Frieren a somewhat meaningful look.

"Grausam is famous for the True Magic to Guide to Paradise. Legend has it that anyone caught by that magic sees the happiness they desire most in their heart and takes the illusion for reality."

Frieren did not notice Heiter's look and simply continued her explanation.

Come to think of it, with a power like that, someone could totally open a hospice for people who had never managed to realize their dreams in their entire lives, letting them experience a perfect life before leaving this world.

After all, what was so bad about a world of illusion? If people could spend their whole lives immersed in such a happy illusion, how many would choose to face a bleak reality instead?

"Then is Breda's magic also related to the True Magic to Guide to Paradise?"

Zanze recalled what she knew of Grausam before continuing her questions.

"It was probably influenced by it."

Frieren nodded.

"Grausam makes others believe that false happiness is real, while Breda makes monsters treat outside commands as natural instincts, like hunting prey or guarding their nests."

"And besides controlling monsters, he also seems to have resistance to certain types of magic."

"Resistance to certain types of magic?"

Zanze was a little puzzled. She had never found anything about that in the records.

"He can gradually develop resistance over time to any magic that has wounded him."

Frieren spoke.

"The first time, it might still do normal damage, but the second time, its effect will weaken. If you keep using the exact same magic, eventually it probably won't even be able to break through his defenses."

"How do you know that?"

Zanze asked.

"I wounded him with a spell once, but when I encountered him again a few years later, that spell was less than half as effective. When I switched to another spell, he immediately ran away."

"I think that's why he probably hates me quite a bit."

That was very much in keeping with how most Demons operated. As soon as they discovered that their enemy still had a means they could not resist, they abandoned the fight without hesitation.

"No wonder there was no mention of it in the records."

Zanze spoke thoughtfully. After all, the vast majority of people who had encountered Breda probably never got a chance to fight him a second time, and there were already pitifully few mages capable of driving him off and encountering him again years later.

But setting everything else aside, that ability sounded like getting back up wherever you fell—a rather positive, uplifting ability.

"Then does that mean he's recorded my bow and arrows too?"

Lorenzo recalled the strange eye that had appeared in the wheat field and asked Frieren.

"Very likely."

On the bright side, at least that confirmed that the Demon named Breda was the mastermind behind everything, and there were no other "world-shaking conspiracies."

"Come to think of it, what's the point of him controlling Windwing Dragons and Demon Wolves to attack villages?"

Lorenzo continued questioning her.

"What else could it be? He's either preparing to attack a city or preparing to kill people. Could a Demon actually be up to something good?"

Frieren spoke bluntly. Although it sounded somewhat presumptuous, considering her thousand-plus years of experience dealing with Demons and their past reputation, it seemed quite convincing.

Zanze added to her explanation.

"He could also be conducting some kind of experiment. To Demons, human villages are the most convenient testing grounds. They contain ordinary people, as well as some adventurers and mages who know how to fight. By controlling monsters and sending them to attack, he can test his magic and kill humans at the same time."

After listening for so long, Fern thought for a moment and spoke up.

"If the Demon Wolves and Windwing Dragons are just experiments, what happens after the experiments are over?"

Zanze fell silent for a moment.

"He'll keep looking for more powerful monsters, increase their numbers, or try attacking more heavily fortified human settlements."

"In other words, the villages may only be the beginning."

Heiter's expression grew serious.

"Mm."

Frieren nodded.

"If Breda only wanted to kill a few villagers, he wouldn't need to spend so much time controlling Windwing Dragons. Since he did, it means his intended target will likely require more power than Demon Wolves can provide."

"Surely he isn't planning to attack the Holy City?"

After Lorenzo put forward that bold idea, everyone present fell silent for a moment.

"That seems... unlikely."

Zanze sounded uncertain. After all, the idea of Demons attacking the Holy City was simply too absurd. This was no longer the era when the Demon King's Army held sway, and the Holy City was where the church had its headquarters. Large numbers of priests, mages, and adventurers were permanently stationed within its walls, and its defensive barrier had been tested time and again.

As far as Demons were concerned, a thousand could come and all thousand would die.