Both Rotraud and the bandit leader he had manipulated had completely abandoned their humanity, reduced to strange aberrations in the end. Nadja was also different in some ways from the shark demons they had seen in the book.
“You’re right. The curseblood made me stronger,” said Nadja, tapping the carapace covering her arms. It was one of the features that hadn’t been included in the book’s illustration. “After I drank it, I felt power well up inside me, and my arms and legs changed into what you see now. But I feel like I’ve also grown more short-tempered… Meanwhile, my partner ended up massive, as you saw.”
Nadja sounded proud at first, but she suddenly lowered her eyes, her face stern.
“At first, I only planned to use the Dark Lord, but after I drank that curseblood, my thinking began to change. It only took a few sips for me to realize how messed up that stuff was. There’s a powerful curse mixed with the blood, one that can mangle your very soul. There’s no way anyone with that blood in their veins can find any pleasure in their life. Pain, fear, despair. He must be constantly plagued by such feelings. But despite it all, he’s still trying to save us monsters. Of course I want to help, knowing that. How could I not?”
“It sounds like we’re taking on an even bigger nemesis than we thought,” Psycho mused.
Nadja’s expression suddenly changed again. This time, she looked confused.
“Come to think of it—the word ‘help’ suddenly made me remember this. The woman told me there would be another person helping me in the attack. In the end, though, it looks like it was just me.”
“Lucky for us. You were more than enough trouble on your own.”
They continued to walk along the demolished streets with a monster in their midst as groups of soldiers stared at them from afar. Nadja was not the only target of their suspicion. They seemed to be eyeing Proto and Tsutsumi.
“This is where I think we’ll find them,” said Jin.
They had arrived at the central plaza, where Elyliyah carried out her public beatings. Their true destination lay beyond the plaza: the governor’s manor.
“There have been rumors of strange, unidentified moans coming from inside.”
The rumors that Ares had reported. At first, they had assumed those sounds were coming from the missing criminals, but what if they were actually coming from the imprisoned demons? Nadja soon confirmed their suspicions.
“Yes, I can smell my brethren’s blood.”
A hideous, bloodstained box wrapped in a beautiful facade—that was the manor’s true nature.
Homura was currently resting in the open plaza along with Ares and his party. They quickly rushed toward the girls.
“Everyone, you’re okay…! Hey, who’s the demon?”
For Homura, it was just a simple question. But Ares and the others knew trouble when they saw it.
“This is Nadja, the mastermind behind the attack. Everyone, say hello and try to get along!” Psycho announced.
“If I’ve said it once, I’ve said it a hundred times, but don’t you girls have any common sense…?”
Ares and his comrades readied their weapons, suddenly tense.
“See, I knew it,” said Nadja. “This is how normal people behave. It’s you guys who are the odd ones.”
“I don’t know about no common sense—I just know this is the quickest route to resolving this mess,” said Psycho, seemingly unbothered that by the fact that even the shark lady considered her to be odd. “To make a long story short, Little Miss Shark’s friends were kidnapped, and she came here to get them back.”
“Wait, are you saying this may have all been Elyliyah’s fault?!”
The attack on the merchant vessel, the fishing village that was massacred due to the malefic blade, and the current attack on the town.
“This was to blame?” said Ares, glaring at the manor.
As the pieces of the attack fell into place, Ares found his anger being redirected toward Elyliyah. But that still didn’t absolve Nadja of their skepticism. Freeing her people might technically resolve this issue, but she was still a demon. And the fact of the matter was that she had attacked this town and its people. They were hardly going to be eager to trust her.
The four members of Ares’s party surrounded them closely as they headed toward the governor’s manor.
“By the way, Homura—nice job creating that huge wall of fire without bugging out and going on a rampage,” said Psycho. She had secretly been worried about how she was going to stop Homura if the girl lost control again.
“As long as I keep my attention off the flames, I’m fine. I just thought happy thoughts about Tsutsumi instead. Eh-hee-hee…,” said Homura with a sleazy smile on her face. It was pretty clear what kind of “happy thoughts” she had been thinking about Tsutsumi.
“Good to hear. Unfortunately, it’s to the dungeons with you!”
“But why?!”
Homura and Psycho did not seem to understand the urgency of the situation.
“Jin,” asked Nadja, side-eyeing the two girls goofing off behind them. “Don’t you have any normal friends?”
“No, they are all strange.”
“You have my sympathies…”
“They’re actually pretty fun.”
“Then you’re as strange as they are.”
Jin was too shocked to reply to that.
The fenced iron gate had been left open. In addition to the large manor that stood at the center of the grounds, they discovered a smaller hut sitting off to the side. It looked like it had been plopped down unceremoniously in the manor garden, its door slightly ajar.