Chapter 712: Rapid Advance

"Why is there a photo of An here?"

A tangle of thoughts flooded his mind, and Muen fell into shock for a moment.

Even though he’d already learned through the duke’s intelligence channels that An’s so-called “going home to visit relatives” was actually coming to the Abyss to cultivate, no matter what, Muen never would’ve imagined that in a place like this—somewhere that had absolutely nothing to do with a personal maid—he would see her photograph.

Why?

What did it mean?

Why would that scout who came to the demonfolk to spy for intelligence put her photo in a place like this?

That couldn’t have been something done with no purpose.

Could it be that... An was connected to the Demon King?

"No, that’s impossible."

Muen shook his head firmly.

A place like the duke’s estate would never allow some person of unknown origin to enter freely and become a maid, much less allow her to become the personal maid of him, Muen Campbell—the duke’s once-only son.

So An’s background, origins, and even information going ten generations back had been investigated by the duke’s estate down to the finest detail. There was no way anything had been missed.

After An left, Muen had even gone through those records himself. He knew she came from a village on the empire’s border and had parents and family, only for the entire village to be destroyed in a sudden raid by a small demonman unit. And An was one of the few survivors left from that village.

After that, it was that the young An was taken in by the duke’s estate, then, because of her outstanding aptitude, became Muen Campbell’s personal maid, and later... were some well-known stories.

The demonfolk’s sudden raids on the border weren’t anything abnormal either. Even though the Abyss had only five exits to the outside world, within the turbulent currents that covered the entire space, tiny gaps would always appear from time to time.

The empire’s border really did get harassed by small demonman groups at intervals, but they were quickly suppressed and never caused any real waves.

All in all, if you said An had any connection to the demonfolk... then it was the hatred she carried for how the demonfolk had destroyed her family and village. So when Muen learned that An had gone to the Abyss to train, he hadn’t felt surprised.

But someone like her—how could she be tied to the words “Demon King”?

A clean, upright human. A young girl who carried hatred because her village had been destroyed. A Divine Favored who had been blessed by the gods...

Even the greatest master of logic couldn’t link that to the demonfolk deep in the Abyss.

Unless...

Muen’s fingers paused on two crumpled words in the intel from the previous pages—“reincarnation.”

Because of what he had experienced, he understood: this was the one possibility you could call the only possibility among countless impossibilities.

"No. That’s still only a guess."

Muen clenched all the intel into his palm.

"This information is too vague. There isn’t much actual intel at all, and it looks like most of it is just this scout-hero lady’s personal analysis. There’s no real evidence. This isn’t the time to draw conclusions."

Yes. Intel was something that needed intel to prove it. You absolutely couldn’t jump to conclusions...

But...

Huh, wait?

Muen suddenly remembered something.

"The demonfolk’s recent frenzy of capturing female adventurers—was it really just because of the Enchantress Grand Duke’s preferences?"

The Enchantress Grand Duke had always liked women.

But she’d never captured human female adventurers this insanely before.

Because if you thought about it carefully, it was a very bad bargain—especially now, when the entire demonfolk were at war with the empire. It made the whole thing even stranger.

Before, you could explain it away as “the Enchantress Grand Duke’s selfishness and willfulness.” But when that bizarre behavior was combined with the intel in his hand...

"Then it really wasn’t a mistake just now. An’s scent is here too."

Muen gently brushed his fingers over the familiar pretty face in the photograph. His expression sank, and he suddenly stood up.

"No—An is in danger!"

...

...

"Have we been walking for a long time already?"

Ariel looked at the increasingly strict, solemn decorations around them, and the willow-leaf brows between her eyes drew together slightly.

"And along this whole way, we actually haven’t run into any enemies?"

As she spoke, a breeze blew from who-knew-where, chilling to an abnormal degree.

"This is the core of Gutongs Castle. It’s huge—about one-fifth of the entire Gutongs Castle. You should know Gutongs Castle is a grand city that can hold a million people."

An walked in front. Her skirt hem swayed, and her steps were still steady—each step so standard it was as if measured by a ruler.

"And right now, the demonfolk’s vast majority are busy fighting the empire’s border forces. Naturally, they can’t spare manpower to guard such an enormous area. So most places here are actually empty. Only the most core areas have guards."

"Sounds like it really is easy for us to slip through loopholes."

Ariel couldn’t help finding it odd.

"That said, are there really that few demonfolk? A single border fortress of the empire can tie up most of them?"

"That’s not few. In a barren, cramped place like the Abyss, several million demonfolk live."

An said calmly.

"The harsh environment nurtured their ferocity, but siege warfare was never easy. Even with ten-to-one or twenty-to-one numbers, failing to take a city is common. Much less when that fortress is the empire’s strongest fortress, that army is the empire’s most elite army, and the commander of that army is the Lion King."

At that, An’s flat tone finally rose a little—like admiration, and like she took pride in it.

Or perhaps because of someone, she had finally gained a few layers of respect for the Lion King in another kind of sense.

"So on that battlefield right now, there are probably at least a million low-ranking demonmen tangled up, crashing against that fortress like a sea tide."

"I can already imagine what a meat grinder that must be."

Even though she hadn’t stepped onto that battlefield, just imagining it was enough to know what kind of terrifying yet magnificent picture it would be—millions of demonfolk troops surging like an insect swarm against the empire’s fortress.

Ariel sighed.

"Looks like the demonfolk higher-ups don’t treat low-ranking demonmen as people at all. Sending them to die like that—those are complete and total cannon fodder."

"Not cannon fodder."

"Hm?"

"Numbers."

"Numbers?"

"Yes. Numbers that, before this, never decreased. So those demonfolk higher-ups won’t have even the slightest pity."

"What do you mean?"

Once again, Ariel was completely baffled by the strange things An said.

But An clearly had no intention of explaining. She suddenly turned her head toward the distance, as if also gazing at that insane, bloody battlefield, and murmured under her breath,

"But this time is different. Because their purpose..."

...

Rustle...

In this empty, grand building, even the faint sound of armor rubbing sounded unbelievably clear.

Ariel and An had already slipped into the darkness. Ariel casually cast a spell, cutting off their auras.

"Did Lady Enchantress not leave any alive again last night?"

"No."

"What a pity. I was thinking I might pick at some leftovers and have a taste. Human female adventurers aren’t easy to come by."

"You’d better rein in those little thoughts of yours. Lady Enchantress has been in a bad mood lately. I heard even the succubus who serves her got killed on the spot just for saying something wrong."

"Terrifying. How long has it lasted this time?"

"Not even ten days."

"Shorter and shorter..."

"Yeah... We’d better do our best to finish Lady Enchantress’s order too. If we make her unhappy and she kills us... even our souls will get swallowed."

"Lady Enchantress never swallows men’s souls, does she?"

"Haha, true..."

Two demonmen passed by.

Judging from their looks and attire, both were high-ranking demonmen.

Ariel’s eyes narrowed. She recognized one of them as the very Gowilt who had “captured” her not long ago.

"Heh. What a small world."

Ariel flicked her gaze toward An.

"So?"

"Kill them."

"That simple and brutal?"

"It’s that simple and brutal."

An had already tightened her grip on her scythe.

"Be fast. Otherwise the Enchantress will notice."

"Heh. Got it."

Ariel bared her teeth.

"I’m very used to this."

She didn’t draw the Skyfire greatsword right away. Instead, she lifted a hand and gave a light wave.

Something sharp and thin—a cold glint—shot soundlessly from her sleeve in an instant.

Meanwhile, she herself put both hands behind her back and strolled out of the spell’s aura-blocking range.

"Who?"

Gowilt’s bizarrely shaped flaying knife snapped the incoming steel needle away with keen precision.

"You..."

Gowilt’s face sank, but surprise flashed in his eyes.

Of course he remembered this face. That stubborn expression wasn’t common among the human adventurers he’d captured.

But what he saw this time wasn’t stubbornness.

It was mockery.

"You actually escaped? How’d you do it?"

"Aiya, I really do want to share it with you—and enjoy the look on your stupid ugly face when you can’t believe it—but unfortunately, Miss An wants me to end this quickly."

Ariel spread her hands helplessly.

"End it quickly?"

Gowilt sneered.

"With you humans who became prisoners."

"Yes. With us humans who used to be prisoners."

Ariel curled her fingers, then gave a light flick.

Clang—

Gowilt’s pupils shrank sharply, because only then did he realize: an extremely, extremely thin thread had somehow already fallen onto him.

When?

Pshhk...

Flames suddenly roared to life. Along that thread, they spread rapidly to his body, wrapping him into a living torch.

"Ah... damn it!"

The agony of the burning flames and the humiliation of being tricked made Gowilt furious. He burst # Nоvеlight # out his battle aura, trying to shake the flames off, but before his roar could even leave his throat—

Pff.

Gowilt lowered his head in disbelief, staring in disbelief at the greatsword that had pierced straight through his chest.

"How... impossible... I’m a dignified... flayer... Lady Enchantress’s most elite..."

"Ah, a flayer. Sounds impressive."

Ariel smiled.

"But you still don’t even count as a demon general, do you?"

"...What?"

"Nice expression. I like it."

Ariel yanked the Skyfire greatsword out in one motion, and the flames kept burning, quickly burning Gowilt to nothing.

Steel needle feint. A trail for the fire. Flames to force an opening. Final thrust.

Ariel’s assault flowed in one clean chain. The whole process didn’t even take a minute—just like she said...

Bullying scrubs around her level was what she did for a living.