Now Only You Can Go

She sensed something was off.

The elf mage before her seemed to be lying.

It wasn’t a complete fabrication, but she certainly wasn’t telling the whole truth—it was as if she were deliberately avoiding a more central, more sensitive secret.

But looking at Mira, who seemed to have been scared out of her wits and was honestly confessing everything she knew, Vivian pondered for a moment and asked a few more questions to make sure she wasn’t lying.

However, it was clear that in front of a Demon Lord like Vivian, Mira didn’t have the guts to lie.

She answered Vivian’s questions as best she could.

But the more it was like this, the more Vivian felt that she was hiding something.

…It was too smooth.

Mira’s “honesty” after being scared out of her wits felt more like a carefully crafted disguise.

The occasional pauses, the fleeting glances, and the overly general description when mentioning the “shadow”…

“Shadow…”

Vivian’s voice carried a hint of ice.

“What kind of shadow? What kind of existence would be enough to make the arrogant Council of Life set aside their prejudices and send their precious ‘hero saplings’ to the humans as apprentices?”

Her gaze locked onto Mira, trying to dig something out of her.

At this, Mira’s body stiffened abruptly.

She subconsciously avoided Vivian’s gaze, her hands tightly gripping the hem of her tattered mage robe.

Her throat bobbed, but she couldn’t immediately make a sound, as if an invisible force was choking her.

“I… I don’t know… The Great Seer… didn’t elaborate…” she managed to squeeze out a few words, her voice thin and weak, tinged with obvious fear and… a hint of imperceptible pain?

That pain didn’t seem to stem entirely from Vivian’s threats and mana pressure.

“You don’t know?”

Vivian sneered and took a step closer, her tall figure completely enveloping Mira in its shadow.

“Is it that you don’t know, or that you ‘can’t say’?”

A faint, almost invisible wisp of dark purple demonic energy swirled at her fingertip.

With a chill, she lightly touched it to Mira’s forehead.

“Ugh—!”

Mira let out a short cry of pain, as if she had been burned.

On the spot where she was touched, an extremely complex, faintly glowing silver magic rune suddenly appeared beneath her skin!

The rune appeared for only a moment before vanishing as quickly as a startled bird, but the intense pain it left behind made Mira’s whole body convulse, tears streaming down her face like a broken dam.

‘A vow of silence?’

‘And it’s the highest level of elven secret pact!’

Seeing the rune that had appeared for a fleeting moment on Mira’s forehead, Vivian was startled.

This confirmed her suspicions.

Mira, and even her sister Serra, joining the human hero squad was definitely not as simple as “learning to cooperate”!

They were bound by a restriction imposed by the Elven Council of Life, a terrible secret closely related to the “shadow,” a secret so terrible that even mentioning its details would trigger a punishment!

But Vivian had some understanding of this secret.

She wasn’t actually concerned with what the secret was, because she sensed that Mira seemed to be relieved, as if she thought Vivian’s attention had been drawn away by the “shadow.”

“It seems your council ‘elders’ have very little trust in you sisters, even depriving you of the freedom to speak.”

Vivian withdrew her finger, the sarcasm in her tone undisguised.

“…It’s a precaution.”

Mira curled up on the ground, panting heavily, her forehead covered in a cold sweat, her body still twitching slightly from the intense pain.

“However, I think there must be other secrets you’re desperate to keep… aren’t there?”

“!”

Vivian smiled faintly and squatted down, reaching out to pinch Mira’s soft, smooth cheek again, forcing her to meet her gaze once more.

“Tell me, besides this so-called [Shadow], what other unspeakable secrets do you have? Hmm?”

Vivian chuckled, slowly releasing her demonic power and pressure as a Demon Lord, constantly pressuring Mira.

“P-please, Lady Demon Lord… I-I have no other secrets, I just-I just want to go home! That’s all!”

Seemingly on the verge of breaking down from Vivian’s pressure, Mira had even started to answer with a sob in her voice.

“I-I just want to go home… P-please, Lady Demon Lord, everything I know, everything I can say, I’ve already said… P-please spare my life…”

Mira pleaded humbly.

And Vivian keenly sensed that the “home” Mira spoke of was not so simple.

‘…Could these heroes be [Players]?’

Vivian narrowed her eyes, looking at Mira, whose face was filled with a desperate will to live, on the verge of tears and snot, and thought to herself.

“…Hmph, rest assured, your life is still useful.”

Vivian snorted coldly and released her hand again.

Just then, a series of quick, light footsteps approached from a distance, and in the blink of an eye, the Winter Messenger, Rolu, appeared before Vivian with a smile.

“Lady Demon Lord, urgent military intelligence.”

Vivian frowned slightly, temporarily shifting her attention away from Mira.

“Speak.”

“The Hero Galen, along with the other heroes and the Gospel Holy Knights of the Rhine Holy Church, are heading toward our position.

As per your previous arrangements, the other squads are maintaining maximum distance for observation and alert.”

“…Hmm, it seems they still want to retrieve their companion.”

Vivian nodded, and beside her, Mira’s tear-filled eyes lit up with a faint glimmer of hope upon hearing this news.

A full day had passed since Vivian had captured Mira, so the timing was about right.

The crusading army had already put some distance between themselves and the hero party, and Vivian had been remotely commanding other demon squads to harass the retreating crusaders, keeping the pressure on.

However, Vivian had no intention of handing Mira back so easily.

“So… now we need someone to bring a proposal to the heroes, a deal.”

Vivian smiled, looking at Rolu before her—and in an instant, the messenger from the Winterlands had a bad feeling and took a small step back.

“Um… Lady Demon Lord?”

“Currently, Elia is leading the other demon squads in attacking the retreating crusading army, and I need to stay behind to command.

The person sent to negotiate must be powerful enough and capable of defending themselves in the presence of heroes…”

“Er… Lady Demon Lord…”

“So, that only leaves you, Miss Rolu.”

Vivian looked at Rolu with a smile that didn’t reach her eyes.

“Would you be so kind as to make the trip?”

“…Can I refuse?”

For once, Rolu wore a mournful expression as she looked at Vivian, her voice filled with a desperate will to live.

“That’s Galen of the Blade of Radiance, you know. Lady Demon Lord, aren’t you just sending me to my death?”