"Me?"
Macht was surprised. While astonished by Nanoda's foreknowledge, he didn't think there would be any problem with such a plan.
In the past, he had forced two humans who knew each other well to fight to the death under the condition that only one could survive. Both struck at the same time, but one feigned an attack and, at the most critical moment, did not thrust their longsword, allowing themselves to be stabbed to death by the other. The survivor, however, was left with immense regret and self-blame.
After asking the survivor for their thoughts, Macht learned that the two had been friends who grew up together since childhood.
That was an emotion Macht had never seen in humans before. Anger, fear, despair, hatred, killing intent, unwillingness—he had seen too much of those. After questioning the survivor further, Macht identified that emotion as what the old priest he had killed called "guilt," or perhaps a sense of sin.
Macht became fascinated and obsessed with this emotion. He grew to like humans, to the point where he began to harbor a twisted "goodwill" toward them.
"That's right. From start to finish, you only treat everything you do as an experiment. You blindly obey Glück's orders and work like a machine. Although everything you've done has brought benefits to Weise and gained you acceptance from humans, your own heart has never truly understood humans. Even in your final betrayal, you will only be killing humans out of instinct; you won't generate any sense of guilt at all."
Nanoda knew very well that the Demon Race had faint emotions, even more so than Elves. Elves might just have slow or obtuse emotional circuits, but Demons not only had almost no emotions, they also lacked many emotional capacities entirely.
"Understanding emotions does not mean possessing emotions." This was Nanoda's evaluation of Macht.
"Is that so?" Macht fell into thought.
A moment later, he gave his reply.
"Although I don't know how you learned of my plan, even if the future develops as you say, I will still attempt it that way."
Macht was very confident; this was his arrogance as a Great Demon.
"Right now, I am only trying to win you over. Since you are determined to do this, I won't stop you. What you are doing is indeed my goal as well: to allow humans to accept the Demon Race. As for the moment you finally betray Weise, I will come to stop you."
Nanoda knew she couldn't persuade Macht. Often, she felt that Demons were very stubborn creatures.
"If you can do it, then come try."
"If you lose, you have to be my subordinate. How about it?"
"To be honest, I don't think I will lose. Just bring it on."
"Then it's a promise?"
"Agreed. I look forward to that day."
Without saying anything more, Macht left just like that, and Nanoda made no attempt to keep him.
Because the seeds had already been planted.
What was certain was that Macht had listened to a bit of Nanoda's words, though he still chose to walk his old path. After all, he and Nanoda weren't that familiar with each other.
"You're just letting him go like that? Aren't we going to beat him into submission? There are three Demons here; if we attack together, we can definitely make sure he never returns!" Aura leaned close to Nanoda and whispered instigatingly.
Although she was somewhat afraid of being wiped out instantly by the Universal Golden Transmutation Magic, Aura still chose to believe in Nanoda's strength. After staying with Nanoda for a long time, one would discover that she could always create miracles.
"Why not let him go and promote our cause? Aura, you need to get ready too. I'm going to have Aaron package you for a debut as well."
Hearing Nanoda's sudden remark, Aura's expression changed.
"Hah?! What debut? You aren't going to make me go out and be friendly with humans like Macht, are you!"
"Eh? Aura, you really are smart."
"No, no, no! I don't want to! Dealing with those human nobles—I'd rather just die! What about Jane? Why not let her go!"
Aura shook her head frantically. This was far more uncomfortable than making her play the violin with her neck.
"She's still young."
"I'm also just a child of over five hundred years!"
After thinking for a bit, Aura asked again.
"What about Qual? Why not let him go?"
"Leaving aside that Qual still needs to research new magic, his image isn't very good. I think the smart and beautiful Aura is better."
"What about Lugner and Linie?"
"They are still busy developing the Demon Association."
Aura almost wanted to ask, "What about you?" But seeing Nanoda's look that brooked no refusal, she ultimately compromised.
Sigh, who asked me to be unable to beat her?
*
Macht stayed in Gaderia for another two days before leaving.
During this time, he merely observed the Demons and humans of Gaderia. Nanoda did not contact him again, and no one knew what he was thinking.
According to reports from the subjects, Macht would occasionally help humans or Demons in difficulty, and everyone's impression of Macht was very good. Macht, however, always acted as if he didn't care.
One week after Macht left.
Just as Nanoda and Aaron were discussing the debut plan to have Aura represent Gaderia in spreading the concept of friendly coexistence between humans and Demons, two letters arrived at Aaron's place.
One letter was from the Fortified City of Weise, sent by Glück.
In this letter, Glück expressed his desire to continue maintaining friendly relations with Gaderia. At the same time, he had learned about the current situation of human-demon coexistence in Gaderia and expressed his support.
The letter also stated that he would let Macht step into the public eye first, turning the Fortified City of Weise into the first city openly recognized for human-demon coexistence.
The rest was mostly polite pleasantries.
The other letter was from the Continental Magic Association; this was a letter sent by Yuna.
Yuna had already obtained the qualification certificate of a Second-Class Mage and was on her way back. The letter also expressed how much she missed Aaron and Nanoda.
"That girl Yuna has made something of herself. The Mage ranking system of the Continental Magic Association has only become popular in recent years, but it is said that Second-Class Mage is a level only veteran Mages can reach. I didn't expect her to achieve such a thing at so young an age."
Aaron expressed his gratification; Yuna was already more outstanding than her late father.
"Indeed. It's been over three years since we've seen her, hasn't it?"
Nanoda actually felt somewhat ashamed. Although she was Yuna's magic tutor, she hadn't actually taught Yuna much; having such achievements today was entirely due to Yuna's own hard work and natural talent.
"Do you think we should prepare a welcome party for her?"
Over these years, Aaron had already come to view Yuna as his own daughter.
"Mm, I think that's no problem."
The two temporarily set aside the matter of publicizing Aura. After all, it would still take a year or two for Macht to completely pave the way; everything was still in the preparatory stage.
____
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