Deep in the forest on the outskirts of town.

"If you want to die, don't drag us down with you."

"I've already told you — the intelligence I have is solid enough. Don't you trust my magic?"

Gael glanced at the demon living here in seclusion, impatience sharpening with every word. "After conquering the mythological labyrinth, that human has fallen into complete exhaustion. Right now is the best moment to strike."

"Heh. Words like that — grab any random human off the street and you'll hear the exact same thing." The demon warrior Schell held firm.

"What if this is a trap, deliberately set to lure us out into the open?"

"How surprising!" Gael's expression didn't change. "The demon warrior who once dared draw a sword before Lord Geist — now frightened by a mere human's name, too terrified to even approach the city-state's borders."

"Hmph. The way I see it, you've spent too long mingling with humans. You've picked up every last one of their despicable habits. That fellow barely broke a sweat killing Geist. If you want to throw your life away, leave me out of it."

"Precisely because he killed Geist, we have to move."

"What, you want to avenge Geist? Since when did our noble demon race catch this kind of pointless sentiment?"

"Idiot. Who would risk their life over revenge?" Gael cursed under a breath. "What I want is that human's power. Think about it carefully. Flesh and blood capable of killing Geist, if we can consume and share it, what kind of transformation would that bring us?"

The two demons dug in, neither able to sway the other.

After the Great Demon Geist's death, the demons that had lurked in the southern shadows began surfacing one by one.

Among demons, something like trust had never existed.

The law written into their bloodlines compelled submission to stronger kin, even orders that meant certain death could not be refused.

But as long as one hid deep enough, out of sight from other powerful demons, one could keep hunting humans, steadily building strength, and eventually mount a challenge for a higher seat.

"Besides, do you truly believe that an existence capable of defeating Lord Geist without effort would bother setting an elaborate trap just to hunt down trash like us, who don't even measure up to Geist?"

"...That." Schell was momentarily at a loss.

Having hidden in the South for hundreds of years, Schell genuinely couldn't picture a human powerful enough to bother going to all that trouble just to wipe out weaklings like them in one sweep.

Schell lowered both eyes and went quiet.

"...No. It's still too reckless. With only the two of us, the odds are far too low."

"Hmph. I knew you'd say that." Gael gave a cold laugh and clapped once, lightly. "Come out. Schell won't betray us."

The words had barely settled before several figures with formidable auras stepped slowly out from the forest's depths.

Most were ancient demons long entrenched in the South. Among them were even a few faces Schell had never seen before.

Evidently, far more than two of them had been waiting for a chance to take that human's life while he was weak.

"Fine. Count me in."

Schell finally nodded. The last trace of hesitation in those eyes vanished with it.

"Good. The powerful demons of the South are now gathered in one place." Gael swept a gaze across the assembled figures, voice dropping low and cold in the dark.

"That human is destined to die."

---

Early the next morning. Hero Banxia's estate.

Roxy was busy preparing breakfast for four, with Tsubaki Rurikawa helping alongside her.

The young woman had moved in last night, carrying what little luggage she had.

She had assumed they'd put her in a utility room. Instead, a clean guest room on the second floor had been tidied up, entirely for her. Alone.

No matter how she looked at it, that wasn't how you treated a maid.

It had left Tsubaki Rurikawa quietly panicking for a time, dreading that some other kind of "arrangement" might come in the dead of night.

The whole night passed. Nothing happened.

Only then did she realize, a beat late, that this estate's "mistress" had no intention of making things difficult for her at all.

"Miss Rurikawa, would you go wake Banxia up?" Roxy wore everyday clothes today, with an apron tied over them for cooking.

She was petite, but standing in the morning light, she gave off something inexplicably steady, a quiet, reassuring presence.

"Yes. I'll go call... Master." Tsubaki Rurikawa's answer stumbled slightly on the last word.

Not long ago she had been a young lady whose hands had never touched so much as a basin of water. But she had adapted to her new role quickly enough.

The household was exceptionally generous. Even for a new hire like her, the wage on offer ran higher than what the head maids earned in most great noble households.

She was grateful for that. And a word like "Master" became a little easier each time she said it.

"You don't need to be so stiff." Roxy noticed the nerves and let her tone soften. "Banxia is a good person. He isn't the sort of noble who chases after pretty faces. Just settle in and make yourself comfortable here."

"I understand, Miss Roxy." Tsubaki Rurikawa nodded, earnest and attentive.

She had come here having already braced herself for the worst, if she was being honest.

Lord Hero was, at the end of the day, a young man in the prime of his youth.

If something had happened, she wouldn't have fought it.

But looking at things now, she had measured a gentleman by the standards of a knave.

Lord Hero was so gentle and so great. How could ordinary nobles even compare?

When she thought back on the dark assumptions she'd entertained before arriving, she felt ashamed.

Tsubaki Rurikawa drew a quiet breath, composed her expression into something proper, and turned down the hall toward the young man's bedroom.

Knock, knock,

"Master, it's time to rise for breakfast."

"Oh."

She pushed the door open and stepped inside, ready to help him dress.

What she found was Banxia sitting perfectly still on the edge of the bed, one hand pressed to his stomach, heavy dark circles under both eyes. He looked like he hadn't slept a single hour all night.

She didn't know the details, so she assumed it was lingering damage from the battle, not yet fully recovered. She asked quietly:

"Master, is there anything I can help with?"

Banxia looked up at her. No immediate refusal, just a vague, noncommittal sound.

"Mm... let me think..."

By now Tsubaki Rurikawa had already changed into the maid uniform collected from the Xiaye Chamber of Commerce.

A white hair accessory sat lightly at the top of her head. The black-and-white uniform fit neatly against her figure.

The curve at her chest wasn't what you'd call imposing, but it drew the eye all the same.

Her hands were folded in front of her, gloved in white ruffled gauze, lace trim sitting just right against her wrist bones, framing the pale, slender stretch of skin above them.

Below the hem: a pair of long, fair thighs, white ankle socks, and small black leather shoes. Altogether, a very pleasant sight.

It was a shame Banxia was feeling terrible right now. He genuinely couldn't work up the mood for any of that.

Still, looking didn't hurt. Call it a mild remedy for the dull ache in his gut.

There was only one thing he absolutely could not accept.

Since she had already become his, she had to meet his standard,

Ankle socks are heresy. Pantyhose and thigh-highs are divine law.

"Master?" Tsubaki Rurikawa tilted her head at the young man staring at her. Her shoulder-length hair slid down with the motion.

"Aren't you cold?"

The question caught her off guard. Still, she answered honestly.

"...A little."

Spring had only just arrived in the South, after all. Bare legs in this weather were, in fact, chilly.

"Then go find Ai Hayasaka at the Xiaye Chamber of Commerce later and ask for a few sets of thicker stockings and pantyhose. Just say I arranged it."

"Eh?" Tsubaki Rurikawa blinked.

Hadn't she just been asking what Master needed help with? How had the conversation suddenly landed on her?

And, wasn't Master being a little too considerate about this?

"Right, white is probably best, no, black isn't bad either. Hss... might as well get a few sets of each..."

Tsubaki Rurikawa: "..."

She genuinely couldn't tell whether Master was showing sincere concern for her comfort, quietly sneaking personal preferences into the maid uniform under the cover of generosity, or both at once.

Either way, for reasons she couldn't quite explain, under the appraising gaze of that handsome young man, the tips of her ears grew quietly, unmistakably warm.

Somehow... this feels a little different from what Miss Roxy described.

➤ Next: Spatial Secret Art (Double Chapter)

Chapter 96 - Spatial Secret Art (Double Chapter)

The lamplight in Banxia's room was dim and yellow.

Wearing light sleepwear sent over by the Xiaye Chamber of Commerce, the elf lady sat upright in the chair by the bed, cheeks faintly flushed.

Sharing a room with a man at night, no matter how hard she tried to keep her composure, a touch of bashfulness was unavoidable.

This was not the wilderness, and they were no longer partnered adventurers.

"D-don't misunderstand. I only came over to fulfill our previous promise!"

"Oh." Banxia's reply was utterly flat. He'd long since gotten used to this tone of hers.

After spending the past few days together, he'd figured it out: the elf lady was not the super-tsun-tsun-tsun-tsun-tsundere type. She was more the tsun-dere-dere-dere-dere-dere type.

Teasing her when he had nothing better to do was actually pretty cute.

Only right now, there were more important things than teasing an elf.

"Before, you were constantly busy receiving those nobles, so I didn't come to bother you. I certainly didn't forget our agreement."

"Yeah, I know." Not a trace of impatience.

"The art I'm about to teach you is a skill known only to elven royalty. Under normal circumstances it would never be passed to an outsider — un-unless..."

"I know. I won't tell anyone, and I won't teach it to others on my own. That's our agreement. Good enough?"

"Hmph." The elf lady turned her lips aside, face still faintly red, clearly displeased by how utterly calm he was about all this.

What she was about to impart was a secret art of the royal family.

"If it weren't for our prior agreement, I would never teach you." She drew a handwritten manuscript from her bosom.

She'd stayed up all night putting it together.

"I should warn you, though — even among elven royalty, not everyone can master this art. Without a proper teacher to guide you, an outsider has no chance of even grasping the basics."

"Is that so?" Banxia had already stopped paying attention.

His gaze had been pulled entirely to the manuscript.

He flipped through it quickly. A new line appeared on his system panel, right on cue.

[Spatial Secret Art lv.0 (Prismatic) (Unlearned)]

"...I'm warning you — after you've read it, burn the manuscript. Once you've memorized it, I'll slowly walk you through the details." The elf lady turned her head away, shy.

"I-I didn't pick nighttime on purpose! It's just that there are too many eyes during the day, so it's inconvenient to... huh?! What are you doing?"

"Oh, I'm already done." A small flame ignited at Banxia's fingertip. The manuscript turned to ash in seconds.

"That fast?!" The elf lady's eyes flew wide open.

A volume that thick, and he'd memorized every word from a single casual scan?

She thought back to herself. It had taken her nearly a week just to barely commit it to memory.

She was still standing there in a daze when Banxia had already sunk his consciousness into the system.

[Held Monster Time: 7,300 Years (Fusable)]

Based on his previous experience, cultivating magic and battle techniques consumed different amounts of time depending on difficulty. Prismatic skills generally required over a thousand years. Spatial-type prismatic skills were new territory, he'd never touched one before, and he wasn't sure whether his current reserves would be enough.

His magical talent, after all, could be described as: above one person, below tens of thousands. Everything he'd built up to now was the product of grinding through sheer time.

Calling him a veteran of the magical arts wasn't an exaggeration.

No confidence, but rare magic like this had to be tried.

Start, System.

The next second, the time on the panel began to bleed away rapidly.

[Year 1: You know the manuscript forwards and backwards, and begin exploring what "spatial awareness" means.]

[Year 500: You finally take the first step, sensing the existence of "spatial awareness," and attempt to open a small world within your body.]

[Year 1,000: You fail.]

[Year 3,000: You continue to fail. You begin to doubt whether space is even a domain humans can set foot in.]

[Year 3,500: Endless failures have nearly driven you mad. But in that very state, you vaguely touch the truth: opening a small world within your body might simply be a matter of "imagination."]

[Year 5,000: Your mental state finally stabilizes. You can now effortlessly picture every detail of that small world in your mind.]

[Spatial Secret Art (Prismatic) lv.1.]

[Held Monster Time: 2,300 Years (Fusable)]

Banxia: "..."

Just reading through the descriptions left him feeling drained.

He had always known: magic was a world of imagination. If you could imagine it, there was almost nothing you couldn't do.

But his natural talent seemed fundamentally ill-suited for exactly that.

Every time he practiced magic, he had to push himself to the very edge of sanity, borrowing hallucinations from the brink of collapse just to barely "see" what magic looked like.

Without [Heaven Rewards Diligence], squeezing out a fireball would probably have been the ceiling of his entire magical career.

"Ahem. Since you've finished reading, let me test you." The elf lady had snapped back to herself, and it was clear she didn't believe a word of what he'd just implied.

"Go ahead." As he spoke, Banxia curiously picked up the small dagger looted from the Great Demon Geist and pressed it into a small opening that had quietly parted in his abdomen.

The dagger slipped in without leaving a mark, sliding straight into the spatial pocket inside his body.

At lv.1, the space wasn't large, roughly the size of two rooms, and it couldn't hold living things.

"What is spatial awareness — you..." The elf lady stopped mid-sentence. Her eyes went wide. She stared, fixed, at the spatial rift on his stomach.

"H-how is that possible?!"

She lunged forward and yanked up the young man's shirt, as if determined to confirm with her own eyes that it wasn't some trick of the light.

"Hey, don't think you can do whatever you want just because I'm weak right now," Banxia said, in a tone of performed shyness, pushing those hands aside. "Though if you really force yourself on me, I probably can't resist."

"I-idiot! What are you even saying?!"

Only then did the elf lady realize what had happened. The color flooded into her face. She scrambled off him and stood to the side.

She smothered the embarrassment and turned to interrogate him instead.

"Talk. Did another elf teach you the Spatial Secret Art before this?"

"Do you think that's possible?" Banxia looked mildly exasperated.

"..." The elf lady went quiet.

The proof was right in front of her. That was exactly why she couldn't accept it.

If she admitted it, where did that leave the talent she had always been so proud of?

Back then, her teacher had personally called her a genius, one of the fastest learners in all of elven history.

Even so, it had taken her that long just to reach the threshold.

And this man before her?

He had simply skimmed it once...

She felt something break. Something she'd been carrying for a long time, quietly, softly shattered.

So she was just an idiot after all.

So her teachers had only ever been comforting a foolish little her.

"Come on, do as you like. Right now I can't resist your violence at all." Banxia generously pressed his chest into those cool, soft hands, wearing the look of someone fully resigned to their fate.

The elf: "..."

It was clearly the kind of moment that should have sent her jumping up in mortification. But for some reason, she couldn't summon a single emotion right now.

"...Since you've already learned the royal secret art, adventurer, I'll be going to sleep."

"Wait — Miss Elf, you have tears in the corners of your eyes. Are you all right?"

"I'm fine. Nothing's wrong."

"You really don't look fine."

"I'm tired. I'm going to rest."

"..."

Face blank, the elf lady turned around. She drifted slowly out of the room like a ghost that had been emptied of its soul.

...

A few more days passed. Banxia's body felt considerably better.

At this rate, another half month and he'd be fully back to normal.

"The price of Rejuvenation really is terrifying." He reclined in the rattan chair, turning it over in his mind.

The very first use had earned him the disgust of the life spirits. The side effect was nearly a month of diarrhea.

Truly terrifying.

Actually, no, he had the prismatic skill [Sacred Spirit Affinity], which should have already softened the life spirits' hostility by some degree.

If it had been anyone else using Rejuvenation for the first time, they probably wouldn't have lasted through that endless gastrointestinal ordeal. Dying of dehydration wouldn't even be surprising.

The lifespan laws of this world were not something that could be casually rewritten.

To say nothing of what he'd done, abruptly adding five hundred years to his lifespan in a single go. That was outright defiance of the natural order.

He'd once thought he could endure a second use of Rejuvenation. Looking back on it now, that had been far too optimistic.

The price of a second use, even this body of his might not survive the curse of the life spirits.

Once was enough. No point biting off more than he could chew.

Fortunately, Banxia was someone easily satisfied.

Five hundred years would do for now. Once he grew stronger, raised both Rejuvenation and Sacred Spirit Affinity a few levels, there would still be time to revisit the question of extending his lifespan.

"Master, more nobles wish to seek an audience." Tsubaki Rurikawa walked into the courtyard holding a small plate of freshly washed fruit, crouched down beside the rattan chair, carefully peeled a piece, and brought it to the young man's lips.

Banxia swallowed it at his leisure before speaking. "I won't see them."

In the days prior, he'd still occasionally met with those nobles, though he'd made a point of looking a little worse each time, his complexion growing ashen, as if he might breathe his last at any moment. Later, he simply stopped receiving anyone at all. The rumors circulating through the inner city multiplied and spread.

Even when some people pressured his attending monks to tell the truth, hearing a diagnosis like "just an upset stomach" only convinced them the monks were bravely defying pressure to cover up the Hero's condition.

In the underworld of the inner city, the storm clouds were already rolling in.

But Banxia didn't care about any of that.

Human betrayal, human mockery, he'd never paid those much mind.

Hero Banxia had a big heart.

Once everything was settled, he'd have the Shinomiya master and servant put together a list, and go down it methodically.

What he actually cared about was the demon race.

All this time, and still no ambush.

Had they truly been frightened out of their wits by his reputation?

"Alas..." He sighed.

In the early days, the elf and Roxy had both been on high alert, taking turns on watch through the night. But after waiting and waiting with nothing to show for it, the elf had long since gone off to scour the inner city for rare magic items from the south, anything to avoid staying home and looking at the man who made her feel like she was falling apart.

Roxy had gone to the chamber of commerce to teach.

The whole courtyard now held only one recovering, solitary young man and one young, attractive maid.

"Master, is something the matter?" The maid peeled another piece of fruit and gently placed it in his mouth.

"Nothing." Banxia shook his head, his gaze drifting without thinking to the maid's legs.

Today's choice: black-and-white contrasting over-the-knee socks.

At the young man's special request, Tsubaki Rurikawa wore a different style of thigh-highs or pantyhose every day of the week. Seven days, seven styles.

It was also the only special condition attached to the generous salary he'd offered.

Being stared at like that by the employer, the maid pressed both knees together without thinking, a hint of shyness rising in the expression.

The person sitting there was, after all, someone the noble ladies across the city never tired of discussing over tea,

Tall, handsome, famous at a young age, a dual cultivator of magic and martial arts...

A man like that, looking over with those eyes, it was genuinely difficult not to read into it.

"I really want to visit a pleasure house on Beastfolk Street..." Banxia's long-suppressed Wrath of Finality urgently needed somewhere to go.

All this abstinence had only stoked the fire hotter.

"Huh?" Tsubaki Rurikawa's hand jerked, nearly losing the plate.

Had that been a mishear?

Did the Hero just say something utterly scandalous?

And that look the master was directing over, it was inexplicably a little frightening.

Not daring to dwell on it, the maid quickly fell back on what had been arranged with Roxy that morning.

"M-master, we're running low on ingredients. I need to go out for groceries."

"Sure, go ahead." Banxia waved a hand, then added as an afterthought: "Be careful on the way."

"..."

He watched the maid's retreating figure, fleeing was the more accurate word, and exhaled quietly.

If he kept this up much longer, he was going to end up firing a shot of Wrath of Finality straight at the tree in the courtyard.

Speaking of trees, Banxia's thoughts wandered, unbidden, to the particular qualities of a certain Forest Elf lady...

No. He couldn't wait any longer.

Conveniently, the maid was out and the house was empty. It was about time he went to "inspect" the beastfolk district.

Observing local conditions, understanding market prices, urgent business.

He put together a simple disguise and used a warrior's basic techniques to deliberately suppress his presence.

...

The night was thick. Half the moon had been swallowed by cloud.

Alterna's guardian barrier seemed to have suffered some malfunction tonight, it had yet to activate, with no sign of coming online.

On top of that, the patrols across both the inner and outer city were far thinner than usual, as though the city's last line of defense had been stripped away.

In the shadows where no one was watching, a large group of demons with formidable auras had quietly gathered before the city gates.

"Contract Magic." Gael chanted in a low voice. Threads of magical power wound and took shape between both parties. "Now you should believe us."

The magic could turn a verbal promise into an irrevocable contract. Break it, and death came immediately.

It was precisely this that had allowed Gael to earn the trust of so many human nobles over the years. The killings those people couldn't afford to carry out themselves, Gael handled. And through the binding of the contract, those same nobles were forced to satisfy Gael's demands for food in return.

But this time, even Gael hadn't expected the humans' asking price to come so cheap.

"We have a deal — absolutely, positively do not harm that maid. She is mine..." The human noble pressed his voice low, eyes fixed with cold venom on the demons before him.

Hero Banxia's reputation, together with the Xiaye Chamber of Commerce operating under his name, had long since become a serious threat to these people's interests.

The greatest danger in the south had been dealt with. To a portion of the nobility, Hero Banxia himself had now become the greatest obstacle.

And now he lay severely wounded from his assault on the labyrinth. It was a gift from heaven.

Eliminating him through the hands of the demon race, this was an opportunity that might not come again in a thousand years.

...

➤ Next: Fighting All the Demons (Two-in-One)