"Oh my? You're all here, quite the full lineup."
Guided by Lutine, Fíliya arrived at the entrance of that familiar tavern.
A crowd of Shadow Warriors—some whose names she knew, others she didn't—stood silently guarding the tavern's entrance, scrutinizing her with solemn gazes.
"Hmm? You guys really have zero sense of humor. You're all stiff as wooden logs."
Seeing that no one paid her any heed, Fíliya couldn't be bothered to say more. She simply turned around and looked at Solitär.
"Do you want to go back and rest for a bit? I estimate this won't take much time."
Solitär met her gaze expressionlessly, her look seemingly saying, 'Are you kidding me?'
Solitär didn't know exactly what Fíliya was thinking, but there was no way she would allow Fíliya to walk alone into an encirclement of so many warriors. No matter what, she was going to follow and see.
"Alright then. What about you, Linie?"
Seeing Solitär's resolute attitude, Fíliya didn't argue further and instead looked toward Linie.
Linie's expression was unusually determined as well.
"Is that so..."
Seeing this, Fíliya nodded. Then, with a tacit understanding shared with Solitär, she glanced toward the residential house they had rented.
At that moment, a figure was gazing back at them from a second-floor window.
Fíliya nodded to that person. Immediately, Miss Aura leaped down from the window with great speed and rushed to her side.
"Not bad. I thought you would continue sleeping."
Fíliya offered a smile to Aura.
"Hah? With so many warriors gathered outside, if I hadn't reacted, I would have lived in vain, okay? ...Actually, I was quite anxious. I didn't know when you guys would come back."
Aura spoke in a low voice.
"On that point, I felt the same as you. On the way here, I wondered if they would subdue you before I returned... If so many warriors launched a sneak attack on you simultaneously, you likely wouldn't have had time to deploy your magic."
As Fíliya spoke, the corners of her mouth outlined a smile, and she continued to add:
"Judging by the fact that they didn't make a move on you, they indeed have some sincerity regarding this [Negotiation]... Let's go. Follow me inside to take a look."
...After a brief exchange, Fíliya led the group directly into the tavern's interior.
The moment she saw that figure, Fíliya understood. This guy was definitely the [Commander] Lutine had spoken of.
Half of this commander's face bore traces of burns, and he wore an eyepatch covering his right eye. Although he heard the slowly approaching footsteps of Fíliya's group, he remained calm and composed, keeping his gaze focused on the wine glass in front of him.
Whether in temperament or strength, this guy was a very qualified leader.
"Wolf, the usual."
Fíliya called out casually to the store owner behind the bar counter.
The owner seemed to have prepared for this long ago. The moment Fíliya sat down, he pushed a glass of orange juice in front of her. After completing this action, the owner named [Wolf] very consciously retreated outside the shop.
"Oh? Valros, you're actually wearing decent clothes today. What, is the beggar life over?"
Fíliya took an unceremonious sip of her drink. She didn't immediately engage with the [Commander] but instead directed a greeting at the dwarf warrior standing half a meter behind him.
"Today, I am here to serve as a guard."
The dwarf warrior Valros answered slowly.
"Oh? But I get the feeling that this person doesn't seem to need any guards, right? Your strengths should be roughly on par with each other? Though I can't tell exactly who is stronger."
Fíliya chuckled lightly.
"Guards are the sort of thing that one hopes never to use, yet are absolute necessities to have... Aren't you doing the same, Lady Fíliya?"
As Valros spoke, his gaze shifted to the three figures behind Fíliya.
"If this old man guesses correctly, the three behind you are not human, are they?"
"Oh? Not bad. Only a week has passed, and you've already investigated that clearly?"
Fíliya looked at Valros with curiosity.
"Rather than an [Investigation], it is more like this old man's intuition... When we met on the street last time, I felt something was odd. But looking at it now..."
Valros paused.
"...The look in the eyes of the one behind you is undoubtedly that of the Demon Race... This old man has seen far too many of those non-human gazes in his life."
"Solitär? This old fellow says you aren't human."
After hearing Valros's words, Fíliya immediately flashed a teasing smile at Solitär.
"I wasn't human to begin with..."
Solitär replied huffily. Since she had already been exposed, she couldn't be bothered to maintain the magic disguising her as a human and directly chose to reveal her true appearance.
"This really is..."
The moment he saw Solitär reveal her twin horns, Valros's expression instantly became much more grave.
"I didn't expect the Demon Race to have truly mastered such dangerous magic... If this technology had been utilized a hundred years ago, humanity would truly have gone extinct."
Valros murmured in a low voice, his expression seemingly lamenting something.
"I am also quite curious about this. Lady Fíliya, how exactly did you achieve it? How can you make powerful demons obey your commands?"
The [Commander] finally couldn't resist speaking up.
Fíliya was very satisfied with this, as this was precisely one of her strategies.
Aren't you very good at pretending to be composed? Keep staying silent if you have the ability.
Fíliya thought disdainfully, then spoke aloud.
"Before asking questions of others, shouldn't you state your own name first?"
"...That was indeed rude of me. My name is Levi. I am the Commander of the Shadow Warriors, and in a certain sense, I can also be considered their [Father]."
"Oh?"
Regarding this fellow claiming to be a [Father], Fíliya immediately felt a trace of curiosity, so she instantly voiced her doubt.
"Father, is it? I express my skepticism on that... Is there a father in this world who abuses his own children like this? That isn't something that can be explained away by simply being a 'strict father'."
Fíliya looked at the so-called commander before her with an expressionless face.
"Those children are all orphans who survived the war, raised single-handedly by me... The selection process for the Shadow Warriors is indeed painful, but it is also something those children are informed of and participate in voluntarily. They are willing to dedicate their strength to the glory of the Empire."
Commander Levi spoke slowly, but no emotional fluctuation could be seen on his face.
"Heh... classic rhetoric. [Informed and voluntary], is it?"
Fíliya wore a mocking smile on her face as she fired off a rapid series of sarcasms at the commander before her like a cannonade.
"Mm, surely they were born dreaming of sacrificing themselves for the Empire, right? Surely it wasn't that they were constantly indoctrinated with this concept during their growth, right? Those 'defective products' who weren't loyal enough surely weren't destroyed, right? Even if they didn't pass the [Shadow Warrior] selection, those failures could surely live peacefully like ordinary people, right?"
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