Noon light poured through the white windows of the hall.
An aged monk chanted the wedding address in a clear, resonant voice, offering the Goddess's blessing upon the bride and groom.
Yet amid the sacred atmosphere, one corner of the hall was conspicuously out of place.
Nanoda and the demons who had followed her sat clustered together, radiating a ferocious and wholly incongruous air. The other guests kept a wide berth, and the more anxious among them cast wary, scrutinizing glances in their direction from time to time.
"How romantic…" Yuna murmured softly. She wore a green ceremonial dress, her side-ponytail tied with a green ribbon.
Aaron said nothing, watching the ceremony on the dais with quiet interest.
On the demon side of the aisle, the scene was rather different.
Aura let out a yawn, looking thoroughly uninterested.
Jane swayed her head drowsily right where she sat, equally unenthused.
Linie and Schulek both wore blank, uncomprehending expressions — they didn't seem to understand what was happening at all.
Lugner's face was calm and unreadable. Macht, seated a short distance away among the crowd, looked much the same.
Draht was bouncing his leg. His face gave nothing away, but inwardly he was surely burning with impatience.
Sensing the bench trembling slightly beside him, Qual reached over and clamped a hand down on Draht's thigh, lips pulling back to show a flash of sharp teeth in something that approximated a smile.
"Stop that. You're breaking my concentration."
Draht caught himself at once and went still, lowering his head.
On the dais, the young man and woman exchanged their vows, embraced, and kissed.
After the long and elaborate wedding ceremony concluded, the evening's banquet — hosted at the Lord's Manor — began.
The two newlyweds mingled through the crowd, chatting and raising toasts.
Denken had an impressive tolerance for drink; glass after glass of red wine went down without the slightest change in his complexion.
Lektire, on the other hand, had only taken a few small sips before her fair cheeks flushed a vivid rosy pink.
"I need to step out for a moment."
Macht leaned close and spoke quietly into Glück's ear.
A subtle light flickered through Glück's eyes. He turned to study Macht for a long moment, then finally let out a sigh.
"Go on, then."
Macht gave a small nod. In less than ten years of working alongside Glück, the human before him had apparently already learned to read his intentions. That was a somewhat unsettling realization.
He straightened the lapels of his green suit and made his way out of the banquet hall, doing his best to avoid the crowd.
Glück watched Macht's retreating figure with a mildly pained expression, rubbing the bridge of his nose. Then he shifted his gaze toward the cluster of demons from Gaderia.
Even keeping a low profile, Macht couldn't entirely escape — more than a few people in Weise who knew him came over to greet him or express gratitude for his past assistance. He acknowledged them all with a polite, expressionless nod and then made his excuses and slipped away.
Qual tilted his white gambler's hat with one hand, crunching through an entire turkey leg — bones and all — in a few slovenly bites. He had already clocked Macht's movements.
"Should I go after him, my Queen?"
Nanoda had already impressed upon Qual the importance of keeping a close eye on Macht. Her instincts had been telling her for a while now that something was off about him.
"I'll go. Your Mana is too conspicuous."
Nanoda decided to tail Macht herself and find out what he was up to.
"Watch out for his All-Things-to-Gold Magic. Keep your Defensive Magic up at all times."
Just then, Aura — who had been sipping a drink nearby — spoke up with a quiet reminder.
"Thank you, Aura. I'll be careful."
Nanoda hadn't expected Aura to be so considerate.
"Hmph. The last thing I need is to be dragging your careless corpse back home."
For some reason, Nanoda thought Aura was being just a tiny bit tsundere about it.
She left Jane in Aaron's care, then used her Mana Perception to quietly shadow Macht as he made his way outside.
A competent assassin must possess exceptional stealth, tracking, and counter-tracking ability.
Nanoda suppressed her presence entirely and melted into the darkness of night, trailing Macht all the way to a small wooded grove near the Lord's Manor.
Outside of combat — without her Mana condensed and active — even Mana Perception would fail to detect Nanoda's existence.
"Yoo-hoo~"
A voice came from the bushes beside him. Macht stopped in his tracks as a petite female demon with a pair of small horns stepped out.
"Just as I thought — my Mana Perception can't pick you up at all. Did you learn some kind of Mana-concealment magic?"
Solitir put on an air of mystery at Macht's question.
"Hehe — that's my little secret for a long life. Want to know? Too bad, I'm not telling."
She paused, then turned on Macht with an accusing look.
"Back there in the hall — what were you hesitating about?"
"..."
Macht said nothing.
"You were the one who said you'd use your All-Things-to-Gold Magic during those two humans' — what was it called?"
"Wedding."
"Right. During their wedding, you were going to turn them and this entire city into gold. So why did you hold back at the last moment?"
"…I don't know."
"Was it because of those demons from your own kind? Or because the broken-horned demon was there?"
"You know her?"
Macht was mildly surprised. From Solitir's tone, it seemed she was acquainted with that peculiar demon called Nanoda.
"We crossed paths once, a long time ago," Solitir said, tilting her head and fixing Macht with a deceptively gentle stare. "But she really is different from most of the Demon Race. There's always been something strangely mysterious about her."
"It's not too late now. You still have a chance. Haven't you always wanted to personally bring ruin to those humans who know you — the ones you know so well? Don't you want to finally feel that emotion you've been chasing all this time? Everyone is here right now — turn them all to gold! It would be spectacular. It would give you so many new feelings, so much new inspiration."
Solitir's words worked at something deep inside Macht.
"That demon would stop me."
Macht thought back to the promise he had made in Gaderia.
"You're the strongest of the Demon King's Seven Sages of Destruction — she can't stop you. And I'll be there to help! I'm usually a coward, you know that, but you also know exactly how strong I really am."
"It's not just her. There's also Aura, Qual, and the other Great Demons. Even I might not be able to walk away from that in one piece."
"Since when did you become as faint-hearted as I am? Weren't you always boasting that no one could ever break your golden curse?"
"My apologies. Next time, I'll make my move under more optimal conditions. For now, I'll let them off."
Macht's face was expressionless — composed and utterly unruffled. Having lived as long as he had, he could afford to wait. If the worst came to worst, he'd simply bide his time until the wedding ended and those demons left town, then resume his Golden Land plan.
"Macht, I think you've genuinely lost your nerve."
Dropping the pretense of gentleness she'd worn before, Solitir's voice carried a note of contempt.
"I'm not human. Reverse psychology doesn't work on me."
From beginning to end, Macht remained rational. As he saw it, striking today meant more variables, more disadvantages. The risks simply weren't worth it.
____
👻🔥Seek: Walnut-chan🔥👻
🔥 New history: Samsara Game: Starting with Shirogane Kei
Let's hit these goals:
🎯 100 Powerstones = 1 extra chapter for the public!