"Of course — but before that…" Snapping back from whatever nameless feeling had taken hold of him, Macht raised his hand and gave the Domination Ring on his wrist a small shake.
"Right now, I cannot leave this place."
"You can't take it off?"
"The mana technique binding it is far more sophisticated than I anticipated. I'm afraid it's beyond my ability to remove."
"Then — do you want to take it off?"
When Nanoda posed the question, Macht hesitated — visibly, unmistakably.
"Would you like to hear the truth?"
"Of course."
"For the time being… I don't."
"Then leave it as it is."
With a soft thud, Nanoda dropped down from the park bench and turned to face the Golden Land that Weise had become, stretching her arms in a lazy, unhurried stretch.
All Macht could see was her back — white hair and black cloak rippling softly in the breeze. Something about it struck him as faintly strange, as if the figure before him had, for just one fleeting instant, been utterly out of place in this world.
"In return for what you shared with me — let me tell you a story."
Nanoda's voice began to drift and echo across the wide, empty golden streets.
"There was an elf who had lived a very long time. Like the Demon Race, she had been born with a certain emotional shallowness — though unlike them, she had grown up surrounded by others of her own kind. There was no strife, no natural predators, no threat of survival. She simply lived, day after day, in quiet monotony.
"Then one day, war swallowed her homeland. An enemy took everything — every last one of her kin. And it was through that loss that even someone as emotionally muted as she had always been came to know something deep and genuine: rage.
"Perhaps that anger and hatred would have walked beside her for the rest of her days. But not long after, she crossed paths with a band of adventurers — a different people, different temperaments. There were humans among them. Dwarves, too.
"She was persuaded. She joined them. They journeyed together, and together they accomplished something great.
"Ten years — perhaps only a heartbeat in the long span of an elf's life. And yet those ten years genuinely changed her, reshaped those thin, quiet emotions into something richer.
"When the humans in her party died, she did not cry. To her, that was simply the natural course of things for a short-lived race.
"People questioned her. They said she had no feelings. They said she had no right to the honor she'd been given.
"She wept. She — who had not cried when her companions died — wept at the sound of their doubts.
"There was no question about it: she had feelings. And those feelings that had once been so sparse and colorless — they could grow richer."
The simple, fairy-tale story came to its end. Nanoda took a light step forward; beneath the black robes, the broken horn emerged, leveled straight at Macht. A glimmer passed through her eyes, and when she spoke, each word landed with the weight of something solid.
"Macht — in my eyes, the one thing this world of magic has never lacked is possibility.
"You, too, are a being capable of having emotions.
"Guilt, malice — perhaps you cannot yet fully possess them, cannot yet fully understand them. But someday, you may come to that realization yourself."
Silence. Macht could no longer think in the cool, measured terms of rational calculation. He stared at Nanoda, and for a long moment, he had nothing to say.
"I have been lost before — but now I have made my decision. I will speak for myself, and for the Demon Race who follow me. I will carve out a new path for our kind, and I will do everything in my power to see it through.
"You are welcome to follow me with ulterior motives. But I would prefer you not become my enemy."
Nanoda's tone was perfectly flat — and yet, for reasons Macht could not explain, her words carried a weight, a sincerity, that settled into him like stone.
"You really are unlike any of my kind I have ever met."
Macht's towering frame rose from the bench. He walked slowly toward Nanoda and pressed his chest against the tip of the raised broken horn.
"I may betray you someday. What would you do then?"
Meeting Macht's gaze, Nanoda gave a small smile.
"Kill you. Or, depending on the circumstances, beat you to a pulp all over again."
"That is… quite…"
He couldn't find the words. Even Macht himself couldn't make sense of what he was feeling right now. The broken-horned demon before him seemed to carry some kind of pull he had no name for.
Compared to ten years ago, she seemed to have changed — just a little more.
"I think I understand, just slightly, what Qual meant by what he said back then."
"Qual?"
At that very moment, Macht bent his great frame at the waist — and went down on one knee before Nanoda.
The broken horn that had been pressed against his chest now rested across Macht's shoulder, like a sword laid down in the ceremony of a knighting.
"From this moment on, I am no longer Macht of the Seven Sages of Destruction, servant of the former Demon King. I am the Great Demon Macht — and I pledge my allegiance to you."
In truth, Macht found himself rather absurd. He had long since resolved to sacrifice everything in his pursuit of understanding human emotion — and yet here he was, in this moment, no different from the most ordinary of demons.
He had abandoned his current plans. He had relinquished the title and standing of the Seven Sages of Destruction. He had chosen Nanoda.
The gesture caught Nanoda somewhat off guard. She had never been entirely certain that a battle and a wager would be enough to fully win Macht over.
"So — what happens next? Let me be clear from the start: I won't simply do whatever I'm told."
A sound from the bowed head before her. Satisfied that Macht's submission was genuine, Nanoda reached down and helped him to his feet, tucking the broken horn away.
"Come with me."
...
"Macht — human emotion comes in many forms. It is complicated. Much of it defies explanation. But I have a different kind of answer for you, here."
Inside the lord's office of Weise's manor, Glück was frozen mid-motion — body curved slightly forward, preserved in the posture of a man halfway through reviewing a document. A golden sculpture, caught in the moment.
Even the dust in the gilded room had been held perfectly in place, suspended exactly as it had been.
Macht said nothing. He followed a step behind Nanoda, his face unreadable, regarding this old superior of his.
"You want me to lift the gold transformation here? Before that, I would still suggest removing the Domination Ring first… Once the gold transformation is released, there may not be much of a place left for me to stand."
"No, Macht. This is my first order, and I will not permit you to refuse it. Lift the gold transformation over Weise — right now, here."
Nanoda's voice brooked no argument. She had already considered the point Macht was raising.
But Nanoda trusted in Glück's feelings toward Macht.
"Very well. I hope you won't come to regret this."
With a crisp snap, Macht produced a perfectly elegant finger-click — and in an instant, the golden ground began to dissolve. The layer of gold blanketing all of Weise receded outward from the manor at its center, pulling back like a tide retreating from shore.
On the aged buildings, loose tiles crumbled and fell. Birds that had been suspended mid-flight beat their wings once more, and flew off into the sky in bewildered confusion. Pedestrians on the streets completed their interrupted steps; some came back to themselves with a dazed look, glancing left and right, suddenly uncertain where they were — while others simply picked up conversations where they'd left off, completely unaware that anything had happened.
Sounds began to rise, one after another, through the Golden Land that had fallen silent and still for ten long years.
Sunlight fell through the tall windows and touched Glück's face, bringing with it a warmth. His bones felt as though they had been rusted through for an age, and only now, in this moment, were finally set free.
Glück set down the papers and pen in his hands and pushed himself to his feet, palms braced against the arms of his chair.
He turned — slowly.
When he saw Macht, his expression remained as calm as ever. He reached into his pocket and drew out a cigarette.
"Macht…"
By reflex, Macht dropped to one knee — same as always.
"Yes. I'm here."
Macht had gained no malice, no guilt. But in this moment, for reasons he couldn't quite explain, something in him felt strangely at ease — even light.
When Glück's eyes found Nanoda standing behind Macht, something clicked into place immediately. His hand stilled.
"You damned fool. I told you — when the day comes that you finally understand those feelings, I'll see you through it, down to the very bottom of hell. And I meant every word."
When those words reached him, a quiet smile spread across Macht's face.
Apart from those moments spent studying human emotion, this was the first time Macht had ever smiled — truly, from somewhere deep inside.
"I know."
____
👻🔥+40 ch: Walnut-chan🔥👻
🔥 New history: Uchiha Reborn in Jujutsu Kaisen: The System Thinks I'm in Konoha, but I'm Not
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