Victory

“You’re letting me keep it?”

“Of course.”

Mateo didn’t bother to ask why this time; instead, he gave her a nod.

“I’ll put it to good use.”

“I look forward to it.”

“Is there anything you want me to do?”

“Oh no, no, no. While I could give you a fun task to do, it’s more exciting if I don’t know what you're going to do. Now, off you go, just know that I’ll be watching.”

Knowing that their conversation was over, Mateo turned around and made his way back to the battlefield. He could not afford certain people to become suspicious due to his prolonged absence. The demoness just stood there as she watched the most interesting being she had seen in a long while walk off.

Only when he was out of sight did she turn her gaze upon the dead demon. She wished she could spectate the reaction the Lich would have once he found out that the Demon Blade had been taken by another, but if he were to see her he might end up suspecting her newest toy.

She dreaded the thought of ending the fun so soon. She turned around and started to walk away, with each step her visage would fade away until she disappeared completely.

As Mateo returned to the ruined city gates he saw that the battle had pretty much wrapped up. For the first time since the Lich’s closing move, he was able to see the state of his classmates. All of those who had been hit by the explosion were in some state of disarray.

As he made his way over, he drew everyone's eyes towards him. Upon seeing Mateo some gave him a smile or nod while Gerard came up to him and gave him a hearty pat on the back that made him stumble forward.

“Good to see you alive, we feared the worst when we didn’t see you after the battle.”

“I was chasing after a demon.”

“Hope you got him.”

“Unfortunately, he met up with another demon and I had to back off.”

“Oh? For you to back off must mean they were Demon Lieutenants.”

“It was the one that got his hands on the Demon Blade, Blair and Alicia should know the one I’m talking about.”

“Demon Blade?”

“Yeah, Noah explained those to me. From what I saw it was originally in the hands of the Bandit Leader, but then the demon killed him and took the blade for itself.”

“Was that their intention? How did they know it was here? Was it so important that the Lich had to come in person?”

Mateo watched as Gerard began to mumble to himself. While Mateo knew the truth of the matter, he had no reason to reveal it. Instead, he tried to regain his classmates' focus.

“Hey! How is everyone after the explosion?

“Fortunately, the Lich had only used normal undead as the conduit of the explosion and none of his death knights. All of our classmates who follow the path of the knight and paladin are fine with just having a few injuries, it's more the wizards and priests that were harmed.”

Gerard’s previously joyous expression at his comrade’s return dimmed as he continued speaking.

“There is a problem though.”

“What is it?”

“The bodies of Patrick and Erika are missing, along with Rebecca who had been caught in the explosion.”

“Missing?”

“Seeing who our opponent was, I can already guess what happened to them.”

“Does that mean we might have to fight against them in the future?”

Gerard clenched his fists as he took a deep breath.

“If we do so, we must lay them to rest.”

Mateo gave him a nod. The two were then surprised as they saw a certain figure as he made his way over. All of their other classmates also huddled around as they saw the Knight Commander approach them.

“Hello Heroes, I believe this is the first time we’ve met. I apologize for taking so long.”

The man was so hard to read, especially with him still donning his white and golden helmet. They could not tell if he was talking about just now or apologizing out of guilt for not arriving sooner so as to save those who died.

Mateo felt uncomfortable in the presence of humanity’s supposed strongest warrior. The man did not feel human. By this he did not mean that he thought the knight was a demon, but that the man almost appeared emotionless, like a robot.

“Just being able to receive your aid is enough for us. If it were not for you, I doubt any of us would have survived in the presence of the Lich.”

“Your resistance is worthy of praise.”

Even Gerard’s smile faltered slightly at the response. Although the words were positive, their delivery made it seem as if the Knight Commander were merely reciting lines he had repeated hundreds of times. There was zero emotion behind them and it felt as if the man had said these exact same words hundreds of times.

Mateo was even willing to bet that if he were to ask the other Knight Commanders, they would say that they had received these very words too. After saying his words the Knight Commander continued on his way.

“What a strange man.”

“Blair!’

“What? You were probably thinking the same thing Gerard.”

“You still shouldn’t say such things.”

The awkwardness was broken by the sudden banter, returning the lively atmosphere to the group of students. While they were still disheartened by the loss of their friends, they knew that they could not stop here. They had to keep moving forward, as much for their friends’ sake as for their own.

After a few more minutes, someone finally came to them to lead them into the city. While they had received first aid outside the castle gates, those who were severely injured still needed to go to the church for a proper healing. As for everyone else, instead of returning to the barracks that Mateo and his party had stayed at before, they were brought to the Count’s Castle.

They were brought to several rooms where they were told to rest in, and that the Count would see them tomorrow. Mateo had never actually gotten the chance to see the Count during his first visit to Defy. This was mostly due to the urgency his and Blair’s party had left once they had gotten a vague idea of where the Bandit’s Hideouts were.

Mateo took this chance to lay down, but he could not find it in himself to fall asleep. Instead, his eyes were focused on the back of his hand, or rather on the Demon Blade hiding inside the sigil. When Mateo had first heard about the Demonic Sword, he had thought about taking it for himself, but it was more of a fleeting thought.

It was only when a certain action of the Lich’s that brought up a certain question that he finally made up his mind to steal it, even to risk getting labeled as a traitor by the demons for killing Tilch.

What Mateo had found odd was why the Lich had taken so long to make his appearance. The only thing that stuck out was that he only revealed himself once Tilch had gotten his hands on the Demon Blade. This made a certain absurd idea pop up in his head. Could it be that the Demon Blade could kill the Lich?

It had to be known that of the Demon Generals, the Lich was pretty much considered immortal. His skeletal body was just a vessel, even if it was destroyed he would proceed to occupy another corpse. Nothing had been able to completely kill the Lich in the past, not even the previous Hero.

While Mateo might not have any intention of killing the Lich, that did not mean having such a card wouldn’t be to his benefit. During their conversation, Mateo could only helplessly follow the Lich’s orders. In the future he intended to talk to the Lich as an equal or even in a superior position to the undead.

After making plans in his head on the best methods to make use of the Demon Blade, Mateo felt the exhaustion of today catch up to him and ended up falling asleep in the most comfortable bed he had laid in since his arrival to this world.