As Sae went back to the entrance of the cave, she was surprised by the person who had come to visit her. His face was as scared as the first time he had come: it was Zelta, the blue-haired mage that had come the day prior as well. There was a person following him this time, though: an old man that was balding with white hair, green eyes and a determined face. She remembered vividly a face similar to his, but wasn't sure where she had seen it. Looking at the fear on their face, those were the Ice Mage's thoughts: "It's good that they're scared, but they should not come back if they're so terrified. Oh well, maybe it was the animalistic growl that terrified them..." She giggled to herself, something the two didn't understand but didn't bother asking about, then coughed.
"What brings you two here? Did you even realize that I don't want company?" Sae asked in a harsh tone, back to her normal cold self. The white-haired sorcerer had realized she had been way too lenient the first time they came from help if they weren't scared of talking to her. "So, this time I'll scare them to death and they won't return to make friends with me." That was her first thought, but their serious faces made her curious enough to wonder what the situation was at the village -- maybe there was actual danger she needed to hear about -- that thought couldn't leave her mind, despite the fact she knew nobody could blame her for leaving them be.
"It's... very impor-tant.." said the blue-eyed mage, who was still panting. Sae assumed he ran all the way from Altea to the cave, so it only made sense he'd be tired. The man behind her nodded. "I'll have to ask who this guy is when I'm done with the sorcerer kid, I guess. Unless I remember first." She thought as she waited for Zelta to speak about such an important matter.
"Ice Mage... p-please, you need to find the demon that you defeated yesterday. I think he has escaped and--" The blue-haired sorcerer started to say, but his nervous words were interrupted without a care in the world by Sae.
"Oh, do you mean my pet dog?" The Ice Mage asked, amused, which made Zelta lose all the color in his face, extremely terrified. "W-what? S-so that growl... T-there is magic this strong?" He asked in fear, but at first the white-haired sorcerer didn't understand his words.
It was only a few seconds after that they became increasingly clear to her. "He made such a good impression of a dog's growl that they believe I shapeshifted him... I'll have to give him some croquettes later." She thought and smiled widely, amused by how the conversation had evolved.
It was then that she felt a hold over her shoulders, a very strong hold that made her frail body wince for a second. Sae turned back smiling impishly and saw the demon king wearing a smirk on his face, almost as if he was saying: "that's what you get." But the Ice Mage didn't really believe in his threats anymore after being tricked once and kept smiling impishly, which was irritating enough for him to speak first.
"I thought you'd keep that private?" His words, which normally would be considered a normal sentence, felt like a question. "You know, I'm a very open person!" Said Sae in an ironically infantile voice, to which Leran could only sigh, not because he was disturbed much by that answer but because he knew that was the biggest lie in the world. He could now see, albeit not perfectly, through the mask the Ice Mage kept on her face full time.
Meanwhile, the spectators to what had become a two-people talk were first terrified by the arrival of the demon that had killed so many people, then calmed down when they saw the Ice Mage talk so casually to him. Of course she wasn't perceived as an ally by them -- that would be foolish, had said Neitar -- but at the same time she was the only reason they were safe from that demon. If they weren't in such a dire situation, there'd have probably been small talk between the two villagers such as: "Do you think the Ice Mage and the demon became lovers?" That was the level of bond they created in such a small amount of time -- both Neitar and Zelta and Sae and Leran.
"Sorry if I interrupt, but we had another death in the village." Said the head of the village with a voice full of respect. "Because of this, we thought the demon kept in this cave was behind it, but it seems he has stayed here." Explained Neitar. But Sae shook her head and walked up to the old man.
"That doesn't mean anything. If there's another clone alive, then he could have killed while being here." That was the simple explanation she had given, albeit she herself didn't believe in such a thing. Sae had seen in this time that the demon king was a nicer person than she'd have expected and had regrets and traumas that he wouldn't have if he could kill a person so easily. Of course, that was just her instinct, but she was mildly irritated at how they immediately thought of Leran as the killer.
"No. I've only created one clone, plus I've never killed anyone." The demon king tried to explain, but the blue-haired sorcerer who was standing in front of him with an impatient expression had a very particular reaction to those words. Feeling both protected by his new mentor, the Ice Mage, and irritated by the lying behaviour of the person who, as far as he recalled, had tried to kill him at any cost just a day before, Zelta jumped towards Leran while screaming in anger: "Die, you demonic beast!" Neitar watched that action in shock and almost tried to stop him, to no avail.
Zelta knew he would be defeated by Leran if he tried to use magic, but such a physical attack could sting and would be difficult to dodge; a mage would need to think quickly of a barrier spell able to avoid it. But the attack itself never actually reached the demon king. As soon as the blue-haired sorcerer tried to take a step, in fact, he was blocked by magic chains.
Struggling to no avail to escape those in rage, he then looked up and saw Sae's disappointed look. She was the person who had casted the chains, a thing that made Zelta even angrier.
"Do you understand?! H-he killed a person... more than one! Why do you defend him?!" The blue-eyed sorcerer asked but that question didn't immediately get a response from either the mage or the demon. It was only after a few seconds that Neitar understood he had to intervene in such a tough discussion.
"With all due respect, venerable Ice Mage, but why do you believe his words over ours?" The old man said. He was also troubled by his personal feelings, trying to hide the anger he felt by looking at his pained mage friend. At that, Sae sighed and decided to answer his question.
"I mean, how can you call this justice? You're arbitrarily choosing that he lied..." She tried to explain, then stopped the chain spell. She expected they'd understand, but a puzzled look was still on both villagers' face. It was then that the Ice Mage realized the problem lied at its core.
"No, you don't have any proof that he is the one behind the deaths of the different villages. Yes, he might be the creature who scared them at night, but what Leran's trying to say is that there's another person or group of people are killing them. It's a hard case to defend, of course -- think of it, it'd be way easier for a demon to get the emotion of fear if people were scared of death because they already saw others die before him. Yet, if you dive deeper into such a matter, you'll realize there's an even easier possibility for a killer to go unnoticed if they just give all the fault to Leran. The latter can be used as the scapegoat of deaths he's not involved in." Sae explained. She knew she had done her best but that her words wouldn't leave any impact in the long run. It was really easy to believe Leran was the killer, after all; the fact that he was there on the night another person died also didn't mean anything because he had always been in his cave and let his clone do the dirty work. It almost felt like this death was part of his plan.
Still, the Ice Mage had one last choice to appease everyone as much as possible.
"Let me investigate over the death that has happened over at the village of Altea and the others scattered throughout this zone full of villages. I'll be able to say if it really was him or not after I do." She said, to which both Neitar and Zelta's faces lightened up. "Of course, you'll help me." Whispered Sae to Leran's ears in a cold tone. Still, she was proud of how he had acted in such a situation. She'd expected that his pride would force him to strike back, but that hadn't been the case. He had stayed calm for the entirety of the conversation, which was also maybe because of how she had managed to break his vanity to pieces.
Soon enough the mage and the old man were waiting to leave the entrance of the cave and go back to their village. It was then that the white-haired girl remembered where she had seen the head of the village. Her memory was almost rarely wrong, after all, which was a good thing for a person with such a long life. Before Neitar could leave, she was called by a faint movement of Sae's hand.
"Hm?" He just said, seemingly thinking about something else. "The War of the peasants, forty years ago. You were there, you participated in the Battle of Halas. I do not forget so easily." Those were the words she gave to him. Usually, one would think that was a threat for the way that the Ice Mage had worded it. Yet, Neitar covered his surprise in elation. "And so you were..." but the Ice Mage's finger closed Neitar's mouth before he could continue his sentence.
"Yes. That was me, but I can't speak of that here." She just explained, to which the head of the village nodded. "How is it?" That was her last enigmatic question, to which Neitar responded: "He is just fine. Or at least, that's what I would like to say." The tone of his voice held a certain emotion that he seemed to be trying to avoid showing. After declaring that, a tear dropped to the ground. Sae wanted to tell him to stop crying, that everyone makes mistakes, that there can still be remedies, but there was a facade she needed to keep.
"I see. I want to meet him someday." Those were the last words she pronounced before they left.
After they were completely gone from the mountain, Sae took a second of her time to gaze at the sky in front of her as if she was waiting for Leran to ask a question. In fact, just a few seconds after a question came. "What was that about?" The tone the demon held was extremely curious.
"The flowers of youth can only be tainted by hardship."
That was the clue she left as she cutely smiled and walked inside. "What should that tell me?" Leran asked, not amused at all by how she had told him everything or nothing.
"What I said is enough of a hint, dog. The two have the same personality, but are the fruit of two different times. One day they'll notice." Sae just announced, more to herself than to him now.
