Neia glanced to the side, thinking Shizu would be as surprised as herself, but Shizu’s face was as blank as ever. That was a difficulty rating 150 maid demon for you ― such things did not even faze her..
“A…ah…are all the Zern as powerful as you?”
The prince made another strange sound, and thrashed like a caught fish.
“I am special.”
“Precisely. That’s why he is the prince.”
After hearing the Zern’s proud voice, Neia mused, I see, and recalled the contents of the classes she had once taken.
That’s right. The royalty of some species are so much more powerful than the commoners that they seem like a different species entirely…
“That said, I do have a weakness… namely, I am very slow.”
Well that’s true, Neia thought. That much was obvious at a glance.
“If someone gets close to me, I’ll be killed without the chance to fight back. Therefore, may I trouble you to carry me? I can cast spells when signalled.”
“I see. I understand what you wish to do. However, could the Zern ― that is to say, your royal guards ― not carry you instead of ourselves?”
“Unlike our prince, we specialize in melee combat. The two of you fight from a distance, I believe?”
“That is true… hm. It would be better if Shizu-san or I carried him… no, let’s leave that aside for now. It would be bad if we dragged the prince into this and he ended up dying.”
“…Neia. There is a special meaning to carrying the prince… That’s why he suggested going with us.”
“Fufufu. Indeed, there is. I say, do you know anything about him? That withered-tree demon who decorates himself with heads?”
“…There are several demons like that. Silk Hats, Crowns, Circlets, and Corollas.”
Shizu counted the four types off on her fingers.
“…I believe that henchman demon must be one of them. But… if we encounter a Silk Hat, we ought to flee. Even I could not win against one.”
“So you knew!?”
Neia was surprised, and then that feeling was replaced by anger. When they had prepared for the mission, Shizu had said that she did not know much about the henchman demons.
Had she lied to them?
This was because if she was trying to keep information on Jaldabaoth’s army from the Holy Kingdom, it would mean that Shizu had never been under the Sorcerer King’s control from the start. It also meant that Shizu’s existence did not prove anything about the Sorcerer King’s safety,
“…I trusted you! And in the end you were lying to me from the start!”
Caught up in her emotions, Neia seized Shizu by the shoulders. She used a lot of force, but the maid demon did not seem hurt. It was not because Shizu had no emotions, but because that amount of strength was nothing to her.
The unbearable regret and resentment made Neia want to cry. She had thought that she had forged a bond with Shizu, but in the end she had turned out to be nothing more than a laughingstock. Neia could not help mocking herself.
Shizu’s face was as blank as ever. However, there was a subtle change there which only Neia could read.
It was distress, contemplation, or perhaps ― remorse.
“…I’m sorry.”
Shizu squeezed those words out after a long silence. It hardly qualified as an apology ― in fact, it only served to stoke the flames of her anger. But right now, Shizu seemed strangely helpless, and seeing her like this helped Neia regain a bit of her composure.
Carefully, like she was doing something she had never tried before, Shizu quietly continued.
“…If you knew how strong the henchman demon was, you and the others might have been afraid and not carried out the operation. But for the sake of Ainz-sama’s victory… we must win this battle. That was why I lied.”
Every word she said had been carefully considered before being put together into a heartfelt, agonized statement. But those words also contained a genuine and immovable faith.
Neia did not know how to see through her lies. Not to mention she was a demon ― no, even if she were not a demon, Neia would not be able to tell if a blank-faced girl like her was speaking the truth.
However, even if she were feeding information to Jaldabaoth as a spy, or trying to bring down the Holy Kingdom from the inside, Shizu’s actions until now did not match up to those motivations. She ought to have acted more sensibly.
And more than anything else, Neia wanted to believe Shizu. Part of that was because her existence was a testament to the Sorcerer King’s survival, but also because the mysterious connection she had to Shizu was irreplaceable to Neia.
“…All right. I believe you. But please, don’t look down on me any more. I would gladly face any danger or fear for His Majesty’s sake.”
Shizu looked visibly relieved. As expected, she could not have been a spy. As for why, that was because she was clearly not suited for it. As she thought that, a natural, unforced smile came back to Neia’s face.
“Alright, alright, can we get back to the previous topic? If you know so much about them, can you tell us about that demon’s abilities?”
“These demons all possess the same abilities, but they are not very strong in their base forms. However, the problem arises when these demons are able to obtain the heads of intelligent creatures… particularly those of magic casters.”
According to Shizu, demons of that type could equip themselves with the heads of magic casters and use the powers of the heads’ owners. Silk Hats could use four heads at once, Crowns could use three, Circlets could use two, and Corollas could use one. Their threat level rose exponentially if they managed to obtain the heads of exceptional magic casters.
“No matter how good a head a Corolla equips, it can only cast spells of up to the third tier. Silk Hats, on the other hand, can cast spells of up to the tenth―”
“Wait!”
“Hold on!”
Both the prince and Neia interrupted Shizu.
Neia and the prince exchanged looks. While Neia could not read the prince’s face, Neia was certain that he was thinking the same thing as her.
“…After you.”
“Umu… er, did you say tenth tier? Are fifth tier spells not the highest tier of magic?”
It was as the prince said. Neia had heard that this was the limit of magic. The reason why she felt that the Sorcerer King could use sixth tier spells also stemmed from that.
In response to the prince’s question, Shizu shook her head as if to say, Haa, what will I do with you?
“…The tenth tier is the highest tier of magic. The spell that Jaldabaoth used to call down meteors from the sky also belongs to that tier.”
“How, how can we beat ― eh? Eh? No way! Don’t tell me, His Majesty, who stood with Jaldabaoth…”
As the shocking truth hit Neia, the prince was also shuddering in shock.
“The tenth tier? No. It can’t be, right? The tenth tier… Could it be true… And to think, I was so proud of myself and my fourth tier…”
No, the fourth tier was already very powerful. He would have been justified in being arrogant. There were precious few magic casters who could reach that level.
“Shizu… I’d like to check something, but… can His Majesty use spells of the tenth tier… too?”
“…But of course.”
Why are you still saying this? Shizu’s tone seemed to imply. She sounded like she was rolling her eyes. It might have been the first time that Neia had so clearly discerned Shizu’s feelings.
The prince, who was a fellow magic caster, was twitching from the tremendous shock.
“Hah? Hah? So the king of the land to which we are fleeing ― the Sorcerer King ― is such a powerful undead being? Does mastery of the tenth tier mean he is over twice as powerful as me?”