IRM Chapter 35

In the end, they were taken away by Lilith. The fallen angel stood in front of the rose bushes, gazing indifferently in the direction they had left.

 

Levi bandaged his wounds and stepped forward to inquire of the fallen angel. “My lord, what should we do now?”

 

The fallen angel glanced at him. “Since she has returned, she will always be our little master. However, send some people to guard the castle well, and don’t cause too much trouble recently.”

 

After speaking, he turned back to gaze at the castle and sighed. “Soon, we’ll finally be able to gain true freedom.”

 

On the other side, Lilith brought them to the front of a luxurious mansion. The demon butler who had been waiting at the door for a long time pushed open the gate and respectfully welcomed them inside.

 

Lilith took off her gloves and waved her hand lightly. The familiar following behind her immediately understood her meaning, took the tray from the butler, and brought up the freshly brewed premium black tea.

 

Saintess Coralie had no mood to enjoy these luxuries. Without even looking at the tea brought before her, she only stared coldly at Lilith. “Are you also involved in this?”

 

Lilith sighed softly and took the gilded teacup for her, placing it in front of her. “I know you don’t trust me now, but we really never intended to harm you and Madam.”

 

She paused and added, “At least some of us felt that way.”

 

Saintess Coralie didn’t want to hear such vague explanations. Each of her questions was very direct. “So you knew Father had been put to sleep?”

 

Lilith nodded, a trace of struggle flashing in her eyes. “We originally disagreed with their methods. This was no different from betraying the King, but most of the high-ranking demons were involved, and our opposition—”

 

Saintess Coralie scrutinized every expression on Lilith’s face. “Who are ‘we’?”

 

Lilith softly mentioned several names that were very familiar to Saintess Coralie—all demons who had good relationships with Sheryl. Of course, there were also many such demons on the side that betrayed the Demon King, showing that previous relationships had no real impact.

 

After Lilith finished speaking, she lowered her eyes and bit her lower lip. “But I regret it now. I don’t think they’ll keep their promise to protect Madam.”

 

Saintess Coralie laughed sarcastically. “Expecting demons to keep promises? I wasn’t that naive even when I was five years old.”

 

Lilith, stung by her mockery, became serious in expression. “So now it’s different. I just received news.”

 

As she spoke, she took out the frozen rose that Reize had given her. Looking at Saintess Coralie’s suddenly grim face, she said, “The Church is already on its way. We must immediately wake the King, or those demons will definitely abandon Madam.”

 

Saintess Coralie suddenly stood up, her voice tinged with deep anxiety. “Then why aren’t you hurrying to wake Father?”

 

Lilith lowered her eyebrows in embarrassment. “They never intended to let me know the details. They only took us to visit the sleeping Demon King. As for what exactly that magic circle is and how to dispel it… we don’t understand any of that. That’s a mage’s specialty.”

 

Now the problem had become serious. A magic circle capable of putting the Demon King to sleep was obviously not simple, and certainly not something that could be solved by one repeat student, three first-year junior mages, and four bears whose job was to be cute.

 

Lilith also understood this problem, her brow furrowed tightly. “I do know of one person who could be useful, but he… sigh, there’s really no choice but to coerce him.”

 

She didn’t know how to express it, so she could only stand up and say to them, “Let me take you to see.”

 

Lilith’s mansion was also built in the center of the Demon King’s castle, only one mile away from the castle itself, occupying a vast area. From the outside, it looked like a luxurious and elegant European manor building.

 

But the mansion’s underground had a different space. Lilith led them to the study on the westernmost side of the first floor and slowly turned an inconspicuous candlestick on the red pine desk.

 

Rumble—— The wall cabinets on both sides, which held precious collections, slowly moved apart, revealing a pitch-black secret passage entrance.

 

Lilith casually picked up a fist-sized phosphorescent crystal stone from the wall cabinet and walked ahead to lead the way. “Below is my collection room. It was originally used to store some cute little toys, but recently there have been inexplicably many more things…”

 

Lilith couldn’t help but complain as she thought of the recent troubles.

 

However, if it weren’t for Ji Chi and the others seeing that row of prison cell-like small compartments, they might have sympathized with her a little.

 

But now—— Wait, is having a dungeon in your demon homes considered normal?! And what exactly are those cute little things you mentioned?! Just thinking about it seems very illegal!

 

The dungeon had no unpleasant odors, nor the miserable screams others might imagine, but the lighting was very dim, with only a few candles flickering and swaying on the walls.

 

As soon as Lilith arrived at the dungeon, one could clearly sense her interest rising strangely. Her face was full of excitement that she could barely contain, and she proudly showed off to Saintess Coralie, “But I did catch some interesting things. Once everything is resolved, I’ll give them to the little master to play with properly. You’ll definitely like them! Oh, it’s the person in that room!”

 

Lilith pointed to a prison cell not far away.

 

Evan and Brandon couldn’t help but crane their necks to look over. What did she mean by people that Saintess Coralie would like——

 

The junior mages: “……”

 

Holy crap! Isn’t that Antoine?!

 

Antoine hadn’t been able to consume fresh blood to restore his body, so he was still in tatters. He was slouched in the corner of the prison cell, his left eye full of malice as he watched them, making several broken threatening sounds from his throat. It looked like he had been tortured quite a bit.

 

Hearing the junior mages’ exclamations, Lilith was also somewhat surprised. “You know him? Then should I let him out? I don’t mind… oh, he’s a bad person? Then let’s keep him locked up here for now. I haven’t had a chance to study him yet.”

 

Ji Chi glanced at Antoine, who seemed to be shouting “let me out,” and looked away with slight sympathy. A toy that caught a demon’s attention… just thinking about it was tragic, but it was also good—this was called evil people having their own demons to grind them down.

 

Lilith passed by another prison cell and stopped, her expression becoming serious. She raised the phosphorescent crystal stone in her hand to illuminate the scene inside the cell. “This one is someone from inside the Church. I haven’t decided how to deal with him yet. Once the King wakes up, I’ll hand him over for the King to decide.”

 

The blue glow illuminated the figure leaning against the iron bars. He raised his head and gave the junior mages a helpless smile.

 

The junior mages: “……”

 

Teacher Reize, why are you in a succubus’s little toy collection room?

 

Seeing the junior mages’ expressions, Lilith was surprised again. “You know him too? This one can’t be released… oh, he’s your teacher?! Then, then let me reconsider…”

 

Finally, Lilith stopped in front of the prison cell in the corner. She looked inside. “I don’t understand how this person suddenly ended up in my hands either. I didn’t think much about it at the time and just captured him, but judging by his appearance, he should understand something about magic circles. If there’s really no other way, we can only force him to help us.”

 

This prison cell had quite good treatment, even coming with a dimly flickering candle inside, illuminating the figure sitting upright on the cold stone bed inside—their Professor Joseph was looking expressionlessly at the outside of the cell, his entire body emanating an indescribable aura of confusion.

 

The junior mages: “……”

 

Lilith joked as she turned back. “You wouldn’t also know this one… would you? Oh, he’s your professor?! No way, do all the people you know like to wander around so much?”

 

This was truly a soul-searching question.

 

The dark, gloomy dungeon with its mournful wind had suddenly become a lively family reunion gathering, leaving everyone involved feeling genuinely bewildered and confused.

 

In the end, the result of the family reunion was that Professor Joseph was respectfully invited to the reception hall, Teacher Reize was moved to a well-appointed bedroom for temporary supervision, and as for the tattered Antoine, he could stay in the dungeon and grow mushrooms!

 

Professor Joseph had been locked in the demon’s dungeon for most of the day, and now he could finally drink a cup of hot tea. He pinched his brow and slowly let out a sigh of relief.

 

He explained to the confused junior mages. “After you left, I tracked the curse on Antoine’s body and teleported directly to his side, where I encountered this… lady. She might have misunderstood something and brought me here.”

 

Joseph’s words sounded carefully considered, but the actual process hadn’t been so friendly—you could tell from the dusty clothes on the professor that there had been a struggle.

 

Lilith felt she had been rude and sincerely apologized to him. “I’m sorry. At the time, I was waiting for Church people to walk into the trap, and I was afraid you would leak information to the Church and cause trouble for the little master, so I took action to control you.”

 

Joseph nodded to indicate they could turn that page, then fixed his gaze on the black-haired, red-eyed Saintess Coralie, as if quietly waiting for her explanation.

 

Saintess Coralie pressed her lips together. She still needed Joseph’s help, so she told him about her identity and predicament.

 

As Joseph listened, his brow furrowed deeper and deeper. Just when everyone thought he would definitely not get involved in this matter, he looked very seriously at Saintess Coralie. “So you’ve also violated that damned divine taboo?”

 

Saintess Coralie had heard Brandon mention this matter outside the camp but had never taken it to heart. Now she could only nod blankly. “I can indeed summon familiars… although I’ve rarely used it these years, my summoning arts are indeed much better than my magic.”

 

The worry in Joseph’s eyes was almost impossible to hide. “Even you… I must return to the academy immediately to investigate this matter. What do you need me to do? If possible, I’d like to end this as quickly as possible.”

 

He expressed no prejudice about Saintess Coralie’s identity, only concern about the dangers they might face in the future.

 

Hearing this, Saintess Coralie looked deeply at the exhausted old man. This was why she increasingly longed to settle everything and join hands with humans…

 

Lilith also sighed with complex yet relieved feelings and carefully described to Joseph the magic circle that had put the Demon King into slumber.

 

Joseph lowered his brow and pondered for a while. “It sounds like an ordinary sleep formation. Any intermediate mage or above could cast it. Sometimes when mages have insomnia, they’ll set up such a formation for themselves, but the duration isn’t long, and the energy required increases with the ability of the sleeping person.”

 

After analyzing it, he asked Lilith, “To keep the Demon King sleeping indefinitely, there must be a very powerful mage by his side, right?”

 

Lilith nodded. “Yes, that’s an eight-winged fallen angel whose strength rivals even ten-winged angels.”

 

A fallen angel second only to archangels would indeed be sufficient to put a Demon King to sleep.

 

Joseph thought for a moment. “Having the ability to set up the magic circle is one condition, but a sufficient source of magical power is also indispensable. If it’s this kind of formation that keeps someone in long-term slumber, it definitely needs massive magical power to support it. If that fallen angel isn’t continuously maintaining the formation, then there must be magic crystals in the castle supplying magical power to the formation. As long as we can shatter them, the Demon King will be able to wake up.”

 

Hearing this, Lilith first rejoiced, then suddenly frowned tightly. “Wait, you said in the castle? Aren’t magic crystals usually placed next to the formation?”

 

“That’s exactly the problem. Magic crystals capable of maintaining the Demon King’s slumber would have to be larger than them.” Joseph sighed and pointed at the bears who were bored enough to be yawning. “If you’ve seen the Demon King, you couldn’t have failed to notice, so I can only speculate that they’ve been placed somewhere in the castle.”

 

Lilith hated the demon’s cunningness for the first time. She took a deep breath to suppress the frustration in her chest, as if holding back profanity that was about to spill out. “So we have to search the entire castle under the watch of more than a dozen high-ranking demons?”

 

Just thinking about it was utterly despairing!

 

Joseph shook his head with a mocking laugh and for the first time praised a certain good-for-nothing repeat student in public. “You’re lucky you brought this guy along. His magic may be useless, but no one can match his ability to sense elements.”

 

Everyone’s gaze followed his guidance and turned in unison, focusing on Ji Chi, who was drinking tea.

 

Today’s invisible person habitually zoned out whenever he heard Joseph speaking. At this moment, he was holding a teacup and looked up blankly: “?”