Chapter 7 : Listen Again

Magic Kingdom.

Early morning. On the way to the academy.

‘Connecting brain resources through swarm consciousness for real-time control is just a temporary solution. I need to incorporate a method using Mana Stones… Demonic energy has the property of destabilizing mana in the atmosphere and turning it into Mana Stones, so if I use that…’

While combining magic in my mindscape as usual on my way to school…

[Detection (LV.MAX) activated.]
“Huh?”

Something strange was caught by my always-active Detection magic.

[Analysis Result: Demon]

“Huh? What? Why is there a demon here?”

A demon. Also known as ‘the race that betrayed God’.

Different from demons. Demons were a general term for races that used demonic energy as their life source, while a demon was a theological definition, not a specific race.

There were even archaeological studies suggesting that some demons recorded in history were worshipped as gods in the ‘Mythical Age’.

‘Demons are rare… A pretty rare monster has wandered in.’

I could easily guess the reason for the demon’s appearance. It must be because of the Saint who transferred to the academy. A demon’s food was ‘holy power’ itself.

Demons could contaminate holy power.

Or rather, ‘beings that can contaminate holy power’ were defined as demons.

‘Come to think of it, aren’t they a high-ranking race with high magical aptitude?’

There were many types of demons.

Ancient gods, fallen angels, slimes born from rifts… Even humans could become demons under the right conditions.

And most demons had high magical aptitude.

Becoming a demon meant having a high level of mana control, enough to taint holy power, the most ‘advantageous’ power against demonic energy.

In other words…

‘Could I use it as the server’s core?’

It was highly likely that they could produce more spiritual resources than elves.

Of course, unlike elves, I’d have to use somewhat ‘coercive’ methods to extract the resources…

But so what?

Demons were like pests; it was fine to hunt them down.

The Church’s treasure. The Church’s flower. The Church’s jade seal.

The Saint got lost on her way to the academy.

“Huh…? Where am I?”

She was clearly on her way to the academy with the escort knights sent from the Holy Nation, but when she came to her senses, she was standing alone in a dark alley.

It wasn’t strange to get lost in a new place, but…

It was strange that all her escorts had disappeared. The Saint was confused.

“Dave? Orca? Where is everyone…?”

That wasn’t the only strange thing.

Even though she had entered an alley, it was too dark, despite it being daytime.

When she tried to walk out of the alley, the entrance seemed to move further away with each step, mocking her efforts.

Like a nightmare.

The Saint realized she was trapped in a deep nightmare.

“…Courageous Lord. Even if I have a staff that parts the waters and creates a million paths in the sea, it is nothing without the courage to cross it. Please grant me the courage to proceed rightly towards you.”

The Saint prayed.

As always, she prayed for guidance. Every hour, every minute, every second. Like a blind person who couldn’t take a single step without asking for directions.

She asked God for guidance, again and again.

“I know you are above this valley of death.”

Golden holy power flowed from the Saint’s body.

The power to repel evil and purify life. Proof of God’s grace.

If this was a nightmare, it would surely recede with this prayer.

The Saint thought so, but…

“…Huh?!”

Instead, the darkness of the alley began to devour the golden holy power greedily, as if it had been waiting.

The darkness of the alley grew deeper and heavier.

“….!”

The darkness turned into a sticky liquid, pressing down on the Saint and pulling her to the ground. Like sinking into the deep sea, she couldn’t even hear her own voice.

Even praying to God only brought darkness.

The Saint’s prayer was reduced to a raspy whisper.

“…”

Trapped in the darkness, the Saint struggled.

To somehow escape, to reach the sun, to avoid falling…

The Saint instinctively grabbed something.

A white light emanated from that something, and the pressure that was crushing her began to weaken.

“…Gasp!”

Like someone who had been holding their breath for a long time underwater and finally surfaced…

The Saint exhaled deeply and then inhaled.

Only then did she realize what she was holding.

“A keychain…?”

It was a keychain.

The keychain engraved with the Fly spell that she received from the unknown Archmage.

[“You’ll be able to soar as if you have wings on your back.”]

It was protecting her from the darkness that was trying to swallow her.

As if it would never let her fall.

And then…

“Ah, there you are.”

A somehow familiar…

And trustworthy voice reached her.

‘Why is it so hard to find?’

I could sense the demon’s presence with Detection magic, but it was difficult to pinpoint its exact location.

Because of the demon’s nature to contaminate its surroundings, my Detection magic malfunctioned if I got too close.

‘It’s a good thing I sensed a familiar mana.’

The reason I could find the demon was because the Saint used the ‘keychain.’

More precisely, it was thanks to the mana enchanted in the keychain. I had placed multiple enchantments as safety measures, in case a child lost control of the Fly spell and fell.

And that mana was detected in an empty alley.

“Now, what should I do with this little demon…?”

• !@#$%?!

As if sensing something was wrong, the demon attempted to escape into the Soul Stream. It was a swift movement that would have allowed it to escape if it were facing an ordinary mage.

But it was useless.

Soul magic was what I had been focusing on recently. It chose the wrong opponent.

[Inventory (LV.EX) activated.]

My inventory, connected to the Soul Stream network, captured and absorbed the fleeing demon.

The demon struggled, trying to contaminate my inventory in return—

‘That won’t work. The system is invincible.’

My inventory wouldn’t be broken by a mere demon.

[‘Demon of Silence’ acquired.]
[Unrecorded item. Do you want to record it in the encyclopedia?]

“Yes.”

[Recording information about ‘Demon of Silence’.]

Demon of Silence.

You’re mine!

“I should take it home and study it.”

The academy would have an unscheduled break today.

“Ooh, it has interesting properties.”

After studying the demon in the ‘Mage’s Workshop’ at my mansion, I discovered a few things.

First, connecting the demon to the swarm consciousness didn’t increase the spiritual resources as much as I expected. Perhaps because it was a parasite that fed on other forms of power, its output was too low. It was less than that of a single academy student.

That was disappointing, but I discovered another special characteristic.

“I can use this as a storage device.”

Surprisingly, this ‘Demon of Silence’ had the ability to store sound.

Of course, there were magic tools that stored sound or images, but those tools were only effective ‘as long as the supplied mana was maintained.’

The moment the mana supply was cut off, the stored data would evaporate.

However, this Demon of Silence permanently transformed itself by absorbing sound.

This meant it could be used as a long-term memory device, a storage device.

“This means I can record the radio broadcasts… No, wait… Since I can store and output data repeatedly, I could even create a music streaming function…”

Several magical applications using this demon flashed through my mind.

Hundreds and thousands of magic circles appeared in the Model Garden, repeatedly merging and separating.

‘It’s a shame there are only a few stored sound samples.’

Was it a novice demon that had just gained its demonic nature?

The only stored samples were a few prayers the Saint recited and a scream.

It would be difficult to make proper music with this.

‘I could make some Gospel Metal.’

I should go around the busy streets later and record the bards’ songs.

Magic Kingdom. Sewers.

Demon Cultists’ Hideout.

“The demon’s presence… has disappeared?”
“What?”

“Damn it, what happened? It’s a demon we summoned using a high-grade Mana Stone after hearing that the Saint would enter the academy… Was it a trap?”
“A trap?! Is there a traitor among us?!”

“I-It wasn’t me!”
“Tsk, we have to cancel the plan. It’ll take decades to gather enough magic power to summon another demon… Damn it.”

No one knew that the demon cultists’ plan to instigate war between the Magic Kingdom and the Holy Nation by sowing discord was thwarted by a single mage.

Northern Continent. ‘The land where the Sky Whale briefly fell and then ascended again.’

Ruins.

Vampire’s Castle. Coffin.

[“Hello, friends! It’s your Mage uncle! Today, I’ve prepared some special music. I hope you like it. Ah, it contains some religious content, so my friends listening in the Demon Realm might find it uncomfortable, but please bear with me.”]

[‘IamtheDemonMonarch’ used a Megaphone!]
[Playing the Church’s music here, where all the demons of the Demon Realm can hear, is inappropriate—]

[“I’ll turn off the Megaphone function while the song is playing.”]
[~♬]

“Father… Let me sleep for another 100 years…”

Kinnikos, the progenitor of vampires, sleeping in her coffin, was awakened by the loud Gospel Metal ringing in her ears.

“Hmm… Yawn…”

Kinnikos, half-asleep and drooling slightly, stretched, opening her mouth wide.

Then, she looked around…

And suddenly realized that no one was there.

“…Oh? My children? Is anyone there?”

She jumped out of her coffin and looked out the window, but all she saw was a desolate grey wasteland stretching to the horizon.

The glorious Black Citadel, the veil of shadows that blocked the sunlight, all gone.

A bleak landscape she had never even seen in her dreams.

Kinnikos felt a flicker of fear.

“Children? I don’t like this kind of prank. I’ll be angry if you don’t come out now.”

Kinnikos desperately searched for any remaining vampires.

But no answer came.

“Alice? Lilith? Nymph?”

Kinnikos, who had been asleep for thousands of years, didn’t know…

While she slept, the Sky Whale, swimming through space, had dozed off and briefly fallen.

This accident destroyed the Black Citadel, the home of the vampires.

With only this castle, protected by powerful blood magic, remaining, the vampire race had vanished into the annals of history.

“Children…?”

From Kinnikos’s perspective, she woke up to find that a meteor had struck the world, leaving her as the sole survivor.

Confusion, sadness, loneliness, fear… A mix of emotions overwhelmed her, making it hard to think straight. She tried to run outside the castle, but the scorching sunlight prevented her from taking another step.

For a vampire who couldn’t survive under the sunlight, the Black Citadel was her entire world.

The world had ended.

She was alone.

Forever.

“Ah…”

As Kinnikos succumbed to a chilling despair…

The loud music that had awakened her suddenly stopped.

[“Did you enjoy the song? The lyrics of the song I just played are from a prayer about not being afraid even in the lonely and arduous valley of death, knowing that you are there.”]

As if seeing through Kinnikos’s fear…

A voice reached her.

[“The deeper the night, the closer the dawn. The moon waxes when it wanes the most. Knowing that the sun and moon are still there, even when we can’t see them, gives us comfort in the darkness of night.”]

The voice told Kinnikos that she ‘wasn’t alone in this vast world’.

It told her that the world hadn’t ended yet.

[“It’s a prayer about hope like this. Isn’t it so bad for demons to listen to either, right? Now, this is a message from the Demon Realm. I’m having a hard time because my boss has been so moody lately…”]

Kinnikos quietly listened to the messages coming from somewhere.

[“The next message is from the Holy Nation…”]
[“This message is from the Empire…”]

Place names Kinnikos had never heard before.

Demon Realm, Empire, Magic Kingdom, Great Mountain Range, Holy Nation… Kinnikos learned for the first time that so many countries existed in the world.

[“Ah, and I’ve added another new feature. It’s called ‘Listen Again’. From now on, you can listen to past radio broadcasts again. To use it, just like with the Message or Megaphone functions, say ‘Listen Again’, and a blue window will appear. Put a mid-grade Mana Stone in there and select the broadcast you want to listen to. I’ll be adding a feature to listen to just the songs soon, so look forward to it. Well then, goodbye~”]

“Listen Again?”

As Kinnikos muttered “Listen Again” in a daze, a translucent blue window appeared before her eyes.

‘Mid-grade Mana Stone…’

Kinnikos rushed to the castle’s storage room.

Fortunately, the castle’s storage was still intact. There were a large number of Mana Stones inside.

‘Which one is mid-grade?’

She picked up various Mana Stones and tried them one by one until she found one that fit into the blue window.

When she inserted the mid-grade Mana Stone into the blue window…

A voice came from the air again.

[“Hello, friends! It’s your Mage uncle!”]

The recorded voice of the mage played to the end.

Kinnikos inserted another Mana Stone.

[“Hello, friends! It’s your Mage uncle!”]

[“Hello, friends! It’s your Mage uncle!”]

[“Hello, friends! It’s your Mage uncle!”]

[“Hello, friends! It’s your Mage uncle!”]
…
[“Hello, friends! It’s your Mage uncle!”]

“Hello… friends… Mage uncle…”

“Huh? Is this a bug?”

While checking the network magic…

I noticed a strange record in the ‘Listen Again’ playback log.

[Playback Log]
[Anonymous (Whale’s Pit, 712.003), 12:10:52]
[Anonymous (Whale’s Pit, 712.003), 13:01:34]
[Anonymous (Whale’s Pit, 712.003), 13:52:47]

“Whale’s Pit is a ruin in the Northern Continent.”

There were ‘Listen Again’ playback logs almost every hour. I thought there might be a bug, but the mid-grade Mana Stones were properly deposited in my inventory.

Was there someone living in those ruins?

“Strange. There are all sorts of peculiar people in the world.”