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Aques Lumen, Branch Leader of Azure City’s Demon Hunters. A child of commoners, details about his childhood are little. His talents easily put him in the category of an elite. He possesses an iron will and an ability to create new sword skills on his own.

He had once travelled the various countries, wherein he came upon, then fell in love with, an illusion demon. According to records, the two were forced to separate when the parents of the young illusion demon objected to their relationship. What happened in between is a mystery to all but himself.

After splitting up with the illusion demon, he rescued an elite demon hunter in the middle of a devil subjugation. That was the spark for him joining the guild. Current actual strength is that of an overlord, but that is confidential.

His motives for joining the guild remains unclear. His earlier relationship with an Illusion Demon requires careful monitoring. Any sign of potential threat should be reported immediately.

Actions to be taken: surveillance

From a highly classified internal report of the Demon Hunters’ Guild

As Aques Lumen approached his student, an enchanting song slowly drifted into his ears. It was vaguely enthralling and originated from the recording crystal Nicole was holding.

For no reason in particular, she decided to activate the crystal, causing it to tremble slightly before a beautiful song started playing…

If you are the fireworks above the ocean
I am the bubbles on the waves
At some point in time, your light shines on me

If you are a distant galaxy
So dazzling that you make people want to cry
I am the pair of eyes chasing you
Whenever I am lonely, I search the skies

I can follow behind you
Like a shadow chasing light, sleepwalking
I can wait at this crossing
Doesn’t matter if you pass by or not

Whenever I lift my head because of you
Even tears feel like freedom
Some types of love fall like sunlight
On the one hand, you possess it, on the other hand, you lose it

(TL: He listed more lines from the same song, but I’m not sure I want to include even more material of a song. Sounds like future trouble to me. Doesn’t add much to the story anyway.)

The song kept playing while zombie after zombie dragged itself out of the nearby foliage, seemingly drawn to the song itself. In all likelihood, the song had somehow enthralled these dead creatures. As the zombies mindlessly stumbled towards Nicole, they didn’t seem threatening as you would expect from a horrific dead creature. Instead, they just seemed a little silly…

Why aren’t these zombies trying to attack? Aques Lumen wondered to himself. Their goal seems to just be to approach Nicole. Rather, they seem to be resonating with something on her. Their eyes look almost sad, but they should be dead and emotionless… it’s that song. That song in the recording crystal is the culprit!

Faced with approaching zombies, Neneth definitely wasn’t about to sit idly by either. Even in her worn out state, she still forced herself to her feet for another mighty swing of her giant sword. Sword wobbling a little, she barely managed to bifurcate the incoming zombies.

“Phew… I’m tired… I just want some meat right now…”

With Nicole out of the picture, the fact that Neneth was able to hold out for so long was remarkable. Being tired was only to be expected. Aques Lumen knew he mustn’t waste any further time. As he got closer, Neneth noticed his presence as well. She hastily raised her head to see who it was approaching them, and found it was an ally.

She wiped the sweat off her forehead before giving a little jump of joy. “Teacher! We’re here! Neneth’s here!”

Ever the energetic child, she always put forth her best. Whether it was battle, protecting her comrades, or even calling for help, she would always be the center of attention…

“What happened to Nicole?” Even though he already knew the gist of what happened, he still felt the need to hear the story from Neneth herself, seeing as asking Nicole was out of the question.

“Neneth doesn’t know as well…” The joy on her face immediately disappeared. “She was already like that when Neneth found her…”

There wasn’t much information to be gleaned from her words. Even so, that further reinforced his opinion that Ferti’nier was telling the truth…

She must have injured the younger brother she had been looking for all this while… even though that younger brother is no longer the same…

Aques Lumen motioned for her to stay still for now, then walked up to Nicole. He first reached out for the recording crystal, in hopes of discovering the truth of that enchanting voice and the enthralled undead.

Yet the moment he got close to the crystal, Nicole, who was basically no different from a zombie till now, finally moved. She instinctively huddled into herself, pressing her head into the recording crystal, burying it out of sight.

Even if she hadn’t said a word yet, her actions rang clear. She was still there, but her heart was mostly dead at this point.

Aques Lumen knew then how deeply wounded his favored student was. One wrong move might even end up turning her into an invalid… not that she wasn’t one already…

At this point, the amount of surviving undead was still high. Even though their victory was secured, the stragglers of the horde was an annoying matter that still had to be solved. Now, he had a traumatised student to deal with as well -truly a headache.

“Look after Nicole, Neneth. We need to get out of this area first.” Then without waiting for her response, Aques Lumen took off. He had already scouted the area with his senses: the undead were all but gone. As long as they followed in his footsteps, there shouldn’t be any enemies.

Still, Nicole’s complicated situation and the fact that a horde of undead suddenly appeared to destroy a village weighed heavily on Aques Lumen. That horde wasn’t just a couple thousand strong, it was in the hundreds of thousands! Such a horde appearing in a human kingdom without warning was in no small part due to the lord of the land’s negligence.

The more he thought about this, the angrier he got. He gazed icily in the direction of the ruined village, temper at its breaking point. “The nobility just gets more corrupt by the year… seems like someone must really pay the price before they learn their lesson!”

A leaf fell off its branch at that point, carried by the winds of death… a storm was about to approach the humans…

Shameless Self-promotion

Announcement: I’ve re-opened my Patreon in case anyone wants to sponsor more chapters. Every end of the month, those chapters in early access will be released for free for all to read. If you sponsored a chapter, you will gain permanent early access to these chapters. Essentially, everyone gets more chapters to read, but those who donated get to read earlier. More chapters will then be translated at the start of the month. Explanation on the Patreon itself.

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