—–
Ellergest also noticed something weird going on with this maid. The girl with pink hair was less confident than the others, and being younger wasn’t the actual reason. She was lying, and this old and experienced man was able to tell a bit, although as for me, I was completely confident in my analysis.
“You’re lying.” I said. “It is clear in your face. Why did you put demon blood in the Lady’s wine? If you don’t answer in 10 seconds I will strangle you to death.”
“E-Eh?! You’re just a kid! A healer at that, what can you even do- Ugh?!”
I quickly moved my hand towards the woman’s neck, my hand was smaller, but its strength was recognizable. The girl started to gasp for air immediately. She was tied by chains so she couldn’t even resist my hand pressing down into her neck.
“Nine… Eight… Seven…” I said, counting up to one, in which number I would kill her. I could easily pay for the damage, a maid was just a commodity for nobles, dispensable just like the life of a serf.
“Unngh…! Guuaaaggh…!”
“W-Wait! What are you doing, you shitty kid?!” Asked Jack, desperately attempting to stop me. “You shouldn’t use force to make people talk, that will never work-”
“Uggh…! O-Okay! I’ll talk! Please, don’t kill me! Uuaaggh…!”
I quickly took away my hand from her neck, as I looked at her eyes.
“Speak.”
“I-I didn’t do it because I wanted to! I-I was forced…!” She cried. “I-If I didn’t do it, the Lady said she would send some mercenaries to kill my family in the village! I-I couldn’t really refuse her words…!”
As the girl spoke, everybody in the room fell silent. Lady Treebark looked at her with surprise, raising her eyebrows. She quickly began to ask her questions.
“Gabriela? H-How could you do such a thing…?” She asked. “But… Did they really force you? And who?” Lady Treebark seemed to take pity on her due to the reasons the girl did this. If I were the girl, I would have just told Lady Treebark that somebody wanted to kill her and she could have put my family into safety, or just stopped the one about to do it before she could… Then again, it is hard even for me to imagine myself in such situations, because if I was a girl I would never let myself become the maid of somebody.
“Lady? Who?” I asked.
“T-The one… Lady… Ugh…! Aaaghh!”
Gabriel began to tremble, her entire body started to get colder as she tried to say her name, but she suddenly felt as if she was being taken over by an intense feeling of fear, so powerful that it made her breathe heavily, her heart started to beat faster as well.
What is going on?! Is this a curse?
“Gabriela!” Cried the black-haired maid.
“W-What is happening to you?! Is she sick?” Asked the brown-haired maid.
“Q-Quickly take away your chains from us!” Said the black-haired maid, as Jack nodded nervously.
“Wait, don’t!” I said, as I quickly detected within the pink-haired girl’s body the presence of some demonic energies gathering within her! I never saw this before, how come some sort of demonic power can come out of nowhere into her? Was this a hidden curse that only activates after doing a certain thing? This is… high level demon magic!
Jack wasn’t able to hear my words in time as his chains quickly retreated back to his own Spirit Orb, seemingly he had run out of Mana already so he wouldn’t have been able to hold for much longer.
“Graaaaahh…!”
Gabriela started to scream as if she was being taken over by some sort of strange force, screaming like an insane person. The other maids looked at her in horror as they quickly tried to move away, but Gabriela’s reflexes were suddenly enhanced, her entire body turned pale, and her eyes became red.
“GRAAAAH!”
“Gyyaaah! Gabriela, what’s wrong with you?!”
The little pink-haired girl roared like a demon, attacking the brown-haired maid, and grabbing her with her hands, which suddenly grew long nails resembling black demon-like claws I’ve seen on Imps before. Even more, from her forehead, a small red horn started to grow.
This is something I had seen before; it had been a long time… This is called Demon Metamorphosis! It is when a humanoid is cursed by a demon and made to drink demon blood, by the power of the curse, they won’t die, but they’ll go through a transformation by the command of their “master” and turn into Lesser Demon… To think I would see such a thing in this world! So there are people using demon blood like this? Or is there some sort of demon behind this entire thing?
Well, there is no time to overthink this now.
Ellergest quickly moved forward faster than I did.
“To think that this girl was infected by the curse of a demon!” He said, raising his staff and infusing it with holy light. “Bright Beam!”
FLASH!
From within his staff, a large concentration of mana suddenly transformed into a bright ray of light, firing, and reaching the pink-haired girl, hitting her directly into her chest and throwing her into the ground.
BOOM!
“Aghh…! Graah…”
Gabriela’s entire body seemed to be burning, she was agonizing on the floor while her blood started to evaporate. It seems that I didn’t have to worry that much, Ellergest is quite competent.
“W-What’s going on?” Asked Elisabeth in surprise, the little girl stepped back several steps, getting in front of Lady Treebark and her son, Carl, who were both paralyzed over the ridiculous scene in front of them.
“Demon Pawn…” Said Ellergest. “When somebody that has learned the way of using demon powers curses somebody else and makes them drink demon blood, they go through this transformation and become wild and savage Demon Pawns… Usually, they can only get killed after transformation, they become no longer humans, but demons. It is good to take her out of her misery.” Ellergest walked towards Gabriela, pointing his staff at her.
—–