“Why did you attend that banquet?”

“……What…?”

Frondier frowned. He thought they would ask about the bracer, but suddenly they were talking about the banquet?

Paul shook his head and waved his hand in the air. Frondier's Mana depletion stopped, as if giving him a temporary reprieve.

“Don't play dumb. You're clearly looking for devils. Where did you get that information?”

“……What are you talking about? The only devils I met there were the ones that swarmed in like a dust cloud,”

Wham!

Paul kicked Frondier in the face. Frondier was crouching due to the Mana depletion, so the kick landed squarely.

“Playing dumb again. Jeremy heard you talking to the devils of Agoris. You were trying to learn how to distinguish between humans and devils, weren't you?”

Frondier scoffed. As expected, that Jeremy bastard was listening.

“Are you on the side of the western devils? Are you working with them to catch the devils hiding in the Empire?”

…Oh, I see.

Frondier started to understand the situation.

Back when Elodie had trapped them with magic and Frondier was talking to one of the devils…

Frondier, who would normally have killed all the devils immediately, had a rather long conversation with one devil. At that time, Jeremy started to have strange suspicions.

Was Frondier actually on the side of the western devils? Did he stop them because there was a misunderstanding in their information?

The moment he had that suspicion, he approached Frondier, and sure enough, Frondier asked about the method of distinguishing between devils and humans.

“Answer me. Frondier de Roach. You already know too much, and you're trying to know even more. But we still know nothing about you, so it's not a fair deal, is it?”

“……I have nothing to say.”

“Didn't you understand the question? You're going to die next. You'll become a miserable mummy with all your Mana drained.”

“Didn't you understand what I said?”

Frondier raised his head. His black eyes, shining brightly, pierced through Paul.

“I have nothing to say to the likes of you, bat.”

“……Very well.”

Paul waved his hand again.

Wheeing-

The device activated, and Frondier's Mana rapidly disappeared.

“Frondier de Roach, the hero who won the war and even defeated Belphegor, one of the infamous Seven Sins.”

Paul spoke as if reading a character's resume.

“But humans can't do anything without Mana. The weaving you boast of, that black thing, you can't use any of it.”

Even as Paul spoke, Frondier's Mana continued to vanish. Once even the slightest bit of Mana disappeared, Frondier's body would scream from the symptoms of Mana depletion.

Since Frondier had experienced it several times, he would endure for a while, but that time wouldn't exceed 5 minutes at most.

“You've become too strong for your own good, haven't you?”

Paul said mockingly.

Jeremy approached from behind him.

“……Director, if we kill Frondier like this, we won't be able to find out where he got his information.”

“It's fine. The western devils won't be able to find us anyway. Their way of finding devils is utterly crude.”

While the two were having that conversation.

“……Heh.”

Finally,

“Heh, hehe.”

With great effort, holding back for a long, long time,

“Hehehe, hahahahahahaha!!”

Frondier burst into laughter.

Paul and Jeremy were speechless at the sight.

They weren't angry, nor were they amused. They were simply surprised.

A human who had lost all his Mana, laughing like that? It was an impossible story, even as a bluff.

“Ah, thank goodness.”

Frondier said that and raised his head.

“What…?!”

A cry of shock escaped Paul's lips.

There was no trace of the effects of Mana depletion on Frondier's face. There was no sign of fatigue, his face was almost the same as before he came here.

“Actually,”

Frondier took off the bracelet. He calmly placed it back where it belonged.

Paul and Jeremy simply watched all his actions. The scene before their eyes was completely incomprehensible to them.

They were scientists before they were devils. When something went beyond the theories and systems they had learned,

they were momentarily unable to come to their senses.

“I was worried that I was the only bad guy. I thought the devils knew about my skills to some extent, but they were playing dumb with completely clueless faces. I was really wondering what to do,”

Saying that, Frondier raised his right hand.

Obsidian gathered on his hand, transforming into a certain shape.

The completed form was the very first item Frondier had seen among the items displayed here.

“……What, no, how…”

Jeremy stammered, unable to comprehend.

As if to accelerate the shock, the Obsidian on Frondier's right hand changed its shape one after another, into the next item, and the next.

“Thank goodness you guys are the bad guys. You're really devils.”

The slight guilt that had remained in Frondier's heart completely disappeared.

For the childish reason that they were the bad guys too.

“……It's impossible!”

Finally, Paul's cry of denial burst out.

“A human who has lost all his Mana can't be that fine! No, he's using skills! Even if he's using bio-energy, he shouldn't be that relaxed!”

Paul's words were true.

Without Mana, neither magic nor skills could be used. That was the fundamental premise of this world, the very foundation itself.

“You said it yourself.”

But Frondier said leisurely, still changing the artifact on his right hand,

Then he created ‘Neil Jack's Short Sword’ and held it in his hand.

“You guys know nothing about me.”

Frondier's Mana had indeed vanished.

But that was only limited to the Mana of this world.

Kwaaang-

Frondier, as if having nothing more to hide, fully unleashed his Mana.

It was the ‘Mana of Helheim’.

Paul and Jeremy stepped back. They spread their wings, which they had hidden behind their backs, but they seemed to be solely for escape, lacking any sense of fighting spirit.

“It's, impossible. How can a human, after losing Mana, how!”

Naturally, to the two who didn't know the circumstances, Frondier's sight was nothing but terror.

That sight was so amusing, so delightful.

“Devils.”

Frondier laughed.

Having lost all his human Mana,

He was filled with the Mana of Helheim.

“How do you distinguish between humans and devils?”