Alastor reached forward, presenting his hand. Asta grabbed it and shook it once. "It's clear to me that you're the only one who even stands a chance against us. Agares is an absolute idiot, I'll make her fall in a years time. How about you get the others by then? See it as a challenge. What do you say, brother?"
Lucas stared at Asta, granting him the authority to choose. Lucas was just here to support him with all he got. If they failed, Lucas wouldn't lose anything, giving him the room to distance himself.
"Fine, those brats haven't learned a thing since I was gone anyway. It will hardly be a challenge. I accept it."
"May we meet again," waving them goodbye, Alastor flew to the dark red night sky.
Standing on the ruined battlefield, Lucas tried to find the remains of the monsters, or supposedly undead, yet found nothing. Clicking his tongue, he voiced his thoughts.
"What are these undead? Can't find a trace of their form."
"All we know is that they stem from lingering souls with strong attachments to the living world."
"I know a few things about souls, but I don't remember any of them being so lost to their desires to actively kill. Especially such high ranking members."
To plan an attack on all potential heirs of the seat and the duke himself was a suicide plan to begin with. Lucas couldn't understand their reasoning. If it was to strike fear into the hearts of the demons, they failed. Perhaps it was meant to serve as a distraction, but Lucas had no way of knowing.
"Of course, most lingering souls wouldn't be so aggressive, but you know how influential a leader can be."
"I don't," stated so matter-of-factly, Asta was surprised by his lack of experience.
"What?"
"A leader? Sure, he can his ideals, but what do I care. Doesn't everyone just think for themselves?"
Asta needed a second to completely understand before flashing a coy smile. "No, everyone does think for themselves, but when someone with high charisma takes the lead and convinces everyone, they can be quite troublesome."
Thinking of examples, Lucas found nothing. He knew Thurin, but never really saw him on the battlefield fighting as a group. He knew his father, but the man didn't seem that charismatic. He had always fought alone or with someone else, never considering to convince them of his own ideals, for they were his own. They weren't to be spread, they were to be achieved by himself.
"So there's one leader who took over a body and has been killing others to provide more vessels for the souls? Or am I missing something?"
"No, that's mostly it. The leader of the group was a Rank 6 mage who left for Aurora some time ago. Or that's what I heard, I don't have any proof of that."
"Someone with that much power would be able to wipe this entire planet clean."
"Most likely, but we still have our own Demon King at Rank 6, and if the rumors are true, the Demon Lord has achieved Rank 7 and is at the center of the planet, protecting us from outside forces."
Lucas nodded in understanding. He recounted the undead in the ballroom and was surprised at their ability to hide. They had no warmth, yet had colored cheeks and lively expressions.
"Wait, undead according to the bestiaries of the Blue Fire Academy state that they are skeletons, while the bestiary that I got from the library in Proktor mentions they live off the corpses of the living. Those undead in the ballroom had functioning organs. Or not functioning, but they certainly fooled the demons."
"Of course. They are just demonic souls that have regained their body, it's not that they need to learn how to act like a normal demon."
"So what, they use darkness to remove any food that gets in their body, but how do they stop the degradation of their bodies?"
"Hard to say. I believe it was illusion magic sprinkled in with some darkness to remove the smell."
Staring at the debris around them, Lucas truly didn't understand what they came to do here. Stopping his thinking, he concluded that the Duke lured them here and took advantage of them to test Agatha and the other candidates.
Readying themselves, Asta and Lucas flew back to his estate. On their way, Lucas learned how the land of the Duke was distributed. The Duke ruled the center of the country, while the surrounding land was split up and given to the candidates to teach them how to rule over others.
Finding no problem with the layout, Lucas noticed that the Duke's land was surrounded by large deserts that no Duke ruled. "What's with this place?"
"It's a deadzone. It's just desert, so nobody wants to live there. There are some strange rumors stating that the previous Demon King is living there, but only fools would believe such a thing."
Arriving at Asta's estate, they were greeted with a salute when they entered the mansion. The soldiers were all extremely weak, but were paid a decent wage. Going to Asta's room, ready to sculpt a plan, everything was put on hold when they found a teary-eyed Bell sitting on the bed.
"Young Maphster! Where fid you dgoho?!", jumping onto Asta, tears stained his jacket in an instant. Hugging him tightly, Asta didn't know how to react. Looking towards Lucas for help, all he found was a sadistic look.
"Bell, please, just-"
"MAsther!", wiping her snot-covered face all over his chest, Asta simply patted her head slowly, his hands slightly shaken.
Calming her down proved no easy task. At the end, Asta was sitting on the bed with Bell resting her head on his thighs. Patting her every so often, Asta tried to soothe her worries.
Lucas fetched a board to write on, starting with all the candidates.
"From youngest to oldest, we have Agatha, Klaro, Protaris, Descartes, Isale, Alastor, and Agares. Agares will be taken care off by Alastor, so we need to get all the others in a year's time," Asta nodded as he kept soothing the sniffling Bell on his lap.
"I've gotten a good look at Descartes, Isale, and Protaris, but all the others have somewhat escaped my grasp. Considering we need to fight for that candidacy coin, I suppose each candidate will guard it heavily. A question, can't we just steal it?"
"No, that would be seen as cowardice, a sin for us demons."
"Who should we start with? If we just challenge the candidates, they'll likely choose a battle in their favor. But we can't exactly prepare for all of them."
"We have to try. I suggest we start with Agatha, she is the weakest and the biggest target for all other candidates."
Recounting the moments he saw Agatha, Lucas couldn't find anything of note. He was more worried about the people around her than the sibling herself.
Seeing no clear path forward, Asta started to talk about all the information he had about his siblings, no matter how small or insignificant, Lucas wrote it all down and added it to the board. After two days of work, Asta had no more memories he could bring up, all the information he had was used up.
Lucas didn't have the time to digest everything yet. All the information sloshed around in his head, causing a mess. Scratching the back of his head, Lucas put his mind to rest. "I'll go to sleep, wake me up in a day or so. Then we'll go visit Agatha."
With that, Lucas jumped into the bed. After sneakily conjuring a few shields, he fell asleep. Asta didn't see any fault with it. "Bell, I'll go to sleep as well, wake us up in a day."
Following Lucas, Asta created a few protection arrays and slept on the couch.
Bell, who had recovered during the two days, stood silent with a tray of snacks. She didn't know what to do since something unexpected happened.
'The Young Master normally never sleeps.'
Placing the tray down, she didn't know what just happened. To sleep so suddenly threw her off. She chuckled slightly seeing all the protections they set up, knowing full well there was nobody here that would harm them.
Asta's county wasn't anything special. Taxes were low, but so were social services. Demons were left alone and had to fight their disputes on their own. There were worse and better places, it was just average.
Nobody really cared for the local ruler, and Asta cared little for his citizens. Yet now, he suddenly wanted to get the seat ruling over the entire province of the Duke. She didn't know what the young master was thinking.
Still, seeing her young master sleep so soundlessly made her smile to herself. After a day, she woke them up, and the moment they got their bearings, they left, leaving Bell alone.
From the room, a knock sounded, opening the door, a butler appeared. "There is a letter for you, miss."
"For me?"
Flying towards the estate of Agatha, Lucas and Asta went over the information they had. It wasn't much to work with, hoping that they would glean a lot more when they saw her in person.
"So Agatha is just a puppet for other powerful demons, right? How many of those are there?", Lucas had gotten used to flying in a straight line, giving him the room to converse while flying.
"There are about five of them, I have no information about their positions or strength though. I believe they are all Rank 2, perhaps one is Rank 3."
"If there are five, it's already a mess," Lucas shook his head. The power levels of the demons might've not been that much, but puppets usually only had a single marionettist.
"How so?"
"Can you imagine five demons having the exact same lust for power and the exact same goals?"
"Sure."
"Have you learned nothing from Aurora? You demons are the same as humans, you're just red and have horns."
Asta's blank look made it clear he wanted to refute him, but he knew Lucas wouldn't just joke around for no reason. "You're just as emotionally intelligent as humans, meaning you have the same issue that you can't fully control your desires. The moment one of them has more power over Agatha, the others will panic."
"Creating a discord? We would still need to convince Agatha."
"Exactly, we'll kill the demons watching over her and once we've freed her, we'll take it from her."
"She's only twelve, please don't scar her mentally."
Lucas rolled with his eyes, to him, Agatha was a mage, so she would be able to handle all that.
'If she is twelve years old, she has the mental capacity to face death head on.'
'...'
'What?'
'You know, sometimes I truly do think you're a fuckton worse than me.'
'Why would you say that? Did I say something incorrect?'
'Nah, you're right, it's just that she pissed herself when we were in that subspace, can't imagine her actually fighting.'
'See! She saw her friends and followers die in that place, and she kept walking, didn't she? We just need to make her think she can't go up against us.'
'...'
It didn't take that long before they arrived at a barren wasteland. Landing on the ground to recover some mana from the long flight, Lucas inspected the ground. "This land is dead."
"Correct, the region where Agatha is active in is useless ground. It hasn't rained in this place for decades, yet each summer, the ground gets dried up. So the land is on its way to turning into a desert, joining the neighboring lands."
"She 'rules' this place? That twelve-year-old?"
"Yes, she has full power over the people here. Not that they bother following her actions nor did she do anything, since she can't act without the people using her approving of it."
Staring at the horizon, it was all dead ground. A headache started to form when he thought about what they would ask. 'They won't ask to rejuvenate all the land, will they?'
'Then I'll take over and kill all of those idiots.'
'Huh, Asta did say we can't kill the candidates, but all others are available, good thinking.'
Giving himself a thumbs up, they eventually moved forward until they reached a broken down estate. The place was crumbling apart, the gate burst through its hinges and laid on the ground. The pavement was broken, stones sat loose or were gone.
The little bits of grass were surviving of the spit of the few people who walked by and gave their respect to the local lord. Lucas tried to look into the windows, only to find they were broken, the curtains were torn to shreds. Just standing in front of the building gave Lucas a strange feeling.
'There were barely any towns on the way here.'
'The few towns that did exist were all trodden down and the people lived like beggars.'
Asta moved forward, taking great care to not step on a freshly spit-covered stone. Reaching the door, there were no guards to help or stop them. The security was so lacking that Lucas was glad they did Agatha first. It would've been extremely easy to demolish this place and take the coin away.
Following the lowest form of respect, Asta politely knocked on the door, only for it to fall over. A cloud of dust formed as the inside was home to many a bug, with it, spiders were seen in almost every corner creating their intricate webs.
"Were all her followers in that subspace the maids and butlers? No wonder they all died so quickly."
Asta sighed lightly, "You're most likely correct, but please don't mention it in front of her. As far as I remember, she is an extremely emotional child."
Intruding on the space, they inspected the first floor, only to find a single homeless person making himself at home in the storage room. There were some food scraps left, enough for a magicless person to life off.
Letting him live his life, they moved to the second floor. Most of the rooms were abandoned, seemingly in a hurry, with trivial items strewn all over the floor.
'That or someone robbed the place.'
There was but a single room at the end of the hallway that posed some significance, not because of what was inside, since they didn't know what it held, but because there was a single guard standing in the way.
A large man with a dark hood on. A single scar covered his chin. He held a wand on his side. Since Lucas couldn't tell his strength level without using willpower, he tried to use his Magic Vision to try and see how much mana he held. It wasn't an accurate estimation, since hiding one's mana was an option.
'He's around Rank 2, meaning we can take some risk.'
'Hey, hey, hey, risks? If I was a Rank 4 and needed to disguise myself I would choose Rank 2.'
'Tch, c'mon, what are the chances?'
'Above zero.'
'Alright, you make a fair point, but would that little girl be able to afford one?'
'How would I know? For all we know, that dude's into little kids.'
'...'
'What?'
Shaking his head, Lucas stepped forward, Asta hastened his steps to be in front, not wanting Lucas to take the first words. Not because he didn't trust Lucas, furthest from it, but because humans weren't exactly liked here.
"Sir, we've come to pay a visit to my good little sister Agatha."
The man murmured something under his breath.
"Excuse me?"
Letting his head hang low for a second, he repeated himself. "The Grand Lady is swamped in work, only with an official notice can you meet her."
Asta frowned before Lucas took a step forward. "We're here on business related matters anyway. She expects to see us."
"What? That's not, the uh, Grand Lady isn't expecting anyone today."
"Then she's busy doing all that paperwork by herself? We should be able to help her out. We've seen how lamentable the conditions are in these lands and while we were coming here to discuss the rejuvenation of the land. We can't forget about the people as well. We should help them too."
The man felt confused, he was stationed here with only a single directive, to send guests away no matter the means. But the rock solid hand on his shoulder with a nasty grin on Lucas' face made him reconsider. "You wouldn't want to have the people here know that their saviors were turned away, right?"
Looking to the sides, the iron grip on his shoulder intensified. "Y-you can meet the Grand Lady, I'll make an exception."
"You've done a wonderful thing, good sir."
'You're completely right, might makes right in this place.'
'Of course I'm right.'
'If we were in Frigus, or even in the Underground, we just had to manipulate and abuse the rules in place, but here, it's just how much you can threaten someone, how interesting.'
Barging into the room, Asta and Lucas found a broken down office. The little papers that were on the desk were reports about the debts the area had accrued. Reading over them, they could be considered nightmare fuel for any normal person. The bottom of the papers were a bit wet, fresh drops were visible.
Giving them a glance, Asta shook his head. "What did you expect? For her to be swimming in riches? Come, let's meet her."
At the back of the room, there was a door leading to a small bedroom. The bed was probably the best maintained piece in the entire house, it was just missing a single leg. Balanced on three, it was stable enough to carry the small hill of blankets.
Standing in front of it, Lucas kept his opinions to himself. This was clearly a person in distress and possibly traumatized from what happened recently. Lucas made a mental note that it was possibly a trap to lure them in, so he let Asta take the word, it was more appropriate for him to engage in the conversation in the first place.
"Agatha," it wasn't a cold voice, but far from warm. He was calling out to Agatha as if they were in a meeting, yet the mere fact she was hiding herself from the world in a run down estate was missing.
"Can't you speak a little bit more like a brother to her?"
"Excuse me? I am talking in a friendly manner with her."
"Sure, you didn't even introduce yourself when you called her out like a dog."
"I'm sure she can tell who I am by my voice."
"So you're not denying the second part?"
"Stop it, will you. I'll try it again."
The ridiculous banter between them was the absolute worst way to introduce themselves. Then again, they weren't exactly normal enough for such a thing as a good first impression to exist.
"Agatha, it's me, your brother, Astaroph. I've come to pay you a visit."
Spoken with a light tone, Asta suddenly turned to face Lucas with a serious face. "Is that good enough?"
"Hmm, there was definitely more familiarity in it, but you failed in the warmth."
"How can there be warmth in a voice. Do you want me to use magic to heat it up? What's the point in that? Besides, how do you even measure the familiarity of something?"
"Well, it was enough for her to at least poke her head out of the sheets," pointing towards the bed, a small head showed itself slightly. Red streaks were visible under her eyes. Her brown hair was a mess, as her pale red complexion made the dark circles stand out even more. Her horns were small, but at least not broken like the rest of the estate.
"What do you want...", spoken in such a soft voice, were they not mages, the words would've evaded them.
"Hah! I knew she would come out when I spoke," patting himself on the back, Asta took a step forward.
"I've come for your coin. What do we have to do in order to get it."
Lucas felt a massive urge to facepalm, but held it back.
'God, he's like you, but somehow even worse.'
'I'm not on to give compliments, especially not to that arrogant smartass, but wasn't he cunning like you back home?'
'Well.. yes, he was.'
'The hell happened?'
Lucas could only stare as Agatha retreated back into her fortress of blankets.