The sun had long sunk beneath the distant mountains, leaving behind a trail of molten gold on the horizon. The bell tower of the Kribi Mage Academy tolled solemnly, each note resonating through the marble halls and across the sprawling courtyards.
The heavy bronze gates creaked open, their sound mingling with the soft hum of the city settling into twilight.
As the day's lessons ended, groups of apprentices poured out into the streets, chatting in lively tones as they walked home.
"Hey, have you heard? Have you heard?" one young apprentice called out, nearly tripping over her own satchel in excitement. "The new Minister of Education actually pulled it off!"
Her friends turned, startled. "What? No way! You mean that training program—the old disaster everyone gave up on?"
"Yes! That one! You remember how every minister who tried to fix it ended up resigning? But she—she actually did it!"
"Don't exaggerate," said a boy with unruly hair and a stack of grimoires under his arm. "How could anyone clean up something so rotten? The nobles, the association, the royal courts—everyone was involved."
The girl only grinned, leaning closer. "With wit and backbone, obviously. I heard it straight from one of the senior instructors—Minister Aura faced the court mages herself and made them kneel! The ones who came to protest were completely subdued—by her alone!"
"Wait—the court mages? You're kidding! Those are the best of the best—graduates who even outclass some of our instructors! Who is this Minister of Education anyway?"
The group gasped. Their voices lowered as they turned onto the main boulevard lined with lamp crystals that flickered to life one by one.
"Her name's Aura. Minister Aura was promoted from that cesspool known as Hohenburg, you know? The place riddled with corruption—officials colluding with merchants, and even the Mage Association branch knee-deep in filth. She cleaned it up completely."
"Hohenburg? Impossible! Even an elf who goes there will come out blinded by greed. How did she do it?"
"Minister Aura, as they say, emerged from the mud unsullied. She's immune to power and temptation, upright and unyielding, devoted wholly to nurturing new mages—basically a living saint!"
"Aura… Aura… that name sounds so familiar."
"You've heard of her before?"
"No, not exactly. I've never heard of this Aura in the Association, but… I remember another one."
"Another Aura?"
"Yes... someone also praised for her integrity and dedication. Someone who devoted her life to the Association."
"Who?"
"The first president of the Magic Association, the creator of the magic level assessment and evaluation system, President Aura!"
"What—no way! Their achievements sound so alike! And now that you mention it, the new Minister looks just like the statue inside the Association's main hall! We never noticed because the statue's face was left unpainted, but… could they actually be the same person?"
"How's that possible? It's been over twenty years! But, wait… if the first President Aura had a daughter back then, she'd be about the right age now. Maybe 'Aura' isn't a name—it's a family title."
"That makes sense! Why didn't I think of that before?"
"Heh, actually, I only guessed it after hearing Vice President Flamme's lecture. She said there are ancient mage bloodlines hidden among humans, and every few decades they send out a family representative into the world—each using the same name."
"Then the Aura family must be deeply tied to our Association! Two generations now, both making great contributions—not just to mages, but to all of humanity! They're practically like the elf Serie, the very foundation of human magic itself!"
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No matter how chaotic the rumors outside are, Aura stays in her own little corner and patiently manages the overall situation.
Unlike humans, who hesitated when striking down their own, Aura had no such restraint. Sympathy was a foreign concept to her—mercy, a word without meaning. When something needed to be done, she acted swiftly, cleanly, without remorse.
Her decisive purges sent whispers rippling through every corridor of the Mage Association. Officials disappeared overnight. Corrupt supervisors were stripped of their titles before dawn. Even other ministers learned to tread carefully around her.
Under Aura's cold and surgical command—and with the quiet but undeniable approval of Presidents Zanze and Flamme—the Association underwent a transformation so abrupt it frightened even its staunchest members.
Throughout this process, Aura was completely oblivious to any pleas for mercy. Concepts like "friendship" and "offense" simply didn't exist in the minds of the demons. As long as their own interests weren't at stake, the demons, whose rationality reigned supreme, were essentially impartial.
Of course, things changed when her own interests were involved.
As she busied herself with mountains of educational reforms, Aura sometimes paused, staring at the flourishing progress of the human Mage Association… and found herself lost in thought.
She almost forgot why she had come here in the first place.
That bastard Schlacht—he had driven her into the humans' rear lines, forced her to betray her allegiance to demonkind, and now she was serving humans of all creatures.
Damn him.
The more good she did for humanity, the more she feared that her actions might one day doom demons itself.
Sometimes, as she signed another stack of documents, the temptation flickered through her mind—to tamper with them, to subtly sabotage this human order she was strengthening.
But then she would pause and think again.
If she didn't interfere, the ones who might suffer would be her fellow demons.
But if she did interfere, the one to pay the price could be herself.
Wasn't she, Aura, more valuable to the demon than hundreds—no, thousands—of ordinary demons?
After all, she was one of the Seven Sages.
One of her was worth a million of them.
Aura was certain that she was very important to the demons.
So, for those demons who had perished as a result of her actions, Aura could only offer a faint apology. This was all for the great cause of the demons.
You'll just have to die obediently.
Though, Aura thought, there was really no need for her to apologize at all.
After all, it wasn't she who killed those demons—it was the humans. The blood of demonkind stained human hands, not hers. What did that have to do with her, Aura?
And if one really wanted to trace the blame back to its source, then the one at fault was Schlacht.
It was Schlacht who ordered her to infiltrate the Mage Association, to earn the trust of humans. Surely, the cost of such an operation had been accounted for by that "the Omniscient."
"Hmph. To treat the lives of other demons as bargaining chips… what a cold-blooded 'sage' indeed," Aura scoffed, genuine contempt flashing across her face. She despised such lofty demons—those who saw themselves as above others, and viewed their kin's lives as worthless.
As for herself—leaving practical reality aside—Aura had never truly intended to harm any demon. She could say with confidence that everything she had done up to this point had been for the future of demonkind.
Compared to Schlacht, who callously drove other demons to their deaths, treating them as disposable pawns in his wars against humanity, Aura had always used only one pawn in her schemes—herself.
No matter how one looked at it, the losses caused by her actions could never compare to those caused by Schlacht's grand manipulations.
If anything, in terms of contribution to demons, Schlacht's supposed "devotion" couldn't hold a candle to hers. And in terms of damage done—her solitary infiltration couldn't possibly outweigh the harm caused by Schlacht's large-scale machinations.
By that logic, the title of the First Sage—the Demon King's right hand—rightfully belonged to her, Aura.
As for Schlacht… he was nothing more than a usurper.
A thief who had stolen her rightful place as First Sage.
"Despicable Schlacht!"
Aura muttered through gritted teeth, unable to stop herself from cursing aloud as the thought crossed her mind.
Just then, a voice came from outside her office.
"Minister Aura, good news from the front lines. Thanks to the Education Department's restructured training system, we've supplied the army with a great number of excellent mages. The demon forces have suffered heavy losses, and the legion commander has sent this letter to personally thank you for your service as the new Minister of Education."
"…Leave it there," Aura said flatly.
Aura's gaze lingered on the letter, unread. Her reflection glimmered faintly in the dark window—the face of a human minister, but the eyes of a demon burning beneath the surface.
At last, she exhaled softly, her voice barely audible.
"…All within acceptable limits," she whispered.
She lifted the letter, broke the seal, and read the words of praise for her "devotion to the human cause." Her lip twitched.
"It's fine, Aura," she murmured, mimicking Schlacht's deep, emotionless tone. "The Sequence Seven documents are of critical importance. A small sacrifice is permissible."
"All responsibility lies with Schlacht. It has nothing to do with me."
"Forgive me, Lord Demon King… for everything I've done."
"Aura was only following orders, after all~"