The Demon Lord Is An Angel
Chapter 442: The Star

Chapter 442: The Star

After a thorough interview, which thankfully did not cycle back to her, Malz, Ferro, and Anko were roomed in a wing of the castle’s extensive basement, which was one part of a network of tunnels and rooms called the Underway, which added a completely new layer to how complicated the city’s construction was.

Before leaving them with the guards at the door, Jian warned them, "The first two to three floors tend to be safe, but don’t try to go much deeper if you don’t have to. Chainsfree was built on top of older cities, and what hasn’t sunk is often occupied by dangerous creatures. Monsters too."

He specifically did not answer when she asked if they were allowed to explore a bit, instead giving her an evasive "I’m sure someone will let you know when that’s allowed."

Why tell us about how to stay safe in the Underway if we’re just going to be imprisoned?

When she brought this up to Ferro, he shrugged and said "I guess they think they won’t imprison us forever. We didn’t have anything useful to tell them about the Duat after all."

A few of their questions had come harrowingly close to dismantling the narrative they’d built, but even Anko managed to defend them with true but vague answers.

Her favorite question had been "Where did you get those clothes?" To which Anko answered, "From a crazy guy who said he was two people. He had magic like you wouldn’t believe."

But now, after a night of fitful dreaming and waking up in a cold sweat, Malz remembered her earlier resolve enough to do something about it. So she left a snoring Anko and stepped into the hall. Trying the door, she found it locked, but a moment later the guard opened it.

"Can I help you Miss Aiko?"

"Is there a place I can get a bath?"

"I’ll have to get another guard before I can take you."

And probably watch me in there too...

"N-never mind," Malz said. "I’ll just ask my friend to clean me with magic."

The guard nodded, and Malz retreated from the door. On her way back to her room, she noticed the sounds of talking coming from Ferro’s room, which was across from hers. She gave his door a knock.

"Just a moment!" A moment later, Ferro appeared, his suit half-doffed to the waist, with a blush on his face. "Is everything alright?" he asked.

Malz specifically ignored the golden piercings in Ferro’s nipples as she said, "I can’t sleep. I woke up sweating and... Would you be willing to clean me with magic? "

He nodded, eyes understanding, and shifted aside to open the door further for her.

His room was like hers and Anko’s. One small table, two chairs, two beds. A narrow little slot with bars and a tiny pair of spell circles that allowed air to be circulated in and out when charged. They were currently active.

Malz strode in and took a seat on one of the chairs, sitting backward to avoid pinning her wing on it. She pulled off Ferro’s cloak and placed it on the table. Underneath, she still wore the black suit Kiryu had given her, and she reached up, stroking the collar from opposite ends. It was a handy function, and one she’d discovered by going into the menus of the wrist control device an discovering a manual written in runescript.

How it all unfolded and disappeared was a mystery to her, but she suspected some kind of inbuilt dimensional storage. One hidden well enough that she couldn’t find it, even after a couple of hours of inspecting the collar - all while she listened to Anko trying to saw through her pillow with her nose.

The only thing left behind after it finished was a collar of smooth, circular metal about her pinky’s size in diameter, rounded at both ends. It was flexible enough to remove, and the reverse gesture would unfurl it.

She heard a sputtering sound from behind and turned, locking eyes with Ferro.

"What is it?" Malz asked.

"I didn’t expect you to get naked!"

"How else were you going to clean me? These suits breathe nice, but it’s not like they let anything out." That wasn’t entirely true, as there were slight crusts of salt at places where the body sweated most, but Malz had noticed there was a griminess to her suit’s interior. Most of that had been left in her bed, however, as a result of her discovery about its storage abilities.

Now that she thought about it, she also needed to ask Ferro for a new blanket.

"I guess you’re right... but, it’s just..." Ferro scratched at his neck nervously.

Malz quirked an eyebrow, but that was when she noticed how he was holding his suit. Trying to keep her from seeing...

She turned, coughing awkwardly. "Well, um, I mean... I-It doesn’t have to be awkward! I trust you, and it’s not like you haven’t, um... seen me..." She’d started her escape virtually naked, after all, and she had the sunburns to prove it. Though oddly, she hadn’t felt them much when wearing her suit. She looked down at the ground. "I just don’t trust myself with magic right now."

"I guess you’re right..." Ferro swallowed his nervousness and approached. A moment later, Malz felt the tingle of magic starting to remove the grime from her skin. A few places - those with sunburns - felt a bit more raw than others.

Even if it wasn’t as rejuvenating as a bath, she felt a bit more human with every pass of his hands...

Not human. I’m an... She took a breath and sighed. Who was she kidding... The memories she had from thousands of Aikos only confirmed the harshest truth that Heaven would have never wanted to know... Everyone, Myriad, Angel, or Demon, all came from the same stock. The same template. A template now so rarified they didn’t even have a kingdom to call their own.

Humanity.

The oldest race of the Myriad were also her race’s progenitors.

Angels were not special. And yet, the moment Malz accepted this, she felt oddly... free.

Like the so-called "Angelic Burden" to safeguard Ayther and civilization had fallen away, replaced by simply being a part of the world instead of someone who was supposed to hold herself as separate and special. Even her rebellion, the darkness she shrouded herself in, the repeated inclination of every copy of Aiko that ever came from Heaven, began to feel more like it came from her.

It wasn’t something she could entirely wrap her mind around. There were so many contradictions riddled throughout the Triune Worlds and her lives that to fully encapsulate them might take the rest of her lifetime, even if she managed to evolve into an Arch Seraph and stop her aging.

"I’m done."

Ferro’s words jolted Malz out of her reverie. "Thank you," Malz replied. She rubbed her collar, redeploying her suit.

"Your wing is looking much better."

"You don’t have to comfort me. I know the rest of me looks horrible." Malz drew a hand along her arm, imagining she could feel the scars through the suit.

Ferro sat on the bed, shaking his head. "It might not mean much coming from me, but I don’t think beauty is just a body thing. I’ve met... slept with... a lot of beautiful people who disgusted me. Not because of how they looked, but because of what they did."

"Like the one who owned you?" Malz asked. "You never said much about him."

"I’m ready to say more, now that we’re safe," Ferro said. "I think... talking about the things that hurt me will help me put the fear aside. I know Lanoch might still come after me, but I don’t have to fear it. And honestly, I feel like what we gained from Kiryu will give me more than a fighting chance if he does show up."

"Wish I could say the same for me," Malz said.

"What are you afraid of?" Ferro asked gently.

Malz leaned a bit more heavily forward into the chair. "I’m afraid that... one night I’ll wake up and this will all be a dream. I’ll still be in some hole in Heaven’s basement. Still be surrounded by demons that would torture me just for fun, since they already tortured me for everything I know. I’m worried that Anko will betray me, even if she says we’re friends. She would have. You would have. To stay with that Kiryu guy."

"That wasn’t my proudest moment," Ferro admitted. "I’m just... lost. I would be lost, on my own. I’ve spent so long trying to get away so I could have a chance to find my family that... I don’t know what to do. And following Kiryu felt like it was more solid than coming here and just... waiting. I thought you two would leave me once we arrived."

"Maybe that would have happened," Malz admitted. "We all have our own stars to follow. But I don’t think that’s a good idea now." She stopped for a long moment to think. Should she tell him?

"Why? If I may ask."

"Because... I’m not myself. I don’t know what to do about the fact that... ever since I put on that necklace, I’ve been having memories that are... from different versions of me. Different lives. Thousands of them."

"I... think I knew," Ferro admitted. "When the Ankos gave me the necklace, they said it was something like a record. I tried to access it, but it never let me, so I just kept to the phrases that protected me. And if you’re like them, then maybe they wanted you to have it."

"And now Kiryu has it," Malz chuckled bitterly.

"He’ll be back," Ferro said, his voice ringing with faith.

"I hope so."

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