After morning training, Reed and Anna went hunting once more, and got back to eat.

Going into the library, Reed started to read the diary once more:

Serion wanted to kill someone in order to test his theories.

But where would he find someone willing to become a sacrifice for research? Nowhere.

So he decided to utilize unwillingly people instead. Picking up people from the village, he started experimenting with multiple people at once.

Together with those people, he finally started experiments on demonic beasts as well.

Of course, everyone in the village noticed something was going on. But the disappearances of many villagers got attributed to the fact they live so close to demonic beasts.

And then it was already too late. Half the villagers had disappeared from their homes, and no one exactly why.

Many started to leave the village, believing it was cursed. Only the most stubborn ones stayed behind.

They were also used in Serion’s research, leaving the village empty.

Through the results of his research, Serion came across many other spells he revealed to the world. And some even he didn’t dare reveal, keeping them for himself.

Some of the spell he kept for himself were: The immortality ritual, and the Dissintegration spell.

The diary contained the specifics and requirements to realize both. The immortality ritual, in particular, required quite the large amounts of sacrifice.

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Sending over a letter to the magic confederation, Serion asked for a large group of volunteers who could help him further his experiments.

Many a people came to him, and he managed the get the ritual to work without a hitch.

After the volunteers didn’t come back, that’s when the king and the magic confederation noticed something was wrong with Marth village.

Sending specialized scouts over, they managed to find out what happened what the village and what Serion was doing in his research.

It was scandalous, reminding people of the incident that had happened during the Great War, where the magic confederation and the old king faced off against the demon kin, who were performing similar experiments on humankind.

Of course Serion got reduced from his pedestal as a saint to the worst scum. He go labeled demon lord, inspired by the Great War, in an attempt to rile the masses against him.

It worked. All his statues got destroyed, and the king, together with the confederation, sent over multiple warriors labeled “heroes” in order to defeat the demon lord.

But during the king’s reign, they never managed to defeat him. All the heroes who lost were used in experimentation, and the king died of old age, giving place to another king.

For one hundred years they never managed to defeat him.

Until now.

And that’s the whole story behind the tragedy of the demon lord.

Closing the diary for the last time, Reed sat down and got deep in thought.

For a while, he just stood there, taking everything he had just read in.

Then he got up, sighing:

* I guess that’s it… I can finally leave this behind me

Still kind of disoriented, Reed got up the stairs, only to once again bump into Anna.

* …What are you doing?

* It’s nothing. I am just a bit overwhelmed by some things I just read, is all.

* …Were you reading something as well? Then let me tell you about this magic theories I saw…

Looking like a child talking about its newest toy, Anna told Reed all about the book she had read, eyes sparkling.

Reed got taken aback at first, but after seeing her enthusiasm while talking, he eventually relaxed and started looking at her with warm eyes.

Then, he placed his hand one top of her head, and started patting her.

* …Again, what are you doing?

* Oh, I did it by instinct.

* …Really… then why aren’t you stopping?

* I don’t feel like stopping. Deal with it.

Once more, Anna kept her deadpan face but blushed red.

After Reed finally decided to stop, they both went to eat something, had a conversation, and then got to sleep.