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High Maintenance
On a screen floating in the air, I saw Sylphy gouge out the heart of a young, black-haired demon and dice it into pieces.
“I-impossible! Kidoumaru was killed in a single strike!? He’s the number one boss of Rashomon!”
I wasn’t sure what he meant by number one boss, but that demon seemed quite powerful, yet he was easily slaughtered. I always thought that she was all talk and was just drinking all day, but she was actually this powerful.
Besides the horse-faced demon which was still in battle with Theo’s group, all the other bosses in his prided Rashomon, had been killed in an instant.
The group of Kurama, Hachi, and Judo’s was especially brutal. They were so powerful that I almost felt sorry for their opponent.
Anyways, putting aside Sylphy who had always been absurdly powerful, Aquido and the others were also quite strong. If just the fragments from the title, ‘Human Realm’, led to this kind of rise in their strength, just imagine what would happen when it gets fully released


However, there’s no point in thinking about that.
Theo’s group was stronger than the horse-faced demon and their fight would be ending soon. After that, they’d all appear at this place, and Sylphy’s strength right now would not be any weaker than that of Blue-Beard.
I wasn’t feeling proud of how I had to rely on everyone else, but this was pretty much a victory.
“Isn’t it humorous?” I asked.
The reconstruction of my mind and body via Human Realm had exhausted me, so I was currently in a grand tug-of-war with Blue-Beard’s spell. I normally wouldn’t have the liberty to laugh at others.
“Shut up!” he yelled, punching me again. Still, my smile which had yet to disappear lit a fiery rage inside him. “You should be well past your limit, so why am I still not able to dominate you!?”
“Well, that’s all that your spell amounts to in the end. Just give up.”
Blue-Beard grumbled for a moment, but knit his brows as a masked demon appeared at the corner of the screen.
“What do you want!? Now’s not the time for this! Leave your stupid reports for later!”
The masked demon remained silent for a while in front of Blue-Beard’s fit, but soon began to talk.















“That fool!”
If the masked demon had been here, Blue-Beard would have probably sent him flying with a punch to the face.
“Alright, fine. You did well. Bring her here immediately,” BlueBeard ordered the masked demon in a manner so calm that one wouldn’t believe how angry he had been just a moment ago.
The screen turned into a struggling white-haired girl bound at the wrists.
◇◆◇◆◇◆
“Grey-dono, are you okay!? You look so pale!” Lucia asked impatiently.
Once she was brought over, she immediately clung onto me.
“You idiot! Is this the time to be worrying about others?”
She had probably heard that I had been captured and began scouting around the perimeter of Rashomon, unable to leave me alone. Seriously, dealing with her hurts my head, and it’s been like that ever since I met her; she never takes her own safety into account either.
“Sorry,” Lucia replied sadly. I sighed and looked at Blue-Beard, who had been staring at us the whole time.
“I’ve come up with the best way to inflict despair onto you!” he declared, wriggling his body in the grossest way possible.
“You couldn’t make me submit, so now you’ve set your eyes on a weak woman? Is this really the best you could think of?” I replied.
Blue-Beard’s face twisted in anger. “No matter how you try to work your way out, it’s going to be the same for her. It’s not good to be a sore loser,” he said, pointing his finger at me.
“Grey-dono, don’t worry about what happens to—”
“Lucia, it’ll get complicated if you talk, so please keep quiet,” he cut her off. Seriously, when it comes to this girl


“Seems like you’ve come to accept it. Now then, please enjoy today’s main event.” Blue-Beard snapped his fingers and a group of masked demons came staggering towards Lucia. “First up is a chorus of screams in front of the boy. Hmmm, how should I do this?”
He paced back and forth in front of Lucia before snapping his fingers when he came across an idea.
“How about I have an insect egg demon lay some eggs inside her? The eggs would hatch inside her body and devour her from within. Oh, but don’t worry. I’ll make sure to mince her up afterwards and feed her to you, bugs and all!”
If you had something that exciting up your sleeves, then do that to me from the beginning. The torture I went through before was just so clichĂ©d – you didn’t even use any weapons or tools to hit me. Looks like your madness is all a facade. You’re like a kid who’s desperate to play the villain.
“Let me go!” Lucia cried as she struggled under the masked demons.
“Insect egg demon.”
A horned woman with compound eyes appeared. She walked up to Lucia and opened her mouth.
Seeing the woman’s mouth split open all the way to her ears, Lucia let out a shrill scream.
Then, a long round tongue extended out of the demon’s mouth and began to spit out eggs.
“N-noooooo!!!”
Well, she wasn’t prepared at all. I hope you’ve learned your lesson now.
—Geez, you’re so high-maintenance.
Amidst my hazy consciousness, I sent out an order to Lucia and began to chant a spell. My body creaked and groaned as I chanted what was normally an easy spell and blood began leaking out of my skin.
“A final struggle?” Blue-Beard mocked.
I ignored him and quietly continued my chant.
Blue Beard had probably cast several spells on me, but the reason my body was so battered up was most likely from the effects of Human Realm’s reconstruction of my body and soul. I could barely gather any strength, and a single wrong move could leave lasting effects. At the very least, I wouldn’t be able to get out of this unscathed. In fact, the spell even had a chance of exploding in my face.
—I can’t be called a human anymore.
With a wry smile, I finished my chant.
“Invisible Labyrinth, Revised.”
Still Struggling, Lucia was enveloped in a golden light and the two demons restraining her and the woman with compound eyes disappeared.
The next moment, my right side blew off.
“Eh?”
While blood splashed all over her, Lucia stared at me in shock.
It was for times like these that I had developed the improved version of Invisible Labyrinth. It prevented all contact with the target for a period of time. While I reduced its effectiveness by limiting its range, it was incomparably stronger than the original spell.
“You b-bastard—!” Blue-Beard began to wail, but I ignored him.
“And down you go.” I plopped onto the ground.
“Grey

dono?” Lucia reached out to touch me.
“I put a barrier around you just now. Now listen, anything that touches you will be thrown off into another space. If you get rescued, then make sure to tell them that.”
She frantically retracted her hand.
“N-noo!!” She fell on her butt and began to cry, while I just looked up.
It’s not like it was all Lucia’s fault. I should have known how reckless she could be. It was my fault for not taking any measures to prevent this just because I was busy.
But at this rate

Turning into the puppet of that small fry, Blue-Beard, didn’t sit well with me. However, that didn’t mean I wanted to choose suicide instead. I’m not like that.
In any case, I can’t use recovery magic so I’ll bleed to death at this rate.
It was a game against time.
—I’ll struggle till the very end.
I sighed as Lucia continued to cry beside me, and my consciousness sank into darkness.