Chapter 3

“Cough… cough cough…”

When he woke up again, Ira coughed almost immediately. A burning sensation that existed in his soul came from his heart and throat, and the location on his back where he had activated the [First Wing Pillar] was the same.

This was the price of ignoring the consumption of the Rune Bond and forcefully using the power that belonged to the Consul.

It was just like how the casters would fall unconscious if they overused the magic power in their bodies…

“Cough… cough, cough, cough…”

Coughing continuously, Ira looked around at his surroundings. What he saw was a dark cell. The steel bars and the door above formed the barrier between the cell and the aisle. On the other side of the aisle were naturally other cells.

In Ira’s memory, he had completely detonated his last “wing”. That power should be enough to block his pursuers, and he threw himself into the rapid river with his last strength.

If nothing went wrong, he should be able to drift all the way to the Elf Kingdom.

However, the surrounding prison meant that he did not seem to have escaped… Could it be that he had really been imprisoned?

“Isabella! Don’t tell me you want to turn on your teacher?!”

Ira shouted with a headache. He acutely smelled the change in the Empire and prepared to escape, but… did he fail?

Next, there might really be a civil war. Although he would win, that also proved that the situation was heading toward a bad outcome… He did not want to be draped in a yellow robe.

[Minister Ira ~ I’ll leave my daughter to you in the future! Turn her into your spouse!]

He vaguely remembered the previous Emperor who had raised his thumb and revealed his teeth with a smile. He had said such strange things to Ira.

What a memorable Emperor…

“Could it be that Yosef had long expected this day? I hope I won’t become Her Highness’s…”

While Ira was making such a helpless guess, his gaze focused on the shackle on his hand… With just a glance, his gaze changed, and the calm and nostalgic emotions instantly disappeared.

This was because this was the shackle of the [Forbidden Magic Stone].

As the name suggested, the Forbidden Magic Stone was a special material that could deprive the caster and other magic professions of the ability to use mana. It was the nemesis of magic professions.

However, although the activation of the Consul’s ability required the use of mana and was very easy to be misunderstood as being affected by the Forbidden Magic Stone, because of the mana’s [source], it was actually not restricted.

If it was the Empire, they would definitely know this.

Thinking about something, Ira reached out and touched his neck. Just as he had expected… the feedback from the world runes clearly told him that it had recovered to 3/5.

The world runes on the Consul’s Rune Bond would recover by 1/5 every day. In other words…

Ira was unconscious for three days.

…

While Ira was still thinking about what faction this might be a prison cell, as if he had heard something, he looked in a certain direction in the aisle outside the prison fence.

Clang!

Clang!

From that side, the sound of armor colliding with armor sounded. It sounded like a heavily armored knight walking over. There were two of them… were they here to find him?

After confirming this, Ira was prepared to fight. He whispered the [Triggered Effect] ability, which was the same chant as before, “First…”

However, Ira’s words stopped. It was not that others had done anything, but… he had already exhausted all his wings in the process of being chased.

If it was [Wing Spread], the wings would only slowly wear out.

However, if it was [Wing Shattering], the stored wings would directly shatter.

What he obtained in exchange for the extreme power was a completely disproportionate utilization and expenditure of energy—if the utilization rate was too low, the expenditure would be too high.

Clang!

Clang!

“…”

Under Ira’s serious gaze, the two armors arrived in front of her cell. What was lamentable was that these two armors did not have helmets or the organs they should have under them.

In their place were small balls of blue flames floating where the head should have been.

The faint blue light illuminated the originally dark cell, but this did not ease the gloominess that originally existed here. Instead, it became even stranger.

“Dullahan (Headless Horseman)…”

As he spoke, Ira also realized his current location at this moment… In fact, he could more or less guess that he was undoubtedly in the territory of the demonic creatures.

After going down the river, had he been captured by demons? However, it was unknown which city he was in now.

Since there was such a high-level demonic creature, he was either at the front line of the battlefield or approaching the hinterland of Demon King City… He hoped it was the former.

Clang!

Clang!

Under the collision of the armor and Ira’s gaze, the two Headless Horsemen who had stopped outside the cell had no intention of communicating with him. Instead, they made way at the same time, as if waiting for someone to arrive.

Ira had naturally killed the Headless Horseman (Dullahan) in the past. Moreover, the Headless Horseman’s mana was very suitable to be used as material for the second and fourth wing pillars… Of course, the current Ira was definitely not the Headless Horseman’s match.

As Ira pondered, the sound of running came from the other end of the aisle. The running person was chasing after the sound of high heels.

“Demon King! Please don’t take the risk!”

It was a very anxious female voice that could be associated with a mature working woman. As she chased, she advised, “We haven’t confirmed if the other party has lost his combat ability! Demon King?!”

Demon King?

Ira was stunned. At this moment, he also realized where such a spacious prison that gave people extreme psychological pressure would appear. Coupled with the name of “Demon King”, his current location was undoubtedly…

[Demon King City—Demiplane Prison]

Because it was not established in the main material plane, the difficulty of escaping was extremely high.

To Ira, this was not good news.

“…”

“Demon King…”

“…”

Facing Ira through the iron fence was a loli who looked to be about ten years old… She had dark red scaled wings that were like blood on her back and a pair of red horns on her head.

Behind her was a female demon in high heels and black stockings with a trademark tail and horns. Just from her appearance, he could already tell her race—Succubus.

Without a doubt, the so-called “Demon King” was the black-haired girl in front of Ira.

This was the worst situation because…

Ira had always used the [First Wing Pillar] as his trump card. The mana’s source was the former Demon King, the Scarlet Dragon, whom Ira had once killed, and the young Demon King in front of him was probably that guy’s… daughter?

Ira felt a little guilty as… he thought about how to kill the Demon King in front of him and snatch her mana to fill his empty [Wing] reserves.