Chapter 79: The Puppet

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Time rewinds to one of the offices within the Demon Nation’s royal castle.

“One of the summoned ones?”

Snail, the trusted aide of Demon King Mekido, furrowed his brows as he read the report brought to him by his subordinate.

The report stated that one of the two summoned individuals taken in by Admos had crossed the border into the Demon Nation.

Summoned individuals were, quite literally, the sworn enemies of the demons—one had slain the former Demon King, and another had recently inflicted a devastating blow to the army led by Mekido.

According to previous reports, the summoner responsible for that major defeat had already been eliminated by a prior summoner. However, the other one was still alive.

The fact that this surviving summoner had been allowed to pass through their borders unchecked—and that Snail had only learned about it through a delayed report—filled him with rage.

“Summon the one who submitted this report.”

“Y-yes, sir!”

Snail’s fury, sharpened by his long-standing ties to King Mekido from their days as soldiers, sent shivers down his subordinate’s spine. Hastily, the aide rushed to summon the officer responsible.

The summoned officer gulped upon entering the room, immediately sensing the heavy anger radiating from Snail.

“I—I was told you called for me, sir. Reporting in!”

Snail glanced at the officer, making an effort to suppress his rage before speaking.

“This report states that a sworn enemy of our people, a summoner, was allowed to cross the border without consequence. Tell me… you didn’t actually do such a thing, did you?”

The restrained tone of his voice, rather than lessening the intimidation, made it all the more terrifying. The officer swallowed hard before carefully selecting his words.

“Y-yes, sir. The summoner in question, named Ota, recently entered our nation. According to intelligence from our spies in Admos, the Admos royal family has abandoned him and expelled him from the castle.”

Snail’s eyes widened in disbelief.

“Expelled?”

To him, summoners were beings of immense power, superior to both demons and humans of this world.

The idea of such a being cast aside was inconceivable.

However, as the officer continued his explanation, Snail’s expression shifted from skepticism to comprehension—before finally settling on an entirely different kind of frustration.

“So, this Ota… he’s just a fool who mistakenly believes himself to be strong without putting in any effort?”

“Based on the reports, yes. That is why we saw no reason to stop him from entering. His personality is indolent, and while he is currently powerless, he remains a summoner. We don’t know what might trigger his latent abilities, so we avoided provoking him unnecessarily.”

In short, they chose not to agitate him out of caution.

Snail took a moment to ponder this.

“…A powerless summoner, cast out by the humans? If handled correctly, he might be swayed to our side.”

His aides murmured in shock.

“Y-you mean to recruit a human?”

“Don’t misunderstand. He’s a summoner. Neither human nor demon—an outsider to this world. I’m not recruiting a human.”

Silencing his subordinates with that firm statement, Snail once again sank into thought.

Lately, he had been questioning Mekido’s fitness to rule. Remaining as his aide could eventually cost him his own position.

Though Mekido was popular among the military, he lacked favor among the nobility and commoners.

If things continued as they were, it was only a matter of time before he was overthrown.

The royal lineage of Meyleen still remained. It was inevitable that someone would try to depose Mekido and place Meyleen or her offspring on the throne.

Something had to be done before that happened.

Having reached a decision, Snail issued an order to his subordinates.

“When this Ota reaches the capital, bring him to me. He may be incapable of casting decent magic now, but as a summoner, he possesses far more magic power than anyone in this world. If trained, he might prove useful.”

Snail had placed high expectations on Ota’s immense magic energy as a summoner…

However, the moment Ota arrived in the royal capital, he immediately caused a commotion at the Adventurers’ Guild and ended up getting arrested.

Enraged, Snail slammed his fist against his desk so hard that the surface cracked, his knuckles bleeding from the impact.

“How much more of a nuisance can these summoners be?!”

Letting out a deep sigh, he sat down, his anger slightly subdued after shouting.

“Go to the guards’ station and retrieve Ota at once. As soon as you bring him here, put him through magic training.”

“Yes, sir!”

Thanks to his former position, Snail still had considerable influence within the military. He sent a soldier with a fearsome presence—someone even a summoner wouldn’t easily defeat—to pick up Ota.

And so, Ota was released from his cell. Unaware of the behind-the-scenes arrangements, he eagerly followed his escort, fully expecting to be trained by a beautiful sorceress.

However, upon meeting Snail, the man responsible for his release, Ota’s shoulders slumped in open disappointment.

Snail’s temple twitched with irritation, but he managed to suppress his anger and instead explained the deal—Ota would be trained in magic, but in exchange, there was a request he needed to fulfill.

Though initially disheartened, Ota gradually became interested in Snail’s story. In the end, he agreed to the conditions.

The request was this: Once Ota had mastered magic, he was to rescue Princess Meyleen, who had been defeated in a power struggle and was now being held captive in a certain location.

Upon hearing this, Ota immediately shouted, “A PRINCESS?! LET’S GO!!”, causing everyone around him to recoil in shock.

It seemed he had already deluded himself into thinking that after rescuing the princess, she would fall for him, leading to an epic royal romance.

His foolishly ecstatic expression made it all too obvious what he was imagining.

But Ota had no idea.

He didn’t know that the previous summoner was lurking in that very location.

He didn’t know that, depending on how negotiations went, they could all be wiped out.

Snail deliberately chose not to tell him.

Completely unaware of the danger ahead, Ota dove into magic training, dreaming of his future with the fallen princess.

Meanwhile, within the Demon Nation, the seeds of conflict were already beginning to smolder.

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