“M-Mystel…”

The large demon trembled as he uttered her name. The atmosphere in the tribunal turned even colder as most elders hadn’t met Mystel yet. The legendary Lord and mistress of the city who went missing for more than ten thousand years.

Nobody knew the extent of her power, but seeing how the ancient elders were kneeling while shivering without being able to even stop their bodies, they had a primary idea of how terrifying she was.

Mystel’s eyes laid on the fire demon’s body filled with bloodthirst. She made an unpleasant face while harboring a cold sneer.

“Who gave you the authorization to call me by my name?” She said in a cold and menacing tone.

The flames on the demon almost extinguished as he shivered, he violently dropped his drop to the ground with such strength that it slightly shattered and his horns got stuck.

“P-Please forgive this servant…”

Looking at his with cold eyes, Mystel slowly approached him and stepped on his head, burying it in the ground in the process as she walked past him toward the succubus.

Extending her hands, they slowly approached her body and caressed her breasts before firmly grasping them.

“Elena… You brat… You sure did grow up while I wasn’t here…”

Despite how friendly this action looked to the surrounding, the succubus Elena didn’t dare relax and was in fact even more terrified. Mystel was someone unpredictable. Even Nekroi who could somehow predict some of her reactions couldn’t affirm being right in his analysis…

It wouldn’t surprise anyone if the next second she ripped her apart with her two hands, that was how unpredictable she was.

Mystel continued to massage her breasts with a sadistic expression, she remembered a fragment of the past where Elena was faking her breasts because of how small they were.

“You always wanted them to become large… Isn’t it great? Your dream came true…”

Her grasp over her breasts became firmer to the point where Elena started to feel pain, but she didn’t even dare hid it, afraid that Mystel would take it as resisting against her.

“T-Thanks…*Guh*… For your words.”

The strength in her hands didn’t diminish and became even tighter, it was as if she was going to turn them into meat paste.

“They became even larger than mines…”

Mystel’s mine was quickly replaced with anger, the pale expression of Elena became even whiter as if she had been completely drained of her blood.

“Is that why you started thinking you were superior to me?...”

Elena tried to say something, but her words couldn’t come out of her mouth. Mystel’s cold bloody eyes were emitting such an intense pressure that she couldn’t even pronounce a single word correctly.

“No wonder you dared act against the order I established… Against Listae who represent me in this city and manage it in my place…”

Her grasp over Elena’s breasts relaxed and made Elena drop to her knees. Her seductive body wasn’t really injured but she was extremely terrified.

Turning her eyes toward Nekroi, Mystel ignored him as if he had nothing to do with them. Together with her two seconds, he was among the persons he trusted the most in the city and knew from Listae that he had acted together with them to try to keep the peace within the city.

Mystel walked past Elena and arrived at the ancient elders' thrones, the corpse of Vatrach entered her eyes as she walked close to it and with a stomp, she crushed his head with a large sound. Leaving behind an unrecognizable piece of meat.

“Hmph”

The thrones in front of her collapsed as she arrived and a new one emerged from the ground on which she sat down with a bored expression. Looking over at the fire demon and the succubus still kneeling, she started to calm down as she recalled her daughter.

It was her first visit to the town, yet, it was ruined because of them. Mystel sighed before glaring at them with a commanding expression.

“You two… Kill yourselves.”

The tribunal once again froze for a moment, the two ancient elders mind turned blank as if trying to comprehend what she said. They, of course, had taken into account the possibility of Mystel killing them herself… But asking them to kill themselves was in a way far more terrible.

The two demons hesitated, if they obeyed then they would die… But if they didn’t, then… Wouldn’t dead be far more enjoyable than what Mystel would do to them? Having lived long enough to know a few things about Mystel, they, of course, knew what happened to whoever opposed her.

They greatly regretted not following Nekroi’s words, he had warned them many times about the consequences of opposing Listae… But thinking that Mystel wouldn’t care at all and might even find it interesting, they simply ignored him.

It was the greatest error in their life… They were people who had to spend countless years to reach their current status and strength, yet, because of a single whim, they were now forced to hand over their life.

How could they be willing?!...But what could they do?

Mystel who noticed their hesitation frowned as if she was displeased. The aura around her soared and almost drowned the building within shadows, she was already on the edge because of what happened to Shina… Now even those people started to ignore her orders while she was being merciful to them.

“Are you unwilling?...”

The pressure coming from Mystel’s aura made the demons bump their head even harder on the ground as if trying to act like an ostrich that burrowed its head to escape reality.

Showing a deadly expression, Mystel stood up, ready to end everything with her own hands. But as she was going to act, Nekroi coughed a few times as if seeking the authorization to speak.

Sneaking up at Mystel’s side, he whispered a few words to her ears which made her hesitate. Her eyes widened as she looked at Nekroi’s skeleton head, considering his words and idea for a moment.

He had made her a proposition very interesting and presented a few advantages to her. After debating for a few minutes by whispering with Nekroi, she finally gave up and nodded to him whose eyes faintly lightened as he watched the two brats in front of him, giving the impression that he was winking at them.

The two demons eyes were watching Mystel still with fear but also hope. They knew that despite opposing them, Nekroi still viewed them as some kind of grandson of village brat that he saw growing up.

Like an adult overviewing two children who made a mistake after disobeying their elders, he tried to pacify the situation and give them a chance to survive.

With a little light shining in her eyes, Mystel stood up.

“You guys still have both of your hearts, right? Give me one of them..”

While still being slightly shocked, the two demons looked a little unwilling but it was still far better than dying.

Some demons were born with two hearts and others gained another one when ascending into a god or higher being. The heart is the organ that for demons generate magic, having two allows them to produce a quantity even higher than regular races. While losing one wouldn’t be enough to kill them, it would definitely strongly impact their strength and take times to create a new one.

A demon’s heart could be used in various ways such as transforming it into an artifact or even use it to refine a potion that could increase one’s magic. But it was also something very hard to obtain due to them still being linked to their original owner even after being taken out.

Should the owner die, the heart will stop producing magic and turn into a useless organ.

This time the ancient elders didn’t hesitate and using their hand, they removed their own heart in bloody manners which made Mystel give them a satisfied nod. When they offered her their heart, she simply took them and made a dismissal sign.

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The hearts in her hands had already lost any trace of blood and looked like a large crimson jewel, the fire demon ones was still hot and covered with orange trails and the succubus’s one was pink and emitted a small pink smoke.

“Very well, you are now forgiven… Get out.”

Not willing to spend another second with a still angered Mystel, the two demons walked out of the tribunal. Making an eye contact with Nekroi, he stood behind her with a saddened expression.

Two more figures appeared by her side, the first one was her silver haired second, Listae. The second one was a colosse-like humanoid demon with a silverish skin and muscular body. His skin color gave the impression of him being made of some kind of mysterious metal that would even be able to handle a meteorite.

Standing with his bare chest shown to everyone, it gave the impression of his muscles being his armor.

As they appeared behind Mystel, various creatures bound with blood appeared in the center of the tribunal, the number could be counted in hundreds and despite how they struggled, they weren’t able to move a muscle or speak a single word.

The giant spoke in a rough voice as he pointed at the group of monsters.

“Those are the people deemed as guilty but saved by Vatrach as well as those who collaborated with him.”

“What are you going to do with them?”

Listae felt somewhat hesitant as she realized the number of culprits, this number was pretty high after all. By using Mystel’s way of handling troubles, she might end up slaughtering each and every one of them.  If every elder were slain by Mystel, then the city might end up lacking inhabitant. The population within the city has always been extremely small and the time needed for newborn demons to take their place would be counted in hundreds or even thousands of years.

Mystel smiled as she pointed her hand toward the roof of the building.

“What do you think I am going to do?... What is this place?”

The silver giant, Fortiem scratched his head and looked at the roof with a dumb expression.

“A roof?... No, a tribunal?”

With a little smirk, Mystel laughed and tapped Fortiem’s shoulder to congratulate him.

“That’s right, this is a tribunal. In a tribunal we judge people fairly, do we not?”

Listae breathed out in relief and made a relaxed expression.

“Right… We should judge all of them fairly....”

Nekroi who felt that something was wrong took a few steps back, it was strange for Mystel to act so nicely… Moreover, judge fairly? Did it even exist in her dictionary? Not even knowing what the word ‘fair’ meant, how could she judge them fairly?

Mystel smiled and looked over at the elders bound on the ground.

“Now, I shall judge you for the crime of violating rules within this city of mine… Guilty, you can all die.”

She then looked at the elders seated at the tribunal with a childish expression.

“I shall now judge you for the crime of conspiring with a self-proclaimed ancient elder who didn’t even have my approval… Guilty, all of you die as well!”

Turning her head toward the roof, she started laughing as she even pointed at the building.

“I shall now judge this tribunal for the mere fact of it existing in this world… Guilty, you can be destroyed as well!”

Listae turned pale after realizing that Mystel never had the intention of forgiving anyone, she felt somewhat dumb for not expecting this to happen. From the beginning, she had simply planned on slaughtering everyone present.

As Mystel’s mana started soaring and a spear made of magic appeared in her hands.

“M-Mystel… Please d-don’t…” She said with some hesitation, afraid of Mystel taking it badly.

“Why? Didn’t I judge them fairly?”

“T-That’s…” Listae didn’t know how to respond to Mystel’s smile. What was the law in the city? It was Mystel’s words.

If she said B was A, then it was A… It didn’t matter whether one was right or wrong, it wasn’t a democracy or a kingdom where the subjects could interfere with their lord’s orders. It was a pure dictatorship where she was the right and the truth.

“Please… Show some of them mercy…” Listae still didn’t back down and while kneeling asked for Mystel to reconsider which made Mystel chuckle.

“Mercy?... Can you eat that?”

“Please show them kindness…”

Strangely, her words made Mystel hesitate for a moment. Fortiem and Nekroi looked at them with a very bizarre expression, especially Nekroi who didn’t know what to say.

“Kindness?...”

Fortiem looked like he wanted to say something, but his words didn’t come out.

Listae didn’t say anything and simply kept kneeling. Mystel, on the other hand, started laughing loudly before slowly calming down with an amused expression.

“Kindness… Ah, kindness… Very good, well said. I shall give them kindness.”

With those words, Mystel vanished from the building and arrived outside of the tribunal. Nekroi and Fortiem didn’t dare stay behind and carrying the clueless Listae, they quickly started running away.

“Kindness… Did you perhaps forget?...”

Listae looked at Nekroi with inquiry and suddenly felt that something was wrong. Even that musclehead Fortiem was looking at her strangely like he couldn’t understand her actions.

“Did you forget?... What kindness is to the Lord?”

Trying to think really hard, a very old memory suddenly appeared in her mind. A memory from one of their war against the other faction… A war against Arsal’s order.

Listae suddenly became pale with a regretful expression. The moment they arrived outside, the sun was gone… Any light had vanished…

The sky was covered by a massive object… A large hammer covered the area, it kept growing larger and larger until it surpassed the size of the whole building.

“Kuku… Kukuku… Have a taste of my ‘kindness’!”

Under the mad laugh of a woman… The hammer came down and crushed the whole building and everyone still trapped inside without any mercy. Denying them the opportunity of giving them any sense of pain.

A large hammer of destruction… One of Mystel’s old weapon…

‘Kindness’, perhaps its name came from the fact that her opponent didn’t have the time to feel pain?

Listae fell to her knees with a depressed expression, muttering some kind of gibberish. ‘More work to do…’ ‘Who is supposed to repair everything?... That dumbass Fortiem can’t even spell his word correctly…’

With a satisfied expression, Mystel waved at them with a friendly expression.

“Now, it’s time for me to return to my daughter’s side… See you~”

For a moment, the world froze for Nekroi and Fortiem. Even Listae broke out of her trance when she heard her words. She thought that Shina was one of her ‘protege’ which she took care of for a few days before leaving them behind…

“Daughter?...”

Nekroi turned to Listae with a dumbfounded expression.

“Is she…?”

“I am afraid so…”

“...What is she like?”

“...Very cute?... And educated?”

“Different from Mystel?...”

“Yes…”

Listae recalled a certain bloody scene and her words suddenly stopped in her mouth.

“Probably…”

All of them sighed, they didn’t know anything about Mystel or what she was doing. But the fact that she suddenly had a daughter somehow terrified them.

Apart from Listae who had met Shina before, they tried to imagine a little Mystel with an even more childish attitude accompanied with her mother destroying worlds just for one of her smile. A deadly duo of mother and daughter.

“...”