After separating from Silug and Kevin, glancing at the ring on my finger I softly said.
"Alright, Angelica you can come out now"
-Fwa!
Following my voice, black smoke rose from my left finger and Angelica's figure slowly materialized before me. Opening her eyes, Angelica glanced at me and softly said.
"I'm ready"
Smiling, out of nowhere, I threw an orb-like object in her direction.
"Here"
-Plack!
"Huh? What's this?"
Catching the orb with her hand, Angelica tilted her head in confusion as she observed the black orb in her hand.
"It's your core"
Noticing Angelica's confusion, I smiled.
"..."
Taking a couple of seconds to process the object in her hand, opening her eyes wide and looking at me, Angelica's voice raised a few pitches.
"Ah?"
Seeing Angelica's reaction, raising my brow, I teased.
"What? You don't want it? If you don't want it I'll gladly take it back"
"No, no, no, I'll take it"
Shaking her head, Angelica quickly placed the orb in her chest.
-Shua!
Shortly after, as if made out of water, the orb directly melted into Angelica's body.
-Fwua!
As the core melted into her body, a terrifying red hue enshrouded her body giving her regal and majestic presence.
After a couple of seconds, slowly opening her eyes and turning her attention back to me, with a skeptical look on her face Angelica asked.
"...why are you giving it to me?"
Thoughtfully placing my hand on my chin, I shortly replied.
"Mhh, let's just say that I'm trusting you"
Taken aback by my answer, Angelica didn't know how to answer.
Being a demon and coming from a place where everyone would screw you over at the simplest mistake, the word 'trust' was not something Angelica was very familiar with.
There was no such thing as trust amongst demons and so Angelica was naturally unaware of how it felt to be trusted by someone.
...yet that all changed today.
For the first time in her life, someone had said that they trusted her. Moreover, it was the same human that had enslaved her and made her work for him for five years.
...it was weird and made Angelica feel odd.
Although she wasn't sure how she was feeling right now, deep down, just a little part of her felt grateful.
Turning her head away from me, Angelica softly muttered.
"...I see"
Seeing her reaction, unaware of what she was thinking, I kept a simple smile on my face.
Everything was a lie.
Of course, that wasn't the truth.
...but she didn't need to know that.
Taking out the orb wasn't actually that hard.
All I needed to do was channel my mana towards where the orb was located and I was able to quickly pull it out.
Moreover, since we've signed the mana contract it didn't matter if I gave her the core back or not, lest she completed the five-year deal with me, she was still bound to me.
I could've already given the core to her back when we signed the contract, but I refrained from doing so.
The reason was simple.
I was waiting for a moment like this to happen.
...for the perfect chance to appeal to her and make it seem like I trusted her. On the outside, it looked as though I was trusting her and making her feel important, but in reality, I was merely trying to appeal to her so that she would let her guard down against me.
[Power law 43 - work on the hearts and minds of others]
Just like Silug, if I wanted her to wholeheartedly follow me, I had to appeal to her desires.
...in this case the core.
By adding some flowery words, I made her feel special increasing her favorability towards me.
Though I sounded manipulative and perhaps borderline psychopathic, I didn't really care. I needed to do what needed to be done.
If I wanted her to fully become my piece, this was the necessary step.
...Like I said before, I was no hero. Sometimes, for the sake of the future, I had to do things that I would've never done before.
After all, what was the point of being a saint if it only led to a future where the demon king swallowed the world?
If the world wanted a hero, they had Kevin.
If they desired a hero off of me, I'm sorry, but I couldn't grant them that wish.
Sometimes, someone had to get their hands dirty for the sake of the greater good...
-Baaam!
Suddenly, snapping me out of my thoughts, out of nowhere a muffled explosion rang in the distance shaking the whole castle slightly.
Glancing towards the direction of where the explosion was coming from, squinting my eyes I instantly understood what had happened.
"hmmm...it seems like the aftershock of the battle is reaching all the way here"
I guess Angelica revealing herself once again has caused the orc chief to attack even more fiercely.
He probably took it as a provocation and hence why the aftershock of the attack reached all of the way here.
...that was good though.
The fiercer he was, the laxer this place was. By distracting the demons inside of the castle and redirecting their attention towards the fight, it would in turn allow for Angelica and I to have an easier time when moving towards our destination.
Thinking along those lines, glancing at Angelica I said.
"We should go"
"Yes"
Halting my steps and glancing at Angelica, I said.
"Angelica walk before me"
The reason I asked Angelica to walk before me was self-explanatory.
She was a demon hence she could pretty much move around the castle without arousing too much suspicion.
Moreover, given the current situation of the castle both externally and internally, it was safe to assume that no one would particularly pay too much close attention to us.
...so just having Angelica prove that she was a demon was enough to somewhat move around the castle without much trouble.
Still, although Angelica being a demon helped somewhat, that didn't mean we were just brazenly moving around the castle with no care of the world.
No.
We still needed to be careful when moving around. If someone stopped us and questioned us, without a doubt we would get caught.
-Gulp!
Therefore, as an extra safety precaution, I took out a [Gigantification potion] and quickly downed it.
"...this will be hella annoying"
Feeling my body expand and become larger, I quickly changed my clothes to the ones of the orc that I had met at the entrance at the back of the castle and wore them.
Although I couldn't change my skin pigmentation, it didn't really matter.
Placing my fingers on my face, or more specifically the mask I was wearing, I tried my best to distort my features to look more like that of an orc.
After a couple of seconds of molding, glancing at Angelica I asked.
"This should be enough, do I look like an orc?"
Briefly looking at me, Angelica shook her head.
"...not really"
"Not even a little bit?"
"Only if you look from far"
"That's good enough for me"
In the first place, this was merely a precaution I took in order to reduce the chances of getting caught. I wasn't actually planning on fully copying an orc as that would take too many resources and there would be too many loops in my plans as I did not sign a contract with a demon.
Thus, as long as I looked at the part from far, it was good enough. Glancing at Angelica I quickly urged her to move forward.
"Alright, let's go"
Irritated, Angelica responded.
"Don't rush me human"
"Ya, ya, I guess you don't really care about reaching the viscount rank"
"Viscount rank?"
"Yeah, the place we're going to has the item that you're looking for"
Hearing my response as her eyes lit up, Angelica quickly moved forwards.
"Let's go"
Seeing Angelica's reaction, I shook my head as a smile appeared on my lips.
"What a child"
...
The layout of the castle was rather simple, there were four floors with the bottom floor being the place where Kevin and Silug went.
The place where the treasury was located.
Other than that there was the second and third floor, but honestly, there was nothing important there as only the first and fourth floor were important as they were places I wanted to go to.
Currently, Angelica and I were on the first floor of the castle and our goal was to reach the fourth floor. The highest and most secured area of the castle.
...that's where our goal was.
"Let's go"
"Mhm"
As we moved around the castle, fortunately, given the fact that Angelica's strength was pretty strong and that we were walking rather inconspicuously, no one questioned nor stopped us as we walked through the castle.
Moreover, the fact that there was a war happening not so far from here added with the fact that the prison area was currently in chaos, the castle security was even laxer than before.
...thinking along those lines, I secretly gave a pat on my back.
All that planning wasn't for nothing.
Infiltrating such an important place had never felt as easy as now. Even Kevin back in the original novel had a much harder time than I was having.
Thus with Angelica next to me, we passed by numerous different rooms, from the dining hall, the kitchen, the armory, the magic item storage, the alchemy lab, the prison, and the kennel.
Had I not been in a rush for time, I would've without a doubt spent the time admiring the place, unfortunately, since we only had about seven hours at our disposal, I could only ignore the scenery around me and increase my pace.
...finally, after carefully walking around the castle with Angelica we were able to reach the final destination.
Marquess Azeroth's private space.
Staring at the large black door before us, Angelica curiously asked.
"How do we enter the place?"
Glancing at Angelica, I bluntly said.
"Easy, just open the door and enter"
Rolling her eyes, Angelica focused her attention on the black door.
"Stop joking...isn't there going to be some sort of security measure that will prevent anyone from sneaking in?"
Given how important the place was, there was no way just opening the door was enough.
Thus, glancing left and right Angelica tried to see what she could do to help.
....she really wanted to reach viscount rank.
Seeing Angelica dismiss what I said, I was a little offended.
"I really wasn't joking when I said that, you know"
Entering Marquess Azeroth's personal space wasn't actually that hard.
-Clink!
Arriving before the door, putting my hand on the doorknob I pulled back and the door slowly opened.
Silence swept the surroundings as Angelica was left standing speechless.
"..."
"That's it?"
Smugly looking at Angelica, I nodded my head.
"Yeah, what do you expect?"
In the first place, marquess Azeroth rarely left his castle. Added with the fact that orcs are terrible at sneaking in and that all of the demons present were under his control, entering his private quarters wasn't really that hard.
Moreover, the guards that were supposed to be guarding the room were taken by him to fight, resulting in even laxer security.
...still, although entering was easy it didn't mean that there were no safety precautions set in place by him.
"Angelica you wait here for a second"
Telling Angelica to wait at the door, I quickly took a step into the room, and the first thing I saw was two translucent membranes that covered the front part of the room.
These double membranes were specifically made to alert marquess Azeroth of anyone who entered his office.
Once someone trespassed those membranes, marquess Marquess Azeroth would immediately be alerted of the trespassing.
Honestly, the membrane was a very good way to block anyone from breaking in.
...however, there was just one problem, and that was that it only worked on demons and orcs.
It did not take into consideration humans.
Given that this world was only inhibited by demons and orcs, it was only common sense for Marquess Azeroth to set up safety precautions against the two races.
...unfortunately, an outlier such as I was present.
Thus, quickly bypassing the membrane, I entered the office.
"...ah, I finally found you"
Entering the office, halting my steps, and staring towards the corner of the room, a large smile appeared on my face.
"Would you look at that"
The main ingredient used to cure the mind breaker curse was right before me.
