"This… What have you been doing here?"
A few hours had already passed when Flaman and the others noticed that something had happened in Alice's room. Prior to this, they had been discussing their plans on making use of Alice's unassuming appearance to their advantage. Only after it was time for dinner did they end their discussions.
Afterward, when Flaman came to invite Alice for dinner, he immediately saw the miserable state the place was in. Not only was the floor outside the room cracked, but even the carpet covering the corridor was stained with blood. The door to Alice's room had also disappeared, and replacing it was a bunch of wood chips scattered across the floor. Meanwhile, looking into the room, he could see that the room was an absolute mess, and even half of the bed was missing.
"Cough, cough… Aird and I were researching magic in the room," Alice lied. She definitely couldn't hide the fact that Aird had visited her room. So long as Flaman did a little investigation, he would immediately realize that Aird had been absent from her own room for quite some time. Thus, Alice naturally had to include Aird in her excuse. "But the magic's power was a little stronger than we expected, hence the state of the room."
Aird was now in the same camp as Alice. Not only were they both humans, but they were also spies in the demon realm. One was a human playing the role of one of the demon realm's Four Heavenly Kings, and one was a human playing the role of the Demon King. Alice couldn't help but pray for the demons when she thought about this situation.
"Researching magic?" Flaman wore a confused look as he walked up to the doorway. Then, he found that Alice's room was in a much more terrible state than he initially thought. Almost nothing in the room remained intact. "This feels a little familiar… Is this Aird's Gaia's Spear?"
As one of the Four Heavenly Kings, Flaman was somewhat familiar with Aird's magic. Although Aird's Gaia's Spear couldn't be considered a taboo, it was still a powerful spell that Aird could cast swiftly. Hence, it was extremely useful in battle. Meanwhile, looking at how most of the objects in the room were in pieces and sensing the dense earth-attributed mana in the air, Flaman could tell that Aird had indeed caused a ruckus here before.
However, Flaman quickly frowned as he sensed another type of mana than earth-attributed mana. Although it wasn't a lot…
Under Alice's gaze, Flaman suddenly extended his right hand and drew a complicated magic pattern in the air. Then, once he was done drawing what seemed like a mathematical equation, sparkles of light started appearing in the room one after another.
"This is the 'Mana Detection' spell, Lord Demon King. It isn't a complicated spell, and anyone who has attended university will know how to use it. If you are interested in it, you'll get to learn it once you start attending classes," Flaman explained when he noticed Alice's curious gaze. "This magic can detect and illuminate the remnant mana in the air. It can also determine the mana attributes and density within a certain area. Although it offers no offensive or defensive capabilities, it is incredibly useful in battle and academic research. So, it is considered a must-learn spell in university."
After listening to Flaman's explanation, Alice noticed that almost all of the sparkles of light that had appeared around the room gave off a light-yellow glow. By the looks of it, these light-yellow sparkles should represent earth-attributed mana, and it should be the mana leftover from Aird's Gaia's Spear and Oriad Pillars. Apart from these light-yellow sparkles, there were also some silvery-gray sparkles in the room. After thinking it over, Alice felt that these particles might have originated from Aird's sealing magic.
Initially, Alice had watched these mana sparkles appear with a curious smile on her face. However, a moment later, she could no longer bring herself to smile. This was because Flaman had waved his hand and isolated a few white mana sparkles.
"Light attribute." Flaman's expression grew serious as he looked at the sparkles he had isolated. Although these sparkles looked inconspicuous when mixed among the light-yellow and silvery-gray sparkles, Flaman could still acutely tell that these white and dazzling sparkles were light-attributed mana. "Although it isn't a lot, why is light-attributed mana here… Could there be a spy here?"
Alice shuddered when she heard Flaman's comment. She immediately realized where this light-attributed mana came from.
Alice was sure she wasn't the source of this light-attributed mana. After all, she had not cast any light magic during this entire time. And even though she had briefly held onto a pair of white panties with her right hand, the sacred light her panties radiated didn't contain any mana. There was also no possibility of any mana leaking out of her body with how high her Control stat was at the time.
This left only one explanation for the light-attributed mana in the room—Aird's awakening as the Hero. When Aird held onto the Hero's Sword, the weapon had absorbed all of her mana and converted it into light-attributed mana. Then, a portion of this mana must've leaked out and got detected by Flaman's spell.
Although the human realm would occasionally see the birth of people with either light or dark affinities, it was a different story for the demon realm. With the demon realm's polluted environment, it was absolutely impossible for any demons born here to gain an affinity for light magic. Thus, upon seeing light-attributed mana in Alice's room, Flaman's first reaction was to assume that a human had snuck into his manor.
Personally, Flaman felt that he had taken adequate defensive measures in his manor. While these defensive measures weren't enough to stop anyone inside the manor from causing havoc, it should be nigh-impossible for a human to sneak into his manor without his knowing. Thus, rather than assume that "a human had snuck into his home," Flaman felt that the possibility of "a human pretending to be a demon had entered his home" happening was higher.
Alice anxiously gulped when she noticed Flaman's worsening expression, her mind overclocking as she tried to think of an excuse. After all, she had just stated that she and Aird had been researching magic in the room. Yet, the next moment, Flaman had found traces of light-attributed mana in the room. If she couldn't give a reasonable excuse, her time as the Demon King would be over.
When Alice was churning her brain for an excuse, an indifferent voice appeared from behind Flaman, asking, "Are you wondering how light-attributed mana appeared in this room, Flaman?"
Flaman turned around upon hearing this question. Alice also followed Flaman's gaze and found that Aird had, at some point, changed into a new set of clothes and repaired the artificial demonic wings on her back. Just like Alice first met her, Aird walked into the room with an indifferent expression.
When Alice looked at Aird's calm that was borderline unnerving, she found it difficult to imagine that this woman was the same person as the woman who had been reverentially looking at her some time ago.
"That's right. Do you have any leads?" Flaman asked, narrowing his eyes as he looked at Aird. Of course, he wasn't suspecting Aird to be the culprit. Although Aird had only become a Heavenly King in recent years and her rise to power was incredibly fast, the unsympathetic way she handled her subordinates was the standard for demons. Thus, after interacting with Aird for some time, he and the other Heavenly Kings did not suspect that Aird was a human.
"This is the new plan I was about to tell the rest of you. When I was researching magic with Lord Demon King, we made a shocking discovery," Aird said as she walked up to Alice's side. Then, like a salesperson one typically saw on television commercials, she pointed a hand at Alice and spoke as if she were introducing a product, "Lord Demon King's second magic is something we have never seen in any of the past Demon Kings—light magic!"
At this point, Alice no longer had any clue as to what expression she should make to express the confusion in her heart.