Chapter 57: Disciples of darkness

The fairies needed to sleep for over 18 hours to recover, their bodies do not seem to be very efficient. After that we decided to have a feast to celebrate our victory, that felt a bit weird since that battle didn't seem like a big deal, but now that I think about it, most people probably don't get into as many fights as I've been getting into lately.

And having a feast is not something I'm going to complain about.

Nera is sitting next to me and asked me why I'm so afraid of clowns, but she doesn't seem convinced by my explanation.

"You really believe that there was an evil clown that wanted to eat you?"

"Yes! It kept following me everywhere for weeks back when I was little!"

"And no one in the orphanage did anything about it?"

"No, but that's because I was the only one who could see it."

"Luna... you said that you had been reading some horror story just before that. Are you sure that you weren't just having a nightmare?"

"It was real! I'm sure of it!"

I told Nera about the evil clown that terrorized me when I was a child, but she doesn't believe me.

"I bet that Luna went for days without sleeping when studying magic even back then. That's just not healthy you know, no wonder that she had hallucinations."

"Don't look at me like I'm crazy! I didn't hallucinate anything!"

I already told Arana about that clown before but she didn't believe me either...

This is bad, if everyone thinks that this is all my imagination, they won't help me if it ever comes back.

"What about you? You believe me, right?"

"Why are you asking me!?"

As I thought, that kid from before was not a real soldier at all. He just tagged along with the others in secret so that he could 'prove his worth' by defeating an enemy. That's why he was so far away from everybody else.

He seems to be the type that gets into trouble all the time, so I decided to keep him at my side, but I cannot get him to open up to me, it seems like he's still afraid.

"Well, you can at least have an opinion. What do you think?"

"I think that you're crazy..."

"You too!? I swear that clown was real!"

"Not that! I'm talking about this feast! Since when do the winners of a battle invite the enemies they just defeated to eat with them!? We tried to kill you less than a day ago!"

"Oh, that. I just thought that, since nobody died, we should at least try to get along."

A demon lord is someone who rules with fear, which means that it's very likely that all of these demons only attacked us because they were being threatened in some way. So I felt a bit sorry for them and suggested to let them join our feast after confiscating their weapons. I have a lot of food in my storage after all, and they are so weak that I don't believe that they pose any danger. Also, the fairy village only has enough room for one prisoner in their jail.

The only one we locked up is the demon lord because I'm afraid of him... I mean, I'm afraid of him forcing his underlings to start fighting again.

"See, an adult needs to know how to peacefully resolve conflicts. And I'd say that this is going really well, all of these demons are being really nice and polite."

"That's because they're afraid of you! And I'm also afraid of you! Anyone would be afraid of you!"

"Well, you don't have to be afraid. Look, the fairies seem to like me, they even made a bunch of pendants just like mine."

On the table next to this one, there's a fairy wearing a pendant with a crescent moon similar to the one I wear. She's talking to a demon sitting there.

"You are also a user of dark magic, correct? If you join us, you too can learn about the true power of darkness."

"I'm sorry... I don't think that I should..."

"Only the queen of darkness can teach true dark magic, if you don't take this chance you will forever live in ignorance."

"Eh... excuse me, are you talking about me?"

"Ah! I'm sorry master! I didn't see you there. I'm trying to recruit some of these people to our group."

"The correct word is teacher, not master. And what group are you talking about?"

"The disciples of darkness. See? This pendant I'm wearing has our symbol."

She points to the crescent moon on her pendant...

"I'm sorry, I don't know what you're talking about. And isn't that pendant based on the one I wear? Why would you make it a symbol of that group of yours?"

"Because we're your disciples. With great pain and effort, we took the first steps into the realm of true dark magic, but we know that we still have a long way to go, all we got was a mere glance."

So the 'disciples of darkness' are just those who learn healing magic from me? That seems like a very ominous name for a group of healers...

"And of course, it is also our duty to bring as many people as possible into our fold. The world needs to learn the true meaning of darkness!"

"Why are you making it sound like some weird cult!?"

"We're not a cult! We're a group of devout followers of yours who are determined to uphold your teachings and to spread them to as many people as possible."

"That's almost exactly what a cult is!"

I was not expecting this at all! All I did was teach them some of the basics of healing magic. So where did this come from!?

"Wow Luna, you really did a great job brainwashing them."

"Luna... just what did you do to them?"

Arana seems to be enjoying this... and Nera is looking at me with a horrified expression.

"Ara! Do you know what this is about?"

"Well, what were you expecting? After going through such an extreme experience, it's to be expected that the way they view the world would change."

"No, no, no! This is all a misunderstanding! I just gave them a normal magic lesson. And they are not my followers, they are my students!"

"Ah, that reminds me. Mast... I mean, teacher, we have already started writing the scriptures and we would like you to take a look and give your approval."

"Scriptures!?"

Are they seriously trying to make a religion around me!?

"Yes, we decided that we should write down the contents of your lessons."

"That's just a textbook! Don't go giving things weird names like that!!!"

Seriously, I'm already infamous enough as the queen of darkness, the last thing I need is for people to think that I'm some cult leader on top of everything else!

"Oh, and who is this boy? Are you a gray demon? That means that you can also use dark magic! Why don't you join us as well?"

"Uh... no, I don't want to..."

The fairy flies close to his face while staring directly into his eyes.

"You're still young. If you open your mind to the truth of dark magic now, you might become incredibly powerful in the future!"

I've been wondering... what is that 'truth of dark magic' she keeps going on about? She said that this is all based on my teachings, but it seems like she made up quite a bit of it by herself...

"Please, go away..."

Instead of going away as he asked, she gets even closer, she's almost touching his face now.

"Didn't you see the power of the queen of darkness? Don't you want to learn from her?"

"Bwaaaa! I want to go back to my sister!"

Great, she made him cry, now that he was starting to get used to me...

"Alright, that's enough, leave him alone."

"But master, I was just..."

"Look, if you want to play at being a cult by yourselves that's fine, but don't go around bothering other people."

I'm going to have a talk with these fairies and see if I can convince them to drop all of this nonsense. You know... I'm starting to think that Nera might have been right when she said that my lesson was a bit too harsh...

"When my sister gets here, she's going to beat you up!"

The boy is still crying but now he's looking at me angrily.

"Your sister is going to come here?"

"I sent an undead messenger, I told her that we lost and I was captured."

"We didn't really capture you, you know..."

"She's the high necromancer of the gray demons! There's no way you can win against her!"

The demons around us start talking to each other when they hear that.

"Hey, is what that kid said true?"

"I don't know, but the gray demon tribe lives close to here. If that's true she'll be able to bring their undead army with her."

"I heard that the current high necromancer can control over ten thousand soldiers. She's really terrifying."

"But not nearly as much as that queen of darkness over there."

Is there going to be another battle this soon? Well, if we have another feast, I won't complain.

forli