The Devil Does Not Need to Be Defeated

… Maybe he should try calling her onee-sama as well?

Shien started seriously considering this.

Never mind, it’s better to not think about this anymore.

Otherwise, Shien felt like he may very well end up taking even more shocks to his system.

Thus, Shien changed the topic.

“Speaking of, why are you serving Leisha as her maid anyways?”

Shien asked a question that’s been on his mind for some time.

“Why?”

Lashs shook slightly. It was like she didn’t quite understand what Shien meant.

Seeing that, Shien elaborated.

“See, don’t you and Leisha look completely identical?” Shien pointed out, “I’ve always been under the impression that you’re twin sisters, but if you really are twins, then there’s no reason for one of you to be the lady, and the other the maid, right?”

Lasha finally understood what Shien had meant, and she fell silent for a bit.

After a while, Lasha finally spoke up.

“Has Mister Shien heard of homunculus?”

Lasha suddenly asked such a question.

“I do.”

Although Shien was unsure where she’s going with that, he still nodded.

“By homunculus, you mean those lower lifeforms created by magic, right?”

Take the golem that Shiem encountered before, where it’s just a bunch of stone mixed with special magical ores and ended up affected by a nearby magic spring and thus gained life and turned into a demonic beast in the end. Sometimes, some mages will use magic to do something similar and create a demonic beast much like a golem and use it for combat or work.

The life forms created by magic like that are known as homunculus.

“However, homunculus aren’t just demonic beasts created by magic.” Lasha spoke calmly, “Much like golem type demonic beasts, the demon race is also a race born under the effect of the Demon King’s magic power. They’re much like the demonic beasts born from the influence of magic springs, being also existences naturally born from the effect of magic power. Demons have also used this same principle to create demonic beasts.”

In other words, demonic beasts were a kind of existence much like homunculi. The reason why demons weren’t classified as homunculi is because they weren’t purposefully created but born naturally. They’re more like elves in that respect.

In that case then, here’s the question.

“If one could use magic to create demonic beasts like golems, and demons are similar to that at their base, then it should be possible to create them via magic as well, no?”

Those words of Lasha’s made Shein understand what she wanted to convey.

“You mean that you’re…?”

Shien looked at Lasha in surprise.

“Yes.” Lasha spoke in an unbelievably even tone, “I am a homunculus that lady Lasha created using magic.”

That’s why even though Lasha looked just like Leisha, they weren’t sisters, but are master and servant.

It’s because Lasha is a homunculus created by Leisha.

“Milady had created me using herself as a model after the assassination incident 10 years ago. Originally, she wanted to create a helper to support her in running away and fighting the Old Demon Faction. However, homunculi have one special characteristic. Based on the material used to create them, the final life form created may not necessarily have combat power.”

Taking the golem as an example again, some of them were just rocks that had certain magical ores mixed in and were turned into demonic beasts due to the influence of magic springs. They’re generally not all that high leveled.

However, some golems are made entirely of extremely rare and valuable magic ores. They contain no impurities, and their base makeup is extremely high grade. That kind of golems will thus be born relatively high leveled, with terrifying strength.

In the past, there had appeared a level 80 gigantic golem. Its body was made of an extremely valuable metal that’s just a step below divine steel. It seemed to have been an underground metal vein that ended up becoming a demonic beast after thousands of years under the effect of a large sized magic spring.

Back then, a country had sent out thousands of knights to subjugate that golem, and it ended up taking a full day and night of attacking it from all sides before they managed to defeat it.

This is true for the golems created by mages as well. Based on different materials used for the body, its level and power will end up different after being born.

Homunculus are the same.

Lasha of course is no exception to that.

“I don’t know what kind of material milady used, but when I was created, not only was my level very low, I’m also basically completely lacking in combat power, so I couldn’t be used on the battlefield at all.”

Lasha spoke all this in an indifferent tone.

“Thankfully though, I am relatively decent when dealing with daily chores, so milady had never considered abandoning me. Even though a homunculus that can only do chores like me should logically only end up holding milady back and make it harder on her in her escape, milady still never even spoke of throwing me away. She herself had even said that she had never even considered it.”

Hearing all that, Shien fell silent.

He really had never imagined that this was the reason why Leisha and Lasha looked so similar.

In the beginning, he even thought that Leisha and Lasha were actually sisters, but due to Lasha’s lack of combat talent and Leisha becoming a rare spacial magic user, Leisha ended up catching Baydr’s eye and he then used Lasha to threaten Leisha. That’s why Leisha ended up joining the Old Demon Faction and became Baydr’s minion. She was thus used like that until the assassination incident 10 years ago, when Leisha finally managed to find an opening to save Lasha while the Old Demon Faction was busy attacking the Capital before running for it.

But from the look of things now, Leisha’s reason for joining the Old Demon Faction shouldn’t have anything to do with Lasha.

After all, Lasha was created after Leisha had already started living as a runaway.

In that case then, Lasha wasn’t even born back when Leisha joined the Old Demon Faction.

But then the question is.

“If that’s the case, then why did that guy join the Old Demon Faction in the first place?”

Shien begun thinking deeply on it.

Seeing how Leisha is, she shouldn’t have really wanted to associate with the Old Demon Faction. She shouldn’t be willing to work with the Old Demon Faction at all.

But she still joined the Old Demon Faction, and she was even one of the masterminds for the assassination incident 10 years ago alongside Baydr and Jillian. Then she betrayed Baydr and the Old Demon Faction, infiltrated the palace on her own, and then stole something important and dangerous.

Just what kind of considerations did she have when she did all this?

Shien suddenly felt like that woman is filled with mysteries.