My dear witch, please turn evil according to the script!

Chapter 117 Where's the cat?!
It's hard to describe just how weighty Frum's answer was.

At least everyone present fell silent.

“Ms. Fram, are you sure this isn’t a particularly serious disaster?” Roland was the first to break the silence.

Furam waved her hand: "Oh dear, why are you all so worried?"

"It's just a plan to resurrect the Demon King, but the Demon King hasn't actually been resurrected yet."

"And once their purpose is confirmed, we can take preventative measures in advance."

"Resurrecting the Demon King is no simple task. Let alone resurrecting the Demon King, even resurrecting a simple civilian is not an easy thing to do."

With that, Flam put away the two maps, keeping the old one for herself and returning the new one to Roland.

"In short, don't worry too much. Back when the Demon King was alive, these Demon King's hands didn't cause any major trouble."

"The Demon King has been dead for hundreds of years now. There's no need to worry too much about these inanimate objects that can only act according to pre-programmed procedures."

Cellina, who was standing nearby, raised a question: "But... in the legends of the demons, these armors themselves have souls, and you also said that they were designed."

Fram glanced at Cherlinina: "The legend is true, but there are some inaccuracies."

"There are indeed souls within the armor of the Demon King's Hand, or rather, it is the souls trapped inside the armor that drive them to act."

"They draw upon the soul of all things and transform it into fuel to power themselves."

"Of course I know what you mean. You mean that the Demon King's Hand has a soul and possesses the intelligence to act autonomously."

"You don't need to worry too much about that."

At this moment, Kalia asked curiously, "So, those armors are essentially weapons or puppets?"

"No, they do possess the intelligence to act autonomously, and are not much different from ordinary intelligent beings, but this is only limited to those thirteen prototypes."

"The two you encountered in Blackthorn Territory are just ordinary mass-produced items."

"They only possess a certain degree of flexibility, which does not exceed the preset program."

After finishing her sentence, Flam added, "The specific details are too complicated, and you don't need to know too much about them."

"In short, all you need to know is that Blackthorn Territory is the place where the Demon King himself first threw himself into the Demon King's hands."

"At that time, the Demon King used the space teleportation device on the Demon King's Castle, as well as his own power, to teleport almost all of the Demon King's Hands and an advance force from the Demon King's Castle to Blackthorn Territory."

"The intention is to harass the center of the empire and advance towards the capital, continuously capturing towns along the way and setting up spatial beacons to facilitate the subsequent deployment of troops to the Demon King's castle."

"This was also one of the reasons why the empire suffered repeated defeats at that time."

"And now..."

Frum felt a headache coming on at the thought of the problems she was about to face: "Let's go back to the treehouse first. You can come with that demon too."

……

Half an hour later, inside the treehouse.

After recounting the whole story while slumped over the table, Flam sighed, "So, do you understand? Things can be simple in some ways, and complicated in others."

Roland, sitting at the table with his arms crossed and head bowed, said, "You mean, after the Demon King died, his remnant soul wasn't released in time, but instead entered the prototype machines of those thirteen Demon King's Hands?"

"And those thirteen prototypes were extremely sturdy, almost indestructible."

"They also have the ability to control the mass production of Demon King Hands, and if the materials are sufficient and the conditions are right, they can even create new mass-produced Demon King Hands?"

"Mmm," Flam responded, lying on the table.

"That's not all. You mean that once these thirteen prototype units and their associated Demon King Castle components are combined, they will be roughly equivalent to a smaller version of the Demon King Castle?"

"Ah."

"Once they merge, this smaller version of the Demon King's castle will be enough to contain the Demon King's remnant soul, allowing it to slowly repair itself and perhaps even return?"

"Yes."

“Then let me ask you,” Roland pointed at Flam, “If you knew these things would combine, why did you bury them together?”

"Oh dear, although they are buried together, the internal spatial structure is very complex. Even if the seal is broken, there is still an emergency backup."

"Insurance?"

Furam said weakly, "Don't worry, if you can think of it, how could we not?"

"When we sealed it back then, we thought about what would happen if the seal failed one day, so we built a space teleportation device inside the seal."

"Generally speaking, those prototypes will be transported into the spatial turbulence by the seal itself the moment the seal is broken."

"When they appear, where they appear, and how they appear are beyond our prediction."

“It sounds safe.” After listening, Roland looked at the still listless Flam and said, “So, has something else gone wrong?”

"……Um."

Frum sat up straight: "I don't know why things turned out this way either."

"In short, one of the prototypes was not banished into the spatial turbulence, but instead broke through the seal and disappeared after killing the garrison guarding the seal and the group of idiots who broke the seal."

"Once it has absorbed enough magic and soul, it can create a beacon and pull its twelve prototype brothers out of the spatial turbulence ahead of time."

"That's when the real trouble begins."

"Although this prototype, which has temporarily escaped containment, is already using its control over it to cause us trouble."

"These two activated Demon King Hands have begun to act in accordance with the last command given three hundred years ago."

Roland sighed: "Anyway, the most urgent task now is to find that escaped prototype, right?"

"Well, but before that..."

Frum jumped off the chair and walked up to Roland: "I need you to verify some things for me." "What things?" Roland had a bad feeling.

"That demon girl must have already explained things to you, right?"

"The Demon King's Hand is essentially a more advanced version of the Demon Clan's familiar."

"To put it bluntly, even if this thing has intelligence and a soul, it cannot change its essential nature as a tool."

"Just a tool driven by runes and spells."

Roland seemed to know what Flam wanted to do by contacting him.

He swallowed hard. "Won't there be any danger?"

"Don't worry, it won't happen."

The answer came not from Flam, but from Cellina.

“I will protect you from a distance, along with Ms. Flam.”

"That sounds a bit strange... but how do you plan to try it?"

Flam thought for a moment: "Aren't you the spell that interferes with the operation of the spell?"

"Try that one first."

"If that doesn't work, try your magical spell again."

Roland nodded.

Then he glanced at Cherlinina. She seemed a little too excited.

Could it be... that she's planning to get some information about the Primal Runestones from Flam?

Kalia then curiously joined in: "Are you preparing some kind of experiment? Can I watch?"

“Of course you can, Lia, but you’d better stay away.” Flam did not refuse Kalia’s request.

It's just a mass-produced machine; it's easy for me to handle.

There will absolutely be no accidents.

But then Roland noticed something was wrong. He looked at Kalia and asked, "Kalia, where's the cat?"

"What cat?"

"Well, before I was about to fight the gargoyles with Cellina, didn't I give you the cat?! Where's the cat?!"

Kalia: “!!!”

Kalia was suddenly terrified when Roland pointed at her like that.

How could she forget about the cat!

Kalia quickly used her innate spell to release the silly cat from the shadows, and then knelt down to pick up Nash, who seemed to have fainted.

"Holy crap, is this for real?!" Roland jogged over and poked the somewhat deflated ball of fur in front of him with his finger.

If Kalia put the cat in her shadow from the very beginning of the battle, then the poor thing has been inside Kalia's shadow for almost a day now.

"I...I think I can still be saved...I'm so hungry...Is there anything to eat...?"

After being poked by Roland, the silly cat's head popped out from a ball of cat fur and jumped off Kalia's hand onto Roland's shoulder without hesitation.

Female humans are terrifying...

Frum then curiously joined in: "Hey, this cat can talk?"

"Wait! This isn't a cat!"

For once, Flam was furious: "Wait, is that a dragon?!"

To be fair, Flam's knowledge and insight were still there, and she quickly noticed the unusual nature of this cat.

"Has it been hit by a transformation spell? Damn it, Roland, you have this kind of trick up your sleeve, actually able to turn a dragon into a cat with a transformation spell?! I really underestimated you."

Roland helplessly spread his hands: "Ms. Fram, you know me, I'm a melee fighter."

"This silly cat was summoned from Dragon Island by the demons using an array, and then it turned into this."

"Remember the case I took? This little guy is the target of that case."

The silly cat perked up when it realized someone recognized its true form at a glance: "Meow! You're a master! Do you have a way to turn me back?"

Frum fell silent.

Well, she really had no choice.

She wasn't particularly skilled at polymorph, a curse-like spell.

This has always been a closely guarded secret of the demon race.

Even though a lot of research data was seized from the Demon King's castle back then, humanity still hasn't figured out the mysteries of curse spells.

Although a few geniuses may occasionally be able to perform this, it is not because they have figured out the secret, but more like they accidentally found the switch to make the spell work.

Without the ability to summarize experiences and analyze principles, it becomes difficult to teach.

But Flam looked up at Roland and asked, "Have you tried using your spell?"

"I tried it, but it didn't work. Wouldn't it be better to have a dragon help fight?"

After listening, Floram sighed, "Alright, little kitty, there's nothing I can do. But I can send you back to Dragon Island, I'll find a suitable time."

"Those dragons on Dragon Island must have a way."

(End of this chapter)