“I don’t have to.”

“The High Demons haven’t punished you, so do it!”

“We are too far from the Black City…”

“Oh! Arel, develop your Gift more, damn it! Train! Learn!”

“I now have more strength and capabilities than before,” said Nik.

“This is wonderful, but somehow it doesn’t calm me down!” Kors wiped away his tears.

“Don’t be afraid of anything.”

“Nik…”

“Why are you so afraid of Leonardo?! He treats you quite well, you never interfered in his affairs, never entered into conflict with him. You see, he invited you to his secret meetings, which are only for the elite. He doesn’t consider you to be his enemy or competitor.”

“He will take you! He will make you fulfill his wishes!”

“He doesn't even think about me. Did you think about me a lot when you were given the assignment?”

“No… I didn't think at all…”

“You see…”

“But he will learn that you are not a man, not a commoner…”

“He won’t know. He will decide that these are stupid inventions.”

“He will know. When I retired, I put all papers in order and left them to my successor. I didn't expect it to be him! And I left your case too. What for! Why did I do it! Everything is described there! That's it, Nik, in detail! There are your data, signs, recorded interrogation, my questions and your answers, every word, and how you behaved. What substances and drugs Balthazar injected you with. Your diagnosis. My personal conclusions based on interrogation. My conclusion is that I completely agree with the royal sages and seers and, of course, consider it appropriate to get rid of the suspicious half-blood. But first I proposed to make a laughing stock out of you, humiliate you, make you look like a fool, in order to show everyone that you are not the Son of the Devil, but an ordinary miserable person. And everything that is said about you is just stupid inventions, thought of to intimidate fools, and only ignorant commoners from Lower City can believe in them. So that the sirs have fun at the ball, and laugh. Well, and then, without trial and investigation, I offered to quietly rot you in a stone sack, writing off death for natural causes. And the king’s permission. He liked this idea. And that's all… Leonardo will read it all!”

“He didn’t read anything. Didn’t even look at these papers. He is not interested in this. So he thinks exactly as you wanted, that I am an ordinary half-blood, and everything that is said about me is just stupid inventions of commoners. And he, just like you, considers the king to be an old senile.”

“We will return to the Black City, Leonardo will take an interest in you, take your case and read it! What have I done!”

“And what will he read? That I am a half-blood slave from the command of Prince Arel?”

“I described your criminal biography…”

“What Zagpeace and everyone else know about me anyway? Will he read this? The supreme masters are not interested in this. You didn’t write there that I wasa Demon in a human body.”

“No, of course, I didn’t make such an categorical statement,” and, seeing that Nik was embarrassedly silent, Kors simply mentally conveyed to him the vision of the case, as he wrote it, page after page, realizing that the Demon will have time to perceive this information and understand everything and see what Kors wrote.

Nik was silent. And Kors’ heart was breaking.

“Get rid of him like rubbish, no longer attracting attention,” Nik said quietly, repeating Kors’ entry from his case.

And Kors, in despair, covered his face with his hands.

“You like to put everything on the shelves, you are neat,” said Nik, “well, to hell with that! He has not read it, and won’t read it. He doesn’t care.”