After my profoundly frustrating duel with Elinia, I retreated to the library.

  My mood was lower than the dungeon floors we had just cleared. My espionage plan had failed. The Princess's jewelry was still entirely out of my reach.

  But it wasn't a total loss. I still had the structural data from Finn's ring and the swordsmen's blades. The experiments could continue.

  I sat at my secluded desk, mentally reviewing the composition of Finn's ring. It was an absolutely brilliant conductor. Highly stable, perfectly responsive to electrical currents, forged from a remarkably high-quality gold alloy laced with tungsten.

  I wonder... I mused, tapping a quill against my chin. Does Finn actually know how structurally magnificent his ring is? Or does he just wear it because it's expensive and shiny? Knowing Finn, it was definitely the latter.

  As for the swords, their steel-carbon composition proved to be an exceptional base material. I took a chunk of raw iron ore, mentally applied the steel-carbon lattice I had memorized from Siren's blade, and infused it with trace amounts of aluminum. I drove a highly specific electrical current through it, stabilizing the resulting field with my mana.

  And... it worked.

  It was the strongest localized magnet I had ever created in this body. If I pumped enough mana into the current, this small chunk of metal could violently rip a ten-kilogram broadsword out of a trained knight's hands from across a room.

  This is it, I thought, staring at the humming metal. The perfect synergy of metallurgy, mana, and electricity. This is no longer just a theory. This is a weapon.

  Yet, despite the breakthrough, a bitter sense of defeat lingered in my chest. I still couldn't touch the Princess... That entire agonizing twenty-minute duel was completely useless...

  Suddenly, the heavy oak door of the library wing creaked open.

  I flinched.

  Elinia walked in.

  She marched directly toward my desk, her hands resting on her hips, her aristocratic eyebrows drawn together in a deep frown.

  "Helvard," she said strictly. "I am genuinely surprised. You are incredibly messy. Why are your papers scattered all over the place?"

  I looked down. My desk was indeed an absolute disaster zone. Notes. Mathematical formulas. Diagrams of electrical currents. Sketches of magnetic fields.

  But the mess wasn't the problem.

  The problem was that every single one of those notes was written in High Demonic Cipher. A hyper-complex, multi-layered encrypted language that absolutely no human being should be able to read.

  She casually picked up two sheets of parchment from my desk.

  And she read them.

  I froze solid.

  "P-Princess..." I stammered, scrambling to my feet. "How... how are you..."

  She set the papers back down and offered a small, appreciative smile.

  "To be honest, I thought it was just erratic scribbling at first," she admitted lightly. "But then I noticed the underlying geometric patterns. I... managed to figure out a little bit of it."

  My heart stopped beating.

  IMPOSSIBLE! my inner demon screamed.

  The High Demonic Cipher was designed to be read exclusively by Archdemons, ancient magical entities, and beings possessing a literal god-like sensitivity to mana structures.

  A HUMAN PRINCESS SHOULD NOT BE ABLE TO LOOK AT IT AND SAY "I FIGURED OUT A LITTLE BIT OF IT."

  She took a step closer. "Helvard..." she murmured, her voice dropping to a quiet, intense whisper. "You really are a genius, aren't you?"

  "I... I... n-no..." I babbled, desperately trying to gather the papers. "These are just... meaningless notes..."

  "Do not be falsely modest," she commanded softly. "Thanks to your notes, my understanding of electrical manipulation has increased tenfold. I finally realize that lightning doesn't just react to mana output; it reacts to the physical resistance of the environment. That concept is... absolutely brilliant."

  I nearly collapsed.

  She hadn't just read the words. She had understood the physics.

  And then, she said something that made a cold sweat break out across my entire body.

  "And I finally understand why you challenged me to that duel."

  The world stopped spinning.

  "You were staring far too greedily at my jewelry," she said, leaning in so close I could smell the faint scent of frost and lilies. "I thought you actually wanted to defeat me... but you just wanted to touch my earrings to study the metal, didn't you?"

  I flushed bright red. Like an absolute child. Like an idiot. Like a petty thief caught with his hands in the royal treasury.

  "I... I..." I sputtered helplessly.

  She chuckled, clearly enjoying my utter humiliation. "Do not worry, Helvard. I won't tell anyone."

  She placed the papers back on the desk... and her eyes landed on the chunk of humming metal.

  "Oh? And what is this?"

  Before I could stop her, she picked up my experimental electromagnet. She didn't ask for permission. She just took it.

  She hovered her fingers over the metal, sensing the invisible field. "Wow..." her icy eyes lit up with genuine, child-like wonder. "It actively pulls metal toward it! Even without an aggressive mana projection!"

  She began playing with it immediately, waving it over the desk to magnetically snap up loose iron nails and spare copper wire.

  "This is... incredible!" she beamed, completely dropping her royal mask. "I have never seen a magical artifact like this before!"

  And then...

  She just... ran away.

  She literally turned around and walked out of the library, taking my magnet with her.

  I remained standing by the desk, frozen like a statue.

  BUT HOW IN THE NINE HELLS DID SHE READ THE CIPHER...?!

  The Death of Demonic Pride

  Enjoying this book? Seek out the original to ensure the author gets credit.

  The next morning began in the most horrific way imaginable.

  I walked into the Magical Theory classroom, took one look at the chalkboard, and felt my soul leave my body.

  Written on the board, in massive, chalky letters, was a sequence of symbols that absolutely did not belong in the human world.

  It was my cipher. The High Demonic Cipher. The personal, unbreakable code I had invented in my past life to secure military secrets.

  It was written on a blackboard. As a casual morning exercise. Like the alphabet.

  The instructor stood at the front of the room, tapping the board with his pointer. "Today, we will be analyzing one of the simplest known historical ciphers. It is terribly outdated, but it serves as an excellent foundational teaching tool. It was apparently quite popular among lower-tier demons thousands of years ago. Today, it is mostly used in children's puzzle books."

  I physically felt my demonic pride curl up and die.

  Children. CHILDREN. Were solving my unbreakable cipher for fun?

  So this is how the world remembers me... I thought numbly. A terrifying genius? The Supreme Demon Lord? No, apparently I'm just introductory arithmetic for primary school students.

  I slowly turned my head and looked at Elinia.

  She was, of course, already looking directly at me. Her expression clearly said: Well, little demon, how does that feel?

  I immediately looked away.

  "Notice the astonishingly simplistic structure," the instructor continued, speaking as if he were explaining basic addition. "The law of repetition, central displacement, basic cyclical shifts, and a rudimentary dependence on ambient mana-flow..."

  He went on, dissecting my masterpiece as if it were a child's finger-painting.

  And the worst part? The entire Elite Class began casually decrypting the phrases on the board.

  Even Finn was doing it. Even Edgar. Even the swordsmen. Noah figured out the entire sequence in under two seconds and went back to staring blankly out the window.

  I sat there, slowly processing reality. The legendary cryptographic language used by the generals of the Demonic Vanguard was now considered basic foundational theory in a human high school.

  Elinia leaned across the aisle and whispered mockingly, "You know, Helvard... you are exceptionally bad at hiding your disappointment."

  "I am not disappointed," I hissed through gritted teeth.

  "Ah," she nodded sagely. "Profoundly humiliated, then?"

  "...Also no."

  She scoffed quietly. "Alright, alright. To be fair, your cipher is very convenient to write. It's just strange that it's so... simple."

  I froze.

  SIMPLE?

  It was a cipher designed to be read exclusively by Archdemons and the absolute zenith of Hell's intellectual elite! And human teenagers had cracked it like a cheap walnut!

  Where exactly did I go wrong in my past life...? I mourned.

  The Agony of Creation

  As soon as classes ended, I sprinted back to my dormitory room.

  I sat at my desk and stared blankly at the stone wall. I was experiencing a full-blown crisis of identity.

  My grand cipher is a children's textbook... I've been reduced to a multiplication table...

  I jumped to my feet. I needed a new cipher. Immediately!

  But standard structures were useless now. If dead generations of ordinary humans could effortlessly decrypt High Demonic, then standard symbols, mathematical shifts, and linguistic displacement wouldn't stop anyone in this Academy.

  I needed a completely new principle. A new key. A new methodology of reading. Something that NO ONE could ever physically crack.

  And then, an idea sparked.

  A cipher that only physically exists within a highly specific mana-frequency range.

  I would infuse the ink with an energy signature. The "key" wouldn't be a mathematical formula; it would be my exact, unique mana wavelength. Without projecting that specific frequency into the paper:

  The letters would not align. The text would actively dismantle itself. The symbols would constantly scramble into meaningless, chaotic gibberish.

  To anyone else, the paper would look like random ink splatters. But the moment I channeled my exact mana frequency into it, the letters would forcefully align into legibility. If someone applied too much mana, the text would vanish completely. If they applied too little, it remained a scrambled mess.

  It was perfect.

  I spent the next three agonizing hours hunched over my desk. I was sweating profusely. My fingers cramped. My eyes burned.

  At one point, I actually whispered to the empty room, "I would honestly rather die a second time than invent another cryptographic language..."

  But finally, it was done.

  I painstakingly rewrote ALL of my research notes into the new frequency-locked cipher. The magnet. The metallurgical breakdowns. The electrical currents. The magnetic fields. Exponential resistance. The molecular structure of water. The behavior of electrons.

  Everything was securely documented in the new language.

  When I was finished, I gathered all my old notes—the ones Elinia had read—and burned them to ash in the fireplace.

  As the flames consumed the paper, a small part of my ancient demonic pride died... but I also felt a wave of profound relief.

  There, I thought. Now absolutely no one will ever be able to read my research. Not even Elinia.

  Probably. Hopefully. Maybe.

  She Hacked My Magic. Again.

  The next morning began peacefully.

  I was sitting in my usual secluded corner of the library, finalizing the new magnetic field formulas and trying to calculate exactly why gold was such an incredible conductor while silver somehow performed even better under magical stress.

  And then, Elinia approached my desk.

  She walked beautifully, confidently... and bore an expression that clearly said: I am about to absolutely devastate your ego again.

  She casually tossed an object onto my desk.

  My magnet.

  But... it was different.

  It was glowing with a faint, pulsing blue light. It vibrated with a terrifying abundance of contained mana. It felt... alive.

  I carefully reached out and touched it.

  And I nearly dropped it in shock. From across the room, a heavy iron candelabra weighing at least fifty kilograms violently wrenched itself from the wall and dragged itself several feet across the stone floor toward the desk.

  "I improved your little toy," Elinia announced smugly.

  I stared at the violently humming metal. "...Improved?"

  "Yes," she nodded, looking incredibly pleased with herself. "It is exponentially more stable now. Before, you had a massive divergence between your electron flows. I couldn't figure out how to normalize the current for the longest time, until..."

  She held up a single, elegant finger. "...until I folded in a pinch of Lunar Silver."

  My eyebrow twitched violently.

  Lunar Silver was one of the rarest, most highly restricted metals on the continent. A piece the size of a breadcrumb cost as much as a nobleman's estate.

  "You... you just casually added Lunar Silver to it?" I asked, my voice dangerously calm.

  "Oh, it was just scrap from my personal jewelry collection," she waved her hand dismissively. "Although, you should have heard the noise my Royal Butler made when I melted it down. You'd think I had carved out the beating heart of the Kingdom."

  She looked at me expectantly. Her eyes were practically screaming: I surprised you, didn't I? Tell me I surprised you.

  I remained completely silent. Internally, I was boiling. Not out of anger. Out of sheer, unadulterated shock.

  "By the way, your notes were incredibly useful," she added casually. "I can manipulate raw electricity with far greater precision now. Didn't you see me in the courtyard yesterday? I managed to sustain a perfect, unbroken electrical arc between my fingertips for three full minutes."

  I physically felt a piece of my soul wither and die.

  So... she has already mastered concepts that took me five grueling days of research to hypothesize... and she did it in a single evening.

  Elinia leaned over the desk, her face inches from mine. "You truly are a prodigy, Helvard. You're just terribly messy and incredibly weird."

  I glared at her.

  She just smiled brilliantly.

  Fine, I thought. Let's test you.

  I reached into my bag and pulled out a single sheet of parchment. My NEW cipher.

  The impossible code. Unreadable by human, mage, or demon. Visible only when subjected to my exact, unique biological mana frequency.

  I slid the paper across the desk to her. "Try decrypting this."

  She picked up the sheet. Her smile faded, replaced by a look of intense, scholarly concentration.

  She stared at it for a minute. Then two. Then three.

  Finally, she set it down and sighed. "...There is no visible linguistic structure here."

  I celebrated internally. YES! SHE DOESN'T UNDERSTAND A THING! MY CIPHER IS IMPENETRA—

  "This isn't an alphabet," she continued, narrowing her eyes at the chaotic ink splatters. "This is a sequence of resonant mana-pulses. There is an underlying frequency logic hidden within the ink itself."

  I froze perfectly still.

  She squinted closer at the paper. "What exact hertz of mana did you channel into this? I can visibly see a rhythmic disruption in the last three ink blots."

  "...What?" I whispered, genuinely horrified.

  She looked up at me, her eyes sharp and analytical. "You didn't give me a cipher, Helvard. You gave me a sheet of musical code. It's constructed almost identically to the theoretical resonant language of Ancient Dragons, just significantly simplified."

  "Elinia..." I said slowly. "You were absolutely not supposed to be able to figure that out..."

  "Oh, I haven't figured it out," she corrected me. "I can't read a single word of it. But I understand enough to know that this is NOT a simple cipher. It's brilliant. Truly."

  She tapped the paper respectfully. "Even I cannot read this. And if I cannot read it... that means this code is as close to unbreakable as physically possible."

  She offered me a softer, genuinely respectful smile. "Excellent work, Helvard."

  And with that, she gracefully turned and walked out of the library.

  I remained seated at my desk. I stared at the door she had just exited through.

  She didn't read it... I thought numbly. But she understood the PRINCIPLE. SHE UNDERSTOOD THE PHYSICS OF IT IN THREE MINUTES!

  If she understood the principle, it was only a matter of time before she bruteforced the exact mana frequency required to crack it. Not because she was inherently smarter than me. But because she was as relentlessly, terrifyingly stubborn as a thousand angry dragons.

  I slowly lowered my forehead until it rested flat against the cool wood of the desk.

  "...Do I seriously have to invent another cipher?"