Not for the first time did Captain Mirage wonder how he'd ended up stuck with such incompetent underlings.
Well, the answer to that was simple – and sad – enough. He knew full well why the Infernal Lord had packed him off to Earth a year and a half ago with but a skeleton crew of weak demons in tow. Supposedly it was to monitor Earth for signs of Prince Darian, but the real reason was to simply get him out of the Infernal Lord's way.
Thus Mirage had no choice but to deal with worthless little worms like the one kneeling before him now.
"After I went out of my way to personally enthrall a wizard for you," he drawled, resting his chin on the back of his hand. "You repay me by not only failing to capture the prince, but turning tail and running like the coward you are, wasting a mirror in the process."
"What's the problem, Captain?" As usual, Verunas Melphi sounded on the verge of falling asleep. "You order those mirrors in bulk online."
"Using whose money again? Not yours, for certain. So I'd appreciate if you'd be a little more judicious about when you choose to use the mirror. Let me guess, things got just a little bit difficult and you lost your motivation."
"That's pretty much it." Melphi didn't even deny it. "But I wouldn't say it got 'just a little bit difficult.' I'm just one guy, they had a small army. Besides, the enthrallment didn't hold."
Mirage gripped the arms of his chair and leaned forward, fixing Melphi with a narrow-eyed, thin-lipped glare. "What are you saying?" he hissed.
"The enthrallment didn't hold," Melphi repeated. "I don't know how or why, but the thrall broke free."
"Oh?" Mirage infused that one syllable with all the icy displeasure he could muster. "Verunas Melphi, are you perhaps suggesting the enthrallment I personally performed for your sake was...flawed?"
"Oh, not like that, Captain." Melphi even had the temerity to yawn, of all things. "It, well, it was the homunculus knight's wizard. Seemed he and the thrall had some kind of personal connection. I wasn't expecting it."
"And that connection was strong enough to break the enthrallment?" Mirage lowered his voice into an intimate murmur, forcing Melphi to lean closer to hear.
To Mirage's annoyance, the sniper's face still held no trace of fear; then again, changing his expressions probably took more effort than he could bear. "They seemed pretty close? Probably his girlfriend, I'm guessing."
A flicker of movement from behind, so subtle anyone else would have missed it. But Mirage caught it, as well as a corresponding wisp of disquiet drifting across his familiar contract.
Which intrigued him, but he couldn't well inquire about it with Melphi groveling before him. Already he was thoroughly sick of staring at that lazy idiot. "So you're saying you were defeated by the power of love? Pathetic. Begone, fool. Don't expect another mission for a long, long while."
"Yes, Captain." Melphi sketched a quick bow before hauling himself upright with a grunt. Even by his standards, he seemed to take forever to reach the door. Perhaps his injury was slowing him down; well, he only had himself to blame for that.
The sound of the door slamming shut was like music to Mirage's ears. Too bad he didn't get to enjoy it before Victor Hua emerged from the shadows with a quiet click of armor.
"Won't he take that as a reward, Captain?"
"No missions means no chances to earn my favor, so no chances to advance his rank."
"Somehow I doubt he cares about that," Victor sighed. "If you ask me, it'd be better to kill him. Useless troops are just a liability."
"Now, now, you never know when he might come in handy someday," Mirage drawled, leaning back haughtily. "Besides, I don't recall it being your job to tell me how to run my operation."
As expected, Victor dipped into a slight bow and intoned an emotionless, "Apologies, Captain."
Mirage wondered if he should kick Victor across the face or backhand him to drive home the point, but decided against it. There were better ways to play with the fool, anyhow. "So your brother has a girlfriend, hm? Did you know about that?"
"No," Victor said, irritatingly impassive. "He wasn't dating anyone when I last saw him."
Mirage snickered. "It must upset you quite a bit, hm? Would you like to pay this girlfriend a visit and teach her to keep her grubby hands off your precious little brother?"
"No need for that." It might have just been Mirage's imagination, but he thought Victor's tone held a frosty edge. Well, he'd take it as a victory. "It doesn't matter if he has a girlfriend. In the end, Theo's still my brother."
"Oh, you and your brother complex," Mirage sneered. "It's disgusting, to say the least. Out of my sight. I shudder to think what would happen if I spent a single second longer breathing in your filth."
Victor never reacted to personal insults, no matter how vicious. So it didn't surprise Mirage when he only bowed with a mumbled, "Yes, Captain," before turning around and departing.
Finally he was alone. It was all he could do to keep from sighing in relief; even with no one around to see, he believed in maintaining his dignity as a commander. A rather thankless task considering this pitiful motley he supposedly commanded, all of whom seemed determined to outcompete one another for the position of most useless.
But for the first time since he'd embarked on this mission, he had reason for genuine hope. Far from languishing in exile, he now stood at the precipice of the greatest opportunity he'd ever faced.
It all depended on his next move, of course. According to his formal orders, he was to alert the Infernal Lord as soon as he'd detected the prince, but...well. The Infernal Lord had no way of knowing about Mirage's previous failures, and there was no need whatsoever to inform him.
No, Mirage resolved the next time he opened the mirror connection to the Legion base on Tielos, it would be with the glorious news that he had personally captured that pesky little prince.