The Clover Kingdom.
In this kingdom where magic is everything,
there is one boy who can't use magic.
His name is Asta.
He puts in blood, sweat, and tears in hopes of becoming the Wizard King.
But there are also those in the kingdom who possess at least a little bit of mana,
yet can barely use any magic at all.
The very few out of the population, those who live in the shadows...
They are also trying to survive.
Those Who Worship the Devil
Rewinding the clock a tad...
Curse you, Magic Knights.
How is she doing?
She appears to have some cracked ribs.
Shall I prepare some pain medication?
Please.
Here you go.
Thank you.
Drink, Siona.
The pain should eventually subside.
Okay.
What shall we do now?
Master Kabwe?
What are you doing?
I'm going to kill her.
Please wait! We have more important things to worry about right now!
No... Now is the time. We must do this for Siona, too.
Do what?
They say that the devil dwells in the five-leaf clover.
Let us throw it away. It's a terrible omen.
Master Kabwe!
Why are you trying to stop me? This wretched thing...
is of no use to us any longer!
Wait.
I don't care what you do to me.
Please, just give that back to Asta.
How admirable.
But I would never listen to anyone who uses forbidden magic.
Siona, what's wrong?!
Siona!
What is...
Wha—
Onoby!
No...
Did you...
Why?
You still don't understand?
We do not wish for the devil's demise.
We are the Devil Believers.
We worship the devil.
Worship? What are you saying?
Didn't you turn to us because you wanted to destroy the devil?
We didn't turn to you.
We just wanted to take advantage of your hatred toward the devil.
Take advantage of us?
To get information that you, a Magic Parliament member,
could attain that we mere peasants could not.
And we needed someone who could use magic to deal with the Magic Knights.
Someone who could use magic?
What do you mean?
Yes, I'd imagine that you can't even fathom...
how it feels to be like us, people who can barely use magic.
On a hot summer day,
the neighborhood kids asked me to do something.
They asked me to use my catalyst magic to mix their magic together.
We wanted to cool off that way.
They seemed truly happy.
Seeing their faces made me happy, too.
But then I overheard them talking behind my back,
saying they were only acting like my friends
because I didn't have any friends, so that they could impress the adults.
And because I could barely use any magic, they said...
She's so creepy.
And they just laughed at me.
There's no place for people who can barely use magic in this kingdom.
So that's it... You're...
Correct. We basically don't exist.
But that Asta boy... despite having no magic at all...
By using a grimoire with a devil living inside it,
he's able to use powers equal to those who can use magic.
If we could also obtain the devil's powers, like him...
I will never allow that to happen!
Why, you...
Let's go.
Yes.
I-I can't let it end like this...
Kabwe?
Where are you?
They... aren't after the demise of the devil.
They're actually... trying to gain the powers of the devil.
What?
They are those who worship the devil...
The Devil Believers!
Chairman Damnatio... please forgive me.
Please... stop them...
What's wrong, Kabwe?
Will you fill us in on the details?
Those who worship the devil... Devil Believers, eh?
So your subordinates who actually despised the devil...
It's probably safe to assume that they were being used.
Those fools.
I can understand if they wanted to destroy them, but...
Wanting to worship the devil? Talk about a bunch of weirdos.
Pardon me.
It appears that communication magic came from Tiulyu.
Tiulyu?!
Julius!
I hereby order the Black Bulls
to capture the Devil Believers and save Nero.
You got it.
He must've used the last of his strength
to contact his former boss.
Do you think they argued and disbanded?
Probably not.
There's no sign of a struggle.
Then these people...
Just like Mole Chin Scales said,
they were probably being used by those Devil Whatever guys.
Captain.
You're scary, man.
A venomless viper...
Powdered long-necked softshell turtle, and the root of a gorikabuto plant...
These are all extremely hard to come by.
Which means...
The potion that put my best friend Asta to sleep,
as well as the various potions used at the execution site,
were definitely made here.
I'd love to get more information on the person who lives here,
but the villagers are definitely wary of us.
Please leave it to me.
I'm here, Granny Maggie.
My, my. And you've brought your friends.
This is Granny Maggie. We became friends the last time we visited.
Oh, hey.
It's nice to meet you! My name is Asta!
You're way too loud!
So are you.
Oh? The mean-looking boy who called me an angel isn't with you?
Angel?
Oh, if you mean my best friend Gauche,
he's back at the royal capital watching over his little sister.
So he must've found his sister.
Yes.
I can see you two are reminiscing and all, but you got a second, granny?
It's about someone who lives in the forest on the outskirts of town.
You mean Bow?
Could you tell us everything you know about this Bow person?
Sure...
But next time you come around, bring that Gauche fellow with you.
Uh, sure.
She can barely use magic?
You probably wouldn't know, but there are a bunch of people like that.
You can't really blame her.
Not only can everyone in her family use magic,
we have a guy who goes above and beyond and can't use any magic at all.
This is all your fault.
Me?!
But...
Bow is an expert apothecary.
In this town, we don't go to a doctor for recovery magic.
We go to Bow for the medicine she makes.
I could tell by looking at her shelves.
I heard she worked really hard.
She was probably able to become an expert apothecary
precisely because she couldn't use magic much.
Sounds like a certain meathead I know.
Huh?
Come to think of it, Bow's friend Dazu...
She lost her husband and mother-in-law
the night those devil servants attacked the town.
Where's her house?
Just like Bow, Dazu also can't really use magic.
But she never let that get her down. She's truly a wonderful girl.
She got along very well with her husband, Vide, and they seemed very happy.
Her mother-in-law, Meshu, always spoke of what a wonderful daughter-in-law she was.
Yami!
I need you to see this!
This woman...
Now I get it.
Isn't it weird?
Huh?
That old lady said Dazu seemed truly happy,
but does she look happy to you?
Hang on.
Why would someone whose family was killed by the devil
be one of the guys who worships the devil?
All right.
Continue your search for the Devil Believers.
Got it.
Just one thing, Julius...
Yes?
I know you want us to go after them,
but it seems pointless to wander around aimlessly.
True.
I'm sure the Devil Believers approached Kabwe and the other Magic Parliament members
in hopes of getting information.
If that's the case, they must've gotten word
that the devil called Megicula is in the Spade Kingdom.
So basically, they want to hand Nero off as a gift.
Oh, yeah. They have the kid's grimoire, too.
My grimoire's an afterthought?!
I'm guessing they originally wanted to offer you up with the grimoire, too.
And then they want to join the Spade Kingdom... or rather, join with the devil.
But why?
We probably won't know until we ask them personally.
In any case,
it's likely the Devil Believers are trying to cross
the borders beyond the Forsaken Realm to get to the Spade Kingdom.
Yami, I'm counting on you.
Sure.
We've got work to do, dumbasses!
Right!
A mission?
Yeah.
I refuse.
You're refusing a mission?
I'm sure Marie will be disappointed in you.
Old hag?
What the hell are you doing here?
Why am I here?
To take Marie back from her good-for-nothing brother who's obsessed with her.
What?! You're trying to take my angel?
This time, I can guarantee Marie's safety.
Now go and get to work.
Shut your mouth, old hag! My only job is to watch over Marie.
And you think that'll make Marie happy?
Besides, it's your job as a Magic Knight to protect everyone.
I'm really proud that you're a Magic Knight!
Please just be the cool big brother I'm proud of!
Tch. Fine. I'll listen to you just this once.
But don't you dare put Marie in danger again!
Get your ass over here!
I won't.
And so, the Black Bulls began
their pursuit of the Devil Believers, who disappeared into the Forsaken Realm.
To go along with that, other squads searched the Common Realm just in case.
But no matter how hard they searched, they had no luck finding the Devil Believers,
and several days passed.
Either there's some really cheery asshole in the Forsaken Realm,
or we just can't find any of them with mana tracking.
They might be using something to prevent their mana from being tracked.
We haven't gotten any notable information over here, either.
I'm assuming the Devil Believers got through the Forsaken Realm
and are trying to get to the Spade Kingdom.
Yeah, I know.
There are signs that they traveled through the Forsaken Realm.
Signs?
Yeah. Something weird's going on.
Looks like that village had a bunch of people disappear, too.
Why is that happening everywhere we go?
Do you think the Devil Whatevers are behind it?
You would think so.
Hey, I wanna ask you guys something.
Why the hell's everyone avoiding us so much?
Probably because of what happened with the Eye of the Midnight Sun.
Huh?
For the people out in the Forsaken Realm,
not only did the Magic Knights do nothing to help them,
but some of them even believe that Magic Knights were behind the attacks.
I'll do what I want!
Don't try to stop me!
No, don't go!
I'm late meeting up with them because you keep trying to stop me!
Everyone else already left!
Healing your leg with the devil's powers?
That's absolutely absurd! How can I believe that?
Of course you can believe it!
There's even a guy who got into the Magic Knights
even though he doesn't have any magic, because of the devil's powers!
But that boy was put on trial because of that.
So what?!
You don't need to be scared of any trials if you have the devil's powers!
Get off me!
Someone stop him! Please!
Hey, hold it!
Are you worrying your mother again?
Let go of me! I have to go!
They're all waiting for me right outside of town!
Yup. We're heading to the border now from Hecairo.
There are two big rivers that flow into each other there, right?
Yeah.
No one's here.
No...
It looks like they were definitely here.
You still letting what that kid said bug you?
Oh, come on. Do I look like it's bugging me?
Yes.
Well, how do I put this?
I'm sure he's struggling hard to cure his leg.
There's no doubt that the Devil Believers
are becoming a ray of hope for people like him.
That just means there are people out there who have nowhere else to turn,
so they feel like they have to rely on the devil.
But anyway... We've gotta do something about them.
The strong magic region just beyond Breed Mountain on the way to the Spade Kingdom
gets pretty intense waves. They're probably waiting for it to calm down.
I see.
I'll send backup right over.
You guys need to catch up to them before they reach the border.
Got it?
Right!
Nero...
Whoa!
Magna, try to fly this thing steady!
You can't be serious!
It's gonna be difficult to catch up to them if they managed to
get through Breed Mountain in this weather.
Hey, what's that?
H-How are there so many of them?!
We finally caught up with them!
They really are heading to the Spade Kingdom!
Next time on Black Clover, Page 147: "Prepared to Die."
Page 147 Prepared to Die
We can't wait for reinforcements! Nero, we're coming to save you!