Part 6 of 8
She barely said anything at all, but the pontiff still nods as if satisfied.
“If you say you have things under control, Lady Ariel, then that is all I need to hear. However, I am curious as to how all this might affect Sariella in the future. Do you have anything to say in regards to that?”
“I don’t plan on doing anything else in Sariella. Just gonna stop in for a visit at the capital and then go home. As long as nobody sticks their nose where it doesn’t belong in the meantime, that is.”
“Fear not. I do not intend to do anything that might draw your ire.”
“Yeah? Not sure if I buy that. You’ve already failed at reining things in once. Besides, those things you’re using…”
“I assure you my grip on the reins is perfectly stable. However, it is true that unwelcome and unexpected interlopers did cause problems previously. For that, I sincerely apologize.”
“Uh-huh. So you’re serious this time, huh?”
“We are always serious. We simply must ascertain that our plans are all the more airtight this time. Which is why we would like to avoid any wild-card factors.”
“I see. So those wild cards are me, you-know-what, and Potimas, I suppose?”
“Just so.”
Ariel and the pontiff continue their exchange.
Try as I might to follow, there are certain vague keywords and left-out information that make it difficult for me to fully understand.
The parts that do make sense to me swirl around wildly in my head.
These things might have a major effect on Merazophis’s and my future, after all.
“Then for my first point, I shall take it that you do not intend to work with Sariella. As for the second point, about the elves, perhaps it is best that we discuss it along with the third. Namely, who exactly is that child whom the elves are targeting?”
The pontiff’s eyes are squarely on me.
He still has the expression of an amiable old man, but his gaze is piercingly sharp.
Merazophis raises a hand as if to shield me from that gaze.
His back is to me right now, so I can’t see his face, but I’m sure his expression is very grim indeed.
In spite of that, the pontiff continues to stare at me.
“Naturally, I am not asking for a name such as, say, Sophia Keren. What I want to know is who is on the inside. Do you, by chance, have memories of your previous life?”
Utterly shocked, I catch my breath.
I never could have expected that he would correctly guess something so unlikely.
I can tell my reaction has shown him he was correct, because for the first time, his expression wavers.
“Goodness. I did not think it likely, but…it is true? Does that mean there is a bug in the system?”
The pontiff’s relaxed attitude has gone out the window.
His expression looks distressed, but he speaks no further for the moment.
The sudden change surprises me, but not as much as the unexpected vocabulary he used.
System? Bug?
What does that mean?
“Heeey, buddy? Come back to reality, will ya?”
Ariel raises her eyebrows at the silent pontiff.
“I beg your pardon. It seems I am doomed never to escape this bad habit no matter how many times I am reborn.”
“It’s not good to overthink things too much, y’know. Why don’t you just empty your head and relax a little?”
“If I could do that, I most certainly would.”
The pontiff smiles with self-derision.
I feel as if I’m seeing his real expression for the first time.
“The system is operating normally. Don’t worry about that.”
Right after Ariel speaks, the chef emerges from the back with plates in hand.
The pontiff closes his mouth before speaking and watches in silence as the man delivers our plates.
The restaurant owner silently places the food on our table, withdraws into the back, then comes out with more plates. Either he’s being sensitive to the unusual atmosphere in the room or he hasn’t noticed it at all.
At any rate, he repeats the process a few more times, lining up all kinds of dishes on the table.
His background as a lord’s head chef is clear: Just by glancing at each dish, I can tell they’re fresh and delicious.
A rich, enticing scent fills my nostrils.
But unlike everyone else’s food, the plate in front of me is just baby food, a mush of vegetables or who-knows-what.
I knew this was coming, but it’s still a little depressing.
“Well, we wouldn’t want the food to get cold while we have our stuffy conversation. Let’s eat first, shall we?”
Once the owner disappears into the back, Ariel reaches for her food.
Although the pontiff arrived after us, his food is ready, too, possibly because he ordered the same thing as Ariel.
The pontiff says a little prayer before beginning to eat his food.
Merazophis, too, says grace before he eats.
Their prayers are different: Merazophis’s, which I’m used to hearing by now, is of the Goddess religion, while the pontiff’s must have been the Word of God version.
While the Goddess prayer offered thanks to the Goddess, the Word of God prayer seemed more like one of penitence.
Before eating his own food, Merazophis scoops up my baby food with a spoon and offers it to me.
Normally, I would eat it myself, but the pontiff is here. If I want to pretend to be a normal baby, I have to let Merazophis feed me.
Although I’m not sure there’s much point in keeping up the act at this point. It’s embarrassing, and the pontiff already knows I’m not normal. Nonetheless, I let him feed me.
Ariel and the pontiff eat in silence.
The atmosphere in the room is so painfully stifling that we can’t even enjoy the taste of the presumably delicious meal we’re eating.
Well, mine is baby food, so it’s probably nothing to write home about anyway.
We finish our meals in silence.
For a while after, no one speaks.
“The system is operating normally. However, it’s true that an irregular situation has occurred.” Finally, Ariel breaks the silence. “As a result, I had no choice but to act. Frankly, not even I can tell what’s going to happen from here on out. But I think it’s pretty clear that the times are changing. You Word of God people’s attempt to crush the Goddess religion is just one link in that chain, no?”
The pontiff simply sits there docilely, not answering Ariel’s question.
But…wait a second.
What did Ariel just say?
The Word of God is trying to crush the Goddess religion?
It’s not Ohts that’s trying to defeat Sariella?
“So the Word of God, not Ohts, was behind the invasion of Sariella. Is that what you mean to say?”
Merazophis breaks his silence for the first time, looking from Ariel to the pontiff.
Thus far, we’d thought Ohts was the main instigator behind the attack on Sariella. But what Ariel just said makes it sound like the Word of God religion is the one that compelled Ohts to attack.
It might seem like the same thing, but there’s a very big difference.
If that’s true, then our enemy isn’t the small country of Ohts but the Word of God, the biggest religion in the world.
Sariella might have been able to defeat Ohts, but if the real one behind the war is the Word of God religion, our home nation doesn’t stand a chance.
“Yeah, of course. Why would a tiny nation that could be knocked over by a strong breeze charge into battle on its own? It didn’t seem at all suspicious to you that Ohts started a war just like that?”
Ariel, not the pontiff, responds to Merazophis’s query, revealing that the Word of God religion is the mastermind behind the attack of Sariella, as if it’s the most obvious thing in the world.
The pontiff neither confirms nor denies it, but the fact that he’s remaining silent seems like confirmation to me.
“Do Word of God believers hate the followers of the Goddess that much?!”
Merazophis gnashes his teeth.
The relationship between Sariella’s Goddess religion and the Word of God has apparently always been volatile.
With this war, they must be planning to settle the score once and for all.
“I hate to break it to you, but this guy’s motives aren’t that simple. He’s not really that devout to begin with, see. In fact, it’s more like he’s picking a fight with the gods.”
It takes me a moment to process Ariel’s words.
How could the man who leads the biggest religion in the word be picking a fight with gods?
If that’s a joke, it doesn’t seem very funny.
But Ariel’s expression is dead serious. In fact, she’s glaring at the pontiff accusingly.
Huh? So it’s the truth?
Do gods even exist in this world?
I mean, I guess since we all hear that “Word of God” voice, it wouldn’t be that surprising if whoever’s speaking it really is a god.
But considering how mechanical that voice is, I personally find it a little hard to believe.
“My ideology is irrelevant at the moment. After all, one person’s expectations are all but meaningless in the face of real results. That’s exactly why I am in this chair now. Wouldn’t you agree?”
I’m guessing that by “this chair,” he means the position of pontiff, not literally the chair he’s sitting in right now in this restaurant.
But overall, I’m still finding it hard to grasp everything the pontiff and Ariel are talking about.
Given his expression of deep thought, Merazophis seems to be in the same boat.
However, I think their conversation requires knowledge of a certain something we aren’t aware of yet.
As long as we’re in the dark about that something, I don’t think we’ll be able to keep up.
“Are you quite certain the system is operating normally?”
And I think that “something” might be the “system” they keep talking about.
But until we know exactly what this “system” thing is, that doesn’t help me at all.
“I guarantee it. The system is in perfect working order. In fact, this might be the most stable it’s ever been.”
“Is that right? In spite of the sudden decrease in MA energy?”
“Yep. I don’t think that was exactly part of the plan, but there’s no problem with the system. Not with its operation anyway.”
“In other words, while it may be operating normally, there is still a fundamental problem?”
“You could put it that way. Everything it’s been building up over all those years has suddenly gone to waste. If that’s not a problem, what else would you call it?”
“This is true. A very grave problem indeed.”
Both Ariel and the pontiff sigh despondently.
It doesn’t seem like the kind of thing two mortal enemies would do.
“But let’s put that aside for now. It’s not exactly the kind of problem we can solve with a few simple actions anyway. Your biggest concern right now is Sariella, isn’t it?”
With that, Ariel closes her eyes for a moment.
Then she opens them again and speaks.
“Let’s start with your three main points. Number one, as far as my actions from here on out are concerned, it’s just like I said before. Right now, I’m planning on bringing these kids to the capital of Sariella. After that, what they do is up to them, but either way, I’m not planning on staying in this country. I’m not planning on doing anything to aid Sariella, even if these guys decide to stay here. As long as nobody does anything to change my mind, that is. Once I’ve left this country, you’re free to start a war or whatever you want.”
I can’t help but be a little shocked by Ariel’s words. It sounds like she’s washing her hands of us.
I know she doesn’t really intend to do that. Still, hearing her talk about this country like she doesn’t care in the least does hurt.
Especially since it sounds like she doesn’t care whether we stay here or not, either.
Considering how much she’s looked out for us so far, I think she must care about us at least a little.
But just as she said, if we stay here and get caught up in a war again, she’s almost certainly not going to save us this time.
That reality makes the path ahead of us look dark.
“Number two, the elves. I don’t know much about that myself, actually. But I do know they’re targeting point number three, this girl, as well as other people like her. Potimas himself even showed up, or at least one of his usual puppet things, so they must be pretty serious about it.”
As she talks about the elves, especially Potimas, Ariel’s expression is one of unconcealed contempt.
I don’t like them, either, since they targeted my life and all, but my feelings are closer to fear than hatred.
That man indifferently tried to take my and Merazophis’s lives. I can’t forget those cold eyes, which looked at us like we were nothing more than garbage to be disposed of.
To me, the man called Potimas is like the specter of death itself.
Just remembering him makes me want to shake with fear.
If we part ways with Ariel, that man might attack us again.
If the Word of God religion attacks Sariella, that will certainly be a problem, but I think Potimas might be an even bigger threat to Merazophis and me.
“Hmm. I suspected they might make some sort of move, so I have been on my guard. And if he is moving so freely, it is even worse than I feared. If you had not taken care of him, Lady Ariel, I know not what might have occurred.”
“Feel free to thank me.”
“Indeed, I thank you very much. Although I would be even more grateful if you had erased all traces of the battle, not just the bodies.”
“Ahhh. I guess he was using a gun and stuff, huh? Right, right. I didn’t think about those little details.”
“It’s quite all right. We took care of the rest, so there is nothing for you to worry about.”
The pontiff is talking as if he did Ariel a favor, which she more or less ignores.
So if guns are used in this world, you have to cover up any evidence.
White took care of the bodies, but I wasn’t really worried about things like that at the time.
I certainly wasn’t in any state to think about bullet holes or anything like that.
But if even those traces have to be hidden, what exactly was that machine body Potimas was using?
I thought this was some kind of fantasy world that was less developed than Earth, with strange things like skills and stats.
But Potimas’s machine was easily more advanced than any technology I’ve ever seen on Earth.
There’s something very strange about this world.
And Ariel and the pontiff clearly know the truth behind it.
Is the “system” they keep mentioning the source of this world’s strangeness?
I’m not sure, but it’s clear that Ariel and the pontiff don’t want the world at large to know about machine technology.
“At any rate, it seems that our information has been leaked somehow. Ohts’s surprise attack on the capital has been compromised.”
“So you lost the information war, huh?”
The pontiff nods meekly at Ariel’s rude remark.
“Yes, indeed. We put a great deal of importance on secrecy, and I thought that our intelligence organization gave us the advantage, but the results speak for themselves. We simply cannot keep up with the elves’ information network.”
Seeing the pontiff’s serious expression, Ariel’s face turns grave as well.
“Isn’t there anything you can do?”
“We have been doing our utmost, yet our efforts are to no avail.” The pontiff shakes his head glumly. “The elves’ circle of devotees is growing. And since they are unaware themselves that they are passing information along to the elves, there is little we can do to stop them. They are good people who believe in the elves’ public-facing banner of true world peace, so it is difficult for us to intervene.”
True world peace? In a place where monsters are everywhere and humans still fight among themselves?
What a sketchy claim. Who would buy into that?
“Most devious of all is the fact that there are those even among the elves who truly believe in that ideal. As a result, there is no way of knowing whether any given elf is directly connected to Potimas, so if we make a careless attempt to finish things, we may find the tables turned on us instead. With the amount of power he has now, he could even manipulate public sentiment to turn people against the Word of God.”
“You should probably be taking care of the elves before you take care of the Goddess religion, then.”
“Indeed. However, by the time I first founded the Word of God religion, the elves had already built themselves a rock-solid position. No matter what I do, they are always one step ahead.”
Ariel and the pontiff sigh in unison again.
At this point, it’s not at all clear whether they’re enemies or allies.
Initially, Ariel’s reaction made me think they were enemies, but it doesn’t really seem that way when they look to be on the same page in a lot of ways.
“Well, even I can’t tell what the elves are up to, but I do know it can’t be anything good. This is Potimas we’re talking about.”
“Well said. That man always brings an ill wind.”
…Maybe they’re actually friends after all?
“Anyway, as far as your third point goes, I don’t think I wanna tell you that.”
Or maybe not. It seems like Ariel is pretty leery of the pontiff after all.
“Even if the elves are involved and we might be able to be of some assistance in that regard?”
“Even then. Letting the elves use her would be the worst-case scenario, but how do I know the Word of God wouldn’t do the same thing? I’m not gonna show my hand to someone I can’t trust.”
Okay, I give up. I can’t tell whether they’re friends or enemies.
I think it might be too complicated to sum up in such simple terms, to be honest.
“But that means you might well intend to use her yourself, does it not?”
“If I can, I probably will. But I intend to prioritize her own wishes above all that.”
That she’s saying this right in front of me just proves that she’s sincere, I think.
“I see. Then there is more to her than the fact that she has memories of a previous life.”
I’m impressed the pontiff was able to guess that much from what little information he was given, but I doubt he’ll figure out anything else.
I mean, who would ever imagine that someone might be reborn from another world?
Although, if he was able to figure out that I have memories of a previous life, does that mean such a thing is relatively common in this world?
“Well, that’s all I wanted to say. Do you have anything to add?” Ariel addresses Merazophis.
No, not just Merazophis. She’s looking at me, too.
Does that mean it’s all right for me to speak?
The pontiff looks at me and Merazophis, too.
I gaze up at Merazophis and send him a telepathic message only he can hear.
“Merazophis, if there’s something you want to say, you can say it.”
I have nothing to say myself.
I mean, there are lots of things I’d like to say, but I don’t think I could really gather my thoughts together well enough to express them sensibly.
This man, the pontiff, is almost certainly my enemy.
I know that, but honestly, it doesn’t really feel that way.
I mean, I don’t know much about the Word of God religion.
All I know is that it’s the biggest religion in the world, and that it’s opposed to the Goddess religion worshipped in Sariella.
Which means I basically know nothing at all.
I’m sure there’s some deep-seated grudge between the Word of God and the Goddess followers, but I don’t have a clue what that might be.
And although I know he’s behind the war, that doesn’t mean I can suddenly view him as my enemy.
What happened in Keren County still doesn’t quite feel real to me.
It was destroyed before I could form a deep attachment to the place, after all.
I do feel sad and angry, but it’s like I’m viewing those emotions through a pane of frosted glass.
But I’m sure Merazophis feels very differently.
He spent much of his life in Keren County, and lost things that can never be replaced.
So I think it would be better for him to speak than someone like me.
And yet, Merazophis shakes his head.
“There is nothing I wish to say.”
Ariel, myself, and even the pontiff look surprised.
“You sure? Don’t you wanna make an angry declaration or two? I mean, you could even kill this guy right now and no one would complain about it.”
Ariel’s comment seems dangerous to me, but I’m guessing she’s saying it because it’s a very real possibility.
The pontiff said himself that he came alone knowing he might be killed.
Based on Ariel’s confirmation, I think that was the truth, and that he really would accept it.
“No. I have a feeling that killing him here would be pointless. I’m sure it would not stop the flow of the times. Besides, his death would not cause him to regret his actions. At best, it would only serve to briefly ease my resentment. Such an act could never make up for the loss of my master, my mistress, and all of Keren County. Your life is trivial by comparison.”
Merazophis’s words are dismissive, but there’s a swell of dark feelings behind them that he can’t entirely keep out of his voice.
I’m sure there’s plenty he wants to say.
And yet, he chooses to hold his tongue.
“I am the young mistress’s servant. If she chooses not to speak, there is no reason for me to do so. Everything I do, I do to serve her.”
So that’s why he’s keeping his emotions at bay.
I thought it would be better to let him speak, but he’s saying that if I’m not going to say anything, he won’t, either.
We each hold the other in such high regard that it’s almost like a strange stalemate.
But I think I’m all right with that.
“Pfft! Heh-heh-heh. He said your life is trivial.”
For some reason, Ariel is snickering.
“Indeed. I was fully prepared to be killed, but I did not expect to be told such a thing.”
The pontiff’s voice is as calm as ever.
But, although it might be my imagination, he suddenly looks incredibly frail. Like a plant that’s on the verge of withering.
“Trivial, is it? Yes, I suppose you are right. My life is quite trivial indeed. I feel I must apologize for attempting to offer up this life of mine in return for the pain I have caused you. I am sincerely sorry.”
Then he bows his head deeply.
The leader of the biggest religion in the world, bowing to us.
“And yet, I cannot stop. I must not, no matter what.”
I feel a shiver run through Merazophis’s body, as well as my own.
Because we both sense it: the overwhelming weight of the resolve this withered old man carries within him.
He says his life is trivial, yet he holds on to some unshakable conviction.
I don’t get it.
What could be that much more important than your own life?
“We’ve both taken on difficult roles,” Ariel mutters quietly, then speaks up. “Well, then. There’s nothing else to talk about, right? We’re gonna take off now. Oh, but if you wanna apologize, you can grab the bill for us here. Shall we?”
Ariel stands up.
Merazophis follows suit with me in his arms, and we head for the door.
All the while, the pontiff keeps his head bowed.
Merazophis acts as if he doesn’t notice, but I keep my eyes on the pontiff the whole time.
“Oh right. It’s all well and good that you’re so focused on Sariella, but shouldn’t you be a little more worried about the demons, too?”
Just before we leave, Ariel addresses the pontiff again.
“The new Demon Lord for this generation is me, after all.”
Her remark, which she states quite casually, evokes a dramatic reaction from the pontiff, whose head shoots back up from its bowed position.
But before he can say anything, the door shuts, closing us off from him.
“Are you certain it was wise to reveal yourself as the Demon Lord?”
Merazophis speaks up for the first time since we returned to our room at the inn.
“Yeah, it’s fiiine. Him knowing that isn’t gonna change anything. It’s just like the Word of God religion attacking the Goddess religion. Nothing anybody does will stop that from happening eventually.”
Does that mean this war was inevitable, then?
“What about you? Sure you didn’t wanna give him a piece of your mind?”
“As I said before, if the young mistress does not wish to speak, then I have nothing to say, either.”
Merazophis lays me down on the bed as he responds.
“You should’ve just told him off without worrying about me.”
My voice through Telepathy is a bit sulky.
I kept quiet only because I thought Merazophis would do the talking for both of us.
Still, in the end, maybe things were better off this way.
I don’t think anything Merazophis said would have gotten through to that old man. Or even if it did, he certainly wouldn’t alter his course of action.
Ariel’s words confirmed that, but even more convincing was the powerful conviction we sensed from the pontiff himself.
In the end, Merazophis’s actions were probably for the best, although that doesn’t make me feel any better.
No matter what happens from now on, I’m sure nothing will completely clear away our anger and grief.
Even if we killed the pontiff and destroyed the entire Word of God religion, that still wouldn’t change.
This was for the best.
But that’s just how I feel about it.
“Merazophis… From now on, I’d like you to trust your own feelings instead of only prioritizing mine.”
Earlier, Merazophis was refraining on my behalf. It’s possible that he feels differently, deep down.
I can’t bear to watch him bottle up all his feelings just to protect me.
It always ends up making me feel responsible and guilty.
“I don’t want you to try to be an emotionless puppet for me. You don’t have to put me first. Trust your own feelings and act on them.”
Merazophis stiffens, looking bewildered by my words.
I hesitate for a moment, then force myself to push on.
“Merazophis, if you…if you would prefer to leave me, that’s all right. You can go take your revenge, or forget about everything and start a new life. I don’t want to force you to be tied to me.”
“Young miss…”
Of course, the truth is that I don’t want him to leave me.
Merazophis is the one and only witness to the life I’ve lived in this world so far.
No, maybe I don’t need to make it sound so complicated.
There’s no practical reason behind these feelings.
I just want Merazophis to stay with me.
But I don’t want to steal away his future for my own selfish desires.
I’ve already taken his humanity from him.
I’ve seen firsthand how much he’s worried and suffered over becoming a vampire.
He seems to have recovered from that now, but I don’t want him to lose anything else because of me.
If Merazophis wants to leave, I can’t stop him.
If that really does happen, I’m sure I’ll want to cry and hold him back from leaving.
And if I do that, I’m sure Merazophis will relent and stay with me out of a sense of obligation.
But that’s exactly why I have to keep my emotions hidden.
If he picks up on my feelings even in the slightest, I’m sure he won’t be able to leave me.
“Young miss. Do you…have no use for me?”
After I steel myself and bring up the topic, Merazophis looks at me like an abandoned puppy.
Shouldn’t it be the other way around?
“That’s ridiculous. Of course I do.”
I answer immediately.
Of course.
I need Merazophis to be with me.
But I brought this up only because I didn’t want him to feel like he had no other choice but to stay.
So why is he looking at me like that?
Confused, I don’t know where to go from there.
“Young miss, the sole meaning of my life is to serve you. I have no desire to ever leave your side.”
Merazophis kneels next to the bed.
“So please, if you will, grant my permission to stay by your side.”
He reaches his hand out toward me, and I grasp it instinctively.
As I do so, it’s as if his feelings are transmitted to me through touch, and for reasons I barely understand, I find myself clinging to him.
When Merazophis embraces me gently in return, I follow my instincts and bite down on his neck.
“Ah!”
Merazophis’s body shudders, but he doesn’t resist.
The taste of blood fills my mouth, and I’m overcome with a deep sense of satisfaction, happiness, and relief.
At the same time, I’m overwhelmed with the desire to weep, and tears begin to pour down my cheeks.
“Mmph… Bwaaah…”
I continue drinking Merazophis’s blood as I cry.
Merazophis simply stays still, allowing me to do as I wish, holding me all the while.
Earlier today, we met the pontiff of the Word of God and learned all kinds of things I still don’t quite understand, but right now, I don’t really care anymore.
As long as Merazophis stays with me, we’ll be fine.
That’s all that matters.
I know now.
This person is mine.
No matter what anyone says, even if Merazophis himself grows tired of me, I’ll never let him go.
I keep drinking his blood until all the crying wears me out and I finally fall asleep, still cradled in his arms.
THE DEMON LORD AND IMMORTALITY
I quietly leave the room so as not to disturb the pair while they’re embracing each other.
I guess this means they’ve worked things out?
This is probably best for both of them right now.
Although in the future, they’ll probably have to maintain a bit of distance lest they become super-codependent.
There are still some small kinks to work past, not to mention the big problem of what they’re going to do from now on, but at least mentally they’ve figured it out for now.
Although it sits a little weird with me that White is the one who helped Merazophis dispel his worries.
I never expected her to be so sensitive to other people’s feelings.
Although I guess looking back on her memories, she’s always been weirdly good at guessing what people are thinking and feeling.
I mean, is she a con man or what?
She absolutely refuses to communicate most of the time, sometimes misleads people, and yet is also good at figuring out their feelings. It’s a complete mystery.
When she totally won over the puppet taratects, I seriously didn’t know what I was gonna do.
Actually, that’s not quite accurate. If anything, that’s the moment I knew I had no choice but to keep trying to reconcile with her.
At this point, I don’t think I can get rid of White anymore.
I still don’t understand the root of her immortality, for one thing.
If I try something without figuring that out and she gets away from me, I don’t think I’ll ever catch her again.
White has Teleport, after all. It’s a breeze for her to run away from me with a spell that lets her instantly be transported to anywhere she’s been before.
If she wants to run away from me, I have no way of catching up to her.
That would be all well and good if she decided to focus only on running away, but knowing her personality, I guarantee she’d launch a counterattack sooner or later.
Which means she’d probably use that particular guerrilla warfare of hers again to whittle away at my forces.
I have no way of catching up to her, yet she can launch an attack whenever she wants.
I still wouldn’t lose to her.
But I don’t think anyone else stands a chance against something like that.
If it came down to it, all my forces except for myself would be obliterated.
I don’t see how that’s any different from being defeated.
As it stands, the puppet taratects are already becoming attached to White.
If we wound up fighting, I don’t think she could turn them against me, but they’d definitely be reluctant to attack her.
Seriously, what a dangerous opponent she is.
That’s why I decided to give up on killing her and take her in as an ally instead.
She might be a huge nuisance as an enemy, but if she’s on my side, she’ll make an extremely dependable ally.
That’s why I’ve been trying to win her over and slowly close the distance between us.
Being nice to the vampire servant-and-master pair is all part of that plan.
She seems to have taken a liking to them, after all. If I look out for them, hopefully White will start to think better of me, too.
My kindness might be for a calculated reason, but I think I’ve still managed to be useful to them.
The rest will depend on what path they choose.
If they decide to come with me to the demon territory, I’ll keep looking after them, but if not, we’ll say our good-byes on the spot.
That might seem a little cold, but I have things I need to do. I can’t stick around here forever.
I keep walking after I leave the room until I end up outside the inn.
Then I keep retracing my steps until I wind up near the restaurant where we ate earlier.
Walking a little farther, I reach a tavern and step inside.
“Were you waiting long?”
“Not at all.”
I take a seat at a table, and greet the person sitting across from me.
The Word of God pontiff, Dustin.
This wasn’t a planned meeting, but I figured he would be waiting at the nearest tavern, confident that I would come back.
As proof, there are already drinks for two waiting on the table.
I pick up one of the glasses as if it’s the natural course of action and down the contents without waiting to clink glasses with him.
“Wouldn’t you like to have a toast first?”
“No.”
Dustin sighs, but I ignore him.
“We’re not on such friendly terms that we can casually share a toast.”
“I suppose that’s true.”
That being said, we’re both talking in a much lighter tone than before.
We didn’t meet up again like this to keep having tense exchanges, after all. We met up to complain together.
This man and I share a deep bond.
After me, he’s spent the longest time dealing with that piece of garbage Potimas.
However, our relationship isn’t easy to sum up in a word.
If Potimas is my enemy and Gülie my ally, this man lies somewhere in the middle.
In some contexts, we share a common goal, but in others, we’re on opposing sides.
It’s too complicated to say whether he’s an ally or an enemy.
Given recent events and how they affected the vampire duo, I’d say he’s leaning toward the enemy side.
But we also share a common enemy in the elves, so on that front, we can sometimes work together.
In this case, though, I can’t go carelessly revealing information to him.
Potimas is definitely after the reincarnations.
If I give this man that information, I’ll also have to explain reincarnations to him.
And if he learns about reincarnations, he’ll definitely try to use them somehow.
The man sitting across from me will do whatever it takes to achieve his goal.
His goal of protecting humanity.
He created the Word of God religion for the sole purpose of accomplishing that goal—not out of any so-called faith.
Religion just happens to be the most efficient way to gather a lot of people.
That’s why he’s out to put an end to the Goddess religion, a rival religion that happens to include a less-than-convenient truth.
It’s all for the sake of protecting humanity.
If he has to kill some of those very same humans in the process, he’ll do so without hesitation.
This man has no problem with sacrificing the few so that the many might live, so if he thinks reincarnations can help protect humanity, he’ll gladly use up as many as he can get his hands on.
Which is why I won’t be telling him a single thing about reincarnations.
Knowing him, he’ll figure it out on his own soon enough.
And once he does, well, there’ll be no saving any reincarnations he finds.
Yes, I’m keeping quiet on the topic of reincarnations, but I don’t plan to do anything more to help them, either.
If they happen to be within my reach, then sure, I’ll look after ’em in my spare time, but I have bigger fish to fry.
I’m not gonna go out of my way to save every last one of them.
I can’t ignore my duty, which is to lead the demons to attack humanity, of course.
In that respect, this man is most definitely my enemy, I guess.
“So, should I take your parting words from earlier as a declaration of war?”
“Do whatever you want. Either way, the fact is that I’m the Demon Lord now.”
“So the time has come at last, has it?” Dustin sighs heavily. “A crisis that threatens all humanity.”
“Yep. Which is why I dunno if you should really be wasting time on the Goddess religion right now, yeah?”
Quite frankly, I don’t much care what happens to the Goddess religion.
Whether people want to believe in the Goddess, worship me as a Divine Beast, or forget all of it and just pray aimlessly, it’s no skin off my back.
You wanna destroy them? Feel free.
But there is a possibility that the vampire duo is gonna stay in this country.
If that happens, it’d obviously be better for them if there’s no war.
Since I’ve looked after them for a while now, I think I’m allowed to put a little pressure on him to avoid that.
“Indeed. I will need to make preparations. After I have crushed the Goddess religion, of course.”
Hoo boy. No dice, huh?
For whatever reason, he seems to be dead set on wiping out that religion no matter what.
“Ah. Gotcha. Well, good luck with that, then.”
“Oh? You accepted that rather more readily than I expected.”
“Yeah, ’cause I don’t really care either way.”
“It seems to me you might have some emotional attachment there.”
I snort at that.
Why should I have any attachment to the Goddess religion?
The basic premise of their stupid creed is that if they pray hard enough, the Goddess will do something about their problems.
Send up prayers of gratitude to the Goddess, and she’ll watch over you!
Give me a break.
These morons already forced the Goddess to do everything, and now they want to demand even more from her? It pisses me off.
In that respect, the Word of God religion actually has more going for it.
And the man before me is at the forefront of that.
Because he made a religion based on a firm understanding of the system, the secret behind this world.
Honestly, the claim that raising your skills and levels will let you hear the voice of God more clearly was a pretty genius idea on his part.
And spreading that word as the basis of a new religion is an even more impressive move.
Most of humanity knows about the Word of God religion now.
Even if they aren’t all believers, so many people are aware of it now that it’s basically common knowledge.
His ability to take a ridiculous claim like that and ingrain it so well that it becomes common knowledge is what’s truly dangerous about Dustin.
Manipulating the masses.
He influences people’s thoughts without their even realizing it, guiding them in whatever direction is most convenient for him.
It’s not a system-based skill or any kind of external power like that. He’s just naturally a masterful speaker.
Humanity’s most brilliant invention is language.
And this man happens to be brilliant at exploiting it.
All he had to do was raise his voice, address the people, and guide their minds.
People gathered, drawn in by that voice, and elevated him to ever higher positions.
Just like that, Dustin gained unparalleled power.
How is that possible? It’s simple.
It’s because he’s right.
Everything he says is overwhelmingly, undeniably right.
For humans, that is.
Because his goal is to protect humanity.
The man is so determined to protect humanity by any means, so unshakably right, that the people he wishes to protect can’t help but admire him.
If anything, the Goddess religion is strange for continuing to oppose him.
They’re an outlier from the rest of humanity.
From Dustin’s point of view, the time to correct that anomaly has come, nothing more.
But frankly, since I’m not a human, it doesn’t really matter to me what humans do.
Even if it is a little tragic how many of his own kind this man plans to eliminate in the process of protecting them.
“Well, you managed, didn’t you?”
“I suppose. Though it has been a long time since my heart pained me so.”
Merazophis’s words really did get through to him.
He might have been prepared to hear angry accusations, maybe even to be killed.
But I’m sure he never expected to be told that his life is trivial.
“Trivial, indeed. It seems that somewhere along the way, I’d begun to overvalue myself. Imagining that my single life might be enough to assuage their feelings was hubris of the worst degree.”
“Yeah, your life’s not worth much. No wonder they noticed that you don’t care if you die.”
This man is not afraid to die himself.
Rather, his fear is the collapse of peace among humanity.
Thinking of humanity as a whole, he feels there are some humans, like the Goddess religion followers, who can be discarded for the greater good.
And he considers himself among that disposable number.
His own life is of trivial value to him.
The life of someone who doesn’t care if they die doesn’t amount to much.
Especially someone who knows that even if they die, they’ll eventually be resurrected.
Dustin has a skill called Temperance.
Its effect is reincarnation with one’s memories intact.
Even if he dies, he’ll be reborn somewhere in the world, inheriting all his memories from his previous lives.
For this man, death is not the end. It’s nothing more than a single punctuation mark in his endless cycle of life, death, and rebirth.
And when he was arrogant enough to assume that such a brief pause was a sufficient peace offering, Merazophis shot him down.
It was pretty refreshing to witness, to be honest.
But at the same time, I felt a little bad.
“Must be rough to be criticized by one of the very people you’re trying to protect.”
Even if each of his lives might be trivial, when put together, the countless lives of the man called Dustin have immeasurable worth.
And they come with the equally immeasurable weight of resolution and regret.
Along with the pain of having to take the lives of humans in order to protect all of humanity.
“Nevertheless, I must do it.”
Dustin’s voice is full of anguish but also the determination not to stop.
His unwavering intent is to walk the path of purgatory with his own two feet.
That’s why I believe this man is a force to be reckoned with.
Fit to fight with as an ally yet worthy of the highest vigilance as a foe.
“Not to change the subject, but do you know of any skills besides Immortality and your Temperance that might basically make someone immortal?” I ask casually.
Since Dustin’s Temperance skill makes him immortal in his own way, I figure he might have an inkling as to White’s inexplicable quasi-immortality.
“Hrm? Strictly speaking, my Temperance is by no means immortality, but… Let me think. Perhaps Potimas’s Diligence would fall under that category? Since it means that he himself does not die, it may be close to immortality in a way.”
I see. That makes sense.
No matter how many times I kill each new Potimas that shows up, the real deal is still safe and sound behind the barrier in the elf forest.
In the sense that he still lives even though I’ve seemingly killed him, Potimas could be called immortal, too.
But it’s not exactly immortality, since the selves he sends after us do die, just not the real Potimas himself.
In which case, Dustin’s not really immortal, either, since he dies and is then reborn.
Hmmmm.
I still can’t figure out the mystery of White’s immortality.
Sure, she has the Immortality skill, but Abyss Magic should’ve blown her away.
It doesn’t make sense. How did she recover from that?
I just don’t get it.
Was the White I killed some kind of copy, like what Potimas uses?
…No, that can’t be it.
The only skill she has that makes anything like copies would be the Egg-Laying skill. But that makes the weakest duplicates possible.
Even someone as exceptional as White shouldn’t be able to easily make a clone so strong that it could hold its own against me pretty well… At least, I don’t think so.
Although it’s scary that I can’t say for sure.
“What makes you ask such a question?”
“Oh, just wondering,” I answer evasively.
White is my biggest problem at the moment, but I don’t want to let him know that.
I’m sure he’d only make things worse.
I don’t know how exactly he would do that, but it’s scary in itself.
How many unpredictable, unavoidable situations do I really need to deal with?
Can you imagine how I feel getting dragged around like this?
…The tiny part of me that thinks it’s a little bit fun is probably a vestige of “former body brain,” the Parallel Mind that fused with me.
I guess former body brain was always getting forced to do annoying jobs like descaling and stuff…
Hmm?
Parallel Mind?
Fused with me?
“Aha!”
Thud! I stand up so fast that my chair falls over.
I see. So that’s how it is.
I get it now. The reason White seems immortal.
Duh! How did it take me this long to figure it out?!
I already had a hint—in fact, I had all the information I needed to find the answer!
She uses the connection among souls to send her Parallel Minds to other bodies, encroaches on their souls, and takes over the whole operation.
Just like what happened to me.
I managed to survive without being taken over and instead wound up fusing with the Parallel Mind she sent in, but I could’ve lost completely if I let my guard down.
If the takeover succeeds, that means the invader has basically stolen the victim’s body.
In fact, their very life and existence would get stolen.
And if one of her Parallel Minds can do it, I’m sure White herself can do it, too.
Parallel Minds, Egg-Laying, copies, Dustin, Potimas.
Put all those ingredients together, and you’ve got the recipe for understanding White’s immortality.
In other words, White took over one of her own “clones,” a baby made with Egg-Laying, to resurrect herself—a pseudo-reincarnation!
Destroying someone’s body won’t actually kill them if they can swap into a new body.
Since she managed to evade my soul-destroying Abyss Magic, that means as long as she has a spare body somewhere, she can ditch her current body on the spot.
It all makes sense. She must’ve escaped from her body right before the Abyss Magic hit.
She’s not controlling a clone from her main body, like Potimas.
And she’s not dying completely and being reborn, like Dustin.
She’s trading into a copy of herself, so if her real body dies, the copy just becomes her new body in a perfect succession.
It basically uses the best points of both Potimas’s and Dustin’s quasi-
immortality.
…Yeah, come on, how was I supposed to figure that one out all by myself?
Even with all the information in front of me, I don’t know who else would put two and two together.
How did it take me this long to figure it out? More like, how did I even figure it out just now?
“Is something the matter?”
“No, it’s nothing.”
Dustin looks up at me in surprise, since I stood so abruptly.
But I’ve got no time to waste on him right now.
“Anyway, you just do whatever you want, ’kay? Because I’m certainly going to. I guess the next time we meet might be on the battlefield, huh?”
“I would like to avoid that, if at all possible.”
“Ha-ha. See ya later.”
With a short farewell, I shoot out of the tavern like I’m fleeing for my life.
I’m sure Dustin will take care of the bill. Right now, I just need to be alone and think.
I wander the streets aimlessly as my head spins.
But no matter how long I think about it, I reach only one conclusion: It’s impossible.
The question is whether I can kill White.
And the answer is no. I can’t.
With her method of immortality, I have no way of killing her.
It’s already pretty difficult to kill someone with the Immortality skill.
You have to either use Abyss Magic or attack their soul directly with a Heresy-attribute attack. Those are the only two options.
But since White has Heresy Nullification, that leaves only Abyss Magic.
The sole way to kill White would be to catch her by surprise and use Abyss Magic before she can run away.
But she’s so fast, and Abyss Magic takes a long time to prepare.
So that’s already a stretch.
The only reason I was able to pull it off before is because all kinds of conditions were working in my favor. But even then, she still got away.
I would need to catch her unaware and hit her before she can run away…but that’s impossible.
There’s no way I could prepare to invoke such a huge spell without White noticing.
It would be almost impossible to catch her by surprise.
So I’m already screwed here.
But let’s say, for argument’s sake, that I somehow manage to hit her with Abyss Magic.
That still doesn’t mean she would die.
I mean, how do I even know where her main body is?
White has the Parallel Minds skill, a skill that divides your consciousness into pieces.
All the minds that are created by that skill are equally the user’s consciousness.
You could say that every one of them is the real thing, the real White.
So what if each of them gained a body?
If I’d been taken over completely by the Parallel Mind known as the former body brain, I would’ve become a second White.
A Parallel Mind with a body of its own.
Isn’t that every bit as real as the original?
The same person, just with a different body.
It’s a paradox: a single individual that exists multiple times.
But it’s still very possible.
If White has given her Parallel Minds their own bodies, that means there are multiple Whites in existence.
For all I know, the one I’ve been keeping an eye on is just one of several.
And in order to kill just one of what might be a multiple set, I’d have to get so lucky, it’d be nothing short of a miracle. The odds are so bad.
It’s no use. I can’t kill her.
I heave a sigh.
What a monster she is.
How can I possibly kill her?
Taking her on as an enemy means nothing but risks, with no benefits to speak of.
I thought that if I figured out her secret, I could find some faint glimmer of hope, but instead it crushed the possibility of ever beating her into nothing.
Okay. I give up.
I can’t kill White.
I can’t kill her, so it would be foolish to make an enemy of her.
That leaves only one option going forward: I have to get her on my side for real.
If I can get a beast like that under control, she’d be the most powerful ally imaginable.
It’s not gonna be easy.
Naming her doesn’t seem to be letting me control her, for one thing.
I didn’t just start calling her White for funsies, you know.
There’s a skill in this world called Naming. If you have it, it’s supposed to give you power over any person or creature you’ve named.
But giving her the name White doesn’t seem to have had any effect.
She’s probably just too strong.
I mean, I did it knowing it was a long shot at best, so the fact that it failed is no big deal.
The problem was when White tried to give the puppet taratects names.
They were already getting attached to her, so if she had named them, she might have been able to steal them away entirely.
Here I’m trying to get White on my side, and instead she almost steals some of my own forces from under my nose.
The scariest part is that, judging by her reaction, she didn’t even realize she was doing it.
I have to win her over somehow, in spite of how she manipulates people without even trying.
It’s a pretty tall order.
But I have no choice but to do it.
At any rate, my course of action is clear.
“Ugh… I’m sorry. It doesn’t look like I’ll be able to avenge you.”
I apologize quietly.
In my mind’s eye, I’m picturing the queen taratect White called “Mother.”
Not to mention the puppet taratects and the queen’s subordinates who were all felled by White’s hand.
My own kin, all of them lost.
But I can’t kill White.
So I have no choice but to accept her.
That means I have to give up on getting revenge for the queen and White’s other victims.
“I’m sorry. I’m sorry…”
Please forgive me. Just like Dustin does, I had to sacrifice you for the greater good.
I’m sorry for being a terrible mother, who can’t even avenge her children.
Somewhere in town, I hear a hymn of the Goddess religion.
I’m not exactly a believer, but for whatever reason, I offer up a prayer.
Goddess, please let my lost kin rest in peace.
I know more than anyone how futile that wish is, but I continue to pray for it nevertheless.
THE OLD MAN MEETS AN ADMINISTRATOR
The spiders have narrowly escaped the attack of the three earth dragons.
And now, they’re in the midst of a mass migration through the Lower Stratum of the Great Elroe Labyrinth.
As they skitter along in droves, I walk in their midst as well.
I wonder at first where we’re going, but before long, we arrive at the destination.
And there, I immediately understand the spiders’ current purpose.
“Eggs…?”
Before my eyes are several enormous eggs.
And standing at the forefront to protect them are several earth wyrms.
Looking closer, I see the corpses of some spiders at the earth wyrms’ feet.
I see.
The earth dragons were trying to protect these eggs.
A small group of spiders must have happened upon them while hunting, and the dragons defeated them, then set out to retaliate against the spiders’ main army.
They were trying to cut off the threat at the source before any harm could come to the eggs.
How tragic, then, that all three of them were defeated instead.
It’s possible that two of them were even the parents of these eggs.
But now, since those parents are gone, the eggs’ only protectors are these wyrms, far weaker than their dragon counterparts.
Generally, wyrms are not considered weak monsters, but they don’t stand a chance against this powerful spider army.
Perhaps they know that as well, for the cries they let out to intimidate the spiders now sound frail and fearful to my ears.
Nevertheless, the wyrms bravely stand to protect the eggs, and the spiders charge at them mercilessly.
Part 6 of 8