“…Hm….”
On the day he was preparing to leave the inn where he had been staying for the past three days, Eugene had to blink for a few moments when he saw how Kristina had arrived at his door.
It wasn’t an unannounced visit. Since Eugene had decided to leave Yuras and return to the Lionheart estate today, he had told Kristina to come to his lodgings before noon.
“But don’t you have a little too much luggage?”
After pondering what he should say for a few moments, Eugene eventually spat out these words.
He wasn’t just saying this for no reason. Kristina’s luggage really was quite a lot. She had one, two, three… four travel suitcases as large as her.
Eugene let out a sigh and shook his head, “Why have you packed so much junk?”
“They’re all things that I need,” Kristina responded seriously.
Eugene glanced at an open slit in one of her suitcases. Through the gap, he saw clerical robes and miscellaneous items that seemed to have been crammed in randomly. It didn’t look like she had bought anything new; instead, she seemed to have packed everything that she had already been using.
“When did you even get the time to pack them all?” Eugene asked in disbelief.
“Two days ago, I hired someone to go to Tressia Cathedral, pack all my personal belongings, and retrieve them for me,” Kristina revealed.
Eugene argued, “Was there really a need for you to take all the items you had used there with you? You could just buy new items when we get there—”
“I don’t want to have to owe any more favors to you, Sir Eugene,” Kristina responded with a determined face. “As of today, I will be completely independent of Yuras. Previously, I used the Bishop’s card issued by the Holy See and Sergio Rogeris’ card, but from now on, I will no longer make use of them.”
“Oh… why not?”
“Because if I continue to be financially dependent on them, that wouldn’t be true independence. In other words, I am currently penniless and jobless.”
“Well, fine… both the Lionheart clan and I have a lot of money, so if you need anything—”
“Sir Eugene,” Kristina interrupted him once more as she stared at Eugene through narrowed eyes. “Didn’t I say it just now? I don’t want to be in any further debt to you, Sir Eugene. As such, I need to take all of this luggage with me.”
“In that case, does that mean you don’t want a room in the Lionheart mansion?” Eugene teased.
“Sir Eugene, if you want me to camp out in the garden and be covered by the cold morning dew, then I will gladly do so,” Kristina stated confidently.
In the end, doesn’t that mean that she did want a room?
“Isn’t all this luggage you brought with you things that were purchased with the Bishop’s and Rogeris’ cards?” Eugene pointed out.
Kristina argued back, “Strictly speaking, rather than being purchased by me, most of these items were handed over to me. And judging from what I’ve been through in the past, I’ve more than paid what these are worth.” 𝑖𝘦.𝘤𝑜𝘮
“Fine, fine,” Eugene casually conceded as he opened his cloak.
Mer, who was sitting within the opening, pouted as she saw Krisitna’s luggage.
Since it couldn’t be helped, Mer had decided to accept it. However, when she considered that this sinister dual-personality Saintess would be entering the Lionheart mansion and hovering by Eugene’s side, Mer felt as if black clouds of ash were erupting from deep within her heart.
Mer sighed, “Haaah, you really are a two-faced person. Why even say that you don’t want to be further indebted when you’re showing up at his mansion penniless and looking for a place to live?”
“I don’t have any money on me right now, but if I use my abilities, I can make as much money as I want, no?” Kristina said challengingly as she stared back at Mer, her eyes slightly parted in amusement. “I’m aware that there aren’t any priests staying at the Lionheart clan’s estate. While you do have excellent healers and a good supply of potions to replace them, a High Priest’s healing magic is a miracle that goes beyond the limits of medicine and ordinary magic.”
“That’s…,” Mer trailed off, unable to deny this.
“I dare say that there is no other priest in this current era who is more skilled in healing magic than I am. If someone like me is willing to entrust myself to the Lionheart clan in exchange for my abilities, then the Lionheart’s Patriarch would definitely be willing to pay the price,” Kristina stated confidently.
Mer groaned in dismay, “Ughhh….”
Kristina sniffed, “Although it’s true that I am penniless at the moment, I have no intention of acting like a certain someone who uses their small body as a weapon to brazenly beg for food and sweets.”
“Wh-what did you say?” Mer stammered as twin flames lit up in her eyes. “I-I’ve never done something like that. In fact, I’ve always been helpful. Although it seems that Lady Kristina doesn’t know me very well, I’ve always been assisting Sir Eugene’s magic—”
Kristina interrupted her, “I’ve never said that you were the one who performed such shameless behavior, so why are you reacting so violently?”
“Sir Eugene…! I really hate this woman!” Mer cried out as she climbed onto Eugene’s chest with a tearful expression.
Eugene took a few deep breaths as he thought about what might lie ahead in his future.
He sighed, “Don’t fight….”
Kristina acted innocent, “Oh my, what fight? I was just answering Lady Mer’s questions.”
Mer quickly tattled on her, “That woman looked at me and called me a shameless parasite!”
“Just try to get along…,” Eugene absentmindedly persuaded as he patted Mer on the back and stored Kristina’s luggage inside his cloak. “What about Lord Raphael? Isn’t he coming to see you off?”
“I begged him not to do that. Because useless rumors are already floating around, nothing good would come of it if he did,” Kristina revealed.
So it was happening already.
“Well, rumors would start flying in any case,” Eugene said with a shrug.
Initially, on Anise’s feast day, it was meant to be announced that Kristina had graduated from being the Saint Candidate to becoming a full Saint.
However, Kristina had rejected any papal recognition, and the Pope and Cardinal Beshara had accepted this. So, in the end, Kristina Rogeris was still a ‘Saint Candidate’ as far as the world was concerned.
However….
In this current era, Kristina was the only Saint Candidate in Yuras. Even if she had yet to be officially declared a Saint, all of the citizens of Yuras considered Kristina to be the Saint.
So for Kristina to even be suspected of leaving Yuras and swearing herself to the Lionheart clan of Kiehl, a foreign country, would result in hugely impactful rumors that would be impossible to hide.
“Yes, that’s certainly true,” Kristina slowly nodded.
A carriage they had booked in advance was waiting for them outside the inn. Their next destination was the warp-gate on the outskirts of Yurasia. They should be able to arrive at the Lionheart mansion by this evening at the very latest.
“I’ve prepared a pretext,” Kristina reported.
“What kind of pretext?” Eugene asked.
“I can claim that I’m accompanying you to treat the elves who are under the Lionheart’s protection,” Kristina explained. “Aren’t many of them suffering from the Demonic Disease?”
That would only serve as a pretext to a certain extent. Eugene was also well aware that the elves’ Demonic Disease was incurable. Even Saint Anise was unable to purify the elves of the Demonic Disease. The only thing that could halt and alleviate the Demonic Disease was the spiritual influence of the World Tree.
All kinds of concerns began popping up in Eugene’s mind.
Although this might seem obvious, Eugene had yet to inform the Lionhearts that he would be bringing Kristina with him. Trying to explain things through a letter would be difficult and awkward, so he was just planning to bring her with him and set her up in an empty room.
‘I don’t think the Patriarch will have any complaints, but….’
Kristina had even come up with a plausible reason for her presence.
The problem was that this hadn’t happened just once or twice.
He had brought Laman Schulhov with him from Nahama.
He had brought over a hundred elves back with him from Samar.
Then he had brought Mer back with him from Aroth.
And now he had ended up bringing Kristina back with him from Yuras….
Gilead might not say anything much about it, but Ancilla might just try to grab him by the collar.
‘No… on second thought, she might just overlook it without any protest.’
Eugene was well aware that Ancilla was surprisingly humane and soft-hearted.
When Eugene had brought a hundred elves back with him from Samar without giving them any prior warning, Ancilla had been furious enough to crush her own fan in her hands. However, in the end, she had still offered up the estate’s forest out of pity for the elves.
After a few months of this, thanks to the saplings of the World Tree that Eugene had transplanted, rather than worsening, their Demonic Disease was showing signs of improvement. Still, Ancilla, who was unaware of this fact, sometimes used her walks as an excuse to stop by the elves’ village and ask Signard about the state of their illness.
‘If we tell her that Kristina had come to help treat the elves….’
Although healing was healing, this wasn’t just anyone they were talking about; this was the Saintess of the Holy Empire, who Ancilla would entrust with the treatment of her family. How could Ancilla, who was obsessed with raising the Lionheart name to greater heights, refuse such an offer?
Or at least, that was what Eugene had thought up so far.
* * *
The Devildom….
That was what the land to the north had been called since ancient times. Even now, most people on this continent still called it the Devildom.
Even the people who lived on this land did not deny the fact that this place was the Devildom. As the meaning of the name suggests, this was where the countless demonfolk and Demon Kings resided. However, that meaning had undergone significant changes from what it was hundreds of years ago.
For the human citizens of the Devildom of Helmuth, the demonfolk were their friendly neighbors. They didn’t hunt and eat humans indiscriminately like they were said to in the old stories, nor did they place chains on their souls.
The Demon King wasn’t a war criminal who sought to trample the entire world beneath their feet and cause mass slaughter, but instead a gentleman who was kinder and wiser than the king of any ordinary country. The Demon King listened to the requests of his human citizens, protected them, and made their lives richer and happier.
This was the new Devildom, a land of opportunity. Although the cost of purchasing citizenship was quite high, if one earnestly desired it, it wasn’t completely unaffordable. In addition to that, Helmuth’s immigration support system was very humane, and depending on the number of years of labor you agreed to upon your death, the cost could be significantly reduced.
Thanks to this, people living in the poorer countries of the north would often knock on the door of Helmuth’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs, caught up in the Helmuth Dream.
The City of Skyscrapers, the Land of Opportunity, the Capital of the Helmuth Empire, Pandemonium.
The buildings in this city were taller than any other city on this continent. Rather than castle towers, the city was full of high-rise buildings with dozens of floors. These tall skyscrapers that couldn’t have been raised by any human strength were proof of the greatness of the Demon King.
Amongst these skyscrapers was a sleek, black building standing tall at the very center of Pandemonium.
This was Babel.
At ninety-nine floors, this building wasn’t just the tallest in Pandemonium but also the tallest in all of Helmuth. Without anything to hide, Babel was the Demon King’s Castle, where the Demon King of Incarceration, who ruled over all of Helmuth personally resided.
“Is the master of the Demon Dragon Castle absent this time as well?”
On the ninetieth floor of Babel, the Blade of Incarceration, Gavid Lindman, stood with his hands behind his back as he looked down through the glass walls of the building. Far below, he could see the forest of buildings that, while incomparable to Babel, were still tall enough to be called high-rises. Dozens of fish, large and small, were floating between the buildings.
These were the Air-Fish.
The Air-Fish that swam through the skies of Pandemonium were part of the security system that kept the crime rate of Pandemonium under perfect control. The Air-Fishes were able to monitor this entire city of skyscrapers without any blindspots while transmitting all that they observed to Babel’s Control Centre.
Even at this very moment, in the Control Center dozens of floors below, thousands of souls that had contracted themselves into post-mortem labor, and the hundreds of demonfolk, who controlled these souls, were working hard to protect the city’s security by digging through the monitoring images sent by the Air-Fish.
The door of the spacious conference room opened as a middle-aged man walked in and answered Gavid’s question with a smile, “It looks to be that way. I wish he would have at least sent a message….”
The man took the top hat he was wearing off his head, placed it on the table, and then rested the staff he was holding across his lap.
This staff had a color similar to that of congealed blood, and the veins that covered it writhed as if they were alive.
This staff was called Vladmir, and along with the Wise Sienna’s Akasha, it was one of the only two staves on this continent that had been made with a Dragonheart.
This man was the only one of the Three Mages of Incarceration who resided in Helmuth, a black wizard with the title of a Count, Edmond Codreth. He stroked his mustache as he smiled.
“Your Grace, are we the only two members of Loyalty attending this meeting this time as well? If it’s like this, we can’t even call it a proper meeting,” Edmond sighed.
“In fact, there’s no real need to call it a meeting,” Gavid corrected him. “My only intention was to casually discuss our opinions on the current situation. Demonfolk and humans have very different senses of time, so if we don’t have appointments like this, it might be decades before we all see each other again.”
Edmond shrugged, “If it’s just a few decades, that would be fine with me as well. Perhaps even longer than that might still be acceptable.”
Gavid asked, “Are you still searching for eternal life? You should already be close to it.”
“Haha… the eternal life that I have currently obtained is nothing more than extending my own human lifespan,” Edmond said dismissively. “Can that really be compared to the demonfolk, who are truly eternal beings?”
“It’s not that different even for us. Just as strong humans can live for a long time, strong demonfolk live longer than the rest,” Gavid muttered softly, but Edmond just smiled broadly without saying anything in response.
Gavid was well aware of his reasons for this. The Three Mages of Incarceration, the three black wizards who had signed a personal contract with the Demon King, were all eccentrics…. No, they were all people who, while human, possessed an insanity that was inhuman.
The Tower Master of Aroth’s Black Tower of Magic, Balzac Ludbeth, wanted to see the very peak of all magic. He wanted to go far beyond the limits of what humans had managed to reach and was obsessed with the peak of magic that any human should surely be unable to touch — no, the question was whether such a peak even existed in the first place.
Vladmir’s owner, Edmond Codreth, wanted to improve his genus as a human and become an entirely new species. He aspired to become a new breed of human by abandoning everything that made him humanlike, such as his thoughts and behaviors. By refining his demonic power to the extreme limits of what mana could reach, he planned on undergoing metamorphosis and becoming a new breed of human.
As for the Dungeon Master of the Desert, Amelia Merwin….
“Hm,” Gavid’s eyes, which had been completely still, suddenly trembled.
He stared at an object in the night sky that was flying toward them from a distance.
For a moment, Gavid wondered if he was hallucinating. He even suspected whether or not he might be dreaming right now. This was the first time he had been so astonished since he was last pushed back by the Stupid Hamel’s rampage three hundred years ago.
“Edmond,” Gavid called out.
“Yes, Your Grace?” Edmond responded.
“Come here… and take a look at that,” Gavid instructed. “Just what on earth does that look like to you?”
Edmond tilted his head to the side in curiosity at the sudden summons. He got up from his chair and walked over to Gavid’s side. He then stood there with his face pressed against the glass wall as he looked up into the distant night sky.
Whatever it was, it was fast. Even at this very moment, the flying object was quickly drawing closer to them. The closer it got, the better the view they had of the flying object’s appearance.
Edmond gasped in surprise and took a few steps backward. Had he made a mistake with the spell? No, it couldn’t be. Edmond shook his head, rubbed his eyes, and then gazed out the window once more. Now the flying object was so close that he didn’t even need to use a spell to see it very clearly.
But that….
It was a gigantic head.
How else to describe it? Made from expensive and rare metals such as Orihalcum, Mithril, and Adamanitum, a marvel of magical engineering that had been made into a flying airship… no, a flying head. With that head alone, you would have enough money to buy ten of the buildings in Helmuth and still have some left over.
“It appears… to be a head,” Edmond choked out in disbelief.
It wasn’t just a simple head. Curly hair sprouted from the head, writhing like tentacles and flapping like wings. A red horn also sprouted from the top of the head.
The huge eyes were just as large as the head they were set in and twinkled as if stars had been embedded within them.
“Ahahaha!”
The forehead split open.
The Queen of the Night Demons, Noir Giabella, raised her arms in glee from where she sat on her velvet throne.
Noir cried out, “What do you think of my Giabella-Face?!”
Her cry was met with silence.
“It was originally planned to be shown during the completion ceremony of Giabella Park! But it was completed much sooner than I expected, so what else could I do? That’s why I’ve decided to show it to you first. Isn’t it amazing?” Noir asked excitedly.
Edmond and Gavid stayed dumbstruck.
Unimpeded by their silence, Noir continued, “The Giabella-Face will be the mascot of the Giabella Park! The Giabella-Face will float above in the skies during the mornings, noons, evenings, and nights… at all times, the guests of Giabella Park will be able to look up at this face and be filled with love and awe. Tormented by their lust for me, they will squander their savings at the casino and even spend their life-force….”
“I’m ashamed just looking at it,” Gavid muttered to himself with a shake of his head.
Edmond, who was keeping to the rear, also looked like he felt the urge to say some things that he really couldn’t afford to be saying.
But Noir didn’t feel the slightest offense at their dry reactions.
Click.
With a snap of her fingers, the metallic expression of the Giabella-Face slowly began to change.
Gavid and Edmond kept their silence as they watched the Giabella-Face smile.
Gavid was slightly afraid that the citizens of Pandemonium, who lived far below, might still be able to see this shameful display.
“Smile,” Noir sang cheerfully as she lifted the corners of her lips with both index fingers in a smile of her own.
Then she stood up from her velvet throne and walked out of the cockpit.
Claclack clack clack!
The carpet on the floor of the cockpit extended forward on its own. Noir walked gracefully down the red carpet and approached the glass wall.
Then she casually passed through the glass and entered the inside of the room. Noticing the empty seats, the corners of Noir’s lips curled upwards in a sneer.
“So the master of the Dragon Demon Castle is absent this time as well?” Noir unknowingly repeated.
“It can’t be helped,” Gavid replied.
“Humph, I’m really, really curious. Just how much longer are you going to allow the problem of the Dragon Demon Castle to fester? Isn’t it enough that you overlooked them for the past two hundred years?” Noir demanded.
“Two hundred years might be considered a long time, but it isn’t that long for a dragon,” Gavid argued. “Even if the young master of the Dragon Demon Castle is unsuitable for his position, we still need to wait another hundred years.”
“And why exactly should we wait any longer?” Noir insisted. “Because of how rare Demonic Dragons are? See here, Gavid, three hundred years ago, fallen dragons were rare and worthy of being used as a symbol of our strength. But aren’t things a bit different now?” 𝑖.𝑐ℴ𝑚
Gavid reminded her, “No matter what the era, dragons have always been seen as great and noble existences. It’s difficult to give up on the symbolic importance that comes from having had such an existence fall and be bestowed a title from the Demon King of Incarceration.”
“Three hundred years ago, dragons were indeed such an existence,” Noir readily agreed. “But now? It has been three hundred years since the dragons disappeared into hiding. Are there even any dragons still active in modern times? In any case, dragons are like beings from their distant myths to the people of this era. Don’t you think that, instead of such an obsolete symbol, it would be a better symbol to have someone who has successfully become a Duke while still being a human?”
As Noir said this, she turned to Edmond and addressed him, “What do you think, Edmond? If you so wish, I will gladly lend you my strength. You understand what I’m trying to say, right? I’m telling you that I will gladly rip apart the young dragon of the Dragon Demon Castle with my own hands.”
Edmond awkwardly laughed, “Haha…. I’m quite grateful for the offer, but….”
“Hmph, why are you acting so innocent,” Noir said poutily. “I like you so much because you’re a freak. What if the master of the Dragon Demon Castle does end up being defeated, and we need to choose a new Duke? Rather than one of those fucking marquises who snoop around me, trying to keep me in check even as they dream above their station, I think it would be better to raise a Count like you in to become a Duke.”
“I didn’t know that you thought of me so highly,” Edmond humbly prevaricated.
“If you didn’t know it before, then keep it in mind from now on,” Noir insisted. “If you want, I can personally send a message to the Demon King of Incarceration. In exchange for my help, I’ll take the corpse of the young dragon for myself. After all, you already have Vladmir, right?”
Gavid, who had been silently listening to this conversation take place, sighed and waved his hand in dismissal, “Don’t bring up such things to our Demon King of Incarceration when he’s sure to disallow it. Also, Noir, just what would you even do with a dragon’s corpse that makes you want it so?”
“Every piece of a dragon has its uses, no? First of all, I plan to process its scales, leather, and bones to make weapons and put them on display as prizes for the Giabella Park Casino,” Noir revealed, her reply exceeding all imagination.
Gavid stared at Noir, unable to think of what to even say to this. Noir just smiled happily in the face of his surprise.
“The Giabella Park’s Casino will be the best casino in all of the past, present, and future,” Noir proudly declared. “There is surely no other place in the world where weapons made from a dragon can be exchanged for casino tokens.”
“It’s sure to be a shocking facility in many ways,” Gavid eventually said drily.
“Also, the Dragonheart will be transplanted into the Giabella-Face. The magic generator I currently have installed in it is great, but if I can transplant a Dragonheart into it, wouldn’t it be even more amazing?” Noir said with greed in her eyes.
Edmond stared at the Giabella-Face floating outside the window with narrowed eyes. At first glance, that flying object practically drowning in narcissism looked ridiculous, but as an Archiwizard, Edmond realized that it wasn’t simply a head given the ability to fly.
‘For her to have even thought up the idea of linking the eyes of her flying vehicle to her own Demon-Eyes, regardless of whether it is even magically possible, I’m forced to acknowledge just how absurd Duke Giabella’s mana truly is,’ Edmond thought.
Demon-Eyes, which could be activated with just a glance, all consumed large amounts of mana. The Demon-Eye of Fantasy possessed by Noir Giabella was one of the strongest among all the Demon-Eyes that were said to have existed in the world. Her Demon-Eye, as its name suggested, had the power to turn reality into fantasy and fantasy into reality.
Noir was planning for this gigantic Giabella-Face to float in the skies above the facility that also bore her name, Giabella Park. When it was eventually completed, numerous tourists would be coming to Giabella Park every day. If a floating object as bizarre as the Giabella-Face was hovering around in the sky, one would have no choice but to look at it at least once, even if one didn’t want to see it.
At that moment, the tourists would be captured by the Demon-Eye of Fantasy and fall into the illusion crafted by Noir Giabella.
“I know that I am repeating myself, but the Demon King of Incarceration will not rescind the title of the young master of the Dragon Demon Castle,” Gavid reminded Noir.
“Then what about a hunt? I don’t like that young dragon, so if it’s for my desires, then the Demon King of Incarceration won’t stop me from hunting it, will he?” Noir asked.
“If you do that, I will be the one to stop you,” Gavid said in a calm tone.
However, deep within his eyes, a red light was shimmering. It was the light emitted by Gavid’s Demon-Eye of Divine Glory, a Demon-Eye on the same level as Iris’s Demon-Eye of Darkness and Noir’s Demon-Eye of Fantasy.
“I guess a lot of time really has flown by. You, who were once called a slayer, are instead acting as the guardian of a young dragon,” Noir commented sarcastically.
Gavid told the truth, “It’s not about protecting the young master of the Dragon Demon Castle. It’s to keep you in check. Even if they aren’t fully grown yet, a dragon is still a dragon. For someone like you, who’s already powerful enough as it is, I don’t want you to become intoxicated by the power of the Dragonheart.”
This was just a light warning of Gavid’s power. Noir was also only acting tough. She probably didn’t have any intention of seriously hunting the young master of the Dragon Demon Castle.
“Fiiiine, I got it. So can you stop with that creepy gaze of yours?” Noir whined as she brushed back her thick, wavy locks of hair with a smile.
At this, Gavid also shrugged and deactivated his Demon-Eyes of Divine Glory. Edmond, who had just been watching the two of them, also laughed politely and returned to his seat.
“Once the two Dukes start playing mischievous pranks and pretending to be angry with each other, it’s hard for me to even breathe properly. So please, let us talk about something else,” Edmond proposed.
“Has there been anything interesting going on lately?” Noir inquired.
“I think it depends on your opinion of what counts as interesting,” Edmond said as he pulled a hand out of his coat and held it up.
When his hand lightly stirred in the air, a whitish orb the size of two fists appeared above it.
This was the soul of a human.
“I’m not fully certain of this, but…,” Edmond touched the soul with his fingertips as he spoke. “It seems that a Hero and a Saint have appeared.”
Gavid narrowed his eyes.
.