“That corpse… is it a Greater Demon?”
“Yup, yup! Because my—this lowly fellow’s—role is hunting traitors!”
He stabbed the thing he called a Greater Demon’s corpse with his sword.
He looked at the thing, which would have looked like nothing more than a lump of meat if he hadn’t said otherwise, with eyes full of accomplishment.
“It seemed like they were looking for various things… but ‘Evil-Immediate-Slay,’ right!?”
“Traitors…”
“Yeah! It seemed like they were trying to do something using humans!”
“……I see.”
In other words, the “fake Helheim” was indeed involved in this robbery.
And demons were heavily involved in that fake Helheim. To borrow Kaguya’s words, the “Bael Faction.”
“Furcas. Since you’re on the move, does that mean you’re hunting Greater Demons who look up to Bael as their King?”
“Exactly! My ‘Ability’ determined they were planning treason against the Demon King! ……Wait, huh? Did I tell you that story, Shiou-kun?”
Nodding and giving vague replies, I pondered Furcas’s words.
The goal of the fake Helheim was the “Resurrection of the Demon King.” And yet, that was judged by Furcas to be treason against the Demon King.
In other words, the “Demon King” mentioned by the fake Helheim is not the true Demon King, but Bael, the Greater Demon who had been posing as the Demon King I defeated. There’s almost no doubt about it.
They were using humans… huh. Well, slipping into the gaps in the human heart is their specialty. It’s not surprising.
One thing remains inexplicable.
“I still don’t get why they’re using the name Helheim.”
That’s what it boils down to.
They can work in the shadows all they want.
Even if they wanted to spread their name, why was it Helheim?
No matter how much I think about it, the pieces don’t fit.
In the cruelly collapsed ruins, there probably aren’t even any clues left.
“Anyway, anyway! Shiou-kun, you took so long to come back, I was lonely! Here… uh, how many years has it been?”
“Apparently a hundred and eighty years.”
“Heh! Well, whatever! We met again anyway!”
Furcas rattled his blood-stained armor and reached out his arm to put it around my shoulder.
Nifl stepped between us, slapping his arm away.
“It’s been a long time, Knight.”
“Oh, Half-pint-chan! Long time no see~”
“Grrr……”
Garm, like Nifl, stepped between me and Furcas, baring her teeth and growling lowly.
“Oh my, Wolf-chan… Wait, Shiou-kun, are you reforming the ‘Fun Friends’ group?”
“We’re not the ‘Fun Friends,’ we’re Helheim! Don’t get it wrong!”
Garm swung her arms around to intimidate him. She showed no sign of flinching even against Furcas.
When Garm, angered by the random name, corrected him, Furcas pointed at my face as if remembering, “Ah, that’s the one!” This seemed to provoke Garm and Nifl even more, as both of them wore unpleasant expressions.
But in the end, that’s just the kind of creature Furcas is. He rarely takes a strong interest in others. The reason he’s attached to me is that in the past, during my prime when I inherited my classmates’ powers, I fought a battle that stood on equal terms with his full strength. If it weren’t for that, I would probably be recognized as nothing more than a part of the scenery in the corner of his eye.
The fact that they are recognized as “individuals,” like “Half-pint-chan” or “Wolf-chan,” is actually quite a feat. To him, most living things are no more than “moving lumps of meat.”
However, that Furcas suddenly raised an eyebrow and his expression turned cold.
A strange light appeared in his pitch-black irises, and his focus sharpened on a single point.
“Nidhogg. So you finally felt like coming out of your nest.”
Nidhogg, who was the target of that emotionless tone, popped her head out cutely from my cloak and shook it in distaste.
“Do not speak to me so familiarly, Knight. I have no words to exchange with one who does not respect my King.”
“Respect? Ah, sorry~ My respect is fully invested in the Demon King-sama, so I can’t give it to anyone else.”
“Hah, to think you’d offer the loyalty that should be given to the King of the World to a mere King of Demons—”
“Nidhogg, that’s enough! Seriously, give it a break!”
I gently pushed Nidhogg, who was about to go on an eloquent rant, back into my cloak.
I couldn’t help but feel that letting Nidhogg keep talking would only lead to more mental scars for me.
I wasn’t sure if we even had time to be so leisurely. I needed to ask Furcas, who continued to smile loosely, what I wanted to know.
Though, even if I asked him about the fake Helheim, he probably wouldn’t know anything anyway. After all, he didn’t even remember the name Helheim.
In that case…
I stepped on the lump of meat that had fallen nearby.
READ THE ORIGINAL TRANSLATION AT LOCALIZERMEERKAT.GITHUB.IO
“Hey, Furcas. This thing is a Greater Demon, right?”
“Yup!”
“What’s its name?”
When I asked, Furcas answered without a moment’s hesitation.
“Foras. His rank is ‘President’.”
“Foras…? Not Seere?”
A name I didn’t know cropped up here.
I asked again, suspicious of the name given by Furcas, who apparently remembered demons accurately. Furcas then widened his eyes in surprise.
“Nn? Why Seere? What a huge coincidence.”
“Coincidence…?”
“Yeah. Uhh… hold on a second.”
Furcas groaned and distorted his handsome face in thought. But his androgynous beauty wasn’t marred at all, showing off his features that would enchant anyone if he just stayed quiet.
The Demon Race is a strange species that gets closer to human form the more power they possess. Demons with beautiful human forms are, without exception, equipped with peerless strength.
Nifl and Furcas are prime examples. In that sense, I can imagine Kaguya is also likely in a quite powerful category as a demon.
The three of them have another thing in common: hair color. All three have pale hair, close to white. The reason is unknown, but as you follow the demon ranks, you learn that as a demon’s magical power grows, its color shifts from black to white.
The Greater Demons I recently encountered were the President Ose and the Count Bifrons. Both were in the lower tier of magical power among demons, so they had a blackish appearance.
But as they get closer to “King,” their appearance becomes increasingly based on white.
The Demon King I killed… Bael was the same. Though I don’t even want to remember what he looked like.
“Ah! That’s right, that’s right!”
Right after I had picked at my own old wounds, Furcas looked up with a refreshed face.
“I was relying on my this lowly fellow-Radar to mow down the traitors, and it turns out a bunch of Bael-faction Greater Demons were gathered around here! This thirty-first, Foras, right? And the forty-third, Sabnock, and fifty-second, Allocer. It’s rare for three of them to gather in the same place! They were all small fry, so it was easy, but… the strange thing is, all three of them mentioned that name ‘Seere.’ They were like, ‘I was instigated by Seere…!’ I came around here specifically looking for a Seere-hunt anyway, so I thought, ‘Well, I guess that happens,’ but to think even Shiou-kun would… what a strange coincidence~”
“Instigated by Seere…?”
The words naturally leaked from my mouth as a repetition, and Furcas nodded deeply as if to confirm.
“It’s a bit complicated… but apparently the Bael faction wanted something called a ‘Gate,’ and Seere told them it was in a place called ‘Fuyakoku’ (Sleepless Kingdom). But that Fuyakoku is apparently the territory of ‘Gremory,’ so they couldn’t enter, and that’s why they tried to steal it using humans! I think it was something like that!”
My brow naturally furrowed at the goals of the Greater Demons being told so lightly.
Their goal was indeed the Otherworld Summoning Orb (Gate). But… there was no Gate in the stolen goods, I’m sure of it.
Did Seere give them false information…? Was it just a mistake… or was it──
“A decoy…”
Nifl whispered, her voice barely audible.
The moment I heard it, I reached the same conclusion as her.
It’s a diversion. The intent behind this robbery was definitely a diversion.
But it wasn’t to lure the patrol guards, as Nifl had initially thought.
“He got you, Furcas.”
“Nn?”
It’s this guy. Seere likely gathered his comrades from the Bael faction around the Sleepless Kingdom to evade Furcas, who was closing in on him. Using the false information about the Gate as bait.
“We’re going back.”
“Yes.”
When I turned on my heel, Nifl followed immediately.
“Eh, King, you’re going back?”
“Yeah. Furcas, you come too.”
“Wait, don’t just move forward on your own~”
I looked back at the two who were lagging behind and urged them.
“──Ah.”
“──Nn?”
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