episode_0010

“Do not give in to gluttony, drinking, lasciviousness, self-indulgence, strife, or jealousy, but put on the Lord. Do not serve the flesh for its lust.”

The saint is still offering devout prayers today. I don’t think the sun god would listen to me like that, so why am I so enthusiastic?

She is truly an incomprehensible woman. Stupid woman.

“You are my light and my salvation; whom shall I fear? You are the strength of my life; of whom should I be afraid.”

Tartarus is a place where only darkness exists, day or night, unless the Celt opens the door for a visit or a meal.

It was like that until just six days ago.

Since the saintess came in as a new girl, a faint glow of light has always been shining in Tartarus.

This is because the light of the sacred sun that surrounds the saint’s body penetrates through the nun’s clothes. As if she herself were a small sun.

It still is. The saint is emitting light even as she is praying.

“Love the Lord with all your heart, with all your soul, with all your strength, with all your mind-.”

When I first heard that prayer sound, it was so disgusting that it made me want to rip my ears off, but these days, it’s not so much like that. I think I’ve already gotten used to being a weirdo called a saint.

… Isn’t this something that is going very wrong for demons? I have doubts about the meaning of my existence.

“Please, do not abandon this poor, profane world. Even if it means accepting my humble life, I pray that you will be relieved of your anger. Lord.”

Hey, look at what you say.

I can assure you that no priest I have killed was that pious.

People’s true colors come out just before they die. An upright and noble paladin, a snobbish and dirty priest, a timid nun who earnestly asked that children be killed for her… They all showed an unsightly appearance in the moments before they died.

However, I don’t think the saint would do that. For some reason, that’s my intuition.

It’s only the day after tomorrow… Even during the upcoming execution ceremony, he will be smiling brightly while holding his head on the guillotine. If it’s a saint I know.

“Saint.”

“Yes, Joker.”

Even though she learned of my identity through the hero’s visit, the saint’s attitude towards me still did not change. Warm and compassionate. The only thing that has changed is the title.

“Are you not afraid of death?”

“The Lord is just taking away the grace you gave me, shouldn’t I welcome it with a joyful heart?”

“Do you feel happy about death? So why not just commit suicide? Why are you still alive?”

“Because I have to carry out the duty that God has given me. Even though I couldn’t finish it completely, I must go because the Lord is calling me.”

As expected, the saint is a strange person. Another human… No, it is different from ‘life’.

“Isn’t it really scary? Can you swear to the sun god that you have no such feelings?”

I found it a bit disturbing to see her like that, so I persistently inquired.

I don’t know why I’m doing this. Whether the saint is good or not, whether she trembles before death or not, has nothing to do with me.

“Honestly, I would be lying if I said I wasn’t at all afraid.”

“What, were you lying?”

“But, if I think that if I can take on the sins of the world through my death, then the current world can be forgiven by the Lord.”

The saint’s face was filled with pure hope. The saint’s voice contained only sincerity.

“With such joy, I can wait for the coming day.”

“Ha, I can’t sympathize, but I have nothing to say.”

Suddenly, I became curious about the person called a saint.

What kind of environment did you grow up in to be able to have such a bright and hopeful spirit? Was he born and raised under such care, with not a single trace of disadvantage?

I was a little curious.

Gradually-.

“… Ouch.”

At the sound of chains, I had to close my mouth again, swallowing only the bitter pain.

*****

I was the devil’s henchman.

A very loyal confidant.

He was so loyal that when the Demon King gave him orders, he would only listen to one out of three, and he never failed to attend any banquets the Demon King invited. Ah, until now, except for official occasions, I have never once shown any respect to the Demon King.

How can you not be as loyal as a dog?

Some may say that I am thoughtless about these actions, but that is not the case.

My loyal actions were only possible because the Demon King was my close friend. A close friend of Jukma Gou (竹馬故友).

The Demon King and I have known each other since we were about ten years old. This is because he was a direct descendant of the Demon King family, the highest ranking family in the Demon World, and I was a descendant of the Northern Family, one of the four families in the Demon World.

Of course, no matter how long we spent together, I did not trust the Demon King ten percent. To begin with, I don’t trust anyone. Even if it’s a friend I’ve known for hundreds of years.

Is it for no reason that the term ‘Tosagu top’ exists?

That’s why I captured three of the Demon King’s weaknesses. Even though the Demon King himself doesn’t know, I have even engraved a curse on his body.

The problem is that I was dragged in here before I could even activate the imprint.

It was a day like any other day. I was eating breakfast, suffering from a seizure caused by Merlin Gregory’s magic. Breakfast that day was rye bread.

However, wouldn’t it be that during a peaceful meal, demonic police suddenly raided? The police officers tried to arrest me, accusing me of lese majeste.

Knocking them down was easier than breathing, but I obediently held on to them. It was honorable, and they could be subdued at any time.

I even wondered if this guy had dared to frame me, the Northern Grand Duke Joker.

I was immediately escorted to the courtroom, and the trial opened immediately without anyone even batting an eye.

Surprisingly, the judge was my old friend, the Demon King. The accuser was also the devil. The defense attorney was also a devil. The prosecutor was also a devil.

I was momentarily stunned by the bewildering situation, but I had to quickly come to my senses as the trial proceeded at an absurdly fast pace. However, there was nothing I could do about it.

It felt like someone was deliberately targeting me.

I realized it towards the end of the trial, but that someone was the devil.

[The Grand Duke of the North, Joker Oscar Lucifer, is sentenced to 111 days in Tartarus and guillotine.]

The trial ended exactly 9 minutes and 37 seconds after it began. Of course I protested, and the devil tried to suppress me by force.

I used all my might to clash with the Demon King. The court was engulfed in pure demonic energy, and a huge and majestic explosion that no one could have caused before struck us. The person standing at the end was the Demon King.

Exactly one hour and 26 minutes after the trial ended, I was escorted to the Tower of Babel, the world’s worst prison. Accompanied by the completely disfigured body he obtained while fighting the Demon King for 1 hour and 25 minutes.

In the end, I was imprisoned in Tartarus.

He was wearing chains made of adamantium, a metal that could never be broken by a body that could not be revived.

It was a ridiculous situation, but there was no room to argue. There was no place to express resentment.

The world is not a soft place. Even the second-in-command of the Demon King’s Army, who was on the hit road, only falls into the abyss due to the betrayal of the first-in-command.

It is said that this is the solemn command of the great Demon King, who can ignore procedures, so who can say anything? In the Demon World, where strength was paramount, the Demon King who surpassed even the Demon God had absolute power and more.

I still don’t know why the devil made me like this. It’s not that he didn’t have a good relationship with me, or that I was a hindrance to him.

If I were to dismiss it as being due to a desire for power, the personality of the Demon King I knew was holding me back. He is only obsessed with dueling with those stronger than himself. I can guarantee this because I have seen him longer than anyone else.

“Do you have any clue about what the saint is doing? Why did the devil imprison me here?”

“… .”

“Saint? Why aren’t you answering? Are you sleeping?”

“… It is.”

When the question was asked, the saintess finally opened her mouth that had been tightly closed. It was a contrast to his usual attitude of giving thorough and sincere answers to any nonsense questions I asked.

“I know the same thing, but I can’t tell you.”

“What?”

“Please understand.”

“Kick, if you don’t know, say you don’t know. I’m pretending to know to make myself look good.”

“Haha.”

The words are spoken bluntly, but I know. That the saint is not the kind of person who would talk nonsense.

Because you can’t tell me… Is there something between the saint and the devil that I don’t know about?

There is no way to know as the only person involved, the saint, keeps her mouth shut.

Clap-.

As I was grumpily applying force to the back of the saint’s head, which was lying on the saint’s thighs, I heard the sound of the iron door opening.

It’s not meal time, but it looks like it’s a visitation again. Anyway, she is a saint and has many connections. This is because not a single day goes by without people visiting Tartarus, where a criminal would not be able to last even a single second.

Someone hasn’t visited even one person in 110 days…

“Visiting.”

As expected, the reason the door was opened was because of a visitation.

Oh, but why is Celt speaking informally? Celt is not a person who would ever speak informally to a saint.

“Joker, I’m visiting you. Just stay there.”

… hmm?

“What, what?”

“There is no right of veto. Accept it calmly.”

“Visiting? To me? Finally?”

“Okay, I finally got to meet you. So welcome it with joy. Don’t say strange things for no reason and then run away.”

Wait a minute, who the hell is our first visitor? He’s so crazy about it?

Damn, anyway, I guess I’m a demon, I’ve had shitty connections for once in my life.

Visitors of a saint who lived a life completely opposite to mine… When you think of Lilith and the hero, it may seem like it has nothing to do with it, but anyway.

“Congratulations. Joker.”

“What?”

“It’s your first visit. The one you looked forward to so much.”

“Keu, keuhm! Who was waiting for what!”

“Don’t you feel envious every time you hear that Lord Celt came to visit me? I definitely felt that kind of vibe, right?”

The saintess tilted her bandage-covered eyes. Ah, this got caught.

Yeah, honestly, I’m looking forward to it. Even more so because it was my first visit. Baal, the demon who was most loyal to me? Dantalion, who led 36 demon legions? It’s okay no matter who it is.

Just like that, Park Dong-chi was holding his heart and staring at the door through which the visitor would enter.

Sigh-.

Jeopuk, Jeopuk-.

The visitor I had been waiting for so long entered, and what was in my eyes was the image of a man I believed would never come.

A long, cool black coat, tall and slender body, black sunglasses, red horns decorating the top of the long head, and red magic energy flowing around the horns.

There are so many qualifiers that describe him that I can’t possibly list them all, but let me summarize just a few of them.

A legendary demon who conquered seven countries and three tribes on the continent with nothing but force that transcended the laws.

A noble demon who transcends the demon god, the lord of the demon race, and stands somewhere above it, with seventy-two great demons at his feet.

A great demon who is the heaven and king of all demons and is destined to plunge the world into an abyss of evil.

Demon King Kanos.

I was in the position of a demon who was the fifth visitor to Tartarus and the first visitor to me.