Ch.162Echo – 2

“You want me to hold your hand? Not the goddess?”

“Yes. Abandon that incompetent goddess and live with me. I’ll even make you the Demon King. If you keep sticking with humans, saving the world won’t bring you much good, will it? After saving the world, you’ll have to follow laws and remain a good person forever. The Demon King is different. Unlike human leaders, the Demon King can do whatever they please. Submitting to the strong—that’s how demons live.”

“I’m not interested in becoming the Demon King.”

“Oh, come on. Joining hands with humans to save the world won’t bring you much good, will it? Even after saving everything, you’ll have to follow laws, remain a good person, and the moment you break even the slightest rule, people will criticize you endlessly. But demons are different. The Demon King, unlike human leaders, can do whatever they want. Absolute submission to the strong—that’s how demons live.”

Despite my lack of interest in the Demon King position, her lengthy explanation suggested she was determined to persuade me somehow. Or perhaps she simply didn’t listen to others well.

Then again, why would a Demon God need to listen to anyone else? People would worship her even if she just rambled on one-sidedly.

“You don’t need to be bound by rules. You are the rule. When the Demon King decides to do something, who would dare refuse?”

“You know what? You’re clearly an upgrade from the Demon King. I heard you even created the demon sword?”

“That’s fine. I won’t care what you do. I won’t interfere either. That’s how it’s always been. That previous one… Elysier, was it? I left him alone even when he dragged out wars for hundreds of years under the pretext of weeding out weak demons. You can truly do whatever you want. I won’t care even if you exterminate all demons. As long as you remain the Demon King.”

“Then what do you want?”

I couldn’t understand at all.

If she cared so little about other lives that she’d allow all demons to be killed, then why did she create the demon sword, why did it become the symbol of the Demon King, and why was she trying to put me on the Demon King’s throne?

“Nothing in particular. If I had to pick something, maybe the survival of demons? They’re closer to me than humans who side with the goddess. But I don’t really care about that either. As long as you’re alive on my side, the other demons can die for all I care.”

“You know, you’re overestimating me so much that it feels suspicious. You don’t actually expect me to believe this, do you?”

She tried to kill me with this so-called Demon God’s energy that never appeared in the original story, and now she’s saying things like this? It’s only natural not to believe her.

I tightened my grip on the spear. I considered launching a surprise attack right now. I had no idea if I could win since I knew nothing about the Demon God, but still.

‘There’s no guarantee she won’t attack me either.’

Perhaps she intended to brainwash me, or ambush me first to neutralize me and drag me to her domain, or maybe this whole act of overestimating me was a lie. Either way, I couldn’t let my guard down.

“Hey, you don’t need to be so tense. I really didn’t come here to fight.”

Seemingly noticing that I didn’t trust her, the Demon God raised both hands up to her ears.

“I have absolutely no intention of attacking. Even if you hit me first, I won’t retaliate. So can’t we just talk this through nicely? Hmm? Really. Trust me just this once. Please.”

“Why should I?”

“Because fighting would only be disadvantageous for me. I’m not even sure if my chances of winning are fifty percent, and even if I win, I gain nothing. If we have a big fight, you’ll never join my side even if you die, or you might die, and while I’m gone, the goddess will do whatever she wants. No gains, just losses—why would I do that?”

She seemed to have her own logic to persuade me. I lowered the tip of my spear slightly.

If the Demon God had made such an offer without interfering with the world, I might have seriously considered accepting it.

I still didn’t trust that woman. I’d been fighting against the Demon God’s energy for too long to trust her now.

But that didn’t mean I trusted the goddess either. If the Demon God was hard to trust because our entanglement had been too long, the goddess was hard to trust because our connection had been too brief.

“This is strange. Isn’t my offer clearly better?”

The Demon God grumbled in a sulky voice, as if deeply offended that I was still considering.

“Following the goddess to save the world won’t bring you much in return. At most, you’ll receive thanks for a few years and maybe some money. But as Demon King, you can do whatever you want until you die. Have you even met the goddess directly? Did she promise to make you the human king if she kills the Demon King?”

“I’m rejecting you because you don’t even understand what you did wrong. Go back and think carefully about your mistakes.”

Just look at what she’s saying now. She doesn’t even consider it wrong that she’s been sending the Demon God’s energy to strengthen demons all this time.

Until she realizes that fact herself, there was nothing more to say.

“And, while I don’t trust you, I don’t trust the goddess either. If anything, I distrust both of you.”

For one thing, Laura before losing her memories had identified either the goddess or the Demon God as the mediator maintaining this world, and above all, there were too many suspicious points to blindly trust the goddess.

The reason she suddenly seemed to change personalities during our first meeting still hadn’t been explained, nor had her obvious avoidance of me, yet she conversed just fine with Leona—all factors that diminished her credibility.

The fact that she helps humans is clear, so I’m not saying much, but from my perspective, the goddess and the Demon God are pretty much the same.

“Oh, really? You don’t trust the goddess either? Alright. I won’t say anything then.”

The Demon God jumped up and down with a suddenly brightened voice. She looked so innocent that it was hard to believe she was the Demon God. Judging by appearance, speech, and personality alone, she seemed like nothing more than a girl with a somewhat hidden identity.

‘Could the Demon God actually be female?’

I had assumed she would have an intimidating appearance to contrast with the goddess, but thinking about it now, appearing as a female wasn’t impossible.

After all, this was a yuri romance fantasy world. Why that descriptor was attached wasn’t explained in Laura’s diary, and the current Laura didn’t know either.

“She must have been quite the sucker. Handling divine power but not believing in the goddess. Or was she that desperate?”

I stared at the Demon God, who was laughing in a coquettish voice, and suddenly asked a question.

“Is that your true form?”

The Demon God stopped humming, as if surprised I’d asked a question first, stared at me intently, then made a strange laughing sound—”hm-hm-hmm”—while spinning around.

“What’s this? Are you curious about me? Is that it? That’s it, right?”

“If you don’t want to answer, that’s fine. I don’t need to know.”

“Okay, okay. So impatient. No, this isn’t my true form. If I had descended directly, this entire area would have withered and more. Because this is just an avatar, only the ground beneath my feet dries up.”

If it’s just an avatar, killing it would be meaningless. I abandoned my plan to ambush her. As I released my grip on the spear, the Demon God snickered smugly.

“Hm-hm-hmm, we’re compatible in that way too. I like perceptive people. People like that seem like they’d move quickly as subordinates, don’t they?”

“Hardly.”

The Demon God laughed for a long time, finding my answer hilarious for some reason.

“Ah, I’m glad I came. Actually, I have a rather impulsive personality. I try not to show it usually, but sometimes it leaks out without me realizing. So I sometimes do things first and then worry about complications afterward. Fortunately, I’ve never been caught.”

It was absurd—she claimed to worry about being caught, yet there was likely no one to see her “leaks” anyway.

“My offer stands anytime. Got it? It’s valid until you or the hero cut off my true form’s neck, so let me know if you change your mind.”

After rambling on about things I hadn’t even asked about, the Demon God said she really had to go now and waved her hand.

“I’ll come back later! You must give me an answer by then, okay?”

The Demon God stretched her arms high above her head and waved them around. It was like watching an excited child on the morning of a field trip. Her black-covered body soon dissolved into the air and disappeared.

I couldn’t help but sigh. I don’t know why such strange beings keep getting entangled with me. I sighed again.

—Wooong…

As I was putting away my spear and preparing to leave, the necklace in my inner pocket vibrated slightly. It was the item I used to communicate with Elysier before.

Hoping it wasn’t an urgent matter requiring this form of contact, I put on the necklace.

“What is it, Elysier? Is something wrong?”

“Nothing is wrong, but I have an extremely important question. Would you be willing to answer?”

“What could it be?”

“Do you also believe that the calming effect increases as breast size increases?”

“…?”

“There, all done.”

The chairwoman sat down beside me with a beaming smile. The table in front was laden with all sorts of dishes. All of them were made by the chairwoman herself.

Even at a glance, it looked like enough to feed twenty people. Surely she didn’t expect me to eat all this. A chill suddenly ran down my spine.

‘I should have said I’d already eaten.’

I regretted telling the truth. If I’d said I’d already eaten, I could have gotten away with just coffee and a few dessert plates.

“What would you like to try first, child? If there’s anything you want—”

“Just a moment, please. There’s something I need to tell you first.”

Once caught up in her pace, there would be no end to it, so I needed to accomplish my purpose for coming here first. I looked at the chairwoman. More precisely, I looked at the enormous masses of flesh attached to her chest.

The fat deposits were so massive in size and thickness that both hands together couldn’t even hold a quarter of one side. They jiggled right before my eyes.

“…”

I didn’t particularly want to do this, but since they had spent hours debating without reaching a conclusion, I had no choice.

‘Relationships formed in this world are meaningless, huh.’

It also showed how starkly our perspectives on this world differed. To the other possessors except me, this world was ultimately just a novel written by Laura.

I could understand that perfectly. Except for Rosaria, who had only regressed four times, they had all watched the people of this world act exactly according to the original story for hundreds of years.

Even Rosaria’s twenty years was no small amount of time, though she seemed relatively less experienced compared to Priscilla, Laura, or Elysier.

Four months was woefully insufficient to completely shake off the feeling—solidified deep in their hearts through hundreds of years of repeated regressions—that this was an elaborately created world with elaborately created NPCs.

So they could naturally suggest experimenting with the chairwoman’s body. After all, these relationships would all disappear once we returned to the real world.

“Child?”

I must have been lost in thought for too long, as a cautious voice called out to me. I snapped out of my contemplation.

“Ah, I was just thinking for a moment. I’m sorry…?”

Somehow, the look in her eyes directed at me was quite strange. It was like a mother witnessing her son’s growth. I wondered why, then quickly realized the reason.

I had been staring at her chest when I fell into thought, so naturally my gaze remained fixed there. From the chairwoman’s perspective, what I had just done was obvious.

“Hmm, I see. You were just thinking. Don’t worry. I understand completely.”

With a gaze dripping with honey, the chairwoman’s eyes curved with maternal affection. I wanted to make some excuse, but I couldn’t think of anything. My mind felt completely frozen.

“Child, isn’t it a bit hot in here? I think I’m starting to sweat a little.”

“What? What do you—”

I was about to ask if there wasn’t a room temperature spell in place, but I closed my mouth. The chairwoman had suddenly started unbuttoning her white shirt. Her long fingers undid the buttons without resistance, stopping only at the third one.

As the buttons disappeared, the already tightly stretched shirt spread wide on both sides. Between them, an enormous valley was visible. The weight was so overwhelming that I wondered if the clothes might tear.

That wasn’t the end. She raised her elbows up to her ears, displaying her armpits as if showing them off, then tilted her neck slightly to look at me while rearranging her barely disheveled hair.

Her spotlessly clean armpits revealed their inner flesh generously as they changed angles with the movement of her arms. The breasts below, appearing even more voluminous, were a bonus.

“That’s better now. I’m sorry for showing such a disheveled appearance.”

After very leisurely shaking her chest, showing her armpits, and fixing her hair, the chairwoman lowered her arms and smiled sweetly. But her eyes, curved like crescent moons, remained unchanged.

“Now… shall we continue what we were doing, child? You said you had something to say? Feel free to share anything.”

The chairwoman hooked her index finger between her shirt and pulled down slightly. A very faint milk scent that had pooled in her cleavage rose with the heat and gently seeped into my nostrils.

“I can listen to ‘anything’ the child has to say.”

“…”

I felt like she had just heavily emphasized one word, but maybe it was my imagination.