Ch.74Transcenders (5)

    # Transcenders (5)

    After Lilith departed for the human realm, Legion Commander Twelve was handling her work as promised.

    “Whew, just 27 more hours and today’s work will be done.”

    Twelve smiled with satisfaction at the feeling that work might end earlier than usual today. Of course, it wasn’t just Lilith’s work. He had been dumped with all sorts of tasks from higher-ranking legion commanders. His daily schedule had long since gone haywire.

    “Hmm.”

    After processing one of the mountain-like piles of documents, Twelve stretched and looked around. He could see his subordinates being ground down. After staring at them blankly for a while, his eyes suddenly lit up like a light bulb turning on.

    “I’ll be stepping out for a moment. Don’t slack off while I’m gone.”

    Twelve encouraged his subordinates, who could only manage about 82 hours of work per day, and left his office. He had something to do. Well, there was always something to do, but this was a matter that needed to be handled first. The place Twelve headed was the audience chamber. Yes, the place that Demon Lord Belphegor had made her room because she found it convenient.

    “I present Legion Commander Twelve.”

    “…”

    Twelve moved past the soldiers saluting him, ignoring them completely. While the soldiers were left feeling awkward by his lack of even a glance, Twelve arrived at the door of the grand and lavishly decorated audience chamber.

    Knock. Knock.

    Twelve first sent a signal to Belphegor through knocking. Her throne was a special demon realm product that transformed into a bed. Her joy was always sleeping during work hours. Of course, her subordinates always had to risk their lives because of this. A minimum qualification was needed to withstand the wrath of a Demon Lord disturbed from sleep, and now that had become a requirement at the legion commander level.

    “Your Majesty, I am 12th Legion Commander Haona. May I enter?”

    BANG! BANG! BANG! BANG!

    “YOUR MAJESTY! YOUR MAJESTY! IT’S ME! YOUR MAJESTY! PLEASE OPEN THE DOOR!”

    A mere knock wouldn’t wake her.

    Twelve began pounding on the door as if it were the most natural thing to do. But his face was filled with the utmost tension. It was like trying to steal treasure from a sleeping dragon. A moment where one’s life was at stake.

    “Who is it?! You’re being noisy!”

    “Kuk!”

    Thus, Demon Lord Belphegor awoke from her sleep due to Twelve’s challenge. The audience chamber door opened violently as if there had been an explosion. Twelve, who had been thrown back and rolled ungracefully on the floor from the impact, belatedly raised his head to behold Belphegor. Belphegor was glaring at Twelve with her feet half-propped on her throne, clearly displeased. This was the entire process for an audience. Legion commanders could only have an audience with Demon Lord Belphegor after passing through the trial she imposed. Of course, Lilith would just open the door and enter, waking Belphegor politely. The legion commanders who considered it dishonorable to enter without the door being opened for them were the ones who had lost their minds.

    “Ahem, ahem. 12th Legion Commander Haona. I present myself before the Demon Lord.”

    “Oh, right. What is it?”

    Belphegor made no attempt to hide her displeasure. Of course, the legion commanders thought of this as charisma. Belphegor frowned and looked down at Twelve with cold eyes, while Twelve endured her gaze with cold sweat. The fact that it didn’t immediately lead to violence was why Belphegor still qualified as a Demon Lord.

    “It’s about the quarterly budget requests for each legion…”

    “I don’t think so.”

    “Pardon?”

    “That’s not what you came to ask about. Why waste time?”

    Twelve slowly raised his head at Belphegor’s unusually subdued voice. Her expression was colder than ever. Blue eyes as vast and clear as if they contained the sky itself. A glimpse of a transcender’s fragment.

    “Who are you?”

    The Demon Lord, Belphegor, declared while looking at Twelve’s bright yellow eyes staring up at her.

    “Um… I am Haona…”

    “No. That’s not it. Your acting is excellent, but you made one mistake.”

    Whoosh!

    In an instant, the interior of the audience chamber was engulfed in blue flames. Twelve watched the scene from the entrance of the audience chamber, dumbfounded. With walls and ceiling wrapped in blue flames, it was as if Belphegor was in the middle of the sky. Yes, that was the power she had stolen from the celestial gods.

    “Your name isn’t Haona anymore.”

    “…”

    At Belphegor’s sneer, Twelve’s expression, which had been sweating nervously, turned cold. Rising with a creaking motion as if he were a puppet, a woman’s voice came from Twelve’s mouth instead of a middle-aged man’s.

    “Aha? I didn’t think the name would have changed again. You people change names too easily. I did read the memories… but I didn’t expect you wouldn’t even care about your own name. Isn’t there something wrong with your heads?”

    “Isn’t it strange to attach unnecessarily great meaning to names? After all, we demons are solitary, proudly complete beings. We hardly need to call others or refer to ourselves.”

    Only necessary for the army. Most demons don’t even bother naming themselves in many cases.

    “Hmm.”

    La•Pa, the entity speaking through Twelve’s body, examined Belphegor, who had seen through her identity. She still appeared indifferent, half-lying on her throne with a bored expression.

    “You don’t seem much different from that guy?”

    “That guy? Who are you talking about?”

    “Aren’t you curious about who I am?”

    “It doesn’t matter. Whoever you are, you can’t defeat me.”

    “Yes, that’s how you are now. Hehe, right. Seeing you like this somehow reminds me of him back then.”

    Ennui. That was severe even for Belphegor, who was called the Demon Lord of Sloth. It was different from simple laziness. Ennui comes not from finding things bothersome but from not feeling value in anything. Yes, the current Belphegor appeared not to be sprawled out because she was lazy, but because she couldn’t feel value in anything. In a sense, it could be said she had escaped from all desires. The power she had stolen from someone, the caliber. Its side effects were manifesting. There was a big difference between her and someone swayed by the five desires, seven emotions, and three poisons.

    “I don’t know what your purpose is, but you need to leave that person’s body. He has a lot of work to do.”

    “Heh, I thought you didn’t care about your subordinates.”

    “Hmph.”

    Belphegor casually waved her arm as if shooing away a fly. With just that, all of La•Pa’s invisible threads controlling Twelve’s body were severed. Belphegor didn’t even understand the principle behind it. She didn’t know whether what La•Pa had done to Twelve was magic or something else. But she could erase that influence just by waving her hand. The ability of a transcender that couldn’t be explained in words. Belphegor could already use it freely.

    “Yawn.”

    After driving away La•Pa, Belphegor closed the audience chamber door again and fell asleep, not even paying attention to Twelve lying prostrate at the door.

    ‘Something strange is wandering around.’

    Even while dozing off with cloudy eyes, Belphegor thought.

    ‘Lilith could be in danger too, so I should take out some insurance.’

    Belphegor’s few remaining blood relatives. That was about all that was precious to her now.

    ***

    “Whew…”

    La•Pa, whose connection with Twelve had been severed, sighed while massaging her tingling wrist. The Demon Lord, Belphegor, whom she had met directly. She had easily achieved what Lug was risking his life for. Of course, the result wasn’t good. She had been driven out of Twelve’s body without even having a proper conversation.

    ‘Indeed, quite dangerous.’

    Belphegor seemed to have recovered the celestial god’s power almost completely. Yes, she was on a different level from him, who was rebuilding his power with only remnants left. What he had built up once. Having accepted it as it was rather than controlling it through the five desires and seven emotions, she could only become a monster. Even the current La•Pa would find it difficult to deal with Belphegor. While she stood at the pinnacle of the three realms and six paths, the celestial gods had reached beyond that.

    “It would have been better if she had been completely consumed by that caliber…”

    Though it was a brief conversation, there were things to be learned. She thought Belphegor would kill Twelve immediately, but she merely drove La•Pa out. She thought Belphegor would be in a state of ennui, feeling no meaning in anything, but something still remained.

    “Extra.”

    At La•Pa’s call, a middle-aged demon man emerged from the darkness.

    “Headmaster, even you calling me that makes me sad. Is it right to exploit me like this when I’ve been infiltrating the Demon Lord’s army for 15 years for you?”

    “What are you saying? You’ve earned the qualification to have this conversation with me.”

    “That’s some impressive self-love. So why did you call me?”

    “Do you know what Belphegor values?”

    “Values…? Hmm, well. For that lazy one, maybe her nap?”

    “Not that. I mean people, connections, or objects of that sort.”

    “Hmm.”

    Former Lieutenant Colonel Extra stroked his beard as he pondered La•Pa’s question. After all, she was his superior. Meeting a superior’s expectations was a subordinate’s natural duty.

    “There might be one person.”

    “One person…”

    La•Pa responded to Extra’s words with a devilish smile.

    “So it’s a person, I see.”

    ***

    Lilith, Major General of the Demon Lord’s Army Strategic Planning Department, had come to the human realm after a long time. Her purpose was singular: to confirm the identity of Lug, who was receiving special treatment within the Demon Lord’s army, and to facilitate his escape. For this, she decided to participate directly in the operation despite her position as the Demon Lord’s niece. Of course, the bigger issue was the demon race’s characteristic problem of subordinates acting too thoughtlessly.

    “Well then…”

    Dressed in a beautiful but not overly flashy dress like some noble lady, Lilith observed the hero’s party approaching from afar. Or more precisely, the target of this operation among them.

    -Ahem! Attempting the same operation that has already failed once can be considered truly foolish.

    What she had said to Lug before undertaking this operation.

    -But that’s not always the case. If you know the cause of failure and can correct it, even a failed operation can be useful. No, in terms of catching the opponent off guard and striking unexpectedly, it might even be more efficient.

    An operation for that purpose. It had failed once before, but it wouldn’t matter if the variable could be eliminated.

    “Hmm, hmm.”

    Yes, the operation carried out right after Eleven’s attack. Pretending to be Lug’s family and legitimately taking him away. Lilith was attempting that.

    “Lug?! Are you Lug?”

    “…Lug. Do you know this person?”

    The perceptive Tina was the first to notice Lilith and asked.

    ‘Good, now comes the important part.’

    The previous attempt had failed because Lug wasn’t cooperative, but this time she had even received a request for cooperation in advance. Then it was simple.

    “Ah, excuse me. I am Lug’s…”

    Her current setup was as Lug’s older sister who had been adopted by nobles when they were young. Yes, if she pushed that narrative and asked for Lug to be returned…

    “Yes, this person is my fiancée.”

    “Sis… fiancée.”

    A bead of cold sweat trickled down Lilith’s forehead.


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