Ch.98Abaddon (4)

# Abaddon (4)

Belphegor’s decision to ascend to the Demon Lord’s throne by demolishing all existing procedures wasn’t merely about finding employment.

If that had been her only goal, she wouldn’t have chosen such a brute-force method.

No matter how thoughtless she might seem, she wouldn’t have neglected to study the position she was aiming for.

She wanted to show something.

To expose the ugly underbelly of the one who pretended to be noble while merely reigning from the top.

She wanted to completely trample the image he so cherished.

That’s why she even spared his life, telling him to live miserably, but he appeared before her in an even more disgusting form.

“In the last 20 years. Only one child from our Manmata clan has survived. Even we, who are classified as high-ranking demons, are in this state.”

Among the recent Manmata clan children, only Lilith has survived.

Considering that even Lilith is past the age of being called a child, it’s quite a precarious situation.

Children stand at the crossroads of death every moment. And even if they escape that crossroads, isn’t what awaits them nothing but hell? Is that what they call adaptation?

“Is it just the children? Haven’t you thought about the problems of our species itself?”

Those whom people call high-ranking demons. Those who retain some humanity and leave their names behind.

They aren’t special.

They’re just those who have deeply engraved their miserable moments as a species.

“Those who had to endure thirst and survive by drinking the blood of friends and family still have to live that way.”

That’s how it was for the vampires, the species to which Legion Commander First belongs.

They still cannot survive without consuming the blood of others.

“Those who lived like beasts, abandoning even the dignity of being human, have truly become beasts.”

That’s how it was for the werewolves—or rather, all those called wearbeasts—to which Legion Commander Second belongs.

They still live unable to fully suppress their bestial instincts.

“Those who constantly lied to survive have now become monsters who can’t even recognize their own true feelings.”

That’s how it was for the tricksters to which Legion Commander Third belongs.

They’ve become a species that appears insane to others and cannot deeply connect with anyone.

“Like this, the stigma engraved upon us is spreading throughout entire species.”

A place where individual sins spread to entire species. That’s the demon realm.

Did someone call this adaptation?

Even if one adapts to such a place, the end result can only be a terrible monster.

“You should have done something for the demons!”

“…There was no reason it had to be war.”

“Right, there might have been methods other than war. But what did you do? You didn’t even wage war. Let me tell you something interesting.”

Belphegor maintained a forced smile while grinding her teeth.

“What do you think was the first thing I did after becoming the Demon Lord?”

“…”

“I sent envoys to the human realm. I petitioned to at least raise our children on human land. What do you think the result was?”

It was rejection.

In fact, it was to be expected.

Even in the human realm, land isn’t abundant.

When demons who have been fighting them all along suddenly ask for reconciliation and a place to live, there’s no way they would agree.

But there was a more fundamental reason.

“What exactly have you been doing for the demons?”

Because not even minimal diplomacy with the human realm had been established until then.

Because even Leviathan, who advocated for peace, never even attempted to talk with the people of the human realm.

So naturally, there was no room for dialogue.

Because neither side had done anything to show trust to the other.

Leviathan merely shouted for peace and refrained from invasion, but never even thought of talking with them.

“I’ll admit my incompetence. But we’ve been failing for generations already. All the Demon Lords who tried to invade the human realm ended up dead. But did it have to be war?”

Leviathan didn’t choose silence from the beginning either.

There was a time when he too prepared to invade the human realm.

But he stopped. He had to stop.

Because he was afraid.

“A hero will come to kill you. Even if you defeat one hero, another will appear.”

Because there existed heroes.

Beings who invariably appear when the demon realm tries to invade the human realm.

Leviathan met them too.

And he even defeated them.

But Leviathan was terrified. Because the hero was strong? No, there were many beings stronger than heroes.

What was truly frightening was…

“Heroes chosen by the gods will continue to be born until they kill us. What do you think this means? Even the gods don’t acknowledge our existence. It means our original sin continues!”

The fact that they are eternal.

The fact that unless all humans are killed, miraculous beings will come to kill him again and again.

“So instead of being stubborn about something that will fail, the army…”

“Hey, coward. If you’re going to say such things, don’t just parrot ‘war is bad’ like a parrot, suggest an alternative.”

“…”

“You don’t have one, right? Why wouldn’t you? It’s because you have no intention of changing this cursed reality. Isn’t that right? Your coming here wasn’t because you had something you really wanted to say, but just a show to solidify your position, wasn’t it?”

Belphegor glared at Leviathan with contempt as she spoke.

“If the gods call us sinners, you just accept it? You’re saying we should accept that we have to die for reasons even we don’t know?”

Whoosh!

As if responding to Belphegor’s anger, the meeting room where the two were suddenly engulfed in blue flames.

Leviathan was shocked to witness a miracle he hadn’t seen even when fighting her.

What he thought was a false rumor.

What he considered propaganda.

“Why couldn’t you think of bringing down that damn god?”

All of it was true.

***

The image of Leviathan that Lug saw.

And what Esmeralda inferred from it. Surprisingly, it resembled the conclusion Belphegor had reached.

Leviathan is not someone to be trusted. If anything, he’s like a bat that can cling to any side, so if things go wrong, he might flip and side with Belphegor.

When she reached this conclusion, Esmeralda turned her gaze to Extra, who was lying down quietly.

The homeland she still wants to return to.

It wasn’t a pleasant situation, as it was almost like criticizing the king of that place. No matter how much of an enemy he might be, he was being cooperative now.

Esmeralda scratched her cheek, choosing her words carefully.

“Well, I know that too. That’s probably right.”

But Extra affirmed that assumption as if it wasn’t a big deal.

“That guy has never genuinely cared for demons, has he? That damn bastard. Because he has power, he gets all kinds of support just by spouting somewhat plausible words.”

Of course, as someone who had been spying within the Demon Lord’s army, how could he not have anticipated that?

That was the very reason he had switched to the Eye of Truth.

The Abaddon that Extra desired was life before Leviathan.

A life where the weak gathered not to struggle, but to plow fields and raise livestock.

That’s the life he wanted back.

He didn’t want to deny and oppose the current Demon Lord’s army as he does now.

If those who wanted war wanted to wage it, they could.

In return, he wanted the weak to be protected. That’s the world he wanted.

He had only tried to voice that, but gradually the organization called Abaddon began to change.

“In fact, both sides are the same. Leviathan, who opposes war but secretly expands his group, and the Demon Lord’s army, which treats soldiers like consumables—to me, they all look the same.”

So he betrayed the entire demon realm.

But the new group he found wasn’t much different either.

He had been promised massive support for the demon realm through his contract with the Eye of Truth, but he didn’t particularly like what they were doing.

In the end, he too compromised with reality.

He received support but carried out all sorts of dirty work, so what right did he have to be proud?

“Then why do you want to return to Abaddon?”

“Well, maybe because I’m disillusioned. I just want to go back home. Even though the home I knew has changed a lot, there must be parts that haven’t changed.”

“I see.”

“But the area around Abaddon is under particularly heavy surveillance by the Demon Lord’s army, so even if I wanted to return, I couldn’t easily do so.”

That’s why he tried to join hands with Lug.

After all, a clash with the Demon Lord’s army was inevitable for Lug.

Extra’s thought was to get some scraps in the process.

“I see. I understand.”

“…What?”

Extra sighed deeply, as if he didn’t understand what Lug claimed to understand.

“Major, you’re setting out to find a new goal. In a way, it’s similar to Garnet. The journey to find a goal is always arduous.”

“How can you compare…”

“Wait, Garnet…? Lug, did you get close to Five?”

“We did become intimate.”

Esmeralda, who had been listening to the two, suddenly interjected. She had been quiet because it seemed like a serious story, but it was something she couldn’t just let slide.

“Why…? Why such a crazy thing?”

“Puhah!”

As Esmeralda expressed genuine incomprehension, Extra burst into laughter as if to agree.

“Are you desperate to die? What would others say if they knew?”

“That I’m compassionate?”

“They’d say they’ll kill you!”

Not Lug, but Garnet.

Esmeralda couldn’t help but shudder, having experienced similar situations several times before.

The journey back was already scary enough.

She was already afraid of what political means Eirene and Millia, now conscious, would use to torment her.

Although Esmeralda had beaten the two like a beast, now that she had come to her senses, she realized how dangerous it had been.

Knocking down two people who were symbols of their respective groups was already a big deal, and both of them were not in a normal mental state.

“I, I didn’t hear anything. Remember that, okay? Got it?”

So Esmeralda made another choice unbecoming of a hero today.