No, My Paddak…! 3

As Oriana was annihilating the numerous executioners adjacent to the Enchantment of the Fallen layer, Alice, instead of leaving the Enchantment of the Fallen layer, was settling in and working as if she were the Grand Governor of the lower layer.

What kind of work would Alice, who usually dumped all the paperwork on Theresa and was closer to a jobless bum, be doing?

It might be surprising, but Alice was more of a diligent and profitable workaholic than a jobless bum.

She would make it obvious that she didn’t want to do the work before she started, but once she took on a task that needed to be done, she would pore over the documents until the paper was tattered.

And hadn’t she achieved fusion with hell—the Demon King’s domain?

‘The Demon King’s castle doesn’t seem to be left… but still, now that I’ve returned to my original body, Theresa will nag me again if I start slacking off.’

Coincidentally, the Enchantment of the Fallen layer didn’t have a central administrative organization or governing body, and there was no Overseer to coordinate the order of the layer, so Alice, the dispatched Overseer, was effectively the Governor-General of this layer.

It was like she had inadvertently taken a vacant seat, but since there was no owner in the first place, no one had any reason to complain to Alice.

“According to the report, the floating population in the Magnific District is still small. Considering the population of over 100,000, it’s excessively small, so it’s presumed that the mental parasites—false gods—have survived. Valet, take the executors and conduct a preliminary investigation.”

“Yes, Governor-General Alice.”

Alice’s face turned cold for a moment at the word Governor-General.

“No… I’m not a Governor-General.”

“But-we-know-that-you-were-officially-recognized-by-the-central-as-the-Grand-Governor-of-the-lower-layer.”

“Bullshit. I’m not a Governor-General here, okay? And you don’t have to use that mechanical tone either!”

Valet turned off the echo in his mechanical voice and answered calmly.

“But isn’t it extremely close to the truth that Overseer Alice is the de facto Governor-General? You are currently the only central dispatched authority and Overseer of this layer, and you have even neutralized the Enchantment of the Fallen layer with an ideology other than fanaticism, so it wouldn’t be strange to be called Governor-General.”

“No, this isn’t ideological neutralization or anything like that… if I had to say, it’s just presenting a path for those who can’t see the future to believe in and follow…”

“According to Sabrina, the layer is only a month away from being completely dyed red. At most, a month would be enough.”

“Ha…”

“In time, all 30 million residents of the Enchantment of the Fallen layer will become loyal subordinates and subjects of Governor Alice. We must work hard for this.”

Valet’s face was expressionless, but somehow he seemed to be smiling.

“This is really screwed up.”

“Now that it’s come to this, there’s no choice. Alice, who didn’t kill us and took us all under her command, must take responsibility for us until the end.”

“Why would I take responsibility for creepy old men? I don’t even have a daughter.”

“You’re not going to abandon us anyway, are you? Sira is here too.”

And Alice looked at the faces of Valet and the other (former) executioners who had defected to her and felt it.

Wait, they can even make expressions like that?

I thought they were the true executioners of this era, all grim and expressionless, but now that I look at them, their faces are all sly and greasy.

“Well, what power do we executioners have, who only receive orders?”

“That’s right. The great Übermensch Alice has given us a chance, so we must respond to it.”

“Damn it, that Übermensch…!”

At first, I was happy, saying, ‘Praise me! Hahaha!’ but listening to it over and over again makes me sick.

Even now, I can hear strange cheers outside, saying, ‘For the great leader and comrade, Governor-General Alice!’

Wait, can the titles of comrade and Governor-General even be used together?

Comrade means a colleague in an equal position, and Governor-General is something very authoritarian and untermensch-like, right?

It makes me feel like I should grow a mustache and fail art school any minute now.

“How’s Sira?”

“Her belly, swollen like a pregnant woman’s, hasn’t shrunk… but if she no longer absorbs the emotions of pain and fanaticism from the layer, Sira won’t need to give birth to a sacrifice anymore.”

Hmm, thinking about it again, it’s really bizarre.

A scene of a two-year-old child, forcibly grown up, stroking her belly swollen like a full-term pregnant woman.

I even checked, and Sira is definitely a virgin.

“Well, Sira will be fine soon, now that she has the great Governor-General Alice, right?”

“I think so too. You’re really great, Governor Alice!”

“No, stop it!”

And… ha, these guys.

They were really planning to quit their executioner jobs as soon as they got the chance!

At first, I thought they were more cooperative than I expected, so I just thought, ‘Hey, did they want to resign?’ but after they defected, they didn’t seem to have any anxiety about their situation.

They don’t even seem to feel guilty about turning their backs on the Ark Central Administration.

Especially when you look at their expressions and atmosphere, it’s like they’re saying, ‘Wow, life is finally worth living!’

In fact, the workload of the executioners who went under Alice was greatly reduced.

The madness of the mental parasites in the Enchantment of the Fallen layer has disappeared, and people believe in and follow an ideology for humanity called the red ideology instead of fanaticism.

This red ideology is very strange. Even though it seems like a radical and hasty ideology, its core is actually closer to social welfare based on free distribution and equal distribution to the people.

If there’s no wealth, there will naturally be various problems and corruption, but Alice had enough wealth to feed several layers and still have plenty left over.

Anyway, now that the red ideology is widespread, orgies and massacres like before don’t happen in the Enchantment of the Fallen layer.

Of course, the red ideology is still a strange and unsettling ideology that the Overseers have never heard of, but since there’s no more eating children or raping neighbors, it’s definitely more peaceful than before.

Since the layer has become peaceful, there’s much less for them to do.

Still, they’re executioners, so they listen to Alice’s orders and put in a moderate amount of effort, like police, to bring safety and order to the layer.

That’s much better than the mental anguish of killing a target as an executioner, replacing personalities, going undercover, and betraying even the people they believed in… even loved.

The possibility of dying a miserable death fighting a dangerous execution target like Alice has also disappeared, and the risk of confusion about self-formation due to personality replacement has been eliminated. At the same time, the poor priestess Sira no longer needs to suffer, so it must be all good for them.

They probably won’t even be punished if they’re caught by the central administration.

Since I achieved fusion in hell, I have the ability to neutralize all the executioners’ weapons and equipment, and at the same time, infect and hack the whole-body procedure media, so even if the day comes when they’re taken to the central administration, they can just say, ‘Alice made us do it, we couldn’t help it.’

No wonder the executioners, who are supposed to be executioners, keep smirking and raising the corners of their mouths, even if they don’t laugh outright.

“…Ha, okay. Report any abnormalities during the district search immediately, and if the mental parasites seem to be resisting strongly, don’t fight and just come back. The safety of the residents is the top priority, so avoid unnecessary friction.”

“Yes, yes.”

“For our great Übermensch, Governor-General Alice…”

“Don’t do that!”

Ugh, seriously.

Are those guys trying to make fun of me?

No, now that I think about it, I’m getting angry.

They owe me their lives, and they backstabbed me, but they’re acting so sly?

The executioners probably think I’m a young girl… no, but I’ve gone through fusion several times, and now I’ve even absorbed the energy of hell and regained my body from my prime.

I should look like I’m in my early 20s at the very least, so why do they keep looking at me like I’m a child or a daughter?

Are they perhaps looking at their superior and thinking of the children they left at home?

‘No, I can’t let this happen. Theresa.’

【What is it now, Human.】

‘Are you still calling me Human? Don’t you call me Demon King? Or Your Majesty the Demon King?’

【It’s my choice, Human.】

‘Tell me honestly. You have a lot of complaints about me, right?’

【I have a lot, Human. To express the intensity of my complaints, it’s to the point where even the feelings of hatred engraved in each of the hundreds of millions of synapses are reawakened…】

‘Oh, yeah. You’re so great. Anyway, I can’t just leave our executioners alone.’

【Why can’t you leave them alone when you’re the one who took them in?】

‘You son of a… You’re pissing me off!’

【I expected that your mind would mature even a little as you regained the body of the Demon King… but I was wrong again.】

But Alice was in a very sulky mood.

No matter how good the atmosphere is.

Honestly, I don’t really like old men.

Look at Alice’s companions so far.

Oriana, who is the epitome of a cool woman.

Fira, a noble young lady with a graceful roll bun hairstyle, even though her insides are made up of a maggot colony.

Administrator Rilstia, who looks like a princess.

Marlang, who is weak in the inner thighs.

Ernest Rail’s combat dolls made up of young girls.

Thousands of combat homunculus that look exactly like Marlang.

They’re all pretty girls, but suddenly adding gruff, bearded old men called executioners to this?

I absolutely can’t stand it.

Doesn’t it ruin the uniformity?

‘Theresa. The pass is connected, right?’

【Yes, but…】

In the process of neutralizing Valet and the other executioners of the Enchantment of the Fallen layer, Alice hacked all the mechanical prosthetic limbs and whole-body procedure sites that had been performed on them.

Not just the simple mechanical parts, but also magical engineering, spells, and formulas.

In the past, she couldn’t hack or interfere with the complex electronic nervous system that makes up a human, but now Alice has fused with hell and regained her body from her Demon King days.

The extent to which she can draw out power and abilities is something she doesn’t even know herself.

This means that in the category of machines and electronic neural networks…

Especially with regard to artificial bodies, including the android body, prosthetic body, and procedure body that were Alice’s own body, she has the ability to freely modify anything she wants to fix.

‘Theresa, do you know Kafka’s Metamorphosis?’

【What is that?】

‘Ah, you don’t know? Then never mind.’

Alice has control over the executioners.

In addition to hacking abilities, she has all the rights and abilities to interfere with internal magical engineering procedures, spells, and formulas.

And Alice still has delicate and subtle mechanical tendril that can do surgery or assemble machines as easily as eating a piece of cake.

Even though she has become the body of the Demon King, the mechanical tendril still exist as Alice’s hands and feet.

‘One day… my body had become a woman.’

【What are you talking about? Human is originally a female body.】

‘There are things like that. Haha.’

Alice raised the corners of her lips.

Shall we take a look at the materials?

The Enchantment of the Fallen layer is a place where 30 million people live.

It’s a layer of fanaticism, but each person has their own life, business, and company, and even mega corp branches exist here.

That means there are enough materials to obtain.

Alice quickly processed the documents, regardless of being the Grand Governor or anything else, and with her hands behind her back like Stalin touring a private inspection, she dashed out of the office with light steps.

The first place to head to is a factory.

It would be better if it was an abandoned factory, but anywhere where metal can be obtained is fine.

★

★

★

★

And the next day, the 48 executioners had to scream silently as they woke up.

“W-what is this!?”

“Kyaaaa!”

“W-what’s with my voice…?”

Because the old men, who had lived their lives, had all taken on the appearance of young girls.