Back to the Lower Layer 3

Fira is a descendant of Beelzebub and the current Beelzebub.

Beelzebub, who served the Demon King, naturally harbored some kind of affection, whether it was loyalty or favor, for that Demon King, and this feeling manifested again in reality across generations.

“Huhu, it’s so sad…”

“No, why are you crying?”

Alice told Fira her story very briefly.

Actually, it’s not like she remembered it herself.

She just reconstructed and told the story she heard from Oriana.

“This is a disaster. Oriana is my friend… I thought of her as one of the few comrades I could trust and rely on among those whose meeting tomorrow cannot be guaranteed…”

At that moment, Fira’s eyes gleamed ominously.

“But to say that she is the very person who betrayed the Demon King, in that case, I will kill Oriana…”

“No, please. Don’t do that…”

“I’m just kidding. Actually, since Alice has forgiven her, there’s nothing I can say, and Beelzebub’s emotions don’t brainwash or dominate this girl’s mind to that extent.”

“Wasn’t it my imagination that I felt a murderous aura for a moment?”

“It was your imagination~”

Alice is just grateful that those who could be called her benefactors won’t end up shedding blood against each other.

“Ah, so Fira, from the first time we met, you felt loyalty or something from the emotions of Beelzebub, who was sleeping soundly inside you? If Fira wasn’t from the Dunhill Family, you wouldn’t have thought anything of me even if you saw me.”

“That can’t be! I can’t dismiss the feelings that Beelzebub had for the Demon King as fake. I only became aware of it after awakening what was dwelling within me from the Abyss. Before that, wanting to be called ‘sister’ by Alice and wanting to form a bond with you were all genuine!”

Whether the feelings that Beelzebub, who met Alice long ago, were real or not, combined with Fira’s personal affection for Alice, it became a rather complex and heavy emotion that was neither loyalty nor love, and it manifested in Fira.

Of course, as Fira said, it’s also true that as soon as she first met Alice, her ego thought, “What is this cute creature?!” and had various positive feelings and impressions, including affection, for Alice.

“Haaa… Alice, now that things have come to this, I think we should truly tie the knot and resolve this heavy emotion.”

“I have no intention of seeing anyone, whether male or female, Fira or anyone else, in a romantic way at all?”

Besides, I probably can’t even reproduce.

I haven’t tested my reproductive function or anything, but I think it’s probably impossible.

How can reproduction be possible with a body made of magical engineering metal cells?

And more than anything, it’s physiologically impossible.

It’s true that I prefer women over men, but that stems from an aesthetic personal preference. To seriously love someone or wake up in the same bed… um, is there anything wrong with that?

Come to think of it, that’s right.

Why am I worrying?

Can’t I just do whatever I want?

Aren’t I already living as I please, doing whatever I want?

Did I deeply think about and spread the red ideology?

I killed some bastard I didn’t like in a Duel Trial, made a mess of the layer in the name of a mission, and turned all the uncles into girls’ bodies without asking for their opinions…

Ah, the uncles had a hard time adjusting at first, but at some point, they all adapted well and many of them said they liked this body.

When I asked if they had already fallen to the dark side, they said that all the creaking and pain they felt in their joints and prosthetic joints had disappeared. It wasn’t so painful that they needed to fix it, it was just a level of everyday pain that they lived with, but they said that becoming a girl’s body made them feel completely new, so it seems that even people with prosthetics can’t beat the passage of time and age.

Anyway…

Since I’ve regained my body from my Demon King days anyway, I can live even more as I please than before.

Who decides that?

I decide!

To be honest.

I’ve become much stronger.

Even in my tin can android days, I had the ridiculously overpowered abilities of energy Drain and Gluttony, and a body that automatically repaired and regenerated, but now that I’ve regained the Demon King’s body, I’ve upgraded all of that.

Well, just because I’ve regained the Demon King’s body doesn’t mean it’s a panacea…

The omnipotent level of magical abilities, formula, and out-of-place artifacts that I originally had in my Demon King days have all disappeared, so it’s just a pure body that’s about four times better than the android tin can body.

Honestly, I just guessed, so I don’t know if this four times figure is accurate.

I haven’t even fought anyone properly yet, and I have to go find my corpse in the Ark Central Administration, as Oriana and Theresa said.

In the first place, this isn’t about bringing my Demon King body back as it was, but about purely reconstructing the Demon King’s body from my memories and the residual energy remaining in hell.

The material for that is, of course, the previous android tin can body.

In the end, to truly regain my prime, I have to retrieve what’s in the central administration, whether it’s my corpse, body, or mummy.

Anyway, Fira keeps saying in front of me, “Let’s get married,” “Let’s tie the knot”?

“Um, should we?”

“Ohoho, even if it’s not this time, there will always be opportunities… Huh?”

At that moment, Fira’s face went blank as she belatedly recognized my words.

And for a moment, something transparent welled up in her eyes, her face split vertically, and then her shoulders and arms cracked like drought-stricken land before reattaching, repeating the process.

Hmm, it seems quite shocking.

It seems that I’m not the one who’s not ready, but Fira.

She always acts slick and looks like a spoiled noble lady, but she’s actually quite soft on the inside.

That’s why Fira says that friends who can stay by her side in the Overseer life, where she doesn’t know when she’ll die, are important.

Considering the Dunhill Family’s near-dysfunctional family environment, and the fact that she is the manifestation of Beelzebub, becoming a being that is not herself is not just stressful, but something that would send a fragile person to a mental hospital.

“Just kidding.”

No, it’s not so much that I’m marrying or tying the knot because I love her, but rather that Fira’s emotions are too heavy and I didn’t want to ignore them, but with that kind of reaction, it seems like it’s not the right time yet.

“Ah, ahaha, haha! Your jokes have improved a lot, Alice! Ah, ahaha… haha! For a moment, it felt like the maggots in my body died of a heart attack!”

Rather, Fira looked relieved then.

Is this relationship perfect for now?

We banter back and forth, we’re much closer than ordinary friends, and there’s no reason to hate each other, apart from the forced affection and loyalty that we have as Beelzebub, so the current situation is somewhat ideal.

Well, someone said that marriage is the tomb of life, so I should avoid it as much as possible.

“Anyway, Alice. Apart from the fact that I am the incarnation of Beelzebub, my affection and love for you are genuine. So, if you ever need my strength or my help, I will drop everything and run to you.”

“Heavy.”

“What is! Even though I look like this, I only weigh 50kg!”

50…?

First of all, her breasts are incredibly large.

She’s also very tall. She’s definitely over 170cm, right?

That’s strange. She wasn’t like that when I first saw her, but maybe it’s because I’m short, but Fira’s height seemed much taller.

And the rest of her figure is generally curvy, but the parts that should be out are incredibly out.

Even though she seems to be completely tightening her body with a dress or corset, she has such a bombshell figure.

Now that I see it, Fira’s appearance itself is suddenly incredibly my type… no, she’s a bit of a sexy person.

My type is generally tall, whatever it is.

The problem is that I’m very small.

According to Theresa, she looks like a human woman in her early 20s, but in my opinion, she’s short, her breasts are nothing compared to Fira’s, and she looks like a baby whose baby fat hasn’t gone away.

Well, she’s pretty, though.

“By the way, can you invite me to the Dunhill Family?”

“Huh?”

At those words, Fira’s face became subtle.

It wasn’t the expression of thinking about meeting her parents, but a face that seemed to recall something truly ominous.

“Why? You said let’s get married, but you really hate it when I approach you? Isn’t that too much of an empty promise?”

“Th, that can’t be! N, no, it’s not that…”

Fira sighed and continued.

“Alice’s actions as an Overseer are quite unusual.”

“Is that so?”

“That’s right. Even if a returnee has a strong power, the current Ark and world are dangerous with all sorts of anomalous beings, including calamity.”

Fira’s words meant that having strength wasn’t everything.

It’s true that calamity is scary and anomalous beings are dangerous.

Even in the Enchantment of the Fallen layer, there was a calamity that forcibly promoted the evolution and growth of living things, and the True Ancestor’s virtually infinite cell division and replication made them nearly immortal calamities that even First-Class Overseers dreaded.

If I didn’t have energy Drain and Gluttony, I would have been killed by the True Ancestor long ago or captured and used as a doll.

“Genuine First-Class Overseers like me are responsible for taking down those troublemaking returnees and dealing with calamities that could truly destroy humanity. But Alice adapted quickly. She became an Overseer, which usually takes several years, in an instant with her achievements… I think she’ll probably become a First-Class Overseer soon.”

“Yeah, yeah, compliments are nice to hear. But why are you suddenly saying that?”

“Of course, wouldn’t all sorts of beings in the upper echelons and the central administration be interested in Alice?”

“Hmm… is that so?”

Now that I hear it, that’s true.

Even now, according to Oriana, some administrators in the central administration have issued an execution order because they don’t want me to be handed over to the True Ancestor. I felt it indirectly in the Ruincrest layer, but the upper echelons of the Ark are not ordinary human beings, but extremely vicious, twisted, or distorted.

Of course, that can be a good thing in some cases, but in any case, they are people with too many disqualifications as human beings.

“Therefore… the old men of the Dunhill Family have had a great interest in Alice for a long time.”

“That’s an honor. So?”

“Therefore, those old men intend to make Alice, who has a bright future, the new seed bearer for the maggots…”

“Yeah, okay. Let’s kill them all. That’s okay, right, Fira?”

“Hah. Of course! I will gladly participate!”

No, don’t agree so easily.

It’s still your family.