It’s Not a Meeting, It’s an Invasion! 4

It was obvious, but Fira is strong.

No, the word ‘strong’ isn’t enough.

In the Ark, Fira Dunhill possesses unparalleled skill and achievements.

As Beelzebub’s incarnation and the Dunhill Family’s greatest masterpiece, she had far more unknown accomplishments than known ones.

The number of high-ranking monsters she hunted had long surpassed four digits, and she had neutralized seven calamities, any one of which could have plunged the Ark into a crisis of destruction.

Furthermore, she even went on external expeditions to lay the groundwork for establishing Satellite Cities. If the Ark were to venture beyond the barrier and begin expanding in the future… if humanity could reclaim the lost surface and the outside world, then Fira Dunhill would undoubtedly be recorded as the protagonist and starting point in the history that would one day be written.

Aside from this, she also completed all sorts of Overseer missions that were considered impossible. Fira herself was so confident in being the strongest in the Ark as an individual that her excellence and pride were not arrogance but an objective fact.

However, even Fira believes that annihilating the Dunhill Family is impossible.

“No, the Dunhill Family was attacked? By who…!”

Fira grabbed a member of the crumbling Dunhill Family.

They can’t die yet.

If they’re going to die, they should die by my hand. How can someone with Dunhill blood die from an attack by someone I don’t even know?

Fira was beyond disbelief and bewilderment, to the point where she felt nothing at all.

Alice just happened to be passing by and came with the intention of physically beating up whoever picked a fight with her again, but Fira was a little different.

Her feelings for the Dunhill Family had never diminished or been forgotten in her life.

The contempt and hatred she had since the moment she became a masterpiece and left the family on her own two feet remained unchanged, which is why she felt so empty at the news that the family was being absurdly destroyed by someone’s attack.

“Who is it? What attacked this maggot-infested family?”

“…Mo, squi, toes…dirty mosquitoes, bit us.”

“What? Mosquitoes…”

“True Ancestor? Are you saying it’s a True Ancestor?!”

Mosquitoes.

Vampires.

And a collective term for those called True Ancestors.

“Why are those guys, who are always having parties in the Ark Abyss, suddenly crawling out?! It’s not like they’re short on offerings, and it’s not like they’re as power-hungry as humans! Besides, why would those True Ancestor mosquitoes suddenly attack the Dunhill Family…!”

“Their, master…has awakened.”

“Master? Are you talking about the Primordial Calamity? That thing already awakened a long, long time ago…”

“That’s, not it.”

The family member stared intently at Alice with crumbling eye sockets.

Suddenly targeted, Alice looked around, pointing at herself.

What?

Me?

Me?

Me?

“We, witnessed your…beginning, from the moment you set foot in the Ark…becoming an Overseer, heading to the Satellite City, and…until the moment you regained your body.”

“How did you know about me?”

“We, also knew that you are the human demon king.”

Of course, it was true that many eyes, including those of the central administration, were watching her because Alice’s performance was impressive.

However, the Dunhill Family’s gaze wasn’t just because she was an excellent Overseer and seed, but rather an implication that they had noticed from the beginning that Alice was a Demon King, or closely related to one.

“The Ark, has, a great sin. You, may not know…but no matter how many, people survive, even if it becomes their Ark…because the Ark was built on top of a great sin…it’s not strange that there are many, who hold grudges….”

With fragmented words, the Dunhill Family member laughed hollowly.

Each time the family member laughed, ashes flowed out of their burned body and disappeared into the air.

“And, that great sin, started from…betraying you…the human demon king…”

“…Did the old men of the Dunhill Family know? That it started from the moment the Ark betrayed the human demon king?”

“Our, family’s beginning is that…how could we not know. Those who lived then, are still alive, even now…Ah, but not anymore. They’ve all been, bitten to death by mosquitoes…”

Time is running out.

Alice had temporarily injected a large amount of mana to extend the puppetry’s time, but the burned and crumbling body was already lifeless, so there was no chance of survival for this family member.

“It’s a pity, the great work was almost…complete, filling this Ark with, his masterpieces. We must repay, our indelible great sin….”

“The way you repay your sins is quite disrespectful. You were backstabbed after colluding with mosquitoes, so it’s a natural result.”

However, Fira had a nonchalant expression.

She resented and hated everything about the Dunhill Family, so even if the family member in front of her died tragically, she wouldn’t feel anything other than surprise.

“By the way, I didn’t even know who you were because you were burned black…it’s been a while. My biological mother.”

“Ku, heh heh…Ah, I couldn’t see and didn’t know, but you’re my biological child, and a great masterpiece. The great masterpiece who turned her back on the family and ran away…”

Mother?

Alice’s expression became subtle, but Fira still grabbed the hand of what used to be her mother with a detached gaze, as if looking at an object.

Crack.

Perhaps she gripped it too hard, as the hand turned to ashes and completely shattered. Fira chuckled and looked down at what used to be her mother.

“Human demon king, you may not know, but we, in order to repay our great sin, have made this Ark, our own, a cage, a farm…to offer the lives of those who betrayed you….”

Alice thought as she listened to those words.

Are these guys crazy?

Who decided to offer people’s lives to repay sins as they pleased?

Alice was inwardly amazed by the hypocrisy and shamelessness of packaging the creation of new sins as a noble holy war.

‘I wouldn’t take that even if you gave it to me…’

People who want to live should live, and just because humans betrayed me during my time as a Demon King doesn’t mean that all humans in the world betrayed me, right?

‘There are those who don’t even know about the betrayal, and many who were innocently used or incited. It’s fortunate and lucky that I’ve been resurrected and regained my body, but why would I go crazy trying to kill people?’

The small-minded Demon King Alice listened to the words of this Dunhill Family member with one ear and let them out the other, nodding appropriately.

Well, they’re about to die anyway, so shouldn’t I send them off peacefully?

“What we wanted, when we tried to create a masterpiece, was only to recreate and offer your right-hand man and loyal subject…so please, please do not be angry…”

“….”

Alice was truly troubled about what to say.

Are these guys really crazy?

The reason they wanted to recreate Beelzebub, my loyal subject from my time as a Demon King, was because of that?

That’s ridiculous. In my opinion, they just tasted money, power, and strength, so the family went crazy with joy…

“Ah, but…only one masterpiece, will surely remain by your side.”

Yeah, yeah.

Just say whatever you want and go peacefully….

But Fira couldn’t hold back.

“Well, stop with the nonsense and farewell. If there’s an afterlife, I hope you pay for the sin of eating your own child and forcing it on me for a long, long time.”

-Crack!

She roughly stomped on what used to be her mother’s head with her booted foot, and what was already burned turned into dust without a trace and scattered in all directions.

“Um, Fira. She was your biological mother, are you okay?”

“Thank you for your concern, Alice. However, I am more angry that my sincere exchange and bond with you is being belittled as nothing more than the result of the family’s obsession.”

Fortunately, Fira seemed perfectly fine.

From the very beginning, calling each other biological mother and daughter suggested that their family relationship wasn’t normal, but it seemed that their anger and resentment towards each other were much greater than imagined.

“By the way, Fira. It’s really a sudden and new thing, but is it okay for you to say you’re going to destroy the family with your own hands? It seems like it was resolved without dirtying our hands, but…”

“Well, I’m a little empty, but…I still feel like I should clean up the mosquito that messed up this place.”

Fira genuinely hates and despises the Dunhill Family.

Born into a collateral branch, she suffered extreme discrimination and abuse from a young age—of course, the children of the Dunhill main family were also abused—, as well as all sorts of bio-experiments and forbidden sorcery, brothers and sisters, mothers and fathers killing and eating each other to increase their power, and bizarre rituals of mixing bodies with those of the same blood to make the blood thicker.

“By the way, why haven’t you been hostile to the family all this time? Considering what you’ve been through, running away seems cute.”

“I would have done it right away if I could.”

“Was the Dunhill Family that strong?”

“It’s not a matter of that dimension. It’s because I couldn’t predict what kind of butterfly effect would result if I did something impulsive with my resentment and anger. It’s okay now because I can be sure that you, Alice, and the administrator Oriana, and Rilstia are on my side!”

Fira also wanted to destroy the Dunhill Family immediately and tear the old men of the family to pieces without leaving a trace if she could, but the reason she didn’t make that choice was because the Dunhill Family was deeply rooted in human society and the Ark.

Calamities are simply(?) tasks of understanding the conditions and triggers, and then attacking and defeating them.

Of course, the conditions and strategies are at a level that ordinary people can’t even imagine, but still, only benefits remain in this society by destroying the calamity, and the safety of the Ark citizens is secured, so she could do it without any hesitation.

However, the Dunhill Family is a merit family of the Ark and its influence is deeply rooted not only in the central administration but also in the middle class, commoners, and even the lower layer.

About half of the managers and mayors who manage various companies and capital, towns, districts, residential areas, and layers are directly or indirectly influenced by the Dunhill Family, and a significant number of executors and sheriffs are also connected to the Dunhill Family.

Some layers are completely dependent on the Dunhill Family, and there is even a rumor that the Dunhill Family is the largest force that secretly controls the economy and society of the Ark.

If this Dunhill Family disappeared overnight, the resulting void would be more than just chaos.

To exaggerate a little, it could even lead to the destruction of the Ark.

Regardless of Fira’s personal hatred for the Dunhill Family, the destruction of the Dunhill Family could lead to the destruction of the Ark, and even if it didn’t, it was true that an overwhelming majority of innocent Ark citizens would suffer tremendous damage and threats to their lives.

In conclusion, the Dunhill Family has an overall impact on the entire Ark and human society, and is virtually holding many people hostage, so even Fira, who was dissatisfied with the Dunhill Family, couldn’t openly engage in hostile acts.

“You were unexpectedly looking at things from a more macro perspective than I thought.”

“Of course, I wouldn’t care if one or two innocent people died, and I could have taken revenge, but if that went beyond towns and cities…and exposed tens of millions, or perhaps hundreds of millions, of people in countless layers to risks they couldn’t handle, I couldn’t do that, could I?”

Alice smiled without realizing it at Fira, who spoke as if it were obvious.

To be honest, when she suddenly pledged her loyalty and asked me to marry her, I thought Fira was a strange person, but knowing that she was this kind of person made me like her more than I thought.

Of course, it’s a little scary that she’s a noble lady whose insides are made of maggots…no, don’t humans also live in symbiosis with all sorts of cells, bacteria, viruses, and microorganisms?

Compared to that, a mere few hundred maggots might be pretty good, except for the visual problem.