Muffin

Muffin

In a room where mirrors of different sizes and shapes were attached to every surface.

In this strange place reminiscent of a kaleidoscope, a man opened his mouth with an emotionless face.

“Not only have we lost the medium of the Heaven God, but we’ve also lost the seeds of corruption and the ingredients for the elixir…”

Although his tone and expression showed no particular emotion.

Judging by the intense magi he was emitting, more than usual, one could tell that he was angrier than imaginable.

In response to this reaction, the Vice Abbot who had been in charge of the matter tried to make excuses while trembling.

But before he could, the angry man opened his mouth with an expressionless face.

“Whatever you say is worthless. You’ve now far exceeded the limit of what you can handle.”

At that single sentence pronouncing judgment, the Vice Abbot desperately cried out.

“If, if you give me one last chance, I’ll do whatever it takes! Please, just one last chance…!”

He spoke without even giving a glance, as if it wasn’t even worth listening to.

“Even if given a chance, what could you possibly do?”

“What…?”

At those words, the Vice Abbot looked up at him with a blank expression.

Seeing this expression, the man showed his first reaction, speaking with a face full of mockery.

“Despite having ample time to prevent it, you couldn’t respond at all and continued to suffer massive losses. What exactly are you saying you could do?”

“That, that’s…”

“Even if given additional chances, do you think anything would change with someone like you?”

“……”

The Vice Abbot seemed to have nothing else to say and kept his mouth shut.

But sensing that he couldn’t stay silent, he hastily exclaimed.

“It’s because of Deren… that bastard! It’s because he used all the power of his family to scheme! If it weren’t for him!”

At those words, the man stopped laughing and spoke to the Vice Abbot in a very subdued voice.

“Then you should have requested support from the main school. Instead of hiding and manipulating the fact that you suffered damage.”

“…””Whatever the case, it doesn’t matter now. It’s meaningless at this point.”

As if feeling that this conversation itself was meaningless, he wiggled his finger to signal not to speak any further.

Then, he tore off one of the mirrors attached to the wall, placed it on the desk, and said.

“The negative emotions extracted from demons don’t hold much value… even if extracted, they’re not worth much. But to give a wake-up call to the recently complacent members of the Heaven God Cult, please fill the quota while suffering for as long as possible.”

The moment he heard the words to suffer for a long time, the Vice Abbot started screaming as if struggling.

Then, as if realizing it was futile, he tried to stab his own heart with a dagger he had on him.

“You should receive your punishment before dying.”

He lightly stopped it, then pointed to the mirror he had taken out and said:

“To be precise, rather than punishment, it might be more fitting to call it a noble sacrifice for the demon god. Well, it’s what you’ve always been doing anyway. I don’t need to add any explanation, you know what I mean.”

“Please… just once.”

“I told you. There are no more chances.”

With those words, he pressed down on the vice-abbot with immense magical energy, then threw him into the mirror.

Then, as if pleased with the surroundings that had become quiet again, he was repositioning the mirror with a satisfied expression.

Someone knocks on the door and enters.

“Abbot. I’ve gathered all the information about Espin and Delia.”

At those words, he slightly turned his gaze to look at him, then said with a grin:

“Already? Thank you for your hard work, Chief Inspector.”

“Not at all. It’s only natural to do what the Abbot asks.”

“To think you’d be this excellent… The Heaven God will surely remember this deed.”

In the room that was once filled with screams, laughter now echoes instead.

He seemed quite satisfied with this, smiling for a long time before slowly reading the report and speaking.

“Espin and Delia… Both are difficult to touch, but not entirely untouchable.”

“That’s right. Especially in Espin’s case, if we can put pressure on Count Etis, the high administrative official, it shouldn’t be too difficult to touch him.”

“Pressure… That’s not difficult. For this purpose, countless believers have been positioning themselves in various places over a long period of time.”

At those words, the Chief Inspector momentarily seemed chilled, pausing for a moment.

Then he smiled again and nodded, after all, he was one of the people holding onto the solid rope called the ‘Heaven God Cult’.

Therefore, showing no particular signs of worry, he opened his mouth.

“Then shall we start with Espin? All the preparations have been completed.”

“That would be good. It’s better to start quickly, no matter what.”

“Yes. Then, when pressure is applied to Count Etis, I will mobilize the personnel from the Inspection Department to begin the torture… no, the pressure investigation.”

“I’ll leave it to you.”

He nodded with a satisfied expression once again, signaling the end of the conversation.

* * * * *

The Heaven God of the demons, the Demon God.

The moment I realized this fact, I couldn’t help but be dazed for quite a long time.

In the story, they kept singing ‘Heaven God, Heaven God,’ so I naturally thought it was the god of humans.

I never dreamed that something even worse would pop up.

‘Demon God… it’s the Demon God.’

It was difficult to express this in detail as there wasn’t much specific description in the novel.

But judging by the name, it was clearly a being superior to even the Demon King, so I couldn’t help but feel confused.

‘In the novel, even the Demon King couldn’t be stopped, so the world was essentially doomed.’

It was frustrating to hear that there was an even higher being.

‘The only fortunate thing is that there was no mention of the Demon God until the middle to late part of the novel.’

Considering that Rumi hadn’t even found a trace of it until then.

At least until the middle to late part, there was no need to worry about the Demon God descending.

‘So for now, while preventing the Demon God from descending as much as possible.’

It would be right to find a way to bring down the Heaven God Cult and the Demon King.

While thinking about this, I was making the judgment that it would be better to take direct action rather than focusing on research anymore.

Someone was knocking on the laboratory door.

“Deren.”

My name was heard along with a giggling laughter.

The moment I heard this, I quickly realized it was Rumi knocking on the laboratory door and briefly said.

“What’s the matter?”

“Well, you know. I baked an incredibly large muffin this time…! The moment I made it, I thought I should give it to Deren, so I brought it. Would you like to have it?”

Seeing me eat the muffin without a word last time, she must have mistaken that I liked muffins.

I thought about refusing Rumi’s offer, but.

‘If I refuse, she’ll probably be crouching in front of the door all day with a sad face.’

Deciding to just accept the muffin and send her away, I answered with a voice full of sighs.

“Come in.”

“… Yes!”

With a cheerful reply, Rumi quickly came in.

Then, looking around, she carefully placed the muffin she brought on the desk and said to me.

“I’m sure it will be delicious…! The chef said it was delicious too!”

“Really?”

“Yes! I’ve been practicing making muffins all day for Deren, so surely…!”

Rumi stopped mid-sentence.

Then, covering her mouth with her hand, she showed a shy expression.

It seemed she was embarrassed that it took too long to complete the muffin.

“I don’t understand why that’s embarrassing, but…”

Anyway, thinking it’s quite pleasing that she made it for me, I picked it up.

“Thank you. I’ll enjoy it.”

“… Yes!”

Seeing that she seemed too embarrassed, I thanked her at an appropriate moment.

Rumi nodded her head quickly with a bright smile.

As I was thinking that if Rumi had a tail, it would probably be wagging rapidly, and taking a bite,

Rumi glanced at me and asked in a gradually quieter voice.

“Um, Deren… I have something to say.”

“What is it?”

“That cat… when did you bring it?”

At those words, Luna, who was beside me, glared at Rumi with a “Kyaak!” sound.

Then she quickly approached Rumi and started throwing cat punches.

“Eek…! Ow, it hurts!”

I never thought she’d be getting beaten up by a cat too.

As I was thinking that the female protagonist was excessively weak, while trying to calm Luna down,

Rumi chuckled and said to me in a small voice.

“It seems like Deren is always saving me…”

Not knowing how else to respond, I kept my mouth shut.

Rumi slowly got up and said to me.

“Still, I can’t be protected by Deren forever… I’ll become very strong, and later I’ll be the one protecting Deren!”

… Protect me.

Thinking that those words were truly like Rumi, I slowly nodded my head.

Rumi continued to smile and spoke in a small voice.

“Not just from enemies, but from other girls too.”

The moment I heard those words, I looked at Rumi with a questioning expression.

But Rumi, as if she hadn’t even realized what she had said, tilted her head and looked at me with a puzzled expression.

I was about to say something to Rumi, but then I shook my head and closed my mouth.