episode_0120

When I was left alone with Maria in the library, we began the conversation that had been building up over the past 18 years. Originally, communication was possible through the rosary for at least 20 minutes a day, but after Mary was born, even that was impossible.

Gradually-.

“Saint, can you see this? The saint gave it to me.”

“You managed to keep it all this time.”

Maria looks overwhelmed with emotion. I waved the cross as if showing off.

“Shall I return it? This doesn’t mean anything anymore. Although it can be used to burn monsters.”

“No, I have another rosary in this life. Please believe that it is the thread that connects the past life between me and Joker, and take it from me.”

“It’s a shame. It was a lot of fun communicating with the saint.”

“It’s unfortunate for me too, but shouldn’t the issue be addressed face-to-face?”

Maria leaned her head sideways on my shoulder. I moved my hand to cup her side. Her slender waist was held in one arm.

“He’s quite a demon, but he allows me to side with him so easily?”

“If enduring 500 years were easy, no man in the world would be able to touch a woman’s body.”

“Still, I gained weight by pinching. In Tartarus, it was so dry that it looked like a dead corpse.”

“Was it that much? I didn’t have eyes at the time so I couldn’t look at my body.”

“Okay, that’s not an empty remark. There was a boat bag stuck to the back? It was said that the skin and bones were very ugly.”

Maria showed off as if teasing her and responded with a grin.

“The words of a person who was in heat and even experienced a wet dream with such an ugly woman are not credible.”

“… .”

No matter what you do with words, you cannot defeat Maria. I was reminded of that funny truth once again.

“This rosary is very worn.”

Maria curiously kneaded the rosary I gave her.

“How many times did you touch it?”

“I don’t know, and I didn’t really touch it. It’s just because time has passed.”

“It’s too shiny for that, isn’t it? As if someone had cleaned and maintained it well until recently.”

“Sigh, do you really have to show up in such an embarrassing way?”

“Joker has a secretly cute side.”

Maria is the first person to call me cute. A question suddenly occurred to me and I asked.

“How does the saint see me?”

“Yes?”

“I’m just curious. How I look in the eyes of a saint.”

Maria said after carefully examining my appearance.

“Do you really care about your appearance, which will wither someday? What is important is what is inside, the heart of a person.”

“If someone else had said it, I would have laughed, but since it was said by a blind saint, I couldn’t make sense of it. Please let me know though. That’s because I want to hear it. How do I look in the eyes of a saint?”

You can ask if you can see your reflection in the other person’s eyes, but unfortunately, Maria’s eyes are white, so something is not reflected.

“… It’s exactly what I expected. You seem cunning, mean, and insidious… If you look closely, you see that he is innocent, full of fun, and good-natured.”

“You really see what you want to see. People who knew the Joker in his past life will be freaked out when they hear that? How good is it to see the North Duke of the Demon King Army.”

“The events of your past life must be buried in your past life and come out. But when I read the message I left during the day, I heard that there is an iron-blooded teacher named Beatrice at the academy. Is she someone I know?”

“Oh, Beatrice? That’s right. This is the paladin I won 400 years ago.”

“I heard there is a beast named Aru. Is he King Rang?”

“Yes, I brought you as my roommate.”

After answering that far, Maria’s expression darkened slightly. Her white eyebrows twitch as if she is displeased.

“The national powerhouses are gathered in just one academy.”

“In the future, big events such as the advent of the Pupil of the Demon World will occur. Prepare for that time. Of course, I will protect Maria, but you never know, right?”

“It’s all good. It’s all good… Why are you roommates? With King Lang?”

Jealousy wells up in Maria’s merciful eyes. I laughed out loud and playfully stroked her head.

“Ahahaha! Is that what happened? A room with King Lang?”

“Ugh… Even though King Lang is a beast, he is definitely a woman. Is it right for someone who promised to love me to sleep with a woman outside of his family?”

“Who is sleeping? You are now at the library to meet the saint.”

“You’re not going to be here every night, right? No matter how strong Joker is, since he is alive, he will eventually have to sleep… .”

Maria doesn’t know that I haven’t slept once in the past 18 years while evolving the meta into Goblin God. That’s why I say that.

Maria doesn’t necessarily want to keep it a secret, but creating a god is a great act of blasphemy. As Mary, who serves the Lord, she would not be able to tolerate this no matter how much she loves me.

“Why do you think you have to sleep only in the dormitory?”

“Yes?”

There are several paths to answer. It is the lover’s duty to give the answer that will please Maria the most.

“You can come here every day and sleep. With the saint. No one would know anyway.”

“Well, like that… ! Tsk… .”

“Why don’t you like it? Don’t you like me?”

Like a man skilled in relationships with women, he grasped Maria’s chin with his thumb and index finger. Then he slowly pushed his face forward.

“… Still, there’s no need to stay in the same room with King Lang… .”

Maria avoided my gaze and babbled in displeasure. It doesn’t work either. If this happens, most women will go crazy. I guess Maria’s jealousy is stronger than my fascination.

“I can’t help it. Aru says that only I can control him.”

I put my butt back on the chair after standing up for a moment.

“The child has no social skills, perhaps because he grew up in a forest. Even in his previous life, he was the strongest assassin, let alone at the academy, so there’s no way something like that would happen.”

“If you don’t have social skills, you don’t have much… .”

“In today’s placement test, several students were almost crippled if they were not treated with divine power. Like cutting a tendon in half or peeling the skin of the entire body like peeling an apple.”

“… .”

“This is what happened in another gym while I was sparring with Maria and the teacher during the day. Because of that, Aru became a hot topic that caught the attention of students in just one day. He already holds the title of being the Academy’s first dog convict. Still, is it true that I’m not next to you?”

Even if the accumulated jealousy is a bit extreme, Maria is a reasonable person. If her judgment is based on reason rather than emotion, she will make a rational decision.

“Phew… Now that you say that, I can’t help but wonder. Still, I guess I can’t help feeling frustrated in this town.”

“Are you frustrated? Why?”

“I am also a woman. Women have something called female intuition. Even if Joker doesn’t have any lust for King Lang, the affection they have lived together is not light.”

“What are you talking about?”

“Isn’t King Lang the Joker’s colleague who has been with you for the longest time? Much longer than me… For as long as 500 years… .”

Phew, after hearing that, I couldn’t hold back and started crying. Maria’s rare complaint was unbearably funny.

How can you be jealous of a mutt? Looking at the extremely ‘master-slave’ relationship between me and Aru, I wouldn’t even think of such a thing.

“Why, why are you smiling… ! I’m this serious… !”

“I guess… In order to resolve the overflowing resentment of our dating beginner, I need to give her some kind of trust.”

“You give me faith? How?”

“Like this.”

side-.

Like an unexpected assassin, he secretly stuck his head out and kissed Maria’s cheek. A blush appeared on Maria’s white face, and her expression turned bright red like lipstick.

“You are the first time I have kissed a woman’s cheek. In both the last episode and this episode.”

“Ugh… That’s good. But it went by so quickly. I couldn’t even feel it properly.”

“One more time?”

“… One more time.”

side-.

The saint’s cheeks were as sweet as sugar. How do you know? When I kiss your cheek, I open my lips slightly and stick out my tongue. Because I’m a bit of a bad boy. For some reason, I wanted to follow the male’s instinct and mark the territory.

“This is a kiss.”

“Don’t be mistaken. What I just did couldn’t even be called a kiss, it was just a kiss.”

“For me, it was the skinship of a lifetime. Do you know?”

“Kwikkk, then I guess I’ll have to let you know better from now on.”

As I slyly whispered in her ear, Maria smiled brightly. Fortunately, it seems like they succeeded in diverting Maria’s attention from Aru.

“Hmm, anyway, please tell me more about the placement test. During the day, I was locked out of a message saying I was assigned to Class A. What exactly was it like?”

“It’s just what it says. Even if she was a young saint, she was still a saint. You’re already using the Sun Shield to block all of Beatrice’s attacks, right? If he had even attacked, he might have been assigned to the S class?”

The words were spoken with a bit of exaggeration. Maria slowly smiled, as if she didn’t like being lifted up.

“What about Joker?”

“Me? I just did it with a magic wand. Just like the saint, I was evaluated for my sparring with Beatrice. First of all, since I didn’t know the devil’s intentions, I acted appropriately so as not to attract attention.”

“During the day, I left a lot of compliments and positive reviews about a person named ‘Evans’, and those reviews were very similar to the Joker I know. ”

“Evans is me. Evans Grant. It is my identity as a human being that Beatrice provided.”

“As expected, it was like that. That’s a great name.”

Evans is a cool name? Hmm, it has a neat and gentlemanly feel, but it’s not a fancy name. Still, since Maria is good, I like it too.

“What happened to you, warrior? Did he also take the test with us?”

“Hero? Frey him? I don’t know, I’m not particularly interested in kids who don’t really matter. But the saintess, even though she was betrayed by the hero, is she still using the word ‘nim’? Nothing has changed from my previous life.”

“… What happened in your past life is what happened in your past life. And everyone makes mistakes. I, who even embraced the Joker, should I abandon him?”

“If you say that, I have nothing to say. The hero… I was only eavesdropping, but it seemed like he had come out on top on his own. Like a past life. I didn’t expect Aru to win, but he said that Aru decided to withdraw. After all, there is no way that pathetic girl could beat King Lang.”

These words were said without much thought, but Maria’s expression was quite serious. I shrugged my shoulders and continued.

“But I don’t know the exact circumstances. The teacher in charge was my person, Beatrice, but the teacher there was a teacher I didn’t know at all. It was an amazing teacher that he controlled his prayers to the fullest.”

“If you tell me what he looks like, I can carefully guess who he is.”

“Oh, I see? Let’s just stay still… He had a rather slim build and was mostly carrying his back. Oh, I also remember that my eyes were squinted. What do you think? Can you guess this much? Should I say more?”

“… ?”

Maria’s face took on a suspicious look. What, why is it like that?

“When I went to the academy… There wasn’t a single teacher with squinted eyes?”

“… Huh?”

“Are you sure you saw something wrong? From what I remember, there was definitely no teacher with narrow eyes.”

“No, that teacher clearly had narrowed eyes. So, when I referred to him, I called him ‘Silken-eye teacher’.”

“Is this a variable born from the butterfly effect?”

“… Well, maybe he’s the devil’s henchman… Tsk, I guess I should look into it. Everything from origin to background and history.”

Even though I can’t trust other people’s memories, I trust Maria, the wisest person on the continent.

If it’s truly caused by the butterfly effect, it’s okay, but if not, there’s no harm in investigating it.

*****

Eden Academy’s dormitory.

Fray de Siegfried, who had obtained a private room with the independent authority of the ‘Hero’, was now working hard with his pen on a notebook where she was writing down things she needed to remember or pay attention to.

“List of variables… The appearance of a dog beast named Arura… .”

Stumbling over various things that happened during the day.

“The man named Evans that Aru mentioned… I need to find out who it is by contacting the back alley right now… also… A teacher named Beatrice suddenly appeared 18 years ago and rose to the ranks of the academy’s strongest… .”

While writing down the investigation target in her notebook, her fingers stopped at a certain position. It reminds me of a man.

“And… That narrow-eyed teacher. Why do so many people who did not exist in their previous life appear? Maybe it’s all in one piece… .”

The returnee had a lot on his mind.

*****

Deep at night at Eden Academy, a time when some lovers are having a secret secret meeting in the library, a regressor is brooding in a solitary confinement, and ordinary students are dreaming exciting dreams.

A man was sitting on the window of the student dormitory, bathing in the blue moonlight.

In the man’s hand was a half-empty bottle of whiskey with the cap off.

Sssss-.

Outside the window, black energy gathered in the sky of the academy. Anyone watching would have been shocked, but the only witness, a narrow-eyed man, remained calm.

Gurgling-.

The narrow-eyed man opened his mouth, pouring whiskey down his throat.

“Are you here? I was waiting.”

The energy gathering in the air responded by transforming into the shape of a human being.

“It’s not like you to use an honorific that doesn’t suit you.”

“It’s been a few years since I participated in the teacher’s game, so I have to act like a teacher no matter who sees me. These days, the authority of teachers is so low that it is a trend for teachers to treat students with respect?”

“The man who made even the archangels of the world tremble is treated with respect by mere humans. When they hear it, they won’t be able to help but lament.”

Two black wings hung from the figure’s back. In addition, the red horns on top of his head and the inverted cross in his hand showed that he was not human.

“Anyway, Lucifer, just you. About 400 years ago, there was a person who enjoyed entertainment even by disguising himself as a Holy Knight of the Holy Kingdom.”

“Kick, that was because of the toy I was playing with at the time. You know this too, right? Because we are co-workers. Beatrice Constantino, that is.”

“There should be a chance to have a conversation with that quiet person.”

The narrow-eyed man did not tremble in fear even after seeing that alien appearance. Instead, he just smiled as if it wasn’t anything surprising.

“How was the demon I was talking about? You told me that you would be able to recognize him right away because you had King Lang by your side.”

“He hides his strength, but I can feel that he is strong just by standing in front of him. You said he was your descendant, right? If you get it right, you’ll probably be similar to me, but I didn’t know that one of your descendants would be such a monster.”

“I was surprised too. Could it be that Uriel… No, this is fine. Just don’t let him reveal your identity. Descendants of old entertainment, saints, warriors, great sages, King Rang, and even the great devil, who is considered the greatest devil along with Belphegor, are all in one academy. It’s rare to see something this fun. Isn’t that right?”

The squinted red pupils secretly glowed in the darkness of the night. The Great Devil Lucifer looked at the devil sitting on the window sill with an arrogant gaze.

“Satan.”