Elqueeness [EN]: Chapter 110

110.

“What’s wrong, Isana?”

At my question, he bit his lip, not taking his eyes off Deron.

“I’ve heard of it. It’s one of the names of the Four Great Dukes of the Demon Realm.”

“Four Great Dukes?”

“They hold the highest position after the Demon King. If my guess is correct, that female demon named Serpianes must be Serphis, one of the Four Great Dukes.”

Indeed, so she wasn’t just an ordinary demon? Deronherville, no, Deron, didn’t react at all, even though we were openly guessing his identity right in front of him. He seemed to be acknowledging our guess simply by remaining silent. On the other hand, the female demon Serphis looked noticeably anxious, making me feel sorry for her.

“Alright, Deron. Why did the Demon King give you such an order?”

“We do not know the reason. We only know that it is a personal matter.”

“Personal? It’s not the will of the Demon God, is it?”

At that moment, a faint smile flickered across the demon’s face, which had been so chillingly calm. It was a clear sneer that anyone could see. I couldn’t help but be shocked by what he said next.

“I am honored, Water King. I think there has been a misunderstanding. His Majesty, the current Demon King, Karyudrian, has never been summoned by the Demon God since he became king.”

“Never been summoned by the Demon God?”

“Yes. Furthermore, it has been quite a while since the Demon God directly managed the Demon Realm.”

“How long has it been?”

“It seems to be over a hundred years.”

Oh dear, does that mean the Demon God has nothing to do with these events? Deron’s attitude in answering was firm. He clearly believed that the Demon King was personally helping the Archduke. My head was in complete chaos with the jumbled information. It felt like the investigation had returned to square one with the disappearance of a strong suspect. I frowned openly and asked.

“Wait a minute. Then, the Archduke offering sacrifices to the Demon God? Is that also unrelated to the Demon God’s will?”

“I do not know about that.”

“He’s sacrificing children and holding rituals. Have you never heard of it?”

“No.”

At his blunt answer, I couldn’t continue questioning and closed my mouth. Judging by his demeanor, he didn’t seem to be lying. Well, even if he’s a high-ranking demon, he wouldn’t know all the internal affairs of the Demon Realm. I sighed lightly inside.

“What are you going to do with us now?”

As my thoughts deepened, Deron asked in a calm voice. He didn’t seem to be particularly afraid of what would happen next, nor did he have any expectations; he simply looked curious. His nonchalant appearance made me even more intrigued, so I asked.

“What would you do if I let you go like this?”

“Now that our identities have been revealed, it would be difficult to continue the mission, so we would probably return to the Demon Realm.”

“You’re going to report what happened here to the Demon King as soon as you get back?”

“Yes, that was our mission.”

He’s too honest. He didn’t hesitate to make statements that could be disadvantageous to him. Are all demons like this? I stared at Deron with strange feelings.

“Why are you hesitating after hearing such an answer? If you don’t want to create trouble in the first place, it’s better to get rid of them now, right?”

Lapis, who was next to me, said nonchalantly.

Ignoring Lapis’s grinning words, I looked at Deron. He still had a blank expression, as if he had already expected this to happen, without any sign of surprise.
The female demon Serphis, who had been watching for an opportunity, suddenly leaned forward. At the same time, the surrounding atmosphere twisted, and soon a black mist burst out in front of us.

Shuuuuk! Chwaaaak!

“Ugh!”

“…El!”

I reflexively raised my arm to avoid it, and then I looked up, feeling like I had made a mistake. Sure enough, Serphis had disappeared. She had abandoned her companion Deron and fled alone.

“As expected of demons, there’s no sense of camaraderie at all. I like it.”

Ignoring Lapis’s smirking words, I looked at Deron. He still had a blank expression, as if he had expected this to happen.

“I’ll ask you one more thing. You said that the Demon King’s plan wouldn’t be the will of the Demon God, right? Then is it true that the Demon King is helping the Archduke?”

“Probably.”

“What is their relationship?”

“I don’t know exactly. However, I suspect it’s a contractual relationship.”

“Contract? Did the Archduke summon the Demon King?”

Deron nodded calmly. When I thought about it, there was no other suitable reason to explain their relationship. If the Demon God was excluded, there was no other way for the Demon King to help an ordinary human from a common sense perspective.

Humans can summon demons. Summoned demons, like spirits, make contracts to become their power or grant their wishes. However, while the contract conditions with spirits are simply lending mana, there was a difference that demons might demand some kind of price. Therefore, despite the very high risk, people here dreamed of making contracts with demons. In particular, the Swalt Empire, which worships the Demon God, does not particularly define demons as evil beings, so they do not restrict summoning rituals.

Of course, that doesn’t mean that contracting with a demon is a common occurrence. The method of summoning demons is almost as unknown as the summoning ritual for spirits. However, the Archduke would be in a position to easily obtain a lot of information, so it wouldn’t be entirely impossible if he set his mind to it. It was regrettable that the summoned demon was the Demon King, but Isana had summoned a Spirit King, so there was no reason why he couldn’t do it too.

“Then, do you know anything about Isana’s cousin? Or about the whereabouts of his supposedly dead sister?”

“I do not know about that.”

“So, that means the Archduke wasn’t involved in that?”

“Well, I don’t know all of the King’s plans. Just because we weren’t involved doesn’t necessarily mean it has nothing to do with the Archduke.”

“I see. I understand. You can go back now.”

Then Deron looked a little embarrassed. It was the first reaction he had shown since appearing before us. Lapis also looked at me with a frown.

“What, are you just going to let him go?”

“One has already run away, so there’s nothing I can do. Anyway, the report will go in, and it’s too late to silence them. We were just watching, and I don’t want to make things bigger.”

“You’ve only been watching so far. Next time, they’ll try to attack, right?”

“I’ll think about that when the time comes.”

Actually, I wasn’t too worried. Even if he really attacked, I didn’t feel like I would lose. Lapis seemed to feel the same way. Contrary to my expectation that he would oppose me to the end, he nodded nonchalantly. It seemed like he didn’t care what decision I made in the first place.

“Well, go now.”

“…Thank you for the Water King’s generous disposition.”

Deron bowed and gave a strangely bitter expression. He was said to be a race that enjoyed fighting and conflict, but he seemed to feel very disappointed in the situation where he was simply released.

“Ah, now that I think about it, I forgot to tell you this.”

“……?”

Before turning around, Deron muttered as if he had suddenly remembered something. When I looked at him with a puzzled expression, he calmly turned to me.

“About the story that the Archduke offered young humans as burnt offerings a little while ago. I cannot dare to fathom what the Demon God is doing, but I can say one thing for sure. The Demon God is very ruthless, but he is generous to children of any kind.”

“The Demon God is generous to children?”

“You may think it’s unexpected, but that’s the truth. His Majesty Karyudrian, who is currently being neglected, was also loved by the Demon God when he was a child. I don’t know what that Archduke is thinking, but if he’s really offering burnt offerings for the Demon God, he’s clearly making a mistake. There’s no way he would be pleased with a ritual that sacrifices children.”

In the end, the meaning he was trying to convey was one thing: that the Archduke’s burnt offering had nothing to do with the Demon God. Perhaps he wanted to completely deny the relationship between the Demon God and the Demon King. It was as if he was following the Demon King’s orders but didn’t like him. I didn’t completely get rid of my doubts, but I nodded for now.

“I understand what you mean. I’ll keep that in mind.”

“If possible, please keep this in mind as well. We will probably meet again soon.”

“……I understand what that means too.”

If the Demon King was helping the Archduke, he would never sit idly by and watch the Spirit King’s intervention. He would definitely interfere with me in some way, or be even more determined to kill Isana than he is now. And the possibility of Deron being at the forefront of that was as high as the possibility of the runaway female demon telling the Demon King.

Next time we meet, the atmosphere won’t be as peaceful as it is now. Was it because I was more fond of Deron than I thought? I was very sorry that he was an enemy.

* * *

As the day waned, my party and I moved into the village. It was to take care of Isana and Kaitain’s meals, and to find suitable accommodations. Originally, we were planning to go straight to the Duke’s mansion, so we hadn’t thought about separate accommodations, but now that the situation had changed, we had to find a place to stay for a while.

Since it was mealtime, the shopping district was crowded everywhere. We entered the largest restaurant among them, took a seat in a secluded corner (and Lapis, as always, cast a spell to block out the sound).

“Are you feeling a little better, Isana?”

Isana’s complexion had been bad ever since we faced the demons. I looked at him with concern as he managed to smile, and then sighed.

“Anyway, the story has come back to square one. In the end, no one knows what happened to April, right? And we can’t be sure about the Demon God’s involvement either.”

“Hmph, are you believing everything the demon says?”

“Is it a lie after all?”

When I looked at him anxiously, Lapis shrugged nonchalantly.

“Well, anyway, it’s good that one thing has become clear, right? That the Demon King is on the Archduke’s side. Whether the Demon God is involved or not, the fact that the beings we have to deal with in the future are demons doesn’t change at all.”

“Hmm, that’s true too.”

In fact, the Demon King alone was not an easy opponent. I didn’t know his power well, but he was definitely a much more difficult opponent than the Duke who came today.

In the end, I decided to stop thinking complicatedly. There was no way it would be resolved right away, no matter how much I racked my brains here.

“Anyway, let’s deal with the things in front of us one by one for now. If we do that, we’ll see clues to other things.”

“What things in front of us?”

“Finding April. The story of the burnt offering temporarily led us astray, but that’s what we were originally doing.”

“Keck, aren’t you satisfied with searching all day today?”

Looking at Lapis, who was already making a tired expression, I puffed out my cheeks.

“What can I do if there are no results? But if we keep looking, won’t someone who knows the truth come out?”

“In that case, I’d rather go directly to the Duke.”

“Huh? To the Duke?”

“Anyway, it’s all related to the Duke. Where is there someone who knows the truth as accurately as the person involved? It’s more certain than hearing rumors. It’s not difficult for you to enter the mansion anyway. I don’t understand why you’re trying to go around the easy way?”

Isana and I stared at each other blankly. Come to think of it, why couldn’t we think of that method? I suddenly felt like I was coming to my senses.

“Hee, Lapis, you’re really smart.”

“Did you just find out? Anyway, both the Spirit King and his contractor are dull.”

“You seem to have forgotten something, but you’re one of those contractors too, you know?”

“Ha, who are you treating the same?”

“Don’t you like being treated the same? Then cancel the contract.”

“……Damn it.”

Still, Lapis couldn’t bring himself to say that he would cancel the contract, so he frowned a lot. When I stuck out my tongue as if to show off, I heard a small chuckle. It was Kaitain, who was sitting quietly as if he had been drawn into the scene. When I made an embarrassed expression at the thought of showing a childish appearance, he quickly stopped laughing and said.

“Ah, I’m sorry. I just thought it was a good sight…… Please forgive me if you were offended.”

“Ah, no. It’s not unpleasant. Come to think of it, Mr. Kai, are all your business here finished? What are you going to do now? If you’re staying for our sake, you can leave first…….”

“If it’s okay with you, I would like to be with El until this matter is resolved.”

“Oh, really?”

“Anyway, I don’t have a destination right now. Since it’s a matter of Clamore, which is closely related to our Holy Kingdom, I think it would be good to know the situation.”

He confidently expressed the temple as a kingdom. Even if it was the smallest and most insignificant kingdom in the world, it was good to see him feeling pride. I smiled and nodded.

“That’s true too. I’d be happy if Mr. Kai would be with us. I would have been sad if we had parted ways like this.”

“Thank you for saying that.”

“I really mean it. Then, shall we rest for today since it’s late? We’ll discuss the full-scale work again from tomorrow…….”

I stopped talking and closed my mouth. It was because I felt someone approaching. When I turned my head, I saw someone standing nearby. It was a person wearing a long cloak that stretched to the tips of their toes and a black hood, an outfit that looked suspicious at a glance.

There were so many people coming and going that it could have just been someone passing by, but I was sure that I wasn’t mistaken. He was definitely approaching us with a purpose.