Lucart was in a state of discomfort.
He had been deeply irritated since the moment he left the capital.
An engagement? With someone he didn’t even know… well, there was also a difference in species to consider. Anyway, from the moment Shekina uttered the absurd word ‘engagement,’ Lucart had been quietly fuming.
It wasn’t until after he dragged Shekina back to the North that Lucart began to calm down enough to sit down and reflect.
Why did he feel this way? What was the issue, and what wasn’t?
But he couldn’t. No, he didn’t have the time. As soon as he saw the atmosphere in the castle, he immediately realized what the old elders were scheming.
‘How dare they.’
Yes, it was truly daring.
This time, it was none other than Lucart himself who had taken action. Empowered by him, the homunculus Shekina had tracked down Lucifer’s trail and even blew up his residence. Just from this, Shekina had accomplished enough.
But the elders refused to acknowledge this and pulled such a dirty trick?
Lucart ground his teeth.
Without calming his anger, Lucart ascended the stairs. Upon reaching the second floor, he saw the Second Elder, Vincent, and the Fourth Elder, Karte, engaged in conversation. Immediately, Lucart unleashed his aura.
“Cough!”
“M-My Lord?”
As soon as they felt Lucart’s aura, they responded instantly. Vincent wiped the blood he had just coughed up with a handkerchief and took a deep breath.
“…I greet you, my Lord.”
While Karte lay flat on the ground, Vincent stood upright on his feet. This was partly because Vincent had lived since the time of the previous Demon King, but it also signaled that he did not revere the current Demon King.
However, Lucart didn’t mind. He knew better than anyone that the title of Demon King wasn’t granted by someone’s approval.
“You’ve been up to something interesting.”
Lucart spoke in a somewhat indifferent tone, though his voice carried a hidden anger. Vincent’s shoulders twitched.
“I merely did what was right.”
But he didn’t shrink back any further. His voice, cracked and strained, leaked out as if he were making one last desperate effort.
“I acted to ensure that homunculus wouldn’t get too full of itself. This isn’t a matter for you, my Lord.”
Such insolence.
However, Lucart did not lose his temper. In a calm voice, he questioned,
“Did you receive permission from the advisor?”
He was referring to Lyat, the one who created the homunculus.
Vincent chewed the inside of his cheek. He had nothing to say in response to that.
“The a-advisor is currently away.”
The Fourth Elder, Karte, who had been lying on the ground the whole time, answered instead. Lucart’s eyes narrowed.
“The person in charge of the homunculus is absent, and yet you acted without permission?”
Lucart twisted his lips.
“Since when has the Demon King’s castle lost its system of order?”
“………..”
Vincent had no response. If he questioned the system itself, it was clear that Vincent was at fault.
However, even so, he did not want to admit any wrongdoing.
I’ve done nothing wrong, I’ve only done what was necessary, even if it was just part of a bet for mere amusement.
“Why on earth are you protecting that homunculus?”
Vincent raised his voice, tinged with resentment.
“You know, don’t you? A homunculus is just a tool for us. It’s a being created so that it can go out in our stead, as we cannot easily move about in the human world!”
Lucart raised his eyebrow slightly, as if urging him to continue, and Vincent did not stop.
“And so, the time will come when it is no longer useful. When that time comes, we should discard it without hesitation, shouldn’t we? Are you planning to keep protecting it to the end? That would be a disgrace to the demon race!”
Vincent added one final remark with a slight surge of magical energy.
“If that’s the case, we will stop it ourselves.”
A smile curved Lucart’s lips.
With a gaze colder than the blizzard swirling around them and an expression sharper than the fierce wind, he slowly spoke.
“Who do you plan to stop?”
His fingers slowly curled into a fist.
“Are you saying you’ll stop me?”
Boom!
The ceiling trembled, and the floor beneath them shook.
“How dare you?”
Swoosh!
The magi Lucart had summoned began to flow out, carrying the primordial darkness within it. The magic quickly shot toward the elders, grabbing them by their throats.
“Ugh, ugh…!”
“Answer me again, Elder.”
Lucart looked indifferently at the struggling elders and spoke.
“Do you have the right to defy my orders?”
“…….…”
Vincent opened and closed his mouth like a fish.
He wanted to shout that he had the right to defy.
But that was only the voice in his mind.
Reason, the very logic that prioritized the safety of his body, stifled that cry.
He looked at Lucart.
He stared at the young Demon King.
In his pupils, he saw a reflection of his now-faded self.
And then, he realized.
“…No, I don’t.”
He was nothing but a powerless being in front of this man.
He looked at Lucart again.
And revered the ruler of chaos.
“Yes. You shouldn’t have it, after all.”
“Cough! Hah, hah…”
“Ugh…”
As soon as Lucart extended his hand, the magi that had been restraining the elders disappeared.
“The homunculus is under the advisor’s jurisdiction.”
Lucart left with just that short remark.
“I will not permit any further interference.”
Vincent clenched his teeth and balled his fists, but there was nothing he could do now.
***
“Oh, oh…”
The Fifth Elder, Muller, breathed a sigh of relief as he looked at Vincent and Karte, who had collapsed on the ground.
“I almost ended up like them, didn’t I? Whew, good thing I didn’t go.”
Muller was one of those demons with exceptional instincts.
Whenever he thought, “If I do this, I’m going to die,” and chose not to, someone else would indeed die instead. Whenever he thought, “Others wouldn’t do this, but I think I’ll be fine,” he would actually be fine.
His instincts were as sharp as those of a wild animal, and he openly bragged about his ‘sixth sense’ being his second power.
Thus, his choice this time had been the right one as well.
Feeling something was off, he had made up an excuse and left, and if he hadn’t, he would have ended up among those lying on the ground right now.
No matter how great the elders were, in front of the Demon King, they were nothing more than crawling ants.
“Phew, I dodged a bullet.”
Now that the Demon King had left, he was in the clear. He could easily play ignorant about this whole situation. After all, there was no way Vincent, in his current state, could do anything more.
But…
“Ugh, something doesn’t feel right.”
His instincts were telling him.
This wasn’t over.
“Is the Demon King going to summon the elders again?”
No, that couldn’t be it. The Demon King had already issued a warning once, so he wouldn’t summon them again.
“Then what is it? Is there something wrong?”
No matter how much he racked his brain, he couldn’t find any other issue.
But his sharp intuition kept lighting warning signals. Muller, still feeling uneasy, began nervously chewing his thumbnail.
And then it happened.
Crash!
“Argh! What—what is that?!”
Muller suddenly noticed that the floor next to him had collapsed. A chill ran down his spine, and he quickly pressed his back against a pillar, surveying his surroundings.
“What’s going on?! What the hell is this?!”
But there was no one around.
As if everyone had been deliberately cleared out.
And to make matters worse, a strange tingling sensation crawled up his skin. Muller knew very well what this sensation meant.
No way…
Nah, it couldn’t be.
– That homunculus can control monsters.
No way. Even if that were true, she wouldn’t summon a monster inside the Demon King’s castle…
[Screeeeech!]
“Argh! No way!”
There it was.
Muller started running like a foal with its tail on fire, but there was no escaping the gaze of the gigantic monster.
“Hey! Damn it! Let me go! Let me goooo!”
As the creature grabbed him by the ankle, Muller dangled upside down, being dragged away.
“Damn it. In that case, I’ll use my magic—”
“Think you can?”
At that moment, a voice stopped Muller’s struggling.
“You—you…!”
It was Shekina, sitting on the monster’s shoulder.
“Hello?”
Shekina smiled brightly and waved her hand.
“You said you’d kill me later, didn’t you?”
Shekina was a child who took full responsibility for her words.
“Well, now’s your chance.”
Whoosh!
The gigantic hand of the monster swung down.
