The next day, Shekina was summoned to Lucart’s office.
No matter how many times she visited, she never got used to this place. The memory of being terrified the first time she met Lucart was still vivid.
‘It’s not as scary now as it was then.’
But still, a demon king is still a demon king.
He was entirely different from Arthur, Lyat, and Martin, who treated her relatively well.
She never knew when things might go wrong, or when she might get killed for displeasing him.
‘Don’t let my guard down.’
Shekina thought as she clenched her hands on her thighs.
‘He probably called me because I discovered Lucifer scheme, right?’
Lucifer Agato had called the system attached to Shekina as ‘another system.’ That guy had resurrected using dark magic and was using Dehan as his toys.
Looking at it this way, it seemed like he wanted to use Dehan to annihilate the demons, just like in the game <Raising a Warrior>. No, that’s not just an assumption, she was certain of it.
But there was one reason he couldn’t do that.
‘It’s because of me.’
Every time Shekina died, the world collapsed.
This was probably because of the system attached to her.
‘Then the system I have is…’
Shekina’s eyes sparkled.
‘The god who originally ruled this world.’
Ring!
[SYSTEM]
I did say I would tell you next time, but why are you so impatient? Do you feel better now?
Yes. I feel incredibly relieved.
[SYSTEM]
I wonder how I ended up choosing someone like you… Let’s just proceed with the next quest.
Shekina rolled her eyes.
The system was referring to the next quest, <Find the Secret of the Imperial Family.> It was a quest to uncover the truth about the crown prince’s death, which aligned with the direction Shekina was planning to move.
Shekina grinned.
Now she roughly understood the secret surrounding the world and had a sense of what to do to break it.
‘You’re all going to die, seriously’
Shekina muttered, trembling with her clenched fists.
At that moment.
“Lady Shekina! You arrived first!”
The door burst open, and Arthur came running in. Behind him were Lyat, Martin, and Demon King Lucart.
Shekina spoke to them.
“Yeah. I’ve been waiting for a long time. What kind of manners is it to call someone and then leave them like this?”
“Haha, it took longer than expected to sort things out.”
Arthur scratched the back of his head and sat to Shekina’s left. Martin followed with heavy steps, but quick Lyat sat on Shekina’s right first. He smiled down at her.
“Long time no see.”
“Yeah. How have you been, uncle?”
“Ahem! I’ve been well.”
Lyat looked proud for some reason as he glanced at Martin. Martin’s grim face remained unchanged, but he somehow seemed to be in a bad mood. Shekina rolled her eyes, trying to gauge the atmosphere.
“…Everyone’s out of their mind.”
Lucart shook his head and sat across from Shekina. There was enough space beside him to sit, but Martin gave up sitting and stood behind Shekina.
It looked like three people were protecting one child.
Seeing them, Lucart seriously considered.
Should I chased them all out…
But that wasn’t possible, so he had to deal with the matter at hand.
Lucart clasped his hands over his knees and leaned forward slightly.
“The interrogation of Lucifer is over.”
Shekina’s eyes widened.
“Wasn’t it torture, not interrogation?”
“We usually consider that the same thing.”
“Oh…”
Where was their conscience going?
Shekina swallowed the words that almost escaped and waited for Lucart’s next words.
“His goal is simple.”
Lucart spoke in a slightly heavier tone.
“To wipe out this world.”
As soon as he finished speaking, the other demons added.
“It seems he thinks losing the Heavenly-Demon War was because of the gods. He can’t accept that he was weak.”
“What a fool.”
“We need to kill him again. I can do it.”
Arthur, Lyat, and Martin were grinding their teeth.
Before, they couldn’t figure out why they were in such a situation. So they were busy dealing with the immediate reality.
But now it was different.
Since they learned that Lucifer was the cause of their suffering, and knew who was to blame, they were able to direct their anger appropriately.
Lucart stared at the demons for a moment before turning back to Shekina and speaking.
“They harbor a strong hatred for humans who didn’t lend their strength while serving as agents of the gods. So, they want to bring about total destruction and rebuild the world anew.”
“…Destruction?”
“Yes. And that destruction includes us.”
Shekina lowered her gaze.
In the game <Raising a Warrior> the ending was the warrior defeating the demon king and restoring peace. It never showed how the warrior lived afterward.
But what if that ending, the one after defeating the demon king, was truly ‘destruction’?
A chill ran down her spine.
At this moment, Arthur added.
“However, for some reason, Lucifer seems unable to act directly. It looks like he’s granting power to some human, but we haven’t found out who that human is yet.”
She knew who it was.
Dehan.
Should she say it here?
Should she reveal that Lucifer was trying to empower Dehan Agato and use him to kill the demons?
‘If I do that…’
Dehan would likely die.
Shekina hated Dehan.
She believed she had died because of him.
If it weren’t for Dehan, if she wasn’t the ‘Warrior’s Lover,’ she might not have had to endure the tiresome cycle of reincarnation.
But…
‘Is it really because of Dehan?’
That’s not.
She didn’t die because of Dehan.
It was all because of Lucifer. He used Dehan, and in the process, used her. Her anger should be directed at him, not Dehan.
Dehan was also a victim of manipulation.
‘But he’s still annoying.’
Shekina clicked her tongue and decided that if she ever met Dehan again, she would punch him. And she resolved not to tell anyone that the ‘certain human’ Arthur mentioned was Dehan.
“Finding the human isn’t that important. If Lucifer can’t act directly, we can use that against him.”
Shekina spoke up again before anyone else could.
“I need to go to the capital anyway. The imperial family and the central temple are both there.”
She had to investigate the crown prince’s death.
And she also needed to uncover Lucifer’s plans.
There was a way to do both simultaneously.
“I think I can handle it.”
Shekina grinned, her eyes sparkling.
***
Yurian paced the hallway, nervously biting his nails.
He worried about Shekina, who had been summoned to the Demon King’s office.
He could barely breathe or stop trembling just from seeing the Demon King from a distance. How could Shekina face him? Yurian thought she was incredibly brave.
He recalled the events from a few days ago at the ice wall.
Shekina had appeared suddenly, leading monsters. She had commanded them to dig into the ground and pull out a corpse trapped in the ice.
– Could you move this to the castle?
He remembered being horrified and asking, What is this? Who is it? Isn’t it a corpse?
– It’s a body used in black magic.
– Do you want to join in the torture?
Yurian reassessed Shekina’s age, realizing that a mere three-year-old child spoke so casually about such gruesome things. He cursed the horrible education in the Demon King’s castle.
‘I need to have a word with her.’
Yurian, the eldest of the homunculus and raised by humans to believe that ‘the eldest should take care of their siblings,’ decided to teach Shekina the proper way of thinking.
‘I can do it!’
He clenched his fists, resolved. Just then, the door to the office opened, and he started to rush forward.
But he couldn’t move.
“Mmph!”
Someone had covered his mouth and wrapped an arm around his waist.
“Shh, be quiet.”
“Mmph!”
“Big brother. Shut up.”
It was the twins, Pardes and Merdes. Yurian’s eyes widened.
“Big brother. Were you about to go to Shekina?”
Yurian, still with Pardes’ hand over his mouth, nodded. The twins’ eyes narrowed.
“Why?”
“Why Shekina?”
“For what reason?”
How could he answer with his mouth covered? Yurian struggled, but it was hard to break free from the two homunculus.
“Could it be…”
Pardes’ eyes gleamed behind his glasses.
“Are you planning to go to the capital with Shekina instead of us?”
“Planning to follow her secretly?”
Merdes also clenched his fists and glared at Yurian.
“Big brother. It’s been a while since we fought, hasn’t it?”
“……….”
This isn’t just about Shekina.
They’re all problematic.
But…
“Do you know how much I’ve been looking forward to going to the capital? Do you know how many books there are?”
“I want to see humans! I’m curious! About what they eat! How they sleep! Everything! And I want to fight! I want to try fighting them!”
Can I really take care of these guys?
Yurian seriously considered whether he should give up the responsibility of being the eldest.
