Chapter 180

“What! Wh-What!?”

“What is the meaning of this!?”

“Unhand me!! You insolent fools!!”

Emperor Cassias burst into a hollow laugh.

“Hoh… Emperor Dracos. Did you have a thing like this prepared beforehand?”

At that, Emperor Dracos shook his head with a bewildered expression.

“N-No… I am completely unaware of this matter as well… Sir Quassus. Since when can the Royal Guard move without the Emperor’s permission?”

At his remark, the Captain of the Royal Guard also widened his eyes.

“…Pardon? Was this not Your Imperial Majesty’s command?”

As both of their eyes simultaneously turned toward Octavian, Octavian answered calmly.

“Anticipating that matters would roughly turn out like this, I overstepped my authority a bit. I felt that if they were to leave this spot, things would become multiple times more complicated, you see. …Please grant me forgiveness.”

At that sight, ultimately, Emperor Dracos burst into a hollow laugh.

“Good grief… You know, right? I cannot simply overlook this.”

“Yes, Your Imperial Majesty. I shall follow whatever disposition you hand down.”

“…How tedious. It is a one-month salary deduction.”

“Thank you for your leniency.”

“And entirely apart from that… well done. Come to think of it, there is no better method than this.”

Understanding the situation, Emperor Cassias also burst out laughing.

“Huh… things run rather entertainingly in the Empire, don’t they?”

“The very first will and testament left behind by my royal father was, ‘Shut up and listen to whatever the Prime Minister says.’ And that happens to be the exact testament this sovereign will leave to the Crown Prince as well.”

“Hehehe…”

Shortly after, stopping his laughter, Emperor Dracos gave a firm command to the Royal Guard.

“I command once more in the name of Dracos Idsil Olfen. Arrest and lock them all up. Concurrently, subdue every single troop they brought along as well. Sir Quassus. It should be possible, correct?”

“Of course, Your Imperial Majesty.”

“Furthermore, from this hour onward, if these individuals make contact with a third party other than the Royal Guard, I shall hold the entire Royal Guard accountable for that crime.”

“Understood!!!”

With that, screams and shouts erupted once more.

“Th-This kind of tyranny!”

“Emperor Cassias! Please save us!”

“Your Imperial Majesty! Emperor Dracos! You cannot do this! Your Imperial Majesty!!”

Toward them, Emperor Dracos spoke in a languid tone.

“Embarrassingly enough, I have absolutely no desire to encounter that Demon King ever again, nor do I wish to die. I hold an even greater hatred for the thought of dying because of you all, you see.”

Realizing that there would be no turning back if they were dragged away like this, the monarchs of the Alliance clamored frantically.

“W-Wait a moment! I shall commit apostasy! I shall abandon God Morta!!”

“I-I as well! I as well!! Please grant me leniency!!”

“Curse! Be cursed, Equos! …Look! I have already committed apostasy! So please…!!”

“It is already too late. You should have done well when you were granted an opportunity. Tsk, tsk… Sir Quassus. Drag them away.”

“Yes, sir!!”

Watching the ten-odd kings of the Alliance being dragged out, the remaining monarchs hardened their expressions into stiff blocks.

Just as they thought, even if the two empires were the sole conquerors of the Western Continent, this was a horrific tyranny that could absolutely never be overlooked.

However, strictly for this occasion, they turned a blind eye and ignored them.

Because just as Emperor Dracos said, if those guys held out until the end… that would truly be the split second doom found its way to the Western Continent, after all.

‘Damn it… arguing with that monster again is something I’ll refuse even if I die.’

‘We might truly get massacred.’

‘There’s no need to participate in a suicide pact.’

‘For this occasion, we have no choice but to pretend we didn’t see anything.’

‘Establishing this kind of precedent isn’t good… but if we keep our mouths shut and pretend not to notice, they’ll surely drop some crumbs for us.’

Looking at them with a meaningful smile, Emperor Cassias asked Emperor Dracos.

“Emperor Dracos. What do you intend to do now?”

“Well, as long as the treaty exists, annexing them is impossible… so we have no choice but to replace them with obedient puppets, do we not?”

“True. There really is no other way. Since the direct line might harbor a grudge… we should look among the collateral branches.”

“The Union of the Scales and Scythe consists mostly of nations bordering the Tubilan Empire… so Your Imperial Majesty Cassias will likely need to pay a bit more attention.”

“Very well. Instead, please assist us actively from the Empire as well. Emperor Dracos knows very well how difficult it is to make people abandon the god they believe in, do you not?”

“Of course, we shall assist you actively. I will send plenty of heralds as well. Well, frankly speaking, wouldn’t it be much better for them to serve goddesses like the Earth Mother Kanan or Lumina rather than those gloomy male gods like Equos or Morta? The divine statues are beautiful too, you see. There’s a reason why the sales volume of divine statues differs by five times, after all.”

“Aha… Emperor Dracos. That happens to be blasphemy.”

“Hehehe, is that so.”

After concluding the conversation with a few jokes like that… lastly, they requested that the people inside the hall, including the monarchs, keep their lips sealed, and dismissed the council.

“Leave first. We shall converse a few more words before heading out.”

“Yes, Your Imperial Majesty.”

And inside the completely empty council chamber where everyone had vanished… the two brought up the thoughts inside their hearts that they hadn’t mouthed until the final moment.

“…We are enduring right now because we lack the power, but eventually, we must deal with him.”

“We must. Because we cannot simply leave our lives and the rise and fall of our empire to someone else’s mercy.”

“Do you have… confidence?”

“…….”

“That was a poor question. Will it be possible?”

“…It will be difficult. However, did he not say it himself? To come at him whenever we gain the confidence. At the very least, he doesn’t seem intent on obstructing us, so we have no choice but to exert our best efforts.”

The gazes of the two turned toward the massive crater visible outside the council chamber window.

It was the trace of overwhelming violence that the Demon King had created with a single casual wave of his hand.

A faint doubt cast its shadow over the eyes of the two.

‘Will it work…?’

‘No matter how much I think about it, it feels like it won’t…’

Silencing themselves for a short moment, the two eventually faced each other and let out a bitter smile.

“Probably, it won’t happen during our generation.”

“Even so, must we not do it anyway? Even if it’s the next generation, or if not the next, then the generation after that. If you and this sovereign combine our strength, can we not somehow manage to produce one or two transcendents?”

“Sigh… let us give it a try then.”

Receiving attendance from the maids in a section of the Demon King’s Castle, I laughed awkwardly as I watched the inside of the council chamber through Black’s familiar.

“Uh… I just threw that out casually to feed Equos and Morta some crap, and it turned out like this again.”

“…….”

“Well, through this and that, it looks like it concluded well, right?”

“…….”

“Since we can take our minds off the Western Continent’s issues now, should I build a few decent villas around here? No. Since we have plenty of money, maybe raising a grand castle entirely from scratch would be decent too.”

“…….”

I carefully asked Shia, who was consistently responding with absolute silence no matter what words I uttered.

“Are you still angry? It’s already been two days… shouldn’t it be about time to slowly let your anger melt away?”

At that, Shia, who had been cradled in my arms with a sullen face, suddenly exploded in pure fury.

“Do you truly think that would melt away so easily! Inside a dark vacuum where absolutely nothing exists! And inside a freezing chill that verges on absolute zero! Do you even grasp the feelings of this body, having to float around curled up into a ball for a full hour!?”

“That’s why I’ve been apologizing for two whole days. I really didn’t know you would drop into a place like that, you know?”

As I mentioned before, while I partially released the seal by about 30% and became an Archangel grade practitioner to fight the angels, Shia had evacuated to the Celestial Realm following Lumina’s suggestion.

Thanks to that, it was a good thing we could avoid the chains of Providence for nearly an hour, but…

The problem was… the place where Shia was thrown into happened to be the middle of a pitch-black universe where absolutely nothing existed.

For reference, if we assume our three-dimensional world is page 1 of a book, the Celestial Realm is a world remarkably similar to this side, located somewhere around pages 3 to 10.

Meaning, it was a world that possessed a similar star, planets, and an asteroid belt to this world—more precisely, this planetary system—except it was completely uninhabited by humans.

And the scale of the Celestial Realm in this world of Kion was easily a massive 10,000 AU in diameter.

By Earth’s standards, it was a scale where one had to look past the Kuiper belt and even take the Oort cloud into consideration.

In short, Shia had been cast stark naked into the empty space somewhere within that vast territory.

Of course, there was no way an Archangel grade transcendent operator would die or get injured by a vacuum or the freezing chill of minus 200 degrees. There wasn’t, but…

“Just because it doesn’t kill me doesn’t mean it isn’t cold! Once it hits minus 200 degrees, even I feel a decent amount of chill, you know!!”

“I had to float around endlessly inside such a cold, dark, and empty space for a full hour! There was no mention that it would turn out like this!!”

“That’s why I said I didn’t know either. For me, when Lumina said she would ‘take you’ to the Celestial Realm, I thought you’d be warming your back on a cozy underfloor heating system, picking at snacks before coming back.”

“That bitch Lumina, does she perhaps harbor some sort of deep-seated grudge against me? Seriously, I felt a dense malice radiating from the choice of location. Even if I am a former Demon King, I am currently in a cooperative position, so to treat a person so roughly…!”

“Malice, my foot. Why would there be such a thing? Why on earth would Lumina have anything against… you…”

“…….”

“…….”

“Why did you stop mid-sentence?”

Malice, huh.

Come to think of it, even if Lumina didn’t, Yuribel certainly did, right?

Since Lumina is essentially Yuribel…

‘…Maybe she really cast her into a place like that just to feed her some crap.’

“My dear?”

“Ah, no. It’s nothing. Ah, right. I’ll give you a present to help melt your anger away. Take this and stop being mad.”

At my words, despite still being sullen, Shia displayed a spark of curiosity.

“Hmm? A present?”

“Yeah. A present. I’m sure you’ll be satisfied with it too.”

Although I lost most of my enlightenment upon reverting from an Archangel back to a mortal… even so, it wasn’t as if I gained absolutely nothing.

Particularly when it came to the operation of an avatar, I had maintained a grasp on it, albeit a faint one.

‘Sigh… shall we begin?’

First, I pull out pure spiritual power to create a clone body.

Since it would be boring if it looked exactly like me… I fashioned it into the appearance of a fresh young boy around his early tens.

Since creating a physical form for Disis was something already within my capabilities even before this incident, this task isn’t all that difficult.

‘In fact, I’ve become capable of drawing out a higher level of completion than before while using even less pure spiritual power. You could say an optimization has taken place.’

The problem comes after that.

Separating a residual will from myself and settling it into the clone body.

‘This was ambiguously difficult before… but now I have the exact knack for it.’

I close my eyes.

Next, I place two core keywords that symbolize me—forming the ‘center’—right into the middle of my consciousness.

-Arrogance. And genius.

Centering around these two keywords, like drawing a mind map, I add supplementary keywords, experiences, memories, and emotions that define my existence. In the maximum detail possible.

Ah, since it’s a preteen version, I have to take that into account as well.

When doing so, at a certain split second, that mind map begins to move on its own without me even having to do anything, absorbing various elements from my inner self to fill itself up.

And once even that process concludes… the mind map transforms into a brilliantly twinkling light, proudly boasting its own existence to me.

That is precisely my thought-form.

A pseudo-soul that is a precise copy of me.

‘Lastly, if I connect this with the clone body… done.’

Before long, the clone body gains a sense of self and opens its eyes.

Of course, neither the physical form nor the thoughts are as perfect as they were during the Archangel grade… but this alone is more than enough to be called an avatar.

“Here. This is your present. My elementary school version avatar. Take him and play.”

Responding to my will, the boy avatar intentionally tilted his body slightly to the side and looked up at Shia.

“Shia noona, hello~.”

“……!!!”

Heh. An excellent response.

What was the exact reason why Shia would instantly forgive whatever foolish thing I did? Wasn’t it precisely because she would tightly grip my heart and play with it in that exact manner?

Therefore, if I return the exact same thing to her…!

Take that! A role-reversal attack!

“Hehehe. Noona, play with me.”

The moment the boy smiled brightly and clung flush against Shia’s chest, Shia tightly clutched her heart and dropped straight to her knees.

“Gasp! S-So cute!!!!!!”

Fufu. A total success. I knew it would work.

However, it was at that exact split second.

“Kyol sha!!!”

Hest, who had been standing by blankly watching the spectacle, suddenly let out a bizarre shout, snatched the boy away from Shia with a swift motion, and—

Crash!

—Suddenly holding him tightly in his arms, he shattered the window and fled outside.

“…Huh?”

To make matters worse, even Chel, Kelly, and Elizabeth chased after Hest as if they were completely possessed, sprinting outside.

“Catch him!”

“Snatch him!”

“Leo! Kill… no, extort him back!”

“Roaaaaar?”

While Shia, who had her boy version of me snatched away in the blink of an eye, was shedding a continuous stream of tears for some reason… I scratched my head at the absurd farce.

“…I mean, what? Did everyone eat something wrong?”