Chapter 397: Being a General Sounds Fun
Conference Room
Demon Army Headquarters
Militopolis
November 14th
530th Divine Year
"That concludes the briefing. Any questions?"
All the Demon Generals present shook their heads after Alvey’s words, with the Greater Demon nodding and closing the files he held in his hands.
He then turned his sights to his right, where he came face to face with a projected image of another Demon General.
It was a man with mossy-green eyes and his chestnut-brown hair cascading like tree roots. He wore the same black Army uniform as Alvey did, and on his breast pocket, was a crest encircled with four stars, showing that he held the same rank as Alvey and McEnda III.
This was Sylvan Thorneheart, the third of the ’Four Star Generals’, and someone known on Aramis as THE ’Wood Demon’.
There were other Wood Demons like him on the planet, but when you spoke of Wood Demons, Sylvan was the name that came to mind first.
[Everything sounds alright. I should be expecting you at the Whitboro Wharf within the next two weeks.]
The man spoke with a deep voice that resonated like the timeworn echoes of an ancient forest, before pointing towards McEnda who was opposite him and asking.
[Is he coming along as well?]
"Yea-"
"Apologies, for the Interruption but General McEnda will be returning to Torten within the week, so unfortunately he will not be able to join you."
Once again, the other Demon Generals admired Sigesi’s gall to dare speak up when High Ranked Demons were talking and even interrupt one of them.
Sylvan who was already used to the dynamic between McEnda and Sigesi didn’t seem to be bothered by this, and he just nodded in affirmation.
[If that’s the case, then there’s nothing to discuss again.
Contact me when you’re on your way.]
After leaving those words, Sylvan cut off the connection and the projection disappeared, while McEnda was being drilled on just how many things he left unattended in Torten—the city he ruled in the Southwestern part of the Gledea Continent.
"Ah, I forgot about this."
""Huh?! You forgot something in a meeting?!""
Both McEnda and Sigesi exclaimed with shock when they heard Alvey’s little mutter, but the Greater Demon only nodded casually before pulling out a file from his subspace.
When they felt the energy coming from the seal on the file, the other Demons nearly fell out of their chairs in shock.
"How do you forget something sent by Demon Kings?! Heck, there are like Seven Seals on that thing!
You somehow forgot a message from Seven Demon Kings?!"
"It slipped my mind."
"..."
McEnda was genuinely speechless at Alvey’s nonchalance, with no ideas for a retort even coming to his mind.
Alvey on the other hand, proceeded to unseal the file while speaking about his contents.
"So they apparently had a meeting this morning and decided to grant Arthur a Temporary General Rank."
"Wait...what? For real? Just what did that kid do in Duskhand to get their attention?"
McEnda’s source of surprise switched to the news Alvey had just broken to him, and all the other Demons present were just as surprised as he was.
"He wiped out the inner city and killed 7 lower ranked gods."
"..."
Again, the whole room was rendered speechless.
"Arthur wiped out Duskhand’s Inner City?"
When McEnda questioned this, Sigesi turned to him with narrowed eyes, grabbing onto his arm and asking with a cold voice.
"General. Don’t tell me you weren’t listening when I informed you of this at noon?"
"...I was listening. I may have missed out on some parts of the information."
Though he said that, it was clear as day to anyone that he totally wasn’t listening when Sigesi informed him of Arthur’s actions earlier in the day.
If he was, he would not have been surprised at the fact that Arthur destroyed Duskhand, but the fact that he killed 7 gods—something that wasn’t included in the original report.
While Sigesi was grilling McEnda on one side, Alvey turned towards a Lieutenant General beside him and spoke.
"When he returns from wherever he went to, you would be the one to inform him of his rank placement and walk him through all he needs to know about the Temporary Military ranki-oh."
"?"
The Demon General tilted his head in confusion when Alvey suddenly stopped speaking, but almost immediately, McEnda and Sigesi’s eyes snapped in the direction of the room’s door.
"Never mind, he’s already here."
When Alvey said that, the other Demons looked towards the door, expecting Arthur to come in through it, only for the boy’s figure to suddenly materialize on the chair opposite Alvey’s on the conference table.
"I was sure I hid all my traces, but it seems that’s not enough to fool a Transcendent’s senses."
"?!"
The Silver-haired boy spoke with his hand rubbing his chin and a pensive expression on his face, acting as if the fact that the Sovereigns in the room did not detect his teleportation into the room wasn’t a big deal.
Upon seeing him, Alvey, McEnda and Sigesi all narrowed their eyes silently, as the three of them quickly picked up on the changes in Arthur’s being.
’’’He has another Pseudo-Authority!’’’
That thought echoed through their minds before they finally took notice of other changes like his obviously higher level and the fact that his eyes were now different in colour.
"All right, you can head back now, Invisible Scout."
[Yes, Master.]
When that female voice replied, a translucent figure emerged from Arthur’s shadow, possessing an indistinct form with faint outlines and unclear facial expressions.
A magic circle manifested underneath its feet and the ’Invisible Scout’ slowly sunk into it, returning back to its own plane.
"Summoning laws?"
"Yep. Since the Aramisians were calling me a ’Summoner’, I thought I’d live up to their expectations."
Arthur replied with a light shrug, and the sharp-witted generals quickly figured out how he was able to appear in their midst without them sensing him—he had borrowed the power of the ’Invisible Scout’ through the summoning link.
"Congratulations. Both on your newfound power and your Rank Placement."
"Rank Placement?"
When Arthur echoed Alvey’s words, the Greater Demon first pushed the files with the Demon King’s Seals on them to him before speaking.
"Effective today, you are granted a temporary ’Major General’ rank in our Army.
Do note that as you are not a Gozonian Demon, this rank only holds weight within this Star System alone."
The Demons present were all dumbfounded by Alvey’s words, and they looked towards the files with the Demon Kings’ Seals on them with complicated gazes.
Their reactions were understandable as Arthur had just become higher ranked than most of them present.
From the top, the Demon Army Ranks were as follows:
There was the Five Star General; who was the Supreme Commander of the Demon Army’s forces on Aramis.
Next up were the Four Stars; Alvey, McEnda, Sylvan and one other female demon.
Following behind, were the Lieutenant, Major and Brigadier General Ranks. 3, 2, and 1 Stars respectively.
By the Demon Kings’ orders, Arthur was granted the position of 2 Star General.
"You stopped a High-Rank god’s descent, I hear. How did you do it?"
Alvey casually asked that bombshell of a question while Arthur was reading the files, and the boy only raised a brow before replying.
"Oh, that guy.
Leaving aside how absurd it is for a mere ’Half-Deity’ to call themselves a ’High-Rank god’, the fool chose the wrong body to possess.
I took him out while the body was still adapting to him."
Arthur understood why Alvey had chosen to ask about this at this point in time—to inform the demons who clearly had misgivings about Arthur’s rank on what he had done.
He was basically asking them if they could do the same thing as he did, and certainly, none of them who had issues could.
The ones who could do such a thing were the more powerful Mid Ranked Demons who were about to achieve High Rank Status; each of which was a Superior Sovereign at the Lieutenant General Rank.
But besides that, the fact that a High-Rank god saw the need to descend, showed just how much of a threat the gods view Arthur as.
With that said, they now understood why the Demon Kings’ did what they did.
"How many Demon Kings signed this stuff?"
"Seven."
Alvey held up a hand and created projections of the seals on the Files before pointing at each one and identifying the Demon King it represented.
"McEnda II, Valren, Westley, Sillmothon, Olveth, Xellmonnod, Ger’inol."
"McEnda II?"
Arthur turned towards the other Four-Star General Present and the man only shrugged while speaking.
"I’m sure he heard what you did and thought ’this kid sounds fun’, so he agreed."
"Hmm...I can totally see that happening."
Seeing Alvey concurring with McEnda’s words, Arthur inwardly questioned the personality of this Demon King.
Arthur then proceeded to voice a line that sounded just like the Demon King’s.
"Being a General Sounds fun."
When he said that, Alvey wordlessly pulled out a box from his subspace and slid it over to Arthur, who opened it to see a new uniform set tailored to him, as well as a badge containing the Demon Army crest with Two Stars on either side.
