Frondier was moving with Elodie toward a certain place.
The car was left to Riri and Arald. They each took a car and headed for the capital. Including Selena.
They, too, had things to do.
And Vasileo, still not ready to return to the front, would be at the hospital with Carla where Pielot had been entrusted.
Fweeeeee─!!
Wind whipped at high speed between the two.
With no car, their means of travel was flight.
Only Elodie could keep up with Frondier’s flight speed, and so this pairing seemed natural at a glance.
But Frondier had one more reason for bringing Elodie.
“......Hey.”
After flying for quite a while, Elodie spoke.
“Are you really going to kill all of the 72 Demons?”
Elodie was only following behind Frondier; she didn’t know where they were going.
She could only roughly guess after seeing the message Frondier had Gregory deliver to Bael.
Elodie didn’t question every one of Frondier’s operations—at least not when his emotions and judgment were sound.
“No.”
Frondier answered at once.
While Elodie stared, dumbfounded, Frondier said,
“Judging by the situation, Bael didn’t make a mistake of that scale.”
It was almost certainly Karon who had put Pielot and the others in danger. Of course, the demon at Karon’s side must have interfered considerably. Even a creature of the Abyss had appeared.
It was true that Bael had provided some information on Frondier, but he wouldn’t have given information telling someone to attack Frondier in a scenario where, if things went wrong, he himself would be in danger. He wasn’t that stupid.
'And Karon knew more about me than Bael did.'
Even if one could pick up information here and there, Karon knew things that couldn’t be learned that way.
Menosorpo’s maximum range. The monsters surrounding Frondier’s party had been waiting precisely outside that range.
Menosorpo was, of course, a means for weaving in midair, but as a magic circle it also possessed the ability to sense enemies that entered it.
Frondier had almost never shown its maximum range.
More than that, even if he had shown it, the enemy wouldn’t know whether that was truly the maximum.
'Someone who already knew what Menosorpo is from the start fed Karon the information.'
Therefore, when this incident broke out, Bael’s guilt wasn’t that heavy.
If anything, he’d be guilty of revealing Frondier’s information to tell them to avoid him. Add to that another count for trying to pull out as soon as he realized the situation.
“Then why say that to Bael?”
“I wanted to confirm a few things.”
“Confirm?”
“Yeah.”
Frondier raised one finger.
“First, do the 72 Demons have a sense of belonging of their own.”
“A sense of belonging?”
“The 72 Demons are demons designated by humans. Among themselves, they should have nothing to do with one another. But once time passes after they’re designated, that stops being the case.”
Even if they had nothing to do with each other before being called the 72 Demons—
Once designated, they would naturally learn of each other’s existence. At the very least, they could infer that the others were demons comparable to their own power. Of course, they might have known to some extent beforehand by each one’s notoriety.
“If that happens, the 72 Demons can become a single power bloc. In fact, we already perceive them that way to some degree.”
“Well, yeah. We’re already assuming the 72 Demons are involved in Bael’s operation.”
Bael’s plan to prod Satan into action by using the threat of war with the gods.
He obviously wouldn’t do it alone, and his collaborators would be the 72 Demons.
“And if they do have a sense of belonging—”
Frondier raised another finger.
“Isn’t seventy-two too many?”
“......Huh?”
“I’ve never seen seventy-two people of similar might move with one heart and mind. Like the Zodiac or the Paladins—twelve is about the limit.”
Frankly, even twelve is too many.
Given how those twelve clash among themselves, it’s only natural.
“......So the 72 Demons might not agree with each other?”
“If they’re similar to humans in that way. That’s what I want to check.”
So Frondier said it:
He would climb the list in reverse and kill all of the 72 Demons.
Would Frondier really act that way?
From Bael’s standpoint, the answer was “unknown.”
No matter how much Bael had grasped, it was an undeniable fact that Pielot had been hurt.
“If that reaches Bael’s ears, then my ‘wrath’ will seem ★ 𝐍𝐨𝐯𝐞𝐥𝐢𝐠𝐡𝐭 ★ quite plausible to him.”
“Even your wrath is fake?”
“Hardly.”
Frondier’s eyes were clear as he answered.
“It’s just that the target of this wrath isn’t Bael. Bael won’t know that.”
If Bael had a sense of belonging to the 72 Demons, and someone among them was particularly close to him, Bael would have no choice but to respond to Frondier’s threat.
“The important thing is when Bael arrives. If he comes before I even do anything—if, for example, Bael shows up in front of me right this moment—then we can infer that ‘No. 72’ is quite important to Bael.”
“......And if he doesn’t come?”
“Then it’s unfortunate. For No. 72.”
Frondier’s dry voice. Elodie looked at Frondier’s profile.
“Then we’re headed to that No. 72 right now?”
“Yeah. Gregory gave me the location.”
Now that Gregory had returned to Frondier—
The level and breadth of information Frondier could obtain were different from before.
And for someone as famous as a member of the 72 Demons—whose appearance and traits were all known—finding them was far too easy for Gregory.
“......To kill?”
“It depends on the situation.”
At Frondier’s answer, Elodie’s face clouded with worry. Frondier asked her,
“What’s wrong? The two of us can take it down.”
“That’s not what I’m worried about.”
Elodie didn’t think Frondier would lose to a member of the 72 Demons. It wasn’t even a consideration.
“It’s just... we’ve been spending time with Ms. Riri and Mr. Arald.”
Elodie’s words came out with difficulty.
Riri and Arald were demons, same as the 72 Demons.
To Elodie, those two were no different from humans, and she had grown close to them.
On the Falind continent, demons could never coexist with humans and were enemies that had to be condemned—but for Elodie, that was no longer the case.
Killing a demon simply for being a demon gave her pause.
“Frondier, you’re the one who told me. That demons and humans are no different. Even if they’re among the 72 Demons.”
“Elodie.”
Frondier spoke then.
His face was calm.
“I told you. It depends on the situation.”
“......Frondier.”
“And among all possible situations, the option of killing a member of the 72 Demons is a very low probability.”
Frondier understood Elodie’s heart.
He, too, had no desire to commit pointless killing. He only did so when he had no choice.
'......But. The opponent is one of the 72 Demons.'
Even if they weren’t committing evil this very moment—
No one knew how many humans they had driven to misery in the past, or whether they hadn’t at all.
Of course, to Frondier, that hardly mattered. Demons aren’t the only ones who make humans unhappy. Humans also make humans unhappy.
Do we condemn all such humans? As long as the answer to that question is no, the same measure applies to demons.
Only—he didn’t know whether Elodie would accept that.
“......Elodie. I want to ask you just one thing.”
Frondier shifted the topic.
“Huh? What is it?”
“You can talk to the gods who grant you divine power, right?”
“......Not all of them, but yes.”
Especially with Rudra, she spoke quite a bit.
As if reading that very thought,
“My weaving.”
“......!”
Elodie caught her breath.
Whether he heard it or not, Frondier asked,
“How does it look to the gods?”
Elodie hesitated for a moment, unsure how to answer.
But what came out was honesty.
“......They said it’s ‘blasphemy.’ That there isn’t a single god who could forgive it.”
Elodie conveyed exactly what she’d heard from Rudra.
More than anything else, Frondier’s weaving was obvious blasphemy from the gods’ standpoint—an unmistakable target of divine punishment, with no difference of position or viewpoint.
“There isn’t a god who would forgive it. That’s definite?”
“......Yeah.”
Elodie nodded, feeling a weight on her heart.
“As I thought.”
Frondier, on the other hand, nodded with a refreshingly clear face.
***
The place they arrived at was a certain village.
It lay quite far from the capital, with no other city nearby—a village standing alone.
Peddlers came by now and then, but it took a difficult journey to get there.
Inevitably, public order suffered, and most problems had to be solved within the village itself.
“Hello.”
Frondier entered a pawnshop in the village and greeted the owner.
Like he’d expected Frondier to come, the owner set down the items and tools he’d been examining and looked at him.
“......So you really came.”
His tone was a bit light and familiar—like he was an acquaintance of Frondier’s.
“Have you met him before?”
When Elodie asked that, Frondier answered,
“No. It’s a trick many demons use. If they speak gently, humans hear it like they’re saying something helpful to them.”
“......And how do you even know that.”
While the two were talking, the pawnbroker threw a glance over his shoulder.
“Hey, he’s here. What are you going to do?”
Following that, a door at the back of the pawnshop—presumably to a storage room—opened.
The one who appeared was Bael.
At that, the corner of Frondier’s mouth lifted.
“You’re quick to act. Good, Bael.”
“......If your words are true, then waiting here is only proper.”
“That’s right.”
Elodie listened to the exchange and looked upon Bael.
'......So that’s Bael.'
A dangerous being that made her mana-sense react strongly.
Bael, a king of hell.
'......Huh, that’s odd.'
Elodie’s mana-sense was different from Frondier’s intuition. Frondier’s intuition focused on “observation.” It reacted more keenly, accurately, and quickly.
But Elodie’s mana-sense was closer to “scrutiny.” It was a bit slower than intuition, but the more she observed, the more she could learn.
'This man has less power than his rank.'
Elodie saw what Frondier could not. Frondier couldn’t “see” rank. And this “rank” was Elodie’s own interpretation—an inference drawn by synthesizing many things learned through mana-sense.
'Come to think of it, Frondier said it—Bael and Beelzebub are the same kind of being, and it’s strange for the two to coexist.'
Would the dissonance she felt help her interpret that?
Meanwhile, Bael asked Frondier,
“Frondier, are you going to kill Andro?”
Andro. Frondier knew who it was the instant he heard it.
No. 72 demon, Andromalius. To shorten it like that.
“It depends on the situation.”
Frondier answered exactly as he had to Elodie.
He flicked a glance at Andro.
'......I don’t feel threatening mana right now, but mana isn’t everything with demons.'
Frondier looked back to Bael and spoke.
“Bael, I have a pretty good idea what you’re thinking. I understand your desire to return to the Demon Realm. So why don’t we talk.”
“......If it’s about Karon, I know nothing—”
Bael got that far when—
Frondier formed a gun with his fingers and pointed at Andro.
Pik─
Andro collapsed.
“......!”
“Ah......!”
Bael and Elodie froze in shock.
Frondier said,
“Now, shall we try that again?”
“.......”
As if there had never been that moment just now, Frondier spoke to Bael, perfectly calm about what he’d just done.
“Let’s have a talk, Bael.”
