In the Demon Realm’s citadel, the Seven Deadly Sins with Satan.
After watching the whole situation, Satan spoke.
“Turn off the screen.”
At that, Astaroth moved again. When the screen went dark, all eyes turned to Satan.
“......Satan.”
“My, my.”
At Mammon’s cautious voice, Satan murmured quietly. He lifted his head and set his hand over his face.
Between those fingers, between his lips, his breath flowed.
“Frondier, do you know what you’ve just done.”
Frondier had declared himself the King of Demons. Right after Satan had made that declaration.
How would this look in Zeus’s eyes now.
'Whether Frondier was originally human or demon won’t matter to Zeus. What matters is that he saved the 72 Demons. Even while attacking Zeus himself.'
Frondier, who called himself King of Demons, and showed power to match.
On top of that, he hurled that unidentified black spear at Zeus, and even looked as if he sacrificed himself to save the demons.
From Zeus’s point of view, Frondier was already the King of Demons.
'The problem is that the one who beheaded him was Aster.'
Since Zeus was possessing, cutting the neck would not harm his true self.
What mattered was that the Hope of Humanity opposed Olympus’s chief god.
For Aster, it was the obvious choice. Frondier was his companion, and the vast majority there were humans. Zeus had tried to kill everyone present.
Zeus had attempted to show his authority, but ended up being taken by Aster instead.
That said, a god could not descend just to kill a single human, and with mere possession he could not easily kill Aster; he would only go on shaving down his own faith.
Where would that anger go? Obvious.
“Zeus will come here. He’ll come to question why there are two Kings of Demons.”
Lucifer spoke.
With his hand still on his face, Satan replied,
“And if I say, ‘I know nothing of it’?”
“Try it. I’m curious how that turns out.”
“Damn it.”
If Satan mishandled matters here, Satan himself could be branded as in league with Frondier. From the start, each declaring himself King of Demons to delay Zeus’s arrival at the capital Palma—he might be suspected that had been the scenario all along.
'Frondier’s plan has too many risk factors. Especially in how he swallows the enemy’s plan whole.'
Frondier folds the opponent’s scheme into his own. To a third party, it can look like the two are on one team. Satan, Aphrodite, Atena, Bael, and so on all look as if they had been on Frondier’s side from the beginning.
But this method is not normal. It’s one thing to succeed once or twice as a stratagem; it’s not a way that can continue.
“Drawing a big picture” sounds good, but most of them tear before they’re finished.
However, Frondier succeeded, and since he succeeded, every effect he aimed for with it will be brought to bear.
“Prove you’re unrelated to Frondier...... Not easy. Because in truth, we are unrelated. If anything, had there been a relation, we could have prepared proof of nonrelation.”
“Right. It’s telling us to presume guilt first and then produce proof of innocence.”
Satan lifted his head and slowly closed his eyes.
The eyes that opened again were the same as before he’d closed them.
In other words, that act did not help much in changing his decision.
What he would do was already set.
“It can’t be helped.”
“You’re really going to do it?”
When Mammon asked, Satan shrugged.
“No matter what, I can’t become an enemy of the chief god.”
Satan looked around at all of the Seven Deadly Sins.
He spoke in an ordinary tone, but it was a declaration.
“If I show that I am Frondier’s enemy, there’s no need to prove we’re unrelated.”
***
Purpur stared blankly at me, not understanding.
No—that wasn’t it; he did understand. He just didn’t think I could really know.
I mulled over how to explain to Purpur, then said,
“You’re the traitor.”
“T-t-that can’t be! I am not a traitor!”
Purpur bowed his head even lower.
Seeing that, I scratched my cheek.
What to do. I didn’t want this to get any more tiresome.
“Purpur, sorry, but I have no intention of debating whether you are or aren’t a traitor. I also have no reason to listen to you. Why would I listen to the words of someone who, of course, will insist he isn’t a traitor.”
“B-but......!”
“Then let’s do this instead.”
I raised my index finger.
“You make a contract with me.”
“A c-contract, sir?”
“You’ll tell me the Gate’s location. And I won’t hold you accountable for the betrayal. How about it?”
At my words, Purpur closed his mouth. I could hear the gears turning from here.
The trap in the contract I just stated—too easy to see; that must be the trouble.
“......That contract is too...... for me......”
“Want to change it?”
“......”
Of course he /N_o_v_e_l_i_g_h_t/ would. As for “accountability for betrayal” or whatever, I could kill Purpur whenever I wanted if I felt like it. Half of Bael and the 72 Demons had come under me.
But if he changed the contract, that would amount to admitting he had betrayed. And that was precisely my intent.
'I’m not particularly interested in Purpur’s life.'
I just wanted to get the information quickly. If Purpur admitted the betrayal, then we could have a proper conversation.
With no help for it, I imbued my words with mana and spoke.
“I declare.”
My voice, filled with mana, sounded very awkward to my own ears.
“I will make a contract with Purpur, and until we make it, I will not do harm to Purpur.”
It was something I’d heard from Elodie: if you speak while filling your words with mana, those words cannot be taken back.
Words are like that to begin with, but imbuing mana is the act of placing a light binding and constraint on oneself. They cannot become lies or jokes.
“Now we’re good, right? You’d better not miss the chance.”
“......Understood.”
Purpur nodded.
He too spoke with mana.
“I will tell you the Gate’s location. In return, until I cross over to the Demon Realm, you and all your companions will not attack me. Of course that includes the 72 Demons.”
“Good.”
I smiled faintly.
Bael, who had been listening, shouted then.
“Purpur, so it was truly you!!”
A face of fury. Purpur had just admitted he was a traitor.
Purpur glanced at Bael and said,
“Don’t run so hot, Bael. I’m not the only one.”
“W-what did you say!”
“We can’t afford to wait for you any longer.”
At Purpur’s words, Bael froze as he was. He looked shocked, but in some way as if he had been expecting this to come.
“Bael, you’re losing power. And you know you won’t regain it.”
“No, I......!”
“Don’t try to deceive the other demons any further.”
Purpur flicked his gaze around.
“Do you want to lose any more?”
“Y-you cur......!”
Bael’s fist trembled.
He had held his tongue and listened, but this seemed enough.
“Now, where is it? The Gate’s location?”
“......Lord Frondier, what do you intend to do when we arrive at the Gate?”
“What else? I’d like to say, send all of you to the Demon Realm.”
Originally the 72 Demons should be in the Demon Realm.
And if we found the Gate’s location, whether they had sworn to me or not, they would cross to the Demon Realm. In any case, the 72 Demons had all been yearning to return.
But at that, Purpur’s face sank into deep trouble. No—Bael’s and the other 72 Demons’ faces looked much the same.
Seeing that, I gave a wry smile.
“So it won’t go that way.”
“......Frondier, you know the situation. That it has changed.”
“That’s right.”
Elodie asked there,
“What do you mean? You’re not going to send them to the Demon Realm?”
“I’d love to, but Satan discarded the 72 Demons.”
“......? What does that have to do with anything? Can’t they just go mind their own business and live well?”
The Demon Realm is a world. Whether Satan discarded them or not, they could just stay somewhere unrelated to Satan.
To begin with, the 72 Demons and the Seven Deadly Sins are unrelated. There’s nothing to discard or not.
Ordinarily that would be true, but this time it was different.
Arald came over and explained to Elodie.
“The problem is that Satan declared himself King of Demons. In front of Zeus.”
“So what?”
“And Lord Frondier also made the declaration. King of Demons.”
“Well, he did say that.”
We’d needed to stop the war.
“Satan’s calling himself King of Demons was to cast off the 72 Demons. He wouldn’t have wanted to oppose the gods. He probably thought he’d slipped out neatly, but from Zeus’s position there was also a King of Demons in Palma.”
“Zeus would at least know Frondier isn’t a demon, wouldn’t he?”
“There was a time I asked Lord Frondier to become King of Demons. I said the same thing then, but Lord Frondier doesn’t have to become a demon.”
A demon with wings folded cannot be distinguished from a human.
All the more from the chief god’s position, who knows that “the power of demons” is Ecleksis.
What matters is not whether the identity is human or demon.
It is what actions are taken.
Calling oneself King of Demons, possessing power to match, trying to protect demons, and opposing the gods.
I had already shown a great many proofs. To Zeus.
“Zeus will think he was deceived. By Satan. Satan must prove that is not the case.”
“Prove it, huh.”
“The simplest way is for him personally to become hostile to the 72 Demons.”
“......Ah.”
What I had protected was only ever the 72 Demons. Zeus knew that too.
So Satan would attack the 72 Demons.
Probably the moment they stepped into the Demon Realm, he would try to kill them all. The entire Seven Deadly Sins would move that way.
There Bael spoke.
“......So even if we know the Gate’s location, we can’t use it right away. We’ll have to remain in Edrium for a while.”
Elodie knit her brows there.
“What is that supposed to mean. Frondier already saved the 72 Demons. You said you want to go back to the Demon Realm. And now you say you can’t.”
Then, snap, she glared at Arald.
“And ‘King of Demons,’ you asked Frondier to do that?”
“......It was absolutely necessary. There was no helping it.”
“No helping it?”
Fwoosh, Elodie’s eyes blazed.
“How far does this ‘no helping it’ go? I’m very curious.”
“......”
Arald bowed his head deeply and did not answer.
“Elodie, calm down. If anything, this is better.”
I spoke then.
“‘Better,’ how. We went through all that to send them to the Demon Realm and now they say they can’t return. You even did the dangerous thing of calling yourself King of Demons.”
“Yeah, and that’s why.”
I nodded.
“I think I’ll try being king.”
“......Huh?”
Elodie looked at me.
No—everyone who heard my voice looked at me.
“You’re going to be King of Demons? Frondier, it was just a means to stop the war.”
“Well, yes, but now I’ve got a mighty force on my side for once.”
“No, Frondier. The 72 Demons aren’t on your side! They’re demons! How can you say that when you don’t know when they’ll betray you!”
Demons can betray at any time. True.
So I looked to Bael.
“Bael, you each had your own demonic hosts under you, right?”
“That’s right.”
“You’re not under the Seven Deadly Sins, or anything like that, are you?”
“We each stand at the peak among demons. To begin with, we have nothing to do with the Seven Deadly Sins.”
Right. As expected.
Above the Seven Deadly Sins, there is no one.
Which means—
“To commemorate becoming king, let’s have an induction.”
I lifted a finger, and
Thoom─!
I fired Ecleksis at all of the 72 Demons.
In an instant, every demon dropped to one knee.
“H-huff......!”
Each demon gulped ragged breaths and looked up at me. Even Bael.
They had not knelt of their own will. That was only the result.
But this proved it.
The simplest law of demons.
There is no one above the 72 Demons.
Which meant the seat was vacant.
And so, by the law of demons, they were now mine.
“You won’t betray me now, will you?”
Smiling slightly, I spoke to all the demons kneeling.
