Frondier felt the surrounding gazes and decided to move to another place.
At first, he thought people were looking because Pielot had shouted, but the cause lay with himself.
‘I lost control without even realizing it.’
Frondier shook his head.
Whenever it was a story about Satan, it was hard to maintain his composure.
It had been that way from the very first time he met Satan.
The power of wrath Satan possessed. The moment they met, Satan had probably let that power seep into him.
Frondier only had resistance, not immunity. Satan’s wrath would sometimes provoke him like this. Especially when the topic was Satan himself.
‘From the start, he sticks his nose into everything, so he’s a pain even without that power.’
Anyway, since things had come this far, Frondier changed his thinking.
It was another incident the Golden Apple had caused on its own, but for once, Pielot had managed to recall the memory of his dream.
He decided to gather everyone and hear him out.
“Then come to my house after class.”
“Yes, sir.”
Pielot bowed his head and left the staff room.
Only then did the mood settle somewhat, and everyone inside returned to their own work.
No one spoke to Frondier. No— no one wanted to.
Except for exactly one person.
“Teacher Frondier.”
Someone who was not cowed by the force he had exuded.
“Let’s talk.”
“......Teacher Elodie.”
Frondier looked up at Elodie as she approached.
Her tone was as cold as ever. At the same time, worry was contained in her eyes.
Frondier nodded.
***
“That was a close one just now.”
Elodie raised a finger as if in warning.
“This is Atlas, and almost all the teachers have some basic combat training. They’ve all let their killing intent leak out before without realizing it, and they’ve all been on the receiving end of someone else’s killing intent. So what happened just now is something that’s occurred frequently here. But.”
“......I went a bit too far.”
Frondier admitted frankly, and Elodie nodded.
“You’re a rookie here as a teacher. Most of the teachers aren’t going to want to admit it. That they got scared by a new teacher’s aura. It was lucky it only lasted a moment. Otherwise, it would’ve been dangerous.”
“Right. I want to keep things quiet at Atlas.”
Standing out in things like three-dimensional maps, test questions, events like Makia— in theory and administrative work— was fine. It would deepen his prestige as a teacher and improve his position.
But he must not use strength to stand out. Maybe if his opponents were students, but among teachers, pulling something like that would only make them wary of him.
‘Back in the day, I couldn’t even dream of worrying about that.’
Whenever things like this happened, Frondier felt it.
That he himself had grown stronger.
And that becoming stronger wasn’t purely a good thing— it meant that much more weight on his shoulders.
Elodie laughed playfully.
“Hehe, still, it’s better now than back then, isn’t it? Compared to when everyone made fun of you.”
“Well, that’s true. Back then I was barely managing my own skin, but now I can protect people.”
Among humans, Frondier’s strength was surely something you could count on one hand.
Before coming to this continent, he hadn’t been able to say that for certain, but after arriving, it had only become clearer.
In terms of power alone, he had drawn close to the peak a human could reach. He could stand shoulder to shoulder with the Zodiacs, no— he was confident he could defeat most of the Zodiacs.
Now, when Frondier looked upward, there weren’t many humans left there.
Instead, above that level were demons and gods.
‘......The peak a human can reach, huh.’
When he met Heracles, Frondier had felt it. The vast gulf between human and god.
Heracles was half-god, half-human. In other words, half of that body’s power was divine. Since Heracles did not require any conditions for descent, he could fully use that divine power. Of course, just because the other half was human didn’t mean that half was any weaker. There were surely things Heracles was stronger at precisely because half of him was human.
......But even if Heracles’s power was close to the strongest among the gods, that didn’t mean there was no other god like him.
If even a few of the fully descended gods possessed power on Heracles’s level, then Frondier’s heart could only grow bleak.
‘In the end, there’s only one way.’
He had to find the Giants. He had to borrow their strength, or their wisdom.
Though they were defeated, the Giants had sent a multitude of gods to the world of salvation, and bound many more of them to this land. He had to find them, still trapped somewhere in this world inside Pandemonium.
Searching Jenita’s mansion for artifacts related to them had ended as a dead end, but he had obtained another clue: Mistilteinn.
“......It’s been a while since we,”
Frondier lifted his head.
“Held a meeting.”
***
Time passed, night came, and everyone gathered at Frondier’s house.
No— not everyone.
Frondier looked around at the whole group and tilted his head.
“Where did Riri go?”
Ria Liss was nowhere to be seen. Selena, too, was absent.
Since Selena would appear anytime he called, he hadn’t been particularly worried, but it felt a bit odd that both of them were missing.
“......Selena. Are you here?”
Silence.
There was no response from Selena, who usually reacted almost instantly whenever Frondier called.
In that moment, Frondier’s eyes turned cold.
“Which bastard laid hands on Selena—”
Srrk—
“I-I apologize. I’m a little late.”
Before Frondier could finish speaking, Selena rose up out of the shadow beneath his feet. Kneeling on one knee in front of him, her breathing was somewhat rough.
Seeing that, Frondier’s eyes softened again, and he asked,
“Selena, what happened?”
“I, um, was teaching Lady Riri, and there was a bit of an accident......”
“An accident?”
Selena was teaching Ria Liss. Frondier had already heard about that.
Before going to Selena, Riri had come to ask Frondier for permission first. Considering the hierarchy among demons, that was only natural, and thinking about the inherent danger of the technique called shadow transfer, learning it in secret without telling him would basically have been Riri making an appeal that she wanted Frondier to kill her.
Frondier had readily given his permission, Selena had refused to believe he had so readily given it, and then Frondier had gone to meet Selena and personally tell her that he had indeed readily given it.
At that point Selena’s face had been full of displeasure, but in the end she agreed to teach Riri.
“Lady Ria Liss, well, how should I put this, she gained some kind of conviction and wanted to practice a bit more......”
“She threw a tantrum?”
“......I-I suppose...... you could call it that......?”
Selena seemed at a loss for how to answer.
Meanwhile.
Crack!
“!”
From the shadow beneath Frondier’s feet, a single hand shot out.
It was so grotesque that even Frondier felt a chill.
Crack crack crack, crunch.
With strange noises, the hand planted on the floor and pushed, dragging the body bit by bit out of the shadow.
“What......?”
Frozen, Frondier just watched.
This method of movement was purely through shadow. The floor wouldn’t break or tear.
Then what had that sound just now been......?
Poof!
At last, a face popped out.
“Hey! ‘Tantrum’? That’s harsh, Frondier!”
It was Riri.
She was bleeding.
“Riri?!”
Everyone stared at her in shock.
“Everyone, just wait a sec. Ngh......!”
Crrrk......
That was when Frondier realized.
Those sounds weren’t the floor being damaged.
They were Riri being damaged.
“......Riri, aren’t you going to die at this rate?”
“It’s fine, ah! I’m a demon!”
Riri flailed around like that and finally managed to crawl out of the shadow.
Then, as if she had spent every last bit of strength, she collapsed flat.
“Man, this thing’s really cramped.”
At that, Selena said,
“That’s why I told you not to go in until it was complete.”
“So what, as long as I can make it through, it’s fine. Success is success.”
Was this really success?
Frondier asked Selena,
“What happened?”
“The most important thing in shadow transfer is widening the path you pass through. The space we call ‘shadow’ is extremely special, so it feels very different from just digging a tunnel in the ground. And there’s a strong tendency for it to return to its original state, so you have to maintain it properly, but......”
“If the path isn’t wide enough, and you don’t control its tendency to return to normal and force your way through.”
“A path that isn’t being maintained tries to revert to the original shadow— in other words, it keeps getting narrower. And then.”
“You end up like this, huh.”
Looking at Riri, Frondier nodded.
Riri was smiling, but the veins stood out on her face.
“Could you not look at me like I’m some lab rat and maybe help me instead? I honestly can’t get up.”
“You could’ve just come here quietly on your own two feet.”
“I wanted to show off the results of my training.”
At Riri’s words, Frondier gave a wry smile. But inwardly, he was quite surprised.
‘I don’t know what the usual process of learning shadow transfer is like, but at this level, isn’t she progressing pretty fast?’
If a human had tried something like that, they would have died. Not that a human would even dare attempt it out of sheer terror.
But Riri was a demon. Her body was tough, and her fear of death was small.
Was that difference what was speeding up her mastery of shadow transfer?
“Ms. Carla, could you help her?”
“Y-yes.”
Carla, who had been standing nearby, walked over to Riri.
Frondier had asked Carla, as much as possible, to stay with Riri going forward. Carla could be of help, and when Frondier’s eyes weren’t on her, there was {N•o•v•e•l•i•g•h•t} no telling when Atena might possess her again.
Carla herself thought Atena would have to be insane to possess her again, but she decided to follow Frondier’s wishes for now. There was no harm in being cautious.
“......My goodness. Your leg is completely broken. No, I should say it’s been shattered.”
“Oh my, I didn’t think it was that bad.”
“Doesn’t it hurt?”
“It does.”
Receiving healing, Riri carried on a peaceful conversation. While being healed, she asked Frondier,
“So what’s the topic of the meeting?”
“You’re going to listen in that state?”
“Didn’t you hear just now? They said my leg’s been shattered. It’s going to take a while to heal.”
Serves you right.
There was no way to describe it except that she had shattered her own legs.
Frondier sighed and spoke to everyone.
“First, let’s hear from Pielot.”
“Are we seriously just going ahead like this? Leaving Miss Riri as she is?”
“She said she’s fine.”
When Frondier replied, Pielot gave a small cough and looked around at everyone.
“When I was hit by mana from the other world and passed out, I had a dream. It wasn’t really a dream, it was a kind of memory. But for several days I couldn’t recall it, and only this afternoon did I finally remember.”
“Mana from the other world...... Mana can contain memories?”
Arald muttered, sounding as if he’d had a thought.
Pielot began to explain the contents of the dream. In the dream, he was another demon, he made a report to Satan, Satan summoned the Seven Deadly Sins, and said he had to become King of Demons.
“......That was roughly it.”
When Pielot finished speaking, everyone’s expressions were complicated.
“Frondier.”
Elodie spoke up.
“This is all information we already know now.”
“True.”
Satan had summoned the Seven Deadly Sins. They knew that.
Satan had said he had to become King of Demons. He had already become King of Demons.
Both sides were information that no longer held any meaning at this point.
Riri chimed in as if agreeing.
“If we’d heard it right then, it would’ve been pretty useful info, but now it’s meaningless, isn’t it?”
“Mm, I guess so.”
Pielot looked a little down.
Frondier thought for a moment.
There was something that bothered him slightly.
“Gregory. Pielot forgot the contents of his dream because of Atena, right?”
“We don’t have proof, but all the circumstances point that way.”
“Why would Atena try to hide this content?”
“Isn’t it because she wanted to hide Satan’s plan?”
“Why? It’s not like Atena and Satan are on the same side.”
Far from allies, they were clear enemies.
To maintain the balance between gods and demons, they didn’t interfere with each other, but emotionally speaking, there were probably no enemies easier to understand than gods and demons.
And yet Atena had cast a spell on Pielot to hide this content.
If not for the variable called the Golden Apple, they still wouldn’t know about it now. It was that powerful a spell.
‘Atena didn’t want me to find out about something. What was it? Was it really just that Satan became King of Demons? Is that what she tried to hide?’
Frondier looked at Pielot.
“Was that all there was? Satan declaring he would become King of Demons.”
“Mm, I thought that was the important part.”
It was important, but it had become outdated information.
Pielot strained, trying to retrace the dream in his mind. Even though he’d been freed from the spell, it was something from so far in the past that recalling it wasn’t easy.
“......Ah.”
But he remembered.
Because he remembered, Pielot recited it.
“Belphegor.”
“What?”
It was an unexpected name.
And not just the name.
Tilting his head, Pielot spoke as it came back to him.
“Belphegor is still in Nastrond......?”
Nastrond.
When he heard that word, Frondier understood.
He understood what this conversation meant.
What Atena had tried to hide.
“......Belphegor is in Nastrond.”
“What’s Nastrond?”
Riri asked.
Arald was the one who answered.
“Hell. It’s a place in Niflheim.”
“Niflheim......? That place is.”
“Yes. It has nothing to do with the Seven Deadly Sins.”
Belphegor had spoken.
He had said he would lose his seat among the Seven Deadly Sins and fall into hell.
But that place would not have been Nastrond. Normally he would have gone to a hell befitting him.
“......I see.”
Frondier said,
“One of the gods has joined hands with the demons.”
