“Joined hands?”
Elodie repeated.
“There’s no way someone from the Seven Deadly Sins would go to Nastrond just because they lost their seat. Normally they’d just fall into hell. It has to be that some demon, almost certainly Satan, joined hands with a god.”
“And that god would be one of the gods of Asgard.”
The one who added that explanation was Riri.
In Norse mythology, Nastrond is the place closest to hell. Naturally, the god who joined hands with Satan would also be from Norse mythology— in other words, a god of Asgard.
“Why would Satan do something like that? No, how is something like that even possible in the first place?”
Sending a demon who lost his seat among the Seven Deadly Sins not to hell, but to Nastrond. Could that actually be done?
To that, Frondier said,
“To know that, we have to know what the original process is when a demon falls into hell.”
What was the rule by which a demon who descended to a seat among the Seven Deadly Sins ended up going to hell? Or was it a tradition among demons? Was it something carried out directly, or was it more like a phenomenon?
Without knowing that, they couldn’t know how it had been switched to Nastrond instead.
“But I do know what Satan is thinking.”
“Oh, really?”
“Yeah. So, what do you think, Arald?”
At that, Arald fell silent for a moment. Soon he bowed his head slightly and spoke.
“Satan became King of Demons in the demon realm. And he abandoned the 72 Demons. Thanks to that, he was able to avoid a war with Zeus. From Zeus’s perspective, it would have looked as if the demons’ forces had shrunk.”
At that, Riri’s eyes twitched slightly.
“......They hadn’t shrunk?”
“If Belphegor fell to Nastrond instead of hell, that would have been long in the past. From that time on, Satan must already have come to some sort of understanding with a god of Asgard.”
In other words, if Satan really had reached an agreement with a god of Asgard, and thanks to that had been able to make the choice to abandon the 72 Demons—
Then a portion of Asgard’s forces might have joined with the demons.
“If it’s a god of Asgard, who? Which god joined hands with the demons?”
“I can’t hit it exactly, but there are a couple I can guess. Two.”
Frondier answered Elodie’s question. He gathered Heukcheon into his hand and showed it.
“One is Hel.”
“......Ah.”
“Hel is one of the few Asgardian gods I’ve faced. She presides over the underworld, so it might be possible for her to connect to Nastrond. And more than anything,”
“She hates you, Frondier.”
Selena finished for him. Frondier laughed.
“Hahaha. Right. She hates me. So there’s a possibility she made an arbitrary alliance with Satan.”
Of course, it wasn’t just a matter of like or dislike.
Frondier had absorbed the mana of Helheim. He hadn’t just absorbed it— he’d wiped out all the souls and stray spirits that had gathered around him. Even though they were properly residents of Helheim.
Of course, Frondier had only acted in self-defense after being attacked first, but from Hel’s perspective, it wasn’t something she could just overlook.
More than anything, the very existence of Frondier, who had absorbed a massive amount of Helheim’s mana and was still walking around fine, was a problem. In Hel’s eyes, Frondier would look like some alien monstrosity, something that was neither human nor anything else.
“The other one is Odin.”
“.......”
At those words, everyone’s faces darkened.
Frondier went on.
“I’ve always been curious. Why Odin is targeting me.”
“......Isn’t that because of Weaving?”
“Well, that’s one of the reasons, I’m sure. As the chief god, he’d find it pretty offensive. But even so, it’s strange that Odin himself would be the first to interfere in human affairs, and to that extent.”
Frondier had never Weaved Odin’s weapon. He’d never even seen it.
If anyone were going to get angry first, it would be Thor, the owner of Mjölnir. From the standpoint of positions, it would be natural for Odin to send his son Thor first.
But Odin had moved directly.
Lowering his eyes and bringing his hand to his mouth, Frondier spoke.
“Odin wanted me to regret it.”
“Regret?”
“He framed me as the Empire’s enemy, and made my determination to save everyone look ridiculous. If I resisted at that point, the Empire would split into two factions and start fighting, and it wouldn’t take long before it tore itself apart.”
Not everyone in the Empire was Frondier’s enemy.
And that was why he had accepted exile.
Ampere, who was said to surpass the Zodiacs in power, and Atjie, who had no equals in duels against other people, were his family, and the Empire’s strongest knight order was under Ampere’s command.
Among the Zodiacs, Ospreet, Lidwi, Monty, and Riri would stand on Frondier’s side. There was no need to even mention the cream of the crop at Constel.
Those who had gone through the war and come to understand Frondier’s value there would all become his allies. They would fight to prove his innocence, and—
──without a doubt, the Empire would be engulfed in flames.
“Odin moved knowing that. In other words, getting rid of me was more important than the peace of the Empire. No matter how much Weaving is an affront, that’s a different scale of problem.”
At the time, Frondier had thought that he himself, hated by the gods, was some special case. That there were reasons the gods didn’t like him, whether it was Weaving or anything else.
So conversely, he’d believed that the gods would be favorable toward humans other than him. He’d had that sort of faith.
That faith had been shattered by Odin’s actions.
“Odin didn’t exile me from the Empire because he hated me or held a grudge.”
“......Then why?”
Elodie asked, and Frondier slowly tilted his head.
“......Just, because that’s what he had to do, so he did it?”
In the end, even he seemed to feel it was strange, and his expression turned puzzled.
“What’s that supposed to mean.”
“But that’s the most accurate way to describe Odin’s actions. Odin exiled me because it was necessary. Not because of some personal emotion.”
In the end, he still didn’t know what that necessity had been for.
After exiling Frondier from the Empire, had Odin achieved what he wanted?
Or had he aimed not at exile, but at the Empire’s division or Frondier’s death, and things had simply gone awry?
“But if Satan really did join hands with Odin, then it becomes easier to understand. For Odin, sending demons to Nastrond would be nothing.”
“......It might be easier to understand, but the situation is a lot more uncomfortable.”
Pielot, who had been listening, spoke with a pale face.
Frondier muttered, as if organizing his thoughts.
“Odin branded me the Empire’s demon, and that part worked. But not everything went his way. All the more so if he’d predicted I’d insist on my innocence. Was Odin’s ultimate aim the Empire’s division? If so, then why? Why at that time? Was framing me as a demon a means to that end? Or was he waiting for me to become like that......”
The muttering went on. Frondier had already sunk into his own world, arming himself with conjecture and logic.
Elodie looked at him strangely.
‘......This is weird.’
There had been plenty of moments when Frondier hadn’t seemed human.
But never had Elodie felt Frondier so unfamiliar as she did in this moment.
‘How can he think like that?’
Frondier’s reasoning was extremely clear. She could feel him proceeding with a clear mind.
That was what made it strange in Elodie’s eyes.
‘This isn’t someone else’s problem.’
Frondier wasn’t talking about someone else.
He was talking about himself.
Frondier himself had stopped a war, had been branded a demon, and to prevent the Empire’s division had accepted the framing and gone into exile.
Did he feel nothing about that?
Odin, the Empire, gods, demons, humans, whoever it was—
Shouldn’t he hate someone? Hadn’t he undergone something that fully justified that?
Yet right now, Frondier was speaking as if he were solving a problem.
“......In the end, it all circles back to this.”
Finishing his thoughts, Frondier spoke.
“We have to find Pandemonium. We don’t have enough information.”
“Pandemonium?”
“Yeah. That’s why I called everyone today.”
Frondier gave a brief explanation of Pandemonium. That he had to find the Giants inside it.
“If I just know where it is, I can get in. The problem is I don’t know where it is.”
At that, everyone sank into their own thoughts.
Carla was the first to speak.
“Wouldn’t books be useful? In mythology, the regions where each god mainly stayed, and such.”
“Mm. Almost all the records from the time of Ragnarok will have been erased. But it would still be helpful.”
“I’ll look into it. Most of the records are in Atlas.”
Pielot joined in.
“Me too. The more people we have searching for materials, the better.”
“Okay, thanks.”
While Frondier was saying that, Riri, who had been deep in thought, raised a finger.
“Demons live a long time. There might be eyewitness information.”
It sounded quite plausible, and this time as well, Frondier nodded.
Next was Elodie.
“About that Pandemonium. You can’t find it by sensing mana?”
“Mm. In theory, that would be difficult.”
She scratched her cheek with a faintly awkward expression.
“I might be able to find it, you know?”
“Hm?”
“Well, how should I put it. Just a hunch?”
Not long ago, Elodie had become aware of her own Ecleksis. Because of that, she’d almost gone into Pandemonium together with Vishnu.
Of course, that time she’d done it half on impulse, so there was no guarantee it could be done again. On top of that, finding Pandemonium again when the outcome had already been decided was a completely different matter.
Frondier didn’t know that Elodie had become able to use Ecleksis, but this time as well, he nodded.
Elodie was a genius, after all.
“Then for now, I’ll ask each of you to investigate in your own way. When you get results, report back. We’ll hold another meeting sometime soon.”
With that, Frondier declared the meeting adjourned.
As everyone was about to head their separate ways—
“Oh, right.”
With an opening that for some reason sent a chill down everyone’s spine,
“Arald, stay behind for a bit.”
He said, smiling brightly.
***
Frondier faced Arald. Arald stood quietly with his head slightly bowed. He looked every inch the loyal subordinate.
“Arald. There’s something I want to say first.”
“......What is it?”
“I have no intention of making you my enemy.”
Frondier spoke as if to reassure him, but from the listener’s side, it was an incredibly terrifying thing to hear.
“So I’d like you to speak honestly.”
“.......”
“I don’t want to treat you the same as the others who are my enemies.”
Arald. Chairman of Hitchcock. The demon who possessed the desire of “Gourmet.”
From the first time they met, Frondier had been wary of Arald. That had continued even after Arald became his subordinate.
But recently, that wariness had largely faded instead.
Arald had been too loyal to keep treating him with suspicion, and had been extremely helpful.
And more than anything, Frondier had gradually begun to understand Arald.
“First, I want to hear how you feel.”
“How I feel, sir?”
“I became King of Demons, didn’t I.”
Frondier spread his arms.
“That’s what you asked of me. You asked me to become King of Demons.”
“......Yes. It is a great joy.”
At that, Frondier shook his head.
“I’ll ask you again. Please, speak honestly.”
“.......”
“Like I said. If this were the me and you from the past, I would’ve used every means at my disposal to make you cough up everything you’ve got inside.”
Frondier shrugged.
“But I don’t want to do that. Let’s not make trouble for each other for no reason. It’s a pointless waste of time.”
At that, Arald’s gaze drifted sideways for a moment, then he closed his eyes and let out a short sigh.
When he opened them again, his eyes were clearer as they looked at Frondier.
He spoke.
“It’s still not enough.”
“I knew it.”
“The King of Demons I asked you for is not this. The peak over all demons. An absolute authority that seizes the power of demons as a whole. Only with that can we—”
Arald stopped there. As if he’d just let something slip.
Frondier smiled, looking satisfied.
“You want to kill gods.”
