While Frondier was briefly lost in thought, Belphegor’s words continued.
"Satan is the demon of Wrath. He keeps grinning slyly, but just like me, that guy draws in wrath."
"What is he wrathful toward?"
"Everything."
"What?"
"When someone is superior to him, or has more wealth, when something is taken from him, when the woman he picked doesn’t give him her heart, when his arrogance is called out. He’s wrathful toward all of it."
"......He’s carrying all seven deadly sins by himself. Sounds like a word game."
"It may look that way, but it’s the truth."
Wrath arises anywhere.
Unlike the other deadly sins, wrath is closer to a primal emotion. That is why Satan understands the hearts of all seven sins, and at the same time devours all of those desires.
This is the reason Satan is the closest to the king of demons. Wrath is triggered by all of the seven deadly sins.
"I was the exception, though."
"......Ah. Because you were Sloth."
"There’s no reason to get angry just from seeing someone lazy. Not unless that someone is one of your own. Satan never said it out loud, but among the Seven Deadly Sins, he rated me the lowest, and thanks to that, I never got any pointless checks on me."
"You make it sound like that was a good thing."
"Because it was a good thing."
Belphegor spoke as if he had no interest at all in being rated low. As if all that mattered was that no one bothered him. That was all.
"But after Lucifer suddenly changed his attitude, Satan started to be wary of me."
Satan harbored wrath toward the other demons of the Seven Deadly Sins, but he did not toward Belphegor, who was Sloth.
Because Belphegor was not a demon worth getting wrathful at.
However, as time passed, the situation changed.
Belphegor, who spent most of his time just lazing around, began to stand out in the consciousness of the other Seven ◈ Nоvеlіgһт ◈ (Continue reading) Deadly Sins.
Just because of a few times, a few words, and a few steps he took.
Belphegor was slothful. That was why he did not even provoke wrath, and was ignored.
But what if the one he had ignored turned out to be superior to Satan himself.
What if he had merely not shown his power for the simple reason that he was lazy, and Satan had simply failed to notice that.
"His wrath would have exploded."
At Frondier’s words, Belphegor nodded.
"It’s not like I ever thought I was more capable than Satan, though."
"So that’s why Satan tried to drop you from the Seven Deadly Sins."
"Yeah. At the time, I was completely defenseless against Satan. I never imagined he’d be wary of me. With that personality of his, I never thought he’d even have someone like me in his sights."
"What did Satan do?"
"It’s nothing that grand. He fanned the sparks of Manggot."
The spark of Manggot.
In the game, Manggot always started a war toward the Empire.
And when he had been a player, Frondier had never been able to get past Manggot’s wall and had seen the game over screen countless times.
But thinking back on it now—
'......Right! I did think Manggot started the war earlier than in the game!'
Manggot’s assault originally began only after the protagonist, Aster, had graduated. Inside the game, there had been more minor events before graduation.
But because Manggot attacked early, all of the events that were supposed to happen were skipped.
Up until now, he hadn’t known why, but Satan had done something.
"What did Satan do?"
"You know Manggot was trying to summon a god, right?"
"Yeah. Prometheus."
Frondier hadn’t seen it directly, but he’d heard about it from Ospreet.
From what he’d heard, Prometheus thought humanity wanted to perish on its own.
"The one who proposed descent to Prometheus was Satan."
"It wasn’t you?"
"Why would I do something that troublesome."
If he put it like that, there was nothing to say.
Belphegor’s speech slowed a little, as if he were recalling that time.
"Back then, Prometheus of course tried to pretend he hadn’t heard a word from Satan, a demon, but you know well enough Satan’s silver tongue. In the end, that guy succeeded in persuading Prometheus."
"How did he persuade him?"
"‘Humans are fated for the most part to die anyway. In that case, isn’t it better for them to die by a god’s hand than a demon’s. On this matter, the opinions of demons and gods will coincide. Even if their purposes differ.’ It was something along those lines."
"Their opinions would coincide?"
"A human killed by a demon has a higher chance of having their soul eaten. Especially if they beg for their life right before death. But if a god kills them, that won’t happen. I don’t know the details, but I’m sure Prometheus accepted Satan’s opinion with a very noble heart."
"......What a ridiculous story."
Starting from the assumption that humans are fated to die anyway, to saying that gods agree with that—it was absurd.
"When Satan made that proposal to Prometheus, faith toward Manggot accelerated. At the same time, Ospreet sensed Prometheus’s power."
"Ospreet noticing in advance was good, but that was also the fuse, huh."
On the human side, there was someone who sensed a god’s power.
Once that happened, whether they liked it or not, Manggot had no choice but to start the war.
"What was Satan aiming for with that?"
"Put simply, he was trying to take the credit for himself. At the moment Manggot’s victory became certain, he would have been ready to have his demons land the finishing blow."
"How...... Ah, right. The demons were already inside the Empire."
Frondier recalled Satan’s demons.
After the demon summoning incident in the Imperial Palace, Satan had made it look like he’d recalled all of his demons, but he hadn’t.
Their original purpose had been to intervene in the war.
"From Manggot’s standpoint, and from the demons’ standpoint, the biggest concern was Aster Evans. How far he grew would decide the outcome of the war. That’s what Satan judged, so he tried to start the war early, before Aster could fully grow."
"......His judgment wasn’t wrong."
Frondier nodded. Unlike the original story, Manggot had started the war before Aster even graduated. That had made Frondier’s liver tremble more than he could say.
But Aster had grown in a way even Frondier himself had not anticipated at that time. It was closer to an awakening than growth.
"Satan’s true goal was probably to swallow both the Empire and Manggot. Since Manggot was loyal to me, killing them would weaken my power too. But the situation changed drastically."
"......Because the Empire won."
"Yeah, because of you. Frondier."
Belphegor’s face as he spoke was carefree.
"Satan panicked, but even so he must have been pleased inside. His goal had been to whittle down my power, and he’d managed to drop me out of the Seven Deadly Sins. The rule that ‘in the end, Satan always takes a profit’ was holding true."
"That rule’s pretty famous, huh."
What Bael had said, Belphegor was saying as well.
"So I fell down to Nastrond, but now the problem was the Empire. And beyond that, Frondier, you were the problem. Because you defeated me."
"And that’s a problem for Satan?"
"Right. I told you, he’s wrathful toward everything. The reason he was wary of me was his anxiety and inferiority, thinking I might surpass Satan himself. And then you beat someone like me. Satan made a simple calculation."
"Don’t tell me he decided that if he killed me, he’d resolve his inferiority regarding you?"
"Exactly. Whether it would actually work out that way is another matter."
Frondier’s mouth fell open.
He’d been listening to Satan’s story nonstop for a while now, and the more he heard, only one thing came to mind.
'......He’s like a child.'
Getting wrath triggered by anything at all, trying to resolve one inferiority with another. He was like an immature child throwing a tantrum.
......So that’s why he’s a demon.
Just then, Belphegor spoke.
"Well, we’re here."
"Hm?"
While flying, Belphegor slowly descended to land, and Frondier landed behind him. He let Selena down from his back as well.
"Selena, do you feel anything wrong with your body?"
"I’m fine."
"If there’s even the slightest problem, you have to tell me honestly. Like I said, I can’t see through your acting."
Belphegor cut off Frondier’s words.
"I told you. There’s no poisonous miasma here that’s dangerous to humans. For someone who doesn’t look it, you’re incredibly overprotective, Frondier. They say overprotectiveness is hereditary, you know that?"
"......"
"And don’t raise your voice any more than that. It’ll notice."
"Notice?"
"Shh."
Belphegor brought a finger to his lips.
Frondier used his intuition to scan the surroundings. But nothing was detected.
Belphegor whispered in a small voice.
"Frondier, I know very well that your senses are excellent. But your range isn’t that wide. It’s outside your range."
"......Who have you been talking about since earlier?"
"Did you know? In Nastrond, there’s one guy more dangerous than Nidhogg."
Frondier tilted his head.
Something more dangerous than Nidhogg in Nastrond? With Frondier’s knowledge, there was no such being. Was there some Norse god he didn’t know here?
"It’s a guy named Fenrir."
"What......!"
Frondier cried out in surprise. Even though Belphegor had told him to keep his voice down, he shouted without realizing it. It was the first time he’d done that.
"Fenrir is here?"
"Hooh. So you at least know the name."
Know it? Of course he did.
Fenrir was a wolf. And not an ordinary wolf.
In the original myth, when Ragnarok came, he was the disaster that would chew up and swallow Odin, the chief god.
"Yeah. He’s the reason I was able to defeat Nidhogg. For some reason, Nidhogg had been bitten by Fenrir."
"......Don’t tell me we’re going to Fenrir now?"
"Why? Are you scared?"
"......"
Frondier shut his mouth at Belphegor’s teasing words.
But the answer soon came.
"Yes."
"Hooh."
At Frondier’s honest words, Belphegor gave him not ridicule, but a gaze tinged with interest.
"As expected of you. You know how dangerous Fenrir is. I wish demons were at least as cautious as you. No, I guess now that you’re a demon, that wish has come true. Hahahah."
"This isn’t something to laugh about. You’re going to go to Fenrir without any countermeasure?"
"I don’t have a countermeasure, but there’s no need to prepare one either."
"What are you talking about?"
"Fenrir is bound right now. He’s like a dog in the yard, tied to a rope. As long as we don’t go within his reach, we’re safe."
"......Didn’t you say Nidhogg got bitten?"
"Yeah. Because Nidhogg shoved his own body in there."
What kind of situation was that.
Frondier couldn’t understand that Fenrir was here, nor that Nidhogg had gone into Fenrir’s reach.
"You’ll see when we get there. Just a few steps from here─"
Belphegor got that far when—
The faces of Frondier and Belphegor, both of them, hardened at the same time.
His intuition fired.
In other words,
"......!"
Frondier, Selena, and Belphegor all hurriedly turned their gazes.
All that lay at the end of their vision was darkness.
But at the end of that darkness, slowly being cast—
Two eyes.
"Mmph......."
Selena covered her own mouth with her hand.
Her eyes trembled with fear. The breath seeping out threatened to turn into sound from excessive tension.
Sssss──
Whether that was a breath the beast exhaled or a sound,
The three of them watched without moving a muscle.
Frondier moved only his eyes toward Belphegor.
He was speaking with his gaze.
The situation was so urgent that the messages carried by his eyes were busy beyond belief.
Krrk.
"!"
The beast let out a cry. Frondier hastily looked back at the wolf.
But it still wasn’t moving.
No, perhaps—
'......Is it really tied up?'
When Frondier focused his vision like that, he saw something faintly.
Threads wrapped tightly all around the wolf’s entire body. They were so incredibly thin that there was no way to even describe what they looked like.
Because he had knowledge of myth, Frondier knew what that thing was. It was undoubtedly Gleipnir. The unbreakable thread the gods had made to bind Fenrir.
But.
'......Coincidence, huh.'
It was only hidden by the darkness, so he couldn’t be certain, but—
The thread binding Fenrir was unbelievably dark.
In other words, it was pitch-black.
