When the four knights were fighting the Seven Deadly Sins in the Demon Realm,
"Hmm."
Belphegor was strolling leisurely through the castle.
His steps led downward.
This was Satan’s castle. Whenever the Seven Deadly Sins held a meeting, they implicitly used this place.
Thinking about it that way, maybe Satan had been dreaming of being Demon King ever since the very first meeting of the Seven Deadly Sins.
Apart from those meetings—no, in truth, even for the meetings themselves—Belphegor hadn’t attended very often, so he didn’t know the castle very well. The last time he’d seen it was when he’d fallen from the seat of Sloth, and he couldn’t remember anything from before that.
But his destination was clear.
To the deepest part of this massive castle, the most hidden place.
"There isn’t a single demon guarding the inside of the castle. Satan really must be in a hurry."
Belphegor enjoyed the sound of his footsteps echoing through the vast, empty cavern.
Until just a few hours ago the place must have been full of demons, but it seemed every last one of them had gone outside with Satan.
"Hey, Lazor. If you see anything suspicious, report it immediately."
"......Understood."
The demon Lazor trotted along in Belphegor’s wake, looking around.
After killing Astaroth, Belphegor had kept Lazor trailing at his side.
Strange. Belphegor had clearly said he forgot names quickly...... Lazor had that question circling in their mind, but either way, did as Belphegor ordered.
"Oh."
Right where Belphegor had just passed.
Lazor spotted a single stone protruding unnaturally from the wall.
"Lord Belphegor. Please look here."
"Hm?"
In a castle like this, there was no limit to how many protruding stones there could be, but the one Lazor had found had oddly rounded edges. Something that had clearly been handled often.
"I see. This is a hidden device."
"It could be a trap."
"Could it? What do you think, Lazor?"
"......On second thought, that possibility seems low."
Judging from the stone’s position, it wasn’t in the path of an intruder. Rather, it was in a hidden spot. Belphegor nodded.
"To notice a mechanism like this. Well done."
"......Thank you."
Lazor felt a faint sense of pride. They had found something Belphegor had passed by without seeing. It was the first moment they’d felt they had a reason to be here.
......Had he really not noticed it? Or was he just praising me because he plans to make me do everything from here on out?
Those thoughts would only come to mind about an hour later.
"Well then, shall we press it?"
Click.
Ruuumble─!
When Belphegor pressed the stone, a section of the wall opened in an almost exaggeratedly obvious way.
A staircase appeared, inviting them into darkness.
"Stairs that lead even further down from the very bottom level of the castle, huh."
Heh heh heh. Belphegor laughed, like a child who’d found a hidden note in a treasure hunt.
"......Lord Belphegor, do you know what’s in there?"
"I don’t know what’s in there. I just know there’s something."
At that answer, Lazor nodded without asking further.
It was somehow very Belphegor-like, and at the same time, entirely reasonable.
Step, step, step.
Belphegor walked at an easy pace. He walked lazily, yet somehow quickly. Even though Lazor was walking at a respectable speed, the distance between them and Belphegor refused to close.
Before Lazor could question that, something else began to grate on their nerves.
'......The stench.'
A foul smell wafted up from below.
It smelled like blood, like corpses, or maybe like all of that rotting together. Or perhaps it was worse, some bizarre scent that included all of that and more, all mixed together.
The farther down they went, the stronger the stench grew, and just when Lazor’s face had completely crumpled, the narrow stairs came to an end.
And when they looked ahead,
"......What is this."
Lazor was struck speechless by the sight before their eyes.
Belphegor nodded as if satisfied.
"So this is the place."
Belphegor walked forward.
Lazor looked around.
The space was full of enormous glass tanks. Most of them were broken.
Were they test tubes? The surroundings were packed with magical tools, and near the broken glass tanks rolled lumps of something that defied description. It seemed the smell was coming from there.
"Looks like they all failed, just as I’d heard."
Belphegor said.
"What is this?"
"Hm? I thought you’d know better than me. It was fairly famous in the Demon Realm, wasn’t it? That project with Satan at the head."
Project.
Hearing that word stirred Lazor’s memory.
"I remember hearing something about creating some kind of ‘Calamity.’"
"Right. This is that. ‘Metamorph’s Calamity.’"
"Metamorph’s Calamity......"
Murmuring what they’d heard as-is, Lazor looked around.
......This is the calamity?
Lazor naturally tilted their head. What had they planned to make inside these glass tanks? Judging by the size of the tanks, whatever it was wouldn’t have been all that big even if completed. For something they were calling a calamity, it would have been downright cute.
"What exactly were they trying to make?"
"From what I heard, something like a shield that could pierce everything."
"You mean the one that appears in that story of contradictions?"
"Some grotesque thing that jammed those two together."
"......Ah, when you say it like that, I see."
In that story of contradictions, a spear and a shield appear.
A spear that can pierce everything, a shield that can block everything.
But a "shield that can pierce everything," huh. They’d gone a step further.
"Don’t take it too seriously. Satan’s the kind of bastard who does all sorts of weird things, and this was just one of those countless things. So I didn’t pay attention at first. In the first place, Satan and I are, how should I put it, physiologically incompatible."
Lazor knew that.
Even among the Seven Deadly Sins, Belphegor was a loner among loners, while Satan was the absolute center.
Though there had been rumors that Satan considered Belphegor a thorn in his side.
"But one day, Satan asked me for a favor."
"What was it?"
"He told me to bestow Sloth upon Frondier de Roach."
"......?"
At the time, Belphegor hadn’t understood Satan’s intent. Satan had only said that the Roach family would become an obstacle to demons in the future.
It was a flimsy excuse. But Belphegor didn’t pry any deeper. It was too much trouble. Satan knew that about his personality too; that was probably why he’d asked him.
But when Belphegor went to Frondier.
The moment he secretly peeked at the still-infant Frondier, Belphegor noticed something strange.
"Back then, Frondier was just a newborn baby. But I sensed some kind of strange divine power."
"Didn’t someone grant him divine power?"
"No. If that were the case, I would’ve known immediately. This wasn’t a power that helped Frondier."
At the time, Belphegor hadn’t been able to learn anything more specific.
It wasn’t that divine power had been granted, yet he sensed a strange divine power. And that was all.
So Belphegor bestowed Sloth on Frondier as Satan had requested.
But when that Frondier grew up and came looking for Belphegor.
When, instead of the Frondier Belphegor knew, a "different soul" stood before him claiming to be Frondier.
And when that Frondier showed Weaving right in front of him.
"Only then did I start to feel that something was off."
That was when it began.
The strange things Satan did, which Belphegor normally never paid attention to, began to catch his eye.
"Off?"
"Yeah. How Satan knew about Frondier in the first place."
Satan had clearly been conscious of Frondier, and had asked Belphegor to grant him Sloth.
At the time, Frondier had been a newborn with no talent whatsoever. If he’d had anything that extraordinary, some god or other would have granted him divine power already.
But later, Belphegor learned that Frondier hadn’t just failed to get divine power, he’d apparently had some kind of trigger placed on him by the gods.
If Weaving affected reality, a god would descend to kill Frondier.
A trigger Thanatos had set.
In other words, Satan had known.
That in the distant future, Frondier would obtain the Weaving skill. And Satan had leaked that ⊛ Nоvеlιght ⊛ (Read the full story) to Thanatos.
In that case, how had he known?
Step.
Belphegor moved.
His steps took him toward the countless lumps scattered beside the glass tanks.
Metamorph’s Calamity, its failures.
Belphegor crouched in front of one of them and, without hesitation, laid a hand on the lump.
He touched that reeking thing like it was nothing. Lazor grimaced at the thought, but Belphegor was perfectly calm, as if he truly didn’t smell anything at all.
"Yeah. As I thought."
Belphegor grinned broadly. How can he smile like that in this smell?
Then, nodding like something made sense now, Belphegor said,
"This is Loki’s remnant."
***
I left Atjie and Frondier behind and moved.
Campe obediently told me Thanatos’s location.
I’d thought he would be somewhere near Tartarus, but Thanatos was heading somewhere completely different.
Straight for Asgard.
"What business could that bastard possibly have in a world where the other gods live."
At that moment.
Ssssk.
Selena slipped out of my shadow.
"It seemed your conversation was over, so I came out."
"......Sorry, Selena. I didn’t manage to pay attention to you."
"It’s all right, Sir Frondier. I understand."
Selena looked at me with innocent eyes. At least, that’s how they looked to me.
"I heard everything."
"......Yeah, Selena. I’m a fake who’s been pretending to be Frondier."
"So that’s how it is."
"Are you disappointed?"
At my question, Selena tilted her head.
"Do I have any reason to be?"
"......Because a fake has been pretending to be the real thing and deceiving everyone."
At my words, Selena tilted her head for a moment, then lifted her gaze as if thinking.
"If I understood correctly."
Then she slowly opened her mouth.
"When I first met you, Sir Frondier, you were already Sir Frondier."
"......It’s a little strange the way you put it, but yeah. I was already me then."
"Then I haven’t been deceived about anything."
Selena smiled sweetly.
Then her lips thinned a bit.
"......If anything, in the past I did get lured in by the rumors of the real Frondier and ended up getting marked by the current Sir Frondier."
"Hahaha."
I laughed at that.
A natural laugh slipped out of me before I realized.
'......Yeah.'
Maybe that was why.
Maybe that was why I kept Selena by my side.
The trait only Selena had, unlike anyone else.
Selena had first seen "Frondier de Roach" not as the real one, but as me.
At the very least, to Selena, I wasn’t a fake.
I couldn’t even begin to say how much comfort that had given me.
"But Sir Frondier."
Then Selena spoke.
"You say you’re a fake."
"That’s right. Because it’s the truth."
"How much do you think that’s true?"
"......?"
At that, I looked at Selena.
It was hard to grasp what exactly she meant.
Selena asked,
"The days you’ve lived as Frondier."
Her eyes were gentle and soft.
And yet, there was a certain sternness in them.
"Was all of that fake?"
"......"
"If other people learn the truth someday, yes. You might end up living branded as a fake, Sir Frondier. Hehe, I guess that means I’ve got your weakness in my hands."
"......It really is a weakness."
"But what about you yourself, Sir Frondier?"
Selena looked straight into my eyes.
"You came here to save Mister Atjie."
From the moment I met Selena until now.
I’d always been the one doing the pressing.
"You understood Lord Angfer, and you forgave even the things that weren’t your sin, Sir Frondier."
Selena took a step closer to me.
Now it was my turn to be pressed.
"Was that feeling fake too?"
A smile that seemed to be provoking me.
Her playful tone, and yet it left me unable to dodge the question.
"Back then, were you not Frondier de Roach?"
"No way......!"
The moment I let those words out.
Beep─
My smartwatch rang.
That smartwatch, shining so blindingly bright and beeping so loudly.
I hadn’t been able to check what it said because of my sudden encounter with Atjie.
Only now did I finally look down at the watch.
There was a phrase I’d missed.
[Error occurred.]
