Chapter 1515: Chapter 215 - Lucielle’s Pride (1)
Right now, I was sitting in the room I had rented at the inn.
For some reason, despite not expecting her to return, Foriel came back.
And she looked tired.
Actually, tired wasn’t even the right word to describe her current state.
She looked genuinely exhausted and worn out.
To be completely honest, she looked far more haggard than I did, which was honestly impressive. There were dark circles under her eyes, and her shoulders sagged slightly, as if she’d been carrying the weight of several countries on her back.
"It seems that Satania is already on her way back to the Demon Continent after meeting with the Emperor," she said as she sat down. "From what I’ve been able to gather, they’re planning something. Now that the newly established nation within the Great Forest is preventing the Empire from expanding its influence any further, and with the Republic growing stronger every year, I suppose it was only natural that the Emperor would seek cooperation from someone like Satania."
That was something I definitely hadn’t expected.
Well, that certainly changed things considerably.
That was definitely news that caught me off guard.
I hadn’t expected Satania to cooperate with the Empire.
Actually, after thinking about it again, I hadn’t expected Satania to cooperate with anybody.
She wasn’t exactly the sort of person who struck me as a team player. She seemed more like the type of person who’d burn down the team meeting.
Yet somehow, she’d agreed to the arrangement.
Which meant the Emperor had offered her something valuable.
And whatever that something was, it had to be valuable enough that even Satania couldn’t simply ignore it.
That was honestly the part that worried me the most.
Because if someone like Satania wanted something badly enough to cooperate with the Empire, then whatever she was after was probably not going to end well for anyone involved.
"So she’s coming back," I muttered quietly.
Foriel simply nodded in response.
"It appears so."
I leaned back against my chair.
Should I leave this place entirely?
The thought crossed my mind almost immediately after hearing that.
It wasn’t because I was scared.
At least, I didn’t think fear was the reason.
Running away and strategically retreating were also two completely different things, and I was choosing to classify this as strategic thinking rather than cowardice.
Still, there wasn’t much to gain from pushing myself too far into this situation.
It wasn’t as though I wanted to tuck my tail between my legs and flee.
I just happened to prefer staying alive.
Which, honestly, was a perfectly reasonable preference to have.
The problem was that if all the remaining Sins decided to work together, then I wasn’t entirely sure what I could actually do.
Honestly, I was fairly certain the answer would simply be death.
"It would turn into a really long battle," I said after a while. "Just like what happened with Lucielle. If I fought all of them, it probably wouldn’t accomplish anything."
The memory of my fight with Lucielle resurfaced immediately.
Five whole days of fighting and destruction.
We had fought for over five days.
Five entire days of fighting, healing, destroying everything around us, and then doing it all over again.
Neither of us had actually won that battle.
Neither of us had truly lost either.
Our strength had been almost completely identical.
If anything, I had only been slightly stronger than her, and even then, only by a small margin.
It had been less of a battle and more of an argument conducted through overwhelming violence.
Now that I’d fought Beelzebub, though, things felt different.
I slowly exhaled while remembering that fight.
The difference in power had been obvious.
Painfully obvious to the point of absurdity.
There was a gap there between us.
A massive and terrifying gap in strength.
The kind of gap that made me realize that fighting all of them at once wasn’t bravery.
It was simply an act of stupidity.
I looked over at Elise.
She looked genuinely worried about everything.
She wasn’t worried about herself at all.
She was worried about me.
She was worried about the others too.
Honestly, I thought that was kind of sweet.
She was worried about all of us more than she was worried about herself.
At the same time, I couldn’t exactly say that her priorities were entirely correct.
She was a target too.
She had every right to feel scared.
She had every right to worry about herself.
Yet somehow, she was still thinking about everyone else.
That was just the kind of person she was.
"It seems like..." I muttered quietly. "I need to try talking to her."
I lay down on the bed and I closed my eyes slowly.
And I tried to think about her.
About Lilith herself.
About the Great Black.
About the original existence.
About the source of everything.
Then, eventually, I fell asleep.
Time passed without me noticing.
When I opened my eyes again, I was standing in a field of white.
Pure white that stretched endlessly.
The ground beneath me was white.
The sky above me was white.
The horizon in the distance was white.
Everything around me was white.
It stretched endlessly in every direction.
Honestly, if someone told me this place had been designed by a person who had a severe fear of colors, I’d probably believe them.
There was no wind blowing anywhere.
There wasn’t a single sound to hear.
There wasn’t any sensation of warmth or cold either.
There was only endless white all around me.
Well, that wasn’t entirely true.
Because there was one thing that wasn’t white.
A woman was lying there.
She lay comfortably on a bed that somehow existed in the middle of absolutely nowhere.
She had long black hair.
She had crimson red eyes.
And she was leisurely drinking tea while humming to herself.
As one naturally does when existing inside someone else’s subconscious.
"It would seem thou art in somewhat of a predicament," she said without even looking at me. "Thou hast labored greatly in thy attempts to summon me. Thus, I have answered."
I blinked several times.
To be honest, I hadn’t really done anything extraordinary.
I had simply gone to sleep.
I had thought about her.
And I had hoped very hard.
Apparently, that counted as labor now.
"I didn’t exactly perform some grand ritual," I admitted.
She took another sip of tea.
"Intent oft mattereth more than method."
"...Right. I suppose that’s true."
I looked around the place again.
The surroundings were still completely white.
The area was still completely empty.
The entire atmosphere still felt strangely unsettling.
I had returned here once again.
To this strange and empty place.
To the deepest part of my own mind.
To the place where Lilith, the Great Black, still remained.
"What is it that thou wishest to discuss?" Lilith asked, finally turning her crimson eyes toward me.
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