Chapter 8: Melancholia, Part 3: Something Good will Definitely Happen Tomorrow
For some reason, tears came out.
Before something that truly moves them, can people truly do nothing but let the tears flow out?
Even those tears turn to ice the moment they touch my skin, and fall to the ground in beads.
Clad over the black earth, a ridiculously large structure. Limitlessly sturdy, boorish and glass smooth stones were stacked up to make the fortress, and even for me who hasn’t the slightest familiarity with architecture, I can see it wasn’t built in a matter of a few years.
Differing to what I had become accustom to on Earth, the Demon World’s pale blue moon, and red sky were frighteningly captivating, and simply beautiful.
As if to clearly speak that this was a Fantasy World, and without any discussion, I knew it spoke the truth.
The top of the tower was constructed so that from it, you could look out in all directions.
The large four glass windows installed in a circle looked down upon the ground, but for me, one window was more than enough.
“… Hah…”
Upon being exposed to my sigh, the window’s glass cracks without a sound.
The fortress without the presence of a single lifeform was cruelly quiet, and cruelly empty.
White grains start falling from the sky.
Even if I didn’t reach out to catch one in my hand, I understood. There is no snow in the Demon World.
So for me, it was my first snow in several decades.
Looking at it like this, I’m forced to remember.
“I want to get under a kotatsu…”
AS if in correspondence with my feelings, the glass froze over, and shattered into even smaller pieces. The snow starts falling harder, and a snowstorm overtakes the castle.
… It’s not like I’m wishing for any of this, you know.
Snow falls. The Sloth Core that should have been crushed into small pieces has mostly recovered.
For someone like me who possesses Sloth Skills, something like the coldness of snow isn’t enough to affect me. But perhaps the fact that a cold sensation comes over me when I touch it is due to my memories from back on Earth.
The moment I thought that, the momentum of the snow increased further. Gray and ominous clouds swirl in the sky, and a vast number of beads of ice knock against the ground. From here, I can’t even see over the Fortress anymore.
And that was sorrowful.
As I thought that, the clouds become heavier, and the gray completely turns to black. As if a blackout had descended, the world was wrapped in darkness.
… And of that, I simply felt extreme sorrow.
Piercing cold wind circles.
The Melancholia Tree… was the guy who created this world a complete idiot? This is an infinite loop, isn’t it?
No matter how you look at it, this isn’t a desire, or a longing, or anything…
The power of Sloth starts to mix in with Melancholy.
Well, that’s yet another thing I don’t care about.
All things in creation are equally a pain, and all action holds no meaning.
Perhaps because it was the first time I had walked on my own feet in a while, my legs felt heavy.
I sat down on the spot.
Drowsiness soon came over me. It was, continuing on from when I was a human, my greatest companion.
My heart is heavy. My eyelids are heavy.
When I opened my mouth, a small voice leaked out.
“… I’m becoming quite sleepy…”
Returning to the bed is a pain. In the first place, a bed sealed in ice is nothing but hard.
I lied down, and took a big yawn.
There is neither a trace of movement, nor a presence anywhere. For the time being, I should be able to sleep at ease.
I folded my arms, and closed my eyes.
The black darkness I had become accustom to. If I may pray, then I hope that by the time I open my eyes once more, peace and repose will have fallen onto the Demon World.
AS those noble and pure intentions filled my chest, I heard a strange voice.
“… Without any interest for anything in creation, the Lord of Depravity who merely lies at the top… is it? Leigie’s past redemption, is he not?”
“Yes. But… I wonder why it is that this man never turns Friendly Fire off…”
“It’s exactly because he is Sloth, Lize. I’ll… talk with Leigie for a little. You go check the others. If you find anyone still sealed in ice, free them. With your Ira!”
“… Yes, understood.”
Of the two powers, the smaller one separated away.
But that doesn’t matter. What has captured my senses isn’t the large presence before me, but the the countless number of ones appearing within the fortress.
Simply annoying presences.
What suddenly appeared before me as if it had abruptly come into being was definitely one I had completely frozen.
At some point… no, that doesn’t matter either. It matters not when it happened.
… Yeah, it’s nothing but depressing.
Why is it that whenever I try to sleep, everything tries to get in my way?
Everything should be in a distant hell, in the depths of a silent ice.
I forcefully open my heavy eyelids.
I was shocked. I slowly observed the surroundings.
… This can’t be…
“… It’s… morning…?”
When I closed my eyes, it was definitely night. At the very least, it wasn’t a time of day where it could have become morning in the next few minutes. That didn’t change from that world to this one. A shared system.
For night and day to flip instantly, someone able to accomplish such an absurd act shouldn’t exist in this vast Demon World.
“… I see, so even before me, you can take on such an attitude…”
… Great Demon King, Kanon.
The strongest Demon Lord who governs Wrath and destruction.
With my memory space that falls a bit short when compared to humanity, it’s one of the few names I remember.
I turned onto my back, and looked up at her shadow.
“Could it be… you…”
“… Ku… you haven’t changed in the slightest, Leigie. Even when we’re meeting for the first in a long time… Well, fine. So be it. Right, I was the one who liberated the world you sealed.”
“… By turning night to day!? … when did you get that sort of…”
What a dreadful Skill…
While I’ll sleep regardless of whether it be night or day, if I had to say, I’m a night person. It’s nothing but my natural enemy.
I cover my eyes with my arm to intercept the sun’s light.
“W-wait. What are you even talking about?”
With my arm not being enough to block it all, I rolled my body to the wall, and closed my eyes again.
Now I can finally take a rest.
… No, if you think about it calmly, I’ve been doing just that for quite a while…
“No, it’s nothing…”
“Nonono, as if it could be nothing! Ku why is it that Leigie-niisama’s always like this!”
The room temperature rises all at once.
It’s just a bit hot. To get as much shade as possible, I pressed my body to the wall.
Kanon annoyingly lowered her staff onto the ground, letting out quite a nostalgic sound.
“… And what business do you have… Kanon of Ruin?”
The first response that came to my question was the sound of the floor breaking.
Just what is getting this girl so angry…
“What business… you say? Leigie, you… do you even understand what it is you’ve done?”
“Nope.”
I’m Sloth. There’s no way I would do anything.
“Ku… ah, fine. Fine. Leigie. That’s just the sort of man you are. Let me give you a special explanation of just what it is you’ve perpetuated.”
“No, I’m not particularly interested.”
“Just shut up and listen!”
Countless fist-sized balls of fire impact my body. I don’t take any damage.
For some reason, I’ve been attacked by Demons of Wrath quite frequently, so of the many resistances I have, my resistance to flame is the greatest.
“Listen, Leigie-niisama. You… You completely froze over the entire territory you had been granted! … In perpetual ice that would never melt by natural means.”
“… I see.”
My sadness, my despair is higher than mountains, wider than the sky, and deeper than the oceans.
That’s all it means.
Well, for the time being, I’ll apologize.
“It wasn’t on purpose, please forgive me.”
“… Forgive!? How many years did you think it takes to thaw frozen soil?”
“…”
There’s no way I would know something like that.
Thinking about it was pointless, so I gave up, and rolled around. I have no pillow to hold, so my arms are feeling exceedingly lonely.
Kanon’s staff pierced the cuff of my clothing. I kept rolling back and forth regardless, so the edge of my shirt was ripped.
I blankly looked up at the Great Demon King.
Flaming crimson hair, and deep red eyes like pigeon’s blood. The King of Destruction.
Seriously, just what did she come here for?
“Kanon.”
“… Be quiet. Talking to you drains my energy.”
“… Were you my sister?”
“!? … Ah!”
Kanon’s face is dyed bright red. I feel Wrath from her.
I shouldn’t have any siblings. Now and in the past.
… No, could it be I’ve just forgotten them? Come to think of it, perhaps they existed.
“L-Leigie… what you’re thinking right now is probably wrong.”
“… I see.”
Then why am I a niisama?
I closed my eyes, and started to think, but it became a pain, so I gave up. That doesn’t really matter.
Call me whatever you like.
“Ahem.”
Kanon awkwardly clears her throat, and bends her hips to match my eyelevel.
“Leigie, I came to clean up after you. No, in the first place, I came because of a report that Heard was going to dispose of your army’s generals, but… finding the entire territory covered in ice was unexpected…”
It’s more unexpected to me that you personally came for such a trivial reason.
Is the Great Demon King really just bored? Please share your good fortune with me.
“Why did you seal your territory, the Castle of Shadows, your people in ice? Why did Leigie-niisama, who left everything to Heard Lauder, and never actively moved perpetuate something like this at this point in time?”
“…”
Anything and everything doesn’t matter. Talking is a pain.
But if you force me to say it, what sealed them may have been me, but it wasn’t me.
The only ones I actively froze were Lize, and that gold-head, and that single man who’s served me since times long past.
The rest of them… simply received the side-effects of Melancholia.
They were merely frozen by that. They couldn’t withstand the very fact that I existed there.
I don’t care about the surroundings, but how sad of a truth it must be.
“Leigie-niisama, I’ve heard that Father was in your care in the past. Father’s father as well, and even the father before that were in your care. I myself, when I was a child, I’m aware that you often looked after me. So if possible, I don’t want to have to dispose of you.”
“Thank you?”
“Your welc… w-wrong. I wasn’t looking for your thanks! The army is yours, niisama, and it’s not like I came to ask you what you would do after losing your generals or anything. The freezing, and the skill you used that I have no recollection of, right now, that doesn’t really matter. All I want to ask is but one, a single simple question…”
Kanon has a serious expression as she looks into my eyes. As if the answer was lying somewhere deep inside of them.
But that’s probably a mistake. I’m sure my eyes are as empty as ever. Looking for it is a waste of time.
“Niisama… do you plan on rebelling against me, against Kanon?”
Those words triggered a vivid flashback from the depths of my memory.
Kanon of Ruin.
One who was able to injure me, a rare Demon Lord of Wrath specializing in attack power.
Regardless of enemy or ally, all that came into contact with her Wrath were reduced to ash; the King of Destruction.
And that was something from quite a while ago. Her current power should be greater than it was back then.
Perhaps even great enough to pierce through my Sloth.
What… a pain.
I’m in despair.
“Wha… niisama!?”
Kanon hurriedly lifts her face.
On her beautiful Glossy hair, and her ruby-like eyes, and everything else, a thin layer of frost descended.
“Could it be… you really plan on opposing me!?”
Flames dance, and cover her figure. Through the flickering crimson flames, I see an expression of shock.
The frost instantly melts and disappears. Flames to melt the ice. Meaning this was what melted the ice on this land, is it?
Kanon’s eyebrows lift for a moment, before going back down. She spoke, as if to reassure herself.
“No… that’s wrong. There’s no way a Lord of Sloth would ever do something so troublesome… right, of all things, niisama wouldn’t do anything that required so much activity.”
That train of thought is strange. Why does everyone keep saying its so strange for Sloth to move.
That’s wrong. The reason I don’t move is, considering the merits of moving, and the merits of not, the latter offers a higher strategic advantage.
And so, if an enemy comes, I’ll fight, and it ends up that moving will get rid of troublesome things easier, I will move. In Tokyo, I would die if I didn’t work, so I worked. To summarize, everything… depends on the situation.
It seems that among Sloth Demons, there are many who will quietly let themselves get destroyed.
Could it be that they’re idiots? Resist, man. Are you guys supposed to be shellfish or something?
No, even a shellfish would offer some resistance.
In particular, Melancholia offers some offensive power to the defensive Acedia. As if to offer that melancholy, that dark depression onto others. It covers Sloth’s weak points quite nicely.
I reach out my hand, and touch Kanon’s.
On that gesture, Kanon’s movements stopped.
… Just like this.
“Freezing Grave.”
“Eh…?”
Kanon raises a stupid sound, before being sealed in a coffin of ice in the same position she was in.
Her expression was somewhat innocent, and it’s hard to think of her as the Great Demon Lord, the recipient of everyone’s awe.
Even if you call her the Great Demon King, she’s only at this level.
And of that, I felt sorrow. I let out a sigh.
Just what is to become of this world.
“Hah… how depressing…”
“Wai… W-what the hell are you doing! K-kanon-sama!?”
Lize, who had just come through the door, frantically runs over to the sealed Kanon.
She touched the transparent high-quality ice that enclosed the suspended Great Demon King. Her cramped face looked down on me.
“Leigie… of Sloth. Like hell… this is a fraud. Even the one who dominates destruction and flames, Kanon-sama was… even if it was a surprise attack, in a single blow!? Lord of Sloth, why is it that you continue to resign yourself to Rank Three!!?”
“…”
How troublesome.
I don’t want status. I don’t plan on becoming some Great Demon King, and I don’t need the world. If I can continue living without it, then I don’t even need power.
… I merely ask for a rest deeper than all.
My mood lowers. Nothing matters at all.
It was Sloth along with Melancholy. Nihility is truth, and depression.
That is the longings that I govern.
Depravity and resignation, escape and decay, suspension and stagnation, inertia and dejection.
The Melancholy Soul Core that had grown within me some day or another covers my body in a chilling, cold power.
Something like this has never happened before. Is it because my Sloth has grown dim, or that they’re out of balance? Well, that is yet another thing that doesn’t matter.
What’s done is done. The power that had flowed out once, as if the dam had been broken, sinks everything into a hell of depression.
Answering to my feelings, ice spreads out, and the fortress Kanon thawed was iced over once more. The moisture solidifies, and the air turns cold.
The Flames of Wrath Lize had hurriedly let out wrap around my body, but without being able to break through my Sloth’s resistance, they disappear without giving me a single wound.
In this annoying world, at least a little peace and quiet.
I manifest a fist-sized ball of white light on the palm of my hand.
It’s a Skill I’m using for the first time, but I can understand. The power coming from it is incomparable to before. Melancholy Skills can’t even save the User from being part of their target.
I guess even I’ll be locked in Ice that will never melt. But I won’t die from it. Perhaps that’s fine, in and of itself.
Oh world, fall into depraved suspension.
The ball of light lets off a silvery flash as it’s deployed.
Now sleep if you will.
『Absolute Requiem』
“Wait… nu…”
Lize, who tried to deploy flames, was sucked in by the power, and frozen in the same posture.
The silver arrows pouring out from the rising ball of light spread over the world like shooting stars. Its scope far surpasses the extent of my Zone.
Wherever the arrow sticks into, the cold air deployed around it automatically takes control of the area without a sound, and changes it into a white world.
It didn’t take long for all moving things to have disappeared from the world.
It’s not like I can perceive the outside of my Zone, though, but its influence should extend beyond it.
The only thing I didn’t expect was…
“… So my Sloth’s resistance is the stronger of the two…”
… In a world where all creation was put to sleep equally, I was the only one who didn’t experience the effects.
Well, so be it.
If that’s the case, then I’ll just sleep normally.
Alone, in solitude, I’ll sleep quietly.
When I was about to close my eyes, I noticed.
It seems the world won’t let me sleep so easily.
“… I. Get. It… I got it, I understand, niisama. Your goal is…”
“…”
The ice that Kanon was locked in had silently melted. The Great Demon King’s slim figure was wrapped in a thin layer of high heat. It’s a heat that even exceeds my Melancholy.
But in her eyes, there’s no anger. Kanon’s Wrath is only ever pointed at enemies.
Does she not see me as an enemy yet? Well, that’s true. I have no enemies.
… No allies either.
To escape from reality, I turn my face away.
But what a pain.
She broke it. The ice seal.
So she can break it by herself. My power.
As I thought, Wrath is the power to deal with Sloth and Melancholy. I myself have no enemies, but Wrath can be called the natural enemy of the Sins that I govern, I guess.
“Niisama… you just want to sleep, right?”
Those were eyes filled with pity. A transparent voice.
Nothing really matters.
And her niisama, niisama is getting annoying. She has no intentions of healing that habit, does she.
“… Niisama…?”
“T-that doesn’t matter right now, does it!? Ah, dammit. Why is it that after all this, I don’t feel any hostility or killing intent from him!? Niisama always has to… dull my Ira.”
“… I see.”
If it really feels that way to you, then it’s simply because I have no hostility or killing intent.
Up until now, I have never killed another of my own distinct will. Probably, it should be like that.
I mean, in order to spend days in Sloth, I don’t need to kill others.
Having completely recovered, Kanon stabbed her staff into the ground. Her body has no injuries.
And after hesitating for a moment, she made an announcement with a clear voice.
Her tone held a strong will in it. Just like the Flames of Wrath she governed, with bright energy, power on the level that I could understand why she was the Great Demon King.
And miraculously, it was what Serge possessed, long ago.
“… Leigie of the Slaughterdolls… As the Great Demon King, I hereby declare. You are a failure as a Demon Lord. Even if you may be a Demon, doing something as outrageous as freezing over your own land, and covering it in ice and snow is something difficult to forgive.”
“… I see.”
“As punishment… niisama’s rank will be demoted to the very lowest.”
“… I see.”
“Your land will also be confiscated. All you’ll keep is this Castle of Shadows.”
“… I see.”
From the start, that was all unnecessary to me. I don’t have any particular feelings for it.
Ranking and place, go give it to someone worthy who actually wants it.
Without a sound, golden flames flow out of her staff. It isn’t hot. But the Fortress’s ice melts, and it touches all the earth as it expands. It’s a volume of power worthy of the Great Demon King. I feel power equal to or exceeding the Demon Lord I fought not too long ago.
In a voice tinged with fatigue, but without letting it spread to her expression, Kanon continued on.
“The seized land will go to the new Demon Lord, Heard Lauder… The Prideful Kaiser… I thought it wouldn’t be strange if he became a Demon Lord at any moment, but it sure took a while. That’s just how strong he built up his 『Superbia』, I guess…”
“… Yeah…”
Exactly. That’s exactly how it should be. Not that I really know.
He’s a Demon that could keep up with me over the years. There’s no doubt his way of life is a cut above other Demons.
“So just sleep in silence, Lord of Sloth.”
“Yeah.”
I’ll do just that.
And there, I quietly closed my eyes. Within my sinking conscious, it felt like I heard the Great Demon King’s Voice…
… Something good will definitely happen tomorrow.