Side Story Chapter 200
“You’re coming inside me...?” Creshua blankly repeated.
“It’s not a big deal, it’s just like what I’m doing right now. As you can see, this isn’t my real body,” Joshua explained.
Creshua’s eyes shone as he focused his mana into them. “Two souls inside one body... Yes, that’s certainly something Crevasse never told me about.”
Ever since he had been born, he had been hidden in the Palace’s underground vault. He had no experience and had learned everything he knew from Crevasse, his father. Reading the numerous books stored in Crevasse’s subspace helped fill the gaps in his knowledge.
He had lived this way for only just over a decade, but dragons never forgot what they read or saw. Creshua’s knowledge was similar to—in fact, transcended—most great sages’.
Joshua grinned. “Don’t you want to know what would happen if a god-slayer was in a dragon’s body?”
Dragons were inherently inquisitive creatures and their thirst for knowledge rivaled most mages’. However, they didn’t have anything left to learn because they were born with an astronomical wealth of information inside their heads.
“...I’ve never heard of a human’s soul inside a dragon’s body, but there’s something else it reminds me of,” Creshua murmured.
“Huh?”
“You sounded like a demon’s sweet talk to lure a human into a trap. Crevasse told me to be especially careful around that kind of person...”
Joshua flinched.
Lilith burst into laughter. ‘He has a point.’
-...Do I look that evil?
‘He’s still a young dragon, so you might just look like a kidnapper trying to tempt a child by waving a lollipop at them. It shouldn’t surprise you that a child was taught to never follow such wicked adults.’
-That hurts my feelings a little.
‘Don’t give up. You just need to explain it in easy words. He’s a pitiful child,’ Lilith said bitterly.
-Pitiful? You must be forgetting that he’s a dragon.
‘Why does his race matter right now? Dragon or not, that doesn’t change the fact that he’s a little child who just lost his father. Besides, you have to fill in for his father now. You’ll have to do a good job raising him so he won’t be called an evil dragon like his father was.’
Joshua let out a sigh. He knew Lilith was right. He’d even promised Crevasse that he would take care of Creshua.
-Why was a woman like you called a witch?
‘I know, right? I wasted my last good years to get married and now I have to live alone for the rest of my life.’
-You know, I know many unmarried old bachelors—
‘Forget it. Focus on the young dragon that needs your care, okay?’
Joshua turned back to the issue at hand. How could he coax—no, persuade this hatchling?
“...Creshua,” Joshua quietly said. “Is there a goal or a dream you’re desperate to fulfill?”
“Why are you asking that all of a sudden?” Creshua tilted his head in confusion.
“Even if you turn down my offer and give up on having Crevasse’s revenge, there must be something you want to do aboveground.”
“...Well...” Creshua trailed off.
Creshua was truly unique. As Joshua understood, dragon hatchlings were the most inquisitive children in the world—but Creshua was not. He didn’t take interest in anything in particular; he acted like a sage who had transcended mortal matters. Joshua had met such people several times before.
‘He looks like he’s given up on life,’ Lilith whispered.
-...I guess I’m not the only one who got that impression.
‘He’s still a young dragon... Do you think he’s actually shocked by his father’s death?’
-Let’s hear him out.
“...If possible, I would like to find a dream of some kind. I’m the last dragon in this world, or so I’ve heard. I don’t want to live for an eternity just so my race won’t go extinct—that feels like it’s going to be very boring.”
After a moment of silence, Joshua smiled from ear to ear.
“Then it’s decided.”
“...What?”
“I’ll help you look for a reason to keep on living as I stay inside you.”
Creshua blinked.
“I’ll show you what parents and families are and how fun it is to keep on living. I’ll make sure that you have so much fun that you don’t want to die.” Joshua slowly extended his hand toward Creshua. “How does that sound? Didn’t I pique your interest?”
After watching Joshua’s hand for a moment, Creshua grabbed his hand back. With his typical nonchalant look, Creshua replied, “If I don’t have fun like you promised, the deal is off and I’m going to kick you out from me before you can have what you want.”
* * *
After Babel’s escape, only Meric the demon and Carmen remained inside the mobile metal cage as the army of Hubalt traveled toward the mountain in northern Avalon. The ruckus outside had faded away at some point.
“It’s quiet outside now. Hey, you said something quite interesting earlier,” Meric said. “You want revenge on the Shining Darkness—no, Joshua Sanders, the human?”
Carmen remained silent, but Meric kept on talking to her because she was one of the reasons why he had entered the cage in the first place. They were finally the only people inside the cage now, and even without her saying anything, Meric could see that Carmen von Agnus was in all sorts of negative emotions like spite and malice. Meric could try scouring the whole continent, but wouldn’t find a soul that was as tainted as Carmen’s.
“I can help you. I assure you that with my abilities—”
Meric stopped talking when Carmen’s baleful gaze landed on him.
“Why don’t you shut your mouth? I heard a lot about demons’ bullshit. You demons trick humans out of their souls when they’re weak.”
“Souls? Hehehe. You’ve read too many children’s books. What am I supposed to do with a soul?”
“...What?” Carmen gave him a confused look.
“Yeah, we used to take human souls from the Human Realm and offer them to the Demon Spirit in the past because that guy asked for it.”
“‘That guy’...?”
“Why? Are you surprised? He’s now a nobody. He got wiped from existence. Why else would we be interested in souls? It’s the same for the other side; there are no more gods in this world. ”
Carmen glared at Meric for a long time. “...Even if that’s true, even your god couldn’t do anything to Joshua Sanders. How can you be sure that you can take him out?”
“My title is the Permeation Demon.”
“So?”
“Don’t you want to know why I’m called that?” Meric asked.
“Not really.”
“Are you still not interested even though my ability is related to how I’ll eliminate Joshua Sanders?”
Carmen couldn’t say anything; she would be lying if Meric hadn’t piqued her interest.
“...How?”
Meric smiled wickedly. That was exactly the answer he’d been waiting for.
“I need your permission to explain it.”
“Permission for what?”
“I’m only able to use my ability with the other party’s permission.”
“That’s a very tricky and cumbersome requirement,” Carmen said, not bothering to hide her sneer. There couldn’t be a more useless ability in a battle of life or death than an ability that required her opponent’s permission.
“Regardless of what it is, the trickier its requirements are, the stronger the ability is.”
“...Well, I’m in no position to laugh at somebody else. As you can see, I lost the ability to use my mana, meaning I’m practically just an ordinary human.” Carmen snorted self-deprecatingly. “Do you really think you can achieve your goals even if I give you my permission?”
Bel had pushed Carmen into a bottomless pit of despair by shattering the mana hall in her abdomen beyond recognition.
“It doesn’t matter; what matters to me is the experiences and emotions engraved in a human’s soul, not their feeble body.”
“Then do what you want with it.” Carmen slowly stood up and spread her arms, giving Meric her full permission. She had given up on everything a long time ago and had abandoned herself to despair. While trying to get revenge against her mortal enemy, she had been taken hostage by another enemy and suffered unspeakable humiliation. However, she had to hold her hopes for that very enemy who had violated her! Although she wished those fucking Joshua and Bel killed each other, she had gone up against both of them, so she knew better than anyone else how slim the chance is.
“Can I take that as permission to use my ability on you?”
“Don’t make me repeat myself.”
Meric’s demonic power filled up the metal cage. “I need your verbal consent. Carmen von Agnus, do you agree that I, Meric the demon, may use my ability of permeation on you?”
“Stop pestering me. I already gave you full permission. I’ll fall for any one of your wicked schemes if it means I get to have revenge on Joshua Sanders!”
“...Then the contract has been made.” Meric grinned.
The thick demonic power in the air came together and entered Carmen’s open mouth.
Carmen gasped. No, it wasn’t just her mouth. Her nose, mouth... the black smoke was absorbed into every hole in her head. Carmen’s irises grew so much that the whites of her eyes couldn’t be seen more. That was just the beginning of the surprise. Meric turned into a cloud of black smoke, exiting his current body like a molting cicada, and went into Carmen’s mouth.
“...Urgh!” Carmen, who had been shaking like an aspen leaf, froze. She slowly looked down with eyes that had been dyed entirely black.
“...I finally have a new body.”
Meric lightly punched the cage’s thick metal wall.
Boom!
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