Chapter 92
Chapter 92
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Translator: penny
Chapter: 92
Chapter Title: Son, Meets the Devil
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For some reason, Empress Eileen’s skin was sparkling as she sat in her bedroom in the imperial palace, lost in deep thought.
“How should I repay this favor to that boss…?”
She considered the what-if scenario.
What if Balak hadn’t opened the portal back then?
Beren, who would have awakened before the empress, might have escaped again.
And the odds of strange riffraff latching onto the gullible Beren would have skyrocketed.
But thanks to Balak clearing the path, that possibility vanished entirely.
And also…
“My dear, I know you’re not sleeping.”
“Cough!”
How long had it been since she’d enjoyed such a satisfying night!
The empress thought her husband’s initial beastly ferocity had been truly impressive.
Feeling it would be too selfish to keep this treasure to herself, she immediately sent a DM to her old comrades-in-arms.
And the next day.
“Duke Valentrot enters!!”
“Duke Rosen enters…!!”
“Marquis Fels…!!”
“Mi……!!”
Her comrades stormed into the imperial palace via portal.
On the surface, it looked like a group of beauties in their twenties and thirties enjoying girl talk in a beautiful garden.
But inwardly, it was a debate among witches on how to devour their husbands.
“Your Majesty… that medicine. Is it really?”
“The rumors floating around the palace can’t all be lies.”
“Why would I lie about it?”
As the saying goes, birds of a feather flock together—the empress’s comrades were all extreme devotees who loved only their husbands.
Like the empress, they maintained their youth through the mysteries of the East.
Yet there was no helping how frail their husbands had grown compared to decades ago.
They all shared the same worry, and now a solution had appeared?
The empress shared a bit of the medicine Beren had brought, urging them to give it a try.
“This, this is…”
“Gulp…”
“The tip? Don’t dilute it—feed it straight from the bottle. That’s how you’ll see the best results.”
From now on, the women’s husbands would curse Beren and dread the nights.
But this only strengthened the empire’s bonds.
With the most important agenda item(?) settled, it was time for the next one.
“I gathered you all to seek your advice.”
“Is it about the Abyss of the Fallen?”
“That’s the dungeon where this medicine came from.”
The powerhouses showed great interest at the prospect of something that would enrich their lives even further.
“Hmm, this is a first.”
“To receive a favor from a dungeon boss…”
“No wonder Your Majesty is so troubled.”
The women pooled their heads to deliberate.
“Money, honors, positions—none of that would mean anything to it. Sealing the dungeon to guarantee the boss’s survival would backfire.”
“Exactly. From what it said, it seems to crave battle with some destined hero who’ll come seeking it.”
“But doing nothing would be dishonorable, so we’re truly at an impasse.”
How exactly could they repay this warrior?
Soon, a few ideas emerged.
“What if we allow an even more diverse array of entrants than before?”
“But that would mean the empire forfeiting massive profits. And besides…”
“Your Majesty still fears other races dominating like they used to.”
The demihumans had only just reached a level playing field with humans.
But the dungeon’s byproducts could let them dominate again.
“It’s fine for now, of course. But later? Different story.”
“Truly pointless races with nothing but long lifespans.”
Either way wouldn’t work!
Every scenario they considered was blocked.
So they opted for the simplest approach.
“Sigh… In the end, we’ll have to hear it out directly.”
“That’s the conclusion, then.”
And so the empress decided to send someone into the dungeon.
The underlings who would suffer miserably due to the top brass’s decision became truly pitiable.
But that wasn’t the end of it.
“Your Majesty, isn’t there a being that emerged from that very dungeon?”
“I hear the doll came out to gather intelligence. Helping it might not be a bad idea.”
“Oh ho, now that you mention it, such a being does exist.”
Thus, the intelligence agents relentlessly pursuing Anima were hit with a bolt from the blue.
************
Just as the imperial palace decided to send people to the dungeon and to Anima.
What had Anima’s group been up to until Beren was captured by the empress?
Rewinding a bit: Anima took the mysterious boy who had appeared from the devil worshipper’s necklace and set off.
Along with the female demon Aretia, whom they’d met in the forest before.
While traveling together, they asked the boy his name.
But since the boy had no name.
Anima decided to give him one.
“R-Really?!”
“He loves it so much, might as well make it official. So, what name are you giving this boy?”
“Ludwig suits him.”
“Lud…wig.”
The boy’s face lit up at the name Ludwig, clearly pleased.
Seeing him so delighted at a gift from the one he admired, Aretia smiled faintly.
“Anima, does the name have any meaning?”
“It derives from Ludwig, meaning ‘famous warrior.’ It’s also the name of a great hunter who lost everything yet reclaimed his honor.”
“There’s a word like that? Still, it’s quite a fine… Huh?”
Names with meaning are given in hopes the recipient becomes that ideal.
Aretia knew the boy’s identity to some extent but followed Anima’s lead in playing ignorant, keeping silent.
Having decided to travel with Ludwig, Anima’s group began exploring the world’s corners, and the boy followed Anima like a master and father figure.
Ludwig gained all sorts of experiences tagging along with Anima.
“Kyaaaaah!!”
“It’s the hero’s tomb!!”
“No, Anima!! I said hide even a little!!”
“But we got everything worth getting!”
“C-Crazy! That many guards and knights?! Master! Lady Aretia! Take me with you!!”
They’d sneak into a city only for Anima’s identity to be exposed, forcing an escape.
“…Master, this is.”
“Ludwig, it’s your hunt. End its life with respect. If that’s too hard, I’ll help.”
When Ludwig first tried hunting in the forest and trembled before the fallen deer, Anima steadied his hand.
Pewng!
Ping ping!
“Uwaaak!”
Entering another dungeon for scouting, the excited Ludwig in the new place triggered a trap.
Aretia laughed seeing curses spill from his mouth.
“Pfft, turns out Ludwig’s got a foul mouth.”
“It’s just words. Besides, the city had far worse…”
Of course, Anima had a word for his potty-mouthed disciple.
“It’s not about the words. You lost control just now.”
“Arrows were flying from everywhere. I thought I’d be badly hurt—”
“Do you want your final words to be something like that?”
“…No.”
“Panicking in crisis makes you useless. Overcome it and make it your strength.”
Under Anima’s constant discipline, Ludwig began minding his speech and actions. Not even a month had passed since they met, yet he was growing by leaps and bounds.
During this journey, Aretia kept asking Anima about Balak.
“You’re awfully interested in my father.”
“Ahahaha… W-Well.”
“Master! I’m super curious about Grandmaster too!”
“Well, it’s not like it wears out from telling. I’ll share.”
And so they passed the time happily as Anima spoke of Balak.
But not everything was rosy.
Devil worshippers began attacking to reclaim the boy Anima had taken.
But could those beings stand against Anima?
And Aretia wasn’t one to sit idle either.
She aided Anima with magic.
“A demon with superior physical prowess using grand magic… Truly fascinating.”
“Anima, that’s demon discrimination.”
“W-What?!”
Thanks to these two powerhouses, the worshippers were helpless—or so it seemed. But Anima’s group now faced an assault on an entirely different scale.
***************
Deep in a forest bathed in moonlight.
Anima’s group was resting by a lake when they spotted devil worshippers all around and assumed battle positions.
Feeling an alien vibe from these worshippers, who exuded a completely different aura than before, a figure in blood-red robes stepped forward quietly.
The being, wearing a grotesque smile too sinister and bizarre for a human, soon introduced himself as Beljebura and opened his mouth—
“Enough with the boring, pretentious talk.”
“Hey, let me speak!”
Facing the fully transformed Anima, Beljebura raised both hands skyward.
“We’ve heard plenty that that’s your true form! You think we came without countermeasures?!”
“He’s spilling all his own secrets.”
“Shut up!”
Before Beljebura could act, Anima lunged, severing his head.
Contrary to expectations of instant death, the head floated in the air.
“Preparations are complete.”
“?!”
Woooooong!!
Suddenly, an enormous volume of blood erupted from the severed neck, beginning to envelop Anima.
But would that work on the accelerated Anima?
She escaped the blood’s range in an instant.
“Tch, a shame. But now the true god descends upon this place!”
“Anima, those guys are surely—”
“Yes, looks like they’re summoning that devil.”
Soon, the worshippers’ bodies crumbled to ash as the space warped dramatically.
Even as Aretia tried to disrupt with powerful magic, she couldn’t halt the ritual.
Far from panicking, Anima and Aretia boldly welcomed the devil, prompting Ludwig to speak up.
“No, aren’t Master and Lady Aretia too calm?!”
“Disciple, that’s not the true body—it’s just an avatar.”
“With gods watching from above, no way the real one shows.”
“Th-Then, between that devil and Master, who’s stronger?”
“If the true body came, it might be a bit tough.”
“You’d lose?”
“We win.”
Ludwig trusted his master’s victory declaration mid-summon and retreated under Aretia’s protection to avoid being a burden.
The devil’s avatar appeared at once, activating some power that wrapped the area in a massive red barrier.
Anyone could see a fight was imminent.
Yet the devil’s avatar calmly addressed Anima—
“Long tongue.”
—only to fail!
It had to face the charging Anima head-on.
Still, the devil rattled off its piece amid the battle.
“Why must we, who’ve done nothing wrong, suffer persecution from the gods?!”
“That’s obviously because…”
“From the start, when the gods created the world and its beings, they instilled no basic morals. Yet they began denying us—the survivors of that trash heap of a world! And we are their children too!”
Ranting about abandonment by their parental gods, the devil extended a hand to the momentarily paused Anima.
“So, doll. Take my hand and change this rotten world!”
“…So, if I join you, we can really change the world?”
“I promise! It’s a grand deal to make you the protagonist of this world! Now answer! Will you join me?!”
Anima pondered the devil’s offer to reshape the world together.
But her answer was set!
“However, I refuse.”
“What?!”
“One of my favorite things, Anima’s, is telling ‘NO’ to fools who think they’re one step ahead!”
Anima began stabbing facts into the devil.
“All those murders, rapes, cannibalism, massacres, tortures, human sacrifices, body experiments you’ve done—honestly unnecessary. Why bother?”
“That’s…!”
“You did it all just for ‘fun.’ And you could’ve improved yourselves but didn’t. Hell, you even treated Ludwig like an experiment subject.”
“I-I won’t deny our deeds! But innocents will keep suffering under the gods who rule this world! Just like your father!”
Anima was curious too.
Why the gods made such choices…
Still, between these two options, her pick was clear.
“A beast fallen from grace, donning a god’s skin—what sort of world would it make? Should be entertaining.”
“Damn you! You’ll live a false life in the end—why deny it?!”
“What you believe as ‘truth’ is truth. And choosing the lesser evil over the worst is obvious.”
Soon, a red halo bloomed on her leg like a flower.
A direct hit would obliterate even the avatar, so the devil made its final spasm.
“That disciple you drag around as ‘apprentice’ came from me! In other words, a devil like me!”
“I already knew that.”
“M-Master?!”
Ludwig panicked at being a devil and his idol knowing everything.
But thanks to Anima and Aretia treating him with ‘truthful’ sincerity thus far, the boy calmly accepted his identity.
Satisfied with her unshaken disciple, Anima pressed the button once more.
“In the end, only ‘truth’ survives. ‘True actions’ born from truth never perish. And whether your actions stem from truth… or mere pretense of evil—soon we’ll know. Can you truly endure without vanishing, devil?”
“Urk?!”
The instant the devil tried to move.
Anima’s leg, now a red flash, gained a second halo.
The doubly overlapped power was enough to damage even the true body beyond the avatar.
Losing sight of the accelerated Anima, the devil uttered its final death cry.
“To think Iiiiiii!!!!”
Kwaaaaaang!
Truly, mere pretense of evil.
*******************
The sun slowly rose beyond the horizon.
Under its light, Aretia watched the ever-closer master and disciple with a gentle smile.
But with the days growing warmer, it was time for her to leave.
“Huh?! Time to part already?!”
“Gotta meet Anima’s father before spring hits.”
“Why suddenly for Grandmaster…”
“Disciple, there’s reasons. And with our fates intertwined like this, we might meet again someday. Right, Aretia?”
“Of course. So get along with Anima, Ludwig.”
“…Got it. Then Lady Aretia! Let’s meet again for sure!”
Where there is meeting, there is parting.
Aretia parted from the two and set off for the Abyss of the Fallen.
On the road, she closed her eyes briefly, then opened them.
What sort of person was Balak—resembling Anima yet even more powerful?
As her heart warmed like the rising sun.
Aretia quietly anticipated their future encounter.