280. Confrontation
280. Confrontation
- 1 -
The capital of the Demon World, Pandemonium.
The villa of the Baritra Marquis Household, located on its outskirts.
Crimson day and crimson night. Even in the Demon World where eternal twilight hung, this was one of the particularly splendid mansions—a place usually submerged in silence.
Only when a great connection (Fate) occurred did it briefly regain its liveliness.
Usually occupied solely by servants and attendants, it bustled today.
Because a visit from two nobles was scheduled.
Cheolkeong!
The golden-framed great gate swung open with the sound of a lock releasing, and a figure slowly stepped into the garden.
"Welcome, Secret Duke."
Velled Baritra, otherwise called 'Cold Flame,' greeted the guest with a tense voice.
His gaze was fixed upon the boy walking before him.
"So you are Velled Baritra."
The boy's voice was deep, ill-suited to his apparent age.
"I trust the Wrath Duke is in good health."
"Thanks to your concern, he fares well."
A small-framed boy wearing a silver mask. But his true nature was...
The oldest Demon Realm Archduke on the surface, Dantalion.
Though Demon Realm Archdukes were ranked below the Archdukes of the Seven Sins, they were not existences a marquis could dare to ignore.
"Has the first guest arrived?"
At Dantalion's question, asked with his hands clasped behind his back, Velled inclined his waist slightly and extended an arm inward.
"Already arrived and waiting."
To be frank, Velled could not understand the circumstances.
The fact that Libertas was a child of the Gluttony Duke had not been publicly announced, and Velled did not know it either.
Furthermore, since the First Demon Queen Vellastella's support was unofficial, he could not know that the gifts she sent to the Mammon Trading Company were being delivered to Libertas.
What he knew was that Libertas was bound by promise to his daughter Serica, and that House Baritra neither fully supported her nor was hostile to her—only that much.
And Libertas's power had not grown strong enough to rival a Demon Realm Archduke, so what reason could there be for her and the Archduke to conduct not an 'audience' but a 'confrontation'?
'If only I could listen in...'
Velled recalled Libertas's face.
He could not understand what deeds she committed while roaming about with that face, which always looked so gentle and frail.
From the very first meeting, she had been an existence whose inner thoughts were utterly unknowable.
There would be no room to hear a proper answer even if he interrogated her.
"Please, drink."
Velled inwardly shook his head as he personally guided Dantalion into the villa.
- 2 -
A waiting room before entering the reception chamber. The interior was dark.
What illuminated this place were small candles set upon the table, and a fireplace burning on the wall.
It was a space excellent for calm conversation, but Dantalion felt discomfort.
Because he had perceived that the darkness was someone's power.
"Stop playing games and come out."
A moment after Dantalion's voice fell.
Seureuk.
The darkness parted and a small woman revealed herself.
The form of a young woman wearing a black dress.
White skin and long black hair, and violet eyes sparkled within the darkness.
At a glance, she appeared to be an ordinary human, or a demon.
An existence that seemed utterly powerless, save for being beautiful.
But around her, darkness flowed, bearing up the hem of her dress.
'... The darkness of Gluttony. No, not only that.'
Dantalion recognized it and narrowed his eyes.
"... So you are Libertas."
Dantalion's voice was filled with wariness.
Outwardly, it was merely a meeting between a boy and a beauty, but in truth, it was a confrontation between two existences who would decide the fate of the Eastern Continent.
"Good afternoon. Dantalion."
Libertas's voice was amiable, as if addressing an old friend.
Had she not committed the insolence of calling the Archduke by name without honorifics, Dantalion would not have even had cause to feel displeasure.
"Come here. I prepared tea."
When Libertas gestured, the door of the reception chamber opened.
Red sunlight streaming through the large window of the reception chamber dyed the waiting room crimson, then when Libertas gestured once more, a thin darkness draped down like a curtain and vanished.
The interior was tinted azure.
Ttak.
When she snapped her fingers, two tea sets rose above the table in the reception chamber.
A purple magic circle supported the tea sets.
"Tea is essential for conversation. It is a human world thing, but the taste is not bad."
Dantalion closed his lips.
He felt inwardly displeased at her continued informal speech, but he did not show it in his expression.
"Let us move straight to the main topic."
Ignoring the tea, he tried to begin the conversation immediately, but...
"That is fine too. Since we are both people with precious time. But you know, the virtue of nobility is waste and extravagance—time is included in that as well."
Libertas paid no heed to his attitude, pouring the tea and tilting the cup once before straightening her posture and looking at him.
It was an attitude that precariously balanced on the tightrope between deliberate disregard and courteous respect.
In the end, Dantalion also lifted his teacup and took a sip before proceeding to the main topic.
"Tell me about Wepar."
Despite the warm tea entering him, the tone flowing from his mouth remained cold.
Behind the mask, sharp eyes observed the changes in Libertas's expression.
"Wepar?"
She tapped her lips with a still-calm face and tone.
An action suggesting a purely innocent impression. Then, as if realizing something, she spoke in a gentle voice.
"Ah, the mermaid. She was discovered while exploring my territory and taken captive. It was quite an interesting incident."
Dantalion's gaze sank further.
His fingers lightly tapped the armrest, continuing to reveal subtle discomfort.
"She said she escaped from you."
"She did."
Libertas nodded nonchalantly.
That fact was clearly an admission of her own lack of ability. But her attitude was as if such a thing could not harm her dignity.
"I promised generous treatment to acquire her, but she ultimately returned to you."
Coincidentally, both statements were 'truth.' Dantalion perceived that as well.
"She said she told you many things."
An ordinary person would have felt confusion at that fact, but Dantalion merely withheld judgment and focused on learning more.
Perceiving this, an unusual glint flickered in Libertas's eyes too.
"She did. But 'ordinary' beings often lie to survive, do they not? I was also in the process of verifying her statements."
Libertas raised a hand and swept back her hair.
The subtle light dwelling in her violet eyes entered Dantalion's vision as well.
A sharp tension coiled between the two Demon Lords.
On the surface, it was a courteous meeting, but beneath it lay razor-edged hostility and wariness.
Dalkak.
Dantalion lifted his tea first, and Libertas cut and ate cake.
It was a signal to change the subject.
"I heard that your Demon Realm has already established itself at the heart of the Eastern Continent. Congratulations. On becoming an excellent junior and competitor."
At Dantalion's words, Libertas nodded and smiled.
"Thank you. I am pleased to see a broad-minded senior. To treat a junior who might steal the Demon King's seat so generously."
"The Demon King, you say."
Dantalion's lips twisted slightly. Seeing this, Libertas felt surprise.
He had revealed anger at an unexpected subject.
"Dantalion?"
That anger was fleeting, but it was extremely deep.
And that fragment of anger, too, was brief and meaningful.
"We cannot become the Demon King."
A strange light of indefinable color seeped from beyond Dantalion's mask.
It was a sign that his power was leaking out.
But it quickly subsided.
"I hear you are carrying out a plan called 'Solar Eclipse.'"
Libertas, who had been briefly staring at Dantalion as he returned to the original topic, soon nodded.
A light of understanding flickered in her eyes, but she concealed it while emptying her teacup.
Jyororok...
"It seems Wepar told you even that much."
Lowering the teacup and refilling it, the black-clad woman answered with a voice like pearls flowing over velvet.
"That plan is one of several plans I possess. It dreams of harmony between monsters and humans."
"Harmony?"
Dantalion's voice was filled with doubt.
The coexistence of humans and monsters was a concept he had never heard of in his entire life.
"Yes. The cycle of humans hunting monsters, and monsters devouring humans. I want to break that."
"That is a thought unbecoming of a demon. Excessively idealistic."
"Idealistic..."
Libertas tilted her head sideways.
Her long black hair, softly waving, flowed down along her jawline.
Dantalion averted his gaze from that sight.
Even knowing she was an enemy, she possessed a strange power to catch the eye.
She was an existence that aroused possessiveness.
"No, I merely intend to create an appropriate relationship of mutual benefit. So that they do not eliminate each other, but grow together."
Dantalion thought for a moment, then shook his head again.
Such an idea could not possibly be accepted.
Perhaps for humans, who originally lived mixed with various races—but for demons, who regarded humans only as prey, it was an impossible way of thinking.
So to do such a thing...
'She must become the Demon King.'
But Dantalion swallowed those words inwardly.
Unconsciously, he clenched his hand.
Because anger was rising again.
The Demon King had remained silent throughout, even as countless Dungeon Lords emerged and vanished on the surface.
Even when a critically important figure disappeared.
That was an attitude that could not be interpreted as intending to select the next successor.
"Further conversation seems meaningless."
Dantalion shook his head and rose from his seat.
"Indeed."
Libertas saw him off from where she sat.
As he left the room and briefly glanced back at her, a strange light flickered in Dantalion's eyes.
Between the two existences, space warped slightly.
It was a final test of power.
"When we meet next..."
The lips revealed beneath the mask twisted once more.
"It will not end in conversation."
It was a concise declaration of war.
Libertas smiled a gentle smile. So excessively kind that it felt rather chilling.
"Perhaps."
That voice, too, was still soft.
"I hope we will not encounter each other before that day comes."
The one closest to the Demon King, and the one who sought to become the Demon King.
The fateful meeting of two existences thus came to an end.
- 3 -
When Dantalion left, stillness settled over the room.
Dalkak.
I put down the teacup and exhaled a deep breath. The tension eased little by little.
The existence I just met was no opponent to be taken lightly.
The oldest Demon Realm Archduke, the one who bore the Name of Secrets.
The cold rationality and cunning read from him were not inferior even compared to the high-ranking nobles of the Demon World.
'That's how he survived for 200 years, I suppose.'
Among the six archdukes of the surface, Dantalion alone was a name quite familiar to me.
Because he was an existence encountered as a 'hostile NPC Dungeon Lord' in the world of 'Million Dungeon Lord 1.'
An existence who appeared in the fifth year after a player Dungeon Lord had grown beyond a certain level.
Dantalion was a figure who exposed the Dungeon Lord's location to humans, dispatched adventurers, and triggered events attacking the exhausted player.
The difficulty was so vicious that users who gave up the game unable to defeat him numbered in the dozens.
Perhaps because of that, facing him directly evoked a strange sentiment.
Because he had been my final adversary in 'Million Dungeon Lord 1,' just before I seized the position of 'Demon King's Successor.'
Even if our relationship had been antagonistic at times, was it not natural to be glad upon seeing a figure who had stood at an important, positive turning point?
Thus, questions remained. The first of these questions was this.
'Where did that player Dungeon Lord go?'
Thinking simply, since I, a 'player Dungeon Lord,' had come to this world, perhaps time had passed in a world where that player no longer existed—making it the world of 'MLD 2.'
But... what if the successor had been decided once and then disappeared?
This question arose from Dantalion's peculiar attitude.
[We cannot become the Demon King.]
These words he spat out.
During that brief moment, the boiling anger in his voice was roughly expressed.
'Perhaps...'
An intuition came that the 'player Dungeon Lord' might be connected to the reason the current Demon Realm Archdukes chose to maintain the status quo.
Here, a final question arose.
If the Demon King's successor had been confirmed, that existence must be protected.
The reason was...
"Because the Demon King dies. Without fail."
The words flowed from my mouth of their own accord.
Words that, if anyone heard, might have caused me to suffer for being terribly insolent.