Swords, Dogs, and Bones Are What You Make of Them - 8
The central bank of Ainharden, a city that boasted a scale among the greatest in the world.
Having been told that the Full Moon Stone was carefully stored within, I found myself visiting alongside Hades.
"Welcome, Lady Hades!"
The moment we set foot inside the building, every employee in the bank lined up from the entrance. They bowed deeply toward us, greeting us with a grand and ceremonial welcome.
The sight seemed familiar enough to Hades; she waved a hand and sent the staff back to their posts.
"You're getting the VIP treatment."
"Kyahaha! Oh, my Lord~!"
"We're not on air right now."
"Ahem! The entire building is under my name. So you may as well consider every one of those humans an extension of my will."
"I told you to earn back only what I'd lost, and you went and built an empire."
"Does it displease you, my Lord? If so, I shall issue a demolition order this very instant…!"
"That's not it. I'm just a little surprised."
Who in their right mind would complain about being told they never had to worry about retirement? It was simply that the scale had ballooned beyond anything I could keep up with. Going from commoner to billionaire overnight would do that to anyone.
Even back when I was baiting Pingcheng, the sense of dissonance had given me a hard time. Before the possession, I'd been a broke college student who got by on cup ramen for meals. I had no idea what the attitude or mindset of an arrogant rich man was supposed to look like.
"Then shall we maintain the status quo?"
"Yeah. So just show me where you've stored the Full Moon Stone."
"Understood."
Hades advanced into the depths without so much as a security check. Trailing after her like a lost puppy, I arrived at a vault chamber whose doors stood as tall as a castle gate—a vault door of such bulk and weight that no human strength could ever hope to open it.
Yet when Hades flicked her fingers, it began to open with a thunderous roar. Through the slowly widening gap, a golden light came pouring out. Gold coins and every manner of precious metal filled the chamber to the brim.
I could no longer even begin to estimate the full extent of Hades's total assets. The vault she had opened was on a level that would not have been out of place as a royal treasure storehouse.
"That is the Full Moon Stone you sought, my Lord."
"Where?"
At the tip of Hades's pointing finger sat a small stone shimmering with white energy. Without a doubt, the Full Moon Stone—my shadow was bouncing up and down, which made it certain. It must have been overjoyed to find the treasure that had been stolen from it.
But I couldn't return the Full Moon Stone to Chaos just yet. I still had to resolve Hesha's matter, after all.
"Here it is, my Lord."
"Ah, thanks."
Hades went and retrieved the item herself, then dropped to one knee and presented the Full Moon Stone. I accepted it with a somewhat awkward feeling and examined it more closely. It was strange seeing the Full Moon Stone from the novel as a real, physical object.
"My Lord, if it would not be impertinent, may I ask one question?"
"What is it?"
"What do you intend to do with a stone that looks so utterly worthless… Hgyaah!"
"Grrrr…!"
Chaos had already leapt out of my shadow and clamped its jaws around Hades's leg. Apparently it was furious that its treasure had been mocked. By the terms of our contract, attacking without my permission was another violation—but I decided to look the other way this time. Anyone would feel rotten if someone belittled something precious to them.
"Wh-What the hell! You little son of a bi—"
"Watch your mouth. That thing may look cute, but it's Chaos—one of the Four Evil Beasts."
"What?! Th-That Four Evil Beast? The one I heard even the First Demon King gave up trying to tame?"
"That's right. That Chaos. Right now it's a watchdog that follows my orders, though."
"Ooh…!"
Even as her leg was being chewed on, Hades's eyes sparkled. The thought that maybe it didn't even hurt reminded me that fretting over a Lich was pointless. Being undead, her sense of pain was probably dulled.
"You have been chosen by a magic sword, laid plans to complete the Primordial Magic Sword, and now you have even tamed a Four Evil Beast that the First Demon King himself could not! This unworthy one, Hades! I have not a single regret about my choice to follow you, my Lord!"
"Hmm…?"
Looking back, every fateful encounter I'd gained since coming to this world had been connected to the First Demon King. I hadn't obtained a single remnant of the First Hero—I'd just been absorbing the Demon King's power nonstop.
Was it really okay for someone who wasn't even a demon to claim the Demon King's power? Wouldn't I stop being human? All sorts of worries came crashing down on me.
Then Frach's voice reached my ears—not my mind.
"Do not fret overmuch. The notion that the Demon King's power is impure is nothing but a prejudice born of human invention."
"Prejudice? That's a bit rich, considering they started with kidnapping Rene and went on to spread plagues through villages and all sorts of inhumane acts."
At my pointed remark, Hades flinched. The latter—the plague—had been one of her own misdeeds, after all. I hadn't meant to scold Hades, but the Demon King's army's schemes I'd experienced firsthand left me little choice.
"Your premise is flawed from the start. The Demon King's army are not humans, are they? Acts that humans find unforgivable are simply natural to us. Moreover, in the case of the plague, humans had first poisoned the wells of a demon village—we merely repaid them in kind."
I glanced at Hades to check the truth of it, and she carefully nodded. Well, thinking of the horrific biochemical weapons used even in the World Wars, humanity's atrocities weren't all that different.
"Fine, I'll admit I was being narrow-minded. But I still can't accept that the Demon King doesn't use impure power. A lot of the powers the Demon King uses are forbidden arts, aren't they?"
"That is only because the price is uncontrollable—that is why they were designated as forbidden. The Demon King takes responsibility for even those constraints and uses them anyway, so what is the problem? Forbidden arts are, by and large, an unspoken rule born of the mindset that 'we can't handle it, so nobody else should use it either.' A true powerhouse is one who pays no mind to such petty things!"
Faced with Frach's impassioned speech, I finally threw up my hands in surrender. There was plenty I could have argued, but at the point where I'd already absorbed the Demon King's power, denying it was meaningless. Necromancy, Blood Magic, and the rest—those abilities were forbidden arts in the end, too. A criminal denying their crimes doesn't make them any less real.
"My Lord."
"Hm?"
"As you said, my Lord, I have committed cruel acts against humans, and I have no intention of denying that fact. However, living in this body, there is one thing I have come to realize."
Hades placed a hand over her chest and smiled gently. Living in human society, she seemed to have learned and felt a great deal. Even as a Demi-Lich, she had received so much love from humans—perhaps there was a chance of repentance…
"That humans are every bit as wicked as demons."
"Uh…?"
"Asking about the color of my underwear every day and saying they want to lick my collarbone—sexual harassment is the bare minimum. They casually say horrific things like 'I'll heal you, so just tear off one of your rib bones for me,' and whenever I stretch, they just laugh and spout some weird lewd nonsense."
"……."
"And beyond that—people who spam bizarre chants, people who send gold coins soaked in saliva… They do truly terrifying things without batting an eye."
"……Sorry."
I had overlooked the wickedness of humanity. I should have kept in mind humanity's potential to pull stunts so vile that even Satan would be out of a job. More than anything, this other world was packed with lunatics of every race, not just humans. In a world like that, there was no need to go on about the Demon King being evil or impure.
The world itself was broken to begin with…
"It is quite all right. Being able to experience all manner of vile acts firsthand has been educational."
"R-Right."
"In that sense, the person I respect most is still you, my Lord! The sheer audacity of trying to steal undead from a monarch-class being like myself and sell them…! Truly, a wickedness that leaves me in awe."
Hearing it put that way, I was pretty abnormal myself. Even if I'd been intoxicated by new power, I'd acted like a money-crazed bastard.
"You are a man even a Demi-Lich acknowledges. So even should you inherit the Demon King's power, there is no problem—worry not!"
"Wang-wang!"
"Chaos says it follows you because it likes that side of you as well."
The atmosphere grew warm as everyone laughed heartily. For a brief moment, the girls fretting over me and defending me looked almost lovable. The fact that those "girls" were respectively a magic sword, a Four Evil Beast, and a Demi-Lich left me with a powerful urge to kill myself.
I've finally gone completely insane.
Was this what Master Chester had meant by the abyss? I felt like I finally understood what those words meant. I should have run away long ago—and yet here I was, watching myself slowly being dyed by the abyss.
Haha! Fuck!