“The plan failed.”
“No, it succeeded.”
Sitting on top of the “Ankoran bridge,” the natural rock formation connecting the western Inkong and the eastern Tazlok mountains to form what was known as the “Ankoran mountain range,” were two individuals. One was an elderly man with a walking stick, sitting down on the air itself as if some force was holding his body up with barely any effort, while the other was a younger man with a floating bed, sitting cross legged while writing notes on his party bracelet’s blue screen.
The elder had long, glimmering black hair, looking so full with vigor that it contrasted with the man’s wrinkly skin and trembling fingers, too fragile to even rest properly on his stick. Two straight horns stuck out of the man’s head, long enough to act like antennas, and glowed a dim gold as mana surged through them. The man’s refined black fur coat was filled with gemstones while all ten of his fingers wore a different ring set with a different priceless jewel, but even all of this couldn’t detract from his black, void-like eyes, and his one forked tail holding up a bejeweled gold crown.
On the other hand, the ghostly pale younger man’s appearance was on the other side of the spectrum. While the elder looked dressed for the highest society, the slothful man gave no heed to his looks. His white coat was spotted with dirt and grim, with little bits of food bits here and there giving it some “personality.” Meanwhile, his shirt and shorts were ragged and filled with holes, seemingly rough and old enough to use as cleaning rags. Regardless, just like the elder, though, his clothes did little to hide his demonic features like his hooked prehensile tail or the two curved horns framing his ears.
“How?” The young man raised his scale-like brows, wrinkling his mouth open, showing off his vampire-like canines. “You lost your second-to-last aberration, your minion, our dragon killer, and we’re also now in trouble with that dwarf’s speech. Enlighten me, Lord Greed. Is it worth being on death’s door for all of this?”
“Because I have gained results in the form of progress and testing,” the elder replied with a raspy voice. “‘The mother of all success is failure.’ Isn’t that what you and your fellow researchers always say, Lord Sloth?”
“Wasted time is wasted time.” The pale man lazily shook his head, before pulling up a set of three scrolls, opening them all up to analyze the blueprints on them. “Copies?”
The elder nodded. “My aberration always made a backup copy of all their blueprints. A genius artificer with access to the knowledge of Chihiro; I sacrificed one of my aberrations for it, I would not let it go to waste.”
“You told us you would deliver a dragon killer, but that dragon killer not only failed to kill a single true dragonkin, it was destroyed in the ensuing battle. The others will not be happy.”
“The others will be happy that it or that dragonslayer didn’t accidentally kill Aurena’s hound before the dragon killer is rebuilt. Imagine her dead and a rank SS dragon forgetting to follow Eltharion’s decrees and enacting revenge for her lost daughter. That would have been the worse scenario.”
“Wasted time! Time I could have used to sleep or do my own task; what a drag …” He threw the parchments on his bed before falling onto his build, yawning as he was starting to lose interest. “I don’t understand how you think, old timer. You're supposed to be the greediest person in Bole’Taria, but you seem to like losing your gains here and there. Always an investment, but most fail to see fruition.”
“But if a single one of them blooms, I and our country will reap the produce for years to come. Like our plan to summon the otherworlders, or how I still managed to give you the near perfected blueprints to solve your issue in reconstructing Castle Fatalisa’s dragonators. Money, wealth, gems … they are all resources. What I desire is progress and survival for our race.” His black eyes widened until two golden dots appeared in them, giving this man an even eerier alien demeanor. “Listen, well, sloth. For we greeds do not understand your lack of desires.”
“We slothies do not lack desires, we understand what we need and what we want, unlike you ‘dessies,’” the lazing demonkin addressed his conflicting interests to a “desire demonkin,” or dessy. “Explain, then. What is going on in your head? Why did you need me to puppeteer a corpse only for you to waste it like this?”
The demonic power of a demonkin of sloth was the power of control through puppeteering, allowing them to stay away from the issue at hand by using proxies to solve their problems. All to allow them to laze and sleep without any worries.
On the other hand, greed was all about gravitational pulls. If there was something they wished to obtain, then even physics would grovel before their will. At least, only if their desire and control over it was strong enough to fight back against the whole world.
While not directly opposites of each other, both of these demonkin Princes of Sins could not fully see eye-to-eye. One preferred efficiency for the sake of not wasting one’s time, while the other did not mind risky ventures as long as they would eventually yield results. Even if they didn’t, as long as one of the many investments produces an acceptable outcome, to the Prince of Greed, it would have been worthwhile. To become rich, one must be willing to pay.
“Remember, Lord Sloth, our mission as Princes of Sins is to ensure the survival of the demonkin race and the elimination of the Empire of Humans at any cost.” Lord Greed raised his left hand up, stretching it to the horizon to envelop his hand over the sun. “All of this? A threat to us demonkins? Nonsense. What can this alliance of theirs do if they cannot reach us? For even levianewt boats cannot pass the southern sea due to Plesia’s damage!”
The “Twin-Elemental Lake,” the same area where Vifi’Yok received her powers, was the end product of the destruction of a dungeon core and Goddess Plesia’s divine wrath upon the taboo breakers. The resulting explosion and divine curse crushed the land, making it uninhabitable aside from the monsters who spawned inside the area. Located to the north of Bole’Taria’s borders, the influence of fallout affected the sea northwest of it, causing such intense turbulence that made it impossible to sail through it.
To reach Bole’Taria, one must enter through the south desert area of the Empire of Folschreck, through the Great Desert of Evida. One must then sail over to the main Bole’Tarian kingdom through an ocean gap separating the continent Altrust from Numerus.
In context, if Hestia were to sail from the Kingdom of Artorias’s Port Annencia directly south, she would reach the conquered war-torn lands Bole’Taria had stolen from the Empire of Folschreck. This mountainous area was used as a war camp, and would mean little to the demonkin if they were to lose the lands.
However, from Kargryx and Caedhul, directly south would be this “Sea of Turbulence,” forcing any seafarers or flies to either go around it or through the same route as mentioned before. Despite knowledge of the world being a sphere being spread by the Caedhulens due to their naval and explorer lifestyle, the path to Numerus through the northern sea routes would be ill advised due to the glaciers and cold.
This was something the Princes of Sins knew. If one wished to launch a war into Bole’Tarian land, one must move through Folschreckian land.
“Meaning, we use Folschreck as our shield. If the dwarves, elves, and dragonewts must fight the humans to reach us, then we will rid ourselves of the humans earlier than we wished. Do not forget, the elves and dwarves might have defeated the Empire in the War for the Faefolk, but they never managed to breach its capital. They had to capitulate, as losing to them was preferable over Carmaniate and us,” the Prince of Greed continued. “It doesn’t matter if Aurena’s new dog manages to change something in the Church of Aurena, our influence is already solid enough within Folschreck’s shadow to counter anything she does.”
The Prince of Sloth said nothing, for silence showed his agreement.
“The otherworlders possibly knowing the truth now? It doesn’t matter. We control the cards, they must hide theirs. Fools, listening to monsters in sheep clothing; returning to the Empire means we have the power. Even if they manage to outsmart us, they will create chaos, and that is what we want.” The elder stood up, walking over to the younger man with a hunched back. “Those are my answers. What say you?”
He only wishes for the destruction of the humans … The Prince of Sloth lazily stared into the old man’s black eyes, showing no inkling of the emotions he was holding back.
“… What about Vifi’Yok and that lust contractor?” he finally spoke.
“… Minor issues. We inform Lord Wrath about the former, and we inform Lord Pride about the latter. It seems like his prediction was correct that the orb stored in that dwarven fortress was there to seal the remains of the Archdemon of Lust, Klea’Hatma. Now, why are they both helping Aurena’s dog?” The elder turned around, looking down at the war camp. “It is clear, however, that Aurena is forcing Mistress Klea’Hatma into this. We must find a way to free her from her current host.”
What a drag … all of this is. I just want to sleep and tinker.
With the two Princes of Sins having finished their business in this area of Altruist, it was high time they removed themselves and returned back into friendlier locals. However, with the real perpetrators to Maagneil’s madness gone, the mystery behind Broggart’s “resurrection” would remain unknown until one more knowledgeable on the subject would illuminate Aurora.
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“… So, that is the real story, Light?”
While traveling inside two large wagons, the 15 other students of Saori had just left Artorian land to enter the borders of Estralia. Protected by a group of mercenaries, Hestia’s cousin, Franz, was currently speaking with a few of his fellow classmates, elucidating them on the truth behind their arrival in this world and their mission to defeat the demonkin king.
Naturally, learning how everything they had been doing up until now was a lie and all part of the demonkin’s plan to bring down the Folschreck Empire was a shock so strong it made it rather impossible to believe outright. Even if they were initially suspicious of the intentions of the Church of Aurena, enough time had passed that their suspicions had mellowed out, to the point multiple students had personal strings attached to the Church, ranging from simple friendships to financial support.
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“So, she really is your cousin? As in, you weren’t brainwashed?” The one to take all this truth the hardest was none other than Aiko, the other Saint candidate. Faced with the knowledge that Aurena did not choose her as a blessed canidate, the young girl’s face paled. “You mean, all this time? Even back then, sh-she didn’t mind con—”
“Aiko-chan …” Yuuko, the one Hestia burned, grabbed her friend’s shoulder, trying to calm her down.
Seeing her friend’s smooth face, as if the burns she suffered had never happened before, caused Aiko to turn meek. Her skin had been destroyed, to the point muscles and bones could be seen. Aiko couldn’t save her friend when she was near death, having to rely on a real Saintess to keep her stable, and even then, Saintess Fleindia couldn’t heal her injuries completely.
However, Hestia could and did. The newest Champion of Aurena might have been the one to cause the burns in the first place, but she was also the only one with the power to cure Yuuko. Not even a scar could be seen. Aiko should be happy to see her friend unharmed, but she could only remember how the bishops and priests she had trusted sent her to kill somebody who should be her ally, not to mention the memories of how everybody showered her with praise about being a Saint candidate made her aware how much of a tool she was.
Aiko did calm down, but she became silent like the dead.
W-will they throw me out now? Am I useless? Those thoughts spiraled around in her head before those words mixed with her memories of her family. The expectations of her father, the stares of her brothers, and the empty flattery of the servants in her family home.
Yuuko’s eyes widened as she saw her friend withdraw into her shell. She tried to reassure her, but everything she said fell into deaf ears. With a frown, she looked to the other eight students inside this wagon, wondering what Franz’s friend, Ryuji, was saying in the other wagon.
“So … Hestia is our ally?” Yuuko asked, sheepishly.
Franz nodded. “She and her party are the only real allies we have in the world. Everybody else just wants to use us.”
“And Sensei is with her? Segawa-Sensei is with her and Tatsuya and Kyouya, too.” Yuuko’s question made Franz nod once again. “Then, why did we leave them? Why are we going back to the Empire, and-and how on Earth, are we here in the first place? I heard from Ichiyo that we got teleported here? From whom?”
“Isn’t it obvious? Light’s allies he made while we went around making fools of ourselves,” Takuma the “[Hero]” answered with deadpan expression. “While we thought we were in the ‘light,’ this guy with the edgy name was stalking in the shadows all the time, learning the truth and so on. No wonder you kept up with me in levels and stats, despite my more rigorous training regiment.”
Franz stayed silent, unwilling to humor Takuma with that taunt.
The latter scoffed, clicking his tongue and gripping his sword’s handle. “How did you meet them?”
“They came to me first. Ryuji and I were trying to find merchants for connections. I was complaining on the streets how a noble had his guards arrest a commoner girl for simply looking at him, despite the fact he was walking in the commoner district for no apparent reason but for a stroll. That girl was enslaved for the ‘crime,’ judged by a lycerepth agent the noble bribed,” Franz retold. “Ryuji and I were then kidnapped, brought into a lair with my current ‘boss.’ That was when my relationship with the Yanderu Eluseuss began.”
“That criminal syndicate! The same one our knights warned us about?” Chifuya, one of Takuma’s party members shouted. The girl gulped, grimacing as she looked out of the wagon, eyeing the scarred mercs traveling with them. “Are the—”
“Yes,” Franz answered. “They are part of my gang. Before we departed to assassinate my cousin, I made a deal with their boss to join them, in exchange for them allowing me to meet the ‘crimson-scaled dragon.’ The Emperor only planned on sending his royal knights after her, at first, but my boss pulled some strings and his people managed to persuade him to send us with Sir Lautrex alone. As I said, I only thought she was an otherworlder from Ryuji’s reports; I didn’t think she was my cousin until I saw her face.”
“And she’s supposedly dead?” Yuuko asked, looking baffled at the implications.
“Suicide, yes. She was an aspiring idol with little success, and … you guys get it. Despite being transported into this world, I never, ever considered that my cousin could have been reincarnated into this world.” Franz closed his eyes, reminiscing about his time with his cousin back on Earth, before he remembered Hestia’s face and his interactions with her. Instantly, he felt the need to cry, but he held it back in front of his classmates. “That is why we are leaving her and returning to the Empire.”
His classmates naturally looked at him in horror, unable to understand what he was trying to say. Takuma was the only one who directly confronted him on it, demanding him to explain otherwise he would make his way back to Ankor-Nazta.
“Because you, and all of the you, would only be leeches to my baby cousin!” Franz’s frankness caught everybody by surprise. They had never experienced him as candid as he was on this trip. “Do you remember what the knights told us? That in three or four years we would surpass them if we trained enough. Well, in the span of a year, my cousin braved enough dangers that the ones we faced would be a spit to her efforts. You think we can just stay with her?”
“You told us she has a connection with Aurena! Like a real one! That she could send us back to Earth,” Yuuko protested. “W-why wouldn’t we stay with her! Besides, we aren’t leeches, we can—”
“Train? Yes, you may and should. But at your current levels, you’ll be just like Takuma and Kyouya, desperately trying to keep up with Hestia to make yourself useful. At the very least, those two are showing progress, even if it’s not fast enough. Helps they’re around my little troublemaker,” Franz smirked. “But that doesn’t include us. For better or worse, we are strangers to her party. None of you trusted her when it mattered, and you think everything would be all good after we join them? That I would let you all just shake hands and become friends, despite the fact Yuuko’s mistake nearly allowed the dragonslayers to kill her?”
Yuuko flinched, on the forefront of receiving Franz’s rage. Ichijo, her party member, tried to cover for her, but was quickly silenced.
“I have said all I needed after Takuma’s coup d’etat. None of you tried to speak with her, you all believed the church that she could brainwash you. She couldn’t even defend herself before all of you attacked her! If she had died there, if I hadn’t been able to learn she reincarnated, if—” Franz stopped himself, noticing he was rambling to the point his head felt warm. “I will make all of you work. After all, some of you even still have some animosity. I know you Takuma. I can see it with Aiko too, right now. All of you will have your grievances and will have trouble fitting in at first, because they already have Asaka’s and Tamae’s parties.”
“H-hey, you can’t make that choice for us! If I made a mistake, then you should have given me the chance to apolog—Guys?” Yuuko tried to argue back, but fell silent when Takuma suddenly nodded. She stared at him, her face twitching, asking why.
“That’s my issue.” He dodged the question … However, Franz was quick to backstab him.
“Because Takuma, as I said before, has an overinflated ego because of the circumstances he was born into. Now, he doesn’t need to follow in his father’s footsteps in this world, he can make his own fame and wealth. He can become his own ‘man.’ He wants to be the hero in this world, and I know he won’t accept Hestia as the person to actually change things.”
Takuma glared at Franz, ready to swing his blade at him, but stopped himself when he remembered how cramped the wagon was. One bad swing and he could hurt one of the others instead.
So, instead, he fought with words. “And you don’t? This is the reason you dragged us here, right? To make use of us to impress your cousin. You think the church will just accept us back?”
“Yes, they will, because my connections will assure us. Don’t forget, the demonkins want us to cause trouble for the Empire, they don’t care what we do as long as we don’t directly inconvenience them,” Franz replied.
We also have to make sure the Prince of Greed doesn’t talk about Vifi’Yok, but I can rely on Streiga and the Boss for that. Even if Franz had things planned out, there were still cracks he had to fill up. He composed himself and continued.
“After all, the reason why I am bringing all of you along with me is that you will be more useful alongside me, instead of with Hestia. Here, you can’t just leech off her party because I am not a dragon with the power to defeat a rank S dragonslayer.”
“As if she could. Have you see Galg fight? Your—”
“Yes, she will,” Franz swiftly cut off Takuma, showing full confidence in his cousin. “Even if she couldn’t, she has something none of us have—powerful, trustable allies. Unlike you, she faced disasters that could destroy cities and countries. She has faced enough trials to steel her. My cousin had always been a bundle of energy, but confidence had always been something she never managed to obtain … but now as ‘Hestia,’ she has grown into a person we can entrust our faith in.”
Franz drew his face closer to his classmates. “But that also means we need to pave a road for her to walk in. For her armies to solve our issues. We don’t get to sit on the side lines, working in the back like some spoiled children. No. We are Shiroko High students; our parents sent us there to become their successors. Heirs. Elites of the future, if you want me to use the words of our principal!”
He stood up and went out of the wagon, standing on the coachman seat next to the coach. He turned his head to the wagon next to it, noticing his second-in-command, Ryuji, was already there. There, he also saw the Hand of Heaven, Lautrex von Cashim, looking at him, before he nodded.
“Ryuji!” Franz called out.
“They agreed! Lautrex will work with us,” he replied, causing Franz to smile.
He then turned his head back to the people in the wagon. “I will right the justice system of the Empire of Folschreck. I will assure that my cousin will have the easiest way into the Empire possible through me. A storm is coming soon for the Church of Aurena. All of you have a choice, no matter how insane they are. Once we make it back to the Empire, all of you may choose what to do. Return to Hestia, work with me, or … find somewhere to sit all of this out.”
He reached his hand out. “I am Franz Akabane, and I am the newest rank eight of the Yanderu Eluseuss. The eighth underboss of this black mercenary company. Will you join me and help me fight for us to return back home?”
“… I will.” Ichijo, the only boy from Yuuko’s party, stood up. He hadn’t forgotten the promise Hestia fulfilled. “We were tasked to assassinate another otherworlder. Another Earthling! But despite all of that, she still was nice enough to correct our mistakes. Yuuko-chan, we should help. This is the only way.”
Yuuko sighed, but shrugged, prompting the other members of her party to stand up in unison. Her conflicted feelings for what she did to Hestia and what the latter did for her made her act. “As long as I don’t end up nearly dead again. Can you do that, Franz?”
He nodded. “I have our cover story already planned, in addition to a trump card that will allow us to survive. Even if they don’t trust us, I have a way to make sure they can’t get rid of us without ruining their plans. We need to ‘work’ with the demonkins to the point that resummoning another set of ‘heroes’ will only slow them down. If we can do that, we can make sure my cousin will be able to handle the rest.”
[The Light] of the west, and the Light of the east. Family members who no longer share blood with each other, but possess memories that kept their bond tight.
Once again separated, the young man’s conviction was hardened into steel and his eyes were glued to the east where his duty awaited him. The Empire was huge, but the sway of both power and words could turn things into his favor. With connections both in the shadows and now in the light, the young man clenched his hands, already formulating the people he had to target to bring his revolution of the justice system to life.
However, with his formal entrance into the stage of history, the “leeches” he wanted to take away from his beloved cousins would now cling to him. The burden they brought would now be his problem.
I am useful, right? I am more than just a pretty face for people to use, right? I am. I am! I am an idol, just like her! I can shine just as brightly! Aiko bit her lips, staring at the ground with a reignited fire.
… Franz. You won’t be the only one to do something about our problems. Don’t underestimate me! Takuma glared at Franz’s back, his hand around his sword handle softening.