I looked at the fireplace and wondered if I could use ‘that’ for this. Out of all of the useful magic I know, this was a powerful one, so I never really considered using it before. But isn’t sword forging the best place to use it?

I snapped my fingers and a white flame floated on my index finger. I tossed the flame into the furnace and the white flame overpowered the blue flame in an instant, and the whole room started heating up drastically.

“W-why-what is that?” I could hear Rodon’s quivering voice behind me.

“Hmm? Oh! This? It’s just a flame.” I looked at the white flame burning in the furnace. I'm wondering if the flame is a little too hot.

"Just a white flame?! Getting a blue flame is already difficult and you expect me to stay calm once you whip up a white flame out of thin air like that?!"

“Normally, the iron has to be heated for about 1,200 degrees Celsius, but I wonder how it works for other types of metals?”

“I’m sorry, degrees?”

“Oh, it’s just a scale used to measure the temperature of fire, don’t worry about it.”

If I’m not mistaken, blue flames reach up to about 1,300-1,700 degrees, while white flames are around 3,000 degrees. I was able to whip up these flames in an instant, but I guess that’s not possible in a world such as this where technology hasn’t advanced that much.

But it feels like this isn't the typical white flame you get by combining various chemicals. It's way too hot and it seems like it could melt a lot more than just an iron rod.

“By the way Rodon, what’s the strongest metal you know of?”

“Um…that would be adamantine, my lord.”

“Hmm… are you able to produce weapons using adamantine?”

“That would be impossible, my lord. Even if we can produce blue flames the most we could do is produce weapons using mithril. But there are a few adamantine weapons in this world, they’re usually considered legendary class weapons.”

Lucifer took out a rapier from his pocket dimension and showed it to me.

“This is one of such weapons, my lord. Even though it isn’t as strong as the weapon in your possession, it’s considered one of the strongest weapons in the world.”

The rapier was a pitch-black blade with a golden line on it. It also had a black handle with a golden line on it. Even though there wasn’t any way of knowing how this weapon was made, I could easily see the functions of the weapon with a single glance.

The Sword of Chiaroscuro - A Rapier which allows the user to consume the very soul of his opponent if the user incurs less than 50% of the damage inflicted on the opponent. It also allows the user to revive from the brink of death if the opponent attempts to destroy the soul of the user.

Whaaaat? You’re kidding me, right?! Isn’t this a total cheat weapon? Even their weapons stand up to their deadly sin titles.

“I see…do the humans possess adamantine weapons too?”

“Yes, my lord. Initially, the humans had nine legendary weapons while the demons possessed seven. But thanks to Mammon coming to our side, we were able to acquire one of their weapons.”

“Hmm… I see so we have eight weapons in total while they only have seven, right?”

This tale has been unlawfully lifted from Royal Road; report any instances of this story if found elsewhere.

“That’s right my lord. Well…if your weapon is included as a legendary weapon, I believe that there are eight weapons on our side. The initial weapon owned by the previous sin of ‘sloth’ is still in our possession.”

“I see…and by the way, what’s this about mammon being on the human’s side before?”

“Oh-well, mammon was initially a human Acedia-sama,” Freya answered my question.

“He was?” I looked at all three of them with a questionable expression. And Freya continued the story of how mammon came to be,

“Yes, Acedia-sama. He was one of the ‘Seven Capital Virtues’.”

Wait! I never heard that there was a group called the Capital Virtues! I thought it was just some hero and his companions who defeated the demon lord or something.

“He was considered the virtue of ‘charity’ when he was a human being. But after being betrayed by his companions and all of humanity, he left them and became one of us.”

“You mean to say that he was betrayed?”

“Yes. The seven virtues are people whose abilities are passed down from generation to generation. While the hero is someone who is born with an innate talent. So, unlike the seven virtues the hero has to put in a lot of effort to attain such powers. And even if they were considered capital virtues, they don't care about anything else except their own virtues. They're all hypocritical idiots.”

Lucifer continued the story when Freya seemed to be busy cursing them.

“But mammon was someone who worked hard even though the position he inherited was hereditary…so unlike the other virtues, he attained way more strength and was on the verge of breaking the balance between the seven capital virtues.”

“You mean the political power balance or in terms of strength? Wouldn’t he be way more helpful in battle when his stronger?”

Rodon took over from that point and started explaining how the political world of humans worked.

“I guess they were just overcome by greed and the taste of power. The seven deadly virtues didn’t want someone to be more powerful than them, while the other nobles seemed to be fixated on the profits, they gained from the other capital virtues.”

“And since mammon was the virtue of charity, he donated most of his property and money to the orphanages and people who were suffering, the noble didn’t like him.”

“And for some reason, they seem to have this delusion of the seven deadly sins being inferior to the seven capital virtues. And they are still unaware of the birth of the new demon lord. Kekeke... I'm so looking forward to seeing their faces when they meet Acedia-sama.”

“So…wait! If there’s a hero other than the seven capital virtues, why isn’t there a demon lord other than the seven deadly sins? I mean, I am one of the seven deadly sins, aren’t I?”

“A demon from the Seven DSs is usually picked as the Demon Lord. The strongest one among them is picked as one. All the past demon lords were mostly the sin of pride or gluttony. And there are occasions where the others are also selected. But there has never been a time where the sin of sloth was selected as the demon lord, and they didn't like to work hard for anything and sloths were the best strategists while they lacked the motivation to lead people.”

"And unlike the past Demon Lords who were assigned the title, Acedia-sama was born as the demon lord. So everyone had different speculations on the matter. But one thing was certain..."

"What's that?"

"Even within the shell, we knew that you were the strongest person in existence, master."

"I see..."

I gained quite a lot of knowledge today. I might be well-versed in magic, but I have zero knowledge of the economic and political standings of both realms. I'd like to meet these so-called Seven Capital Virtues sometime too. They'd be really helpful for me later on since they'd be key figures in the human realm. The only problem is whether they'd be real human beings, unlike the so-called hypocrites Freya mentioned earlier.

"And what about the Hero?"

"As far as we know, the Hero hasn't been discovered yet. They aren't even sure if the Hero is born yet."

"So if we were planning on attacking them right now, they lack the strength to stop us."

"Precisely, Acedia-sama. And the current day Seven Capital Virtues are very weak compared to their predecessors. And considering Acedia-sama's strength, you could probably take them down yourself. You are way stronger than the past Demon Lords."

Wow. Now that was a lot of info to take in. I don't wanna wage any wars right now, so I'd appreciate it if they turned out to be nice people.

Well, I suppose I'll meet the Hero and the Seven Capital Virtues eventually. I'll just have to wait for the day...

As I wondered who the Hero could be, the young girl in my dreams came to mind. The girl filled with nothing but sorrow in her eyes... The one and only Hero of this world...