Book 8: Chapter 10

Within the fort of the troops responsible for the Lulugal Forest, located in the eastern region of the Dark Continent, people were moving about in a rush.

The Eastern Army Lulugal Forest Stationed Unit Fort.

That was what the building was known as, but it was actually a recently built fort.

The troops stationed there were also quite new compared to the other units.

To be exact, there was once a building and a unit with the same name in the past, but that’s an entirely different thing.

During the 「Demon King of Harmony Attack Incident」, in other words when Ykslass attacked, nearly the entire unit was annihilated by one of her subordinates, the Black Knight Claude.

There were a few soldiers that survived, but since it was such a minuscule amount, it was decided that a new unit would be created entirely instead of building the organization back up again.

Since it’d be a bit cruel to have them operate at the same building where that mass murder took place, the 「Lulugal Forest Stationed Unit」 was assigned a brand new building.

And the one chosen to be the new unit’s commander was a survivor of the old unit, Lumon.

Lulugal Forest was not a particularly important strategic base of the military, but in order to prevent the same tragedy from happening again, they made revisions on their manuals that described what to do in emergency situations, reinforced their war potential and training regimes, and so on. There was a lot to get done.

Most of the heavy work was put onto the commander’s shoulders, but it was fair to say that he managed to carry out most of it rather skillfully.

Lumon had rather soft and adorable facial features for a Mazoku, as well as being competent enough to be acknowledged by the other Mazoku.

It was perhaps because of this that his popularity with the female Mazoku had been rising lately, and the fort had a much higher female-to-male ratio than before.

When the blue-haired young man Lumon Transferred to the entrance of the fort, the female Mazoku nearby let out voices of excitement.

「Good morning, Commander Lumon!」

「Good morning. Did you work the night shift? Thanks for your hard work.」

「Yes, yes! What are your plans for today…?」

「I’ll be on duty from now until tomorrow afternoon. I hope you all do your best.」

Lumon made similar exchanges with others as he made his way to his office.

「Oh, Commander Lumon! Good morning!」

「Commander Lumon, about today’s lunch…」

「I’ve brought my own.」

Lumon responded to everyone with smiles as he walked towards a certain female Mazoku who was waiting for him.

「Commander Lumon… Sorry for bringing this up all of a sudden, but there is a mountain of documents that require your approval. Please head to your office to take care of them as soon as possible.」

「Yes, of course, Hooly. Shall we head there together?」

Hooly watched as Lumon slipped past her and headed forward after saying those words. Making a glance to the other female Mazoku who were greeting him earlier, she began catching up to him in a hurry.

Lumon and Hooly weren’t lovers, but she felt that their relationship was something close to that.

They’ve known each other since before the Zadark Kingdom had been established. In mankind’s terms, they’d be something like childhood friends.

After the Demon King of Harmony Attack Incident, she felt like Lumon had changed, but he still had various gestures and habits that reminded her of the past Lumon.

The reason why she considered their relationship to only be something 「close to lovers」 was because she felt a wall between them.

His words were kind, and he was thoughtful as well, but… there was something off.

The past Lumon had a very gentle personality that made him easily loved.

He had changed a little more after Hooly expressed her concern over him during a previous occasion, but… it was difficult to say that their relationship had turned back to normal.

It also was a bit troubling for her to see all these female Mazoku that were pining for him all of a sudden.

Upon reaching his office, Lumon turned around with a smile as if he didn’t realize what Hooly was feeling deep inside at all.

「All right. I’m ready to start taking care of those documents, Hooly」

「Oh… yes.」

Hooly let out a small sigh as she took out the documents she was carrying under her armpit.

「Let’s start with yesterday’s report. None of the patrols noticed anything out of the ordinary. In regards to the magical power density levels, there aren’t any signs that Majuu transformations will occur. There haven’t been any visitors. The documents that require approval should be piled on that desk over there. They are mostly concerning matters involving equipment, and I have piled them in order of priority.」

「I see. Very well. Good work, Hooly.」

「…Thank you.」

Lumon sat on the commander’s seat as he smiled to Hooly responding with a small nod.

Hooly understood that these actions were his way of telling anyone that they were permitted to return to their duties.

To the current Lumon, Hooly was nothing but another one of the masses.

That day.

Ever since the day of the attack, Lumon changed.

She had no idea what happened to him after he told her to escape with the other survivors.

The Southern General Fainell might know something, but Hooly wasn’t the type of person that could simply directly ask her. Even when she asked Lumon directly, he would only answer with things that Hooly could have figured out herself with a little investigation. She didn’t know if he was just trying to be considerate to her or not, but that only made her feel worse.

「…Excuse me.」

Luman let out a sigh after watching Hooly exit the room.

「…Goodness, this certainly is a troublesome matter.」

He wanted to avoid involving himself with those who knew the past Lumon as much as possible.

As long as they didn’t suspect him of being a fake, he had no qualms with others feeling that he’s 「changed」.

It may have been because his current psyche was too overpowering, or rather because the damage to 「Lumon」’s memories were more severe than anticipated.

In either case, he had to proceed in a way that limited suspicion towards him. Now that he had fused with him, he had begun recognizing himself as Lumon as well.

It was because of that fact that Lumon had been distancing himself from that girl.

By distancing himself, he could portray the concept of him 「desiring to separate himself from the past」, but that sort of thing would only have the opposite effect on people like her.

That’s why he decided to act as he did in the past, but it was quite exhausting in numerous ways.

The biggest issue was that 「Lumon」 himself had strong feelings for that girl. It was because of this that he continued to maintain this strange relationship and distance between himself and her.

When it came to 「that girl」, his thought processes wouldn’t work as normal.

「I really chose a troublesome vessel… Well, it’s not like there were any better ones at the time.」

Lumon’s true identity was a special type of Alva.

His name was… Gheorghia.

He wasn’t exactly completely on-board with the idea, but he was ordered to follow the Black Knight Claude and bring about chaos and strife within the world.

And after following Claude, he finally came upon the Dark Continent. As he watched him cut down the members of this completely organized group of Mazoku one by one, he thought it’d be the perfect chance to kill him. It was then that he noticed a certain man’s corpse.

Compared to the others that would likely suffer severe memory loss due to their gruesome deaths, his body was a much more favorable candidate to fuse with. And thus, the current Lumon came to be.

To put it simply, after 「Lumon」 lost the Life Seed that was essentially the source of his life, 「Gheorghia」 used his remains as the core to form the current Lumon.

In order to convert his corpse into a lifeform, the missing pieces had to be supplied by 「Gheorghia」. That’s why if he were to fuse with a body that had perhaps only a limb intact, the Alva 「Gheorghia」 would likely lose almost the entirety of his psyche.

In fact, that’s exactly what happened to the foolish brethren he encountered during his time in the Dark Continent.

No, he had actually never considered them to be his brethren in the first place.

He had various concerns before he learned more about the Dark Continent, but Lumon plans to live on as 「Lumon the Majin」 from now on.

At first he had trouble learning the annoying way of how to talk formally to his colleagues, but soon enough he began talking like that all the time.

If he didn’t talk like that, it would look as if he was 「being close」 with them.

Perhaps because of that, he’s gained many strange 「friends」.

They were entertaining in their own way, but… there were times where it felt like all of this was pointless.

Gheorghia himself didn’t particularly have any lingering regrets, but his other self did have a fair amount of those.

「…Well, I’m sure time will eventually solve all of this.」

Murmuring those words, Lumon dropped his gaze to his paperwork.