Book 10: Chapter 12: (1)

The God of Darkness Dagulas. In those days, he was an existence called 「Demon King Dagulas」.

If that was the truth──

「……I see. There is the possibility that I would be the sort of existence that would once again fill up an unoccupied seat of a God……is that how it is.」

「It is just as you say.」

「But, in that case, wasn’t there also the way of leaving me alone? If you hadn’t done anything, things wouldn’t have gotten this complicated.」

「No, that is not the case. The timing that that Demon God had sent you in at was the worst. It is certain that the Demon God was trying to disturb our plan……No matter which path we followed, the confrontation between you and I was unavoidable.」

……Well, certainly, there were parts where he was unable to grasp what that Demon God was thinking.

Vermudol felt that the Demon God was someone who he couldn’t tell if he was an ally to him and the Mazoku but……to think that it was an existence that would disturb the world that much, he hadn’t expected that.

In that case, his failure in summoning the Demon King before might have instead been good fortune.

「The Demon God……That dreadful God, just what in the world is it?」

Raidolg heard Celis’s question, but he shook his head sideways.

「We don’t know. But, it is certain that even now, it is hiding itself in a place that even we do not know of.」

「Well, that is fine. It is because it would be a waste of time even if we think about things that we don’t know about.」

After Vermudol said that, he looked at Celis.

「Since Princess Celis-dono was brought here and this sort of talk is happening, Raidolg. You……Do you plan on dragging the Canal Kingdom into this talk?」

「Umu.」

This talk──In other words, it was the talk about the connection between Vermudol and Philia, but by telling the story of the origin, it also meant that he intended on talking about 「from now on」 as well.

「Princess Celis-dono is still young. It is probably too early to let her hear this sort of inside story.」

「It might be, but she is in a position where she will be burdened with a nation from now on. Besides……this child is not the only one being dragged in.」

Before Vermudol could ask “What do you mean by that?”, Transfer Lights appeared one after another in the surroundings.

The ones who appeared from the Transfer Light first, were King Sarigan of the Jiol Forest Kingdom, and Luuty Ligas who was a member of the Hero party in the past. And then, there was the God of Wind Wyrm, whose green hair swayed.

「Haaー, this place truly is a pain. When I try to do a proper Transfer, the coordinate setting doesn’t work at all. Honestly speaking, the one who created such a troublesome place isn’t sane at all.」

「W, Wyrm-sama. Just what is this place……」

「The Dimensional Gap……? Could it be, no way.」

Probably having been brought here with almost no explanation, Sarigan and Luuty looked around at the surroundings……and raised their voices when they noticed Vermudol and the others.

「V, Vermudol-dono……!?」

「And the ones over there are, could they be, Philia-sama and Raidolg-sama……! W, why.」

Maybe because Luuty had met with the Gods together with Hero Ryuuya, she guessed their identities right with just a glance.

「Wyrm. Did you bring them here without explaining anything?」

Wyrm shrugged his shoulders at Raidolg who looked exasperated.

「I hate musty old stories, see. What we should be doing is a talk about the future. Isn’t that right?」

「Well now. I don’t think I have heard you talk about the future before.」

The one who appeared after them was a considerably large and dark-skinned woman wearing dark brown clothes.

The one who stood diagonally behind that woman was the Swordmaster of the Cylas Empire, Azorto. She was the daughter of Duke, who had gone around the world together with Hero Ryuuya.

Azorto was making a vaguely awkward-looking face, but the dark-skinned woman was probably the cause of it.

Her identity was confirmed when Wyrm muttered 「So you came, Atlagus」.

「The God of Earth Atlagus, huh. A description of your appearance wasn’t in the history books at all though.」

In response to Vermudol who displayed a somewhat surprised reaction, Raidolg laughed sounding like he found it funny.

「So you thought that he was a male God. That stands to reason.」

The name “Atlagus” wouldn’t really be used for a woman’s name.

And the image of the 「God of Earth」 would bring to mind the muscular Metalio.

In fact, in the few pictures that existed that drew Atlagus, she was presented as a male God that was small like the Metalio, yet possessed the strength of a thousand people.

When compared to that, the Atlagus who appeared before him had an unexpected appearance, but, still, that was a trivial matter.

「Ever since this turned into a new world, we kept our interventions with this world to a minimum. Since Atlagus in particular had thoroughly enforced that, it can be said that it cannot be helped that it turned out like that.」

The one who appeared while saying that was a woman wearing white garments.

The atmosphere of the woman, who had her long blue hair gathered in a thick braid behind her, vaguely resembled Reina’s atmosphere, and Vermudol predicted that this woman was the 「God of Water Aklia」.

The one who stood behind her was a man who had a knightly appearance, and the thing that looked like a faintly shining blue gem that was on his forehead was impressive. It seemed that gem was not an accessory, but attached directly on his forehead. He was most likely a member of the race called the Luspelio.

The blue haired woman sweetly smiled when she looked at Vermudol, and made a light bow.

「Earlier, I connected with Reina’s memories. This is our first time meeting directly, isn’t it, Demon King Vermudol. I am called Aklia.」

「Yeah. I hadn’t even dreamt that I would meet you like this though.」

He had only thought that he would have had to go through another troublesome trial, so that was a bit of a letdown though.

In response, Aklia expressed a mischievous smile and replied.

「I also didn’t think that I would have this sort of talk with you. I had even resolved myself for us to be destroying each other depending on the situation.」

「Hou, that’s my first time hearing that. To think that there was also the possibility that it wouldn’t be the Hero, but the Gods fighting me directly.」

「I bet. I didn’t think that you would have been smart enough to even reach the notion of the meaning and influences of the advent of the Demon God after all.」

Those words sounded like they had scorn in them for an instant. If it was a short-tempered person, they would have fallen for Aklia’s words that sounded like she was picking a fight, however, Vermudol curved the corners of his mouth in cynicism.

「Ahh, the talk about the magical power balance and so forth……No, about the Wentas (Warped God) or whatever.」

「Yes. I am in charge of that one’s seal. At the time that the seal loosened from the Demon God’s influence, I really panicked.」

In other words, the fact that Vermudol had tested out summoning the Demon God meant that the Gods had already started acknowledging the situation. Well, there shouldn’t be anyone other than him who could do that though……

「I see. Sorry about that. We were also desperate to survive after all. Since the whereabouts for you all were unknown, and trials or whatever were set up, things took a lot of time, and we couldn’t freely meet with you all either. It made us want to make do with the small amount of information that we had on hand.」

Hearing Vermudol’s remark that was a mix of an apology and a snide comment, Aklia replied with 「That’s true」, and turned her gaze towards Ichika who stood in wait beside him.

「That child seems to be different but……I didn’t think that you would be able to create Maid Knights. When compared to the successive generations of Demon Kings, you are much closer to us, aren’t you.」

Thinking “So she’s talking about Nino”, Vermudol recalled the young green girl that was not here.

Certainly, a considerable amount of time and magical power was put into the creation of Nino, but he had thought that it would be possible for a Demon King.

On the other hand, he had felt some doubt over why the Demon Kings up until now──like Gramfia for example, hadn’t made any Maid Knights, but going by Aklia’s words just now, it was probably impossible for Gramfia.

A Maid Knight was 「something that cannot normally be created」……If it had to be compared to something, they were special existences like Sancreed, that is how it could be explained.

「I have no self awareness of being close to a God, but there is something that I noticed in those words just now.」

「Hou, and that is?」

「It was the fact that Ichika being next to me when I awakened was a fortune for me.」

Wyrm, who was listening in, whistled, and Ichika was faintly stirred, but that was all that could be said about her.

To Vermudol, Ichika, who was the first one in front of him when he awoke, was the optimal answer for the 「Mazoku he needed」, and he surely wouldn’t have become the current Vermudol without her.

For example, if Ichika hadn’t been there, Vermudol turning the Goblins in the vicinity of the ruins of the former Demon King Castle into his subordinates and arranging the minimum amount of culture……that sort of stuff would have never happened if she wasn’t there to start it.

It was only natural, but there was a world of difference in abilities between Ichika and Goblins, and not only the speed of the domination of the Dark Continent but also the time until the founding of the Zadark Kingdom should have had a large difference when comparing the two.

In other words, that demonstrated that there would be a large gap in the time meant to arrange the readiness to oppose the 「Hero」.

When thinking about it like that, he could even say that this current situation being brought about was all because Ichika was there.

Even his first contact with Kain who was the Hero, and his coming in touch with Luuty who was a companion of the previous Hero, it all wouldn’t have been accomplished if everything hadn’t been done with that timing.

There was no way that he would have had leeway in time, and thanks to Ichika’s support, he was always just barely able to establish situations where he could take the first move like surging waves.

Even how he was able to create vital execution units like Nino was because he had an example known as Ichika, and if not for that, there was also the possibility that he would have created 「something different with high abilities」.

And then, being there up until now, Ichika had managed almost all of the parts that Vermudol was unable to deal with.

「If not for Ichika, this situation wouldn’t be happening right now. That is a fact that can’t be glossed over.」

「Vermudol, -sama.」

「Ou ou, sorry ta do this when the atmosphere’s lookin’ good, but I’ll be comin’ in.」

Interrupting Ichika who was about to say something, a large red haired man appeared right before Vermudol.

His ruffled hair looked just like blazing flames, and the atmosphere he was clad in resembled Raktor’s.

「Are you……Agnam?」

「Ou. I’m the God of Fire Agnam. I see, so you’re the current Demon King.」

「Yeah.」

Vermudol faced-off Agnam, who was more than twice as big as himself, without taking even a single step back……And while they were doing that, Agnam expressed a broad smile.

「I knew that you were goin’ at it with Philia but, I see. Yer an awfully different type from the Dagulas of the past.」

「……Dagulas, -sama.」

When Ykslaas spoke out the name of the God of Darkness that had not come here, Agnam, after purposely looking around at the surroundings, turned his gaze towards Ykslaas looking surprised.