Book: 2: 114

Book 2: Chapter 114

“I never thought I’d be sent out to the outskirts.”

The Iron Duke, Ugkas, one of the Five Dukes, muttered softly to himself as he looked around.

A few days ago, he’d received orders directly from Demon King Kasajin to come to this place.

The orders were to capture Kran, one of the Top Three, and bring him back.

‘That guy is probably a hybrid.’

It was an experiment that Gullard had been secretly conducting some time ago to see if it was possible to create the perfect hybrids between Demons and humans.

In truth, Ugkas was surprised that Gullard had been able to create a being like Kran, but he was even more surprised to learn that it was Kran himself who’d kill him.

Of course, this didn’t mean that Kran had killed him on his own.

‘Lukas Trowman.’

A man with the same surname as Azazel.

Ugkas’ expression became a bit strange.

He had also been given the name ‘Ugkas Strow’, but he didn’t know much about his surname. Azazel was the only one who knew the story behind their names.

Nevertheless, there was one thing that Ugkas did know.

And that was that Lukas Trowman was one of the Demon King’s old friends.

He couldn’t help but recall the Demon King’s other order.

‘Do not fight Lukas.’

This order heavily bruised Ugkas’ pride, but he had no choice but to accept it. If Lukas was even half as strong as the Demon King, then he had no chance of winning.

Glug... glug.

At that moment, Ugkas’ companion made their presence known with a strange, grotesque sound. His eyes turned to his right.

What he saw there was a monster with an appearance similar to that of a slug.

It was about 5 meters long, and the only opening on its body was an incredibly large mouth, which was filled with large, irregularly shaped teeth.

Hundreds of tentacle-like legs protruded from all over its body, and a strange slime seemed to ooze from its skin.

This being was Sipakna, also known as the Monster Duke.

Ugkas looked at this creature with a hint of appreciation mixed with disgust.

After all, despite its looks, Sipakna was highly intelligent and possessed the ability to speak. Moreover, its strength was only a bit below that of the Five Dukes.

Nevertheless, this guy never revealed his intelligence in front of anyone other than the Demon King. In truth, Ugkas had no idea why the Demon King had ordered it to accompany him.

Ugkas was confident that he could eliminate every living being on this peninsula on his own. Of course, this included the Top Three, Kran, who was somewhere in this land.

In fact, until yesterday, they hadn’t been entirely sure about this feeling, but now that they were face to face again, it was clearer.

“...in the past, I used to get tired every time I used my power. As I got used to it, that stopped happening. But after I used my power to help you, I felt really tired. I was so sleepy that I almost fainted.”

[...]

“The people Mr. Soul wants to see are far away.”

Lukas simply nodded, and Arid didn’t pry any further.

For some reason, they didn’t want to have any serious conversations with him. They just wanted to enjoy the comfortable feeling for as long as possible.

Suddenly, Arid’s expression became solemn. Slei’s words resounded in their mind.

[You seem to have a lot on your mind.]

Arid trembled slightly at those words.

“...ah. You could tell?”

[Right.]

Arid raised their hand to touch their face.

Of course, that alone wasn’t enough to tell them what their expression was at that moment.

[What’s wrong?]

It was a blunt but friendly voice. It had been a while since they had heard a voice like that.

Arid couldn’t find the words to speak and fell silent for a while.

Come to think of it, Mr. Soul had noticed their troubles from the very first day.

‘I want to tell him.’

They wanted to say it.

It felt like if they did, then the pressure that weighed on their chest would be relieved a bit.

But Arid simply raised their head and smiled brightly.

“No. It’s nothing.”

[...]

“Ah. It’s nothing bad. It’s just that I owe Mr. Soul an apology. So, sorry in advance.”

[Apology?]

“Yeah. I don’t think I’ll be able to send Mr. Soul to paradise right now.”

Arid tried to make their voice as bright and carefree as possible.

“Because I think I’ll be busy from now on.”

The soul, Lukas, looked silently at Arid.