The Principle of a Philosopher by Eternal Fool “Asley”

Chapter 404: The Devil King’s Direction

~~ Regalia Castle ~~

Devil King Lucifer, sitting on the throne, looked down at the Hell Emperor.

At this point, the Hell Emperor no longer feared the Devil King, and only waited quietly and obediently for his instructions.

“Hmph, so power is all one needs to tame you. Very good, unlike a certain dog I know…”

“GRRR…”

“From now on, you are to be contained in the cage that Billy has prepared, together with the Alphas and Betas. If you wish to survive, do not let any of them live.”

The Hell Emperor cast its eyes down, showing its willingness to obey Lucifer’s command.

“Billy, you do know what to do, don’t you?”

“Yes, my King! I will make sure everything is perfect!”

“Words are cheap. I expect results.”

“We will be on our way, then…”

Billy bowed, and at the same time, the Hell Emperor stood up. Then, together, they disappeared into thin air. Lucifer proceeded to look to his side.

“Idïa, I have been told that you are having difficulties fulfilling your mission.”

“Not to the point of concern, my King — a mere matter of tightening a screw that is about to fall off. The situation has long past the period of unpredictability.”

“The screw will continue to come loose as long as the fool exists. After all, it was none other than him who loosened it in the first place…”

“Yes, I understand.”

Idïa, on her knees, bowed and then disappeared into thin air just as Billy had. Now, the only other person left here was Cleath.

“Now then…”

“Yes, my King!”

“No need to be so nervous. Your mission this time is one of utmost importance. Do you realize that?”

“…Yes, I do!”

Cleath’s body trembled. 

It was his duty, as commanded by Lucifer, to monitor the Royal Capital’s Warrior Guardians. With Cleath’s abilities keeping them in check, the Warrior Guardians’ military strength was nothing to be scared of.

However, if the Resistance were to attack him while their envoy was meeting with Kaoru, it would almost certainly result in Cleath’s death.

That was what Cleath feared.

“Hehehe… are you scared?”

“N-No, not at all…!”

“Many sources of powerful arcane energy are gathering in T’oued — The Heavenly Beasts must all be in Eddo by now, too. If the Warrior Guardians Brigade is targeted, there will be no chance of survival, Cleath. Do you realize that?”

“I will make the best of my abilities–

“–And get yourself killed?”

The look in Lucifer’s eyes suggested that he was amused by every second of this interaction.

Cleath could not bring himself to talk back, however, seeing that the other person was Devil King Lucifer.

“Well… what should I do, then?”

“Do you hate Leon?”

“…!?”

“Hehehe, I don’t dislike your honest reaction.”

“Apologies…”

“It is fine. The power of hatred will serve to elevate you to greater heights.”

“…And what does that mean?”

Cleath looked up, intrigued.

Lucifer cracked a smile and began drawing a Craft Circle.

“Take this with you.”

“Yes, my King! …If I may ask, what is this?”

“Keep it until the ‘party’ begins. And if you want to keep yourself alive, always remember this magecraft and the power of hatred…”

As Lucifer calmly spoke, Cleath felt a chill run down his spine. 

The dense arcane energy that filled the throne room permeated the air, piercing through the silence. 

Trembling with fear, Cleath broke that silence with utmost caution.

“K-King Lucifer… May I ask you a question?”

“What is it?”

“This envoy… who is it you are planning to send?”

In the face of Cleath’s doubt, Lucifer’s face lit up with delight.

The Devil King’s smile was so sinister that it frightened even a Devilkin like Cleath.

“That is… a good question.”

◇◆◇◆◇◆◇◆◇◆

~~ Eddo, Magic Classroom Venue ~~

“Dammit, you never said we’d be doing this.”

A frown wrinkled the face of the gigantic Elf — Tūs.

In front of him stood Asley, along with a group of formidable fighters, all ready for battle.

“Well, we gotta do what we gotta do. The envoy will probably be here in just a few days.”

“How’d you even know that?” Bruce, the captain of the Silver Special Forces, tilted his head in confusion. “I mean, the letter didn’t mention an exact date, right?”

“Well, Bruce, Lucifer told me that while you were out cold.”

“Man, you really gotta bring that up, huh…”

Bruce facepalmed, and Asley chuckled.

“So,” Better spoke up. “What’d Lucifer say, exactly?”

After a moment of hesitation, Asley proceeded to say,

“…’In a matter of days, this world will turn into Hell. Resist all you want. Despair all your want.’ Yeah.”

“…Exactly what I’d expect a Devil King to say,” Trace muttered, subtly shivering as she kept her arms folded.

“Right, and it sounds like he actually is serious about the ‘matter of days’ part. Our trip to the Labyrinth of No Return and back took a total of four days… so it’s safe to assume that the Devil King’s army will start acting within the coming week… No, actually, make that six days. Hmm…” Irene said, resting her chin on one hand. “All right. Warren, follow me. And Asley, you come see us when you can.”

“Ah-huh…? Yes, ma’am.”

Irene proceeded to walk to the far end of the magic classroom venue.

Warren followed her, as as he went past Asley he whispered to him,

“You look confused, Alsey.”

“Well, I thought she’d be angry, is all. Like, ‘why did you never mention something so important!?’ and stuff.

“She IS angry, you know.”

“Huh?”

“You heard me.”

“…But why?”

“She did explain the reason herself just now…”

“Ah… Huh. Really?”

“Hehehe… she can’t exactly get angry at you now, that’s why. Saying things to demotivate humanity’s strongest fighter would have an effect on not only how much the people trust her, but also the morale of our entire force. She had to consider the appropriate time and place, so to speak.”

“In other words… she’s saving that for later?”

“Exactly.”

“And she’s not actually concerned about how motivated I am?”

“That’s not true. Here, let me help you out…” Warren said in a serious tone, lowered his voice further, and held out his hand. “Take these.”

“…? What are those?”

“Earplugs.”

Several nearby people struggled to suppress their laughter.

Others, unable to hold back, simply burst into laughter.

Dozens pointed and laughed heartily at Asley as the latter received the earplugs.

And others — also dozens of them — were simply exasperated.

However, the conversation between Warren and Asley had been held in hushed voices.

Realizing that close to a hundred of his comrades had supposedly heard the whole thing, Asley asked himself,

[Damn it, they’ve all been listening in, haven’t they!?]

And he was absolutely correct.

◇◆◇◆◇◆◇◆◇◆

“–Well!? Do you understand now!?”

Warren’s eye contact prompted Asley to remove one of his earplugs, which he did so by pretending to scratch his ear.

“Y-yes. I understand, ma’am.”

“…Huh. You’re actually listening for once,” Irene said, perplexed by Asley’s reaction, as he would normally put up at least some resistance.

“Wha–!? W-what do you mean, for once!?”

Asley’s reaction was quite obviously strange. On the spur of the moment, he turned to Warren beside him, seeking help.

Irene caught on in an instant.

“Hmph!”

She proceeded to direct a piercing glare at Warren.

Warren simply smiled back at Irene. As a man known as the Black Emperor, he was sure not to show any vulnerability, even if he was up against Irene.

“Hmph!”

Irene returned her focus to Asley — the man considered humanity’s strongest. But precisely because he was up against Irene, his eyes darted around… and eventually, his face twitched involuntarily.

Irene, noticing all of the suspicious signs, looked closer and eventually saw the earplug in one of Asley’s ears.

“What’s that in your ear?”

“…A magic tool that lets me listen to the ocean waves anytime, helping my concentration.”

“Show it to me.”

“No.”

“Show me that earplug.”

“It’s a magic tool.”

“Then show it to me.”

“……It’s an earplug.”

“I knew it!”

Irene slammed her hands on the sinless desk.

“I’ll give you that lecture again… right from the beginning.”

“Can’t it just be the last part?”

“No!”

“Please?”

“Still no!”

“Pretty please?”

“Are you making fun of me or what!?”

“Well, I HAVE been doing that pretty often…”

Eventually, Warren had to stop them from arguing.

“You two… I have received a Telepathic Call from Lady Kaoru. We ought to head to the temple immediately.”

“Grr…!”

“Oh-ho…”

Warren smiled and walked past Asley, just like before. 

Asley, noticing that Warren was not acting quite like he usually would, came to a realization…

[Wait, Kaoru’s already called us quite a while ago, hasn’t she!?]

And he was absolutely correct.