Chapter 9 (1/2)
Chapter 9 – Discussion＊
It wasn’t as though they couldn’t forcefully awaken the unconscious Gran, but on top of feeling awkward about waking up a man who had been knocked out by a huge impact and now lay crumpled on the floor, Luru felt that he needed to have a discussion with Iris to a degree about certain things, so he decided to have a question and answer session, and discuss what they were going to do from now on.
To begin with, it was on his mind; why was Iris sleeping in long term sleeping equipment in a ruin like this?
Furthermore, just what on earth had happened to their brethren after Demon King Luruslia Nord had fallen to the heroes?
After calming down Iris who was almost exhausted from crying, and then having her sit down, Luru sat down beside her an began talking to find out about these two questions.
“So… I have some questions, but would you be fine with answering?”
Iris nodded as though it was obvious, and began speaking.
“Of course! By all means, please order me as you please. And… I too have some things that I wish to ask. If it is fine with you, would you answer as well?”
Now that it was mentioned, Luru thought ‘Ahh, that’s right‘, and began to think.
From Iris’ point of view, certainly she believed that Luru was the demon king, but not only were his features that of a human, but on top of that, his appearance had changed and he was now a child; an incomprehensible situation.
It might be better for him to explain these things first…
Thinking this, Luru nodded.
“Yeah, definitely. You must be holding doubts about whether I’m really Demon King Luruslia Nord, huh…”
Thinking about the reality, it wouldn’t have been at all strange for her to be suspicious of him from now on, or so Luru thought.
However, Iris shook her head and said,
“Not at all! Ojisama is Ojisama! There is no mistaking it. I hold no doubts about this matter…”
The tears that were supposed to have disappeared were gathering like beads again as Iris said this, and she spoke with such intensity that Luru was taken aback.
He certainly hadn’t expected her to have believed him to this extent, after all.
He had expected it to be at best a, ‘that possibility exists‘ sort of level, so her words which were the same as saying she had zero doubt, were shocking to him.
“I’m grateful but… why?”
“It is because of your Magia Globus beanbag. You did so because you also thought I would recognise it, did you not? To control that number of Magia Globus, no matter how talented a demon they may be, there is n.o.body who can do so besides you, Ojisama.”
“Certain I was thinking that it’d be nice if you remembered but… is it really enough to be that sure? Your esteemed father… Bacchus; couldn’t he do this too?”
No matter how great Luru was amongst the demon race at manipulating mana, right now he couldn’t do all that much in this body.
There was also the fact that he wasn’t used to it yet, and the ability of this body was different to when he was a demon.
It was because manipulating Magia Globus was done outside of the body, and Iris, being a demon, had fired off mana that had the same feeling as when he was demon king; it was very likely that if somebody told him to do the same thing again by himself, he’d be unable to.
Furthermore, Luru had the feeling that his sworn friend would be able to do at least that much as well.
However, Iris shook her head.
“No. Father could not do it. How should I put it…? That person was bad with fine control of mana, and though only a little, he had trouble with precision activities, such as the likes of Magia Globus control. I have memories of playing this with him many times, but his numbered 10 at best. For him to control almost a hundred like you did… was impossible.”
Now that it was mentioned, Iris’ father, Bacchus Taesnola, had a part of him that was a little sketchy with the details, and Luru had memories of him being bad with detailed work.
When it came to battling he was an extremely skilled person, and was notably for being able to take on even an army by himself, but Luru hadn’t ever seen him do any fine work with mana.
Due to his mighty mana, he was a man who relied on large scale battle magic, and after circulating mana through his body he engaged in hand-to-hand combat. Because of this, perhaps he hardly ever did anything like controlling Magia Globus.
“Certainly I can understand if its him, but… there should be others, right? Myutos or Reine, for example.”
Both of them were once Luru’s subordinates, and known as excellent magic and magecraft specialists.
Myutos was a shrivelled and neurotic magus, whilst Reine was a stupid woman with stupidly powerful mana who loved to destroy things.
However, Iris shook her head.
“I do not believe that Myutos-ojiisama was incapable of doing so, but had he the free time to play with Magia Globus beanbags, he would have spent it on something else to begin with, and Reine-oneesama was perhaps a little too capricious perhaps I should say… She would lose interest in doing something like this, so…”
It wasn’t that they couldn’t do it, but that their personalities meant that they wouldn’t, huh?
Luru understand quite well what Iris was talking about.
If you had to categorise them, Myutos had the disposition of a scholar, and Reine was the type of r.e.t.a.r.d who liked to fire off flashy magic.
And then to Luru’s shock, the memories were so nostalgic that he teared up.
He hadn’t thought that he’d tear up over such a pointless topic.
Both Myutos and Reine had messed about in the day and he’d often turned a cold shoulder on them, but he realised that he quite liked them.
Noticing Luru’s behaviour, Iris said in worry,
“My apologies… I have brought up a topic painful for you who were defeated halfway…”
“No… It’s fine. On the contrary, I’m happy that a nostalgic topic came up. But I see… Just like you say, perhaps I’m the only one who could do it.”
To Luru who pulled himself together and continued speaking, Iris agreed.
“Yes. That is how it is. However, there is something mysterious and odd about this.”
“What?”
“There is no mistake that you are Ojisama, however, what on earth is that body of yours? It is unmistakably that of a human’s. Furthermore, the age is… It is difficult to say this, but you appear to be a child just like I am. Just what on earth happened…? I believed I could restrain my deep interest, but…”
“Ahh… You’re right. Earlier I said that a lot happened, but…”
“Come to think of it, you did indeed say as such. What did you mean…?”
To Iris who had tilted her head in wonder, Luru was a little confused at how to explain things to her.
However, it was not that difficult an explanation.
Were he to explain it to a human he might need to explain things in quite some detail, but with a demon, it would be fine even with a single word, Luru remembered.
Thus, he spoke.
“It’s simple… Iris. I experienced reincarnation.”
Iris’ widened eyes displayed to Luru her shock.
However, it didn’t at all feel like she had heard something impossible, but rather it seemed close to the kind of shock that someone got from suddenly hearing some joyful news.
Reincarnation was part of the demon race’s faith.
They believed that the world revolved like that, and after inheriting a soul, one would continue living as the next generation.
It was because they believed that that the demons could fight with strong spirits.
After that, Iris slowly took a breath, and asked a question.
“…Which means that after you died, Ojisama, a certain amount of time pa.s.sed and you were reincarnated as a human?”
Luru smiled at her speed in understanding.
Were he explaining to a human, something like this probably wouldn’t have happened.
In the past, reincarnation was something thought of as heresy to humans, and it was almost outside their imagination.
It would certainly be a bother to explain this way of thinking from start to finish.
‘Once living beings died, that was the end‘.
That was what humans believed.
Luru answered Iris’ question.
“That’s how it is. Right now I’m definitely a human. In other words, I have a human mother and father. Both of them are good people… and kind people.”
Recalling that Iris might be opposed to this, Luru said what he did.
Though Iris wasn’t the type of hate humans, they were a species that the demons had gone to war with.
It was quite possible that she didn’t hold good will towards them.