Chapter 20 (2/2)

The Dark Lord, who had accepted the ping-pong conversation indifferently, turned his head to me again. That bastard! Abel gnashed his teeth, but he didn’t rush to me, perhaps after hearing my nagging at him before. Abel’s red thread became thicker and thinner in real time even during the conversation.

When I’m with him, every day is so suffocating that I can’t live. I looked at Abel with a half weeping heart. I was looking at him with the desire to discuss something as we both share a life and he looked at my expression – the image of death – and wrinkled his eyebrows  as if he had taken it in a different meaning.

“Reject if you don’t like it. I’ll take care of it.”

Look at that useless sense of confidence. Such a fool. I took a deep breath and shook my head. If I refuse, Abel will come to fight the Dark Lord and Caesar. No matter how strong he is, he cannot defeat the Dark Lord. The strongest villain in the game. Even if Abel wins, he will be caught one way or another. Even though we had wandered the long way, Apocalypse still came to him.

In the end, he was deceived by Caesar—even though the details were not revealed in the original story, but he was deceived by Caesar even then and was half-forced to be recruited—and now we’re here. It’s such a horrifyingly strange pattern. In the Temple of Immortality, I thoroughly realized that if I was bound by the original unchanging law, I would still return to my original place even if I refused, so I decided to quickly accept reality.

“…you’ll regret it later. You’re going to have to apologize to me.”

“I’ll think about it.”

I tried the last protest with her choked voice, but as the name suggests, there is only an answer that seems to be covered in chic black.

“Then what if. Very if. If I’m here and the real Saintess Lucia appears and Assand wakes up, then you’ll have to release me. Promise me.”

“Good.”

Whoa, are you cool? I flinched at the unexpectedly quick answer, so I quickly added an option before I changed my mind.

“Another thing. Please provide thorough security for our personal life. You know that personal life includes both life and information, right? And there is no such thing as betraying us and betraying us later because we are useless.”

“‘Us’?”

The corner of his mouth, who had been listening quietly, twisted, and his head turned to Abel. Abel grabbed my arm and he was standing with me half-covered behind him. He had been holding out even the gigantic scythe of the reaper for some time, so just looking at the shadows, he looked like one. Belatedly, embarrassed and about to fall a little, the Dark Lord gave out a windy laugh.

“…It’s a combination of a reaper who seeks immortality and a human who lives a short life. Interesting.”

The Dark Lord, who spoke dryly in an uninteresting voice, clenched his chin. The Dark Lord’s red thread embedded in his chest melted into the darkness of the floor, and there was no end in sight, unlike the others’ red threads that rose upward toward Solar. There were two moons hanging brightly outside the window, but not a single light came into the room. A verse came to mind at that gloomy look.

[His childhood name was Harden. As a vampire, he was cursed to burn when exposed to light due to Solar’s wrath as soon as he was born. Because of this, he curses ‘Solar’ and creates a group of villains, Apocalypse, to make the world dark. ]

One of the worst villains had the typical ‘he was actually a pitiful guy’ past, so the memories were vivid. As soon as I looked at him with dim eyes, a dry reply came back.

“Good.”

***

As I came out of the suffocating castle, a figure I had forgotten was waiting on the bridge. The figure of a monster standing proudly with a flaming mane fluttering. I rushed to him with regret and pleasure and hugged him tightly.

“Sleipnir!”

“I’m glad you’re safe. Well, you know how surprised I was that you were gone!”

It was Sleipnir who seemed to have come for a long time. Asura probably wouldn’t have met him, how did he get here so quickly? As I wondered, I remembered several times that he said he was from the Dark Age. It must have felt like coming home for him.

“Get on.”

“…Ah, thank you.”

Abel, who followed, lifted me lightly and put me on Sleipnir’s back. Won’t you ride? Before I could ask, Abel trudged ahead of me. Sleipnir asked, who had been walking behind him.

“Do you know how surprised I was to feel the master’s spirit from this side? It’s nice to see you too-Huft Huff, I thought I would never come here again! What have you done with the Dark Lord?”

“Negotiation is lame.”

It was, of course, half a failure. He’s a noble sir who doesn’t trust people at all! He’s a suspicious suspect! Swallowing the words, I briefly shortened the conversation to Sleipnir. Hmm, umm, umm. That’s right. Occasionally the Dark Lord’s swear words were mixed in, but he listened to me seriously.

“…So I decided to stay here for a while and cooperate with Apocalypse. Then, when Saintess Lucia appears-”

Swish! Abel’s ferocious eyes in front of me turned to me, so I bit my mouth as far as I could. The active volcano was boiling. In my experience, it’s best not to touch him in this case.

“It’s a message!”

At that moment, a Nightmare, who seemed to fall off at any moment, flew up and down. As if it had forgotten it earlier, it was a message that the Dark Lord had sent late. I opened the note and read it. I will arrange a house near the Black Castle. It was written that they would provide separate residences for Abel and mine if we wished.

“Abel. They can also provide a separate house for you. What should I do…”

The answer came from the ugly pigeon blood eyes. I see. If we use a separate room, we will be separated. Even though I said that I would use the house separately, the low pressure from Abel really felt like it was going to explode. There is also lava near him, so a chain explosion will occur. With tears in my eyes, I returned the message.

“…I’ll just live with him.”

“Yes! Then I will tell them that!”

I looked faintly at the Nightmare who received the message and nodded its head and flew away.