Chapter 89: Red Blood (2)
Lily thought after hearing Frondier’s words.
Even if she herself is a devil, Lily, who lived in the human world, did not encounter devils very often.
Still, the reason he has some experience is largely due to his position as ‘Zodiac’ and the fact that he lived much longer than Frontier.
In silence, Lili looks back on her memories of the demon she met. For the most part, it wasn’t a very good experience. From a Zodiac point of view, Lili is in a position to confront the devil.
“You can’t tell them apart right away.”
Lily said after thinking.
Just as humans cannot distinguish between humans and demons, the same goes for demons. That’s why Lili can fight demons.
If the demons knew Lili was a demon the moment they saw her, she would have been caught a long time ago.
“If you can’t tell the difference right away, does that mean you can tell the difference if you take time?”
“Conditions are needed rather than time.”
“condition?”
When Frondier asked, Lily raised her finger.
“As you know, the biggest difference between demons and humans is ‘wings’ and ‘aurors.’ So if you can see either of them, you can confirm whether it is a demon.”
“… … Neither is easy. “Unless it’s a combat situation.”
“yes. Especially the wings, because anyone would recognize them as devils, even if it wasn’t me. Of course, demons will never take out their wings.”
“Then what’s left are the Aurors. “If you see an Auror, will you be able to tell that Lili is a demon?”
Lili’s head tilted there.
“… … “I think so.”
“That’s really reliable.”
“Even among Aurors, they are all different! In the meantime, don’t you think it’s easy to find something that only demons have in common?”
Yes, Aurors are not the same as humans. That is why it is difficult to find the devil.
Frondier can also sense auras and mana that come within its range with its ‘sixth sense’, and if it is a person it knows, it can be identified to some extent.
If, like Elodie, the amount of mana is completely different from others, it is easier to recognize.
So what is more difficult is not to distinguish individuals, but rather to group them. Finding the unique characteristics of a ‘devil’ among individual auras with a variety of colors and feelings.
‘I thought it would help my sixth sense if Lili knew that first.’
Looking at the reaction, it seems that Lili doesn’t know clearly either.
“Anyway, if an auror or mana appears, you can confirm that it is a demon?”
“huh. maybe.”
“Can you stop expressing your lack of confidence at the end of every word you say?”
“You do that because you don’t have confidence! You too have encountered hundreds of demons in the imperial palace! In the meantime, did you understand the unique characteristics of ‘humans’?”
“… … “I see.”
Frondier was convinced by Lily’s correct argument and nodded.
Then, suddenly, I felt something strange and asked again.
“… … “Hundreds?”
“huh?”
“Liri, you say there are hundreds of them. “Not hundreds.”
From Frondier’s point of view, they were complete enemies, and to be honest, they were no different from animals, so it doesn’t matter how many people or how many they are called, but can Lili do the same?
Lili grinned at those words.
“Frondier, you seem to be confused for a moment while fighting Satan and Belphegor.”
“yes?”
“Don’t you remember what those hundreds of demons look like? “What was their intelligence?”
At those words, Frontier briefly remembers the past.
The countless demons encountered in the imperial palace were, in general,
─Here! It’s him!
─Drop it! Drop it!
─It’s hard to drop it! Kill it! Kill him!
─Killing is easy!
─Kill! Kill it!
“… … “It certainly didn’t seem like he was very intelligent.”
Compared to Satan and Belphegor, this is a repetition of overly simplistic and ignorant words. In contrast, the difference in intelligence between humans is not that large.
“They are low-level devils. A demon of that low level is close to a monster. The face, body shape, and way of thinking are almost similar. To the human eye, cows and pigs all look similar to each other, right? “That’s it.”
“Even if it’s the same demon, is there that much of a difference?”
“To be precise, it’s not the ‘same devil.’”
After hearing those words, Frondier fell into thought for a moment.
“… … In that case, the demons that hide among humans must be high-class demons in their own way to avoid being detected.”
“yes. “That’s why intelligence is evident, and that’s because they all look alike in the first place.”
“As long as they are demons, they will each have their own ‘desires’, but what happens if they cannot satisfy them?”
Leah Reese’s ‘desire’ is close to ‘possessiveness’ in Frondier’s view. It’s one thing to bring in good-looking men, but the reason you have such a special desire for Frontier when there are so many men is probably because of a desire you don’t have.
Leah Reece maintains a delicate balance with human society, and in fact, in Frontier’s opinion, she may have crossed the line a bit, but she manages to satisfy her desires.
But how can demons, whose desires are completely incompatible with human society, endure? What happens if you keep holding on?
Lili thought about those words for a moment and then spoke.
“It doesn’t mean anything will happen if you can’t resolve it. Without dying. Well, there may be some problems with the body, but if I had to compare it, it’s similar to human s*xual desire.”
“… … Oh, is that so?”
There, just when Frontier was feeling a little relieved.
“But you won’t do anything that won’t be resolved, right? I told you, the concept of morality is thin. For the devil, worrying about ‘can I do it’ is far more important than worrying about ‘whether I can do it.’ So if I can, I will.”
As Lili says that, her expression becomes uncomfortable at the same time. Well, from the beginning, I didn’t think that there would be many demons living in hiding in the human world other than myself, but as I developed my thoughts based on that idea, an ominous feeling creeped in.
“If it’s a devil, then of course there are those who have desires that are in the realm of crime by human standards, right?”
“Unfortunately, there are many more such demons. “I also don’t have such an honest desire, do I?”
Lili proudly said that it was not an honest desire.
“I want to live in hiding in human society and satisfy my desires, but I don’t want to be caught.”
Frondier continued his thoughts as he spoke.
In the past, we moved based on countless information we already knew, or with clear clues that we knew from previous experiences, but this time, we lack a lot of information.
So, one by one, I collected fragments that looked like thin threads.
“… … “I must have money.”
“I see. “That much is certain.”
“A lot of that too.”
“I see. “There is absolutely no room to refute it.”
Lili’s words gave him confidence in his guess, and Frondier spoke.
“… … You need to have a lot of money, a place to hide your secrets, and a partner who understands the situation. That is, a person who has his own property, his own land, and an organization he belongs to.”
“… … aha.”
There Lili understood what Frondier was talking about.
“It’s an impossible task for a clumsy noble.”
* * *
And now.
Frondier is carrying out his knightly duties so that he can attend the nobles’ banquet as much as possible. The higher the level of the noble, the better, and the better if something goes wrong.
Of course, these positions were arranged by Lili, but Frondier had mentioned that it would be better if the ‘imperial palace’ was involved with her.
Lili accepted that it was because she was closer to a high-ranking noble, but Frondier had one more idea.
‘… … Satan.’
Since Frondier is still unclear, he has a suspicion that he did not tell Lili about.
‘I don’t think he just left then.’
An uncountable number of demons appeared in the imperial palace.
The impression of Frontier, who confronted them head-on, was that it was truly poor.
Among the seven deadly sins, Satan is the devil who literally represents the devil. Even from a human perspective, its popularity would be on par with ‘Lucifer’.
The demons he unleashed on the imperial palace were able to be defeated by Frondier almost without lifting a finger.
At first, I thought it was the limit of the gate, but the appearance of Mizonas, who fought Ajie, is strange.
Moreover, Satan instantly sent Mizonas back to the demon world with his own power. Would beings with that much extra-standard power only use low-level demons, even if they are quite numerous?
‘… … At that time, Satan retrieved those demons as if to show me personally. Including Mizonas.’
Satan told Frondier that it was an apology, and spoke in a plausible way as if it were the first step in making a deal with Frondier.
… … But what if that’s not the case?
‘Unless Satan retrieved ‘the whole thing’.’
The demons summoned through the gate are not only low-level demons, and demons equivalent to or higher than Mizonas have already crossed the gate.
If they aren’t retrieved and are still here after the gate closes.
‘He may have started planning some kind of plan from then on.’
Frontier stays by the side of Sophie, who is to be escorted today, and quietly looks around the inside of the banquet hall with his eyes.
Today, this place is a gathering place for high-ranking nobles and royal family. Moreover, more than anything, it is a celebration of winning the war against Mangot.
Of course, there were banquets like this as soon as the war ended, but this time, the social scene was literally nothing more than an excuse to win the war, and only high-ranking nobles and the royal family could participate.
Immediately after the war, the focus was on rebuilding and restoring broken walls and villages, so the nobles were thirsty for such positions.
‘If I am Satan and have planted my demons in advance, I think the moment when Belphegor is defeated is the best timing.’
With that in mind, Frontier looked around inside.
I found a person completely different from what I was looking for.
“… … ah.”
Frondier made a low noise.
Her orange hair was tied back neatly and elegantly, and her lake-like eyes slowly closed and opened as if to hide boredom.
A girl who clearly shows her presence even among many beautiful women gathered in one place.
Frondier looked at the girl and simply said,
‘… … Now that I think about it, it was like that.’
I thought.
The girl’s bored eyes smile brightly every time she encounters men approaching her, but they are still boring.
At the end, I turned my gaze as if to say, “I want to escape somewhere.”
“… … Frontier.”
The girl found him.
Frondier raised his hand and greeted the girl, as if he had no choice.
─Hello, Elodie.
The words could not be spoken, only the mouth moved.
Frontier could not leave his seat. Because today is Sophie’s article. For now, I wouldn’t know if I found the devil right now.
So, in some ways, it was natural that Elodie walked over and landed in front of Frondier, but in other ways, it was a very unexpected appearance.
Elodie checked the surrounding situation as she approached Frondier, and then went straight to Sophie.
“Meeting Sophie von Mayer. “My name is Elodie de Richaera.”
“… … oh!”
As soon as Sophie saw Elodie, she tried to respond reflexively, but was surprised to realize who it was. Of course, there was a lot of color on his face.
When Elodie introduces herself, she omits the word ‘Inies’. It’s her full name that has to be included, and although it’s actually the right thing to do, Elodie doesn’t like it.
Of course, in between greeting Sophie, there were glances passing by as if they were scanning Frontier in a very short period of time.
─What are you doing?
─You’re not doing anything dangerous again, are you?
In this way, Elodie’s unique worries and insouciance were being displayed to a large extent.