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Last Embryo Volume 3 Interlude 2 Part 1

Translator: DarkHeartedAlchemist

Giant Spirit Train 『Sun Thousand』, The Sun Room, the most the most extravagant of the VIP rooms.

「It would seem that the summoning has been successful. You have my gratitude, Queen Halloween.」

The voice hidden behind the thin veil of the fumes coming from the incense burners belonged to a young woman: a kimono-wearing silver-haired beauty who watched through the viewing crystal as the battle between Izayoi and Parashurama raged on while she sat comfortably in a cushioned chair in one of the Sun Room’s corners. She expressed her gratitude to the Queen, but contrary to her words, she was covering her mouth with her folding fan, which was an obvious sign to anyone who knew her and her mannerisms that right now she was extremely annoyed, and her being annoyed was never a good sign.

If one were to judge her based on nothing but her looks alone, then one would have to say that she was a lovely-looking, energetic young girl, but one closer look into her eyes was enough to tell anyone that they were filled with a cunning light typical of a veteran trickster who has seen many things in her life and outsmarted even more opponents with her own wit.

This girl, this silver-haired, golden-eyed individual who was tapping the tip of her smoking pipe against the edge of her empty ashtray was the one hailed as the winner of the 1^st War for the Sun’s Authority, the one known and respected as The King of the White Night and feared as her personal favorite nickname, The Demon Lord of the White Night.

The leader of the 『Thousand Eyes』 Community, Shiroyasha.

Visibly displeased, she stared at the images reflected in the Viewing Crystal with a sour look on her face.

「I would never have expected the Sixth Avatar to awaken before the First, especially since this was not supposed to be the right time for her start acting just yet. What do you make of this sudden development, Queen, Indra?」

Shiroyasha stopped playing with her pipe and turned towards the two people sitting beside her: Queen Halloween, the Golden Queen who governed the world’s boundaries and the one responsible for the summoning of Izayoi’s sibling group and Indra, the leader of the 『Twelve Devas』 Community of the War Gods from the eastern mythologies.

「Nothing much, since I have no interest in this Sixth Avatar, but if you want my honest opinion, then I would have to say that her being awakened or not if of no importance whatsoever.」

Queen was the first one to answer her with an apathetic voice signaling that the events that they watched just now were of little importance to her.

「Besides, you say that you are worried with someone like her appearing out of the blue, but nevertheless, her personality is awfully similar to yours, wouldn’t you agree?」

「You little, don’t be absurd! Ugh, why is it that every time you open that rotten mouth of yours you just can’t help but to spit out such unbelievable nonsense?! No, I mean, well, it’s not like I can’t see where you’re coming from with such an outrageous line of reasoning, but still…!」

Biting into her own fingernails, Shiroyasha moved back to watching the Viewing Crystal even more intently than before. This was not how she imagined this day would go at all. There she was thinking that now when she was finally able to procure herself a chance at some free time to appear at the 2^nd War for the Sun’s Authority’s opening ceremony after finishing all of her work for the day, but then that dumb Queen just had to show up to ruin her day and make her feel absolutely horrible for reasons that were beyond Shiroyasha’s understanding.

Amused by her tormented reaction, Queen smirked smugly as if she just won some kind of huge battle. On the other side though, Tokuteru simply stood there and watched without saying a word. For all the faults to his character and a multitude of bad qualities he possessed, not knowing when to shut up in the presence of other deities was not one of them (or at least that is what the man himself chose to believe).

「Well, as much of a surprise as her appearing this early was, her appearance does not pose any problems for us for the time being. Everything should still be proceeding according to our plans, so…」

「Houhou? What’s this now? So you want to say that you knew that 『The Hero Slayer』 would appear, but chosen not to inform anyone about it? How naughty of you~~.」

「No, that is not what I had in mind at all, and I would very much like you to stop twisting my words so that they could be used in your idiotic schemes. All I wanted to say by that is that I had my suspicions that one of the Avatars was going to awaken soon, but I had no idea which one was it going to be. After all, my return to Little Garden without having anyone else cover for me meant that there will be an opening left for rogue Divine Spirits to materialize in the Outer World, I knew that much, but all I can say now is that I am glad that we were fortunate enough for that Divine Spirit to be Parashurama and not someone much more troublesome.」

「Okay, that is fine and all, but think about me for a second! As much as I wanted to say that it does not bother me at all, saying that would be a lie! Because it does bother me, it bothers me a lot! Here I was, going through the trouble of making a look for myself that would be more appearing to the tastes of the Players, and what do I see first things first when I arrive? This right there!」

She shouted, pointing her finder at the Viewing Crystal accusatively.

「All I wanted was to have a fun competition, but if this keeps up then that dumbass Izayoi might ruin it all for me! This is not what I signed up for when I agreed to take this job!」

But Tokuteru and Queen Halloween both ignored Shiroyasha’s angry rant. Her normal appearance, the one that she adopted for her everyday usage was that of a kimono-wearing loli, but right now she changed her appearance to look like an adult beauty with a very feminine figure. If the circumstances were any different, then Tokuteru would have spared no efforts in order to tease her about how petty she was with her self-indulging whims, but now was not the time for engaging in such petty trivialities, especially with the problem at hand that still required their attention so that they could solve it before the things would get too out of hand.

「So, where exactly did you send Izayoi’s group off to?」

He asked the Queen with his best docile expression, hoping that she did not used that opportunity to pull some kind of prank on him.

「Summoning them while the Giant Spirit Train is on the move should already be pretty difficult enough in and out of itself, but now that it is traversing through the land’s Ley Lines the difficulty of that task must have been ramped up even higher, right?」

「It’s not that it’s difficult, it’s just that most of the times the process of doing so can be a real pain in the butt, and I think we all know how I hate bothersome things like that.」

「Okay, okay, I got it. So once again, where did you drop them?」

「I have sent them to the stage of the next battle ahead of time together with some pamphlets that might help them get around the place more easily. That being said, there is a very high possibility that they might end up getting attacked by local humans or Eudemons who consider that place to be their turf, but if it’s these we are talking about, then they should not have any problems whatsoever with dealing with them if such a scenario does end up happening.」

「I see.」

「Well, I guess that makes sense?」

Both Tokuteru and Shiroyasha nodded at Queen Halloween’s words. She probably concluded that sending Izayoi and the others straight to the place where the next Gift Game was going to be held instead of summoning them to a moving train that not only served as the headquarters for all of the big shots running the 2^nd War for the Sun’s Authority but also a place where they could bump into other, potentially hostile Players as they travelled between the stages must have been a better option, or at least the lesser of two evils.

「As much as I would love to see Izayoi’s eyes shooting out of their sockets in astonishment when he gets there, I think we can all agree that we have a much more important problem on our plates to deal with right now: The Sixth Avatar, Parashurama 『The Hero Slayer』. Normally it would have been enough to call her the God’s Avatar and just leave it at that, but based on what we have seen I think that at this point it might be more fitting to actually classify her as 『Last Embryo』.」