Chapter 78 – Part 1
「Selina, Diadora, do as you must to take care of the remaining great demon and the magic soldiers」
「Yes, leave it to us」
「We’ll leave the Priestess Princess, Olivier and the others to you」
「Yeah, I’ve got it」
While I walked towards Headmaster Olivier without any worries, Selina and Diadora turned stern eyes toward the remaining demons and magic soldiers, who seemed to be faltering after seeing three great demons get destroyed.
Selina and Diadora were each able to defeat a great demon in a single blow. That’s how much their power had grown, which I hadn’t expected. It was a good miscalculation to have though, so it would be all right to let them handle the leftover demons.
Then, the mastermind behind this whole incident finally showed up.
The first to show was a young man who had light purple skin and white hair, and horns like a goat’s sticking out from his temples.
He wore black clothes reminiscent of a butler, which suited him well without any flaws in his appearance.
Following after him was a woman who had three eyes and copper red skin. As for her age, she appeared to be in her mid twenties.
Aside from her face, no other part of her skin was exposed. Her body was wrapped by layers and layers of cloth of many different colors. The area around her butt was covered with a shell that looked like a scorpion, and a needle tipped tail stretched out from the end.
Both of them were demons, or rather, high class demons; the so-called court rank, royal demons.
Either of them were probably extraordinary existences strong enough to destroy a country or two just by emerging in this world, but they also did not have enough power to take control of the Yggdrasil tree at the same time.
The fact that they had appeared before their master had, meant that they were most likely servants or guards.
They each had gold shining eyes, which they glared at us with, but I do not recognize any color of emotion in their eyes.
From their perspective, we must not be worth getting riled up for.
「Don’t waste any more time and hurry up and show yourself, you’re taking too long」
Waiting until after his servants appeared, the mastermind finally felt like showing his face too.
Slightly delayed behind the wind that blew in from the demon world, which had an even higher concentration of miasma than before, a young man with magnificent, tied back golden hair, and four red and black horns, appeared.
He wore a long coat of black cloth, embroidered with gold and red thread. And two wings with a gold colored membrane grew from his back.
He was surprisingly endowed with good looks, having a pale face that could steal the hearts of many women, even non humanoid ones.
He had his purple eyes fixated on Yggdrasil, his gaze sharp and shrewd. Seeing Yggdrasil shrouded in darkness brought a light, satisfied smile to his face.
When his pale lips curved into a smile, sharp fangs could be glimpsed slightly protruding.
「Hmm, is it a Demon Lord? Or maybe his son?」
Well at any rate, there are lots and lots of beings who call themselves Demon Lords within the demon world, so it could just be that this one only suits the description in power and personality.
Compared to my memories and the fights I’ve experienced in the past, the power of the young man in front of me was one that stood out, that much could be said for sure.
Upon hearing my words, and realizing that this being was one that surpassed a demon prince, Headmaster Olivier, Selina and everyone all gasped.
It was already rare for a demon prince to show up, an occurrence that occurred only once every few hundred years. But for someone even more powerful than that to show up, it wouldn’t be an exaggeration to say that this moment was ground zero for an event that could decide the whole planet’s fate.
「Oh, Ente-Yggdrasil. You’ve finally become dyed into my color」
The Demon Lord-like young man seemed to be happy from the bottom of his heart as he crawled his fingers along Yggdrasil, much as he would caress a person’s cheek. He continued to look on at the tree, without so much as a blink.
Upon having such a horrible enemy lay his hands upon Yggdrasil, the tree that was the very symbol of Ente Forest, an aura of fury rose up among Ryuryushii, Latanta, and the others.
However, if they were to leave the protection of the dragon magic I had laid out around us, they would immediately submit to the pressure and miasma of the Demon Lord-level being, and their minds and bodies would both most likely succumb to death. No matter how frustrating it was, they had no choice but to stay where they were.
In response to the appearance of their Lord, the remaining magic soldiers and demons, although their numbers had been reduced greatly by the Great Spirits, all lowered their heads at once, showing their respect to their leader.
It seems they would rather risk death by doing such a thing in the middle of battle, leaving themselves at the mercy of their enemies, than to show any rudeness to their Lord.
「Lord Gaban, congratulations. As your vassal, I could not be happier」
「Congratulations. You’ve finally gotten ahold of Yggdrasil」
Without responding to the flattery of his two servants, the young demon named Gaban continued to look only at Yggdrasil.
Gaban, huh? No matter how much I searched my memories, I couldn’t think of anyone with that name.
Perhaps he was born after I had died in my previous life, or maybe I just didn’t remember, having written off any memory of him as something minor.
「Lovely Ente-Yggdrasil. It was worth getting that lowly Niezheg clan involved」
「Hm, I do agree with the point that the Niezheg are inferior, but you were the one who planted the idea in Niezhel’s head. You will carry the blame for trying to infiltrate the Yggdrasil tree」
Upon my sudden interjection, Gaban and the other demons looked toward me, as if a roadside pebble had suddenly started talking.
Just by them appearing here, the spiritual pollution had become tremendously fierce, and no human could hope to withstand it.
So from looking at them, and at how they were still keeping their sanity while inside that miasma, I could tell that they were not ordinary humans.
The two servant demons tried to use their powers on me, thinking they were just going to crush a weakling, but Gaban restrained them with a single look. It seems he must be in a great mood, to feel up to talking with a lowly human.
「That’s right. I’m a human that isn’t actually human.
That foolish Niezheg descendant, Niezhel, tried to eat the world tree, because I instructed him to devour this land’s Yggdrasil. But I made use of them breaking through this dimension’s walls.
Thanks to that, I could easily interfere with Yggdrasil’s spirit. Fufu, she’s quite a headstrong girl, so the results of that are as you can see.」
「I see, so you had a reason for working together with Niezhel, but do you have a reason for targeting Yggdrasil?
If you were just aiming for the man Yggdrasil will be releasing, you shouldn’t have to be so secretive. Or could it be that you’re trying to regain territory for the demon world?
But there should be demon versions of the world trees in the demon world, so I would think you wouldn’t need the ones here…」
「How knowledgeable. But you are wrong. I simply have a liking for Yggdrasil, that is all.
Yggdrasil is able to cultivate such rich life here on earth. That is a beautiful thing. No tree in the demon world can do that. Don’t you think so?
I already have an Yggdrasil tree in one corner of my castle, along with many other trees and their spirits. Their beauty is my source of pride.
If I add this Ente-Yggdrasil to my collection, then it would be able to live on for eternity by my side」
「So in other words, you have a taste for trees, or maybe a hobby of collecting them. So Yggdrasil must be quite attractive to you.
But the fact that you would forsake all of the living people who rely on and coexist with Yggdrasil, just to get your hands on the tree, it really shows that you are a demon. No matter how much time passes, you demons never change」
「You talk as if you know us. Now that I think of it, Georg and his people should have been summoned by that person, but I heard they were all defeated. The ones who did that, was it you people?」
His words,『that person』caught my interest, but the idiotic face and words of the one I met in Solania passed through my mind.
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