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Last Embryo Volume 8 Prologue Part 2

The female clerk said to him insistently, trying to be as considerate towards her client as possible.

What Kouryu didn’t know was that this female clerk from 『Thousand Eyes』was originally Shiroyasha’s attendant, so she knew how to discipline the likes of her and would show no mercy while doing so.

Kouryu simply smiled wryly and shrugged his shoulders. Under normal circumstances he would’ve enjoyed that kind of lighthearted banter, but he was not in the mood for it today.

All-you-can-drink buffet of your favorite alcohols from all over the world! That was the slogan that lured Kouryu into coming out of his room, but he would’ve never expected that he would be forced to look at the mug of his enemy’s son over and over again. If only he knew that it would be like that, then he would’ve stayed in his room and drank quietly.

He was about ready to leave his seat along with the glass that still had some booze left in it, but then he felt the signs of two familiar presences approaching him from behind his back.

For a moment, Kouryu was preparing himself to clash with the presences that were making their way towards him through the clouds of purple smoke, but when he turned back, he was greatly surprised when he saw that the presences belonged not to the enemies, but rather to his close friends.

「Well would you look at that! I was wondering who that might be, but it were actually taikei and Karyo-chan!」
「Took the words right out of my mouth! It is entirely unbecoming of my second brother to be drinking all by himself while being hunched over in the corner of the bar lounge?」

「Oi, oi, you of all people don’t have any right to be saying that! Were you not unbecoming by drinking alone in the corner as well?!」

Karyou pouted at the words of the giant standing next to her, Macaque.

All three of them were chatting with a friendly atmosphere around them, but the female clerk was chilled to the bone, and rightfully so. Anyone who knows exactly who these three are would immediately feel overwhelmed with the urge to run away…

… because all three of them are the members of the 「Seven Great Sages」, otherwise known as 「Seven Great Demon Lords」.

Kouryu, 「The Great Sage Who Devastates the Seas」.
Karyou, 「The Great Sage Who Leaves Heavens in Dissaray」
Macaque, 「The Great Sage of Ventilation」

Out of the three of them, only Macaque possessed the other name under which he was famous in the Far East: Shuten Douji, which was also the name of the most famous Demon Lord from the Far East.

The three of them are the members of the formation that was the most famous for starting the Seven Stars War, one of the great wars of Little Garden, and became famous across various regions of it as a result.

They might have all settled down once they have become 「Floor Masters」tasked with the protection of Little Garden and its allies, but it doesn’t mean that the anecdotes about them have stopped being on the lips of Little Garden’s inhabitants.

And so, the female clerk spoke to Shuten-douji with a nervous look on her face.

「Uhm… I knew that Koryou-sama and Karyou-sama were invited onto the Giant Spirit Train, but I had no idea that Shuten-douji-sama will also be going along for the ride with us. Are you participating in the War as one of the Organizers, by any chance?」

「Umu. I have heard that the second or third round of the 2nd War for the Sun’s Authority is going to be organized by the metamorphoses from the Far East like myself, so naturally I came to help with it as well. I still haven’t decided on what kind of Game I would like to make, but you can be sure that I am not going to let neither Players nor the audience get bored.」

Shuten-douji gave her a surprisingly smooth answer. The eyes of the female clerk, who thought that such matters were to be kept under wraps under the rule of confidentiality, had her eyes shoot wide open.

However, right next to him, Karyou galred at Shuten-douji with a lot of veins popping up all over his temples.

「… Big brother. I thought I told you that you cannot go around telling about such things to anyone you meet. That is exactly what the rule of confidentiality is for.」

「Ehhhh?!!!」

「Say what now?」

「Are you serious?!」

「Of course, but why is my second brother surprised as well?? I hope you didn’t tell about this to anyone else!」

Karyo-chan yelled while the number of veins on her temples increased even further. Koryou quickly averted his gaze from her and looked in the other direction. Now that he thought about it, there really was something like that in effect.

Karyo-chan, with her shoulders slumped, glared at the female clerk with a vexed expression.

「…………You, the female clerk over there. I’m sure you know this already, but what we’re talking about here is strictly confidential. If you talk about what you’ve heard here to anyone, you’ll bring shame not only to yourself, but to the leader of your Community as well.」

「Y-Yes, I understand.」

The female clerk braced herself and straightened her back.

War for the Sun’s Authority is a Great Gift Game, the highest-ranked type of Gift Game in the entire Little Garden. If that information was leaked to anyone outside of it, even the clerk’s original master, Shiroyasha, would be embarrassed about such a blunder.

Karyo was also glaring at him in that sense… but suddenly, she stopped and pondered something that has just now came to her mind.

「… Hmm? Speaking of which, you were appointed as the manager of the branch of 『Thousand Eyes』 in the south, but didn’t you finish your term there as my second brother’s attendant? Why are you even here then?」

「That’s…」

The female clerk’s complexion turned pale.
Koryu awkwardly pulled Karyou closer to himself and whispered:

「Ah, let’s talk about that. Actually, I was responsible for losing most of the shop’s customers to the 『Six Scars』, so I came back to the east side, and now she and I have been delegated to run the store here onboard of the Giant Spirit train.」

「My oh my, you don’t say.」

Karyou grinned with a nasty look on her face.

In other words, she changed from a female clerk to a female store manager, but then she also became a female conductor. The female conductor was prepared for to be teased for it, but then she decided to open her mouth and explain further.

「It’s embarrassing to admit, but I didn’t have the skills to run the shop and tarnished the good name of the Twin Goddesses as a result. That is why right now I intend to start my training from scratch so that I can go and take back what we lost to the 『Six Scars』in the future.」

「Fufu, that’s an auspicious attitude. It would be extremely humiliating to be abused in a lower-ranked Community, but that’s also the duty of those who were defeated in the social war but managed to survive. At most, you will learn a lot in the lower-ranked Community.」

「Come on Karyou, now you’re just being mean.」

Karyou got reprimanded by Shuten-doji, but she didn’t even try to pretend that she was not smiling by covering her mouth with her hand.

With an astonished smile, Koryu struck her with his elbow lightly, and he was just about to offer her a helping hand by switching the subject to how Karyou was almost defeated by a lower-rank opponent this one time…

But at that moment the Game that was currently being relayed has been wrapped up with a round of enthusiastic cheers.

『And the winner has been decided to be 『Queen Halloween』Community! Everyone, please give the contestants a warm round of applause♪』

When Kuro Usagi announced the victory of the Exhibition Gift Game and clapped her hands, a thunderous applause could be heard from the other side of the purple smoke, as the screens displayed the images of three people: Saigo Homura, Mikado Tokuteru and Arjuna, and once he saw them, Shuten-douji let out a loud laugh as he stroked his beard.

「Oh, so that is the son of Indra whom I have heard so much about? So the rumors about him taking part in the War were true after all. So, they are all members of 『Avatara』?」