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Volume 2 Chapter 4 Part 11

Siluca seemed to have the same feelings about this matter, and was staring at Demon Lord Adele with a serious expression.

「… The reason I was able to defeat the Demon Lord was because the Queen of the Demon World wanted it… 」

And when the Demon Lord Adele looked up at the ceiling, she let out a beast-like roar.

The air in the room trembled, and the cloth and tapestries of the canopy bed shook violently. Both Theo and Siluca had to cover their ears to avoid damaging their hearing.

「Now that I am a Demon Lord incarnate, I can understand it well. There is no way I could have defeated a Demon Lord with the way that I was back then. 」

Demon Lord Adele said as she stared at her own palm for a while, and eventually closed it as if she was trying to crush something she was holding in it.

「Why did the Demon Lord would do such a thing? 」

Theo muttered to himself.

「Because The Demon Lord loved destruction and slaughter above everything else, and was insatiable in his pursuit of them. 」

「Is that why? 」

Siluca mumbled as she put her finger to her lips.

「I think the Demon Lord knew that they were nothing more than a projection and that they would eventually disappear from this world on their own, or that they at least foresaw it. That is why he came to the conclusion that there was only one possible way for him to continue his killing and slaughter… 」

「Leave his own appearance behind even if he were to dissapear! 」

Theo raised a voice of surprise.

「It is just a guess on my part though. 」

Siluca added so, but Theo’s intuition told him that this guess was probably correct.

「Dimitri… 」

The Demon Lord said while staring at Siluca.

「It seems that you were not wrong to let this girl be with you here on this occasion. 」

「She is quite a bright girl, is she not? 」

Dimitri smiled satisfactorily.

「The conclusion I came to was exactly the same one as that girl just said. If you think about it carefully, then you would see that it actually makes sense why I was fascinated by the Demon Lord and his power, and also, I should have known that it will be too much for me to contain and that my Crest would break because of it. It was all because he has chosen me as his next vessel to take over his role od spreading destruction and slaughter and continue what he had started. 」

「But if it really was like that, then would it not have been better to continue the fight against Elram? 」
Dimitri asked.

「Yes, I suppose you are right about that. 」

The Demon Lord laughed weakly.

「But I guess there was still a piece of the good old ideals of the Fee Knights left in me, and that is why I could not continue with it. 」

Saying so, the Demon Lord returned to her human form again.

「Therefore I sealed myself away and decided to go to sleep. But before I did that, I distinctly remember asking you to not disturb my sleep for any reason, remember, Dimitri? 」

Adele glared at the Vampire King with a grimace on her face, but Dimitri simply shrugged it off like a child scolded by his mother for doing something that he was not supposed to do.

「I had no choice but to do it. After all, if the Age of Order comes to pass, it would mean the end of eternity that I desire. That is why decided to wake you up, because I want you to continue your fight so that my eternity would not come to an end! 」

「You are exactly the same as I remember you. You are so strong, and yet you are like a child at the same time… 」

Adele smiled.

「But I just cannot help it that I love you so much for it. You are right. When the Age of Order finally comes, you and I will have no choice but to return to being ordinary people. But is that not fine? I mean, If you want me that much, then I can be yours. 」

「Adele! That is very, so very attractive… !!! 」

Dimitri had an ecstatic expression on his face for a while when he heard that. However, his expression soon turned sad and he slowly shook his head.

「But even so, if I am forced to make a choice between you and eternity, then I am going to choose eternity, because rather than the joy of holding you in my arms, I want to experience the one that can only be granted by being by your side forever. 」

「That is fine too. 」

Adele smiled again. It is time to return to the Age of Extreme Chaos, where in a world of everlasting darkness, she could finally be a ruthless and absolute ruler that she always wanted to be.

「Then wait for me to awaken as a Demon Lord. I promise you that this time, I will finally reign as a true ruler. 」

「What I wished for was for this Age of Twilight to last forever, so let us throw ourselves into a battle that will make the world bathed in eternal darkness! 」

And then the Vampire King turned to the Black Witch.

「Yana, I have made up my mind. I will follow your advice and join Pandora. 」

「Ah, so you finally decided to come to your senses? 」

The Black Witch Yana said as she spread her arms out in a welcoming gesture.

「Pandora? 」

Hearing a name that he never heard before, Theo twisted his neck in confusion.

「It’s the name of the ultimate weapon of the ancient civilization that is said to have caused the catastrophic Chaos explosion… 」

Siluca explained it to him quickly.

「The Mages Association named it after the Box of Calamity passed down from the Divine World of Olympus. Just like its name would imply, it was a box in which various types of calamities and misfortunes were stored, and it was opened by the girl by the name of Pandora, hence its other name, Pandora’s Box. 」

「I see. So when the Vampire King and the Demon Lord Adele are saying that they want to perpetuate the Age of Extreme Chaos, in other words they are saying that they want to become the Pandoras of this world… 」

Theo felt a strong sense of indignation at that realization. Even now in recent years where the Chaos density was considerably lower than in the past, there are still many casualties caused by accidents, disasters and monsters that stemmed from Chaos, so Theo could only imagine that all of these things must have been even worse during the time of Extreme Chaos.

「Only the strong will survive and the powerless will die… that is wrong. That is no way to live. What we should be aiming to achieve is the era in which even those who are powerless could live happy lives. 」

Theo said in a quiet but strong voice. The feelings that he had in his heart when he was still in his hometown on Sistina were vividly revived in his mind. Back then and now he wished to make Sistina a place where people could live peacefully, and it was exactly for that goal that he began his journey whose aim was to strengthen that small Crest that he has managed to obtain for himself. Ever since that journey of his started, he has gone through many experiences, but throughout all of them he neglected the most important task: the cultivation of his Crest. But then he met Siluca, and ever since that moment, he has been making steady progress on the journey to finally making his dream a reality.

「Both the Mages Association and the Order of the Free Knights were established and formed in order to bring about an Age of Order where everyone could be happy. But unfortunately, it would seem that both the Lords and the Mages association of the recent times have forgotten all about the ideals held by their predecessors. 」
Even when he lost his Viscount title and returned to being an ordinary Knight, Theo kept on pursuing his dreams as if nothing happened, and Siluca was very happy about that.

「Calamities and misfortune were not the only things stored in Pandora’s Box, because it is said that at the very end, the last thing to escape from inside of the Box was also 「Hope」. But instead of regular hope, I think that this 「Hope」was an allegory for a Crest, which means that Crests that served as a tool for ending the Age of Extreme Chaos will soon serve as tools for the ushering of the Age of Order. 」