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Volume 2 Chapter 4 Part 12

「That would be fine too… 」

Adele smiled at Theo and Siluca.

「Then you should follow in the footsteps of the founding Lord Leon and try to eliminate Chaos from the world. But since I know that human beings can have both good and bad in their hearts, I have decided that I am going to leave their judgement to the world. That way, if the Age of Order arrives, I will be released and become an ordinary human being once more, and if the Age of Extreme Chaos comes back, I will embrace it as one of its Demon Lords. Now then, which of these two option will ultimately come to pass? I will be awaiting the result anxiously, but until then, I am going to go back to sleep once more. 」

After Demon Lord Adele was done saying that, she slowly rose from the floor and buried her face in her knees once more. Soon after that, her body started glowing and created another sphere of Dimensional Barrier around her, shutting her off from the rest of the outside world once more.

As Adele said, he slowly rose from the floor, hugging his knees and burying his face in them. She then wrapped her body in a gloomy sphere, closed herself off with a dimensional barrier, and fell asleep in a different dimension.

(So was my role in coming here to listen to the words that she spoke just now?)

Maybe it was not like that at all, but that is how Theo was feeling about everything that has transpired in front of him right now.

Maybe what the Vampire King wanted to achieve was to have the ones who inherited the ideals of the Free Knights to be here and be a living testament to Demon Lord Adele’s words? It would be fair if that was really the case, but at the same time, he also seemed like he had a strong will and determination to fight against the coming of the Age of Order and destroy everyone who would try to ensure its coming.

「Crests are actually incarnations of hope?」

After seeing the Demon Lord Adele shutting herself behind Dimensional Barrier once more, the Black Witch Yana turned to Siluca and laughed straight in her face.

「You do not know anything. 」

「And what would that 「anything」be, exactly? 」

Siluca responded to her with genuine surprise.

「What are Crests born from in the first place? 」

「They are born from Chaos. It should be so obvious that I should not even need to answer that… 」

「Then, do you think that when your precious Age of Order comes, Chaos will be the only thing that is going to disappear? 」

Yana thrusted her index finger at Siluca while throwing that accusatory question at her.

「Are you saying that when the Age of Order comes about, Crests are going to disappear along with the Chaos? 」

Siluca sneered at Yana.

「The possibility of that happening was discussed at the Mages Association, and it was concluded that this possibility is highly likely. But just because something is highly likely does not mean that it will come to pass, so it cannot be taken as an official, surefire statement. Right now, the more probable option is the one that dictates that when the Age of Order will finally come about, the only thing that will no longer be usable will be magic, while the powers of Crests and Arts, which are both forms of stabilized Chaos, will remain. But that is something that pretty much anyone who has more than two cells in their brain can understand that, right? It is just a convenient setting created so that Lords and Artists could throw themselves into battle against the forces of Chaos without any reservations. 」

「Just as the Vampire King fears is afraid of losing his precious eternity, there are many who do not wish to lose the power that they currently possess. It can be said not only about Artists, but about Lords and Mages as well. 」

「So that organization of yours gathered the people who share that belief of yours, and that is how you increased your numbers? 」

Rumors of a secret society of the Dark Mages have been circulating around the city of Elam for quite some time, so that mysterious organization was most likely Pandora. However, that secret organization managed to expand their power and influence without anyone catching wind of their activities, and they even managed to recruit some Artists and Lords into their midst, and they managed to even go as far as to carry out 「The Tragedy of the Grand Cathedral」and the revival of the Demon Lord.

Siluca felt a strong sense of unease when she realized just how big that organization needed to be if they managed to carry operation of such a grand scale out.

「You are right! 」

Yana proclaimed triumphantly.

「And there are plenty more of our potential allies. For what it is worth, even you have the qualifications necessary to join us. Only those who are utterly powerless and cannot do anything are not qualified to enter Pandora… 」

Yana then clung onto Elmer, who was at a loss for words as to what was going on and he was just simply standing there.

「Elmer, you have done well. I am sorry for deceiving you, but I really do like you, and that is not a lie. You are young. You are strong. You have a strong will, and the ability to take action whenever it is needed the most. 」

Yana whispered into his ear, and Elmer slowly raised his head to stare at the Black Witch.

「If it is you, then you should be able to break your Crest with your own will. And once you do that, you should be able to become an Artist without any issues. That fact is not all that well known, but we do have Artists called the Dark Lords in our ranks. They are people who used to be Lords, but broke their own Crests and managed to revert their powers into that of Arts…」

「Get back! 」

Elmer suddenly yelled and pushed Yana away. The Black Witch screams and landed with her her buttocks on her floor.

「What are you doing!? 」

Yana cried out hysterically.

「It is true that I was deceived by you, and the fault for letting myself get manipulated by you lies entirely with me.

However, there is no doubt in my mind that whatever I was doing, I was always doing it with the best interests of Waldrind in mind. I might be a helpless fool for falling for your witchcrafty tricks, but despite that, I am still a Lord, and that is the one thing that I will never throw away until the day I die. 」

Elmer looked down at her witch, her body shaking.

「I see… 」

Yana stood up, feeling the despair welling up in her.

「Then leave now and go wherever the hell you want! 」

「Oh yes, I will definitely do that. 」

Leaving only those words behind him, Elmer left the room with the Demon Lord alone without looking back once.

The Demon Lord has fallen asleep once again and Elmer has left while leaving Yana behind, so everything seemed to be pointing to this story finally being over, but Theo still had some things that he needed to do here.

「King Dimitri, as a messenger of the Earl of Artuk, I have been sent here in order to confirm your intentions. Do you intend to break the covenant that you made with the rulers of Artuk and cause harm to the country? 」

「I believe I have already told you the answer to that question. What I aim for is causing chaos and the perpetuation of the Age of Twilight. If all the Lords are to become my enemies because of it, then I will just break all of their Crests myself. 」

Dimitri looked at Theo and said proclaimed as such.

「Let us have a fight flashy, shall we? Let us see a battle worthy of the beginning of the era of Eternal Darkness! 」

「I understand. That is what I will pass on to the Earl. 」

Theo bowed to the Vampire King and grabbed Siluca’s arm.
「Come on, let us go home. 」

「Y-Yes. 」

In fact, Siluca was terribly upset because she didn’t expect to be able to return without doing anything. However, due to the subtle atmosphere that flows through the room, she have a feeling that the best thing to do here right now was to leave quickly before things got needlessly escalated.

Siluca pretended to take it for granted and left the Demon Lord’s room together with Theo.