Ruler Vol 5 Chapter 46
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Author: Anit666
Editor: Weasalopes
【Sam’s POV】
“Samuel Hayden, the Demon God, at your service.”
Even after my amicable introduction, Serasta continued to stare at me as if she was waiting for something.
“Just in case you are wondering, there’s no punchline here.”
“Is that what you’re doing now? Claiming that you are the Demon God?” She stared at me incredulously. “A human, is the Demon God? That is literally impossible.”
“You have no idea what’s possible, dear.” I smiled.
“Okay, let’s believe that you indeed are the Demon God.” She rolled her eyes and crossed her arms. “So what? Am I supposed to kneel before you?”
Oh?
“That’s what usually happens, yes. Oh, unless you are an atheist.”
That would explain her bland reaction at my reveal. Hmm, but wasn’t she willing to apologise to Solis’ god some time ago because she thought she had angered him? Weird.
“Oh, I’m not one… but yeah, I should be.” She scoffed. “Rather than a God, you are just an overpowered being who likes to play with others.”
The truest description of Gods, if I say so myself. That’s why I don’t like to profess myself as a God.
But of course, the law requires that I don’t agree with her.
“Why would you say that?” I tried to appear hurt.
“If you are the Demon God, then tell me, where were you when I needed you the most?”
…Eh.
“And that would be?”
“When the humans killed Neia!” She shouted. “If you are the Demon God, then why didn’t you protect her?! I used to do everything that the priests told me; praying to you, giving offerings. I never lost faith in the Demon God even after the things I went through, so why didn’t you protect Neia!?” She grabbed my collars. “Why didn’t you?!”
Huh. There are many things she’s misunderstanding.
“First of all.” I grabbed her hands and freed my collar. “How many years ago was Neia killed?”
“And what does that matter?” She flared up.
“Of course, it does. Why don’t you answer me? Or do you not remember it?”
“I don’t remember it? I don’t remember the day when I lost Neia?” She hissed. “How dare you? Have you ever lost someone dear-”
“Stop.” I retorted in a cold tone, and Serasta stopped speaking at once.
⟦This woman is not so bright, is she?⟧
⟦Seems so, Max.⟧ Simon replied in a cold tone. ⟦Shall we end her?⟧
Who the hell is Max?
⟦Not a bad idea.⟧
⟦Come on guys, not you too.⟧
However, neither did Serasta stop speaking because of my words, nor were they meant for her.
Serasta’s mouth had been sealed shut due to the sheer amount of bloodlust assaulting her. Jack and Phiria had made their move before Serasta could finish her words; the move to end her pathetic life.
In Phiria’s hand was a sword, the edge of which was already half an inch inside Seratsa’s throat. On the other hand, the fingers of Jack’s right hand were half an inch (approx.) away from Seratsa’s heart.
Cold sweat trickled down her forehead and her breathing stopped. She must have realised that if I was even a millisecond late, then her head would have been cleaved off and her heart ripped out.
Their eyes, colder than absolute zero, looked over at me.
“Why did you stop us, Sam?” Phiria snarled with a really deep frown.
The blood-curdling killing intent both of them were releasing made me want to step back and just let them continue with whatever they were doing.
Wait, no, I can’t do that. I’m the boss here!
“As both of you know, I don’t really care about the remarks of someone as inconsequential as her.”
“Oh yeah?” Phiria scoffed. “But we do.”
Shit. She’s really serious. She’s more pissed than when Michael questioned her love for me. Damnit.
“There are lines that must never be crossed.” Jack added. “And this insect did just that. The price for doing that is very hefty.”
To be perfectly honest, Serasta is not even worth all this trouble. I may have thought up of a makeshift role for her, but that, in the end, is just improvisation. Ending her life here wouldn’t affect my overall goals in any way.
However, her power and abilities can be useful; useful in making my daily life easier. Not to mention that she’s a good sacrificial pawn.
So, let’s make one last effort to save her.
“Come on guys, calm down.” I nonchalantly laughed, but that didn’t work. “Don’t worry, I’ll mete out a punishment worthy of her crimes later. After all, I am the one who was insulted. So, I should have that right, no?”
“…Hmph, fine.” Jack snorted and took out his hand, and Serasta finally started breathing again.
Phiria still seemed reluctant to withdraw her sword, so I approached her and gently patted her head.
…Gosh, the things I have to do stay out of trouble. I sometimes miss the days when Phiria didn’t love me. I wish I could just start travelling alone…
“Now, now, Phiria, a maiden like you wouldn’t want to sully her hands, would she?” I smiled. “So why don’t you leave her to me?”
Her eyes widened and swam around, as if she was internally panicking.
Oh, right.
“And by that, I mean leaving her punishment to me. Nothing more than that.”
Phiria heaved a sigh of relief.
“Fine.” Phiria took out her sword with a sigh, then continued. “But if I determine that her penance isn’t enough, then…”
“I understand.” I also sighed.
What a tiring day this is. I tried to remove my hand from Phiria’s head but she caught it and made me pat her more. Well, since doing this has a healing effect on my psyche, I’ll indulge her for now.
“So, Ms. Serasta.” She turned to face me. Her face was pale and her eyes were wavering. “I assume you’ll choose your words more wisely, because I’m not going to stop them a third time.”
That would be more trouble than it’s worth. Serasta meekly nodded.
“So, how long ago was Neia killed?”
“F-fifteen years.”
150000 years ago, huh.
“I regret to inform you, but I was not the Demon God back then.”
“What?” She exclaimed. “What do you mean?”
“I mean what the words say. I took this position around 1 year and 6 months ago.”
Huh, now that I think about it, does this world even use the same ‘year’ as Earth? A day here is pretty much the same as a day on Earth, which means that the speed of rotation of this planet is the same as Earth. But what about its speed of revolution around the sun?
I should probably research into it later.
“T-then… who was the Demon God back then?”
“Just a shitty chap who caused a lot of trouble for us and had to be taken out. He wasn’t a good God, actually.”
The events of that time were pretty wild. The only saving grace is that was when I met Phiria.
“…What the hell?” Serasta muttered to herself. “This is ridiculous.”
She still seemed to be choosing her words carefully, but her fear of us had been blown away by this shocking discovery.
“There’s one more thing I’d like to tell you.” I switched from patting Phiria’s head to caressing it, causing her to purr cutely. “You misunderstand Gods.”
“What?” Serasta blinked.
“Let me give you an example; Consider that you live in a really large country which is ruled by a single king. One day, when you wake up, you find a cockroach in your room. What would you do then?”
“Uh, I would take a slipper and smash it?”
What a violent woman. Couldn’t she have picked it up and thrown it outside? I feel bad for the cockroach now.
“Right. You wouldn’t call the King to take care of the cockroach for you, would you?”
“Of course, not-” She suddenly stopped speaking and glared at me.
“And neither would you expect the King to keep track of the cockroach and stop it from entering your house, right?”
“…What are you getting at?” She glowered at me.
“In case you haven’t understood; your matter was simply too mundane to make the Demon God move.”
“Mundane?” She squinted and gnashed her teeth. “Neia’s death was mundane, you say?”
“Unless it caused a tear in reality and threatened a significant part of this universe, then yes, it wasn’t a cause for concern for the Demon God. Besides, a God cannot move carelessly. Our interference can have significant effects on the universe. For example- saving Neia could have led to the annihilation of demonkind.”
It’s similar to the butterfly effect. Changing the way a cog moves can have a really significant, and oftentimes devastating, effect on the entire system.
In fact, Reality and Fate go hand in hand and are interconnected to each other. They have a certain ‘elasticity’ in them.
For a given coordinate in the 4-D plane of space and time, there is a Set of events reserved for it by Reality. One of those events is then chosen on the basis of that position’s ‘past’, and the rest of the events are discarded. However, when someone bypasses that Set and forces an event that was not a part of that Set of that coordinate, Reality resists.
Reality balances out that undesirable change by changing something else at some other coordinate. That change can range from a minor tweak in one of the events of the Set to an entire overhaul of the Set, and there is no proper way to predict it.
This is what we call the Law of Causality. Unless someone is an Administrator who holds authority over one of the fundamental building blocks of this Universe, no one is exempt from this law. And that’s why Gods don’t usually interfere in the matters of their subjects.
And that’s exactly why Meteron is known as the most phenomenal genius this Universe has ever seen. Despite not being an Administrator, Meteron can bypass the Law of Causality and directly interfere with whatever he wants to. And he achieved such a feat through his own efforts.
That is the monster I’m up against.
Of course, I didn’t explain all this to Serasta.
“Oh, so you’re saying that Neia’s death was ultimately good for us demons so I shouldn’t feel sad about it? As if!” She roared in fury. Phiria frowned, but was easily pacified by my caressing.
“I never said that. My point is this; all failures are born from one’s own incompetence. So, stop blaming the Demon God when it was you who couldn’t protect Neia.” I told her in a cold tone.
It goes without saying that I’m being harsher on her than necessary and that Neia’s death may not entirely be her fault, but the bottom line remains the same; Serasta was supposed to protect Neia, and she couldn’t.
“As if I didn’t want to!” She flared up. “But the humans attacked my home when I wasn’t there and-”
“Mere excuses.” I scoffed. “Why did you leave Neia alone? You should have known that the humans would try to target your weak points and have taken appropriate measures. Why did the humans know where you home was? You should have hidden your house properly. Why were the humans able to enter your home? You should have taken steps to ensure the safety of your house considering that Neia was living there with you. Why didn’t you know when Neia was being attacked, why weren’t you back before she was killed?” I took a pause to catch my breath. “Excuses excuses excuses excuses excuses excuses, those are all you have, Serasta La Graes. What right do you have to blame someone else for her death?”
“Shut up! Don’t you dare utter any other word!” She covered my mouth with her hand, but interestingly, there was no bloodlust emanating from her. “As if I don’t know that already!” She screamed and a tear trickled down her eye. “I have asked those same questions every single night since then! You have no idea how many times I have cried myself to sleep after feeling utterly helpless and hopeless! What kind of mother was I if I couldn’t protect my daughter?!”
｢Serasta…｣ Solis muttered, sounding helpless.
I kind of expected her to burst into tears. Instead, she wiped that single tear staining her face and stepped back.
“And that’s why I decided. If I cannot protect Neia, then I will avenge her.”
“By eradicating humanity, you mean.”
“Right. I shall end the lives of every single human that exists in this world. Only then will I join Neia in the afterlife.” She declared.
Her iron will burning fiercely within her eyes was enough of a testament that Serasta will make sure to eliminate the hateful race that snatched her daughter from her, and that nothing will stop her. Her gallantry was impressive, but her ideas were naïve.
“How dumb.”
“Say what you will. Your words will not stray me from the path I’ve chosen. And if you interfere, then I’ll kill you, no matter the cost.”
Heh.
“You misunderstand.” I shook my head. “What I mean is that your idea of revenge is so childish that it’s nauseating.”
“Childish?” She frowned.
“Indeed. You will kill every human? Why? Why would you divert your resources and time just to give a general death to every human?”
“What do you mean?”
She still doesn’t understand? Wow.
“What you’re doing is nothing short of throwing a tantrum. Vengeance is a much more subtle and fulfilling thing. You would just kill the perpetrators of your daughter’s death? That’s it? You should know that none of them would regret what they did to you even if their life was being squeezed out of them, so what’s the point? Don’t you think that it’s incredibly insulting to Neia?”
“Then what should I do?” She crossed her arms as her eyes implored me to continue.
“If you truly wish to avenge the injustices done against you, then you must plunge the criminals into the very bottom of never-ending despair, and grief that would take away their very heart and soul. Just killing them would not suffice; you must bestow upon each of them a most extravagant death. You must find that one moment when each of them feels the greatest amount of joy and happiness, and slaughter them and that moment. You must become the sword that chops down any fate they try to carve out for themselves, and give them a fate full of madness and despair. Only then, can you say that you have had your fill of revenge.”
Serasta stared at me wide-eyed, and on her face blossomed a…… beautiful, yet savage, grin. Beneath her dark, sparkling eyes, swirled a gluttonous lust for revenge so glorious that not even the dead souls of her enemies would forget it. Her body and soul trembled in delight at the new horizons I had opened for her.
The Witch of the Ruin had finally grasped what it truly meant to exact vengeance.
“I… I can do it? How?” She exclaimed in exhilaration.
“Who knows? But I’m willing to help you find out.”
“You will?” She leaned in towards me. “Really?”
“Yeah. But in return, you’ll have to follow my orders.”
“Done.” She readily agreed.
“Then my first order is to cease the killing of humans until further notice.”
“What?!” She cried. “That’s-”
“That’s an order. No buts, no transgressions. Go against my word and I won’t help you.”
“I-I…… I understand…” She grumbled as her head and shoulder drooped.
“Perfect.” I nodded. “Since we are working together now, let me introduce the others to you. This is Phiria, the second highest ranking God.”
“Remember this; Sam belongs solely to me.” Phiria snarled and embraced me tightly. “If you dare to make any move on him, I’ll show you what Hell truly means.”
Serasta timidly nodded.
“And this is Jack Hargreave, someone who stands above the Gods.”
“So… is he your superior?”
“No. Technically I am his superior, but we are currently partners.”
I’m an Administrator after all.
“What? But aren’t you a God?”
“I’m much more than a God, Serasta.” I then pointed to Solomon. “Anyway, as you already know him, this is Solomon. He’s my direct subordinate, so make sure to follow his orders.”
“I understand.” She nodded with a frown.
“And I’m Lui!” Lui chimed in from Jack’s shoulders.
“And what are you?”
“I’m just a demon!”
“I-I see…” Serasta awkwardly nodded at this anticlimactic reveal.
And so, I finally got a new pawn.
“Ah, they are here!” Sherry exclaimed as we left the cave and went into the open.
The Heroes, Cecile, Lantz and Liege were standing out into the open, surrounding what seemed like the lower half of a dragon lying in a large pool of blood.
I should have told Jack to remain prudent. Damn.
“And… what is that?” Sherry pointed to my back, where a woman was peacefully sleeping.
“Just trash.” Phiria curtly replied with a pout.
“As most of you know, this woman is the former Dark Hero and the Witch of the Ruin, Serasta.”
“…What?” Sherry, as well as everyone else, froze.
“Pardon?” Cecile snapped out of her daze and asked.
“Serasta La Graes.”
“Pard-”
“Serasta. La. Graes.”
“……”
“What the actual fuck, Samael?” Regina summarised the thoughts of everyone present here.
Well, I expected this reaction. I mean, I probably would have reacted in the same way if Jack ever appeared while giving a piggyback to Meteron, and then calmly introduced him.
But this was necessary to let her come with me; the humans wouldn’t accept her sudden inclusion after all. So Serasta had been knocked out (with her permission, of course) and then brought her out my back to show our amicable friendship. The story we were going with was that she had betrayed the demons and switched to my side. Solomon and Jack were still inside the dungeon, by the way.
“Don’t worry. I have formed a master slave contract with Serasta which wouldn’t let her defy me. So, no more killing humans.”
“Really?”
“Yup. You can check it for yourself.” I turned my body to show them the slave mark branded on Serasta’s neck by Phiria.
“It’s… genuine.” Lantz muttered after scrutinising it.
I had Phiria make a real contract between us, after all. However, this is much different from a real master-slave contract; Serasta wouldn’t have agreed to it otherwise.
“Yeah, so Serasta is officially our ally.” I reaffirmed the thought going through everyone’s minds.
“Don’t you mean slave?” Liege scoffed.
“Not really.” I shook my head. “I think we can work together and resolve our grievances in a way that would benefit us both. A relationship on equal grounds, if you will.”
“But haven’t you already branded her as your slave? There’s no way you can be equal.”
“Maybe, maybe not. Only the future can tell.”
“Hmph, I’ll look forward to it.” Liege snorted.
“Please do.” I then turned to Regina. “Solomon says that he has fulfilled his end of the deal, so you can return now.”
“I’ll do just that.” Regina nodded, and faced Sherry. “Well then, until next time.”
“Bye bye.” Sherry smiled in return.
Ex-fucking-cuse me? Why are these two on such good terms? What the hell happened here?
“Would it be alright to let her go?”
“Don’t bother, Michass.” I answered him before anyone else could. “She’s way out of our league.”
“Yeah, right.” Regina scoffed.
“Wait, what did you call me?” Michass furrowed his brows.
“Michael.”
“No, didn’t you just call me Michass?” He retorted.
“Please don’t baselessly accuse me. Are you still not out of your daze?”
“N-no, that’s not it.” Michass waved his hands.
Phew.
Michass scratched his head and grumbled to himself ‘But I swear he just insulted me…’
Okay, maybe not phew.
Regina soon passed by me and entered the cave. Sherry seemed a bit sad seeing her leave.
“Now, I’m sure that none of us wants to spend the night here, so how about we leave for the capital?” I proposed while ignoring Serasta’s light snoring.
“You…” Cecile began, but then sighed and held her temples. “Don’t worry about that. Carriages are already on their way.”
Perfect.
“Whose carriages?” I asked out of curiosity.
“Carriages sent by the Archduchess of the Painia Dutchy, Elizabeth Constantine.”
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