In creation myths, the Creator’s fury would transform into thunder and his tears would manifest as torrential downpours. His delight would cause the lands to bloom with flowers, while his sadness would cause the land to freeze over. I never expected that I would prove this for real one day.
As the researchers outside shouted in surprise, the abnormal scenes gradually subsided. It was very rare of me to lose control of my emotions. However, my typical habit was that the angrier I got, the calmer I would become. After some careful thinking, I brought up a question.
“Why did the All-Ending Dragon Excelsius never tell me? I trust him; far more than I trust you.”
“Would there be any meaning if he told you? Are you capable of taking revenge? You’d probably attract even more trouble if you knew too much. If Excelsius was really thinking about what’s best for you, he definitely made the correct decision in not telling you anything about this.”
As the Supreme Immemorial Dragon Sam was a bystander in this incident and didn’t care either way, he spoke frankly without worrying about any consequences.
I thought about it for a little while and agreed with Sam’s analysis. I now also faintly perceived the astonishing power of the true culprit behind the scenes.
First of all, that existence had managed to cut off the snow mountain’s connection to the rest of Eich. Although the snow mountain was already a unique location—it was as if it was a different dimension—it was still a part of the mortal plane of Eich. I had never even heard of it being possible to cut off part of a plane and then revert it back to normal.
Even Ayer cutting off all contact to the Earth Elemental Plane wasn’t something anywhere nearly this ridiculous. That was because Ayer cut off contact to an entirely independent, different plane. However, this culprit behind the scenes actually managed to temporarily cut off part of a plane and then revert it back to normal again.
“…So this existence is at a minimum equivalent to a Main God? They didn’t even need to personally appear to suppress the Frigid Nightmares.”
If this type of existence was the true culprit, then they would only need to speak up to easily destroy the Mist Kingdom. Why go to all that trouble?
“I don’t understand why they took such a roundabout method…”
I didn’t understand it, so I decided not to think about it for the time being. I forcefully suppressed the frustrations in my heart. Now wasn’t a good time to let my emotions run rampant.
“Since I’ve already waited more than three hundred years, waiting for a little more time isn’t much. So there’s still a true culprit behind the scenes… One day I’ll…”
There was no need for me to speak fierce words, swearing revenge out loud. It was enough if I was aware of the iron will inside my scarred heart. No matter who the true culprit was, and no matter how powerful the existence, I, Roland, would definitely make them fall into Hell together with all the other culprits.
“I need more power—I don’t have much time left. It looks like I need to lower my lack of limits even further…”
I took a deep breath and calmed my expression. I wouldn’t allow unnecessary emotions to affect my judgement.
The most important thing right now was the negotiation with the Supreme Immemorial White Dragon before me. If I did a good job, perhaps we would gain a trustworthy ally within Dragon City.
In fact, the rest of the negotiations were simple. Since this was our first meeting, both sides only made shallow promises, attaching nothing important to our discussion. It was as if we were casually chatting and improving our relationship. Still, when that old dragon saw the Baby Dragons, his eyes lit up—it was almost as if he was a certain type of gentlemanly existence.
The Baby White Dragons currently had intelligence similar to young human children, and they were delighted to see a “little boy about their age” join them. They pulled him into playing games, climbing mountains, singing children’s songs and attending class together. I had to try my very best to not laugh out loud when I saw a Supreme Immemorial White Dragon play tag with the Baby Dragons—and even be called a “slowpoke.”
When he finished playing with the Baby Dragons, he came out with a large red flower that the kindergarteners gave him along with doodles on his face. I finally couldn’t help it anymore and burst out laughing, while he smiled and shook his head.
“I haven’t been so happy in years. This is the first time I’ve met intelligent Baby White Dragons that aren’t bloodthirsty. Can I take one with me?”
“No—they’re still half-complete products. Being able to do this much is due to the uniqueness of this world. If they leave, they’ll probably revert immediately.”
“…So you’re saying that it’s still impossible to make ordinary White Dragons become intelligent?”
“Currently, it’s impossible. But as research proceeds on these Baby White Dragons it should be possible to engineer an inheritance method that can be used in the mortal plane. It’s only a matter of time. Of course, if you can bring me some Adult White Dragons as experimental subjects, the speed of my research should greatly improve.”
Sam nodded upon hearing this.
“…I’ll bring you the experimental subjects you desire. I should be able to bring you at least ten Adult White Dragons by next year. As long as they don’t die—no—if you can develop an inheritance method for White Dragons with no negative side effects quicker because of this, it doesn’t matter if they all die. However, I want to see an absolute, complete inheritance method in the end.”
Such a generous old dragon he was. With just one comment of mine, he agreed to bring me ten or even more Adult White Dragons. Relax—even if they survived, they would all meet “accidental deaths” on paper. How could I possibly give up on such excellent combat beasts…? Of course, since he was said it didn’t matter to him if they all died, he had tacitly agreed to allow me to use the Adult White Dragons however I pleased. What he really meant with his words was “I only care about the results, so you can do whatever you want.”
“…It’s best if you can obtain results in half a year or less. My ninety-seventh child will be born soon…”
Alright, now I completely understood. Sam was probably considering things for his own children more than for the entire White Dragon species.
Thinking about it, Sam was indeed quite pitiful. Baby White Dragons would forever be born with the intelligence of wild beasts. This was fine for White Dragon parents that only had bestial intelligence themselves, but for an intelligent White Dragon to watch their child be nothing more than a meat-eating carnivore for the next several centuries indeed seemed rather painful. It would also be difficult to manage the Baby White Dragon. What was the parent supposed to do, lock it up in a cage like a pet?
Plus, other dragon species’ children would always be intelligent from birth, while White Dragons were forever discriminated against. Not only that, the intelligent White Dragons couldn’t even counter any of the discrimination. After all, the entire world treated White Dragons as no better than wild beasts, and even the intelligent White Dragons could only agree.
“…I hope this marks a good beginning to our cooperation. I shall pay an appropriate price for your services. Oh, by the way, can I occasionally stop by and play with these children?”
“Of course.”
Sam didn’t mention a single word about the specifics of what he would pay me, but this was a result I was already more than satisfied with. Right after letting Sam out of Frigidwinter Earth, I made up my mind.
“Activate my scheme. We have no other choice left. I’m scared of how patient that true culprit is. We need more power.”
I refused to believe that an existence with the culprit’s power level would have died off of old age in just a short three hundred years. And back in the day, when I was investigating who the culprits were but kept coming up blank, that existence surely must have noticed and interfered with my investigation.
And the situation in the mortal plane was worsening by the day. Looking at the situation, I made up my mind.
“…If word spreads, you’ll become public enemy number one of all humanity. Your reputation becoming even worse than when you were Yongye. How about thinking over things some more? I think there are still other methods out there.”
“Hmph! So what? If the heavens aren’t kind and the skies are blind… Fine, stop glaring at me, I’ll speak in a way everyone understands. What I mean is simple… If any bastard wants to kill me and my family, I’ll do everything it takes to kill that bastard!”
“No matter the price? If this plan of yours fails or isn’t dealt with properly, you’ll probably never be able to return to the Northlands. You’ll become the most hated target of all humanity.”
Harloys was rare in that she was being serious this time. However, I responded with a bitter smile.
“Hah! Everything was wrong from the very start. With the world being what it is, do weaklings like us have any other choice? It’s already difficult for weaklings like us to survive, so how can we ask for the right of the strong—the ability to choose our path or to care about our reputations?”
The silly cat suddenly jumped onto my shoulder, rubbed herself against me and licked my face.
“…Yep, I shall accompany you down this path, even if this path is destined to lead us to the pits of Hell.”
“…In that case, the first thing we need to do is contact Hell. Let’s use that accessory Ayer gave us to contact little Tias.”
“Little Tias? Other people call him Kamiltias, the leader of the nine Devil Lords, the legendary Main Devil Lord, the Lord of Lies!”
“…Right, how about we simultaneously contact Elisa? I’m rather nervous about negotiating with a veteran devil by myself. Let’s ask a veteran demon like Elisa to help us so that I can calm down.”
“Calm down? More like you’re inviting her with intentions of intentionally being able to jack up the price by having her as a fake competitor. Still, this is indeed a good idea. If he thinks that a Demon Lord is competing with him, he’ll be more willing to pay a good price. But will Elisa be sufficient as a competitor?”
“…Probably not. Karwenz would definitely be sufficient, but he’s too dangerous.”
As I laughed and chatted with the silly cat, I activated a black crystal necklace that Ayer had given to me. A pair of pitch-black eyes transformed into reality in the shadows as all light disappeared from the room. I grabbed the opportunity to speak first to this Devil Lord, using the same tone that devils typically used to allure others.
“Little Tias, I have a really profitable job here. I wonder if you’re interested?”
******
Right when Roland mentioned her name, Elisa was in a terrible mood.
She was recalling things from the past, something which naturally made her angry.
She’d spent a great deal of effort to send her incarnation to the mortal plane but made zero romantic progress with Roland, and he only treated her like a manager. In the end, she became too busy dealing with so many of Roland’s matters to the point where she couldn’t even stay by his side. And even when she was next to him, she had made zero progress in their interactions. Their romance remained at the level of elementary schoolers.
“Have you eaten yet?”
“Yeah. The weather’s quite nice today. How about going out for a walk?”
“Oh, that’s no good. I have too many things to take care of. How about eating dinner together and having a walk afterwards when I’m done?”
Their interaction was far too plain. Sometimes, being overly familiar with each other could also be troublesome. Their suddenly-changed relationship not only made Roland panic—even Elisa herself found things difficult to accept. It would have been better if they had stayed together after officially becoming boyfriend and girlfriend, but they just happened to split up from each other again, causing this romantic relationship, which had just begun, to stop at the starting point.
If only one person in this relationship was a love expert… or even a normal person. However, Elisa was someone who never said anything unnecessary and possessed a venomous tongue. She would always criticize Roland out of habit. It was almost her instinct now to make Roland feel awkward however she could. As for Roland… fine, let’s not mention him as he’s worse than an idiot at all matters related to love.
The end result was that while Elisa and Roland were together in East Mist, they continued their confusing relationship as master/servant, father/daughter and teacher/disciple. While Elisa did consider trying to elevate their relationship to the next level, someone would always jump out to interfere. Most of the time, it would be Reyne, and sometimes it would be Amelia. In the end, comical or random incidents would always happen whenever she wanted to make a romantic move on Roland. The final result was that Elisa returned to the Abyss without gaining anything at all.
And she was currently in a state of fury because she just heard that Roland located the missing Lust of the Seven Deadly Sins. This was the greatest danger to her formal status as his girlfriend.
The reason? Amelia’s research report, which was also one of the reasons leading to the birth of “Princess Peach.”
“Roland’s Original Sin undead creations all involve cutting off a piece of his soul. Judging from the current situation, he must have cut off his own, instinctive lust. However, human souls don’t remain unchanging. As long as certain conditions are reached, the parts he’s missing can be recovered. That condition is…”
Even now, Elisa could remember how evilly Amelia smiled while telling her this information.
“…to stay together with that Original Sin undead creation. Then, Roland’s soul will synchronize with his soul shard and his soul will begin to recover its lost emotions, in this case lust. And my hypothesis is that Roland created Lust long ago but lost and forgot about it. Basically, the current Roland doesn’t even know what love is. So what meaning is there in being his girlfriend? Right now, you’re just playing a game to fool yourself. The real battle…”
Elisa gritted her teeth tightly as she forced herself to speak the rest out loud.
“…The real battle begins after Roland finds his missing Lust. But now that he’s found Lust, I’m not by his side. Does this mean the sneaky cat will gain the advantage?”
Alright then. She started worrying more and more as she thought about this. She even felt like not caring about the consequences and rushing directly up to the mortal plane. But suddenly, even though it clearly wasn’t yet their arranged contact time, her contract communication ring with Roland lit up.
The moment she activated it, Roland spoke to her with a serious expression, which was very rare for him.
“Roland greets the honored Marchioness Elisa. We have a major job here for you. Would you happen to be interested?”