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Chapter 323 Travellers

“We humbly request that you return with us to take your rightful place as the ruler of our organisation.”, The Cardinal 4 declared boldly, no hint of sarcasm present whatsoever.

“Huh?”, I was left dumbfounded by the sudden proposition by the leader of the men dressed in black.

“Excuse my impertinence.”, He straightened his back, folded his arms behind his back, and avoided direct eye contact with me like a nervous subordinate. “I am Cardinal 4 of the Vermillion Restoration Army.”

‘The Vermillion what now?’, There that name went again. This Vermillion bastard really went and left all of her troubles on me.

“Don’t listen to him. That’s the uniform of Dark Church cultists. He’s a liar!”, Marcus called out the cardinal’s claims.

‘Dark Church?’

“The Dark Church is a false name, originally meant to throw off organisations that were against our cause. Unfortunately, it somehow became… our name.”, The cardinal explained, sounding a bit embarrassed towards the end.

Boy, these guys were starting to sound more and more pathetic. If I continued focusing on their pathetic side, I might just give up on listening to them entirely.

“Why do you want me to place me in charge of the Vermillion Restoration Army.”, I chose to focus on the more important bits.

“At once!”, they bowed in unison, yelling. “However, we request that outsiders not hear this.”

Cardinal 4 glared at the others. The other party chose to repay their glares with glares of their own, creating unnecessary tension in the room once more.

‘Hm, then think it. I’ll simply listen.’, I sent a telepathic message to the cardinals. They showed no obvious sign that I’d made any contact with them, clearly to avoid arousing the suspicion of the others.

I activated [Infinite Processor] and shared its ability with those three, allowing our brains to function at an entirely different speed than everyone else present. I wasn’t sure how long a beast man’s brain could take it, so we would make it snappy. Even I got nauseous if I kept functioning at such an impossible speed for too long.

‘W-Wow. How?’

‘It’s a skill of mine. We can finish this conversation quickly before the others notice anything.’

‘Y-Yes.’, 4 tried to regain his composure, meanwhile…

‘Can’t wait to get back to boast to the others.’, 6 said, squealing in his mind like a teenage girl at a k-pop concert.

‘About 300 years ago, during the God Wars, our goddess was betrayed by a close acolyte of hers, and her followers were mostly wiped out. However, before her untimely demise, our goddess had blessed us with an egg. Her offspring who would lead us into a prosperous age.’

The God Wars I needed to look a bit more into that.

‘This goddess is Vermillion and that egg is me, huh?’

‘Indeed.’

‘You’re called the Vermillion Restoration Army because you want to bring her back to life?’

‘No. Our organisation simply seeks to restore order to the world by ushering in the new Vermillion.’

‘Hm? How does ushering in a new Vermillion restore order to the world?’, I asked, now more interested in what sort of role Vermillion played.

‘The past 300 years of Vermillion’s absence are proof of what we mean.’

‘Hm?’

‘Ever since the gods won the God Wars, this world has been forcefully thrust into their desired order. Within just 300 years, they have managed to convince the humans, fairies and beast men to worship them.’

Classic religious stuff. I don’t see what’s so bad about that. It's not like I know much about the Holy Crusade or whatever, but I feel like those dark, egregious bits of history from Earth are what helped shape it into what it is. There was no avoiding conflict. At least the God Wars were over.

‘While completely eradicating or antagonising everyone who is opposed to the idea of following their rule.’

Yep. Sounds really familiar. All that’s in the past, though. Nothing you can do about dead people’s business.

‘Till date, the demons are being harassed simply because they refuse to comply.’

‘Oh… ooohh. Ok, that’s pretty nasty.’

The whole Hero versus Demon Lord bit was just a grand holy crusade given a different name by others—classic religion.

‘Indeed. However, a great majority of our group as lost the way and seek to revive the original Vermillion.’

I felt like I’d roughly heard this somewhere before. I just wasn’t sure.

‘You want to revive Vermillion?’

‘Well… no?’

‘Well then! I’ve got great news for you guys!’

‘Oh? You accept?’

‘Hell no!’ I promptly turned down their offer. Ain’t no way in hell I was ever going to actively partake in such a tedious role. I didn’t need three heads to tell me that taking them up on this would mean I’d be suffering for quite a while. ‘I’m never joining a cult.’

‘B-but!’

‘Good for you guys, there’s another person just like me. Possibly a better option since they seem to be older and far busier.’

‘What?’

A look of genuine confusion. Excellent!

‘Yes. I might have an older relative who you guys could simply use instead.’

‘T-That’s impossible.’, They responded with disbelief, making me smirk.

‘Hm? What’s impossible?’, I decided to play a bit.

‘There can only be one phoenix at a time. If you are alive, that means the original Vermillion is dead.’

‘Eh?’, My good mood was suddenly ruined.

‘Yes. All texts speak of there only ever being one Vermillion that keeps dying and rebirthing. A singular existence with no peers.’

‘W-Wait. So, the reason you guys are against Vermillion’s revival is…’

‘Against? No, we aren’t. After all, you are Vermillion.’

The cardinal’s words started to echo in my head. Vermillion? Me? She isn’t my mother, but rather, me? I am Vermillion? That doesn’t make any sense. I know for a fact that I am my own person and not a reincarnation of Vermillion. If I was a reincarnation of Vermillion, wouldn’t I at least have some memories of that life… shit.

“Very well, then, later.”, I cut off the connection with the cardinals and returned them to normal time. They hadn’t realised, but they were sweating heavily, and their body temperatures had risen greatly during their time with me.

“V-Very well.”

Ah, wait. I am about to become the new demon lord because of that selfish vampire queen’s decisions. Doesn’t that mean I’ve automatically been thrust to the forefront of this entire war? Gods, demons, humans, heretics, resurrections, cults—it’s all starting to become a major headache.

‘I need to find a way to avoid doing any of this. Tch. This is too bothersome. Maybe I should... Oh yes. That’s it! I’ll just do that. Hehehe.’

“What of your group?”, Having lost interest in the cultists, I turned my attention to the adventurers.

“I told you earlier, right? We were told you can fix this?”, Marcus raised his missing arm like it was the most normal thing in the world.

I glared at the arm, a bit annoyed, yet intrigued that this relative of mine had chosen to drop this burden on little old me. That is, if this relative was truly a relative of mine to begin with.

‘Would a renosue potion work?’

<<No. They restore health, not limbs>>

‘What about if I gave him the [Instant Regeneration] skill?’

<<The limb would need to have existed while he possessed the skill, or else it wouldn’t recognise the missing limb as an abnormality>>

‘Hmm. [Polymorph]?’

<<Humans can’t use some racial skills of members of non-humanoid races. This includes slimes>>

‘Do you have a solution then?’

<<Ye->>

‘I-I have an idea!’. Akkun popped up out of nowhere, cutting off the agent.

‘Oh?’, I was more interested in the fact that he chose to leave his work to come see this. Normally, those guys prefer to be kept out of all of this hassle.

‘I’ve been working on the [Dark Arts], and realised some things from your trip in hell that looked very interesting.’

‘What?’

‘Th-those mechs y-you fought. T-They were made f-from devil parts.’

‘Eh?’

‘T-That’s right… no. I s-should say, fiends?’

My mind went back to the 80-80 and other robots I fought when I entered hell. From the looks of things, those were purely mechanical in my eyes, and I didn’t sense anything off about them. Then again, being in hell, surrounded by demonic energy, it wouldn’t be easy to sense weak demonic energy from those weak robots.

‘C-Can I take control?’

I gave my body over to Akkun, interested in the outcome. He walked over to Marcus and grabbed him by the arm, raising him to our new height level and inspecting him like a lifeless doll.

“H-Hey. This kinda hurts.”

“Please be quiet during the inspection.”, Akkun coldly said, continuing on with his investigation. Once he was done, he smiled.

“This should do it.”, He placed his hand over Marcus’ arm, and a black magic circle formed on the arm. Red lightning crackled, and the amount of mana I could feel coming from it felt almost too absurd.

‘What the hell is that?’

<<A summoning circle for devils. You are attempting to summon an Arc Devil>>

‘What? Hey! Akkun, the hell are you doing?’

“Relax. I’ll be done soon.”

“H-Hey. W-What the hell is-”, Akkun, tired of hearing Marcus’ voice, shut him up with a cluster of magic. The young man wiggled about like a worm, the pain from whatever the hell Akkun was doing, clearly taking its toll.

His party members, Celica and Daryl, tried to come to his aid, but a pair of shadow demons materialised, pinning them down to the ground and muffling their voices to prevent any loud noises.

The others got the message and kept quiet while watching the event.

A new arm, as black as the night sky, grew out of the magic circle. The arm appeared inhuman in nature, with sharp, pointy claws for fingers and jagged, rough scales for skin. Like an overcooked cake, the arm was smoking and burned with bright orange cracks. The arm simmered down as the light faded.

“I am uncertain how the arm will operate, so you will need to stay a few days to run some experiments.”, I said, dropping Marcus heartlessly. He managed to land on his feet, but immediately crumpled to the ground, holding his new arm and wincing in pain.

‘Why do I sense demonic energy from that arm?’

‘B-Because t-that’s a d-devil. I-I made a c-contract for the d-devil to act as an arm f-for him.’

‘Wouldn’t it have been better to use a shadow demon then? We could have used a shadow fiend if you wanted to make them crazy powerful too. That way, no contract needed.’

‘W-well, yes. B-But I have a-a better idea! Hehehehe, i-if I am right, t-these humans will b-break co-conventions.’

‘Huh?’

‘Kill lots of people and absorb lots of souls. Become stronger and achieve a state of fusion between humans and devils. Surpass the human limit law and show me that there are limitless uses for magic. Hehehehe.’

‘A-Akkun?’

‘S-Sorry. I lost myself a bit. I’ll go back now.’

‘W-Wait! What the hell do you mean by Human limit law? Akkun! Akkun? Aaaand, he’s gone.’

Whatever. I could always get the answers later, if needed.

“Can you feel it?”, I asked, removing the cluster of magic from his mouth.

“Y-Yeah. It burns, but… I… I can actually feel?”, Marcus only just realised that he could feel his arm. He wriggled his fingers around in awe before starting to play around with his arm. “H-Hey! I can actually feel it.

I immediately let go of his friends as well. They quickly rushed to his side.

“A-Are you ok?”

“She didn’t hurt you, right?”

“Nope! Look at it! It’s a brand-new arm!”, Like a kid showing off his new toy, Marcus put his new arm on display for the duo to see. “Go on! Touch it.”

“Get that thing out of my face.”, Celica punched Marcus in the face for bringing it in too close.

“W-What is that?”, Daryl asked me, concerned.

“Don’t think too much about it. Just think of it as a functional arm for now.”, After saying this, I moved on to the others.

“Is this what you guys also came for?”, I asked their apparent leader, Seiko.

“No. We are simply passing by.”, He responded coldly.

“Wait! S-She could help us recover our ho-”, Kana shouted, but her mouth was immediately shut by both Daisuke and Akari. Clearly, she was the wildcard of the group. A few interactions with her outside of this room would probably give me good information. That is, if she knew anything.

“When will you be leaving then?”, I asked, not wanting to get involved in whatever problem they were having.

“As soon as possible. Tomorrow at the earliest.”

“Eeh? B-But, Seiko. There’s a bath and actual food here!”, Jasmine broke her silence for the very first time, clinging to Seiko’s arm like an annoying little sister. Her sudden childishness intrigued me.

“Jasmine, we do not want to impose on our guest.”

“You wouldn’t be imposing at all.”, I responded sharply. Both Seiko and Jasmine were paladins, meaning they were exceptionally dangerous beings. After swallowing Seiko, I went through multiple pieces of his stuff in his bag, and inside it were a few letters and approvals, some stamped by really important figures such as the King of the Dhijan Hero Nation and the High Council of the Holy Mexar Empire.

These two were potential enemies in the future, especially for me, who was doomed to be the next demon lord. If anything, I’d prefer to take them out here so my identity doesn’t get out. But if at all possible, this was my chance to do the impossible: establish friendly relations between humans and the monsters of Larm.

If I actually succeeded in doing that, I could at least rest a bit easier about the potential war at our gates. I could simply make the demon lord a separate persona with no connections to Larm. That way, everyone was safe.

“See, Seiko? Not imposing at all!”, Jasmine continued with her childish tantrum.

“Ugh, please stop that.”

“We’ve been travelling for weeks. A nice bed, bath and food don’t sound too bad.”, Daisuke walked up and whispered into Seiko’s ear. The latter glared at the former, his eyes saying a lot more than his mouth ever would.

“If anything, please consider Shiro-san’s condition. A few days rest would be good for her, no?”, Akari also added.

“Huh? What the hell are you guys on about? Shiro’s as fit as a raging thunder charger, right?”, Kana threw the question to the quiet Shiro.

“Hm?”, She responded listlessly, like her mind wasn’t even in the room. Well, it wasn’t.

“Hey, Shiro?”, Kana, a bit surprised by Shiro’s lackluster response, called her.

“She’s fine. We can be on our way t-”, Seiko ignored Shiro’s concerning behaviour and decided to speak up.

“Are you feeling alright?”, I decided to ask her myself, feeling like we’d get better results if it was me. I didn’t know why I thought this, though.

“… What’s happening?”, The light returned to her eyes, as she looked around, only to find the entire room staring at her.

“We’re asking if you’re healthy enough to continue travelling.”

“Um, uh, yes. We can continue at any time, I guess.”

Everyone in the room could tell that she definitely wasn’t ready to continue travelling.

<A/N: Took a break. Sorry for not giving a notice. I need to learn to balance things better. I’m thinking of only posting chapters after I’m done with about 70% of that arc for multiple reasons, so please forgive any major gaps in the posting schedule. Had to give this announcement before the next month, so I'll be back to posting chapters in full soon! Have a nice day.>