Chapter 26

《Why are you so late!!》

Albedo was not a morning lizard, so I would leave it on the bed when I went to breakfast.

I woke it up because it was time to go to the Academy… but why on earth is it settling on my face?

“You damn lizard….”

What's with it all of a sudden?

I put Albedo, which was on my face, onto my shoulder, and when I looked around the room, I saw a snake on the bed.

“Is that your girlfriend?”

《As if!》

Well, that’s true. It was just a figure of speech.

If it’s a snake with golden scales, it’s not like I don’t know what’s going on.

I strode to the bed and lightly touched the snake’s scales.

As if well-tamed, it let out a snake’s characteristic hissing sound and quietly accepted my touch.

No, rather than that, it seemed to be quietly observing my actions. Just like a person.

“I’m sorry I couldn’t meet your expectations of being scared out of my wits.”

At my quiet apology, the snake’s vertically slit red eyes turned to me. It was a color that looked just like Iris’s eyes.

Even with its eerie gaze, I just quietly looked at the snake.

“What an uninteresting child.”

What flowed from the snake was human speech.

It was also a voice I remembered.

“It’s famous that the master of Golden raises a golden snake that resembles herself.”

“Even so, you don’t recognize it right away.”

As if it was interesting, the snake hissed once more.

It had appeared a few times in the game, but seeing it with my own two eyes was strange.

A snake that speaks human language… though there is a talking lizard right next to me.

Thinking about it that way, it seems a little familiar.

“So, would you mind telling me the reason you went to the trouble of avoiding the professors’ eyes and invading my room?”

If it comes to it, I have no choice but to shout and chase it out.

“I wanted to give you this.”

The snake’s neck gulped.

Gag, gag, the snake, after catching its breath a few times, vomited out an invitation covered in saliva.

…My mouth fell slightly open at the shocking situation that unfolded before my eyes.

Excuse me, do you usually deliver invitations through a snake??

It seemed like she was taking care of me in her own way, so I carefully picked up the saliva-covered invitation.

“It’s a gift, so you must come.”

With those words, Iris Viden’s snake went out through the slightly open window.

《What kind of human have you brought in?》

As soon as the snake left, Albedo’s scolding flew at me.

Come to think of it, last time it was always in my pocket, so it probably didn't see the master of Golden properly.

I wonder what kind of person the master of Golden is in the eyes of a demon.

《I have never seen a human soul so purely corrupted.》

“Oh, so ‘pure’ and ‘corrupt’ are words that can go together.”

Actually, those two words really don’t go together. Strangely, ‘purely’ ‘corrupt’ Iris Viden, that sounds like a great fit.

《It means she’s practically a demon wearing human skin!》

Albedo slapped my shoulder with its tail with a thwack sound.

However, it seemed to have grazed a bad spot, as a tremendous pain washed over me.

Crazy! It hit my bone!!

“You damn lizard…!”

I barely swallowed a scream and threw the lizard onto the bed.

What kind of lizard hits the shoulder blade precisely with its tail!

“At least that snake was gentle!”

《Don’t spout nonsense!》

Albedo, who had landed on the bed, protested fiercely at the thought of being compared to a lizard.

You conscienceless demon bastard!

Ah, is it a bit much to look for a conscience in a demon?

Anyway! Does it really think I didn’t know that and made a contract with that woman?

“I know too!”

That the master of Golden is a demon-like human. No, a human worse than a demon.

That’s why I had to join hands with her even more.

“But, that’s the only way to stop it.”

In the end, my goal is to stop the master of Golden, and furthermore, to prevent Lerwon from heading down a completely irreversible path.

For that… joining hands with a demon is no big deal.

Really, sincerely.

* * *

A body melting away without a discernible form.

The person before his eyes is heading towards the end.

Even if Lucian doesn't bother to lay a hand on him, his tenacious breath will soon stop.

This was the end of going against the order of the world and becoming a ‘monster’.

What flowed from the ‘monster’s’ lips was a hollow laugh.

His vision is blurry. But, his senses are frighteningly clear.

The presence of the holy sword pushed against his neck is clearer than ever.

It couldn’t have been more thorough than this. As expected, it was too much to face a hero who was said to cause ‘miracles’.

“Lerwon senior….”

Lucian, who had been panting from the prolonged struggle, called him with a voice full of lament.

The ‘monster’ who was once called Lerwon had become a public enemy of the empire, but Lucian still called him Lerwon senior.

“Lucian.”

“Why on earth did you do it?”

Countless people had died.

The Academy professors who had stood at the forefront to protect the students and people were annihilated.

And by the hands of a disciple they had once taught, cruelly, without even leaving a corpse.

“Why did you do it?”

Lucian asked Lerwon, suppressing the tears that were about to burst out.

At the innocent question, was what dwelled in the ‘monster’s’ eyes emptiness?

“You could have just… just lived.”

Misfortune doesn’t last forever, it was one of the many things Lucian had learned since entering the Academy.

Lerwon, he too could have put an end to all his past misfortunes and become happy.

The gentle ripples in his heart tormented Lucian even more.

“Just live, you say….”

Lerwon laughed.

What faintly brushed past Lucian’s expression upon seeing that smile was hope.

The hope that at the very end, he might finally be able to take Lerwon’s hand.

“There’s no way I could do that.”

But, he was already too worn out to purely hold onto hope.

The ‘monster’ reached out its melting hand and grasped the blade of the holy sword.

Chijijijik─

The sound of meat cooking soon stopped with a ‘*thwack!*’ sound.

“Ah, ahh─”

It took only a moment for the melting body to turn to dust.

The sound of the wind blowing through the great ruins sounded like Lerwon’s laughter.

“Uwaaaah!!!”

The cry of the hero who could not save anything until the very end echoed emptily over the ruins.

* * *

I remembered Lerwon’s end vividly, without a single word missing.

It would be stranger to forget a scene I had seen dozens, hundreds of times.

“Damn it.”

Please just raise your kids normally, you parents in Lapidemy.

In this place where even the concept of human rights is scarce, there was no way a concept of proper education for children existed.

Why is everyone so bent on tormenting pure kids?

Especially in Lerwon’s case, the level is considerable.

He was in the gutter even before being taken in by Iris, and after being taken in, he was practically in hell.

In the end, it was a foregone conclusion that Lerwon, whose mind was being ground down, would go mad.

Though it’s a bit of an exaggeration to become a monster that will destroy the world.

“What should I do, really.”

I didn’t even have a clue as to what method to use to stop Lerwon.

Lerwon’s past had already been revealed in detail.

The story before being taken in by Iris, and the life he lived as ‘Lerwon Viden’ after being taken in, all of it.

But there was no story of the important present.

“You irresponsible developer bastards.”

They must not have thought of the plausibility of Lerwon, who was just an ordinary alchemist, becoming a monster of a level that would shake the empire and swallow the whole world.

It was more comforting to think of it as a deus ex machina.

Well, it wasn't the first or second time the Lapidemy writer wrote the story as they pleased and made Lucian suffer.

“Until it becomes reality, that is.”

Damn it! I should have asked more persistently in the Q&A!!

《By any chance, was the place you got hit not your shoulder but your head?》

Albedo, who had been quietly observing my monologue, asked calmly.

Is this lizard really saying this?

“You think so?”

After snapping at the fellow curtly, I took a deep breath.

Being upset is secondary. For now, I have to check this.

I carefully opened the invitation, which was covered in snake saliva.

“Hmm.”

It was an invitation to a social gathering in the name of Golden this Friday night.

“The fact that they went to the trouble of bringing this as a gift.”

《It means the down payment you gave was to their liking.》

I agreed with Albedo’s guess.

Right, for it to be just a normal fruit juice, the carbonation must have been delicious.

Moreover, this world was full of all sorts of greasy foods. In comparison, the only thing that could cut through the greasiness was wine, at most.

If I were to drop a cheat key like Co*a-Cola in such a place, it would be more difficult to fail.

Kekekeke, as I let out a sinister laugh, Albedo looked at me with a sighing expression.

It also looked like it was thinking, ‘This thing is my contractor?’ with a self-deprecating gaze.

“What, why, so what.”

I may eat luxuriously, but a demon wouldn't know the feeling of having a party with oil in my stomach because every meal is so greasy and my stomach is churning!

As I was bickering with Albedo, Albedo suddenly set the mood and said with a serious face.

《The source of your knowledge is quite curious in many ways.》

Hah, just because you suddenly set the mood doesn't change the fact that you're a paltry lizard.

“Curious?”

《Even a human who covets gold would want to open your head if they could.》

Though they would endure it because they couldn't be the foolish human who cut open the belly of the goose that laid the golden eggs.

At the following words, I laughed without a word.

“Still, that’s a relief.”

《What is?》

“The fact that that person endures even though they want to open my head, means I’m that much safer, right?”

To the extent that a woman who had greedily obtained anything without restraint would endure something she wanted to do.

It was an undeniable fact, but Albedo kept its mouth shut, as if something was not to its liking.

“Why, a person has to live a little positively.”

If I think pessimistically in my current situation, there’s nothing left.

Even if I look a little crazy, it’s better to think as positively as possible.

《You have a bit of an overly positive side.》

“That’s why I made a contract with and hang out with a demon who tried to kill me.”

If I were a twisted person, would I have made a contract?

And, if you live too complicatedly, nothing gets solved and your head just hurts.

《…The source of your knowledge, do you have any intention of telling me?》

“Huh?”

《Don’t you need a place where you can speak your mind comfortably too?》

It was an unexpected proposal.

But, it certainly might not be bad.

Albedo only communicates with me and is also bound by a contract.

Even if it learns the truth and terminates the contract, that’s not so bad either.

If it’s Albedo and not someone else, it might be okay, right?

“Then you have to be the only one who knows. This world is actually a ga─”

A game.

It was the moment I was about to tell someone else the secret that only I had known.