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After being guided by the one who represented Earth within the Seven Luminaries, we arrived at a room which was spacious enough to be able to accommodate around a hundred people.

Looking around from the entrance, there was a throne. The Demon King was sitting on it, looking the exact same as the last time I had seen him.

After noticing our intrusion into the room, he raised his head to look towards us then spoke to Saturnus.

“You did well. You may fall back.”

“Understood.”

After being told to do so by the Demon King, Saturnus hurriedly left the room.

What confidence he had, not keeping any guards with him.

Although… I supposed it was possible that he knew there was no meaning in keeping a guard with him. However, even if that were the case, since he would be dealing with the two of us by himself, it would not be wrong to conclude that he possessed quite a bit of confidence.

Once the Demon King saw us, he smiled faintly and then slowly stood up.

He then moved the table which was at the corner of the room to the centre, then sat on the accompanying chair.

“Are you not going to sit on the throne?”

“That’s just there so I can maintain my majesty when my subordinates come into the room. I mean, there’s no way I would ordinarily be sitting there all the time when it’s my own room.”

He does have a point there.

Well, but, at least in that case, sit on your throne when you’re having an audience with a guest. Why is the throne even in your personal room anyways?

In any event, Benet and I also sat down on a chair and faced the Demon King.

Well, the whole situation was truly surreal. After all, we were sitting on improvised chairs looking at each other whilst ignoring the throne in the last boss’s personal room.

“I believe I’m already aware of why the two of you are here. You must be looking for Dina, am I right?”

“Since you know that name, it would mean that…”

“Yes, I already knew about her background from the very beginning. Including her goal.”

He had just casually said something outrageous, but it was something that was predictable if one thought about it a little.

To begin with, since she was pulling the strings so blatantly in front of the Demon King’s eyes and under his nose, there was no way he could not have noticed anything.

Furthermore, if one were to consider that he had not made a single attempt to rebuke her, it would mean that he was acting in concert with her as her accomplice.

Of course, it was not impossible that the Demon King was simply blind and oblivious, but that line of thought could no longer be considered an option now.

“I see. In that case, it would mean that you were also aware of the fact that she was the Goddess’s avatar?”

“That’s right.”

“Does that mean you are on the Goddess’s side?”

The farces that were the heroic tales had occurred countless times in this world in the past.

And the main characters who had enlivened all of that were said to be Pollux and this guy.

Pollux acted the role of the righteous and led the heroes around. This guy acted the role of the villain and fought with the heroes.

He would pretend to be defeated and land a fatal hit on the hero, creating a scene where the world would appear to be saved by the beautiful and noble sacrifice of the hero. Then, once everyone forgot about what had happened, he would once again appear as if he knew nothing of history and terrorised the world whilst adopting a different name.

I see, truly a farce. It was nothing but a badly written play authored by a child.

However, one of the actors who was enacting the scene felt disgusted by this farce from the bottom of her heart and left the Goddess’s side.

So what about this guy? Was he still on the Goddess’s side? Or did he feel equally disgusted by the play just like Pollux?

… Well, the answer did not even require me to ask about it.

“Is that what you think?”

“No, not at all.”

In response to the Demon King’s sarcastic remark, I answered back honestly.

Exactly, I was aware that he had long estranged himself from the Goddess.

If that was not the case, he would never have disclosed such disadvantageous information about the Goddess to me.

What I could not understand was why he had left Dina, who was the Goddess’s avatar, alone to her own devices.

At that time… when he was about to inform me of the information, the one to hinder him was Dina.

As such, it was only natural to conclude that Dina was on the Goddess’s side. Yet, he did not rebuke her even in relation to that matter.

After all, even after that incident, he had left Venus alone.

Those were the points which were incomprehensible to me.

Furthermore, even now, I was still unable to ascertain what his goals were.

“Do you mind me asking? The reason as to why you left the Goddess’s side?”

“I don’t particularly have a special reason. I just simply got bored of it.”

The Demon King rested his chin on his hand and smiled as he narrowed his eyes.

“I simply got bored with having to purposefully lose according to a predetermined arrangement, even though I have sufficient power to conquer the world. Would you not say that it’s only natural for a person to want to move the scenario with their own hands every once in a while? I merely gave priority to my urge to rule the world… that’s all.”

“…… Is that really how it is?”

“That’s right. There’s no other reason.”

He laughed out loud daringly. The appearance of him oozing with his own desire at that point was truly befitting the king of demons who stood as the enemy of all humanoids.

But I wonder why. I really don’t believe that’s his true reason.

If anything, to me, he’s like a clown who’s acting to hide his true thoughts.

I still don’t know what that true reason is, but… I feel like he’s trying to protect something or someone.

That’s what my intuition is saying.

The thing that he might be trying to protect… even at the cost of having to go against the Goddess… The underlying reason behind why he wanted to avoid the loss as prearranged by the script.

Could it be…?

“By the way, that boy called Terra. You’ve got a pretty exceptional son, eh?”

“A son of a demon. A phenomenon which shouldn’t have existed. I’m truly embarrassed.”

I directed the topic towards Terra to test the waters, however, there was no change in the Demon King’s expression.

At the very least, it seemed that something of this degree was not enough to shake him.

Whilst I observed him very carefully, I spoke as if I was interested in all of this.

“Your eyes seem a lot clearer than the last time I met you. Looks like you’ve regained a lot more of yourself.”

“Thanks in part. Well, thanks to this one, Benet, poking me a little, I woke up.”

“But not completely.”

“You’re exactly right.”

The fact that I can still perceive myself as me (ore).

That was the absolute indication that Ruphas Mafahl had not resurrected.

Even at this point, I was still yet to be able to display half of the power that I had in my prime.

Having said that, I did not feel like I would lose to most of the enemies.

At this very moment, the only possible individuals that I might lose to were Benet, the five ouroboroses, the Goddess, and the Demon King who was right in front of me.

“I’ll look forward to the time we fight in the future.”

“Is there really a need for us to fight?”

“Of course. I’m going to say this now, but you shouldn’t think of the enemy’s enemy as your ally. It’s true that I’ve rebelled against the Goddess. But I haven’t capitulated to you. … The world doesn’t need two overlords. From the moment that you and I both strive to reign supreme, we were fated to fight with each other for the dominance of the world.”

The dominance of the world, huh.

Even though you say that, the progression in your conquest is nothing but sloppy.

If he had been serious, the area of his dominance would already have been much larger. And depending on how things had turned out, he and Benet could have directly confronted one another and one of them should already be dead.

Considering that things had not turned out that way, it suggested that he had not gotten serious. With that as the basis, I could not help but think that he had some other goal in mind.

As if prolonging the process itself was his goal… I could not help but think in that way.

“If that’s the case, why don’t we just finish everything up right here and now? If you want, I will be your opponent, hmm?”

Benet, who had not been participating in the conversation and had only been watching over us, cut in from the side and prompted.

At the same time, the atmosphere inside the room intensified and cracks started running in the window glasses.

In response to this, whilst the Demon King did not change his posture, it was apparent that he had also heightened his battle spirit.

An ordinary person would have had difficulty breathing just by being around us.

“I received a message for you from Dina.”

In that stiff and dense atmosphere, the Demon King shifted the topic of the conversation seemingly in a purposeful manner.

He was most likely suggesting that he did not have the intention to fight yet.

In a practical sense, if he were to engage in battle right now, he would have to fight both Benet and I, so it was very unlikely for him to win.

It could be said that it was wise of him to try and avoid the battle.

Additionally, I was sure that Benet would also not wish to win via a two-on-one setup. After the Demon King failed to play along with her provocation, she retracted her hostility after looking disappointed and bored.

“She said, ‘I will be waiting for you at the very first location where we met, that is within my lady’s memory.’”

“The very first location we met, did you say?”

In response to receiving her message for me, I unwittingly questioned him.

I remembered the location where we first met. It was at the Mafahl Tower.

That was where I met Dina and that was when everything began.

However, we had already searched the Mafahl Tower, yet she was not there.

Then where? Where exactly was Dina talking about?

Unable to figure it out, I could only remain silent.

“…… I see. Thanks for the hospitality.”

It seemed Dina was not here.

Nevertheless, we had certainly obtained a hint.

The location at which we met for the very first time, that was within my memory, huh.

I did not even have a shred of a clue as to the answer, but it would all be fine if I took this into consideration from now on.

And for this particular matter, I could not rely on someone else’s knowledge.

After all, the answer was only within my memory.

“Are we going now?”

“Yeah. Based on the fact that she left a clue, it seems that she’s unexpectedly someone that doesn’t like being lonely.”

It was a message from Dina. Even though she was hiding away herself, she was telling us to quickly find her.

It was just as if she was a child who was playing a game of hide-and-seek, and even though she was very good at hiding, she wanted people to quickly find her.

Thinking in such a way, I felt that the whole situation was a little weird.

As expected, it seemed that even though I was being led around, my inner disposition was unable to hate her.

“I see. The next time we meet will probably be after everything has been brought out into the open.”

“Probably.”

The Demon King smiled as if he was in a smiling competition. Similarly, I smiled back in order to match his expression.

The next time we meet, I was sure it would not be this heart-warming.

In all likelihood, the next time we met, there would be a battle.

Both the Demon King and I understood that. But that was exactly why we were smiling right now.

“Well, see you later. Orm.”

“Yeah, later, Ruphas.”

After saying that, I stood up from the chair and Benet followed suit.

By the looks of it, she was considerably bored, as she was showing an expression which seemed relieved that it was finally over.

Once we returned to the entrance of the castle, the warriors which were guarding the gate opened the way for us by splitting away to the sides whilst trembling in fear. Subsequently, we opened the gate in the same way that we previously did and left.

“So do you have someplace in mind?”

“For now, let’s try going back to Mafahl Tower. Maybe we missed something there.”

After being asked by Benet, even whilst feeling that we would draw the wrong straw, I suggested the name of a location that we had already searched once.

In practice, I simply could not recall any other location which would qualify as the location where I first met Dina.

The very first thing that I saw when I got to this world was the throne of Laevateinn. However, Dina was not at that location.

After that, I took flight for the first time and went to the tower. That was where I first met her.

Yeah, however much I rewind and think about it, our first meeting was at Mafahl Tower. There’s no other place.

It would be nice if there’s another hint lying around somewhere…

I set the destination of Argo as Mafahl Tower and we returned to the domains of the humanoids once again.

*

“Around this time, Ruphas-sama is probably searching the Mafahl Tower.”

With fluttering blue-hair, a young girl – Dina muttered to herself with a warm smile.

Every time she walked, the people in the surroundings took a moment and unwittingly turned back to look at her.

Although part of the reason was due to her beauty, the biggest reason was the colour of her hair.

The hair colour for 90% of people on the street was black. There were the occasional individuals who had dyed their hair brown or blond, but nevertheless, the real colour of their hair was still all black. There was not a single human being who had natural blue hair like Dina.

To begin with, it was simply impossible to get natural blue hair as there was no genetic makeup for it. Under common sense, blue hair was something which did not exist outside of cosplay.

Yet she continued to walk whilst disregarding everyone’s line of sight being drawn to her and recalled a time from 200 years ago.

At that time, she was still a doll. Without possessing an ego of her own, she believed that she was a clone and a personification of the Goddess who walked the grounds of the world.

She believed that the name Dina was nothing more than a name given to her by her parents who were “used” in the process of creating an avatar and that her real name was Alovenus.

In truth, she was a bona fide avatar of the Goddess and even inherited the Goddess’s memories and personality.

As such, it was not wrong to think in that way. As such, she did not perceive or recognise herself as herself.

The time that it all came crumbling down was 200 years ago. To be specific, it was 201 years ago.

One year prior to when the Seven Heroes’ betrayal took place. That was the moment she perceived and recognised herself as herself. That was the time when she was truly born into this world.

And at this moment, without a doubt, she was moving according to her own will.

She deviated from the Goddess’s scenario based on her will, but only to the extent where she would absolutely not be noticed by the Goddess.

As for what exactly her goal was, or who exactly it was for, no one other than her knew.

Was it perhaps for the sake of Ruphas? Was it perhaps for the sake of the Goddess? Or perhaps neither of them but for her own benefit? Again, no one knew.

Boxes of steel ran on maintained roads. Shops which displayed and adorned various signs were clustered together.

High-rise buildings, which stood tall into the sky as if they were trying to reach the heavens, were lined up next to each other.

A young girl walked down the middle of the street in Japan which was packed with students and salarymen heading to work – hustling into the crowd until, eventually, she could no longer be found.