Intermission

In the meeting room behind him, they were probably already turning to a new issue. But his role in that room was finished, so he had left.

Of course, he had other roles besides report giver. Now he had to perform the various tasks surrounding the resurrections of his comrades and fill in the temporary membership hole by appointing someone new. In other words, his work as the first seat—that is, captain—of the Black Scripture was waiting for him. He also had training and experiments to do. Since the Six Scriptures were secret organizations, he had an undercover life in the theocracy as well.

In his personal life, he also had marriage arrangements to make—with multiple women. Currently there were only three awakened demigods in the Slane Theocracy, so the higher-ups were euphemistically ordering him to leave behind lots of children.

With all those things piled up, he had precious little free time. “Still, I hope they’ll let me relax for today.”

Feeling liberated after the high priest meeting, the highest meeting in the Slane Theocracy, he rotated his shoulders—and a clicking noise caught his attention.

He knew who was making the sound before he saw her. Even among Slane Theocracy citizens, only a few were allowed in here, and if he recalled who wasn’t in the meeting room, the answer was obvious.

As he expected, there was a girl leaning against the wall. Strangely, her longish hair was a different color on each side. One side was a striking silver and the other was so black it seemed to suck everything in. Her eyes were also each different colors. Next to her, a war scythe that resembled a cross spear rested against the wall. She looked so young—probably still in her early teens—but her true age was quite different. She hadn’t changed at all since he’d assumed the first seat of the Black Scripture.

His eyes moved to her ears, hidden by her hair—but then stopped. He knew she hated her ears.

Her glossy lips curled up, like perhaps she had read his thoughts.

She, born a mix of two bloods that was nearly impossible, was the strongest member of the Black Scripture, the additional seat, “No Death–No Life.” She served as the guardian of this sacred place where the armaments of the Five Pillar Gods were laid to rest.

The soft noises came from a toy she was playing with, popularized by the Six Gods and called a rubik-q in the Slane Theocracy.

Her voice reached him, mingled with the clicks. “It’s easy to get one side, but it’s hard to get two, you know?”

It wasn’t very hard for him, but he hesitated to say so and just grinned at her in reply.

It seemed like she didn’t really want a response anyhow, and she continued, not seeming to think anything of his silence, “What the heck happened here that the high priests would meet?”

“I think you’ve already received the report…”

“I haven’t read it,” she replied flatly. “Besides, it’s easier to hear the situation from someone who knows. Was Star Reader–Second Sight’s reading wrong? You sortied to dominate the Catastrophe Dragonlord, and then what?”

Their eyes didn’t meet even once while they spoke. She was focused on her toy the whole time.

“…We lost two men and had one critically injured in a fight with some unknown type of undead similar to a vampire. So we retreated.”

“Who died?”

He didn’t detect even a hint of emotion in her question despite the deaths in her squad. It was like she was hearing a story that had happened in a far-off place. But he didn’t think anything of it. It was an appropriate attitude for her to take.

“Cedran, who was protecting Lady Kaire, and Beaumarchais, who tried to restrain the vampire when it had stopped moving.”

“Giant Shield–Perfect Wall and Godly Realm–Iron Ties, huh? What with the shrine princess of Earth dying in some mysterious explosion and the Black Scripture losing two members…we’re having pretty bad luck. Who got injured?”

“Lady Kaire. It seems like the effect of some curse; her wound wouldn’t heal with magic, so we retreated.”

“So what happened to the vampire?”

“It’s still there. If we tried to restrain or even approach it, it prepared to attack, so we figured leaving it there was the best option.”

“So the problem’s not solved, then.”

“…We decided during the meeting just now to hang back.”

That was the conclusion they’d reached in that room. Rather than risk bigger losses by messing it up, they would leave it there until they had built up their strength for combat. There was probably no one in any other country who could beat that undead anyhow, and if there were, they would need to be cautious of such power and prepare their national defenses accordingly. They had decided to leave the bare minimum number of agents and withdraw the rest.

And he agreed, at least in part.

The only ones who could face that vampire head-on and win were probably demigods and dragonlords. So it was smarter to leave it there as an alarm and be on guard against whoever killed it.

“Hmm. It can’t be a vampire…”

He agreed. That was why he had called it some unknown type of undead.

“It’s not a dragonlord? The Vampiric Dragonlord or the Elder Coffin Dragonlord?”

The edges of her lips turned up farther into the clear shape of a smile—if an expression that brutal could be a smile, that is.

“…Both of them are already dead, you know,” he said, sensing a chill in the air.

She replied immediately. “They’re both undead. We don’t know that they’re really gone.” She raised her head for the first time and met his gaze squarely. The light in her different-colored eyes was curiosity, joy, and the urge to do battle. “Between me and the vampire, who do you think is stronger?”

He had anticipated this question, so he gave the response he’d prepared in advance. “You.”

“Oh…” She seemed to lose interest and went back to her toy.

He gave a sigh of relief in his head.

“That’s too bad. I thought I could learn what it’s like to lose…”

Listening to her mutter, he wondered who would really be stronger if they clashed. He’d been hit by both of them, and from his experience, he would guess the vampire would be declared the winner. But actually, the vampire could never win against No Death–No Life.

The reason was their gear. The vampire didn’t seem to be equipped with anything. That was the weakness of powerful monsters—they had so much confidence in their abilities that they didn’t think to equip powerful gear.

In comparison, No Death–No Life’s equipment was made up of pieces left by the Six Gods. That was why he could declare her stronger. But if that advantage disappeared…? That could never happen. He rejected the idea as soon as it occurred. It would be impossible to find gear equal to hers—the gods’.

So if it were possible? That could be the day the Slane Theocracy’s strongest, the additional seat, lost. It would be the day they faced the despair of the protector of humanity’s defeat.

Wait, why am I assuming she would have to fight alone? I may not be as strong as her, but I’m an awakened demigod, and I have some items we could use. If we took advantage of all that, surely we’d be able to take out one undead, even if it was immensely powerful. There can’t be a bunch of them if they’re that strong. Lost in thought, he heard a giggle. He twisted his face into a quizzical frown and eyed its source.

“Here’s a different topic: When are you gonna get married?”

It was an unresolved topic from the meeting. When would he find a suitable woman—to put it nicely, a fiancée; to put it less nicely, a tool for reproducing?

“There isn’t anybody.”

“Well, you’re still young, so I guess it can’t be helped.”

While conducting Black Scripture business, members wore magic masks to give them fake faces. In the Slane Theocracy, adulthood was prescribed in law by the gods as age twenty, but when he took off his mask, he was far younger than that.

“If you get married, she’ll end up on the dark side of the theocracy, too…but you don’t have to worry about it. She’ll still get to raise your kids.”

“I know that. There are already some people doing it in the scriptures.”

“I see. Oh, but you should make sure to tell her you’ll be marrying another woman besides just her. Polygamy isn’t a problem legally, but some people hate it even though they’ve been taught that.”

Polygamy was allowed in the Slane Theocracy if one had permission from the state. It was a vestige of the past historical custom born from a need to maintain pure bloodlines of the few powerful citizens available. Still, the majority of marriages were monogamous, and only a handful of polygamous cases were approved per year. And even when it was approved, the limit was two wives.

“Thanks for the kind advice. And what about you? You’re not getting married?”

She did look young, but he was asking because he knew she was really older.

“Hmm. If there was a guy who could defeat me, I’d marry him no matter how ugly he was, no matter how twisted a personality he had…even if he wasn’t human. I mean, imagine—a guy who could defeat me! I wonder how strong our kid would be…” With a hand on her lower abdomen, she replied with her first ear-to-ear grin of the day, and he was sure she had no intention to marry.

But what if someone who could defeat that vampire appeared?

A slight uneasiness flickered across his mind.