Stray

Telaranea didn’t seem to have any plans to leave. After warning the two of them, he returned to the small window and continued to gaze at the bright, fresh, and green forest outside the window.

There was nothing in sight as far as the eyes can see.

“I want to stay here for a few days,” the Sage of the Abyss said softly. “If you two want to leave, don’t worry about me.”

Oliver thought Nemo would ask, but his lover just frowned. After thinking quietly for a moment, Nemo nodded to him gently, then he walked through the room to the door that had already lost its panel.

The great Demon King was obviously still thinking about something as he almost tripped over the animal corpses scattered all over the place. Before Nemo had time to regain his balance, a faint wave of magic came from the bones that were kicked away.

Buried in the bones was a delicate metal disc full of magic arrays. Its material should be pure gold. Even though it was once covered with wet animal carcasses, there was no rust on the golden metal.

Nemo should have just kicked it causing the metal disc to eject from the fur and broken bones. It laid crooked on the top layer of the animal carcass. The gold beads embedded in the phalanx weakly floated up in accordance with its predetermine trajectory. An exquisite illusion opened in the air in front of them.

It blackened the clear and warm air in the early morning as bright stars floated and rotated in the dark. They had seen this thing before— In a window in Hailem City, the capital of Garland, a few months ago.

An astrological instrument made of gold.

At that time, they thought it was extremely beautiful, but right now, the brilliant artificial light reflected the hollow eye sockets of the animal skulls, and the machinery lying on the thick corpses made the two uncomfortable.

Telaranea, who was by the window, didn’t look back.

The astrological instrument operated on its own for a while, and soon, the delicate machinery that had been forgotten for many years exhausted its last strength and fell silent again. Nemo picked it up from the corpse pile, threw a cleansing spell on it, and gently put it back on the dusty table.

This time, nothing hindered their footsteps.

In this way, the two left the decaying wooden house. Until the three-story hut was gradually swallowed up by green leaves and tree trunks, they could still see the demon stationed in front of the window.

The gray parrot, who had been shrinking on the branch outside the window, returned to Nemo’s shoulders tremblingly, staring hard at Nemo’s expression with its bird eyes, as if it wanted to ask but didn’t dare.

According to the coordinates set in advance by Telaranea, as long as they walked to the relatively sparsely wooded lawn, they could set up a temporary teleportation array and teleport themselves back to the vicinity of the headquarters of the Mercenary Guild.

The distance from the wooden house from the nearest open space was short. The two walked around the moss-covered roots and move forward in silence.

Oliver always felt that he should take the initiative to say something.

From a personal point of view, Oliver didn’t have a good impression of Telaranea, but objectively speaking, the demon had no reason to deceive them about the Demon King.

He thought this was a short journey back to the past, an exploration of the dark side of history. Whether it was themselves or Nemo, the problems they bear had long been set— The identities of the Demon King and the Hero wouldn’t hinder the time they have now. Everything had obviously just been stabilized.

But a new problem had reappeared.

If Nemo was the Demon King, then what was the thing that Telaranea saw at the bottom of the Abyss?

The open space used for teleportation was right in front of him. Oliver looked at Nemo again— Unlike before, this time Nemo didn’t have much of a negative decadence. Despite the fact that his Demon King seemed to be in a bad mood, there was no hint of panic. Nemo was staring intently at his feet, obviously still lost in thought.

“Oh.” The great Demon King suddenly spoke up. Oliver’s spirits lifted as he decided to take on whatever the topic the other party threw at him.

The information they got was so unbelievable that he must support him…

“I understand,” Nemo said solemnly. “Since that gentleman had observed ‘God’, there was a relative explanation for the inexplicable rejection of animals to that house. Dylan must have found that someone was peeping at him, so he used his aura to deter him— There was another person involved back then! We can ask Jesse what’s going on with his body. Geez, I can’t believe I keep forgetting this when clearly you and Ann were both standard surface creatures before.”

“…” This topic was jumping too wildly. Oliver didn’t know how to react to the term “standard surface creatures”.

It seemed that Nemo’s focus wasn’t the creature suspected of being the “Demon King” at the bottom of the Abyss.

“You didn’t like Jesse very much at first, did you?”

Nemo looked unexpectedly calm, he stopped and leaned against a tree.

“Of course, I understand, he’s quite annoying, but on the other hand, Ollie, you’re definitely the best-tempered person I have ever met. You’re starting to get a little bit… disgusted with him to the point that it’s abnormal. Ann too, while Mr. Cross is relatively better.”

“Well,” Oliver tried to keep up with his lover’s thoughts, “It’s true when you put it that way… But I don’t hate him so much now. It might have been because of the aura or something.”

“No. If Jesse Dylan wants to act, he can be anyone. If he wanted to approach us more safely, it should be easier to pretend to be a gentle person at first, but he didn’t hide his annoyance. That’s probably why.”

Nemo rubbed the staff in his hand. “If his performance is blameless, but you instinctively hate him, everyone will definitely notice how unnatural that is. It wasn’t disgust, Ollie. It’s subconscious fear.”

Oliver tried to recall for a while and was discouraged to find that he couldn’t accurately describe the feelings in his memories, but he found another question. “You said Mr. Cross is okay with him?”

“Mr. Cross and the fuller goat, they are both in a state of ‘unable to use magic by themselves’, so they are relatively insensitive.” Nemo made a simple gesture, “And you and Ann are different. You two are very powerful, and powerful people are always sensitive. Baglemaurus lost too much power before, and then directly obtained my blood, so it had no special reaction to Dylan.

“If this is the case… The reason I don’t particularly hate him now is because I was stripped of the magic system and became a similar, uh, creature to you?”

“You can say that.” Nemo looked relieved. “So it seems that if I didn’t always take care to hide my aura to the extreme, I certainly wouldn’t be pleasing to the higher level demons either. And it’s understandable that no creature would want to come near if I was consciously trying to deter… them for more than ten years.”

“So you plan to ask him about it directly.”

“Yes, I plan to ask Dylan directly if he was seen. If so, he might be willing to tell me the specific situation.”

Nemo sighed fiercely.

“It’s time to have a good talk with that guy. I can’t think of any worse possibility than ‘I could destroy the world’.”

“The underground… that was mentioned by Telaranea…”

“If it is the Demon King, then I can naturally be relieved. If it’s not, things will not change in any way.” Nemo’s voice was calm. “I figured it out, Ollie. There’s no point in thinking in vain. What we have to determine now is very simple— Can I go back to the Abyss now and guarantee that I can still come out.”

He pressed the back of Oliver’s head a little roughly and bit his lover’s lips lightly.

“This is my only concern, and the plan is as usual.”

“What are you talking about?” Seeing the two people gnawing on each other, the gray parrot finally couldn’t hold it back, and it asked with trepidation. “What the hell is Jesse Dylan?”

“…” The two looked at Bagelmaurus at the same time. After a series of strange facts, they completely forgot about it.

“Ollie, you explain.” Nemo couldn’t bear to look directly at the shivering gray parrot.

“Uh, I…”

A golden eagle saved the scene that was on the verge of losing control. The raptor with golden feathers on its tail stopped in front of them, raised its head arrogantly, and dropped a gorgeous envelope with its claws.

The two of them wanted to find a chance to change the subject. After a few boring compliments to the delicacy of the envelope, Nemo neatly tore it open. “…Ollie, it seems that we don’t have to worry about it for 30 years.”

“What?”

“The Pope’s summoning order.”

“But the expedition was just 20 years ago—”

“Yes, this is not an expedition summoning order. Something happened in the Abyss, and we need to guard the Laddism reconnaissance team.” Nemo shook the letter paper. “It seems that we have to act quickly. You know, I will definitely not let you go into the Abyss alone.”

Oliver raised his eyebrows. “Something happened in the Abyss?”

“Well, all the larger teleportation arrays that used to facilitate the operations of the expedition force… Regardless of whether they were deep or shallow, they were all deliberately destroyed. This is only part of the situation, and more changes are continuing. It’s obvious that someone is trying to obstruct the next expedition.”

‘Amazing,’ Oliver thought to himself. This should reasonably be a shocking and frightening message, but he watched Nemo calmly shaking the envelope only feeling at eased.

Anyways, they have reached the bottom of their destination.

“I hope the Mercenary Guild can record this as a monthly task. After all, we will be very busy.” Oliver unconsciously smiled.

“Yeah.” Nemo stuffed the envelope and letter into Oliver’s hand, and then he stretched out his hand to his mighty Hero.

“Are you ready to do something bad, Ollie? For example, sneaking into the headquarters of the Mercenary Guild to see what the weaponized demons are and the likes?”

“Of course, Your Majesty.” Oliver took the hand, smiled, and kissed his lover’s finger. “Let’s go.”

“What about my question?” the gray parrot on Nemo’s shoulder squawked. “Let’s not talk about the headquarters of the Mercenary Guild… What about my question? Jesse Dylan, what the hell is he—”

“……”

The holy land of the Laddism Church, in the Central Church of Hatfield.

Pope Dawn Quinn was enjoying his supper. He squinted at the young man across the table while adding granulated sugar to the teacup.

“Now is not the time, son.” The old pope scratched his shiny scalp, looking a little helpless. “Yes, this is a very formal and dangerous reconnaissance operation. That’s why we need the Black Chapter, not the hero praised by the world.”

He shook his head and pushed over a small plate of butter shortbread.

“Most of the expedition facilities at the bottom of the Abyss were largely destroyed by someone. If it weren’t for a team of too reckless adventurers who accidently discovered the abnormality, we probably wouldn’t have realized the seriousness of the problem until at least another decade. No matter who moved their hand, our opponent is undoubtedly an extremely dangerous and powerful person. If…”

“I am not a hero,” the guest sitting opposite the Pope said softly.

“Well, compared with the last meeting, you have really changed a lot, but even if you really think so, I won’t agree. I have found a very suitable escort team—”

“Four people are not enough, Lord Quinn.”

“It should be enough for the Laddism Church. After all, the other sects have their own escorts. Even if we add more people, at most two more—”

“Then add two more.”

“Oh, child, why are you struggling…”

“There’s one last thing that I need to be sure of.” The young man opposite of the Pope stood up. His expression was soft and firm in the bright firelight.

“I applied for membership as an individual, and at the same time I’ll bring another helper. Is this okay?”

“If you insist.”

“Thank you, Lord Quinn.”

“It’s me who should say thank you, Godwin.”

As soon as the Pope’s voice fell, the communication crystal ball in the center of the table slowly floated up. The old Pope sighed and waved his hand to Godwin Lopez, who was about to leave to avoid suspicion.

“Demon alert,” he said. “Don’t mind. Just listen together. What’s the matter, Felix? Speak.”

“The weaponized superior demon underneath the Mercenary Guild headquarters, Pandorater. It… just disappeared.”

The author has something to say:

Cousin has his own ideas√

Laddism Church Abyssal Escort Team Personnel 2 (?)

——

The seeker of knowledge observed God, fell into a state of ecstasy, and the clues were interrupted.

Ollie: I have to comfort Nemo. He may not feel well.

Nemo: (Calmly) Let’s ask God himself.

Ollie: …I’m not used to this.