“Your Excellency the Chancellor, please allow me to be frank.”

Eleanor, who had only been listening to Sullivan this whole time, spoke in a flat tone.

She had just heard that she was the cause of the chaos that was happening worldwide, but her reaction was unexpectedly dull.

“Firstly, I can understand your claim that the trigger of this situation had been triggered by me.”

“...”

As soon as the word ‘claim’ came out of her mouth, the edge of the Chancellor’s mouth twitched.

Eleanor said it in a flat tone, but the meaning of her words were clear; ‘Everything that you said is just your own opinion.’

As if to say that such moral condemnation wouldn’t really affect her…

Then, she uttered her next words in the same tone.

“However, what does that have to do with my relationship with Dowd?”

For the first time, Sullivan’s smile disappeared from her face.

“...I’m sure that you aren’t ignorant of the severity of the situation, Lady Tristan.”

The Chancellor continued in a stiff voice.

“Those associated with Devils will be treated as enemies of the entire continent. This isn’t limited to the Devil Worshippers, but every human who’s involved.”

“I am aware of that.”

Eleanor replied, tilting her head slightly.

“So what about it?”

“...”

“Nothing has been decided yet, so you can dictate nothing to me regarding this matter. This is something that should be decided between Dowd and myself. Third parties have no right to say on the matter.”

Now, she didn’t even bother to address her with ‘Your Excellency’.

Despite her calm, serene speech, her face was more expressionless than usual, save for the glint in her red eyes. It made it as if she was trying to suppress something.

“...I won’t be so sure about that, Lady Tristan.”

Sullivan replied with a voice so cold that it could probably freeze the water just by her talking.

“I am confident that your mere existence would bring harm to this man, so I do not think it’s unreasonable for me to have a say in this.”

“...”

“Even you yourself are aware of this, aren’t you?”

Sullivan’s golden eyes sunk deeply.

“There’s a high chance that this man will get swept up by something bad because of you. Something very, very dangerous.”

Hearing her words, Eleanor’s body turned stiff.

This meant that she couldn’t find any words to refute her.

She bit her lip hard enough for it to bleed, but only for a moment before she started speaking again.

“...If the assumption that you have uttered is true, whether I’ll be there or not, that danger would come anyway, no?”

“Only the foolish who’d suffer the consequences first because of their inability to differentiate between truth and lies, Lady Tristan. Well, you are free to think how you like, but…”

A cold sneer followed Sullivan’s words.

“I have to say that you look quite pathetic.”

Eleanor’s eyebrows twitched.

“To think that you’d go out of your way to deny the truth that you yourself had verified. Do you not realize how greedy your wish to monopolize this man is?”

Sullivan’s golden eyes, sunken deep, gleamed insidiously.

“In the first place, you are not even able to do anything for this man. Even after you watched him sacrificing himself over and over because of you, you’re still unable to let go of that greed. Tell me, what could be more pathetic than that? Oh, is this your attempt to advertise the fact that you grew up without as much as love from your father?”

The Chancellor’s intense glare, burning like cold flames, pierced into Eleanor.

“In that case, I can understand. After all, your environment makes you who you are. You didn’t have anyone to teach you what proper distance is, did you? I truly find you pitiful now.”

Even just quietly listening to her sent a shiver down my spine.

Because the Chancellor’s words weren’t only enveloped by coldness, but also an intense hostility.

“Even so, you should know when and where to act spoiled, shouldn’t you? Even if it is someone as obtuse as you.”

“...”

Though those words weren’t directed at me, I was breaking out in a cold sweat.

“...Haa.”

Meanwhile, Eleanor closed her eyes and let out a deep sigh.

She stood still.

No words were uttered.

Even after hearing all that, the atmosphere around her still seemed serene.

“...Well, who knows.”

The next words that she uttered came out in a calm tone.

“I know of one thing though, Your Excellency the Chancellor.”

“What is?”

“The fact that you have to be removed. No matter what.”

As Eleanor spoke, a twisted smile appeared on her face.

And that sight…

Made a chill run through my entire body, as if the blood that ran through my vein had been frozen.

After all, that was the expression Eleanor showed whenever she was about to ‘swing her sword’ against an enemy.

Then…

‘Grey aura’ surged from her body.

System Message

[ Target ‘Eleanor’ is enraged! ]

[ Corruption Value of target ‘Eleanor’ exceeds 200%. ]

Her calm responses were not due to her not getting angry.

Rather, it was the calm before the storm.

The anger within her had reached a boiling point, at the verge of exploding!

Without time to plan or any of that bullshit, I stood up. All I knew was that I had to stop this somehow, no matter the cost!.

Especially considering what happened the last time Eleanor went berserk!

“...Indeed, you’re an uncouth woman, just as expected.”

Then, along with those words…

“This is the only thing that you know, isn’t it? Whenever things don’t go your way, you’d just swing your sword around.”

System Message

[ ‘Fallen’s Seal’ reacts! ]

[ Target ‘Sullivan’ drawing out the Aura of =Removed object= has been sensed! ]

Sullivan’s body started to be imbued with a ‘golden’ aura.

‘I knew it…!’

 

This person was also deeply involved with a Devil, in whatever manner it might be.

Because this was the manifestation that you’d see whenever Devils tried to use their ‘Authority’!

I immediately put on the Soul Linker. Caliban’s dumbfounded voice soon came from inside.

[Huh, what’s this? Why did you wake me up again so suddenly?]

‘Shut up and give me your mana. Now! It’s urgent!’

Two Devils were about to clash right in the middle of Elfante. If that were to happen, the entire scenario would go down the drain!

[Wait, two Devils? Can you even stop that?!]

‘I don’t know. I’ll die either way, so who gives a shit!’

While I responded to him, I checked all the means available to me.

What I can do here is—!

System Message

[ The ‘Sidekick of Survival’ Rule is activated! ]

[ Target ‘Iliya’ reacts sensitively to your moment of danger. ]

[ The target’s stats increase dramatically! ]

[ The target opens the ‘Eye of Truth’! ]

“...?”

‘The fuck?’

Right as I was thinking as such after looking at the window that popped up out of the blue…

“Heya~”

From the entrance of the hall…

“It’s great that I decided to intrude. This looks like an absolute mess.”

Along with that voice…

A ‘flash’ came flying.

The growth that Iliya Krisanax showed in the game was at a crazy high level, even after considering the fact that she was the protagonist.

Like, the thing about her blowing away a mountain range with a single strike was not an exaggeration at all.

But still, even after considering that…

Wasn’t this a little too much?

-!

-!

Judging from the sound, the whole fiasco ended in a rather lackluster conclusion. After all, Iliya solved it by bonking the back of Eleanor’s and Sullivan’s head.

“...”

But, when I saw that…

I felt every hair on my body stand on its end.

While it was true that those two being unable to react to her speed was absurd, the thing that got me was something else.

“...Just now.”

Faenol’s dazed voice reached my ears.

Judging by the way she was about to unleash all the mana in her body, she seemed to have been preparing herself to stop the collision between the two Devils.

“Did she subdue two Devil’s Vessels by ‘hitting’ them?”

“...”

Yeah.

Unless I was seeing things, that was exactly what happened.

Eleanor and Sullivan, who were manifesting their respective Devil’s Authority, collapsed powerlessly at the same time.

Almost as if they lost consciousness from a single blow.

To put it simply, this punk just subdued the two of them by hitting the back of their heads with her bare hands.

“TEAAAAACH-!”

While I was thinking this, Iliya called out to me, as she was hopping in front of me.

She grabbed my hand and shook it up and down vigorously with a broad smile on her face. The punk looked so glad to see me it felt like she didn’t know what she should do.

‘...Did her personality change?’

Wait, now that I thought about it…

This was her original personality.

The reason why she became so droopy and deadpan was because of me. Well, to be more specific, because she kept getting swept up in my problems.

“Have you been well? Wow, it’s really been a while!”

I looked at Iliya with a dumbfounded expression for a while before finally managed to ask.

“...You. How did you do that just now?”

“Huh? What do you mean by how?”

“How did you…knock out both of them with a single blow?”

At my question, Iliya tilted her head, as if implying that I was saying something strange.

“Well, that’s…”

Seemingly unsure how to explain, she scratched her head.

“How should I put it? So, I need to hit them with my fists without hurting them, but… I can’t just subdue them in the normal way, right? Especially with Lady Tristan. I doubt that she’d even get a scratch if I were to hit her…”

“...Makes sense, go on.”

“Since that’s the case, I just hit the thing inside their bodies. What was it? The Devil’s Fragment or whatever?”

She said those words so casually, but…

“...”

“...”

“...”

A heavy silence descended upon us.

Me, Faenol, even Caliban in the Soul Linker, who always chattered in any situation, all shut our mouths.

 

‘Wait a fucking moment.’

 

‘What the fuck does that even mean?’

 

‘‘Hit’? A Devil’s Fragment?’

“...What?”

After a long silence, I barely managed to let out a voice.

But Iliya replied with an unchanging bright smile, as if the thing that she had done was nothing worth mentioning at all.

“Well, at one point, I started seeing all sorts of things really clearly these days. I can see that… They have ‘someone inside them’, also there’s that Devil’s Fragment thingy…”

Come to think of it, there was a notification about her opening the Eye of Truth or whatever in a system window just before.

And now that I looked at her closely, she was wearing something similar to an eyepatch.

“So, since I saw that person inside. I tried hitting her, you know?”

Iliya continued with a grin.

“And then it worked!”

“...”

“When I did it a few times against Riru, she was beside herself. It seems to be really painful for those who have those Fragment thingy if they get hit directly.”

“...”

After I gathered my braincells to understand what the fuck she was saying, I finally understood everything.

What she was trying to say was that, even though the one that she hit was the ‘Vessel’, the damage was dealt ‘directly to the Devil’s Fragment inside them.

That was why even those two, people who could withstand a direct hit from a bomb, collapsed with just a single hit to the back of their heads.

‘...But how?’

It was incomprehensible.

She was saying it so nonchalantly, but…

Even if you comb through the entire worldview, this was an unprecedented power.

Keep in mind that the only beings who could suppress the strength of the Devils were either Devils themselves, a Seraphim or a Hero who wielded the Holy Sword.

That was the law. A rule written into the very code of the game’s system, okay?

But then…

What the fuck was that just now?

If this were a game, people would dismiss it as a bug. That was how absurd it was. But this was reality, the concept of bugs didn’t exist.

Seriously though, what the fuck was going on with this kid?

Fist Saint.

What the fuck did you even do that the kid became like this?!

“...So, what do you think?”

Iliya asked while gazing at me.

“I practiced this ability really hard for your sake, Teach.”

“Huh?”

And as soon as our eyes met…

“...”

I backed away.

While I didn’t know why I did so, my instincts were screaming, telling me to run.

“...You’ve worked hard. That’s actually an unbelievable ability.”

“Right?”

Iliya replied with a grin.

And then…

“From now on, I’ll protect you.”

Along with those words…

She grasped my hand tightly.

As if she wouldn’t ever let me go out of her sight.

“From now on, even if bad women like these try to threaten you, Teach. I’ll protect you. That’s what I’ve been training so hard for.”

“...”

“So…”

However, as she turned to face me, any signs of such an atmosphere had disappeared without a trace.

Iliya smiled brightly once again.

“You can’t leave my side, okay?”

“...”

“Otherwise, who knows what kind of harassment would you suffer from those violent women.”

With those words, she hooked her pinky finger around mine.

“Mhm, pinky-promise. To always stick together.”

Then, she continued with the same wide smile.

“So I can always protect you, Teach. Understood?”

Light radiated from her eyes as she said this, but…

Like, it was nice and all that she wanted to protect me, but…

“...”

For some reason, I felt a chill running down my spine.

How should I put it…

[...This is a premonitory symptom of obsession, isn’t it?]

“...”

[Did you wake me up just to show me how you managed to corrupt my little sister?]

"..."

‘No. It’s not that.’

‘Stop being fucking ridiculous.’