Chapter 243
“……!” The citizens of the theocracy gasped in silent shock. Aillet, seated on the iron chair, also held her breath, her eyes wide.
“…….” Tesillid himself, however, showed not a trace of agitation on his statue-like face.
His composure was clearly conveyed even to Aillet, who could only see the back of his head from a distance.
The detachment from death unique to an infinite regressor. That very quality provoked her.
Aillet raised her voice in a fit of pique.
“What atonement are you talking about? Terry, don’t do something so unlike you—no, don’t do anything rash and just come here!”
“…….”
“Think carefully, Terry. Even if you save others with your life right now, it’s only a temporary measure. Let’s find another way. Okay?”
“…….”
“Hey! Can’t you hear me?! You, you think I’ll forgive you if you do this? Can you handle the consequences, huh?!”
“…….”
Tesillid stubbornly did not turn to look at her. It was clear that a more effective blow was needed.
Aillet took a deep breath. With a pained expression, she squeezed her eyes shut.
“Tesillid Argent! If you die like this, I’ll……!”
“…….”
“I’ll marry someone else and live happily ever after!!”
“……!” Her voice, drawn from her core, reached the rock walls.
I’ll marry someone else and live happily ever after…… live happily ever after…… live happily ever after…….
It was the moment a dramatic echo of romantic entanglement resounded splendidly in the middle of the Demon Realm.
“…….”
“…….”
A silence, slightly different in nature from before, settled.
A serious man and woman. Yet, the weight of the surrounding air somehow felt a little lighter.
Murmurs began to grow within that gap.
“Yo-Your Holiness, Holy Saint……?”
“C-Could it be with the Master of the Holy Sword……?”
Tesillid, who had stubbornly kept his back to them, finally turned and looked at Aillet.
The calm, handsome man gazed at Aillet with clear eyes. His well-formed lips parted silently several times.
After a slight hesitation, the words that finally emerged from his mouth were…….
“With whom? With Reed?”
“Huh……?”
“Can you accept Reed too?”
“…….”
Aillet, who hadn’t expected such a serious cross-examination, couldn’t answer.
“Oh, I guess so.”
“They’re that kind of relationship…….”
“As expected…….”
It was Marquis Levant who brought order to this tension-drained situation.
“Ha! Are you joking right now? How dare you engage in such romantic antics in a solemn court! Your Majesty, Demon King, please quickly carry out the execution and separate those two cockroaches by death!”
“Calm down, Marquis Levant. I was already contemplating the method of execution.”
“They deserve to be executed in the most brutal way possible!”
Marquis Levant, who knew nothing of the splendor of love, ranted for a while.
At that moment, a déjà vu-inducing situation unfolded.
Tesillid opened his mouth as if he had something important to say.
“I have a preferred method of execution; may I speak of it?”
“……What did you just say, human? Preferred?”
Not forced labor, but execution?
Even the demons had never encountered a human so detached.
Of course, Tesillid, unconcerned, continued speaking his mind.
“Please cast me into the Pit of Solitude.”
“……!” Marquis Levant could not hide his disbelief.
“Good heavens! You foolish human, do you know how terrifying a punishment that is? I can’t believe you accumulated such great evil deeds with such a dull mind…….”
“Interesting.”
Inferinos’s voice cut off the chatter.
“I was already considering that method, yet the sinner to be atoned for requests it first.”
“…….”
“There’s no reason not to grant it. Willingly, you shall die as you wish.”
Dra-dra-dra-drag! Suddenly, the ground began to rumble.
A platform as high as a spire, where Inferinos was located.
The magnificent bronze relief wall decorations supporting it split open on both sides.
What was revealed was a passage piercing through the wall.
The straight path ended not far off. At its conclusion, instead of a dead end, there was a cliff.
Inferinos himself explained about the area below the cliff, where an ominous red haze thickly rose.
“The place you see ahead is the Pit of Solitude. It’s an execution ground recently established in my territory.”
“…….”
Tesillid slowly walked into the passage.
“Terry!”
He once again ignored Aillet’s anxious call.
Standing at the edge of the cliff, chilling sounds boiling up from below filled his ears.
Metal grated, something shattered, and someone of an unknown race screamed.
The distant, echoing symphony of noise informed him.
Beyond the red haze, a fierce battlefield lay spread out at the bottom of the pit.
From the spire-like high platform, one could look down upon the Pit of Solitude with just a turn of the back.
Inferinos spoke to Tesillid, who stood before the cliff.
“It is a place where they kill each other, and the last one remaining absorbs the power of all others. Be they demon, human, livestock, or insect.”
In other words, a Battle Royale.
Of course, even if one survived until the end, there was no future.
“The final survivor thus born will become an excellent vessel of evil. They will enjoy the glory of being offered to the ‘Newly Born Chaos Evil.’”
In short, the Pit of Solitude was created for Reed.
Swish.
A gigantic exit gate was generated on the opposite side of the courtroom, in the prisoner waiting area.
However, it did not seem to be open yet, as an electric barrier blocked access.
Inferinos commanded Tesillid.
“Jump down yourself. Then I will release the humans.”
“…….”
Tesillid slowly turned back to Aillet. As always, a gentle smile was directed solely at her.
“Aey.”
Words that sounded familiar echoed in her ears.
“I’ll be back. You don’t have to worry.”
“……!” Whoosh! Tesillid’s form vanished into her blind spot.
Her eyes trembled as if they would shatter.✠“…….”
My heart plummeted.
Although I had certainly experienced this before, I don’t know why I hadn’t developed any resistance.
As if in my stead, as I couldn’t even utter a word or breathe properly, the citizens of the theocracy called out to him.
“K-Knight Tesillid!”
“Ah, ahh…… My goodness…….”
It was when the time spent staring blankly became prolonged.
Clang. Heavy metallic sounds reverberated simultaneously.
The shackles binding the wrists of the citizens of the theocracy were released. And the sparks from the gate generated behind them subsided.
“Leave. You humans who prolonged your miserable lives by offering the Silver Stigma Lamb as a sacrifice.”
“…….”
Inferinos honored his promise.
The grieving citizens of the theocracy came to their senses and one by one got to their feet.
Soon, some turned back as if resolved.
“Ugh! Knight Tesillid! I’m sorry!”
“I will repay this grace as long as I live, as long as I live……!”
The long line began to move backward.
After they had all crossed the precarious cliff path, speed returned to their legs.
People rushed through the gate, lest it close.
For demons, contracts were absolute.
My comrades and the citizens of the theocracy who had earlier been sentenced to forced labor and dragged away would have escaped the Demon King’s territory by now.
My mind processed the situation.
Tesillid saved the people.
By using the rules of atonement.
By throwing himself into a pit I knew nothing about.
“…….”
I felt a little shocked. In many ways.
At that moment, a voice from a distance roused my mind.
“Are you not returning, Evil’s Bane Executor?”
The chair that had bound me had long since disappeared. Though I was free, I remained rooted to the spot.
Even now, with all the citizens of the theocracy having left the Demon King’s territory.
<What will you do, Aillet?>[‘Scales that Judge Souls’ watches you with anxious eyes.]
[‘Voice-Spirit that Constructs the World’ earnestly warns against extreme actions.] I took slow steps without responding to Inferinos.
The place I headed for was the front of the Pit of Solitude, where Tesillid had jumped.
Hidden by the red haze, the bottom was completely invisible.
In that case, I decided to gather auditory information instead of visual. I listened carefully to the sounds coming from the bottom.
Continuous battle noise spreading over a wide area. A battlefield where everyone but oneself was an enemy.
Its fierceness was distinctly palpable.
How long could Tesillid endure in such a place?
He needs me. Certainly.
“Going down into the pit is not a good idea, Evil’s Bane Executor.”
“……!” It became a little difficult to breathe, as if my lungs were being crushed.
It was because Inferinos had appeared behind me at some point.
“Your Majesty, Demon King, how can you tread the same ground as a lowly human?!”
Ignoring the horrified Marquis Levant, Inferinos stood shoulder to shoulder with me.
A situation where the Demon King stood in close proximity.
Instead of drawing my sword, I focused all my senses to be wary of every subtle movement from him.
The Demon King’s unique eyes, with their long, slit pupils, looked down towards the bottom of the pit.
Inferinos began to speak.
“Powerful rules are applied to the Pit of Solitude by my authority.”
“……What rules?”
“Once one enters, they cannot come out until they become the final entity. So, even if you were to go down to save the Silver Stigma Lamb and kill all other entities, only one of you would emerge. You wouldn’t want a lover’s mutual slaughter, would you? Though Marquis Levant would enjoy it.”
It was an unexpectedly kind explanation.
I only shifted my gaze, probing the Demon King as I questioned.
“What kind of beings did you put in the pit?”
“I’ve put too many to list them all.”
“Excluding the miscellaneous ones.”
Is it a level that Tesillid, an Aura Master, can handle alone?
Inferinos’s eyes curved into a smile.
“I put twenty-six of my elite subordinates under my command in there.”
“……You threw two-digit ranked demons in there?”
“Yes.”
I barely swallowed the curses that nearly escaped my lips.
It meant Tesillid had entered the very heart of a battleground where SSS-ranks were fiercely competing.
My fingertips trembled faintly with agitation.
To conceal it, I had to clench my fist so tightly that the knuckles on the back of my hand turned white.
Even then, my face faithfully produced a sarcastic smile.
Privilege for the Possessor