An Archdemon's Dilemma: How to Love Your Elf Bride: Volume 9

by Fuminori Teshima

  And so, after having an enjoyable breakfast with that as a sideshow, Zagan returned to the throne room, where he spotted a girl who was waiting for him idly.

  “Um, Your Highness?”

  “Lilith? What is it?”

  She had red hair tied up on both sides of her head, along with twisting black horns. Her refined face was accentuated by her golden eyes, and she had bat-like wings sprouting from her back. This was Lilith, the princess of the succubi.

  Her golden eyes and twisting horns were features that one could see on fomorians like Gremory. The succubi possessed the power to see dreams, while the fomorians had the power to destroy anything they looked at. It was identified that long ago the two of them were very closely related races who both possessed magical eyes.

  Thinking back on it, he hadn’t seen her during breakfast.

  Oh yeah, this girl resembles Alshiera too, doesn’t she? It was curious how even though Gremory and Alshiera didn’t bear the slightest resemblance, this girl had features that were common to one or the other. He only began thinking about this again because of his little exchange with the vampire in the morning, but he suddenly realized that something was strange about Lilith’s state. Her usual strong-willed face was now completely pale. It appeared that she wasn’t only afraid but also in poor health.

  Well, I guess everyone around her is a sorcerer and all. She did have her best friend, Selphy, with her, but as a sorcerer himself, Zagan couldn’t understand much about the anxieties of a commoner mixed into the middle of a bunch of sorcerers.

  He continued walking towards his throne and snapped his fingers. One of the chairs along the wall slid across the ground on its own and placed itself behind Lilith. She stood there wide-eyed for a moment, and Zagan lightly waved his hand to her.

  “Sit down. I can’t have you collapsing in the middle of our conversation.”

  “Th-Thank you.”

  “So, what do you need?”

  Lilith plopped down into the chair, finding it hard to speak.

  She’s awfully timid for such a strong-willed girl... Even now, it seemed she was afraid of speaking one-on-one with an Archdemon. But nevertheless, she had clearly gathered her resolve, so she would surely begin speaking on her own. Zagan simply sat there, staring at her without pressing her to hurry, and waited for her to speak.

  And before long, having gotten her thoughts in order, Lilith timidly opened her mouth.

  “Actually... this morning... I saw a scary dream... W-Wait! Th-That’s not what I mean! Um, I guess it somewhat is, but it isn’t...”

  “I got it, so calm down and try telling me about it.”

  Zagan tried his best not to scare her more than she already was, and Lilith writhed about with enough bashfulness that it seemed like steam would start coming out of her head.

  “You might just laugh it off as nothing but a dream... but I saw something strange. I was in a place like a temple, but there was no ceiling, yet no sky. There was nobody, yet I could tell that something dreadful was there...” Lilith reminisced over the peculiar scenery she saw as her molars clattered. “It was... as if...” She hesitated. As if afraid to put it into words. But even so, she mustered her courage. “The world ended there. That’s what it felt like.”

  This left Zagan quite surprised. As a sorcerer, it was only normal to think that dreams possessed no power. However, seeing the future in them was said to be a miracle since ancient times. It was difficult to laugh it off as superstition when the princess of the succubi was speaking of such things. So Zagan began carefully asking her more about it.

  “The end of the world is an awfully ominous way of putting it. Was it some sort of prophetic vision?”

  “I wonder...? It might be, but I don’t think that’s what it was.”

  “Hmmm. Let’s hear your basis for believing that.”

  It seemed that Zagan’s choice of words was a little off because Lilith began faltering and looked around the room.

  It doesn’t sound like it’s just her imagination, though. That was why he wanted to ask her if she had any ideas about what it was.

  “Basis...? Oh, right.” Lilith suddenly looked up at Zagan. “Um, I don’t know if it’s that strong a basis, but I was saved by My Lady in that dream.”

  “Your Lady? Alshiera?”

  “Yes... Oh, but I didn’t see her face. I just think that’s probably who it was.”

  Zagan recalled what happened in the morning.

  Now that I think of it, she was strangely perturbed for an instant in the middle of her training... And at that moment, Zagan had seen a shadow flying away from her. He didn’t know exactly when Lilith had woken up, but the probability that Alshiera had used her shadow to intervene in some way was fairly high.

  “If that was her, then rather than a prophetic dream, it was more like I was in the ‘now.’ Like it was closer to reality...”

  “I see...” Zagan nodded, and at the same time, a new doubt came to mind. “So Alshiera is even capable of intervening in dreams?”

  He only meant to mumble that to himself, but Lilith replied shyly nonetheless.

  “About that... Your Highness, have you ever seen her put down her hair?”

  Zagan cocked his head at the unexpected question.

  “No, I haven’t.”

  Even when he saw her on the uninhabited island near Liucaon, her disheveled hair was still tied up. He never really questioned it, but Lilith’s voice sounded fully convinced of something.

  “Actually, I feel like I’ve seen a similar dream before. Back then, there was another person there who had the same horns as me...” She hesitated slightly, unsure whether it was alright to speak of it further, but her silence didn’t last long. “I think maybe that was My Lady, with her hair let down...”

  Meaning Alshiera was originally a succubus, and her hair and ribbons may have been hiding her horns. It was difficult to imagine how horns of that size could be hidden, though. This was rather unexpected, but Zagan found himself strangely convinced of this fact.

  “Is that so? I suppose it isn’t all that strange for her to be a succubus who became a vampire.”

  The number of succubi that had become sorcerers throughout history wasn’t all that insignificant. Zagan had also witnessed Alshiera manipulating wings made of shadows while she fought. He thought at the time that this was an ability characteristic to the Night Clan though.

  But what does that mean? Alshiera was one to conceal everything about herself at any cost. It was fortuitous that he’d happened across information about her true identity, but he couldn’t guess what meaning that held. And once more, a dot had been placed in completely unknown territory. Just what did that dot connect to?

  Zagan folded his arms and let out a groan.

  “I can’t really say much based on that information alone, but the place you saw in your dream probably wasn’t a dream. Would that make it something like Alshiera’s space...?”

  Among sorcerers, there were those capable of making their own sort of subspace. This happened to be Barbatos’ field of specialty. In that case, maybe succubi could create a similar sort of private space within dreams.

  Lilith touched her lips as if worrying over the matter.

  “Her own space... No, if pushed to say it, it was more like she was protecting that place...” And after sinking into silence for a moment, Lilith continued in a clear tone. “To me, it felt more like she was the guardian of that place.”

  “A guardian...?”

  That word left Zagan somewhat taken aback.

  No, hang on... it’s not impossible when it comes to her...

  Zagan continued to put his thoughts in order as he replied.

  “Your conjecture might just be on the mark.”

  “How so?”

  “Let’s see... You may not know of this, having only left Liucaon recently, but have you ever felt that this world is awfully confined?”

  “Huh? Confined...? Is there something out there across the ocean?�
��

  That was exactly it. The only large landmass was the one called the continent. Everything else was ocean. The only exception was Liucaon. No other continent or country had ever been confirmed.

  “Hmm, let’s start from the beginning. Lilith, have you ever heard of the theory that this world exists atop a sphere?”

  “Yes. It’s the theory that the world is round and spins in circles, right?”

  As one would expect of royalty, she did at least possess that level of education. It helped that his explanation would be able to proceed more quickly.

  “Exactly. So sorcerers wanted to know exactly how big that sphere was. And several of them calculated the size of the world.”

  “You can even figure out things like that with sorcery?”

  “It isn’t all that complicated. If you investigate the amount of time it takes for the sun and moon to pass straight overhead at two separate points, you can measure the distance based on the difference. It’s possible to do even if you aren’t a sorcerer, given enough motivation. Well, it does require a fair amount of time and effort though.”

  Sorcery itself was something anybody could use as long as they possessed the knowledge, so Zagan didn’t think of it as particularly special.

  “According to their calculations, the continent is apparently no bigger than a tenth of the entire world. Well, that’s just how worlds are. There are measurement errors that come from estimating it like that, but apparently, they aren’t that far off.”

  After multiple calculations, an average value was bound to appear. And none of those calculations deviated much from the average value.

  Lilith sat there, blinking in surprise.

  “A tenth? Then is the remaining 90 percent all ocean?”

  “Who knows? But it’s true that nobody has ever discovered any other land,” Zagan said as he stared at Lilith. “Isn’t it strange? Do you really think sorcerers didn’t have any interest in the world beyond this continent, despite living for hundreds of years? There must have been more than just one or two sorcerers who made full use of their sorcery and set off on boats searching for more to the world. And yet nobody ever found anything.”

  That was why the world felt too confined. Yet Lilith cocked her head, unable to grasp what she was being told.

  “But sorcery is capable of leaping through space, right? There’s that one unhealthy one among your friends who can do that, right?”

  She was right on the mark. It was precisely Barbatos’ field of expertise. In theory, that man was capable of going anywhere in the world. There was a risk to leaping into the unknown though, so he couldn’t actually do it.

  However, Zagan shook his head.

  “Apparently that doesn’t work. There may have been those who succeeded in doing so, but none of them returned. Or perhaps they failed and were forced back onto the continent before they could get out.”

  “That means...”

  Zagan nodded.

  “Seems the continent is enclosed in a small cage of sorts.”

  Perhaps what lay beyond was the next world, where the dragons and ancient gods went. That was why this was one topic that sorcerers racked their brains over for many years. But after hearing Lilith’s story, Zagan found a different answer to said question.

  Lilith simply sat there, dumbfounded, and Zagan continued his explanation.

  “Well, we went off track a little. Let’s get back to the place you saw in your dream. After hearing about that, I feel like the place you saw is something like ‘the edge of the world.’”

  Or perhaps it was something like the keystone which sealed the cage.

  “The edge... of the world...”

  Having come to some sort of realization, Lilith pinned down her meager chest. If Alshiera was protecting that place, it could adequately explain the necessity of her having no choice but to leave Liucaon despite her tremendous power. It also gave a hint as to why such a cage was built around the world.

  Zagan looked down at his right hand, at the Sigil of the Archdemon.

  It makes sense if the Demon Lord and even the demons themselves were all sealed away along with this entire world.

  One thousand years ago, there was an incident that saw the extinction of many races. The one to bring that about was likely the Demon Lord. Also, its residual thoughts, as well as demons, could easily be brought out here. And above all else was the fact that the Demon Lord was sealed within the Sigils of the Archdemon.

  That may have been deemed insufficient in sealing away a calamity that could destroy the world itself. That’s likely why they chose somewhere special, like a dream, to serve as the key or door to that seal.

  If that were the case, then it would explain Alshiera’s particular fixation with Lilith among those three girls from Liucaon. And if this were true, then it would all lead to one conclusion.

  In short, Alshiera is a deterrent against the Demon Lord...?

  With the Seraph Hunters in hand, Alshiera’s powers were already far beyond human intellect. Even as he was now, it would be tremendously difficult for Zagan to defeat her in a head-on confrontation. Nevertheless, she was panicking.

  Perhaps... there isn’t that much time left. Alshiera had already suffered a fatal wound. She was granted the slightest lease on life — though it was questionable whether such a term was appropriate — because of the blood of an Archdemon she drank. But she surely didn’t possess much more time. In the worst case, Zagan had to at least become as strong as Alshiera to oppose the Demon Lord.

  Well, if it’s just a simple manner of killing Alshiera, then there are ways of accomplishing it. If he wasn’t all that picky about his means, then it was in fact possible. But there was a priority to all things. Zagan’s number one priority was protecting Nephy and Foll’s tranquil life. He would gladly throw away what little pride he had for such a cause. This was simply a clash of priorities, so he hadn’t killed her. If the time came where there was no longer any advantage to keeping her alive, he would do it.

  However, Nephy surely wouldn’t wish for that. That was why he looked for a more amicable solution. In the end, gaining more strength himself was the quickest and easiest way to solve everything.

  But it’s probably better to have some insurance in place.

  Zagan put the information in his head together and addressed Lilith once more.

  “Lilith. If you ever see the same dream again, investigate the place as best as you can. Anything is fine. Just bring back any information you can get.”

  “...Understood.” And even as the blood splendidly drained from her face, Lilith nodded firmly.

  “However, doing so will surely be accompanied by a suitable amount of danger. If that truly is the edge of the world, that means there’s something out there that would be quite the bother if it crossed over. So...” Zagan continued in a grave tone. “What you should prioritize above all else is your own survival.”

  Lilith stared back at him blankly.

  “Huh? Survival...?”

  “Yeah. I don’t care how. It doesn’t matter what you sacrifice. I, or one of my subordinates, will definitely come save you. So survive even a second longer at any cost. The dead are beyond saving, after all.”

  Zagan tried to convey this in an easy to understand way, but Lilith still looked completely astonished.

  “You’ll... come save me?”

  “Of course. Just who will follow a king who can’t protect his own subordinates?”

  And with that, Lilith finally returned a vigorous nod.

  “...Okay. Understood. I’ll survive, no matter what.”

  “Mm. Very good.” Zagan nodded, and Lilith smiled in a somewhat relieved manner.

  “Hey, Your Highness?”

  “What?”

  “Umm... Thanks for listening to me seriously. Honestly... I thought you would make fun of me.”

  Zagan had been curious about what had made her so anxious up until now and let out an exasperated sigh.

  “I can at leas
t tell at a glance whether or not you’re trying to mess with me. Don’t worry about such trivial matters. If anything else strange happens to you, report it down to the very last detail.”

  “Mm. I’ll do just that.” She smiled again, and then suddenly remember something else. “Hey, Your Highness?”

  “What?”

  “I never met him before, but was Lord Marchosias like you?”

  Zagan knit his brows, wondering why Marchosias’ name popped up.

  Oh yeah. Marchosias was also Liucaon’s protector. It was important information, but for some reason, the Eldest didn’t leave any records behind about himself. Even Zagan, who had inherited his entire legacy, still had no idea what sort of person he was. And yet, it was mysterious how he kept hearing that name everywhere he went. Well, that in itself wasn’t all that strange considering he was an Archdemon who lived for a thousand years.

  Zagan shook his head.

  “Like I know. I’ve never met him either.”

  “Is that so...? That’s a little disappointing. Well, there’s plenty of sorcerers here, so wouldn’t some of them have been acquainted?”

  “Are you going to look for one? Give it up. Prying into the lives of sorcerers is just begging for trouble.”

  Sorcerers were villains, after all. They would snap back immediately if suspected of something without a cause. This girl was under Zagan’s protection, but someone who went around poking their head into trouble all on their own couldn’t be protected.

  “Okay.”

  It was like Lilith hadn’t had any intention of seriously poking around. She withdrew without any complaints and headed back to her room.

  But... I guess I’d also like to investigate Marchosias a little. Ever since he began chasing the name Azazel, it felt like Marchosias’ name was following him around everywhere. He hadn’t made any progress whatsoever up until now, but it may have been worth giving Archdemon Palace another look over.

  At the time, that was still all he really thought of this matter.