——Eastern Holylight.
Refugees from the slums had passed Yahooo and were traveling south toward the village of Rabbi. Now that they were in Holylight, they caught wind of the various rumors circulating in the country.
Weeb and his Trinary were discussing the Fallen Angel once again.
“Light has returned to their faces,” he said, watching the refugees.
“Indeed. Something has changed,” Kaiya, leader of the Trinary, agreed.
The Fallen Angel Lucifer had reappeared after tens of thousands of years... That should have instilled fear and hopelessness in humanity as a whole. Yet the people of Holylight seemed anything but afraid. They were smiling—a bounce in their steps, even.
“The market seemed very active as well,” said Weeb.
“From what we’ve heard, there have been continuous, large-scale buyouts,” Kaiya added.
With increased labor came exponential demand for supplies like food, clothes, building materials, even the likes of drinks and tobacco. Every shop around was frantically filling constant orders from Rabbi. With restoration and infrastructure projects beginning throughout the country, labor and supplies flowed in a constant current. Some shopkeepers had gone as far as traveling to more remote parts of the country, seeking the means to supplement their stock in order to fill these orders. On top of these developments, Water Spell Stones and celebratory sums were being distributed to each household—the people of Holylight had no reason to be dispirited at all.
“Hope is loosening their purses...” Weeb muttered, and the Trinary only listened—they were war generals, not economic advisors. “Water Spell Stones, which had been a burden on their coffers, are now given freely. The central nobles and their oppressive taxes are gone. Every product flies off the shelf, and there is plenty of work to go around...” Weeb had to admit that it was pretty obvious why life had returned to the faces of these people, especially when Holylight was due to be reunified under the three Holy Maidens. The people were basking in the dawn of a new era, welcoming it with open arms.
“They seem a bit too trusting to me... There’s no telling what scheme he is hatching behind these policies,” Kaiya said.
“To them, the central nobles were the true demons,” Weeb countered.
“Sir Weeb, what do you make of the Demon Lord—I mean, Fallen Angel?” Kaiya asked.
Weeb pondered the question. The Fallen Angel depicted in all the myths and legends seemed at odds with the Demon Lord. While the Demon Lord did resemble the mythical Fallen Angel in some ways, he was the complete opposite in others.
“As far as the people of Holylight are concerned, at least, the Fallen Angel is still an angel.” Weeb could have laughed at the absurdity of it all—the notorious, mythical rebel was being revered like a hero of the ages. Weeb almost felt like he’d tumbled into a different world than his own, especially when he’d heard the heroic tales of the Demon Lord rescuing tortured children and a divine beast at tavern after tavern. Some people of Holylight were already fanatics, praising the Fallen Angel who’d obliterated their oppressors, the ones who’d treated Holylight like a playground and even brought in external forces to wreak havoc on the working class. The Demon Lord was fast approaching the point of deification.
Kaiya scoffed. “Some tales were downright outrageous—that he wiped out an entire mountain range and performed acts of pure creation.”
“Creation...” Weeb couldn’t laugh it off. What if it’s true? he kept wondering. If the Demon Lord could create matter from nothing, he would surpass the powers of the Fallen Angel in the myths. Weeb’s gaze drifted once again to the girl holding the reins—her divine aura contrasted by the devastating lance she carried. Even if he were to unleash every weapon in his arsenal, Weeb doubted he could win a battle against her. Legends claim the Fallen Angel summoned numerous kin... Weeb had closely observed Ren throughout their journey and seen that she had a noble mind, treating the refugees with utmost compassion—so much so that he found Ren more valiant than any ruler on the continent. With her serving as chancellor, he could believe that Holylight might transform into a perfect kingdom.
Suddenly, Ren pulled on the reins, her composure cracking for once. Weeb and the refugees watched carefully, wondering what could have affected the ever-stoic Ren in this way. “Master is welcoming us in the flesh.” She was beaming, much to Weeb’s astonishment—he’d seldom seen so much as a smirk on her face until now. Ren dismounted, and the knights around her naturally followed suit. Black feathers rained down before her as the Fallen Angel appeared, making a simple Quick Travel look like a divine manifestation—as if he’d descended from the heavens themselves.
“You look regal in any form, Master,” Ren greeted.
“It’s a long story...” the Demon Lord said, wishing for a hole in the ground to hide himself and his cringey costume in.
Ren, who’d been Communicating with Tahara, didn’t think the attire was peculiar at all. She even found it to be a brilliant twist on the Fallen Angel myth. The Demon Lord with his shadowy wings standing with Ren in her black schoolgirl uniform made for a perfect tableau of a dark reunion. All who witnessed it knew that Ren truly belonged to the Fallen Angel.
“Minister of Euritheis. Thank you for coming all this way,” the Demon Lord said.
“Th-Thank you, sir...!”
“Last time we met, we were in your Colosseum...” the Demon Lord said.
Reading violent intent in his eyes, the minister nearly pissed himself. The realization hit him—the new hero of the Colosseum, King, who’d defeated the tyrant Jack, had been the Fallen Angel all along. He’d heard of some calling King the Demon Lord... He hadn’t dared to imagine that they’d meant the Demon Lord.
“Ren, why don’t you show the minister to the hot springs?” the Fallen Angel said. “I’ll prepare the new quarters.”
“Of course, Master.” Ren turned to the minister. “This way, please.”
“V-Very well...”
Ren made her way into the village, the lightheaded minister and ghastly knights in tow. Kondo meekly waved from the village entrance. She never interacted with Kondo, so there was no animosity between them. Of course, there was no friendship either.
After watching Ren enter the village, the Demon Lord shot his gaze at Weeb. “Good to see you, Hero. I have been long awaiting your arrival...”
“Apparently, you even have control over your appearance,” Weeb said. He had encountered the Demon Lord in various situations in the past. Upon their first encounter, the Demon Lord had been invisible—utterly without form. Then he had been middle-aged—the miraculous embodiment of violence and wisdom. Now, he had taken the form of the fearsome Fallen Angel, wings and all.
Even the Trinary looked pale, and the refugees were slack-jawed. They had only expected to find King, the hero who had vanquished Jack, at the end of their journey...not a mythical calamity.
“I-Is that King...?”
“You idiot! That’s the Fallen Angel!”
“W-Wait a minute! King is an angel?!”
“Isn’t he so much younger than he was?”
“But his eyes and hair are still black. Ren even called him Master...”
“What is it? What are you saying, boy?”
“My brain hurts...”