Eugene and Kristina were sitting in a drawing room within the Alcarte Cathedral, waiting for the vicar to arrive. Had they been waiting for ten minutes already?
Knock-knock.
They heard a quiet knocking sound.
Kristina got up and opened the door. Eugene decided to also get up from his seat for the moment.
The vicar, Eileen Flora, entered the drawing room. As Eugene had been told, she was wearing a pure white robe, which was a robe usually worn by the priests of the Light, and she also had the pure-white mask covering up her face that was mentioned in her description.
With a slight smile, Kristina bowed her head to Eileeen.
“It has been quite a while, Bishop Eileen,” Kristina said in greeting.
“Have you been well, Saint Kristina?” Eileen said in return.
Having exchanged casual greetings, they sat down, with Eileen facing Eugene.
Eugene titled his head curiously as he stared at the pure white mask beneath her hood. Black lenses had been inserted into the eye sockets of the mask that Eileen was wearing, so not only her visage, but even her eyes were covered.
‘Ahah,’ Eugene thought as he realized something.
He had been wondering why she was so obsessed with covering herself up. As he figured out Eileen’s true identity, Eugene smirked.
Eileen watched silently as he went through this thought process. She then bowed and said, “It is an honor to meet the master of the Holy Sword, Sir Eugene Lionheart. I am Eileen Flora, the vicar of Alcarte.”
“Nice to meet you,” said Eugene politely as he also returned the bow in acceptance of her greetings. Then, immediately after they were done exchanging greetings, Eugene asked, “Are you a vampire?”
Eugene was well aware that this was a rude question, but he felt that there was a need to confirm his suspicions.
“Yes,” Eileen admitted without any attempt to conceal her identity.
Even after revealing her true nature, however, she still didn’t take off her mask. Eugene also didn’t feel the need to go so far as to force her to do so.
She wore long robes with the hood completely covering her head, and she had a mask that covered her face and even her eyes. Eugene didn’t know if half-vampires had the same problem, but the sun had long been the natural enemy of all vampires. Clearly, Eileen’s costume was designed to protect her body from the sunlight.
‘Perhaps it might also be to hide her “charm,”’ Eugene guessed.
Vampires sucked out blood by sticking their fangs into their prey’s neck. They had thus evolved over the years to make such a hunting style more convenient and effective. While it was not quite as strong as a Demoneye, being able to seduce and charm an opponent by using their eyes was one of the basic abilities of all vampires.
‘Or perhaps it’s simply just to cover up her pale complexion. Or else… it might be something like scars or a burn,’ Eugene silently pondered.
For a half-vampire to have become a bishop, there had to be a really bleak life story behind it, but Eugene didn’t really care to find out more about that.
Eugene coughed. “Ahem…. So I heard that we need something called a visa if we want to enter Helmuth? And that we need to get them issued….”
“Yes, that’s right,” Eileen confirmed.
Eugene continued awkwardly, “I’ve also heard that you’ll be able to help us obtain the visas, Vicar Eileen….”
“To be more precise, I can arrange a meeting with the head of the Alcarte Immigration Office for you,” Eileen clarified.
“So that’s how it is,” Eugene nodded. “The guy who’s the head of the immigration office… is he a human?”
Eileen shook her head. “He is one of the demonfolk.”
“...So we need to meet with that demonfolk, have some kind of conversation, and we’ll be able to get our visas issued?” Eugene asked warily.
“That’s right.” Eileen nodded. “I am just the Bishop of Alcarte, so I do not possess the authority to issue visas.”
Her response to his question had Eugene’s face twisting into a scowl. Although he hadn’t quite managed to fully grasp the concept of a visa yet, he had figured that it would be something similar to an entry pass. He had also thought that they would be able to pass through the gates of Alcarte right away after Eileen gave them their two passes right here and now.
But why had she arranged for them to meet with the demonfolk who was working as the head of the immigration office? Did that mean she intended for them to greet each other, have a chat, then make a personal request that the demonfolk issue him and Kristina visas just because they needed visas?
…Well, if it needed to be done, then he would do it. Obviously, though, Eugene felt uncomfortable, as if something was weighing down his chest.
“When will they be able to issue the visas?” Eugene asked.
After he had finished saying these words, Eugene’s expression changed. The sharp hostility that he released flickered through the air in the drawing room. He immediately attempted to get up from his seat, but Kristina, who was sitting beside him, quickly grabbed onto Eugene by the sleeve.
“...Phew,” a voice came from inside a wall.
A man dressed in a neat suit stuck his head through said wall.
Well, the word ‘man’ only fit him in a very loose sense — he didn’t have the appearance of a normal human. He was a demonfolk with four eyes, four arms, and a sharp, blade-like tail.
“As expected of a Lionheart… no, should that be “as expected of a hero”? To think that the hostility you mustered up in an instant would be so sharp,” the demonfolk said with a shudder as he finished phasing through the wall.
Each of his four eyes was looking in a different direction. One was focused on Eileen, another was fixed on Eugene’s face, one rested on Kristina’s face, and the last was aimed at Eugene’s hand, which had reached into his cloak for a weapon.
“My apologies for the sudden intrusion. My name is Drunbos Freed. As a viscount of Helmuth, I am in charge of the Immigration Office at the gates of Acarte.”
Although he sported a bizarre appearance, the demonfolk bowed his head with an amiable smile and introduced himself politely.
As soon as he heard the name ‘Drunnos Freed,’ Eugene began to search his memory.
He brought up the past from three hundred years ago and all the demonfolk that he had met back then — the ones he hadn’t been able to kill, at least. He thus ran down the list of names of the guys that he had been planning to kill.
But where was Drunnos Freed? His name wasn’t on the list. Including those that Hamel had killed, was there anyone with the last name Freed? No, there weren’t any. That meant this demonfolk hadn’t been significant enough for Hamel to have remembered his name three hundred years ago. Or perhaps he wasn’t even born during that era.
“...What do you want?” Eugene asked cautiously.
“Well now, it’s all because of who you two are that I really wanted to meet personally. That said, inviting you both to visit my mansion or my workplace would cause quite the public commotion, don’t you agree? So I just thought, wouldn’t it be for the best if I came to meet you here, in person?” Drunus said as he raised his head to stare at Eileen. “But I’m afraid that I may have placed the Madame in some trouble. Please understand my position. While I can skip several of the procedures required when issuing visas, the final interview is ultimately something that I need to conduct face-to-face.”
Drunnos chucked and pointed to an empty seat.
“If it’s alright with you, may I take a seat?” Drunns politely requested.
“Alright,” Eugene replied with barely restrained hostility.
From the moment that he had decided to return to the Devildom of Helmuth, Eugene had prepared himself to face many demonfolk in the future, whether he liked it or not. He couldn’t keep having to suppress his desire to run amok and kill them all, while also having to endure an uncomfortable and shitty feeling, every time it happened. That meant he would just have to get used to them. After three hundred years, the world had really changed so much that it felt like it had gone insane. This was a feeling that Eugene had experienced several times before now.
With that thought in mind, after taking a couple of breaths, he calmed down.
“So about the visas. I’ve heard that it takes a special effort to get them issued quickly, so how much will that cost us?” Eugene asked, his head tilting crookedly to the side as his tone grew sharp.
His tone, however, was the only sharp thing that he used. He even pulled out the hand that was reaching inside of his cloak and clasped his fingers together.
‘It feels like he’s turned his hostility into mere irritation. Is that an ancestral… a Lionheart clan trait? Perhaps it’s because they both hold such a hatred for demonfolk that they were recognized by the Holy Sword?’ Drunnos thought to himself as he felt a keen interest in Eugene.
Out loud, however, his words were “I don’t need any money. I just want to have a short conversation with you.”
“Does that mean if I do give you money, we don’t need to talk?” Eugene counter-offered.
Drunnos laughed. “ Ahaha . I’m afraid that I can’t accept that, so it seems like we might as well just talk.”
This interest in Eugene wasn’t a feeling unique to Drunnos. As a whole, the demonfolk held a great interest in Eugene. Not only had Eugene stood up to Gavid Lindman, the great Duke of Helmuth, but he was also the one who had managed the performance of having the Demon King of Incarceration, who almost never left his palace in Babel, go to the lands of the far north.
“Sir Eugene and Lady Kristina, are you two seeking entry into the country in order to assassinate the Demon King of Incarceration?” Drunnos asked bluntly.
This was a very direct question. Kristina’s lips flapped soundlessly in shock, while Eugene’s eyebrows twitched.
Just what kind of answer was this guy expecting? After considering this question for a few moments, Eugene opened his mouth to answer, only for Drunnos to chuckle and wave his hand dismissively..
“Ahem… there’s no need to be so nervous about answering the question. No matter what your response may be, I have no interest in obstructing you, Sir Eugene. Instead, my personal hope is that you truly are here in order to assassinate the Demon King,” Drunnos said with a calm smile.
Unable to understand what Drunnos meant by those words, Eugene blinked in confusion and demanded, “Why?”
“Well, isn’t that what the Demon King of Incarceration himself is hoping for? I hold absolute respect for the desires of the Demon King,” Drunnos professed as he pulled out a large seal from one of his pockets. “It’s also because I am certain that no matter how hard Sir Eugene and the Lady Saint may try, they will not be able to kill our Demon King. Though perhaps… your efforts may end up being recorded in history as the most exciting thing to happen to Helmuth in three hundred years? That’s my opinion at the very least.”
After a slight pause, Drunnos suddenly laughed and added, “Ah, please take out your IDs.”
While staring at Drunnos with a solemn expression, Eugene pulled out his identity card from one of his pockets.
Drunnos continued chattering, “In my opinion, it seems like you haven’t come here to get started on preparing for your assassination already… so are you really here for tourism? Though, now that I think of it, it might be for reconnaissance. Haha, I feel like it would be very funny if you two end up falling for Helmuth’s charm during your reconnaissance and you decide to just settle down in Helmuth—”
Booom!
The table where they had placed down their ID cards suddenly shattered. Sitting across from them, Eileen’s shoulders flinched in surprise. Kristina, in the meantime, didn’t show any reaction. She felt the same sort of annoyance that Eugene did.
Tap. Tap.
“Hey,” Eugene said quietly as he brushed off the fragments of table that had stuck to his ID card. “If I kill you right here and now, and stamp our IDs myself, do you think I’ll be able to pass through Alcarte’s gates?”
Eugene’s hostility had transformed into full-on killing intent. Unsure of how to respond, Drunnos just stared straight into Eugene’s face. For a moment, he tried to gauge the difference in level between him and Eugene.
Then, he rose from his seat in one decisive motion, took a few steps back and bowed his head, “I have shown you great disrespect. My apologies.”
Eugene clicked his tongue and then snapped his fingers. At this gesture, the fragments of the shattered table gathered back together into the form of a crudely made table. Eugene placed his ID back on it and crossed his arms.
The stamps were placed on the backs of their ID cards. The seal was invisible to the naked eye because it had been engraved into the magic of the ID card itself.
“We’re all finished now. I don’t know how long you two plan on staying in Helmuth, but your visas are valid for the next five years,” Drunnos informed them.
They wouldn't need five years. Eugene took his ID and placed it back in his pocket.
“Also, this… this is the mandatory travel guidebook to Helmuth that is provided to everyone who enters the country. Since Helmuth is different from the rest of the continent in many ways, it ought to be helpful to you if you give it a read,” Drunnos suggested with a bow of his head as he handed over a thick booklet. “Well then, please enjoy your trip.”
Drunnos had been interested in Eugene, and had wanted to find out what the man’s intentions were, so he had decided to prod Eugene a little, but the reaction that he had received in return was far more intense than expected. The killing intent had been so thick that it wouldn’t have been strange for his head to have been sent flying at any moment.
‘A killing intent that could cause even a mid-class demonfolk to feel like a worm about to be stepped on…. If this had been an actual battle, it would have felt even stronger,’ Drunnos thought to himself in fear.
Drunnos no longer had any desire to provoke Eugene.
“My apologies.”
As soon as Drunnos left the room, Eileen, who had been shifting restlessly, stood up and repeatedly bowed her head.
“I had no idea that Viscount Drunnos would behave so rudely,” Eileen confessed.
“It’s fine. It’s not like this is the first or even second time that people have tried to aggravate me on their first meeting with me…. Ah, but he’s not even a person, is he, he’s a demonfolk,” Eugene said with a dismissive shrug as he opened up the travel booklet.
…The very first page of the book contained a picture of Babel, the Demon King’s Castle.
Eugene thought to himself, ‘To think that this thin and tall building is Babel, the Demon King of Incarceration’s Castle….’
Although he had heard about this while digging for information on Helmuth, Eugene was still just as dumbfounded no matter how many times he saw it. The Demon King of Incarceration’s Castle that Hamel had died in three hundred years ago still had the appearance befitting of its name as a ‘castle,’ but the current Babel was just a ‘high-rise’[1]. In all of the continent, Helmuth was the only country who made use of the building style known as a high-rise.
The culture there was so different that you couldn’t even think of them as being from the same era. The Demon Kings and demonfolk of Helmuth had single-handedly revolutionized magical engineering over the past three hundred years, and the capital city of Pandemonium was built with state-of-the-art infrastructure that the rest of the continent had no hope of catching up to.
What made this possible was the existence of Babel, which stood tall as the center of Pandemonium, and the being known as the Demon King, who watched over the entire city from the top of the high-rise.
The Demon King of Incarceration wasn’t just an idle presence either. His very existence supplied unlimited demonic power to the entire city, and Babel processed the Demon King’s demonic power to use it as the energy that powered the entire city.
In other words, it was by the grace of His Majesty, the Great Demon King, that the capital city of Pandemonium had become the most developed city with the highest living standards not just in Helmuth, but also throughout the entire continent….
…Or at least that was what was written in the guidebook.
‘The only city that they’ve developed to such a unique extent is Pandemonium… I’ve heard that most of the other high-ranking demonfolk also live in the capital,’ Eugene recalled.
Although the guidebook hadn’t gone so far as to record the names of these aristocrats, Eugene had already investigated them in advance. Duke Gavid Lindman hadn’t accepted a separate fief for himself and just lived in Babel. Besides him, among the demonfolk that Eugene still ‘remembered’, there were quite a few living leisurely lives in Pandemonium.
‘Though there are also a lot of guys who have lost their lives after trying to climb in rank,’ Eugene noted.
Three hundred years had passed and the world had changed a lot. However the reason why Eugene could still feel that the nature of demonfolk, at the very least, hadn’t changed that much was because there was still the existence of a ranking system amongst them.
The ranks amongst demonfolk were decided by title or reputation. A lower order could challenge a higher order, and the higher order was unable to refuse the challenge.
Thus, a battle would commence.
Usually, the loser was killed. Regardless of the difference in ranks between them, the winner took everything that the loser had. The bigger the return, the bigger the risk, of course, so challenges to the ranking didn’t take place all that regularly.
As for the humans in Helmuth, those among them who had sworn an oath to serve as post-mortem laborers were able to live luxurious lives because the contract they had signed placed a high-ranking demon as their sponsor. Naturally, the ranking of humans was decided by which demonfolk they had behind them.
Because rank was so important to the demonfolk, this information was also written in the travel guide.
[There is also a demonfolk matching service provided for all travelers. Are you concerned about getting into a sudden conflict during your trip or getting caught in a fight between delinquents? Have no fear. If you visit the Helmuth Tourist Center that is located in every city and request the use of our matching service, we can arrange for a brief contract with a demonfolk of at least intermediate-level!
*The above contract is guaranteed to be a contract that only charges the standard amount that is agreed upon, and the soul of the contractor is never taken as collateral.*
However, you may encounter situations where the rank of the demonfolk matched with you is not high enough. If any unavoidable situation arises, please present your ID card before any violence takes place or reveal the name of the demonfolk who you are matched with!
“These must be the end times,” Eugene muttered.
He shook his head and turned to the next page.
[Giabella Celebrity Entertainment, the Giabella Construction Company, the Giabella Fashion Group, etc. Led by Duke Noir Giabella, an invincible and beautiful businesswoman who has found success in all of the businesses that she has put her name on for the past three hundred years. It would not be an exaggeration to say that she leads all of Helmuth’s latest trends. Duke Noir….]
Eugene’s face crumpled into a scowl.
[...Boasting three times the scale of Demonic World, transcending all theme parks to become a theme city, GiabellaCity will finally open doors next month….]
Seeing how so many s had been added into it, Noir Giabella’s influence perspired from every word of this guidebook.
[The Demon Kings Tour for Tourists.]
You can go back through the history of Helmuth and experience the era from three hundred years ago. Starting with the Demon King of Carnage’s Castle, we will also tour the ruins of the castles formerly belonging to the Demon King of Cruelty and the Demon King of Fury!]
“ Hah… ” Eugene sighed.
The Demon Kings Tour.
Its very name caused Eugene to feel extremely disturbed.
“The world really has gone insane,” Eugene said as he shook his head and closed the guidebook.
1. The original term uses the English word ‘building.’ In Korea, ‘building’ is used as their term for high-rises. ☜