CH 147

Chapter 147

When Peaceful Times Cease To Exist : The Archfiend Workshop, Part 2 — Fly Into The Fire

Translated by Kaies

Edited by KaiesV

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From then on, Elsa’s training was tremendous. In just one month, she mastered the common language, and in the next six months, she studied without sleep and completed three years of general education for the Sisters. She went on to major in Sisterhood, where she learned more practical skills, and achieved excellent results in defeating several demons.

Two years after joining, she was asked to take on a parish as an assistant priest, but she refused. Elsa volunteered to go on a pilgrimage assignment. Four years after she began her pilgrimage. Elsa was promoted to priest in recognition of her achievements and was offered the position of assistant archbishop of Manadil in the headquarters church, but she turned that down as well and continued her pilgrimage. She thought that if she were to become someone’s subordinate, she could think of no one else but Anorn.

After being appointed as Master Bishop Miliazar’s direct subordinate, she confided her feelings to the Master Bishop, and at the same time, Master Bishop told her little by little about Anorn’s situation. By now, Anorn—— or rather, Elsa knows most of Miranda’s affairs.

But as Elsa learned more about the situation, her respect for Miranda only grew. She became more and more committed to her pilgrimage mission. And now that they were reunited, she was inwardly excited. She felt that she had finally reached a realm where she could be of use to Miranda.

「（I’m finally here—— it’s been a long time, but it’s been a short time. I want to succeed in this mission and I want to be more useful to her.）」

As Elsa is caught in this thought, there is a flicker of light in her eyes. The glare makes her cover her eyes with her hands involuntarily, but she realizes that it’s a signal from the『dog.』

「There it is. Let’s go, Eliza.」

「Yes, Elsa-sama.」

They walked toward the signal together.

＊＊＊

Meanwhile, here they are in the workshop, unaware of such circumstances. As Anomaly continues his work, he suddenly sensed a presence that has shifted into the workshop.

「Is this presence from Lifeless?」

「…Anomaly… you’re here…」

Lifeless comes into the room without even saying hello. He seems to be in a great hurry. His tone of voice is somewhat rough.

「What’s the matter, you’re in a hurry. That’s not like you.」

「Enough preamble… you have the Archfiends I made you take care with… are they here?」

「Not all of them, but at least five of them. What’s the matter, you’re done with your mission in Mutrio, aren’t you?」

「…I still have work to do… Don’t give me your shit, just give them to me…」

Lifeless suddenly became very angry, and even Anomaly knew that this was no ordinary situation. As the one who manages the Archfiends, he couldn’t carelessly lend him out, but if he objected badly at this point, Lifeless would’ve gone berserk. Anomaly sensed this and tried to find a compromise.

「What if I don’t lend it to you?」

「…I’ll borrow it by force…」

「…Alright. I don’t want to fight you. I don’t fight unless I’m sure I can win.」

Anomaly poses in surrender.

「But instead of lending it to you, tell me one thing. What is it? I can’t lend them to you if you’re not telling me why.」

「…I’ll kill Alfiris…」

「That’s not an order from Master, is it?」

「…Ahh, that’s right…」

Lifeless thought he knew it was a bad idea and tried to assume a war stance, but Anomaly was quick to strike a pose of surrender again.

「I told you I don’t fight battles I can’t win! You can take the Archfiends with you, here, in room 14.」

Anomaly releases a key from his pocket with a plop. Lifeless receives the key in mid-air and looks suspiciously in Anomaly’s direction.

「…You’re so naive… what are you planning to do…」

「I hate it～ I’m not up to anything! I have no taste for being beaten by boys. I prefer to be beaten by a girl.」

「…How much ability do you have behind that lighthearted talk…? …I’ve been alive for so long… and to be honest, I know most of my current associates and their backgrounds… but… You have so much power and brains, but I have never seen or heard of you… Who are you…?」

Anomaly chuckles at Lifeless’ question. However, seeing his attitude, Lifeless turns around and leaves the room, perhaps thinking that he will be ignored no matter what he asks. Then, just as he was about to leave the room, he stopped dead in his tracks.

「…Speaking of which…」

「What is it?」

「…While I was sleeping, the entire Ravenworth clan was murdered… what do you know?」

「Ah—, that clan. I killed them all. What’s wrong?」

At these words, Lifeless’ eyes widened. He wondered what crazy person had done this, but the culprit was nearby.

「…You… how much would that cost…」

「Eh, it’s fine. Because those guys hide most of their secret arts and medicines and want to have them all to themselves. I went to negotiate with them first, you know? But no matter how much money I put on them, no matter how much I threaten them, they never talk. Then you get frustrated and start to torture them, don’t you?」

「…」

「I wasn’t as good at torture as I am now, and the secret art was only taught to the head of the family. I had no choice but to raid their hideout and try to kidnap someone from the chief’s family…but they were stronger than I thought. Before I knew it, I had wiped them out, aha♪」

Anomaly, which was as light as mistakenly adding sweet and salt to a dish, was an outrageous thing to do. This was a great surprise to Lifeless.

He was also annoyed at Anomaly’s stupidity in not thinking about the loss of the Ravenworth clan to humanity as a whole, but what stopped Lifeless from killing Anomaly was the fact that Anomaly had wiped out the entire Ravenworth clan.

「（…That family was so skilled… and they’re all wiped out…? …Even I’m a member of a family that is resistant to being subjugated by force… I thought this guy’s brains, but not his abilities, were not so great, but he has something to hide…）」

Lifeless turns his murderous gaze on Anomaly, but he can’t afford to care about Anomaly now that he is worn out. Lifeless leaves Anomaly’s room. And when Lifeless was gone, Titania, carrying Doom, and Bloody Maria came in to replace him.

「Wasn’t that Lifeless? He seemed to be in something of a hurry.」

「Yeah, that’s the thing… wait, what’s up with Doom?」

Doom was completely knackered. There was no reaction at all when he poked him. Titania looks apologetic.

「He’d been ripped to pieces a little too many times…」

「Scary! You’re not talking about a little bit, are you, that! How many times have you done that?」

「17, no, about 100 times 20 divisions.」

「H–Hiiieeeee…」

Anomaly screams at the unintentional sight of Doom. But the words that come out of his mouth are not fear…

「Why won’t you do it for me!」

「E–Ehh?」

「Shit—!!! Doom, I envy you too much, man!」

Anomaly begins to stretch the side of the sleeping Doom with a back-and-forth slap. Titania is horrified by this unexpected turn of events. Bloody Maria is dismayed beside her.

「Hey, I don’t care what your proclivities are, you should care about me too!」

「Oh, by the way, did you transfer the Archfiends?」

「Of course! My motto is『Quick, Polite, and Beautiful!』Please take care of that. Exactly 100. I left them out on the prairie.」

「Okay, thanks.」

The magic power to release 100 of them all at once in a metastasis on the prairie. They accepted this fact quite easily, but it required a tremendous amount of magical power. Even if not Tetrastin or Miliazar, anyone who deals with magic, even a little, would sit up and take notice of that fact.

「Now we wait for the results. How long will the Archfiends survive and what kind of evolution will take place…」

「So now all the Archfiends here have been released?」

「Yes, I guess all that’s left are the failures. And the Archfiends that Lifeless has entrusted to me, I just gave him back to him.」

「Huh? What is Lifeless trying to do?」

Bloody Maria, who was about to plop down on her desk due to fatigue, looks up involuntarily.

「He said he’s going to kill Alfiris.」

「Isn’t that a violation of the order? Why you didn’t stop him?」

「I’m not into being hit on by men. Besides, I figured the quickest way to stop him would be to ask one of you two to do it.」

Anomaly confesses that he is a “stranger” to the world. Bloody Maria and Titania look at each other when they hear this.

「Pass. I’m tired, so Titania can finally do it.」

「Hah, that’s fine, but. Worst case scenario, can I slay Lifeless?」

Onee turns a sincere question to Anomaly.

「No, I don’t want that… but it’s the worst option, but if you wanted to kill him, could you? I mean, he’s that monstrously strong.」

「Yes, that’s no problem.」

Titania’s immediate response sent a shiver down Anomaly’s spine.

「（She’s serious… but Titania doesn’t joke about it and I’m sure she sincerely believes that. We have talked about who is the strongest among us, and it makes sense that everyone says Titania or Bloody Maria. Even if I play my trump card… or maybe they won’t even give me time to use it.）」

「? Is there something wrong, Anomaly?」

When Titania calls out to him, Anomaly suddenly comes back to himself.

「O–Ohh. It’s nothing.」

「I hope so, but… have you been sleeping properly lately? You don’t look so good.」

「…This is my original.」

Anomaly sighed at Titania’s words, which were not malicious, and that’s why he don’t like serious people. Then he thinks about the arrangements after this.

「Then I’ll transfer to Master’s place… and when Silence gets here, Titania will go with him… and Doom, Bradimaria, and Dragreo will stay here…」

「But now we have 6 of us here out of the 11 of us. How unusual.」

「That’s true… nhn, this is?」

「How did you like it, Anomaly?」

Did she sense something? Titania also becomes serious as she looks up at the ceiling and sees Anomaly changing appearance.

「Intruders.」

「I see. It’s noisy today, here, too. So how will you handle the intruders?」

「Of course I will kill them. Or, depending on the situation, capture them and use them as experimental material.」

「The intruder is also unlucky. They didn’t have to come today when we were all here.」

「Poor thing… they’re not going to die properly, do they?」

Titania looked heartily pitying, and Bloody Maria chuckled. In addition, Anomaly looked somewhat amused. They wonder if they are thinking of having some fun after they catch them. The room was filled with laughter from the wicked ones and an unusual atmosphere.