VIP Chapter 459: The “Secret” of the Demon City (3k6)
Lucifer animatedly recounted what she had heard from the palace staff, ticking off Treya’s “crimes” on her fingers.
“So, she not only spoke to ‘me’ during meetings…”
“She could even hold ‘my’ hand and pull me into the room…”
“She’s always fantasizing about ‘me’ still existing, as if I would still give her political advice…”
Will retold it blandly, a slight smile playing on his lips as he spoke.
Indeed, in this era where transportation and information were not convenient.
Certain information about the Royal Family could only be heard from places very close to the Royal Family.
Further away, even within the territory of the Adventurer’s Guild, rumors with “authenticity” could not be heard at all.
“Hmm… but what’s shocking is that the ‘me’ by her side, from the sound of it, had quite a good temper – still the image of a good teacher?”
“That’s much more deranged than I was back then.”
Liya listened, a look of disdain on her face.
She was now thinking about what kind of people Will had recruited when they were once a team.
“I second that, I second that.”
Iaar also raised her hand.
“This is truly too interesting!”
Facing the agreement from the other two, Will appeared very enthusiastic, even clapping his hands in delight.
“Do you have some kind of perversion where you like to see others desperately wishing you were alive because of your death?”
Liya crossed her arms, utterly speechless at Will’s reaction.
“Hmph, consider it a little bit of my revenge. And… the fact that each of your reactions is completely different is also an interesting thing.”
“I think I’m quite normal!”
Iaar proudly puffed out her chest.
“Iaar, do you have the right to say that? Who was it that went around searching for the Fire Dragon commission in the dungeon like a madwoman!”
“But, but I… I just wanted to kill all the little fire dragons, it’s not that serious!”
She said, looking at Iaar, who was sitting in the distance, engrossed in her book.
“Moreover, I’ve let one go here now!”
“Correction. My current form is merely a borrowed anthropomorphic form of the Fire Dragon. Strictly speaking, my race is still human, and until I create a Fire Dragon to pilot, I cannot be considered a Fire Dragon.”
“Huh? Senior Iaar, you were listening? And you even replied seriously…”
Will hadn’t expected Iaar, who was focused on her book, to reply, but to his surprise, Iaar launched into a series of very rigorous arguments based on her race.
It seemed she didn’t reject the term “little fire dragon” but rather the definition of her race.
This must be the quality of a top-tier researcher.
“Hmm, even though you’re all having a good time, I haven’t finished what I was saying. Listen carefully! What I just said was merely rumors from the palace, what comes next is my own firsthand exclusive news!”
Lucifer popped her head out from among the group, waving her hands vigorously to emphasize her presence.
“Oh? So, what else is there?”
“This. Speaking of which, the Empress of the Zero Demon City is, in a sense, a… senior to me, who is of the Tenth Demon City?”
“Of course. Otherwise, I wouldn’t have let you have Iaar interpret all the books about Demon Cities here. Because there must be some commonality between you.”
Liya nodded.
“More than just commonality…” Iaar said, turning another page, “Dungeons like Demon City are strange. Perhaps it’s due to its spiritual nature? It appears to be a sub-city completely replicated from the Zero Demon City as the mother source. It’s rare for ten dungeons to have a connection.”
“…”
“This page, and this page. The Demon Cities share a set of monsters that cannot be obtained elsewhere. And the sub-cities cannot be used until the mother city is excavated. By analogy, it’s like multiple derivations on the elemental quadrant of a foundational magic…”
Iaar finished this statement alone, staring at a line in the book and pointing with her finger.
Then…
She realized that after she finished speaking, an silence descended upon the environment.
Even the tail of Iaar, who had been making noise here, stopped wagging.
“…”
“D-dear, do you… do you understand?”
Iaar nudged Will’s arm and whispered into his ear.
“I am very sorry. Even as I am now… I completely don’t understand!”
“I, I don’t understand! Speak human language! Grandmaster!”
Lucifer scratched her head. She now felt that perhaps this set of books had become even more difficult to understand after she had read it once.
“I told you not to call me Grandmaster.” Iaar rapped the thick, still-open book on Lucifer’s head, glaring at Will regarding the title. “Don’t mind me for now. Let me finish reading the materials here. There are many… secrets that perhaps even the Empress of the Zero Demon City doesn’t know.”
“Then I… will continue. The reason might be the same as Senior Iaar… ah, Senior Iaar said. In the Tenth Demon City, one can occasionally observe… dreamscapes created by the power of demons.”
Lucifer tapped in the air.
On the table in front of her, several black, slightly purple, bubble-like spheres slowly emerged from the tabletop.
Then, the surfaces of these bubbles began to crystallize, reflecting a hint of colorful light.
Thus, Will saw something like a holographic projection, something he would only have seen in his previous life, presented on the tabletop as dense crystal balls.
“Wow—”
“You demons are hiding such good stuff?”
Iaar and Liya were amazed, especially Iaar, who curiously poked one with her finger.
However, these crystal balls were not tangible; they would shatter like soap bubbles with a slight touch.
“…As expected, this is related to demons? No wonder I’ve seen it before.”
Looking at the crystal balls placed on the table, Will spoke.
“Huh? You’ve seen it?”
Lucifer, who had previously felt her crystal balls were quite special, froze mid-motion, her finger stopping in the air.
“This is also why I came here. On my journey, I cleared the Ninth Demon City, which is also a spiritual Demon City. During combat, I saw something similar for an instant.”
Will recalled the dungeons he had cleared in the past three months.
To upgrade Treya’s equipment, just as he had taken some things from the Tenth Demon City before…
He also had to obtain “loot” from other Demon Cities. Thus, for the past three months, he had visited the Ninth Demon City – unlike the Tenth Demon City, it was not isolated by the Adventurer’s Guild.
Combat in Demon Cities had always been a battle filled with illusory memories and mental attacks, one that you wouldn’t want to repeat after the first attempt.
It was precisely…
In the brief moments between fighting countless memories, Will had glimpsed that thing…
“Lucifer, you explain the rest.”
“Theoretically, this is something from the inner workings of demon magic, and outsiders like you shouldn’t have seen it. You didn’t see it last time when you asked to fight me either…”
Lucifer said, looking at Will’s other eye, and suddenly realized something—
“You… you wouldn’t happen to know because of… that eye, would you?”
Lucifer gazed at Will’s left eye, that purple eye identical to their demon eyes, emitting a strange aura.
The first time Lucifer fought him, Will had not yet obtained that eye.
“You probably realized it at first glance, the power of this eye and your power are of the same origin.”
Will paused, staring at the crystal balls on the table, born from Lucifer’s power.
“In those few dungeons, whenever I used this power, I would see scenes like the one you are unfolding. Unfortunately, my control is not complete. I can neither see the contents nor enter them.”
“Demon magic constructs illusions with memories to create convincing dreamscapes,” Lucifer continued to explain. “Therefore, dreamscapes within crystal balls like these are the basis of the illusions we construct for you and the ‘challenges’ we give you.”
For the first time, Will understood why, when he was imprisoned by Treya in the Royal Palace, he had experienced a long “illusion” that felt like a dream.
Treya had altered his memories, shaping what he saw and what he did into what she desired.
Both an “illusion” and a “dreamscape.”
Now, perhaps she was using this same method… on herself?
“There is one crystal ball… although I don’t know the specific dreamscape inside, what I do know is…”
Lucifer opened her hand, and a deep purple crystal ball slowly unfolded before her.
Clearly visible within this crystal ball…
Was a scene of the Royal Palace, very familiar to Will. It was the scene of his first grand banquet, the place where he first met Treya, and…
The place where he and Treya became engaged.
“It comes from that Royal Palace. It was created about three days ago… but my authority is insufficient to see the specific contents.”
Lucifer seemed very confident about the item she had produced, her arms crossed, her face beaming with excitement.
“And, it’s not just this…”
Lucifer waved her hand in the air, and several more crystal balls emerged.
These crystal balls were of a very deep purple, and compared to the clearly transparent one from before, they looked frosted, making it impossible to see inside, as if shattered.
“This one should also be from the Zero Demon City. But it has been used and discarded. I once saw scenes of the Royal Palace’s training grounds and its hall inside.”
“Are these also dreamscapes created by Treya?”
Liya noticed that compared to his earlier, more lighthearted attitude upon hearing about Treya, Will had become significantly more composed.
His questions were more focused on the core of the matter itself, even stepping outside his own perspective.
She knew this look well; it only appeared when he was seriously thinking – probably like when he couldn’t solve a problem on an exam.
“Have you thought of a way to win Treya over?”
“You know me, I wouldn’t come unprepared, would I?”
Will leaned back in his chair, a more confident smile appearing.
But as he looked back at the crystal ball, the smile faded.
“It’s just that, I’m afraid Treya is not facing a problem of ‘winning her over’ right now, but rather being targeted by Carver.”
“Besides her, who else is so familiar with the Royal Palace? Of course, it’s what she created,” Lucifer said. “And, actually, this crystal ball’s dreamscape has also been used. What remains are mere afterimages, and it might shatter soon.”
Although it was floating in the air, Lucifer carefully “cradled” it and brought it before Will.
“Perhaps in the next second, it will become like the other extinguished crystal balls.”
“…”
Will stared at this crystal ball.
Then, he gently covered his right eye, allowing his left eye to focus more intently on the inside of the crystal ball.
He sighed deeply.
“Alright. I’m sure now. This is… Treya’s dreamscape. It might be the remnant of her dream from yesterday.”
“Hmm? Don’t tell me you…”
“Yes. Although you cannot see the content, now that you’ve placed it in front of me, I can see it…”
His purple eye glowed faintly, a brilliance that not even Will could fully control.
As his left eye utilized this power, it slowly began to close.
He struggled to keep his eye open, but in the blink of an eye, the scene of the glittering banquet, the brightly lit hall, the unforgettable first meeting… flickered.
“I can see the image of the dream she wove for herself, the one she didn’t want to wake from—”
He did not finish the latter half of his sentence, and as his eyes closed, he fell into that dream.
