Mission:034 Trust

"Well... I wonder what business you all have with my daughter?"

The Baron's attitude made it clear he did not want Beatrice to attend this welcome party. Nero had a faint, ominous feeling, as if bringing up Beatrice here was not a good thing. So she took the initiative and picked up the thread. "It is nothing important, merely something mentioned in passing. If your daughter cannot conveniently come, then there is no need to go to the trouble."

After that, she gave Ritsuka a look, though she had no idea whether the other girl understood.

And as the guest of honor at the welcome party, Giorgios seemed none too fond of this somewhat affected lord either, and immediately prepared to leave. "Thank you for your warmth, my lord. We should take our leave."

"Ah, please wait, all of you."

The lord immediately stopped them, then warmly invited them to stay temporarily in the Lord's Mansion.

In order to protect the lord more conveniently from being harmed by the Demon Pillar, and also to make it easier to approach Beatrice, the group briefly exchanged opinions before ultimately deciding to accept the lord's invitation.

On the first day after moving in, however, no one rushed to make contact with Beatrice. Instead, they once again discussed the current situation.

"Phew—good thing the primary objective counts as done?" Ritsuka stretched in the room and said, "We'll just have to be a bit more careful when we leave town later."

Nero nodded in agreement. "The next time Ritsuka leaves town, either Giorgios or I should accompany her. This demon is truly unreliable."

Mephisto clasped his hands behind his head and laughed shamelessly. "Hearing that truly wounds me. I, the demon, was the very first one to protect Master, and I have rendered outstanding service, you know?"

"You say that, but next time you still won't give it your all, will you?"

At once, Giorgios's sharp gaze shot toward the demon. "You deliberately let Master fall into danger, didn't you?"

Ritsuka looked at Mephisto in surprise. "Huh?! Is that true?"

Mephisto gave a helpless smile and shook his head. "You make it sound as though I knew there was danger on the road. That is slander, saint. You have violated the commandment against 'false witness.'"

Giorgios stared coldly at him for a while, then looked away. "You refuse to admit it? Very well."

"In any case, it is impossible for you to let Master die."

Nero increasingly felt that Giorgios had already seen something in the demon.

Ritsuka was probably the same. She looked back at Mephisto standing behind her and said, "I also think it's time for Demon Darling to say something honest."

"Master." Mephisto smiled. "A demon's honest words are to deceive you sincerely. Do you truly wish to hear them?"

"Say it," Nero cut in. "If you do not, I will shout your true name right here."

Under this naked threat, Mephisto yielded. "All right, all right. Then allow me to swear upon my own true name—"

"Within this Singularity, every action I take is for Master's sake and comes from goodwill toward you, Master. How is that?"

"That feels like it proves nothing at all," Ritsuka retorted.

For Master's sake—he had not said whether he hoped she would fare well or badly. Out of goodwill toward Master—but whether that goodwill was so Ritsuka could successfully complete the contract, or so he could take her soul into his possession, no one knew.

"I knew nothing good could come out of a demon's mouth," Nero chimed in, then changed the subject, no longer dwelling on this untrustworthy demon. "What do you think of the lord?"

"He counts as a good person, maybe?" Ritsuka thought for a moment, then answered, "He's very kind to the townspeople, and he seems pretty approachable too."

But Giorgios gave a different answer. "A False Believer. As a person, he counts as ordinary, but as a lord, he is repellent."

"You think so too?" Nero raised a hand to her temple and sighed. "I once pretended to be a believer myself, so I am all too familiar with that kind of performance."

This could count as a sort of repulsion between like types. Nero could see that the lord did not actually believe in God. That devout attitude of his was merely to win praise from the townspeople. Those tiny traces of dissonance seeped from his overly enthusiastic attitude toward Giorgios, making Nero feel as uncomfortable as if she had seen a bug in her food.

"No, you are different from him."

Giorgios suddenly said that, leaving Nero somewhat puzzled. She looked at the saint, only to see Giorgios lower her head and say, "I must also apologize to you. Yesterday, merely because you bore a power similar to a demon's, I called you Evil Demon. That was truly inappropriate."

"That is fine. I was not particularly bothered by it..." Nero waved a hand awkwardly. "There was a demon right beside me at the time, so it can only be blamed on him."

Ignoring Mephisto's protests, Nero then asked, "But what did you mean when you said I am different from him?"

"He does not merely disbelieve in God," Giorgios answered. "He also does not believe in people, in love, in goodness... That is what makes him terrible as a lord."

"But you are different. I know that within your heart, there are things you believe in."

Ritsuka clearly could not quite keep up with this topic, and the expression on her face had already betrayed that she was hardly listening. Instead, Mephisto, who was a demon, laughed and said, "How very high and mighty! This is precisely why I like humans."

That out-of-nowhere statement carried a great deal of ambiguity. Who exactly did "high and mighty" refer to? Did he truly like humans, or was he looking for an excuse to hate gods and saints?

Nero looked at the demon, and in a sudden moment of clarity, she finally realized that there was more than one riddler in this Singularity.

She even abruptly felt that it might not be impossible for Mephisto to be the mastermind behind the scenes.

"There is no need to keep probing, demon."

Giorgios finally responded to Mephisto. "I have already come to know your essence."

Know his essence? Did that mean she had guessed Mephisto's true name?

Nero and Ritsuka both looked toward Giorgios, while Mephisto, on the other hand, smiled with an indifferent expression.

"Truly? O saint."

The saint defined him thus: "You are not sin. You are trial. Therefore, you cannot triumph over me."

She did not continue, but Mephisto did indeed put away his smile, his expression turning somewhat grave.

However, there was bad news here: the riddlers were showing signs of spreading from Heroic Spirit to Heroic Spirit, and were constantly multiplying.

Feeling a bit of a headache coming on, Nero spoke again and dragged the topic away. "Enough. Let us discuss proper business."

"With all these unexpected events today, leaving town to search for other Heroic Spirits is no longer possible. Then should we still make contact with Beatrice?"

Ritsuka did not speak immediately, so Nero continued, "I think that if the Demon Pillar intends to make use of Beatrice's thoughts somehow, its focus is instead on the lord."