"Whew, whew, good wine~" Setting down the wine saucer in her hand, Esdeath praised it. "It's been hard to find any free time lately..."
"Isn't that exactly what you wanted?"
"Yes... thanks to you, the entire continent is now ablaze with the flames of war, and a new round of competition has begun. The Empire wants to use this chance to rise again as well." Esdeath chuckled, utterly unconcerned that others were sitting here. They were not from her world anyway; even if they knew, it would mean nothing. "What do you think?"
"No thoughts at all. I've already done everything I needed to do," Jiu Ming answered calmly. "A chaotic situation is still better than an ending where everything is destroyed, isn't it?"
Jiu Ming absolutely did not believe that, if he had left the affairs of Esdeath's world alone, Ninth Sister would have obediently recovered the Twisted Aberrations there. Slowing the pace of development was one thing, but that did not mean she would show mercy to worlds that had been affected.
In any case, Jiu Ming believed he had already done what he should. What remained was the competition among the humans of that world, and he had no intention of interfering further. "As for anything else—even if your world achieves peace, I hope you don't end up with too few people."
"Who knows about something like that?" As Esdeath spoke, she rather forcefully tore off Bols's mask. "You, your face is perfectly ordinary. Why are you so fond of wearing a mask?"
The cloth mask turned into scraps in her hand with effortless ease, completely losing any possibility of being used again.
"Oh! I thought you had to wear a mask because your face was disfigured, but it's nothing like that at all!" With his mouth