……And the one who gave them such opportunity was “him”…… It’s something that was achievable with the terrorists and the rotten nobles since this country is shunned from the outside world.”
……A family feud that happened in the country that doesn’t have any contact with the other forces huh. And the terrorists got involved with them. And us that got dragged into it. Hmm, this is just filled with troubles! I ask Rias while walking through the corridor. “Where is the actual Head, the King of Tepes?”
I’m concerned to what happened to Marius’s father. “…….He was fatally wounded and escaped from this territory.”
So he was wounded. It seems like there was quite a battle here. As long as that guy has that insanely dangerous Evil Dragon as his bodyguard, I can understand if the other side was helpless. I don’t know how strong the King of Tepes is, but they have no choice but to run if they had that thing as their opponent. “Didn’t the King of Tepes’s side ask for any help besides the Carmilla’s faction?”
I ask just in case. Sensei breathes out as if he is grieving. “Yeah, they probably haven’t. Since the Khaos Brigade was involved in the shadows, the other forces will strongly negotiate to allow themselves to come in to this country and that is something they don’t want right now. We were allowed to enter as an exception though.”
So they won’t ask for help from those besides the Vampires even if their country is at the risk of being in danger huh. I can only think that they are crazy if we come this far, but they may have their own kind of values…… So I don’t quite get them. I then ask Azazel-sensei the question that bothered me in that audience room. The thing about Valerie talking to the space where there was no one present. “……Who was she talking to?”
Sensei says it while putting on serious eyes. “……The dead from that world.”
The dead……huh. “You mean……the souls of humans that went to hell, the realm of the dead, or the Underworld?”
The things I can only imagine are the souls of the dead…… Something like angry spirits and cursed spirits. Sensei continues. “If there are souls of humans, there are also souls of other beings……she was talking to beings whose origins you can’t tell nor what kind of state they were in.”
“I-I don’t get it……”
“Just think that she was talking to something you can’t really understand. …… Her mind has been contaminated quite a lot for overusing the Holy Grail,”
Her mind has been contaminated huh. I think I can understand that. ……She didn’t seem normal just from her look. Rias nods at Sensei’s words. “Yes, I realised that right away. –How Valerie Tepes’s heart and emotions weren’t normal.”
Yeah, I also think she was in the state as Rias described. Her eyes were shallow and her expression wasn’t natural. “……What happened to Valerie……”
Gasper looks gloomy. The one who is the most shocked among us is him. He has been putting on a face as if he is about to cry ever since he saw Valerie’s face. If it’s him from a bit before, then it won’t be weird for him to burst into tears in this situation. Sensei then says. “—It’s the Holy Grail. By being in contact with the principle of life, she is forcefully told about how the life and soul are made and what it really is, the more she uses the Sacred Gear. The information about life is so huge that we think it is endless. She takes in the mind and the concept of the dead, the living, and various other things as she uses the Holy Grail. Within her heart and soul that is. ……Many thoughts of other people come into her heart where corrosion occurs. ……It’s natural for her to become broken.”
……Thoughts of many individual coming into your soul…… My mind was about to go nuts when I was consumed with the rage of previous Sekiryuuteis. It felt as though I would be controlled by the negative emotion. Valerie—has been forced to get in contact with something much more powerful than that many times. In my case it was merely the fragments of the past Sekiryuuteis thoughts, but in her case it was things much beyond what I went through and had those things come into her heart. “Then she is……”
Sensei breathes out at Rossweisse-san’s words. “She is no longer in a normal state. Having the dead talk to her is only one of the traits. Talking to them while enjoying it proves that the contamination of her mind has already reached a critical stage. Marius must have Valerie use the Holy Grail quite a lot. ……To the stage where she can revive the dead Evil Dragons to this world. There is a multitude of different ways of using it where it can be very serious and you can even abuse the power by using it.”
……In a critical stage huh. She did resurrect the brutal Evil Dragon Grendel and that Crom Cruach from before. I won’t even be able to imagine the environment she was in for being forced to resurrect Dragons of that calibre. So it won’t be weird if her mind collapsed by the end of all of it. No, Gasper still came this far in order to save her. So we want to find a way to save her. “Sensei, is there any way of saving her?”
I ask. Sensei puts his hand under his chin and starts to think. “……First, we need to stop her using the Holy Grail itself and—”
Sensei stops saying it till there. That’s because he sensed the person walking from ahead of us. ……A middle-aged man with silver hair appears from the end of the corridor. He seems to be in his 40’s. —! ……I, no, we lost words from our mouth when we witness the clothing that man is wearing. —That’s because he’s wearing the same Maou’s costume worn by Sirzechs-sama. Except, the one this man is wearing doesn’t have a distinct crimson colour and instead it has a silver colour…… And his appearance resembles someone I know for some reason……
I can tell that he’s a Devil from the quality of the aura around his body. ……He possesses a bottomless and creepy type of aura……
Sensei—opens both his eyes wide and confronts the man with an expression filled with hatred. As soon as the man sees us, he puts on an innocent smile used by people younger than his appearance. “Oh? Oh my, what a coincidence.”
The man speaks to Sensei in a lighter manner than I imagined. Sensei says as if spitting out the rage he has inside him. “…………It is you after all……!”
The man accepts that response very happily. “Nhoho! It’s been a while♪ Uncle Azazel, looks like you are doing fine, hmm?”
……He appears older than Azazel-sensei……but he can change his appearance if he’s a Devil. “……Azazel, who is he?”
It seems like Rias also doesn’t know him, so she’s asking Sensei. “……Rizevim. Even if you are young, I’m sure you have heard this name from your parents. It’s a man who you should know if you are a Gremory.”
Hearing that name, Rias’s expression stiffens. “—!! …………You must be joking……right?”
Rias who seems to be so shocked that her voice is shivering. ……What the, what’s up with this Rizevim thing? Since others besides Sensei and Rias can’t recall that name, we are all in doubt. Sensei introduces that man to us. “……I won’t forget this bastard’s name.