“Well, based on how these merchants were involved with every step of this, I’m sure this was more than just a convenient business relationship. Clayman was trying to ascend to ‘true’ demon lord level. Farmus was trying to take our land for its own expansionist purposes. And someone, we don’t know who, was engineering it all.”
“Someone, huh? The one Clayman mentioned?”
I nodded at Luminus.
“What do you mean?”
Benimaru and the others already knew about this, but the humans in the room didn’t. Realizing this, I gave them a quick recap.
“Well, it looks like Clayman was doing the bidding of someone else himself.”
“Yes,” Luminus added, “and he refused to divulge this someone’s identity until the very end. Impressive for someone as small-minded as him.”
“Oh…”
“Could this someone be the Seven Days, then?”
The idea came to me suddenly, and when I gave it voice, it felt even more plausible. But Luminus shot me a dirty look.
“What? Are you accusing the Seven Days of taking action unbeknownst to me?”
She might have wiped them off the planet by her own hand, but I guess she didn’t like people second-guessing her staff. That was fair. I was about to apologize when her associate Louis spoke up.
“Hmm… I cannot fully deny that possibility, no.”
“Now you’re spouting that nonsense, Louis?”
Her ire had turned on Louis, though he appeared unbothered.
“Lady Luminus, please, listen to me. The Seven Days Clergy craved your affection. I’m sure you sensed that?”
“How do you mean?”
“I am talking about the Love Energy, the energizing kiss you give in a special ceremony. The last time you did that for them, it was over a hundred years ago. At one point, it was a weekly rite, but the intervals between them grew longer and longer over time. Did you not notice?”
Luminus gave Louis an unpleasant look. “Aha. Yes, my eternal youth tends to make me forget, but they all were human. Without my energy, they may not die, but they would certainly grow old.”
“Exactly. That was why they worked so fervently to ensure no other ‘favorites’ besides them ever appeared.”
As Louis frankly put it, the Seven Days were once a very special presence in Luminus’s life. But as humans, they couldn’t live forever. This Love Energy rite must’ve been how they overcame that.
“…I subsequently imagine that they must have tried to curry favor with you. It wouldn’t be strange at all to imagine them working with the Eastern merchants to secretly entice Clayman into action. They weren’t about to let Clayman get a leg up on them—especially Gren, the Sunday Priest.”
It was just a passing thought, but it kind of surprised me how well these puzzle pieces fit together. Scary stuff. I’m shocked at the sheer well of knowledge flowing out from me.
…
Raphael sounded like it wanted to say something, but I’m sure I was just imagining things. Maybe it was just envious of my genius, or maybe it thought I’d stolen its thunder because I didn’t ask any questions of it.
“Do you think,” an exasperated Hinata asked, “the Seven Days thought I was a thorn in their side because of that?”
“Sounds like it. They probably intended to help Clayman ascend, then have you get killed fighting him. They could never have defeated you, after all, so I don’t think they had much other choice.”
It wasn’t a totally far-out concept. Step one, have Clayman defeat Hinata. Step two, either kill off Clayman somehow or operate him like a puppet. I couldn’t say what they wanted to do with him, but Clayman’s faith in them was genuine—if they could get Hinata out of the picture, Clayman would do anything the Seven Days wanted. Meanwhile, they’d have Farmus wipe us out and firm up the foundations Luminism worked with, naturally making sure everyone got to share in the resulting profits. A nation as big as Farmus mobilizing would mean big money for Eastern armor and weapon dealers. Plus, more than anything else, the Seven Days would be back on Luminus’s good side.
I didn’t want to jump to conclusions too early, but the possibility of all this seemed worthy of consideration to me.
“So you think they pitted me against you in hopes I’d be defeated?” Hinata asked, interested in Louis’s theory. “Between that and protecting the tenets of Luminism, I suppose it’d be two birds with one stone.”
This gave me another idea.
“But are we really sure the Seven Days were behind that?”
“There’s no doubting it,” replied Renard, seated next to Hinata. “It was the Clergy who introduced us to those merchants in the first place.”
That certainly cast more suspicion on them. Having such a heroic band make the introduction, nobody would ever doubt their intentions—which would make it easier for the Clergy to reach their goals. I’m not sure they’d thought it out all the way like that when I fought Hinata for the first time, but the second? They definitely wanted me to kill her. Those conniving bastards. It scared me a bit, but they were all gone anyway, so it was water under the bridge.
“…But hang on. There were seven people in the Clergy, right? Isn’t one of them still left?”
Hinata seemed pretty at ease as far as the Clergy were concerned, but thinking about it, this wasn’t over yet at all. Whoever the final survivor was had to be up to their ears in this. It unnerved me, but Hinata just flashed me a cold smile.
“Ha-ha! Nothing to worry about there. Nicolaus contacted me from his sanctum to say the final one had also been eradicated. It happened after they discovered that the crystal ball you sent had been tampered with. That was enough evidence to execute him.”
The thin smile that accompanied her words would be enough to make anyone feel threatened. The sight of this beautiful woman talking about such sinister conspiracies was probably one reason it was easy to get the wrong idea about her. But anyway.
“Okay, but who was this last guy?”
I hated to think it, but it wasn’t Gren, right?
