Pope's Perspective "Oh, hey."
I was caught completely off guard.
And thoroughly at that.
All I could do was bow my head to the person who had casually raised a hand in greeting.
I couldn't afford to show my current expression.
Even if my subordinates witnessed me bowing to the leader of the Demon race — anything was better than letting them see this face, the one that had momentarily contorted with fear.
"It's been a while. Or perhaps I should say, it's nice to meet you for the first time?"
I composed my expression, raised my head, and exchanged pleasantries.
The monstrous being standing before me, appearing as a young girl, wore the same unchanged smile as always.
Had she not noticed my terror? Or had she noticed and was simply pretending not to?
The latter, most likely.
"It doesn't really matter either way, right? Let's just get this started already."
Her response was far more carefree than I remembered, and it threw me for a loop.
In the past, that smile plastered on her face had always harbored an anger she could barely conceal.
But what I sensed from her now was something far more rounded, mellowed.
Still, that was only on the surface. Deep in her heart, there was surely still a simmering hatred for this world.
Having lived for so long, it must be effortless for her to alter her mannerisms and speech.
After all, unlike me, she was the most ancient phantom beast — one who had continued living without ever dying since before the System was even activated.
The most ancient phantom beast, the primordial spider,
Aside from the administrator, she was the most powerful existence in this world, having persisted since before the System went live.
For her to have remained largely inactive for so long, only to now be the Demon King — it was something I never could have predicted.
I felt utterly outmaneuvered.
If I had thought about it even slightly, I should have seen the connection between the Nightmare of the Labyrinth, known as White, and her.
Yet up until this very moment, that recognition had completely slipped my mind.
That was probably because I had assumed the Nightmare of the Labyrinth and Ariel were enemies.
The last confirmed activity of Ariel's that we could verify was her assault on the nest the Nightmare of the Labyrinth had built near the central city of the Keren territory in the
From that, we had deduced that she was hostile toward the Nightmare of the Labyrinth — a spider-type monster that was, in theory, one of her own kin. That was the last known action on Ariel's part that we had recorded.
After that, her whereabouts became unknown, and I had been convinced she had withdrawn from the stage of history.
I could only curse my own shortsightedness.
The timing of Ariel's disappearance and the timing of the Nightmare of the Labyrinth's vanishing weren't exactly the same, but they were close.
It wouldn't be surprising if the two, who had supposedly been enemies, had reconciled during that period.
Come to think of it, so many things lined up.
The relationship between the Nightmare of the Labyrinth and Ariel.
The new Demon King, who unlike her predecessor was aggressively pursuing military expansion.
And above all, the being Black Dragon had warned me about — saying she "shows no mercy."
The dots connected into lines.
It was as though everything I hadn't been able to see suddenly came into view all at once.
"Heeey? Come back to the land of the living, will you?"
Ariel clapped her hands together to get my attention.
In real time, my period of deep thought must have been brief, but Ariel had clearly noticed I was lost in contemplation.
"My apologies. This bad habit of mine — no matter how many times I'm reborn, I simply can't shake it."
"I think you overthink things. Try clearing your head a bit more and just relax, why don't you?"
"If only it were that simple."
I took a seat across from Ariel, who had propped her chin on her hand and settled into her chair with brazen informality.
A few of the others frowned at her rudeness, but given that I had been the first to bow my head, it was probably having its effect — nobody said a word.
After the previous summit with White, the other executives must have understood which side held the upper hand.
And White was seated right beside Ariel.
Having ceded the center seat to Ariel, it was clear she intended for Ariel to lead this meeting.
"Well then, shall we get started? Not that I actually know what we're supposed to be discussing today. It's true that we've more or less agreed to team up against the Elves?"
Ariel looked between White and me as she asked.
White nodded silently, so I followed suit and inclined my head as well.
"That is correct. The defeat of the Elves is one of our foremost aspirations. If that goal can be achieved, we will gladly offer our cooperation."
Defeating the Elves — or rather, defeating their leader,
If we could eliminate him, we wouldn't hesitate to join hands with the Demon race, who were nominally enemies of the Human race.
"Mm-hmm. So that's settled for the Elves, then. Honestly, we're not fully prepared yet, so it'll be more of a 'start operations once the situation is in place' kind of deal. That work for you?"
"Yes."
Even on our side, we couldn't mobilize immediately if told to act on short notice.
Ariel's proposal was exactly what we needed.
"Good, good. Okay, so — next up, the Demon race is going to launch a large-scale military operation. How does the Church of Divine Words plan to respond to that?"
Ariel casually disclosed the Demon race's future movements as though making small talk, then asked about our intentions.
"Regretfully, that falls outside the scope of our cooperation. I'm afraid we cannot share that information."
Our cooperation was limited strictly to the defeat of the Elves.
The Demon race's invasion of our territory was beyond those bounds.
In that case, we could not simply hand over our information for free.
She would understand that as well.
After all, White had already briefed us on the Demon race's movements in advance.
Behind that, I could see an ulterior motive — ensuring the Human race was also prepared for war, thereby maximizing casualties on both sides.
If that was the case, then she would also want us to fight in earnest.
By refusing to disclose our information here, we would be signaling the Church of Divine Words' resolve to commit fully to the war — which aligned with Ariel's interests.
It wouldn't constitute a breach of our agreement.
"Oh, okay."
Just as I had anticipated, Ariel nodded without any sign of displeasure, accepting it without fuss.
"Hmm. Well then, I suppose there's no particular need for us to share our intel either. I'll say this much, though — don't worry, neither I nor White-chan will be going out there and fighting on the front lines ourselves. We'll be running things by pitting the Demon race and the Human race against each other. If you want to preserve your fighting strength as much as possible, you don't have to join the battle. Your forces will take heavier damage that way, though."
While saying she wouldn't share information, Ariel had let slip something incredibly valuable.
That she and White would not personally participate in the battle was enormous intelligence.
If the two of them joined the fight, the Human race's annihilation would be inevitable.
But if they didn't, then there was a fight to be had.
"Oh, actually, if I may interject? I intend to participate on the side of the Demon race in that war, so I'd appreciate your understanding."
But it was Lord Ras who spoke up, shattering my hopes in an instant.