Late at night.
I possess the Skill of Sleep Immunity, so I have no need for sleep.
But that doesn't mean I can go without sleep — it simply means I suffer no ill effects from doing so.
The fatigue that accumulates while I'm awake doesn't just vanish.
The best way to recover from fatigue is sleep, and in the end, even with the Sleep Immunity Skill, I still have to sleep somewhere.
In theory, with the Sleep Immunity Skill, I could go my entire life without sleeping — but the only ones who could actually pull that off would be beings with Stats so high they can ignore fatigue entirely, and who are, frankly, a little off in the head.
You can paper over physical fatigue with high Stats, but mental fatigue is a different beast altogether.
Someone who can ignore that and keep going isn't what you'd call a normal person.
"Someone like me, you mean."
"I see. There's a certain… persuasiveness to those words."
It was the dead of night, in my office that would normally be empty save for myself — and yet there was a voice answering mine.
Beyond the dim light illuminating the documents before me, a pale-faced young man had materialized.
He looked young enough, but his aura carried the weight of someone far older.
And yet, he didn't seem to have actually lived that long.
Those who have evolved from the Demon race or from Monsters sometimes look nothing like their real age, but I doubted this young man was particularly old either.
And yet he carried the presence of someone who had lived over a hundred years.
I couldn't help but be surprised by the sheer depth of the Demon race's ranks — they'd been hiding someone like this all along.
The man's name was Melazophis.
He said he had sensed that I was working late into the night despite the hour, and had come to check on me.
He was being treated as a guest for now, but we were technically enemies.
That was why I had arranged the Demon race's quarters in something of an isolated wing — but as one might expect, that hadn't done much good.
When someone could saunter in this brazenly, standing guard started to feel rather pointless.
Not that standing guard would accomplish much anyway.
If it was Lady
Those two possessed the power to simply bulldoze right through any precautions.
And most likely, the man before me did too.
I kept my eyes off the man and continued working.
Signing documents, marking corrections.
While doing so, I made small talk with Lord Melazophis.
What had started with a question about whether I really didn't need sleep had gradually shifted toward the abnormality of someone who uses the Sleep Immunity Skill.
That was what our earlier exchange had been about.
"Tell me — in your eyes, do I seem abnormal?"
"Yes. At the very least, it's not something that should be possible. I confess I'm curious what drives someone to such extremes, but perhaps it's better if I don't know."
Lord Melazophis turned his back on me as he said this.
Our conversation appeared to be over.
It was remarkably abrupt.
Perhaps he was being considerate, not wanting to intrude on my work — but I hadn't expected it to end so quickly.
"May I ask why you don't want to know?"
Maybe that was why.
My words followed the retreating figure as he tried to withdraw.
The people of the Demon race were, for the most part, beyond my ability to fully read — unknowable in ways I couldn't grasp.
This man was the same. I couldn't fathom him.
The desire to understand even a little, to drag the conversation out further — that must have been what drove me to speak.
"Because I believe the young lady should be the one who learns about me."
The answer I received was more than sufficient to understand this man.
Ah — so he too was far from normal.
"I see. Understood."
It was only natural that I murmured those words.
The man bowed politely and left the room.
His movements were refined, like a attendant serving a noble lord.
And indeed, he was exactly that — a servant to the person he called "the young lady."
I opened a drawer in my desk and pulled out a certain document.
A detailed investigation report on the Kellen family.
Flipping through the bundle, I found the entry I was looking for.
There it was — the name of a servant who had served Lady Kellen since her childhood.
Melazophis.
Among the Kellen family's retainers, he had been especially valued, trusted completely by his master.
His character was described as earnest and sincere.
Yet he wasn't rigid — he was well-liked by his colleagues as well.
That part didn't seem to have changed.
But while nothing appeared different on the surface, his inner world had gone mad.
He had kept a single thing and discarded everything else.
A person who could cast aside even the hatred toward those who drove his beloved to her death — that person could not possibly be sane.
The report noted that Melazophis had been deeply enamored with Lady Kellen.
And yet, despite that, he had earned her husband's recognition and unwavering trust.
How deep those feelings must have run — I, who never knew the man back then, could only imagine.
But they certainly couldn't have been ordinary.
And when those feelings were trampled beyond all reason, when he lost the one he loved most — he had stood before the very leader of the Holy Word Church, the organization responsible for it all, and shown not a shred of hatred.
In this current situation where it was just the two of us, he could have killed me without breaking a sweat — but he didn't even let a wisp of killing intent slip.
If anything, he looked as calm and still as the surface of a lake without a ripple.
His entire being was devoted to the young lady — to Miss
I was nothing more than a stepping stone for Miss Sophia's growth.
That was likely the only way he could see me.
Truly terrifying.
That was a monster wearing a human shape.
His mind had already departed from anything human.
Around Lady Ariel, there was hardly anyone who could be called normal.
If I had to pick, the closest would be her daughter, Miss Sophia, and Miss Fermina — and even they were only "normal" in the sense that they hadn't crossed into outright madness. They were still worlds apart from ordinary.
I let out a long sigh, exhaling everything that had built up.
Then, after a brief pause, I set my hands moving again.
I needed to finish this work as quickly as possible.
There was no time to waste.
After all — it was time to begin the grand endeavor of destroying the Holy Word Church.
Melazophis: "Man, this old guy is totally nuts…" The Pope: "Man, this guy is totally nuts…"