An Archdemon's Dilemma: How to Love Your Elf Bride: Volume 8 (eBook)

Fuminori Teshima (Autor)

eBook Download: EPUB

2019
319 Seiten
J-Novel Club (Verlag)
978-1-7183-2514-2 (ISBN)

Infos

Zagan searches for the whereabouts of his old friend Marc as the town livens due to a festival called Alshiere Imera. Apparently this festival bears the tradition of giving presents to those dear to you. Zagan and Barbatos have a late start on the festival and mill about in confusion. Stella and Alshiera are completely carefree and are here to play. And for some reason, Kuroka is now a cat? It seems another Archdemon is somehow involved and is hot on her tails!

Textauszug

Chapter I: Everyone Is Secretly Scheming Something, so the Butler Who Knows All Is Quietly Sighing

“My liege, do you plan to go to town again today?”

Morning. An elderly butler called out to Archdemon Zagan as he was in the middle of making preparations to head out in his throne room. It was Raphael. He wore a tailcoat without a single crease upon it and had a calm bearing about him. He exceeded fifty years in age now, yet his muscles were still firm, and he had a deep scar carved across his face. His left arm was covered in armor from the shoulder down, and no matter how one looked at him, he didn’t look like he held a respectable occupation, but that left hand was also gripping a ladle of all things.

Zagan nodded back to his loyal retainer.

“Yeah. Having said that, I’m pretty much at the limit of what I can investigate on my own. I plan to have Kimaris come along this time,” Zagan replied from atop his throne.

Just as always, Zagan’s countenance was one that could make a child cry on sight. He had black hair, which he’d lately put in the effort to comb into order. Nevertheless, his silver eyes still had a dangerous air about them. He wore a long mantle, and was the spitting image of a sorcerer.

Raphael folded his arms in thought.

“My liege’s old friend... Marc, was it? You’ve spent quite some time searching and have yet to find any clues, so who exactly could he be?”

This dated back to the days where Zagan was a mere waif scrounging through garbage in the alleys. He was someone Zagan could even think of as an older brother at the time.

“All you need do is follow in a certain man’s footsteps.”

He was told this one month ago already. That’s what the vampire Alshiera told Zagan when he sought the truth behind Azazel... and yet, she also told him not to chase after it. This all happened near the island nation of Liucaon, far away from Kianoides.

Naturally, Zagan immediately began searching for Marc’s whereabouts upon returning to Kianoides. This was in fact the city where Zagan, Marc and one other all met each other. And despite all that, he hadn’t found a single clue after searching for an entire month.

Is he even alive to begin with?

Zagan pulled the old pair of glasses from his pocket. Marc had worn these before. The frame was rusty and the hinges wouldn’t move. The lens even had cracks in it. At the very least, it was easy to see that they hadn’t been used for several years.

Seeing that Zagan had suddenly gone quiet, Raphael shook his head.

“Correction, I suppose what you are truly searching for, my liege, is the truth about Azazel.”

It was a name Zagan had read in a journal he found in Nephy’s hometown, the hidden elven village. Judging from how it was listed with the names of the twelve Sacred Swords, he conjectured that it was the name of a thirteenth sword.

If a thirteenth of such troublesome thing exists, then I want to be sure of its whereabouts.

Seeing that it was recorded in the hidden elven village, it was entirely possible that it would somehow involve Nephy too. He had only planned to look into it because of this to begin with. That was supposed to be the case.

And yet, once he started chasing after that name, he only got caught up in stranger and stranger incidents. He met Raphael’s foster daughter, who disparaged and hated sorcerers. Zagan and his daughter were cursed. He met the annoying vampire Alshiera, who caused Foll to go berserk, and then for some reason found her again gravely injured. He found out about the secret of the strongest Archangel Michael, who was also the head of the Archdemons, Andrealphus. And finally, he was reunited with his old friend Stella, who he was also acquainted with during his days with Marc.

Every single one was a troublesome event, and none of them should have had a commonality between them.

But, they may in fact all be connected.

It may have even gone back to his discovery of the demons existing, or even to him meeting his daughter. According to Alshiera, all of that had commonality with the man known as Marc. And now that he actually chased after Marc, Zagan was unable to find any traces of anything whatsoever. It was surely too optimistic to think everything would get settled by sheer coincidence.

Zagan pinched his brow, and realized that Raphael was staring at him, waiting for his next words.

“I’ve at least come up with several hypotheses regarding Azazel.”

“Hmm. Could you share those with me?”

He refrained from carrying his sword within the castle, though it was close enough at hand. However, Raphael was a former Archangel who was charged with wielding one of the twelve Sacred Swords, so Zagan tried putting his thoughts in order.

“Where to begin...? Let’s see, you know Archangel Michael, right? He’s a former colleague of yours.”

“Of course. He was a man of questionable character, so I didn’t like talking to him, though.”

“A correct decision. His true identity is the head of the Archdemons, Andrealphus. If you were to poorly prod at him, you may very well have died.”

As expected, even Raphael was left wide eyed in shock at such a revelation. Zagan waited for his butler to collect himself once more before he continued.

“According to him, there’s apparently something called a seraph sealed within each Sacred Sword. It’s probably the same reasoning as the Sigils of the Archdemon sealing away the Demon Lord.”

“A seraph? I’ve been with the church for a long time, but I’ve never heard of such a race before.”

And as Raphael expressed his puzzlement, Zagan shrugged his shoulders.

“I bet you haven’t. Apparently the preceding Archdemon Marchosias had a bone to pick with them, and he obliterated them to the point where even their existence wasn’t left behind. From the looks of it, even the church has no records of the seraphs.”

“Hmm...? Seeing their relation to the Sacred Swords, seraphs would be an existence related to god, right? Would it not be perfectly natural for an Archdemon to have a quarrel with them?”

“Well, just because they’re related to god doesn’t mean they’re necessarily noble altruists. Just by the fact that they deem all sorcerers as an evil that must be eradicated, the justice or whatever it is the church preaches is all twisted anyway.”

“That is painfully true...” Raphael grimaced and shook his head.

“That’s not the important point here, though. The vampire I met in Liucaon used the name Azazel as if referring to a person. Considering those two facts, it’s possible to infer the meaning of the name, right?”

Raphael surely understood what Zagan was implying, and his expression grew grimmer.

“In other words, Azazel is the name of a seraph?”

“Probably. Thinking of it that way, the meaning of the journal in the elven village changes a bit. We thought that it meant they collaborated with the wielders of the Sacred Swords at first...”

“But it’s not the Sacred Swords... They abided by the seraphs...?”

“Yeah. They do say that the elves are an existence closer to the spirits and gods, after all,” Zagan replied with a nod.

The elven journal was likely quite old. The possibility that it escaped Marchosias’ grasp because the elven village was in such a hidden environment was also quite high. Moreover, elven language was difficult to understand, and even a high elf like Nephy couldn’t extract the full meaning of Celestian. That’s why it was possible to misread what was written.

Raphael pinched his brows as if to search through his memories.

“My liege, do you recall that I’ve told you of how I’ve seen Orobas’ dreams before?”

“Yeah. Are you still seeing them?”

Raphael once fought against a demon and suffered fatal wounds. At that time, the Wise Dragon Orobas was also on the verge of death in the same place, and Raphael drank his blood and was given a new lease on life. Perhaps because of that, he could apparently see Orobas’ memories in his dream.

Raphael, though, shook his head.

“No, I haven’t seen them since you returned from Liucaon, my liege. However, I feel that the name Azazel came up in those dreams too.”

“Really?”

Zagan reflexively leaned forward on his throne.

“How did it come up? Was it as an enemy? Or maybe an ally or pawn?”

“I can’t recall... Was it... loss...? No, broken, I think. In any case, they spoke as if it no longer existed in this world. Also, let’s see... It would have helped... would be the correct way to put it? In any case, I feel like it wasn’t used to refer to something antagonizing them.”

“So it was a cooperative relation? Or maybe it was one of the hands they had to play...?”

Even if Azazel were a seraph or a Sacred Sword, it was only natural that it would be unknown to the church if it was in the hands of an Archdemon.

However, would Marchosias, who obliterated the very existence of the seraphs, really keep a seraph known as Azazel at his side?

Even if it were a Sacred Sword, it wouldn’t change the fact that there was a seraph inside. Zagan didn’t believe that the...

Produkt-Details

• Erscheint lt. Verlag: 19.11.2019
• Reihe/Serie: An Archdemon's Dilemma: How to Love Your Elf Bride
• Reihe/Serie: An Archdemon's Dilemma: How to Love Your Elf Bride
• Illustrationen: Comta
• Übersetzer: Hikoki
• Sprache: englisch
• Themenwelt: Literatur ► Fantasy / Science Fiction ► Fantasy
• Schlagworte: Comedy • cute • Fantasy • Light Novel • MOE • Romance • Slave
• ISBN-10: 1-7183-2514-2 / 1718325142
• ISBN-13: 978-1-7183-2514-2 / 9781718325142