Kuro no Maou

Thanks to passing through a quiet residential neighborhood, it was safe to reach the port without being seen by anyone in particular.

Suddenly sneaking into the right ship is too flirtatious, so dive into Warehouse County thinking you're storing loads loaded or unloaded on the ship and explore what's going on around you.

Warehouse County, even so, there did not seem to be as much cargo as large containers as there are in modern times, and the warehouse, even large, about two floors, just looked pompous.

Only at night, no one entered or left the warehouse, but only the biggest warehouse around here was brilliantly lit, and it was in my eyes that people were working.

I approached the warehouse with great care to see what was going on.

Apparently, the luggage in this warehouse was being loaded onto a ship in a hurry.

When I stood up and listened to the men doing the work, I managed to hear the talk.

"What took you so long?"

"Damn, I don't even have time to go home and have a drink."

However, sailors, such large men with shallow black skin are foolishly carrying their luggage out of the warehouse.

Particularly large cargo is loaded into the carriage parked at the entrance.

"-But you wouldn't even bother sailing in the middle of the night like this."

"It's a rush supply, he said something about it."

"What's the hurry? I don't know, I'm not at war."

Supplies, do you mean purposefully calling it an army ship in this world, no, this country?

Apparently this country is not at war, but it's a world where monsters are, and there are opponents to fight even in normal times.

"No, I don't know if it's pioneering or colonizing, but the area seems pretty tough."

"That's why you always recruit mercenaries. You were right not to go."

What do you mean, "pioneering" and "colonizing", now this world is in the age of great voyages?

But it feels fantastic around saying "mercenary" or something.

Better than that, this could be quite a chance.

If something like the colonial domination of Western powers, as I know in world history, is currently being done in a progressive fashion, then that 'colony' is a separate place far from home from the sea.

"What's 'Pandora is a paradise full of wealth', a hell full of demons and monsters?"

Pandora Continent.

I don't know if it has anything to do with that Pandora box that leaves hope at the end of the day, but in that way, it doesn't seem like a whole different continent from here.

Such a distant continent of Pandora, isn't it a good idea to escape?

Besides, as far as I can tell, colonial management doesn't seem to be going well, and that would make a massive investigation covering the entire Pandora continent difficult.

Leaving the pioneering place to go to the unspoilt depths and live like an old Japanese soldier who doesn't know the end of the war is something I can't do right now.

It wouldn't be comfortable, but it also equals heaven compared to the life of an experimental facility.

Or you can hide it from the devil clan.

I don't know if 'Demon Nation' is literally a demonic race or just a disdain for the natives, but it seems good to think that none of the masks interact with each other beyond being spoken of in the same line as the monsters.

At least the faces of the masks I've seen several times, including Grandpa, still look the same as the men sweating in their luggage carriers.

Then it would be impossible for them to be of the same race, that is, human beings, of the same race as the demons of the Pandora continent.

If escape from both masks is my top priority, then the ship to Pandora is more in line with purpose than ever.

I've made up my mind, I'm going to Pandora Continent!

"Well, I don't know how to get in -"

The Sinclair Republic, which erects a crucifixion that worships the God of White Light and governs the western half of the Ark continent.

Its holy capital, Elysion, was the capital of the Republic as‘ a city protected by light 'and at the same time a crucifix sanctuary.

This elicion, of which numerous churches are built, among them, the two bishops Judas and Saliel the Seventh Apostle, director of the Secret and Third Institutes of White, had met.

"- So you said you fought while you were sealed?

"Yes."

The two sit adjacent to each other, opening a distance for one person in the bench.

Even when he had a conversation, he didn't look particularly at the person, but Judas turns his gaze to Sariel.

"... get out."

Whimpering a word, a ring appears on Saliel's head that emits a pale white light.

It was of a different type than experiment number 49, but its ring was undisputed and a thought controller that would always be fitted to the experimental body.

Judas reaches for the ring and gently touches his fingertips.

"Magic limit 80%, surgical chain freeze, unarmed - maximum sealed state"

The ring records the fitter's health and behavior, and the administrator can view all the information. Judas was reading a record of his battle with No. 49.

"Yes, I didn't have time to get a release permit"

"You say the Cardinal was right next door... after all, there's a verse where I'm a little overconfident in the power of the Apostle"

Behind his brain, Judas remembers that he likes Sariel oddly as Ars' stern face emerges.

I thought there was something oddly disciplined about the habit of passing in a pitiful cardinal who felt benevolent about the extent to which his life had been saved in the past.

"There was no shortfall in response to Experiment Number 49, Cardinal Arce's decision cannot be incorrect"

"I'm sure you're right."

……

In case you think about it, you should have issued an immediate release permit.

Apostles, though, because, under maximum seal, they can only exert the power of a first-rate sorcerer or so.

"No matter what you say, nobody will hear you."

"No, even in a state of liberation, we couldn't prevent the escape of number 49"

"It would be, you missed it yourself, so it's useless to say how powerful you were"

Judas didn't notice, but Saliel frowned slightly.

"You can't blame it now, it's all our fault when we leave control."

It was no other Bishop Judas and his men, the researchers, who summoned a Gentile named "Chrono Mao" to this world and created Experiment No. 49, which exercises black magic.

Sariel is only an occasional collaborator who has been on the spot to pursue him with ‘good intentions' and is not in a position to be blamed in the first place for failing.

Although only the Pope, the head of the Church, can reprimand the Apostle in the Sinclair Republic.

"It is more surprising to Non that the Lord acted emotionally than that.

I've forgotten for a long time that your Lord was a man. "

Sariel never reacted in any way this time.

Even if Judas' words included sarcasm or contempt, she doesn't already have the emotion to just care about it.

"Well, good, then let's just say we can get things done as planned, because life in the Holy City is boring, but we're not free."

Judas' fingertips touch again to the ring, which continues to emit light yet again with Saliel's head.

"... disappear"

Shortly after the chant, the ring was shattered and scattered, becoming a grain of light and fogged in the hollow.

"Now you have nothing to bind your Lord to, and you can kill him in this place."

"Thank you, but the joke is past, bishop"

"Everyone who escapes the seal will seek this old man's life first, but the Lord is the second one to be completely liberated."

Judas was convinced that the first one to escape the seal, number 49, would come to kill without leaking into other examples if he put himself forward.

It's just hard to believe that the missing number 49 will come to avenge itself until you risk it.

Because if you think about the risk that if you get caught, you'll go back to Hell's days, you won't bother choosing revenge by throwing away your freedom in the corner.

Even if you were so unreasonably foolish, it's certain that you instinctively don't choose revenge because fear is stained with bones as a fool.

Though Judas had no feelings of regret, guilt, etc. just because he had the awareness that he had done so much.

"Well, now we're done, I guess the Lord has a job to do, too, and who will he kill next?

"It's the Demons and the Monsters, until we're done pioneering the whole continent, as much as we need"

"Pioneering, well, what's the next place to be sent?"

"Yes, it's the Pandora Continent"