Myths Reawakened

Lord of Greed had been busy lately—busy profiting off war!

At the moment, his clients included at least Gluttony, Wrath, Envy, Solsknar, Enguema, and the hundreds of demons flocking to the Lost Paradise. Wherever there was profit to be made, he could be seen busying about.

What? Enguema was his son? So what! Could one not do business with one’s son? Was his son’s money off-limits? The boy was too old to leech off his father. He should be ashamed!

The Hell Tribune said so—that in the Chosen Land, children were kicked out of their parents’ house when they turned eighteen. They had to find a way to feed themselves and take out a student loan to go to college. If someone spent their parents’ money after eighteen, they would feel guilty and become marginalized and looked down on. If humans were so ready for independence, how could demons fall short?

Greed’s children would not get a dime from him, but they could do business.

That was the nature of the Lord of Greed. As long as there was potential profit, anyone could be his client. That was why the Lord of Envy and Solsknar had sought him out.

Envy had turned to Greed to take on Pride together since Pride was too powerful. None of the other six demon lords would be his match in a one-on-one fight. Only by banding together would they stand any chance.

Greed was famous for, well, his greed. He never made a losing deal, and everything he did had a price tag attached. Looking for his support would be no different from looking for losses. Envy would like to avoid working with him, but he didn’t have a lot of options. Among the five demon lords aside from him and Pride, Greed was the only one not preoccupied.

Gluttony and Wrath were busy fighting each other, Sloth was busy being a sloth, and Lust, most ludicrously, was busy being all hot and bothered and up close and personal with her consort. Envy had no choice but to seek out Greed.

Solsknar was in a similar boat. After tossing Wayne to Hell, he immediately sent his thoughts to Hell. Since he couldn’t defeat Wayne, he wasn’t going to chase after Wayne to ask for a round two; instead, he went to Gluttony for guidance.

A real threat like Wayne required a great demon lord to deal with. The Lord of Gluttony had to make a personal move to defeat him. However, Gluttony was so busy fighting Wrath that Solsknar waited two days without even meeting Gluttony. Resigned, he took his chance with the notorious Greed.

Greed enjoyed infamy in Hell and always elicited curses from demons when he was brought up. His constant price hikes infuriated them, and he lacked the integrity to comply with contracts. Still, he never turned away business outright as long as money was on the table.

Solsknar had met Greed before Envy. Greed, knowing his value as Solsknar’s only option for help, hesitated to give an answer. Although he had never met Wayne, he considered Wayne his close friend and brother. If Solsknar wanted him to go after his brother, he wanted extra payment.

With one of them negotiating for a higher price and the other doing his best to keep the price down, the negotiation dragged on.

Then, they walked out of the portal and ran right into the Lord of Envy.

“As you can see, Solsknar, I’m busy, really busy.” Greed looked like a billionaire resigned to the reality that every second of his time was worth millions. He had already suffered a great loss by granting Solsknar this meeting, so Solsknar had to make up for his loss.

After Greed said so, though, he realized that no one was listening to him. He turned around and found his two clients putting their heads together.

What the heaven?

Greed looked at them curiously. Envy looked ecstatic, so much so that his face was distorted. It was as if he were watching Pride getting beaten to a pulp by the four Śārim.

Greed didn’t understand his reaction, nor did Solsknar. They looked blankly at Envy’s enthusiasm.

“Damn it, speak. Tell me what his name is!” Envy urged.

“Um, Wayne,” Solsknar said.

“Hahaha—”

Envy burst out laughing, slapping Solsknar on the shoulders with blood trailing from his eyes down his face. His expression was one of three parts joy, five parts relief, and ninety-two parts catharsis.

“Justice may be late, but never absent!”

What’s wrong with him? Did Pride break his brain?

Solsknar was flabbergasted. There was one explanation he could think of, so he said tentatively, “Great Lord of Envy, do you know Wayne, too?”

“Do I know him? Oh, I’ve been dreaming about him!”

Envy’s face became even more twisted. His dream mainly featured two people: Pride and Hesione, with Wayne only showing up every now and then, almost always when Hesione was on screen.

He had never been Envy’s primary target, but that didn’t matter when Wayne and Hesione were a package deal. Since Wayne was here, Hesione wouldn’t be far away! Once he captured Hesione, too, he would parade the degenerate pair at the next meeting of the Seven Demon Lords so that everyone would see that he, Envy, had not lied. Pride had been twisting the truth.

No! He didn’t even have to capture Hesione. As long as he had Wayne, and Hesione dared come to Hell to rescue him, the truth would be revealed.

Envy burst out laughing again. He would finally have justice after all the wrongful treatment. The day had finally come!

But first... he had to calm down. He couldn’t allow his ecstasy to get the better of him in such a critical moment. Suppressing his feelings, he stared at Solsknar with wolfish eyes that seemed ready to devour him. “Let me ask again. He’s Wayne, a mage in the human world, isn’t he?”

He conjured a screen of water to project Wayne’s portrait.

“That’s him,” Solsknar said. “I’d recognize him even if he turned to ashes.”

“Good, good!” Envy’s eyes turned red as he growled, “Tell me, why is Wayne in Hell, and which angel has so kindly sent him here?”

“Not an angel, but me.” Solsknar didn’t talk about the ruins of the Life Alliance, focusing only on his history with Wayne. “So... That’s what happened... He ended up in Hell.”

“No, you are an angel, my angel!”

“Hahaha—” x2

Solsknar nodded vehemently, laughing out loud like Envy. It seemed that Envy saw Wayne as his mortal enemy and hated Wayne so much that he even dreamed about Wayne. Wonderful! Solsknar couldn’t be more excited about the prospect of getting free support. If he had known that Wayne even had an enemy in Hell, he would’ve sought out Envy immediately rather than wasting so much time on Gluttony and Greed.

“O Great Lord of Envy, I—”

“It’s Envy for you,” Envy said in a friendly tone. “From today on, you’ll be my angel brother. If you call me brother, I’ll take you under my wing from now on.”

“Brother Envy, is this really alright?” Solsknar smiled earnestly. Not letting his joy get to his head, he said rationally, “I heard that you’ve been at war with Lord of Pride. Wouldn’t going after Wayne now make you miss the right timing on that front?”

“I’m not fighting him any longer. I’ll call it quits now.”

Envy waved. Fuck war. He only started the war because he had no other way to seek justice. Otherwise, he would have to be out of his mind to be fixated on Pride. Having Wayne was akin to having Hesione. There was no point in continuing his war with Pride. His priority now was to capture Wayne and prevent Hesione from whisking him back to the human world.

This was Envy’s first time being this close to clearing his name. If he missed the chance, he would forever be a clown everyone disrespected.

“Wait, what are you two doing?” Greed asked. He realized the problem after observing them for a while. His two clients had put him aside and came to an agreement on their own.

How could you conduct business like this? You don’t honor the contracts at all. Since when has Hell fallen so far?

He anxiously extended an olive branch to Envy, offering to help him fight the Lord of Pride at the original price. He would also give Solsknar a ten percent discount to buy his friendship as long as Solsknar promised to support his business.

You should’ve said that earlier! x2

Spring was a time to cut ties with friends who failed to show up in the harsh winter.

Wayne was the only thing on Envy’s and Solsknar’s minds now. They no longer cared about Greed. His fixation on business even made their hands itch for a punch.

Greed groaned inwardly. He didn’t understand how his business had been stolen. He held a hand to his chest, feeling his bleeding heart. For comfort, he told himself that he was a busy, successful businessman whose every minute was worth millions. It didn’t matter that he lost Envy and Solsknar as clients. He could still strike up a deal with Enguema.

He would offer a special price for his family and earn three demons’ worth with that single deal to make up for his losses. Still, he felt the loss keenly. He could’ve earned nine demons’ worth of profit with three deals. He had lost too much today.

Huffing, Envy ignored Greed and turned to Solsknar with an amicable expression. “Brother, where’s that bastard? We’re running out of time. We must set out immediately to stop Wayne from running away. He’s a slippery one.”

“Um...” Solsknar stammered. Under his new older brother’s expectant gaze, he said stiffly, “I transported him to Hell two days ago. He was in my territory then. He probably hasn’t left... I think.”

“You’ve made my life difficult, Little Brother. Why hadn’t you sought me out two days ago?!”

Envy’s eyes widened like saucers. His heart burned with the urge to punch Solsknar as well. What an incompetent little brother. He would rather do without the trash!

“Brother Envy, you were fighting with the Lord of Pride. I didn’t know you and didn’t know your history with Wayne. So...”

“Excuses. It’s all excuses!” Envy raged, suspecting that Hesione had already taken Wayne back to the human world. He was so furious that he raised his hand, ready to bisect the little brother he had just adopted.

“Solsknar, why are you here?” It was then Enguema slowly got to his feet, covered entirely in blood. Seeing the familiar dark-skinned bald man, he rushed to Greed and said, “That’s him. He was the one who wreaked havoc on my territory. Father, you must take care of him for me!”

“...” x3

Greed, Envy, and Solsknar gaped in shock. While Greed became increasingly pale, Envy and Solsknar were both beside themselves with joy. Their relationship was instantly mended. They went back to calling each other brothers.

None of the demons was stupid. They understood what was happening as soon as Enguema said that.

“Shut up, you bastard son. Who said you could talk?!” Greed grabbed Enguema’s sleeve while sweating profusely. “Come. Follow me in. I’ll give you a special discount for being my son and a returning customer. Just pay me, and I’ll destroy whoever’s going wild in your territory.”

“That’s him, Solsknar. He’s with Stolas and Mattea right now.”

“Damn it. Shut up already.”

“Hahaha—” x2

Looking at the pair of best friends laughing their heads off and then at his irritated father, Enguema pondered with a frown and came to a realization. Solsknar had been talking business with Greed. He had neither the time nor the power to play catch with him in his territory. The Solsknar he had encountered was someone else—that someone was the Lord of Envy’s enemy.

Enguema didn’t need to do business with Greed. He should just ditch his father!