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Translator: Barnnn
The appearance of Egd, the apprentice of Dragan, caused the faces of most of the Duodecad to turn grim.
“Who the hell called HIM here!?”
Catherine was the first one to voice a complaint.
“Good grief… how far the prestigious Duodecad has fallen…”
Immediately following Catherine was Jacob, who shook his head and grumbled out his grievance.
Tangalán was the next one to show a negative reaction. He neither shook his head nor said anything, but the look in his eyes showed that he definitely had a negative opinion of Egd.
“For the record, I did NOT call him here.”
Irene said as she looked at — quite predictably — Dragan, the person with the closest connection to Egd.
Dragan quickly turned away from Irene, indicating to everyone that he was indeed the one responsible.
“I was told that this would be a gathering of all Duodecad-affiliated persons, so… Hahaha…”
“T-that is right! Sir Egd WAS one of the Six Braves!”
Amil added. Being another young member of the Duodecad — quite close to Egd in age, in fact — it could be said that this was her way of fitting in, and also the display of her ability to remain rational.
Irene, not wanting to talk Amil down, could not bring herself to further press the case on Dragan.
“Well, shouldn’t hurt to let him in, right?” Asley spoke up. “C’mon, Egd, you can sit over there.”
Russel smiled in response to the way Asley handled the situation.
Jennifer nodded, showing her agreement with Asley’s course of action.
“By the way, does anyone have any idea what this meeting will focus on?”
…And as it turned out, Egd was completely oblivious to the other attendees’ opinions of him.
“GAHAHAHA! Not what everyone’s here, I say we get this thing started now!”
With Charlie saying that, Warren and Irene sat down on their respective cushions.
Warren then coughed once to clear his throat and proceeded to say,
“First of all, we thank you for taking time out of your busy schedules to join us here today. We will begin with a meeting between the old and new Duodecad and Head Professor Asley of the Magic Classroom.”
“Huh, and what do you hope to achieve in doing that? …Master Dragan?”
Egd turned to his mentor, prompting Dragan to put an index finger over his mouth — a hush sign.
“…Yes, sir. Not another word, sir.”
[Ugh, this is why I did not want him here…]
And that was only one of the reasons why Irene had not invited Egd here. Egd’s tendency to talk without good reason was sure to impede the meeting. Naturally, Warren also had a hand in making that decision.
Warren, after confirming that Egd was not going to say anything more, continued his speech,
“As we have discussed before, I believe this is the time and place to decide our course of action. We have only one goal: the survival of humanity!”
The true meaning of Warren’s words was, of course, their victory against the Devil King.
But there were also those present who dared not pick up on that.
“That is a simple matter.”
The one who said so was Tangalán, the current Headmaster of the Magic University.
“What do you suggest, then, sir?”
“There is no other way but to surrender to the Devil King.”
“”…!?””
Everyone was taken by surprise — except Tangalán himself, of course.
That only went to show how shocking that statement was. It was hard to believe that someone as knowledgeable as Tangalán would even consider this decision.
“…Well then–“
“–So you’re saying you’d rather be the Devilkin’s livestock, huh?”
Irene interrupted Warren and said to Tangalán, her glare sharp and strongly negative. Everyone else looked at Tangalán the same way, with differing levels of intensity.
But Tangalán continued to speak as if in opposition to them all,
“Do you think there isn’t anyone in this world who has already made the choice to give up?”
“”…!””
No one could bring themselves to say anything in response to the question Tangalán brought up.
After witnessing the Devil King’s power, some had chosen to become the Devilkin’s livestock — that was what Tangalán said. And he proceeded to add,
“There is no one will of the people — in fact, it could be said that each individual has one of their own. So why is it that you are so eager to make your final stand? I dare say, from the point of view of those unwilling, you are the ones that make things harder for them.”
Humanity’s rebellion was sure to hasten humanity’s demise.
For those who believed that the preservation of life was the most important thing, the actions of those who went against the Devil King were indeed a nuisance — or rather, nothing but harmful. Tangalán was speaking on behalf of those people.
“Right, of course there is no ‘one will’ — every person is unique…”
Charlie was the first to agree with Tangalán’s point.
“…But can you really say that your choice is the correct one?”
But then he asked a question of his own.
On top of being famous as an absurdly powerful fighter, Charlie was a former leader of the Duodecad. Tangalán, on the other hand, had not even been an Archmage for very long. Despite that, Tangalán looked straight back at Charlie and shook his head slowly.
“I’m not saying it is correct… But it IS one of the very limited ways remaining for humanity, so I will not say it is an incorrect choice, either. Would you not agree, Sir Charlie?
“I suppose I can’t say no to that…”
“And what of everyone else?”
No one could bring themselves to say anything — not even Irene. But then there was one among them who proceeded to talk back to Tangalán,
“Well… what do you think lies beyond that?”
These were the words Head Professor Asley had to direct at the Magic University’s Headmaster.
For a moment, Tangalán’s eyes were wide with surprise at the unexpected rebuttal.
He quickly came to his senses and replied to Asley,
“Humanity’s survival. “
“No, not survival — where you are going, there is nothing but destruction.”
No one could bring themselves to deny Tangalán’s point — But that was not the case for Asley.
He was, without a sliver of doubt, denying the choice Tangalán has suggested.
“When you give up thinking, when you suppress your emotions — the soul dies. The humanity inside you dies.”
“What are you implying?”
“…The destruction of the ego.”
A quiet yet clear voice that everyone could hear – It came from none other than Natasha.
Barun raised his hand, as if to add to her statement,
“Thanks to what Miss Natasha just said, Asley’s statement now makes sense to me. A human cannot become livestock — they are simply not meant to be.”
Asley cast his eyes down and did not respond. It did not matter whether Barun’s statement was correct or not; Asley was simply refusing to give a response.
“Sir Tangalán.”
“What is it, Dragan?”
“Humans are weaker than one might think. The body cannot persist without a functioning mind. That is what Sir Asley meant.”
This time, Tangalán was the one who could not say anything back.
Still, Dragan continued — to make sure that he got his point across to Tangalán,
“Humans as livestock — do you even know what it would be like? Would the Devilkin provide us with food and shelter? Would you actually be willing to follow this path and find out? …As far as I can see, it is nothing but a path of self-destruction.”
“…Hmph.”
At this point, both Dragan and Tangalán no longer had anything to say.
No one else knew what they should say, either — and as the awkward silence dragged on, eventually, one among them looked up at the sky and said cheerfully,
“In other words, it is naive for us to expect fair treatment from them!”
The one to flabbergast everyone else so casually, as it turned out, was the one man who had not even been invited to this gathering.
However, at least at this moment, Irene and Warren acknowledged that Egd’s presence was not without its worth.
Egd’s statement totally changed the tone of the meeting.
Tangalán cast his eyes down and waited for the conversation to play out; he seemed to have no intention of offering any further rebuttals.
Warren did not let that go unnoticed. He coughed once to clear his throat and, at long last, continued his speech.
“…Now then, I would like to ask Head Professor Asley to explain to us in detail the power of Devil King Lucifer. Take it away, Asley.”
There was more than one way forward — but many of them would lead to the destruction of humanity at the hands of Devil King Lucifer.
What were their odds of finding hope amid the countless paths of doom? Who will be the one to choose correctly? Or would things end without anyone managing to even make a choice?
The path of humanity’s true survival was fragile and practically invisible, like a spider’s thread.
This meeting had just begun. Still, their time was limited, and they had to find ways to strengthen the spider’s thread as much as possible.
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