I briefly explained to Shei what had happened in the Celsius territory. There was so much that happened that as I kept summarizing and condensing it.
"I wreaked havoc."
It was reduced to a single sentence. It was a garbage explanation, but Shei understood it perfectly.
"You're still like this even in the land of mages? What exactly didn't sit well with you?"
"The rules."
"No wonder you're called a barbarian! What kind of king of humans are you? Do you have to flip everything upside down to feel satisfied?!"
"It is satisfying, actually."
"If you're satisfied, then that's... no! That's not the point! You said we need to find the Demon God! I was trying to follow your will this time, even going to the Demon God Temple that I don't like to deal with the aftermath! And you flipped everything again just because a famous magical family was being a bit troublesome?"
Hey. Rankart is listening right there, what are you saying. There should be a limit to honesty. What would Rankart, who belongs to the Demon God Temple, think upon hearing that.
'Oh. That woman is quite submissive to Huey regardless of her words? Unexpectedly favorable.'
He's thinking that. You'd better develop some sense of belonging instead.
"Am I the only one who does that? You don't really like troublesome things either, Shei."
"As long as you don't do it to me, it's fine!"
"Isn't that even worse?"
I don't treat anyone specially and don't really want special treatment either. I feign normalcy, and when things go wrong, I just flip everything once. Isn't that healthier? I'm literally practicing the saying, "Try flipping this rotten world."
"You quietly hold your breath and watch for opportunities until right before you flip everything... You're more malicious, stabbing where it hurts the most."
How weak. It hurts, so I should stab it. If it doesn't hurt, why stab it?
Shei pressed her forehead as if she had a headache.
"You didn't contact me at all until now. Then you caused a massive incident. If you drag the Celsius territory into this, it really becomes unmanageable. If you had at least explained beforehand, I could have coordinated."
"You're talking as if I'm the bad one, but you didn't come looking for me either, Shei. It takes two hands to clap. Was I the only one who didn't reach out?"
"I wanted to see you too! I came all the way to the Celsius territory! But how could I find you when you left no message or trace!"
Huh? In this distant, unfamiliar land, how could I send messages or leave traces? Moreover, I'm a commoner who can't even ascend the Floating Castle. This is unreasonable.
"The same goes for you, Shei."
Then Shei widened her eyes and stammered in bewilderment.
"Uh...? You wanted to see me? Th-that's..."
"That's not what I meant! I'm saying you also didn't leave any message!"
This person has really become strange. What did I even do? I never particularly tried to get on Shei's good side, and I tried to maintain as much distance as possible.
Shei let out a short sigh of "Ah," then completely erased the emotion she had just revealed and spoke.
"I heard Elisha arranged to provide a room in the Celsius family. If you had stayed there, we could have contacted each other, but you refused."
"You could have found me if you tried, Shei. You're the one who didn't bother looking."
"Tch... At least I came down..."
Shei clicked her tongue cutely and grumbled. When she puts it that way, I feel a bit sor... I don't.
"In the first place, I've never heard of you joining the Demon God Temple, Shei. What got into you? Weren't you the type to avoid joining such organizations?"
"As I mentioned earlier. You said you're looking for the Demon God. So since I ended up coming to the Floating Castle anyway, I thought I'd join up with the Demon God Temple to find even a few more clues."
"There goes another spy."
She came aiming for information. Even if the Red Tower Master doesn't care much, saying that openly is dangerous, isn't it? Rankart is here too.
"You've prepared yourself to serve Huey."
No. Let's just pretend that didn't happen.
Shei tilted her head.
"Spy? Again?"
"I just said it casually, don't read too much into it. How many clues did you find?"
"I couldn't find much."
"What. You haven't done much either."
"What about you! At least I figured out that the Demon King has something like a relic!"
I knew that too even when I was down in the lower world?
"The Demon King's inherent sorcery is a power that manipulates space like Rene. But the type is a bit different. Unlike Rene who creates sub-spaces, the Demon King specializes in using space itself as a weapon."
"Are they different?"
"They are. Inherent sorcery also has genres. The essence of alchemy is the substitution and transformation of matter, and while it creates weapons from that, it doesn't use inherent sorcery itself as a weapon. But the two are clearly different. Rene creates sub-spaces, and the Demon King compresses and releases space to use as power. Only the material called 'space' is the same, but the results are different."
Sub-space and compressed space, huh. When you put it that way, something comes to mind.
"So Rene is a pocket and the Demon King is a morning star?"
"Good analogy. That's exactly right."
...No, that can't be an analogy. Does your good sense not work at times like this?
"The Demon King uses at least two powers. Maybe even more. Even if spatial magic is close to omnipotent, there's a difference from dropping stars, right? Considering the background of this Floating Castle, the Floating Castle's ultimate weapon 'Pride' might be the Demon God's power."
"Wait. Dropping stars? What do you mean?"
It seems Rankart couldn't easily let that pass either. At his question, Shei belatedly realized her mistake and closed her mouth, but I spoke instead.
"Shei said she saw the Demon King dropping a star in the future."
"Were you a Saintess?"
"Similar. The Holy Imperial Court has practically acknowledged it officially."
"Hey! Huez! Why would you say that!"
Why. Everyone already found out I'm the King of Humans, and only you get to maintain your mystique? No way. I'll expose your identity too.
In the first place, the fact that you're a Saintess is known to only a very few, isn't it?
"How curious. When the White Tower Master is here, a Saintess comes to visit? More than that, dropping a star? The Demon King? That can't be."
Rankart muttered. At his tone containing a strange certainty, I asked.
"What do you know?"
"I know the Demon King. It's not strange that he has the ability to drop stars. The Demon King's power shakes heaven and earth."
True, what's so special about a star of destruction. If you lift the Floating Castle a bit higher and drop it, that's a star of destruction. I wouldn't waste such a precious Floating Castle containing countless talents and magic like that, but being able to do it is what matters. The Demon King has that ability.
"But he wouldn't drop a star. He is like the incarnation of a mage. He would know better than anyone that there's nothing to gain from dropping a star, and he practices that more clearly than anyone. He would never make the decision to drop a star."
With great power comes great responsibility. A rational person in power wouldn't press the destruction button. I acknowledge that, but I've met way too many people who lack common sense.
"Something could happen to him, right? Like losing his mind after drinking, or an enemy appearing that can only be defeated by dropping a star."
"The former is impossible, and the latter is unreasonable. If it's such a powerful enemy, could you kill them merely by dropping a star?"
"Or maybe someone superior to the Demon King takes that button and uses it."
"That would at least be a possibility, but who could possibly be said to be superior to..."
Rankart stopped mid-sentence and looked at me in shock.
"Huey? Don't tell me you're planning to drop a star on the surface?"
"What do you take me for. I'm not stupid enough to drop a star, nor outstanding enough to take something from the Demon King."
Why are you looking at me in the first place. Your thought process is weird.
It seemed there was nothing more to discuss. I said to Shei.
"The conclusion is that the Demon King holds all the keys. We'll eventually have to negotiate with the Demon King, but that's the most difficult thing. What's the Demon God Temple's plan?"
"...The exchange event at the Celsius territory. Originally, they were trying to persuade Elisha to move the Celsius family."
"Were they successful?"
"Should I say they succeeded, or should I say they failed."
"Pardon?"
"The Red Tower Master and Elisha fought. Because of that, the heating facilities exploded and the pipes almost burst. The damage was so severe that they had to gather all the mages from the Crystal Tower and the Celsius territory to restore it."
Such an interesting thing happened while I was away? If I'd known, I should have infiltrated the Floating Castle.
"Did they fight seriously?"
"It was quite an intentional fight. I took the role of stopping them in the middle. If not for that, I wouldn't have helped."
Shei is moved by emotion and caprice. Even if she joined the Demon God Temple, she wouldn't attack the Blue Tower Master. If we consider she had no intention of attacking from the start.
"The target was the Floating Castle itself. You had to create a rift for a rift to appear in the Floating Castle."
"The Demon God Temple tried to draw in Elisha and the Celsius family, but Elisha stubbornly refused. So they decided to move to Plan B, and at that timing, an incident occurred in the Celsius family."
"What incident?"
"The incident you wreaked havoc in."
Ah, how unfortunate.
"I didn't particularly aim for it, but it somehow ended up that way."
"That's too coincidental. It became possible to move the Celsius family without going through Elisha. Did you perhaps discuss this with the Demon God Temple beforehand?"
"How could that be? You'd know too if you joined the Demon God Temple, Shei. Was I ever in their plans?"
"...That's not true, but."
'In the end, the Demon God Temple achieved their goal, we achieved our goal, and the Celsius family is fine. I clearly saw in the future I witnessed that the Celsius territory was shattered and scattered.'
What? Shattered and scattered? What does that mean. The literal meaning? It's an unrealistic story, but looking at the map of the Magic Federation, it might be possible.
No. Let's not think too deeply about it.
Shei's thoughts probably aren't lies, but the intent clearly exists.
Taking my eyes off Shei, I asked Rankart.
"Since we ended up cooperating with the Demon God Temple as a result, since it's come to this, I'm going to help the Demon God Temple. What's the Demon God Temple's plan?"
"The Celsius territory was deeply involved in the design of the Floating Castle's water purification facilities and cooling and heating systems. Due to the battle between the Blue Tower Master and the Red Tower Master this time, problems occurred in the facilities, and the Celsius territory, which was the descent ground, devoted itself to restoration work. The Blue Tower Master and the Red Tower Master, as the parties who fought, have an obligation to repair, but the Celsius territory ended up serving without any compensation. The Demon King is a rational person, so he will surely pay an appropriate compensation to the Celsius territory."
"Hmm. I roughly understand. So you stimulate or appease the Celsius territory to make them request compensation related to Rene's pocket, and find the Demon God who will be revealed in the process?"
"Exactly. Even for the Demon God Temple's plan, it's within your expectations?"
'What. You're spilling the plan to Huez who just arrived? Isn't there a separate spy?'
Ignoring Shei's thoughts, I briefly considered how the plan would proceed. It's not a bad plan, but it's too honest. A operation's basics is deceiving others and hiding my intentions.
"It's an okay plan, but it's a bit boring. Let's change it."
'You're changing that as you please? Can you do that when you just arrived?'
Rankart answered without even asking the reason.
"What do you need?"
"Everything's ready. Let's go."
Rankart and I headed toward the fireplace we came in through. On the fireplace connected to Rene's attic not long ago, made for me, the words 'Celsius Territory Private Room' were written small. I raised flames and connected the passage to the private room.
Putting my foot into the blazing fire required considerable resolve. If I didn't have regenerative abilities, I would have sent Rankart first. As I stepped into the fireplace, the surroundings wavered like a heat haze, and soon the visible scenery changed.
Ice castle. A room made of ice that isn't cold. The walls, ceiling, glass windows, tableware, and furniture are all ice. The fact that even the fireplace where fires are lit was built by stacking ice was the height of irony.
"...Welcome, everyone from the Demon God Temple. Is the meeting over?"
Returning to that peculiar room, Elsia greeted me with a displeased expression. Since she wasn't from the Demon God Temple and couldn't enter Rene's attic, she had been waiting here.
"We roughly decided on the direction to take. You have the right to request compensation from the Demon King as a reward for helping repair the Floating Castle, right?"
Elsia Celsius understood what I was saying and showed a firm attitude.
"That's impossible. A descent is an event that might happen once every ten years, and the opportunity to serve the Floating Castle is even rarer than that. We also consumed a lot of the family's alchemical wealth to restore the Floating Castle. I cannot hand over that compensation to you without any price."
Hmm. It doesn't sound like she's saying she can't give compensation, but rather like she's asking us to promise a similar compensation?
That wouldn't be bad either, but what about other options?
"Of course, this isn't an empty request. If you hear the alternative we're proposing, you'll change your mind."
"Please choose your words carefully so we don't request your departure from the Floating Castle."
It's a warning that if things go wrong, we might side with the Demon King entirely. Since the Demon God Temple stormed in like thugs, I understand being on guard. But once you hear what I have to say, those thoughts will fade away.
I put on a business smile and made a proposal to Elsia.
"I'll give the Floating Castle to the Celsius territory."