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Iruma had slept very little that night. Opera had watched over his light rest, just as they had woken him up when, at the first light of the new day, Mephisto showed up at the door of Sullivan mansion with the answer to the question that tormented everyone, including him: had he passed the Scala exam? Would he rise to rank 6 (Vav)? Or on the contrary, had he failed, remaining stuck at rank 5 (He)? The answer brought by the White haired demon, however, beat all odds.
“I, as an individual! I am awarding you the rank of 5.5!” It was a very dramatic and very unclear verdict from Mephisto.
Iruma didn't know what to make of that assessment, even though he somehow understood the reasoning behind it. Until Nova and the Many-ears race had demonstrated practical results with the cultivation of their indescribably delicious carrots, it was hard to say whether he had passed the Scala exam or not. It was just a matter of time, as everyone told him, hoping his spirits wouldn't drop.
"But I don't know if I have it. Time, I mean" Iruma said, staring at the open notebook on the desk in front of him, hoping to find a clear answer in that jungle of questions. Sitting at the desk in his room, with Alikred sitting with his legs crouched on the left corner of the notebook, Iruma sighed.
The timeline was relatively clear to him, represented graphically with sketches and drawings: every time he had seen that scary shadow at the foot of his bed, it had been the night he had received a promotion in the demonic ranks. What was not clear to him, however, was everything else. Who or what was that shadow? Why did it always appear to him only one night, and then disappear until the next promotion in ranks? Would it also appear in the case of a demotion in ranks? Why had he found himself paralyzed the last few times? Why had that being called him "my poor sacrifice"? All these questions were still unanswered. Only one thing was clear to him.
"If the serial gambler is right, tonight we could have an unwanted visitor" said Alikred, voicing his fear. Iruma looked at the timeline from beginning to end, hoping to catch some detail he might have missed. The pen in his right hand underlined the last two salient points, the promotion to rank 4 (Daleth) and rank 5 (He). That was where things got worse. Maybe those ranks were special, Iruma thought. Wasn't rank 4 (Daleth) mandatory to graduate from Babyls? There must have been some meaning he didn't understand.
“Iru-boy" Alikred said, catching his attention, "I... I'm sorry. Maybe it's my fault. If I could just stay awake at night, I'd give it a good talking to" Alikred's voice was low, as if he felt guilty. Sincere regret was something the one-eyed being hadn't shown often, so it was even more worrying that he was doing so now. Iruma smiled encouragingly and replied, "Don't worry, Ali-san. Let's think about what we can do together, okay?" Iruma looked back at his notebook, while he used the top of his pen to absentmindedly scratch his right temple.
A truly unusual fact was Alikred's sudden loss of consciousness. When, the morning after the last sighting of the shadow, the blue haired boy had explained the events of that night, Alikred was left speechless. He swore on Iruma's breakfast that he had fallen into an unusually deep sleep and had not heard or seen anything. Digging deeper, the two discovered that it was a recurring phenomenon: every time the shadow appeared, Alikred would lose consciousness completely, finding himself with a sleepless night the next morning.
"By the way, Ali-san. What dreams do you have?" the young human had asked curiously, only to receive in return a small paper fan on his head and an accusation of violating someone's privacy.
Alikred disappeared quickly into the ring just as a long, elegant left hand reached out from Iruma's left side, taking the notebook and holding it up over the young human's head. "A school project? You're really doing your duty as a student, this is good" a voice said in surprise from behind him. Iruma turned around, finding Mephisto behind him.
Iruma made a strangled noise and jumped up from his chair. "M-Mephisto-san?! What are you doing here?" the blue haired boy asked in surprise. Looking closer at the demon that had appeared out of nowhere in his bedroom, he remembered that he was holding his notebook. The same one in which he had made a map to group the events and mysteries behind the strange shadow.
Mephisto let out a soft "Mh", his eyes quickly running over the pages of the notebook. After that, he handed the notebook to its rightful owner and asked, "Are you wondering why I'm here in the Sullivan mansion or why I'm in your room?" Iruma quickly thanked the high ranking demon as he took his notebook in his hands and replied "Both..."
Mephisto chuckled at the boy's honesty and replied, crossing his arms, a reassuring smile on his lips "Well, being your new neighbor for the foreseeable future I thought it was right to pay a courtesy call, here I am inside Sullivan mansion. As for your room..." Mephisto stopped, taking a curious look around. Iruma trembled slightly, regretting not having immediately thought of cleaning the room upon his return. Opera had entrusted him with this household task to educate him on keeping his space tidy, so probably the cat demon had never entered his bedroom during his Scala exam to clean. Iruma fervently hoped that Mephisto would not notice the light layer of dust that must have accumulated in the days spent away from home, like his classmates.
Mephisto, if he had noticed anything about it, didn't say anything. He turned back to the young human and said, "I wrote you a message, didn't you read it?" Iruma bent over his school backpack to retrieve his hellphone. Among the messages he had received, there was one from Mephisto, who informed him of his desire to have a light chat with him and his arrival for a courtesy visit.
"...Oh" Iruma exclaimed, surprised. "I guess you were too focused to look at your hell phone, no problem" Mephisto replied, then pointed to the notebook Iruma was clutching to his chest. "It doesn't look like a school project to me. This shadow... do you want to talk to me about it? I'm curious, I've never heard of a story like that. And I've heard quite a few stories, so far" he asked, showing genuine curiosity. Iruma lowered his gaze, doubtful. After what happened with Sullivan and Opera he didn't feel like worrying any more demons, just as talking to Balam about it had done nothing since the shadow had returned.
Mephisto tilted his head slightly, amused by the doubt that was easily read on the boy's face. He pressed his palms together and, in a pleading tone, said "Please? I won't tell anyone else". Iruma flinched and straightened up. As always, he was sensitive to requests and pleas. And Mephisto was a high ranking demon as well as one of the new Crowns, so maybe…
Iruma gulped and invited the demon to sit on the chair. A quick glance at the door to check that it was closed and then he began to tell, hoping to be able to finish the explanation before Opera came knocking on the door. He omitted the existence of Alikred, instead deepening the feeling of immobility that he had felt the last two times he had seen the shadow.
"And it tried to grab you the last time?" asked Mephisto, holding his chin between two fingers, thoughtful. Iruma nodded and showed him again the time map he had made, indicating the first and last episode "It's like the more I rise in rank, the more the shadow becomes... stronger" he admitted, revealing his fear out loud. There was no doubt that, with each new appearance, the mysterious shadow became more defined, bigger, and above all more eager to approach him. The problem, Iruma thought, was that he didn't know if the attempted interaction was with good or bad intentions.
Mephisto looked at the pages of Iruma's notebook again and stated, "It's definitely not a demon, no one would be so foolish as to venture inside the walls of a Crown mansion. And the fact that it can't touch you... a ghost? But you'd have to have earned the hatred of a dying demon to have a ghost after you"
Iruma trembled, frightened by the idea. The costumes they had made for the Magitools Battle were one thing, but a real ghost was another! Mephisto reached out with his left hand to the boy and gently took his right hand. He brought Iruma's hand closer to his face, his eyes fixed on the Gluttony ring. "This one. It's been a while since I've seen it, it's different from what I remembered. It's said that its manifestation resembles a ghost and that it appears whenever the ring is depleted of mana" the demon hypothesized.
Iruma waved his hands, panicking at the thought that he might find out about Alikred. "No, no, it's not it!" he replied, trying to protect the one-eyed being's reputation without revealing its existence. "Well, Grandpa fills it with mana almost daily, it can't be empty! When he's hungry he screams a lot, but he hasn't done that in a while” Iruma paused to think about the ghost.
All the demons he knew were alive and well, but there was one demon he hadn't been in contact with for a while: Ami Kirio. Iruma hadn't seen him since the Deviculum he had participated in and had met him by chance. He didn't know where Kirio was, or if he was okay. He gulped, hoping he wasn't dead. Kirio couldn't be dead, he still had to get him back to the Magitools Battle. But he ruled out that possibility for another reason, namely, the shadow had too many differences in appearance from his senpai from the Magitools Battle. The shadow had long horns and long straight hair, while Kirio had short horns and short hair.
“And I don't think I've angered any demon I know that much, I haven't received any news of sudden deaths, so... maybe it's not that either" he resumed. Mephisto nodded, accepting those answers.
The question, therefore, remained hanging over their heads. The white haired demon stood up, standing in front of the blue haired boy. He placed his palms on Iruma's shoulders and said in a reassuring voice, "Leave it to me! I have an idea. You said that it appears every time you increase in rank, but your Scala exam result hasn't been declared official yet. It doesn't hurt to try"
Iruma tilted his head slightly, not understanding where the demon was going with this. Mephisto let go of the young human and headed for the door. "It's better to go down, Sullivans-sama's security devil will be looking for me. I had a hard time getting rid of them, they are tough. Are you coming too? So we can all chat together, downstairs" the demon said in a nonchalant voice, then added. "Leave the window open before going to sleep tonight, okay? Don't worry, you are under my observation for the duration of the assignment given to me for your Scala exam. We will find this annoying unwanted guest and you can go back to sleep peacefully"
Iruma calmed down hearing those words. Smiling heartily, he thanked him. He followed him downstairs, hoping that tonight would only be a false alarm. After all, the rank 5.5 was not official, was it?
…
That evening, Iruma thought he would have trouble sleeping. Not knowing but unconsciously fearing the return of the shadow, he thought he would spend a handful of hours tossing and turning in the covers, or staring at the window left open as per Mephisto's request. He had done it after wishing Sullivan and Opera goodnight and turning off the light, so in theory no one should have noticed.
'Did Mephisto-san place a trap under my window? What if the hellkittens got stuck in it?' Iruma wondered, going to check and look out. He didn't see any trap, and checked to the limit of his knowledge from past experiences in the human world if his window had been tampered with. He verified that everything was fine, so he calmed down and went to bed.
Here the second unexpected event occurred: he fell asleep immediately. He didn't even realize he had closed his eyes, sleep welcomed him with open arms.
Iruma woke up with a start. In front of him, at the foot of the bed, the mysterious shadow had returned. It was tall, its outlines well defined. The long horns, if they had been physical, would probably have hit the ceiling. The demonic fangs were not visible because the mouth was closed. Iruma was scared and tried to get up, even though he knew it would be useless. Like the last two times, he was as if paralyzed, only able to move his eyes and breathe. The rest of his body seemed asleep. With wide eyes, the blue haired boy did not take his gaze off the mysterious figure. It did not move. Unlike the last time, it did not try to reach out a hand in his direction, nor did it move to get closer to him. Iruma did not understand, nor above all could he speak. Helpless and immobilized, he could do nothing but watch.
The mysterious being remained silent, that night he did not seem in the mood to utter any more disturbing phrases, and simply looked at him in turn. 'Or' Iruma wondered, 'is he not moving because he cannot move?'
It was one of the possibilities he had considered, with the abnormal result of the Scala exam. Perhaps, since he had not officially risen to rank 6 (He), the shadow had not developed again either. Why, in that case, was it there in front of him?
His ears heard a sudden rustling. Surprised and unable to move his head, Iruma carefully moved his gaze from the mysterious shadow to the source of the noise. His eyes lit up with surprise, a feeling of reassurance warmed his heart. On the windowsill, with his demonic wings fully exposed, was Mephisto.
"Am I in time for the private party?" the demon asked no one in particular, stepping in through the window in a swift, graceful motion. As soon as he set foot on the floor of Iruma's room, Mephisto tucked his wings back into the wings root. He placed his hands on his hips and sighed dramatically, looking at Iruma. "I told you I'd take care of it, right? Leave it to me from here on out" the demon stated calmly.
Mephisto looked around for the shadow, finding it at the foot of Iruma's bed. He widened his eyes, shocked. Under the surprised gaze of the blue haired boy, the white haired demon immediately knelt down. "You" Mephisto said, shocked to say the least "You’re back"
Iruma did not understand well, but he thought it logical that Mephisto knew the mysterious being, this was a reassuring fact. The identity of the shadow would no longer be a mystery from now on. Mephisto, with his head bowed forward, waited for an answer. The shadow, to the surprise of both, remained completely silent.
Mephisto raised his head, doubtful. Slowly, the demon stood up straight. He maintained eye contact with the shadow, an indefinite number of questions accumulating on the tip of his tongue. Mephisto opened his mouth, not a sound came out. A strange realization struck him. He took a few steps towards the shadow and then stopped. Iruma could now only see him from behind. "It's not possible" Mephisto said, increasingly shocked, a feeling he thought he would never feel again after his centuries of life. He slowly waved his left hand in front of the shadow, but it did not move. Its gaze, as well as its concentration, were solely on Iruma. "Where is your body?" with a bitter voice, bordering on disappointment, Mephisto asked the shadow "Where is your soul? Where are you?"
The mysterious shadow did not seem to have heard him or, if it had, did not bother to answer. Iruma wanted to ask questions like this a few times in his life. He wanted to ask Mephisto who that being was, if in the end it was really a demon, what was the point of those strange questions. “I see” declared the white haired demon ”You're just the shadow of the demon you used to be. But… why?”
The demon, startled out of nowhere, remembering the third presence in the room. He turned to Iruma, well covered by the warm blankets, with a confused look, his head slightly tilted. Mephisto thought back to what the blue haired boy had told him that day, and tried to find the missing link with the demon next to him.
He understood.
And he didn't like it at all.
"... I see" he simply said, as if he had realized only at that moment that the sun was hot, that demons could fly. And what a sacrifice was.
The shadow stretched out its left hand towards Mephisto, now it was staring at him. Mephisto suddenly flinched and stepped back considerably, his eyes again on the mysterious figure. He raised his hands to the level of his head to demonstrate that he was weaponless and that he posed no danger.
With a forced smile on his lips, the white-haired demon stated in a firm voice, "I have no intention of harming Iruma-kun. I am his ally. I promised to watch over him, you know that my word is absolute". The shadow remained in that position for a few more seconds, after which the left hand slowly returned to its place, at the left side of the mysterious being. A little more confident, Mephisto added, "It's not official yet. You have to be patient, even if I know you hate waiting. Leave Iruma-kun alone, your presence here is scaring him. Don't give him a reason to leave”
As soon as he said those words, the shadow disappeared. It didn't retreat, it didn't leave the room, it simply disappeared. Iruma felt the control of his limbs again, the ability to move. He immediately got up from the bed, ending up on the floor in his haste, but he immediately got up and went to meet Mephisto.
"Mephisto-san, are you alright?" he asked the demon worriedly, forgetting the questions he had previously had a strong desire to ask him. Mephisto watched him in silence. Under the light of the two moons, following what had just happened, he saw Iruma with new eyes.
Mephisto wasn't very up to date on the latest events regarding the Demon King, he only knew that he had disappeared one day into thin air and that there had been no trace of him since. For this reason, he had found it shocking to find the missing Demon King Derkila in the blue haired boy's room. He had had an impression of similarities between the two, although it was more about their differences than their shared potential to sit on the most important throne in the Netherworld.
Mephisto was old enough to know and remember the most ancient spells, even the most dangerous and forbidden ones. He knew what a sacrifice was, but it didn't make sense. Demons could be sacrifices, but they would rarely yield an effective spell. And no high ranking demon would sacrifice his life to perform a spell, nor was it possible to force one to do so.
Unless… other beings were used in their favor as sacrifices. After all, there was no spell more powerful than one fueled by the sacrifice of a life. But a sacrifice meant that something bad had happened to the Demon King.
Mephisto took Iruma's head in his hands and began to ruffle his hair forcefully, smiling. Ignoring the boy's startled squeaks, his eyes focused on what the blue hair tended to cover during the day: the rounded tips of the boy's ears.
'Round ears. Human ears' the white-haired demon mused, before offering a vague reassurance of his physical condition to Iruma. It made sense, Mephisto thought. Just as humans could summon demons, so demons could use humans as sacrifices to fuel their strongest, and therefore forbidden, spells. It was in the nature of demons to use everything in a human, be it blood, flesh, or life.
When Iruma had told him about the mysterious phrase about a sacrifice, he didn't seem to know what it meant. And he didn't seem to be there against his will. In fact, he was trying to pass himself off as a demon like the rest of them. As he fixed Iruma's messy hair, Mephisto realized something else important: just any human wouldn't be a sufficient sacrifice for a Demon King. Whatever spell was required, and whose life Iruma had been put on the line, required a soul far stronger than that of a simple human fifteen-year-old.
But what if the human boy rose in rank, reaching heights that only the strongest High Ranking Demons in the Netherworld could touch? How full of energy would such a human sacrifice be?
"Iruma-kun" Mephisto said out of nowhere, placing his hands on the boy's shoulders and leaning down to his face. "Everything is fine. I'll protect you from that demon, but you have to promise me that you won't tell anyone about what's going on. I have to do some research to be more sure about his identity, but if word gets out, I could have a lot of trouble with... my sources. Do you understand?"
No, thought Mephisto, he couldn't let other demons find out. If Sullivan or the other Crowns learned that Iruma was for some mysterious reason the designated sacrifice for Derkila's return, they would surely capture him and lock him away in the highest and most inaccessible floors of Babel to protect him.
No other demon but them, faithful demons of the missing Demon King, would have had the chance to interact with Iruma. The risk that someone would try to kill him to prevent him from fulfilling his purpose was an all too tangible risk, as he had seen with his own eyes. Derkila's shadow had immediately moved against him as soon as it realized that Mephisto was seeing the whole picture. Safe from any attempt at killing or any possible unwanted accident, Iruma would remain cared for and hidden in the dizzying tower until the Crowns had figured out how to use him for the purpose he was designed for. There was only one possible attempt, failure was not an option.
Far from his friends, his classmates, his teachers, the young human would remain isolated in the tower until his final moments of life.
Iruma seemed to think about it for a moment, then agreed. Reassured by that answer, Mephisto asked again "While we're at it, could you not tell Sullivan-sama and his Security Devil about this unannounced visit of mine? It might seem a little strange, I don't think I'd be welcomed in this house anymore" Iruma nodded repeatedly, stating that he would keep the secret.
Mephisto made sure the boy was okay once more, reassured him that he would explain later on some research he had to do on the mysterious shadow, and then went out the window, wishing him good night.
"Ali-san?" Iruma asked, speaking to the ring, once he was sure he was alone again. The one-eyed being didn't make himself heard, so Iruma assumed he was still asleep. The young human went back to bed, covering himself well with the blankets, but instead of sleeping he spent a long time just sitting there. He had lost sleep, so he continued to look in the direction where the shadow had disappeared.
None of what had happened seemed to make sense, but Iruma was a boy who had become accustomed to inexplicable things. He managed to sleep a couple of hours before the alarm went off, without being disturbed again.
…
"Good morning, Iruma-kun!" Mephisto greeted him smilingly, sitting in their dining room. Iruma, sleepy and hungry, rubbed his eyes in disbelief at the unexpected sight.
"Mephisto-sama kindly offered to accompany you to school today, so he will be attending breakfast with us" Opera said discreetly in his ear, bringing the second trolley full of food into the room with them. Iruma returned the greeting and sat down in his place, welcomed as always by Sullivan and his affectionate hugs. Iruma still couldn't believe what had happened the night before, and the fact that Mephisto sat at their table without hinting or even mentioning those events in any way didn't help.
At the gate of Sullivan mansion, like every morning, Asmodeus and Clara were waiting for him. The pink haired boy was immediately annoyed by the presence of the new Thirteen Crown, but since he couldn't face him openly, he simply held his ground more firmly at Iruma's side. On the other side, with much less animosity, was Clara, who hugged Iruma by the hips and began to speak freely.
Mephisto followed them at a slight distance, smiling casually, his arms held behind his back.
The demon did not waver in his determination. The revelation from the night before did not undermine his promise. Derkila had refused his help long ago. On the contrary, Iruma was eager to have him at his side and to be guided by him. The needle of the scale had decreed which side the kingmaker was on.
What worried Mephisto was not the fact that Iruma was human. After all, he had already lent a hand and put his powers at the service of the humans who had summoned him through the grimoire; this wasn’t a novelty to him. The real problem was Sullivan. How much did the old demon know? He had somehow brought a human under his roof and supported his false identity as a demon, making him attend a school for demons. He supported him in everything, including his ascension to the throne, as foreseen in the Trickster Plan that he himself had proposed. Mephisto had never noticed the demons surrounding Derkila, but he would do some research on Sullivan. It was highly likely that he was aware of the Iruma situation, if not the main culprit.
The white haired demon's gaze fell casually on the shadows reflected behind the three students. The smile turned into a short, annoyed grimace.
'Iruma-kun, such a poor naive sacrifice' the demon thought, his eyes fixed on the boy's shadow. That's why it was so important that he actively participated in the increase in ranks. Iruma needed to be a stronger sacrifice to be useful for the spell’s purpose.
Mephisto took a few steps forward and stepped on Iruma's shadow. Smiling again, he leaned over the young human's right shoulder and asked a trivial question, enjoying the pink haired boy's annoyed reaction.
Mephisto had chosen to side with Iruma. He liked youngsters with that main character kind of vibe, and in this case Iruma was the ideal main character of that crazy mysterious plan. Mephisto didn't feel obligated to help a Demon King who had rejected him, but rather supported the future Demon King who had welcomed him to his side.
'Wouldn't it be fun to have a human Demon King?' Mephisto wondered, amused. He would make sure to find out what Iruma's true past was, and what his real last name was. The reason why he had been chosen for that plan bordered on madness. What the spell in question was, who the author of the plan was. He didn't care about Derkila, because Mephisto was chasing the victory of that bet he made between himself and the mysterious demon behind that plan: to be able to raise Iruma in ranks and become Demon King, but preventing Derkila from returning. A sacrifice was normally connected to the demon, so it would have been impossible. For anyone but Mephisto, because he wasn't a normal demon.
The white-haired demon glanced behind him, looking at Iruma's shadow for the last time.
Unfortunately, although the rank of 5.5 he had given Iruma was not official, it had developed some effect. Iruma's shadow did not show the round head of the human boy, on which the now iconic ahoge towered. Iruma's shadow depicted a long-limbed figure, with long horns.
Mephisto vowed himself to win that crazy bet and save Iruma from the spell's adverse effect.
That was the Kingmaker's bet.
THE END