[TS] Surviving in a Yuri Visual Novel

“You surprised me by coming without notice.”

“Is that a sneer at my lack of manners?”

“Not at all. I value my life too much for that.”

“Hmph. You still know how to talk.”

Suddenly arriving, she, Lumani Tepes, snorted and elegantly crossed her legs as she sat down on the sofa, presenting her apologies to us.

“I heard you stopped Ryuren. It mustn’t have been easy dealing with her, but I guess it’s not something you can’t understand.”

“Excuse me?”

“Heh. It’s always the unconventional ones that appear, but that’s not what’s important. First, as the Demon King’s envoy, I apologize for the Academy’s affairs. Us Mazoku have been too complacent.”

“…I appreciate the apology. But does that mean you were aware of the organization Ryuren belongs to?”

“I had a rough idea. We met last time, didn’t we? Recently, the militant faction of the Mazoku has been up to something suspicious. Monitoring and restraining the militant faction—that was the mission you discreetly gave me.”

“Keep an eye on the movements of organizations that don’t obey the Demon King, most of whom belong to the militant faction. Do not allow them to surface under any circumstances.”

“I was given the mission of ‘If they cause harm to both Mazoku and humans, feel free to kill them without mercy,’ and I’ve been taking them down. I always thought they were a gathering of losers. No matter how many gathered, they’re still bugs. I naively thought that by killing a few as examples, things would quiet down.”

How pitiful. With a deep sigh, Lumani flashed a fierce glare and swept back her bangs with one hand.

“Who would’ve guessed one of their executives would be Ryuren, one of the traitors?”

Lumani added with a fierce expression and a mysterious smile.

“Yes. That woman is the only one alive among the former Archdemons, excluding me, and I should have been more watchful. If we had truly killed her back then, this wouldn’t have happened… I deeply regret that.”

Was it that Lumani’s calm demeanor displeased her? Or was it just that Lumani as a Mazoku didn’t sit well with her? Irina, who had been silent and listening quietly until now, furrowed her brows and pointed an accusing finger at Lumani, shouting.

“Ryuren is one of the very few Mazoku who can face Damian on equal footing! You know very well that she’s not one to be easily taken down! But in the end…!”

“I let her slip. Who would have guessed that while wearing restraints that suppressed her power and magic, she could escape the encirclement of hundreds of Mazoku regular troops? Who would have imagined a Mazoku with dead eyes, hopelessly staring at the sky, would suddenly turn and take down all the Mazoku around her before fleeing?”

“….”

“Our Mazoku have always been indifferent to our comrades. So am I. Ryuren, that traitor, is the same. She’s been obsessively strong since the time of the previous Demon King, so it’s not surprising, but still… I wish you would understand that I couldn’t kill her back then.”

But if you want to blame someone, go ahead and blame me. With Lumani’s casual acceptance of being scorned, Chloe restrained Irina, who was about to lash out. However, Chloe’s eyes were just as cold as ice.

A look that said there was no point in hearing more.

With a sigh at the two, I attempted to mediate Irina.

“I hope both of you can tone it down a bit. Really. Irina, you should calm down too. What’s important now is the matter regarding those who attacked the Academy. Keep personal feelings out of this.”

“…Charlotte.”

“We barely just established a peace agreement. Both humans and Mazoku lost a lot due to that war. It’s the peace we finally found. But now it seems everything is falling apart; is there anything more important than that right now?”

“There’s nothing more important… I’m sorry. I just got carried away.”

Seeing Irina retreating with a gloomy expression, Chloe offered her a small consolation, and I averted my gaze to avoid looking at them. Lumani didn’t seem pleased with the situation either, furrowing one eyebrow and merely gazing this way in silence.

It seemed she had nothing more to say.

No, she had come to apologize and to eradicate the Mazoku that attacked the Academy in one fell swoop. This wasn’t the time or place to debate the righteousness of the human versus Mazoku war.

“Lumani, you seem to know quite a bit about the organization that Ryuren belongs to; could you tell us more about it?”

“Well, you can call me in a more friendly way, but right now we need to draw a line between public and private matters. Alright. I will tell you what I also relayed to the Hero and the Sage before coming here.”

Shrugging her shoulders, she continued without hiding her displeasure.

“The organization Ryuren belongs to is, simply put, a gathering of those who extremely dislike the current Demon King. It seems to be mainly composed of survivors of the Mazoku who followed the previous Demon King and the militant Mazoku who do not like His Majesty.”

“Did you just watch it unfold? Mazoku strength is everything. Shouldn’t it have been solved with strength?”

“Our Mazoku’s approach of pursuing strength, where only the strong survive, is accurate, but their numbers are considerable. If I executed them all for harboring impure thoughts against His Majesty, it would just invite more trouble down the line.”

Executing them is not easy in the first place. Lumani shrugged again.

“The days when strength was everything are long gone. Not all Mazoku are foolish. With His Majesty claiming the throne, he surrounds himself with Mazoku who possess both strength and wisdom rather than just those who pursued power alone, making their strength even greater now.”

“There are so many things that can’t be achieved just by strength. I’ve heard about the situation of the Mazoku. The Demon King’s choice is wise. It would be a reality that you cannot hold anything simply by being strong.”

Chloe nodded in agreement with Lumani’s words. The first time I heard that, a myriad of thoughts crossed my mind.

Finally, the Mazoku seems to be thinking properly. Remembering one by one the former Mazoku commanders who tried to suppress everything blindly with strength, I genuinely breathed a sigh of relief that the current Demon King is wise.

If the newly crowned Mazoku had only war in mind, the same tragedy would have repeated countless times. If that were the case, one of the races would have faced extermination. In that sense, if the Demon King is worthy of respect like the Hero Leo, then he should indeed be respected.

Even if a rebellion breaks out from within, it’s worth noting that if you search history, there’s never been a single case where humans and Mazoku established a peace treaty.

I looked at Lumani, a light smile appearing on my lips.

“Neither side wishes for war. There is simply not enough material and personnel to wage war in the first place. Moreover, I don’t want to see the sprouted new buds being driven into the battlefield and dying.”

“Ah, you are correct. There would be nothing more disappointing than the sprouts meant to carry the future of the Mazoku wilting away without blooming. If another war breaks out like this, we Mazoku might not be able to escape extermination.”

Thus, we must thwart Ryuren and the organization she belongs to. I wiped the smile off my face and nodded solemnly.

“There’s probably a traitor on our human side connected to Ryuren as well. No matter how strong the organization Ryuren belongs to, it wouldn’t be easy for Leticia to breach the barrier she placed and invade the Academy.”

“So you mean there are humans cooperating with the traitor? To be honest, there have always been those who fell and betrayed their kin even while warfare was rampant.”

“We can’t exclude the possibility that there are those cooperating with them.”

Perhaps there’s a rat hidden within the Academy.

Since using teleportation magic requires a link between the hideout and the Academy, it’s an investigation I will have to conduct secretly.

I scratched my head and let out a sigh.

Now that Leticia has seen through my identity and the war has ended, I had planned to raise the human weapon of the new Hero party and return to Earth, but a meddler appeared to hinder that plan.

“The Goddess chose a new Hero even though Leo is perfectly fine, and that always bothered me; was this the reason?”

If she chose a new Hero, I thought perhaps the Goddess had lost her mind, but if she did it considering this situation, then it changes everything.

What a gloomy Goddess. I cursed her inwardly while contemplating Chloe.

Honestly, I don’t want to send that child into the battlefield. I can’t let her die on the battlefield. Even if she’s a Hero. Yet, I can’t just let such talent waste away inside the Academy, and I think she would do well if entrusted to her.

In the midst of this tough situation, I jolted back in shock upon suddenly seeing Lumani’s face close to mine.

“What… what is it, all of a sudden…?”

“No, I was just curious why you, Damien Redius, as a human, have transformed into a vampire of my kind, and moreover, as a female. Though you seem to be only half-vampire.”

Could you tell me the reason for that?

Faced with Lumani’s question, sporting a mysterious smile, I could only stiffen, my surprise evident on my face.

…I had forgotten.

The fact that this woman possesses the magical eyes that can pierce through the essence of one’s soul.

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