The Academy’s Weapon Replicator

"What do you mean?"

"They were all devils bound to that contract by Satan's orders. The very contract Satan made with a human to cross the gate."

Then Marco looked at Frondier.

"Frondier, something similar happened in this world, didn't it? A ridiculous incident where everyone in the world couldn't remember one person."

"...!"

What Frondier naturally recalled was Chancellor Osprey's magic.

Osprey, who had thrown himself outside the world, escaping everyone's perception.

Seeing Frondier's expression, Marco said,

"Something similar happened to the devils. Well, the situation is reversed though."

In other words, instead of the devils leaving the world, the world had escaped the devils' perception.

"The wish of the human who made a contract with Satan was something like this. 'Please get rid of all the devils in this world,' or some other absurd wish."

"He wished for a devil to get rid of devils?"

And to Satan, the leader of the Seven Deadly Sins?

Whoever that human was, they couldn't have died peacefully.

"That human intended to die from the beginning. So it seems like he wanted to take as many devils with him as possible. Well, he might have been curious to see what kind of expression a devil would make if he wished for such a thing. Of course, there was no way Satan would grant such a wish. And he couldn't grant it either. A wish like eliminating all devils is impossible even if Satan wanted to do it."

"I suppose so."

"So Satan talked to the human. You know, as you've seen, Satan is very good at pretending to be a gentleman."

Frondier knew it well because he had actually seen it.

It annoyed him even more because of that gentlemanly pretense.

"Satan spent a long time talking to the human and building trust with him. Well, a long time by human standards, but a very short time from Satan's perspective. Humans who are usually deceived by devils are deceived because they don't understand this difference."

"...They think they have come to understand each other's hearts after spending a long time together, but that long time is like a fleeting moment for the devil."

"Yes, from Satan's perspective, it was just a brief act. Within that moment, Satan succeeded in convincing the human that not all devils are bad."

...That's not so much persuasion as...

Frondier was about to say something but stopped himself.

He felt like saying something unnecessary would make him feel guilty for some reason.

He didn't know why.

"So the human changed his wish. 'Satan, tell me the demons you think should disappear. I trust you, I want to get rid of the demons you talk about.' When they said that, Satan answered. 'All the demons are in the demon world. They won't harm humans if they don't come to this world.' When Satan said that, he had already baited the hook."

Frondier's eyes went cold at Marco's words.

Marco continued,

"Then the human said."

──Then get rid of those devils from the Demon Realm.

"...Haha."

Frondier laughed with cold eyes.

It wasn't funny, but laughter came out naturally. Disgust and revulsion were exhaled with his breath.

"Satan led the human to say that."

"Yes. Those are the ones who 'disappeared' from the Demon Realm. The devils currently hiding in the Empire. It's a very simple wordplay."

After saying that, Marco looked at Baal.

"How about it, Baal? Does even this sound like a lie?"

Baal was crossing his arms. With his eyes closed tightly, he was tapping his forearm with his fingers.

Then he opened his eyes and spoke.

"Hey, Marco."

"Why?"

"How do you know all these stories?"

"...Ah."

"As I thought! You sided with Satan!"

Baal growled and approached Marco.

Since he had actually sided with Satan, Marco couldn't think of an excuse for a moment.

"Stop it, Baal. It's good that he's telling us honestly now."

"But because of that, our devils...!"

"You also learned that you don't need to kill the Empire devils anymore."

If what Marco said was true, the devils in the Empire were also victims of Satan.n/ô/vel/b//in dot c//om

Satan had made them disappear from the Demon Realm under the pretense of granting the human's wish.

"But can a contract do that? It seems like killing them would be simpler."

Frondier said, and Marco shrugged.

"It's a contract that can summon Satan. It must have used something tremendous as a medium. It might be comparable to a Dragon Heart, or even a Dragon Heart itself."

"Satan wouldn't have known how to make them lose their memories, would he?"

"He doesn't need to know how. The 'contract' takes care of that."

A contract with a devil isn't just the devil's power.

A contract is established only when a devil, a medium, and a human come together. Therefore, a contract utilizes the power of all three.

'...Osprey, who almost reached the level of Archmage, succeeded in something similar, so is it possible with the power of a contract.'

Anyway, now he understood the situation. Why the Western devils were grinding their teeth at the devils hiding in the Empire, and what misunderstanding it stemmed from.

Moreover, he had also learned why the Empire devils had no memories, so he had gained much more information than Frondier had expected.

'...But if this is the case.'

One problem remained.

'...Lily Lis is, in the end, Satan's subordinate.'

Lily said she didn't know why she was in the Empire's territory.

But she considered the Demon Realm as a "place to return to."

No matter how he looked at it, it was too clear.

Lily was a former subordinate of Satan.

A devil who had set out as the vanguard to invade the Empire, but lost her memories due to Satan, who had completed the contract due to Belphegor's intervention.

"...If Satan wants to, can the devils hiding in the Empire regain their memories?"

Frondier asked, maintaining his usual expression as much as possible.

Marco tilted his head for a moment and then said,

"It won't be easy. It wasn't Satan's power alone that made them lose their memories. It was the power of the contract."

Lily and the other devils lost their memories due to the power of the contract. It would be difficult for Satan alone to restore those memories.

But Marco also said,

"However, it's not impossible."

"...Is that so."

While answering quietly,

Frondier's eyes went beyond cold, slowly losing their temperature.