Scarlet

The Chairman and I excuse ourselves from the party to go speak in a private room at his request. And the moment we both sit down, he immediately asks, “I would like to request that you speak with the Leader of the Succubus Clan to negotiate the end of the war.”

I blink at that before frowning.

“Did something happen?” I ask in return, feeling like this question came out of nowhere. Considering how long he could’ve asked me it, and how he should already know it’s not possible.

Jacob grimaces and answers, “Damien is beginning to show his face.”

Oh.

Yeah, I can see that being a problem.

Damien val Shadowblade is currently the highest level demon on Earth, with the exception of Satan who is currently grounded and likely will remain grounded until Gramps can order him otherwise. Considering that the Demon King’s orders are absolute and all.

But Damien hasn’t been directly participating in the war for a while now. Some assume it’s because he’s afraid to get severely injured again like the last time, but most believe he just isn’t interested in the war. This being from both the human and demon side’s gossip.

I haven’t met the man myself, so I wouldn’t know what he’s like one way or the other. The only thing I have to go on is a brief passing remark Gramps made about him while I was on Tartarus.

That he’s depressed.

Which isn’t an uncommon thing with ghouls, considering their curse.

“How so?” I eventually ask while crossing my arms.

Jacob looks me directly in the eye and says, “He killed the Dark Jester, the Jaded Saint, and the Eternal Flame.”

My jaw drops open at the blunt declaration of the death of three Class V Guardians.

“In a single night,” Jacob adds, making me uncross my arms and lean forwards in my seat out of pure shock.

“Was he provoked or something?” I ask after taking a second to recover.

Jacob shakes his head and says, “No. They were fighting on the frontlines as usual before he arrived, ignored all of the other Guardians, and killed the three without batting an eye. Then he left, once again ignoring the other Guardians.”

“And when did this happen? Has he shown himself again since then?” I ask back to back questions, feeling more than a little tense at the idea of Damien going around killing Class Vs when he used to be so inactive in the war other than defending the Gate.

The Chairman shakes his head, answering, “He hasn’t shown himself since, and it happened just a few days ago. He didn’t even harm a single other Guardian aside from the Class Vs in the area, so we believe he’s going around hunting Class Vs.”

Hunting Class Vs…

“Also…” Jacob continues before hesitating, making me frown. “…he ate their corpses.”

Oh. Well that’s normal for a ghoul.

Gross, cruel, and not something I ever want to see, yes. But normal for a ghoul.

Their Sin kind of makes them.

That said, it’ll probably kill morale amongst the soldiers that hear about it.

“So it sounds like he’s going around hunting Class Vs then? What is the general doing to counter it?” I ask while tapping my fingers on my leg.

“Your mother and the Blue Knight of Humanity are both patrolling the Arctic frontlines and will notify us immediately should he show up,” Jacob says with a frown on his face. “Then we’ll send the rest of the Knights to deal with him for good.”

Right, he’s almost as strong as Satan. And Satan just about killed all of the Knights while they were working together against him, even if he had the boost from the Demon Moon. So at the very least Satan can take down two or three Knights at once without the help of the Demon Moon.

Should be safe to assume that Damien can take on two of them at once as well.

He’s just never really been a real issue thanks to his seeming lack of interest in the war.

I frown as a thought comes to mind.

“Do you think his actions could have something to do with Vorgrim going on a rampage back on Tartarus?” I ask, making Jacob blink in surprise for a second. Then he leans forwards, his elbows on his knees as he seemingly considers the possibility.

It would make some sense. After all, Damien likely has people he cares about on Tartarus, and if he knew that Vorgrim could very likely kill them, he would be sparked into action even if he dislikes the war. Just to push the war forward and closer to its end so he can return to Tartarus.

Maybe I should pay a visit to Damien soon.

“It’s highly possible,” Jacob finally responds to the possibility I pointed out, but he soon pushes that aside as he raises his head and asks, “So what do you think about you going to negotiate the end of the war with Lily del Rose?”

I shake my head immediately and answer, “Not possible. Even if the demons believe it to be a good idea, without Gramps’ permission, nothing can happen. His last order was for the war to continue, so without him directly saying it can come to an end, even if we know he would say that, Demon King’s Rule won’t let them end the war.”

Jacob gets a depressed look about him after hearing my answer, but there’s nothing I can do about that.

It’s just an ironclad rule of the skill.

Gramps’ word is quite literally law for the demons. The only ones that can disobey it are Demon Lords, none of whom are on Earth. And only they’d be able to disobey it. Not the rest of the demons.

So only they’d be able to ignore orders to fight.

It’s actually something Gramps would complain about. That there isn’t much leeway in the skill’s usage, and he has to be extremely careful about what he orders demons to do.

And only he can retract his orders. Although depending on the demon’s level, both Leonidas and I can also give orders to demons. Just with less authority than he has.

“In that case we can only hope the Demon King returns to demon society soon…” Jacob says something I never expected one of the leaders of the humans to ever say in my life.

Then again, that would solve pretty much every problem we have right now.