"Why not correct this error in the past, instead of waiting for the future?"
The eyes that had been closed opened slowly. The one hidden beneath his hair was pure white; the other was black at its depths. Schlacht looked at Grausam for a long moment.
"In the future, He is at His weakest."
The words rang through the great hall with absolute certainty, and for once a stir ran through the silent ranks of Demons.
"Something even the Demon King of the past could do nothing about?"
"On that point I will say nothing. Revealing too much invites danger we don't need."
The Omniscient One's explanation had a strange, muttering evasiveness to it.
"Miracle, there's no need to dig at the roots like this. Schlacht's thinking is on a level of loftiness we will never understand. We only need to fulfill our part and be good chess pieces."
Solitär smiled, making it plain that she backed Schlacht without reservation.
"All I need is the chance to fight. Orders, plans, whatever — I don't care. If it involves fighting, I won't refuse."
The Demon Race general known as "Divine Technique" — Refeldi — spread all four of his arms, as though he might unleash his signature art, Divine Technique: Sword Shatter, at any instant. For him, it was enough to have an excuse to test his blade and grow stronger.
"Whatever Lord Refeldi does, I'll do too. Hee hee."
The Demon shaped like a little girl skipped over to Refeldi's side. He simply fell silent and said nothing more, showing not the slightest interest in the child trailing after him.
The Demon in the eyepatch let his gaze wander between Schlacht and Refeldi, then quietly drifted a step closer to Schlacht's side. He had traveled here together with Refeldi, but he had no taste for working with him — he far preferred fighting alone inside his own mists to any kind of team.
"I… it's nothing."
The red-skinned Demon with the four arms looked enormous, yet his nerve seemed very small indeed; he committed to nothing.
"If it is for the future of the Demon Race, and for my own survival, then naturally I will obey."
Grausam fell in behind Solitär's words.
Seeing that not one Demon present had an objection, Schlacht nodded, satisfied. "Good. Then I will tell you what I have seen of the future, and what comes next…"
The Omniscient One's plan revolved around the destruction of Gaderia — though the shape that destruction might take could vary a great deal.
As things stood, the preliminary phase against Gaderia was already complete, and Schlacht, gazing into Gaderia's future, had found the route by which that future could be changed.
Provoke a war between the Humans and Gaderia.
Cut the thin thread of coexistence between the Demon Race and Humans, so newly strung.
In the name of Demons belonging to Gaderia, slaughter Humans on a grand scale throughout the Central Lands and the Northern regions — and heap every crime the Humans could name onto that one city.
Ruin the fragile trust that had been so hard to build.
It was a remarkably simple stratagem, one that worked even in plain sight.
It would inevitably draw the hatred of the Northern Empire and the nations of the Central Lands down onto Gaderia's head. Gaderia was, after all, already an aberration of a city where Demons lived openly, and those Human states that had long wanted it dismantled would ride the current of public outrage and quietly push its ruin along.
"So this country is the first target?"
Grausam was unusually talkative today.
"Correct. As a nation that supports the hunting of Demons, clearing it away is necessary."
Schlacht said it without expression. However many Humans died, none of it weighed against the greater cause of the Demon Race.
"So I need you now, Miracle. I want you to take on Human form and go about spreading word of what Gaderia's Demons have done. And while you're at it, it would be best to assassinate the occasional Human of high standing."
"An easy enough task."
Brother Miracle folded his arms across his chest, entirely at ease.
"Solitär, I'm assigning these two Demon Race generals to you. Move in the Northern region. Wiping out a few small Human villages or towns will do. The Northern Empire is sensitive to any movement of the Demon Race, so when the moment is right, let them catch hold of some evidence pointing at Gaderia."
"No problem."
"Hafleet, you and yours keep making trouble in the Central Lands as you please. But don't go south. The future trends down there aren't good."
"Understood."
With the assignments briefly settled, Schlacht — perhaps to keep them all convinced — shared the task he had set for himself as well.
"I will go and try to draw other Demons into the fold, and make this organization stronger."
"That really is something only you can do, since you're the one who can see where the Demon Race is headed."
Solitär gave Schlacht every courtesy. For one thing, she genuinely detested everything Gaderia stood for; for another, apart from the Demon King himself, there was no one she trusted more than the Omniscient.
"Then I'll go walk the territory first."
"I want to come! I want to come too, Lord Refeldi!"
"Um…"
Divine Technique turned to leave, the girl Demon and the red Demon in tow.
"Remember to leave a few of them alive."
Refeldi heard Schlacht's instruction and walked out without a word of reply.
"Good luck to you." Solitär departed with that unchanging smile of hers, the "Keeper" and "Bronze" following at her back. The three Demons strode out across a carpet stained red with blood.
"Now then…"
"Grausam, stay a moment. There's something I want to ask you."
Just as Brother Miracle was about to pass him by, the Omniscient One's hand came up and barred his way.
"?" Grausam said nothing, only lowered his head slightly to meet those deep, mismatched eyes.
"I've found that I can no longer see your future. What did you do during all that time after my death?"
"…" Grausam halted, silent, that ever-cold face turned inward in thought.
"I tried to blend in among the Humans. Changed identities again and again. Deleted a great many memories. That's all."
Schlacht's hand never lowered. Only after a long while did he speak again, with something like regret.
"A pity you never found Rivale, or Tod."
"So even an Omniscient like you has his moments of lamenting his own limits."
"Knowing the future doesn't necessarily mean I can hold back the flood — just as I am fated to die at the hands of that old nemesis. Go on. Be careful on the road."
"Very well."
Grausam's expression never shifted as he passed by.
Schlacht turned to watch the direction Miracle had gone. Those black-and-white mismatched eyes flickered without pause. Grausam's future lay behind some kind of veil; he could not see through it at all.
There was no doubt about it — that was Grausam of the Seven Sages of Destruction. Mana does not lie to a Demon, and the Omniscient One had felt nothing out of place. He had simply lost his future.
"I will prove it. The future I have chosen is the right one — even if it costs me my own life."
The Omniscient One Schlacht spoke alone, to empty air.
____
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