Chapter 138: When I Go Crazy, Even the Demon King Isn't Spared!

Late that night, Ruby suffered from insomnia for once. Recalling what Eve had said during the day still left him unable to calm down. The girl had made her feelings so serious and clear—what was he supposed to do? Whether he agreed or refused, it seemed he would only be wasting her time.

Unfortunately, the world was not kind enough to give him time to think. A beautiful song suddenly drifted into his ears. Ruby had heard Aqua sing before, so he naturally knew who it was. Who knew what had gotten into the mermaid that she would start singing in the middle of the night? Since he could not sleep anyway, he simply got out of bed and jumped through the window to investigate.

When Ruby reached the lakeside, he quickly found Aqua. The mermaid was sitting on the bank, gazing at the moon as she sang softly to herself. The melodious, graceful voice truly came from her lips, and under the accompaniment of her song, the moonlight and the mermaid formed an incomparably beautiful scene.

“Ruby, you came.”

Aqua stopped singing when she saw him approach, then turned around and said with a grin. Yet her usually sparkling sky-blue eyes seemed slightly dimmer than usual.

“Were you calling for me?”

Ruby sensed that something was wrong as well. Aqua had no reason to sing in the middle of the night—she was not some noisy husky. Besides, his dormitory was quite far from here. Unless she had deliberately intended for him to hear her, the song should never have reached his ears. And although the mermaid’s gaze was usually vacant, as if she were thinking about nothing at all, it was clearly even more hollow now.

“Mhm. Follow me.”

Aqua nodded and leaped into the lake. Ruby followed without hesitation. Dragon promptly unfolded a magical barrier around him, enclosing him securely inside a spherical shield.

With the light emitted by Dragon, Ruby could see the bottom of the lake clearly. It was filled mostly with fish and other aquatic creatures. He soon spotted the mermaid’s back and followed Aqua all the way down. The lake was not particularly deep, only about twenty meters. Once they reached the bottom, the mermaid deftly drew a magic circle with both hands. When it began to glow faintly, she swam into it.

“You really intend to go?”

This time, Dragon was the one who hesitated. No matter how one looked at it, this was clearly a trap. Even he might encounter circumstances he could not handle. If he failed to protect Ruby, what would happen then?

“Aqua is in their hands. Perhaps the best choice would be to go back and bring Moyuna with us, but we don’t know whether we have that kind of time.”

Ruby nodded solemnly. Although he did not know what was controlling Aqua, it was almost certainly the same thing Chiya had mentioned. There was no time left to wonder exactly what was going on.

“Don’t blame me if you die.”

Dragon gritted his teeth, but ultimately followed Ruby’s decision and entered the teleportation circle with him. Unexpectedly, the other side was not a blazing inferno or a mountain of blades. It was an ordinary-looking cavern, surrounded by uneven rocks.

After observing the terrain, the first thing Ruby did was search for Aqua. Having completed her task of leading them there, the mermaid had already fallen unconscious. She did not seem to have suffered any substantial injuries, so Ruby could only pick her up and proceed through the sole passageway.

After walking for roughly ten minutes, Ruby finally saw a glimmer of light. Following it, he at last laid eyes upon the true form of the entity Chiya had called the Thing of Riot.

It was an extraordinarily thick piece of wood, roughly as thick as the muscular arm of a battle mage and about two meters long. Ruby guessed it was some sort of weapon meant to be swung. Strangely, the weapon seemed to have been sealed by something. Countless pitch-black chains were wrapped tightly around it, with the other ends driven firmly into the rock walls. There were ninety-nine of them in all.

“Dragon, you finally came.”

A young man’s voice came from the direction of the wooden weapon, revealing that he was the mastermind controlling Aqua.

“An acquaintance of yours?”

This time, Ruby had truly assumed too much. He had not expected the other party’s target to be Dragon rather than himself. It seemed he had merely been dragged into this mess.

“Should I call him an acquaintance, or something else? I don’t know him.”

Dragon had also returned to his original form. Standing atop Ruby’s head, he scrutinized the other party and quickly recognized who he was. However, for one reason or another, he had no desire to acknowledge him.

“There you go again. After all this time, you still enjoy joking around.”

“Who’s joking with you? Is this some kind of ‘It’s me, it’s me’ phone scam?”

Dragon continued playing dumb while casually comparing him to a telephone scammer.

“It’s me, it’s me! It really is me! I’m Gluttony!”

“Gluttony? Then he…”

Hearing this, Ruby could not help asking. He was quite familiar with the Seven Desires, and the fact that he had encountered one of the Demon King Satan’s creations here made the world seem awfully small.

“Tch. The soul fluctuations you give off are completely different from Gluttony’s. Why should I believe you?”

Dragon had not expected to encounter an old friend here either. If he truly were Gluttony, Dragon should have sensed his presence the moment he entered the Rhine Academy of Magic. Rather than believe that this was Gluttony, Dragon would much rather believe that the man before him was an impostor.

“Too many things have happened over the years. Even if I told you, you wouldn’t believe me.”

Gluttony’s voice carried a hint of melancholy, as though he felt bitter about everything he had endured. He did not explain to Dragon how he had ended up in such a state.

“If you claim to be Gluttony, then you’ll have to offer some proof. Something only the seven of us would know, for example.”

“You really want me to say it?”

“Say it!”

“You’re going to be humiliated…”

“I, Lord Dragon, have always acted honorably and uprightly. What do I have to fear? Say it!”

Dragon’s voice was brimming with confidence. In his heart, he had never done anything for which he needed to feel guilty. At that moment, he was the embodiment of justice! He represented the lust of every demon in the Demon Realm. He was not fighting alone!

“Hmm. I remember it happened not long after the Demon Realm was created. When Lord Satan first experienced an activity known as bathing, you bastard put her underwear on your head, didn’t you?”