System vs Rebirth

"Ehm. Margaretha. Do you know anyone close to her?"

[I'm not entirely sure. Alex was a practical person who always went hunting. Meanwhile, Margaretha was the one managing the territory like you, so they rarely met except in the bedroom.]

[However, if I have to say, there were two people who had been helping her in managing the family. They were William Longfield and Julius Wagner.]

"I see." Noel looked down, falling into deep thought. "Did they have any reason to betray humanity?"

[Nothing I can think about. William had been assisting Alex even before meeting Margaretha. On the other hand, Julius was the kid that was saved along the way and he'd been literally supporting the group to repay their help. None of them showed any suspicious behavior.]

"Well…" Noel crossed his arms. "I thought they would be the most suspicious. After all, in the last battle, the demon king managed to fool Margaretha. And the one who could fool Margaretha should be a person close to her. That person knew her habit and plan, which allowed the demons to outsmart her. Still, I can't really say this person was a traitor unless there's strong proof."

[Fair enough. Then, do you have any other suspicions?]

"I can't think of anything for the moment. However, I know that Spencer wasn't really a bad guy." Noel raised a finger. "After listening to their information, the only one I could imagine helping me was him."

[What do you mean?]

"Do you remember what happened when the Supreme Devil attacked us earlier? His body shook, his energy was disoriented, and it looked like he was in pain.

"When I saw that, I thought only curse power could do it."

[Updating the information.]

[Rearranging the information.]

[It might actually be a possibility. This is just a hypothesis based on the information I have about Spencer.]

[What if… Spencer found out the truth of the murder of his daughter? What if he realized there was a traitor, and that traitor linked back to the demon king? In other words, what if he knew that his daughter's death was actually linked to the demon king?]

[With Spencer's character, he most likely would come to the Demon King and set up a curse. However, I don't think the curse would last this long.]

"Although I said Spencer was not a bad guy, I never said he didn't steal the divine artifact."

[Gem of Immortality!]

[Updating Information.]

[The possibility has increased. Spencer might steal the divine artifact, the Gem of Immortality. Instead of the demon king, he used it on himself. As a result, he would be able to live long enough to keep applying the curse.]

[Still, Spencer was only a spirit transcendence. He was nowhere near being the Spirit King, so his power might not be as effective.]

"But what if he has a chance?"

[A chance?]

"Yes. There was a time when the demon king was weak."

[Are you talking about the period after Alex defeated the demon king?]

"Yes. He might steal the gem of immortality after the defeat of the demon king. With that gem of immortality, he stayed long enough in this world to keep applying the curse.

"You said back then that you woke up the moment the demon king resurrected. Do you think the demon king would take this long to resurrect?

"Even if he did, it happened 25 years ago. If you think about it, isn't regaining one's strength faster than increasing his power from the start again? Look at Anna. If she wasn't occupied with learning new things, she could regain her power more quickly.

"Even so, she was able to grow strong fast. We could reach this level in just a few years, so how could the demon king not get strong enough after 25 years?

"At the very least, I thought the demon king would actually regain all his strength after one or two decades, which allowed him to launch an all-out invasion.

"So… what if Spencer cursed him, putting him in that condition, which slowed down his progress as well as stopping him from launching an attack?"

[That is indeed a plausible scenario. As long as the demon king remained weak, Spencer should have no problem slowing him down.]

[If the Supreme Devil was actually the demon king, his condition might be related to it.]

[Although there are still a lot of variables, I think Spencer's name has been cleared up.]

"Yeah. For now, we can't say for sure. If we want to take a guess, there's no end to it. Even Vivi might be considered. After all, only an insane person would be on my side after a thousand years. She might use it to get my trust and use that information against us in the battle against the demon king.

"Still, I don't want to be too paranoid, suspecting everyone around me. However, you can't deny that since the demon king can actually hide his information from the medal, there might be a way to fool the system, no? There's a chance that the Affinity we can see through the system has been altered."

[It's not impossible.]

"Yes. That's why I will pay attention to the commandants first. Try to recall all kinds of information. And if possible, I'm planning to record everything and see if I can connect some dots once we return to Golden Dawn."

[Understood. I'll cooperate.]

"Thanks."

…

Noel's speculation was on the mark.

Inside the Supreme Devil Organization's headquarters, Laufey was staggering in the hallway.

"Ha… Ha…" Laufey clenched his left hand into a fist while clutching his head with the other hand.

He continued onward, resisting the urge to become a demonic human, until he reached a certain hidden room.

The hidden room was nothing extraordinary. It was just a cold stone room. However, there was actually a mummified body in that room that hadn't decayed for over a thousand years.

Still, his body and face had deformed, leaving only broken glasses and a dim light green jade inside his body.

Laufey sat down next to this body, allowing him to regain his sanity.

"I accidentally found this room back then and thought this was just the brutality of the organization, but I never thought it would be the one to save me. I didn't know why, but sitting next to this body allowed me to clear my mind."

"I don't know who you are, but… thank you." Laufey closed his eyes.