I Don’t Need a Guillotine for My Revolution

Chapter 199: Holy War of the Abyss - False Saintess

Episode 199. The Abyss's Holy War - The False Saintess

A Succubus, Gremory opened her eyes in the darkness.

Her eyes, unique to the Demon Race, quickly regained their sight, but her mind, which had been submerged in a Dream for a long time, could only find a sense of reality after quite a while.

After a considerable time, Gremory, having come to her senses, slowly rose from the bed and set her foot down.

The rather cool sensation on her bare feet jolted her still-dazed head awake.

Gremory was quite fond of this sensation.

For her, who spent more time swimming in Dreams than treading reality, such a sensation provided a definite sense of reality.

Enjoying the sound of her pitter-pattering footsteps, Gremory washed her body with cold water, adorned herself, and put on her usual Nun's Habit.

Things she could replace with illusions or magic anytime she wished.

A very inefficient act, deliberately spending time and effort on something that could be resolved with a single gesture if she wished.Still, Gremory loved these moments.

As if longing for a lost innocence.

Having finished grooming herself, Gremory left the room with a leisurely gait.

Though the mansion was quite splendid and grand, there was almost no sign of anyone.

It was only natural, as her kin were usually submerged in Dreams for even longer than she was.

Her kin.

Gremory let out a faint, self-deprecating smile.

She thought of them that way, but she wasn't sure if she was in a position to do so.

Gremory was born about 430 years ago in Francia, which was ablaze with a long war.

More precisely, in a region occupied by Pandemonium's Demon King's Army.

Succubi generally swim through Dreams and feast on the Essence of Humans, but because they are such a species, they inevitably come to understand Humans to some extent and have faint emotional exchanges, whether they like it or not.

In doing so, it’s not uncommon for them to occasionally develop a fair amount of affection for their ‘livestock’.

The Succubus who gave birth to Gremory was of that sort, and Gremory's father was a Human.

The lucky part was that the capricious Succubus was a rather high-ranking member of the Demon Race, so thanks to her measures in accepting her father's plea, the village's treatment was quite decent.

The unlucky part, however, was that the Succubus died in battle before Gremory could even fully grow up.

As a result, Gremory was neglected for a while, and so she was able to grow up under her father.

Her father poured a fair amount of affection into his daughter and taught her many things. The young Gremory grew up learning Human values and culture.

In her childhood, Gremory was closer to a Human than a Succubus.

Was it because of that?

That God answered her desperate prayer to save her father, who was dying of a plague, was something that even the Gremory of today thought was close to a comedy.

Gremory was overjoyed to have saved her father, but a Human's time is still fleeting.

When her father died just 30 years later due to the unavoidable limits of his lifespan, the only path left for Gremory was to leave her hometown.

Her appearance, unchanged for decades, made it all too clear that she was a child of the Demon Race, and to the villagers, she who had lost the connection of her father was no longer Human, rendering her values meaningless.

Born from a high-ranking Succubus, Gremory possessed vast Magical Power, so the Demon King's Army readily accepted her and taught her the skills of a Succubus.

Funnily enough, however, it didn't take long for her to realize that because she could wield Divine Power, she couldn't use the dark powers of the Demon Race.

Acting like a Human, the only power she could use was one that saved her enemy, the Humans, and was instead fatal to the Demon Race.

It was only natural for such a half-baked member of the Demon Race to be ostracized in the Demon King's Army, where power was everything.

Gremory decided to take solace in her situation instead.

As someone who had spent more time as a Human than as a Succubus, she was more reluctant to be ordered to carry out massacres as part of the Demon King's Army.

Treated merely as a low-class Succubus who gathered Essence and Magical Power, another 30 years passed like that.

Amidst the nearly 90-year-long war, countless Humans and members of the Demon Race died, and while the front lines pushed and pulled, Gremory's hometown was burned to the point that not even a trace remained.

She remembered the attitudes of her childhood friends, who had been close to her, gradually becoming wary and cynical as they saw she didn't age, and she knew they had practically driven her out, half-exiling her after she lost her father.

And yet, Gremory secretly shed tears in her hometown, of which not even a trace remained.

She wept sorrowfully without even knowing why.

It was around that time that she first met Baal.

-Are you the Succubus Gremory? I heard you grew up among Humans, know them well, and can use Divine Power. They say you're sick and tired of the war with Humans, too.

-…So? What business does a most noble, high-ranking member of the Demon Race have with a half-baked Succubus?

-I'll be direct. I intend to end this war. Are you willing to cooperate?

Baal said there was no longer any reason to continue this war.

The Human nations were no match for the might of Pandemonium, but the holy war army, gathered from the entire Central Continent, was somehow holding on, even while piling up countless Mountains of Corpses.

Despite the situation where countless members of the Demon Race were dying and there was no progress while fighting them during that long war, the Demon King considered this war merely a form of amusement—so he would execute the Demon King and end this war.

However, the Demon King's power was far too great and the scale of his loyalist forces was too large to do so immediately.

-A direct confrontation right now is hopeless. Therefore, for the coup to succeed, we need to divert the Demon King's attention. Thus, we must support the Humans to disperse the Demon King's Army's forces.

-Humans? I grew up among them, so I know. In their eyes, all of the Demon Race are objects of hatred, you know? Do you think they'll join hands with the enemy of their enemy?

After all, wasn't she ostracized as a child of a Demon even in the hometown where she was born, raised, and lived for decades?

To Gremory, who couldn't hide her doubts, Baal commanded.

-I will entrust that role to you. We will help you secretly, so lead them as a Human, Gremory.

And so, the Succubus who grew up as a Human, was ostracized by Humans, and never fully fit in with the Demon Race, once again infiltrated them as a Human.

For half a year, she used her Divine Power to heal and help the Humans.

It wasn't long before the Humans came to see her as a symbol of hope and call her a Saintess.

As a Saintess, Gremory led the Human forces and fought against the Demon King's Army.

To crush the Demon King's Army, change the stagnant War Situation, and force the cornered Demon King to deploy his loyalist forces to the front lines.

A role created merely out of necessity.

A false Saintess from beginning to end, starting with Deception and ending with Deception.

Nevertheless.

The hope that surged in all their hearts.

Everyone's reverence, swelling as if to burst.

Even the impure desires of those who secretly harbored them, unable to dare show them before the Saintess.

To her, a Succubus, the countless waves of emotion were like a drug.

Before she knew it, the objective was lost, and the means became the objective.

Those who thanked and praised her for their salvation became her joy, and she shed tears for those who fell because her power was not enough.

She struggled earnestly to save them, desperately held back the Demon King's Army, and sang of hope.

But no matter how happy a Dream, one is bound to wake up from it someday.

When Baal executed the Demon King, and her role was no longer needed.

She ultimately had to wake from the Dream.

Gremory walked slowly down the corridor, turning her golden eyes to look at a sword placed on one of the walls.

A sword that the other Succubi considered merely a spoil from the Hundred Years' War.

-Until the moment my life ends, no, even after that, I will offer my eternal loyalty to the Saintess.

The sword of the Knight who had made an oath she would remember forever.

The memory is eternal, but the Knight is already gone.

In the moment she received his oath, the Succubus Gremory was not there; only the Saintess of the Humans should have been.

That overwhelming emotion, that tear-soaked joy, had all scattered before she knew it.

400 years passed, and all that remained in her heart was a faint residue.

Gremory slowly turned her gaze, stepped out onto the balcony-

and just like that, spread her wings and soared.

-The well-being of the Demon Race is of no importance to the Demon King. That one is not qualified to be a King.

said the ‘hero’ of the Demon Race, who had risen up for them.

Cutting through the sky filled with a gloomy purple mist, Gremory gazed at the Soulless Drones filling the city streets and the ‘gate’ being constructed before them.

From the Drones, which had long since lost their Life and moved only by the power source called Magical Power, not even a remnant of emotion could be felt.

Human, Orc, Elf, Beastman….

No, could those things even be called by such racial terms?

For beings that were already dead, nothing more than lumps of meat, did such a classification have any value?

And among those drones.

were even the corpses of the Demon Race, who had looked down on the continent's races and flaunted their superiority.

Their Magical Power equally drained without a trace, the hollowly stopped scarecrows of the Demon Race didn't look much different.

Gremory accelerated with a beat of her wings, soaring to the highest spire in the center of Pandemonium—and came face to face with her hero.

“You've come, Gremory.”

Baal said softly, arms crossed, gazing at her with pupil-less eyes.

Gremory tried to find the passion and conviction he had shown when they first met in his face, but failed.

All that remained in the place where those things had been washed away over 400 years was obsession and, arrogance.

“Ahaha, I overslept~”

Gremory spat out playfully, as if to hide her murky and gloomy inner thoughts, and flapped her wings to land behind him.

“How about you hand ‘Lust’ over to me and take ‘Sloth’, Gremory.”

“It's no fun if you keep coveting the authority of Lust Inc., Paimon.”

Glancing at Paimon's jeering voice as if looking at an insect, Gremory frowned at the fuss she heard from the side.

“I thought my neck would fall off from waiting! Wrath Inc. protests to Lust Inc.!”

“Haa, Barbatos….”

I wonder if it would be better to live with an empty head like this moronic warmonger.

Having had a silly thought, Gremory turned her gaze back to Baal.

It was definitely the same back. Yet Gremory felt as if she were seeing something completely unfamiliar.

The symbol of the hero who liberated the Demon Race from the Demon King. The Demon King's shattered crown that had adorned both his shoulders was now gone.

Instead, it was whole again and placed upon his head.

Gremory slowly closed her eyes.

Just as the false Saintess and the Knight who protected her were no more.

The hero who fought against the Demon King's tyranny was also no more.

Gremory watched as Baal drew the sword that had slaughtered the Demon King.

The one who had led the Demon Race to end the war.

“As of this moment, Abyss Corporation will enter a state of war with the Eastern Empire.”

was now leading the Demon Race to start a war.

“Finally, finally! War! At last, war! Barbatos of Wrath Inc. announces he cannot hide his joy!”

“Aah, at last. This wretched order is coming to an end. Ahahaha….”

Gremory couldn't bring herself to be happy like Barbatos or Paimon.

She was just wearing a foolish, fake smile on her face, like a harmless, ridiculous, and stupid Succubus.

The army that had filled the square, standing motionless as if dead, began to move in unison with a creak.

The members of the Demon Race who followed the hero of the Demon Race 400 years ago, whom he had protected, were among them.

400 years later, those who had rebelled against him and were reduced to soul-lost puppets now march.

Gremory slowly turned her gaze to look at Baal.

The one who had once fought for the Demon Race.

The new Demon King was smiling with a satisfied, arrogant face.