Chapter 28: Back Home (3)
Azrail Astaroth Pov:
After Ajuka's words finished, there was a deep silence within the banquet hall, and I could feel a lot of gazes slowly turning towards me, along with some that remained on Ajuka.
Although slightly, I could hear my heartbeat amidst the deadly silence, which felt a bit too long under the effects of Thought Acceleration, all while noticing the gazes of people I was familiar with.
Latia, Alice, Amy, Sebas, Vanessa, Serafall, Sairaorg, Sona, and Falbium.
Each one of them had questioning gazes, some confused while the others looked as if they had heard a bad joke.
I had no idea if it was intentional, but out of nowhere, my eyes moved towards a single spot, knowing who'd be standing there, looking directly into my eyes.
It was my mother.
Our eyes met, and I felt a deep urge to shake my head, but I stopped myself from doing so.
It was rare for me to panic, and this was the first time it had happened in the last two decades, but I knew that my poker face might break any second now, so—
'Great Sage.'
[Understood. Taking control of Master's body and maximising the power of Thought Acceleration from the usual twenty times and raising thought processing speed by a hundred times.]
[Please calm yourself before the crowd reacts, Master.]
Great Sage, I love you.
[Answer. Thank you, Master.]
When maximised, one second was a hundred seconds for me because of Thought Acceleration, at least mentally, so I had a good few minutes to calm myself down before the crowd reacted.
Even then...
I knew that the consequences of my actions would be severe, but I still went ahead and did them regardless, and I'd do them again because I was way past the point of no return.
Be it how I behaved at my laboratories or how I interacted with people I was close to, both of these sides were me, and I was not faking either one of them.
I didn't follow the moronic saying of what was power without kindness, but what I believed was that power was useless without desires, and I would follow my desires no matter how long I lived.
I understood that one day I might end up being pulled back and forth between these two lives of mine, and even then, I couldn't simply abandon one for the other, even if it came with the risk of losing both, but I never expected the consequences to arrive so soon...
Even knowing the consequences, I never thought about something very important...
Was I ready to lose it all?
My new life, family, friends, and everything I worked for?
I had already been through that once in my past life, and it wouldn't be impossible for me to move forward even if that were to happen again.
That was the kind of person I was, moving forward regardless of the situation, but was it something I wanted to happen—losing everything and becoming an empty shell again?
Of course not, and that was why I took the highest degree of precautions to hide my actions, but it was still a bust.
What was I scared of?
Losing my life?
Hell, I had already died once; I doubt anything new would happen this time.
Being tortured and interrogated?
I had already felt the worst kinds of physical pain. I wouldn't even flinch at torture.
Getting imprisoned for a lifetime?
Sounds scary, but I wouldn't mind.
What scared me was losing everything I built up during this life, and by that, I didn't mean my research or laboratories, but the family I had spent my last decade with.
This life was a lie, a lie I built up from the day I was born, but I didn't want to lose this life. It was a lie I was happy to live in.
That was why it was so much easier to do everything in my past life.
I had nothing holding me back, not any emotions, people, friends, or family.
All I had back then was the desire to survive, no matter what the cost.
But it was different now.
I couldn't even decide which version of me was better, the one who had nothing or the one who wanted everything.
Either way, it wasn't something I could decide now.
'I knew Ajuka didn't give a damn about the Astaroth Clan or their position and circumstances, but for him to do something like this…'
It was hard to believe.
My family knew about how I sneaked out of the Astaroth Castle for the past few years, so they probably also knew how good I was at [Transportation Magic]—it'd be weird if they didn't, but they deliberately ignored it.
Unlike outsiders, they had a good idea of what I was capable of, so even if they didn't take Ajuka's words seriously, they could put two and two together and realise that I was up to no good.
'Ah, I can already imagine how disappointed, shocked, and sad my family would be.'
I should've done an even better job at hiding my secrets.
Even before today, Ajuka was the only person I was wary of, apart from Alice and Serafall, who could figure out what I was up to.
Well, Serafall's feelings were mostly instinctive, but she had no way of knowing what was going on, and even though Alice had ways to track me down, she lacked the suspicion.
And that was why the one who worried me the most was Ajuka. Whenever he was around, I'd never teleport back to my laboratories or go around collecting test subjects, but all that wariness could now go in the nearby trashcan.
After spending a minute to calm my mind, I started to analyse the situation.
'Great Sage, what are my chances of escape?'
[Answer. 0%, Master.]
As brutally honest as ever, huh?
'What if... I were to do that?'
It was something I wouldn't even consider if the situation wasn't what it was right now.
[Answer. The chances will rise to 40%, Master, but only a handful of individuals at the banquet would survive the impact.]
If one of my labs were to self-destruct, it would have enough destructive power to kill a Satan Class Devil as an Area of Effect attack, and I could, with Great Sage's help, transfer that blast to the banquet hall with little to no loss in power.
All Devils in the Ultimate Class could avoid that attack by a small margin, and those in the Satan Class or above would find it easy to avoid because the attack wasn't instantaneous. However, everyone except them would be eliminated on the spot.
As for Ajuka and Sirzechs, it wouldn't do anything to them even if they were to take it head-on, but they'd need to protect the people. And the moment the Four Great Satans, along with Grayfia and Alice, and the rest of the strong individuals started protecting the guests, I could teleport away.
No matter how many barriers surrounded the banquet hall, none of them could stop me from getting away if I got the chance, and I was confident that no one here could follow my [Transportation Magic].
But...
Could I do it?
I could have, without a single thought, only if my family wasn't present at the banquet.
I was confident that Alice would save them first, but there was always the possibility of something not going right.
I might have done it if the risk factor was zero, but that wasn't the case.
And without doing that, I had no chance of escaping whatsoever.
Even if I initiated [Transportation Magic] without using the blast as a decoy, anyone strong enough could subdue me easily, and that was without talking about how I was standing next to the two strongest Devils.
I'd get knocked out before I could even blink.
All in all, I was royally screwed.
Ajuka must've made this public here because he knew I wouldn't play any tricks with our family present.
He got me.
It was a checkmate.
There was nothing I could do except accept my fate.
'Great Sage, give me back my body.'
[Answer. Double confirmation is required. Are you sure, Master?]
I wanted to laugh.
There was never a function like Double Confirmation in the predetermined actions I created.
'Yeah. And slow Thought Acceleration down to twenty times again.'
[... Answer. Understood. Please be careful, Master.]
Every time Thought Acceleration was deactivated or activated, I'd feel like I suddenly came to a stop while moving at a high speed, and vice versa.
But currently, I couldn't pay any mind to that strange feeling as I heard a lot of different comments going around the banquet hall, along with a few loud gasps.
"Lord Beelzebub, what is he talking about?"
"He can't be serious, right?"
"It has to be a joke."
Sure enough. No one who didn't know what I was capable of wouldn't believe something like that.
"But wouldn't a joke like that be too absurd? After all, this matter is related to the Underworld's security."
"Then, could his words be true?"
"Are you stupid or what? How do you expect a child to get away with all that?"
"It just makes the Government and the Four Great Satans look incompetent."
"But... What if it's true? What kind of Monster would one need to be to do that at the age of 10?"
"No, no, no. I don't think something like that is possible. Do you believe that the Astaroth Clan would allow it?"
"The best I can agree with is him being an accomplice, and even that's a stretch."
I instinctively filtered out the comments made by extras, slowly turning towards my father, who was looking at Ajuka with a mixture of disbelief and shock, similar to Sirzechs and Zeoticus.
Rias, on the other hand, looked like her brain had crashed, and she was busy rebooting it.
"Ajuka, what the hell are you on about?"
"Lord Beelzebub, if this is a joke, it has gone far enough."
"You know you can't joke about something like that."
My father, along with Zeoticus and Sirzechs, questioned Ajuka, who slowly turned towards them.
Once again, Ajuka's expression wasn't relaxed like usual when we were around our family, and it didn't have the smile he reserved for banquets, but it reminded me of the expression Alice had while threatening Diehauser Belial years ago.
His expression crushed whatever last hopes I had about him playing it off as a joke.
"The three of you have known me since childhood, so do you still believe I'll pull a joke as ridiculous as this?"
At Ajuka's words, the three of them looked surprised, but before any of them could say anything, my brother continued, looking at our father.
"I can show you the proof if you want to, but if you don't believe me, why don't you ask Azrail himself, Father?"
'Proof, he said…'
My father slowly turned towards me, and in his eyes, I saw hope and disbelief.
He couldn't believe that the child he had raised ended up as a criminal, and he hoped that I would straight up deny Ajuka's accusations, saying that I was innocent.
"Azrail, why are you not saying anything?"
I looked at my father and slowly opened my mouth to speak.
"Father, I—"
"Will you try to lie your way out of this again like you've been doing for the past years? Is that all your family values for you?"
At Ajuka's words, my eyes slightly widened, and my head dropped.
Damn it.
Ajuka's words had hit the nail.
I couldn't lie anymore, especially when I knew that if I were to get out of this situation, I'd still be the same person I was yesterday.
Even if it was this once, I decided to be honest with my father, something I haven't done ever since I came to this world, and my fists instinctively clenched before I muttered.
"What Ajuka said is true, Father."
I had no idea why, but for me, speaking a few words never took such a large amount of courage, maybe because I knew that my life was over after I finished speaking.
"The one responsible for all those disappearances, including the High-Class Devils, was me..."
My words weren't loud, but under the deadly silence of the banquet hall, it was obvious that everyone heard them loud and clear.
There were several loud gasps, and the audience was in an uproar.
I had no idea what kind of expression my father was making or how my mother had reacted, but a part of me wished to never find out.
They'd probably blame themselves for how they couldn't raise me right, but I couldn't just tell them that I was born this way… or that I was a reincarnated person.
And even if they knew, I doubt they'd think of me as their son.
'Haah…'
I couldn't help but sigh.
I had never been this vulnerable before, not in any of my lives.
I already lost my previous family, and now I was done with my new one, too.
Well, it was my fault for trying to live a lie.
"Azrail... you can't be serious, right?"
My father was someone who believed what he saw, so he grabbed my shoulders and shook my whole body, causing my hair to fall on my face while raising my head towards him, making it so that I looked into his eyes.
I don't know what kind of expression I made, but my father looked sad, horrified, and confused.
At that moment, I knew that it didn't matter if I died or if I successfully managed to escape from this banquet hall, but the lie I had built up from the day I was born...
It was all over.
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