THE HERO'S SON IS A MONSTER-Chapter 57: Discussion and Spur-of-the-Moment Decision

Although the answer was not what the ruler of Pandemonium had hoped for, she was not too affected by the situation. To her, it didn’t really matter whether the answer was coherent or not—what mattered was the act of responding.

At the very least, with Ariane’s device, they had discovered that the place to seek answers was the Celestial Kingdom.

The Celestial Kingdom... I remember that the dungeon where I found the egg was there.

In her memories, the ruler of Pandemonium lost herself, thinking back to the circumstances that had led to the discovery of that egg.

The dungeon boss, that enigmatic being she had once known, haunted her mind. He had once ruled with an imposing presence, his piercing gaze inspiring both respect and fear. Today, he had vanished without a trace, forgotten by all.

She recalled that, on the day of her exploration, every stone in the dungeon seemed to whisper his name, evoking a past filled with an unparalleled intensity. In her memories, she relived his words and his power, sensing that this fate had been bound to happen sooner or later.

The ruler of Pandemonium was a wandering traveler who roamed the world as she pleased. Occasionally, she would remember the names of the places she visited, and Celestial was one of those places.

"Hmm, Ariane, regarding what I asked you, what conclusion have you reached?"

"Well, let’s say it was conclusive. To put it simply, the only way to extend his lifespan beyond three years would be to take the life energy of other creatures. The dungeon monsters have a poor yield, and the ones I used in one of the tests were completely devoid of it. Even though it didn’t really change much for him, he lost energy instead of gaining any."

"I knew you did something like that!"

Ariane immediately covered her mouth, realizing her mistake—she had just confirmed that she had indeed subjected the child to brutal experiments. In an attempt to avoid the subject, she started talking about the child’s regenerative abilities.

"When you think about it, his regeneration ability isn’t just linked to his life energy. Even though it keeps him alive, there’s something strange about it, but I can’t quite understand how it works. I’d like to try other methods besides magic, but..."

"I see, so that’s it. Just give me a document later—it’s better than listening to you talk!"

"Hey, what do you mean by that?"

The ruler of Pandemonium stood up.

"So, the priority is extending his lifespan? But if I turned him into a purely spiritual entity and brought him back to Pandemonium, this whole matter would be settled quickly!"

Ariane also stood up, strongly opposing this idea that kept coming back into the ruler of Pandemonium’s mind.

"No, you will not do something like that. There are plenty of solutions, lazy one—you just don’t have the will to think harder."

The ruler of Pandemonium knew that Ariane’s argument was valid. It wasn’t that she didn’t want to think—she had plenty of solutions. She just didn’t have the motivation to implement them, finding her first idea the easiest to execute.

"I’m hungry!"

Both of them looked at the little one, who had once again cried out in hunger. Since he was now somewhat capable of answering the ruler of Pandemonium’s questions, they assumed that he was truly hungry. But they themselves did not understand what hunger was—Ariane had forgotten.

Still, she respected the ruler of Pandemonium’s will and proposed one of the other solutions she had in mind.

"That works out well—I was planning to investigate the human world. Just being there will be enough to sustain him; that world overflows with vitality. I’ll take him with me! Then, I’ll see if he can absorb the life energy of some humans!"

As she spoke, the child walked up to her and started climbing on her, perching on her shoulders and chewing on her hair while she remained unfazed.

Ariane didn’t understand what this behavior meant, and since every stage of their experiments was recorded even without her taking notes, she chose not to dwell on it and focused on what the ruler of Pandemonium was saying.

"Isn’t this one of those bizarre scenarios where, conveniently, something strange happens that leads us to end up killing all the humans? I feel like I’ve read something like that before! When we could simply ask Eresheb to bring us what we need!"

"I can’t believe it! You spend your time sorting your memory, storing and erasing information, but you remember the events from novels? You read too much, I swear!"

"It’s not like that’s a bad thing. If you keep wandering here and there, you might trigger a chain of strange events that you won’t have the will to deal with."

"Hmmm, just how little faith do you have?" asked the ruler of Pandemonium, reaching out her hand toward her head, lifting the child off her shoulders as he continued chewing on her head without emotion.

She placed the child on the ground. Ariane held out her arms, but the child did not come to her! That annoyed her slightly. She stepped forward and picked him up herself, letting out a small sound of irritation. One thing was certain—the child would neither respond nor speak unless prompted.

"You know very well that this has nothing to do with trust. Unlike me, you can walk freely in the human world, but this time, it’s different... And if you were to use humans to extend his lifespan..."

"You worry too much about humans!" declared the ruler of Pandemonium.

"They’re too busy fighting chimeras to pay any attention to us."

Ariane fell into a brief moment of contemplation, stroking the child. The ruler of Pandemonium had a point—humans were too preoccupied fighting their own demons. Perhaps she was overthinking it.

"Either way, I think this kid has a largely human base. If something goes wrong, they should be able to clean up after themselves!"

The ruler of Pandemonium’s statement, though strange, had some truth to it. If she hadn’t found the egg first, a catastrophe would have unfolded—but she wasn’t aware of that.

"And she says that so proudly! What a bizarre argument. I suppose you’ll be a bad influence on him!"

The ruler of Pandemonium smiled wholeheartedly.

"Wake up, woman! His personality is already twisted—if you hadn’t noticed! Alright, we’re heading to Sunkush!"

"Oh? And why Sunkush? I thought you would start with Celestial!"

"I suppose a real demon wants to descend!"

As the two protagonists stood on the threshold of their adventure, a moment of silence settled, as if the world itself was holding its breath.

The child, silent, seemed to carry on his frail shoulders the weight of an inevitable fate, unaware of the consequences of these perilous choices.

The ruler of Pandemonium gazed into the distance, her eyes gleaming, while Ariane weighed every word and every action, knowing that the slightest misstep could lead to irreversible consequences.