25 Chapter 24: Greedy Motive

"*Sigh* As I expected, after making me fall asleep, you two went here without Millie's permission."

Looking in every direction, Sora looked at me when I stared at him, and so... "Faust! Sora forced me to come here!" That is what I said.

Sora was shocked after I lied in front of his face, and started to say his excuses to Faust. "No Faust! Haruki forced me, he even used his position as the Prince to order me, so I couldn't stop him from ordering me and coming here!"

What!? He's lying for some part. "No Faust, you know that I'm not the type of guy to do that, Sora just wants me to look bad."

Lucas was looking at the both of us arguing like a kindergartner, and with a worried and posed look, Lucas covered Talya's eye and whispered to himself. "What am I even doing here watching them?"

"*Cough* For now, you four come with me back to the castle, since something might've happened, because the others haven't returned yet, and when I went outside I didn't find a single clue on where they could've gone."

Hearing what Faust said, Sora, Lucas and I, looked at each other with a worried look at what could've happened.

***

[Akemi Leviathan POV]

The room went quiet after Akemi explained to both Chizuru and Ruri about the events that happened on Haruki's return up to today.

The two were both speechless and in disbelief, so the two has taken time to process their mind after hearing what they've heard from Akemi.

To stop the silence, Chizuru talked in a painfully anguished voice. "It's funny, isn't it? That those exact four are the causes of the downfall of Hell, and the experiences we suffered from the sins that we got from that stupid war."

Akemi looked at them sadly, because she thought that telling them would be the best, even if it hurts them and herself, but she didn't expect that they were hurt more than she imagined.

Even if Akemi thought that either one of them wouldn't believe her, she didn't expect that they accepted it in an instant after hearing her explanation.

She knows that it was hard to accept easily like they first did when Millie found out about this.

Ruri came toward Akemi and touched her hand. "Akemi, how do you feel?"

"I'm okay, even if I'm betrayed by them, I still have you two, Millie, the other Archdukes, and especially Haruki..."

Ruri hearing that replied with a happy smile. "I see, then Chizuru and I are gonna stay with you."

Akemi smiled back and hugged Ruri and whispered to her. "Thank you, Ruri."

Chizuru also went to them and hugged them both happily. "I'll protect you two, I promise." That is what Chizuru said to them both.

The three girls were hugging each other tightly, all of them are having mixed feelings of both comfort and fear.

Both Chizuru and Ruri knowing that Hell was now in the process of destruction, were both severely tainted, both in their mind and heart.

The three can only rely on themselves and the people whom they can call friends.

During their emotional trip, a large bang came from the door, and Sora came with a worried look on them. "Sorry to disturb your emotional trip, but there's an emergency, so you three come to the castle."

***

[Haruki Hotaru POV]

When we got back to the castle, I went outside immediately to look for Millie and the others, even when I shouted their names, they still won't appear.

"It's just like what Faust said, everyone who went outside the castle is all missing, they've all disappeared."

And when I got back to the castle, I started to feel very worried and anxious since everyone has disappeared.

I was at Sora's room, almost out of my mind, since I couldn't bear the thought that Millie and the others have disappeared without a trace, and the possibility that they wouldn't return makes me insane.

Would they even return? Millie, Luna, Dawn, Shota, and everyone. Did something happen to them? Did Satanael and Yahweh do something to them?

Because if they did, I will never forgive them if they lay a hand on each one of them...

"Haruki? Are you okay?" That is what Lucas asked me.

Looking at the door, I saw Lucas and Talya who was holding Flint are both together.

I didn't notice them inside Sora's room because of my worries, and I better not leave them without a response.

Doing my best as I can to try for a smile, the only thing I could respond to Lucas' question was. "No, I'm not okay."

Lucas only sighed deeply from my answer and went closer to me to take a seat on Sora's bed.

"You know Haruki, King Jarren is the type of guy that won't give in to despair immediately, for King Jarren, hope always has a chance, and I think that's what King Jarren wanted to teach you."

"What are you talking about? I experienced many things that I don't want to happen, do you still think that I will have hope left?"

Lucas looked at me with a tired grin and look, and he sighed deeply. "Have you experienced seeing your home country destroyed? Seeing your friends die? Failing to protect people who admire you? And especially losing a war?"

"Well of course not..."

"Then why did you give up easily? King Jarren experienced all of those, and yet not a single bit of despair has played with him."

"I see..." Even if Lucas is making me feel bad for myself, I still forgot that everyone in Hell has suffered the most than myself.

It hurts thinking about it, I've been thinking about how bad my life is, but how foolish and selfish of me to not think of what I was supposed to know.

Why didn't I even think that the citizens of Hell experienced one of the most gruesome wars in history? Why didn't I even think of all of my friends' past from the war before mine?

The last war between the angels and devils. I forgot that everyone kept telling me about it, and how it greatly affected the entirety of Hell.

Thinking about those, I could only laugh. "How dumb am I aren't I? I guess that's why I'm completely useless."

"Haruki, the dumb is useless without the smart, but the smart can't live without the dumb, since all of us are dumb, there's no such thing as a smart being nor a stupid being."

"You can be cool sometimes, and thanks, Lucas. I guess I'm just a bit stressed and have been overthinking things."

As I look at Lucas, I noticed Talya trying to make eye contact with me, but her shyness seems to always stop her from looking at me directly.

I kneeled at Talya and asked her with a smile. "Talya, is there something wrong? You can tell it to big brother Haruki."

Talya did her best to speak up as loud as she could and said to me. "Umm... Talya doesn't want to see big brother Haruki sad, I-I want yo-you to cheer up..."

Hearing that made me smile and gave me more hope and confidence.

Reaching my hand to her, I patted her head slowly and said to her with a calm voice. "Don't worry, big brother Haruki is smiling thanks to you, Talya."

Talya responded to me with a cute and happy smile and said to me. "Your welcome, big brother."

Seeing that smile made my heart stop, the cuteness of Talya is just illegal, and the way she calls me big brother, made my heart go insane.

Thinking about it, maybe I can make Talya my little sister too, so that I will have two cute little sisters, and imagining it is already wonderful.

"How surprising that Talya is not afraid of you anymore."

"Surprising? How? Is it really hard for Talya to open up to someone in less than a day?"

"Less than a day? You could say less than 5 months, and you only took a day, while myself and the other Archdukes took about a month or two, you're seriously good with children aren't you?"

Knowing Lucas, he's probably meant that with another meaning like Sora.

Knock. Knock. A knock came from the door, and when the door opened, we saw Faust. "Sora is with the other three, so let's start our conference."

The conference was held again in the kitchen, and this time, there were only a few of us here.

Talya wasn't in the conference, because we let her play with Flint in the hallway, and also she's still young so Sora decided to stay with her and guard her, but I'm sure he just wants to laze around.

Looking at the table, it feels weird that everyone is not here, and only a few of us with two new people here are attending.

"*Cough* Let's begin, just as I told everyone, Millie and the others have gone missing without a trace, and also there's another thing." Faust said and threw a newspaper at the table.

Lucas took the newspaper, and all of us at once read it together.

Looking at it shocked us when we saw the content of the newspaper.

(430 Reported Missing, and Chances of it Increasing is Estimated to Happen.) was the name of the newspaper's headline.

Lucas clenched his fist, showing his worry and anger at the same time. "It's worse than we thought."

"Yes, as you all can see in the newspaper, even some of the citizens have reported being gone missing."

Chizuru raised her hand and asked. "Then, what do you think did this Faust? Because there's no chance that Satanael can make Millie and the others disappear."

"I know that, but right now Satanael and the other three are the only people who I can think of right now, and if there's a third party that caused this, who could it be?"

Raising my hand, I said my answer. "Do you think that another Archduke did this?"

All of them looked at me and answered all at the same time. "No."

"Why no? Are you all protecting the other Archdukes?"

Akemi answered my question. "Look Haruki, there are only 23 Archdukes that are still alive, minus it by the people you have met face-to-face there are 7 Archdukes left."

"Then maybe one of those 7 is the one who caused this."

"There's a reason why it's no because there's a barrier remember? And in the ninth floor, there are 5 Archdukes there, and back on Earth there are 2 Archdukes studying the Earth, so 0 left."

"Then a third party created by an Archduke is impossible-"

"Wait everyone, maybe the Prince is right." Ruri said

Everyone asked her why and her reason, and she answered. "The person who created a third party might be either be Mammon, Azazel, or Milicas."

Myself and everyone in the meeting was intrigued by Ruri's answer.

And for once, I feel proud from saying something from a meeting, for the first time.

"How smart of you Ruri, I can see that Gusion trained you well." Hearing that familiar voice, all of us looked at where it came from.

And there he is sitting at one of the chairs in the room and drinking tea like it's natural, was a man we weren't expecting to be here, Mammon.

Everyone instantly stood up and readied their weapons for a fight.

Mammon just looked at us and sipped on the teacup casually; like nothing happened between all of us.

I asked Mammon angrily. "What are you doing here?"

Mammon casually sipped his cup of tea and stood up slowly. "I'm here just to listen in, that's all." That is what Mammon answered.

The door opened and Sora filled with scratch marks and crying at the same time came with Talya and Flint. "Haruki! Is the conference done-" And when he opened his eyes, he saw us ready for a fight with Mammon.

He took out his dagger after seeing Mammon here with us.

Talya saw Mammon and was happy, and ran up to him. "Big brother Mammon!" She shouted and hugged him.

"Nice to see you again young Talya." Mammon said as he patted Talya in the head

Chizuru ran immediately to Mammon and grab his arm to stop patting Talya in the head. "Don't you dare touch her."

"No need for that young Chizuru, right now we're in peace, and you don't want Talya to be encouraged from your doing, right?"

Chizuru snickered angrily and carried Talya to step back away from Mammon.

"Answer my question Mammon, why are you here?"

"Well I have nothing to do, so I've thought to myself, why shouldn't I visit everyone else? But for the looks, if it, 8 people are here."

"Visit? So did Satanael told you to come here?"

"You're wrong Haruki, you heard me say that I thought this myself, so I came here personally without Satanael and the others knowing."

"Then what's your motive for coming here alone, Mammon?"

"I heard about the disappearance of Millie and the others, so I decided to help find them and some of the missing citizens."

Ruri asked Mammon angrily "Then you're on our side? Wait Mammon, which side are you on?"

Mammon smiled at Ruri's question. "Side? I never thought of that, if I have to say, neither."

"Neither? What do you mean by that? You're telling us that you're not only a snake to us but also Satanael?"

"You forgot whom you're talking to young Ruri, remember that I'm the General of Greed, I'll do anything to get what strikes my interest, even if I betray everyone around me."

"Then you'll join us to find the others, but only for a bit? But how are you gonna help us?" Ruri proudly asked

"Because I know the cause of the sudden disappearance and who done it."

Me, Faust, Ruri, and Akemi went to the corner and huddled together so that we can speak privately.

"So what do you guys think? You three know Mammon the most, so is Mammon telling the truth?"

"Well, he is telling the truth, probably, since Mammon is indeed a selfish man, so that's my defense." Faust said.

"Faust is right Haruki, Mammon can sometimes be selfish, and he hates Yahweh a lot, but now that he's working with him..."

Then we're stuck now, Mammon is suspicious since he betrayed us, but right now he's offering to help us.

But why would he even help us though?

Mammon said that he'll do anything that strikes an interest to him, and the only thing I can think of that made him interested in my Soul Bound.

But if there's another thing that he wants, then what could it be?

Ruri said to us without hesitation. "Why can't we use Talya?"

I said back to her angrily. "What do you mean?! Talya is still a child, so we're not gonna involve her in this."

"Prince Haruki, I know Talya more than you do, and Talya is the only General that can read a person's emotion and mind, so she'll be useful."

"Then you're suggesting for Talya to read Mammon's mind? But wouldn't Talya be confused on why we're going to read Mammon's mind?"

"Don't worry I got this, I know Talya more than anyone." Ruri proudly boasted.

Ruri went to Talya and patted her head from behind and told her. "Hey Talya, can you come with me for a sec? You're big sister Ruri wants to tell you a secret."

Talya was confused at first, but happily agreed to Ruri, and so they went to the corner of the room to talk.

I hope that Ruri knows what she's doing since Talya might cry if something were to happen between them.

Looking at both talking in the corner, I saw Talya being happy and excited from their talk.

And then Talya looked at Mammon and closed her eyes.

Opening her eyes again, Talya whispered something close to Ruri, which when I looked at, I saw Ruri proud of herself.

Ruri patted Talya's head again and immediately went to us to say. "Mammon is telling the truth."

And so, after Ruri said that, we can't do anything else, but trust Mammon.

Even if it seems odd that we are now trusting him, but if Talya has the skill to detect lies then we'll trust him.

"We trust you, so? Who did this?" I asked Mammon seriously.

Even if I'm still cautious around him, we have no choice but to trust Mammon, even if it's a trap.

Finding Millie, the others, and the citizens are the only thing we can do from now on, and if we can't find them, I might surrender my own life.

So please, I trust my luck into the hands of Mammon that he's telling the truth.

Mammon looked at and smiled viscously and said to us with a calm and determined voice. "Camael." is what he said.

One of the Heavenly Generals of Yahweh, the Archangel that represents the Virtue of Fortitude, Camael was the one who did this.

Camael the one who took Millie, Luna, Dawn, and everyone from me, he better be careful next time.

Because if he ever touched one of my friends and citizens, he better know what I'll do to him.