Freedom... //Yakusoku No Neverland

126] Four Party Dialogue

不安が高まり、彼が目を覚ますと信じて

"He's looking better. His pulse and breathing have calmed down too. And Vincent also said that there wasn't any damage to the brain. He'll wake up any time now" I reassured Emma as we sat down, Watching Chris

"Yeah..." Emma said

"Leaving that aside, there's Norman. He didn't come back yesterday either..." Ray said

"I want to talk to him as soon as possible" Emma said "Since then, I've really been thinking. Even though we get along just fine, with Barbara, Cislo and Vincent... Even though they're all such funny and nice people. To be caught up eith such hatred"

{They must have gone through so much...}

"And back at Goldy Pond... Oliver talked about how much he hated the demons... But this first time I've seeen such bottomless hatred... I was scared. It's not "Sympathy towards the demons"... I was afraid it just how deep-seated the hatred was that I was seeing. But... "The enemy is all the same"... What about Musica? Do they not know that demons have children either? To say they're all the same it's strange... It's really strange..!!!" Emma said

"Yeah. But they couldn't care less about those who have killed our kind. The suffering that they've gone through is undeniable. You can't just say "Don't hate them". After that hatred comes out, you can't stop it. It keeps growing steadily... It's cycle of hatred with no end" I said

"This is "war" to them after all. To inflict fear on an enemy, one's own poverty, leaderships' selfishness, a mutual misunderstanding. It can start for a diffrent number of reasons. If you have the time to be thinking about your enemies, it should be about how to kill them. If the "Cycle of Hatred" is allowed to be born, there's no way of stopping war. Killing each other, hating them for it, then more killing. That's why it'll never go away. Humanity has been repeating itself for thousand of years" Ray explained

"Im-" Emma stopped as we heard yelling outside

"Its the boss!"

"Everyone the boss is back"

"Welcome back"

"Let's go!" Emma said and we rushed to Norman's office

We saw Norman coming up the stairs with Barbara and Cislo behind him

"Emma... Y/n... Ray...?" Norman questioned seeing us there

"Can we talk, Norman?" Emma asked

~

We entered his office, just all four of us to talk

"Sorry for bothering you as soon as you got back..." I mumbled

"Its alright" Norman said and turned to us "You wanted to talk?"

"Yeah, about a lot of things" Emma said

"But before that, I'd like to know... What kind of plan do you have? How will you "exterminate the demons without losing a single person"" Ray asked

"Is it Civil War?" Ray and I asked in unison

"That's right! You always catch on quick, Ray and Y/n" Norman said

"Civil War?" Emma questioned

"You're going to invite a civil war between the demons?" Ray asked again

"I'll have them crush each other" Norman said

"Then... The "Pieces" you went to go meet were..." Emma paused as Ray and I sat down

"Demons. We formed an alliance. The demons' society isn't just one large monolith. The king, the aristocracy, and commoners under them. There's a clearly defined social hierarchy. And among them specifically, there's the Royal Family and 5 regent homes" Norman explained

"Regent homes?" Emma asked

"They're five noble families that possess influence second only to the royal family" Norman answered

"Ahh" Emma hummed

{That sounds familiar... "The five noble frmon families have joined hand with the Ratri Clan"}

"They created Lambda...!" I exclaimed surprised

"Right. That royal family and its five regent homes manage and operate all the plantations. They control the supply of human flesh, and hold the balance of demon society in their palm. They take pride in their tremendous wealth and power. The disparity has been widening over these years for the Royal family and regent homes. The rest of the demons have started to harbor dissatisfaction. So let's use them. To begin with at least" Norman explained

"Any specifics? Who will you be working with?" Ray asked

"The Giran Clan. They're former nobility. 700 years ago, with their own plan... The royal family and regent homes. Falsely accused him of a crime, and his formerly royal clan fell to the ruins. Their banishment was a type... Where the eating of Human meat wasn't allowed. For that punishment traditionally, demons are supposed to degenerate and become wild, then be crushed. But they've been hiding, waiting tor their opportunity at revenge. For 700 years. They've repeatedly stolen from the farms and towns to eat. Just enough to maintain their humanoid figure and intelligence" Norman explained

"You've found some, huh?" Emma mumbled "Demons like those..."

"Will that be alright?" I asked

"Those guys... They're supposed to be the enemy..." Ray said

"It'll work. Certainly, there is a considerable risk here. As, soon as we stop being valuable to them, they most likely plan to eat us. But that's the same for both of us. We're both aiming to destroy each other. This was the strategy from the beginning. It'll be okay. Until they fulfill their revenge, they won't reveal their hand. In addition to their strong obsession with taking revenge they won't show their hand because they have "Another situation to deal with""Norman said

{"Another situation to deal with"?}

"For this to be successful, none of us cattle can die. Instead of waging a head-on war with the demons, this method is more useful, hundred times over" Norman said

{He's right as always...}

"If we can put them against each other. It'll be our win. But this is neither arrogance or self-indulgence. It's "Resolve". I won't let us cattle shed any more blood" Norman said

{So that's it... Inciting them to fight each other, and taking advantage of the situation. Because the king and nobility own everything in this society, if we can destroy them, it'll collapse from the foundation. The king, mobility, their society, the farms... If we destroy all of that, the demons will degenerate and go extinct. If they cants eat humans, the demons won't be able to maintain their form and intelligence. So that's Norman's plan, putting it in the simplest of terms}

"But..." I mumbled

"Norman did you know? There are demons that aren't like them. There are those within the demons that won't degenerate if they don't eat humans. Those demons probably aren't affected by the food they eat" Emma told him, I noticed Norman's eyes widened as we told him that

"Yeah... If there are a lot of demons like that, who don't need to eat humans. Your plan will fail from the onset" Ray said "So that's why we wanted to ask you"

"And besides..." Emma paused as we all noticed Norman, he seemed stressed and put his hand on his face in which we can only see his right eye

"How... How do you three know about that?" Norman asked

"Eh?" I hummed, as Norman stood up

"Where did you learn about them?" Norman asked

Ray, Emma and I began telling him about Musica and Sung-Joo

"You've seen her? And met her? All of you actually met her? It can't be... I don't believe it... The "Evil Blood Maiden" Clan still lives on"

The truth about Musica is revealed---

Days/hours to finish: 1 day
Number of words: 1254