-- Belphegor’s Perspective --

I woke up early in the morning. Francesca is currently downstairs waiting for our breakfast while Noelle is still sleeping beside me.

 

** tap, tap, tap **

 

Someone’s tapping outside the window. When I opened it, a crow was waiting for me. I took the folded letter the crow was carrying on it’s leg. The crow flew away as soon as I closed the window. Then, I sat on the table.

 

『We’re sorry if Freya-sama no longer trust us after she saw the crow flew away. She has some doubts, but she doesn’t have any intentions of killing us, thanks to Nanatsu.

Freya-sama is planning to go to Marigaya, south of here. Since it’s getting stormy lately, we won’t be travelling by dragon. Instead, we’ll be travelling by wagon, and it may take around two weeks to get there. 

We don’t know what her intentions are and why there, but she already has someone in mind that could possibly be the intruder. She might have gotten the idea f… [illegible]

That’s all - Hachiro』

 

They’ve been messing up lately. Hachiro’s handwriting is difficult to read and it’s pure luck that I managed to read most of its contents. Their original mission was to silently observe Freya and report all her actions every morning, but they mess it up. If only my transmitter is compatible with their cores, we don’t have to deal with this kind of trouble. 

A few days ago, when I stormed the east side of the royal castle. I took over the two dark knights guarding Freya’s room to one of the secret chambers. I restrained their bodies and installed another core far advanced than what they currently have.

By default, a dark knight simply has the body of a mannequin with strings and gears. It’s core is made out of sand, one may call it - a spherical glass with a few circuits or tubes visible from the outside, powered by primal mana which is available everywhere, as long as there is life on that place.

The soul core is the new one I've installed. It's a dark translucent spherical core with some sort of yarn of wires in the middle. It consumes a lot of mana every second that even a primal mana that can be fetched right away is simply consumed upon its wake.

This core is used for binding and attaching one’s soul, but it can also be used to transfer memories and teach them beforehand. It's my first time doing the latter without binding a soul. Surprisingly it worked, and they both gained a consciousness of their own.

I only gave them a few instructions in mind and short introductions of who I am. I have high expectations of them fulfilling their task flawlessly. Unfortunately, they failed those expectations right after they got out of the secret room.

Nonetheless, they continued their task, thus their purpose remained. It also intrigues me that they managed to make their own decisions. They even have their own names, and it’s not me who provided them. It would have maddened me already from the start, but no… it’s curiosity and interest that surrounds me right now.

Someone is tapping my shoulder.

 

“Bell-san..? Bell-san…? Bell-san…?”

 

I turned my head to the right side of me.

 

“Yes?”

“Breakfast is ready. I’ve been talking to nyou for half a minute already but nyou weren’t responding.”

“I was thinking of something...”

“Was it because of that letter?”

 

I replied with a nod.

 

“Is that so…? Are you really okay? Nyou’ve been spacing out a lot lately.”

“Am I?”

“Yeah… There are also times when you move a lot on the bed when you’re asleep, then you’d  suddenly hug me.”

“... I didn’t know that.”

“See… If nyou want, I could send in a doctor to check up on nyou.”

“It’s fine.”

 

I raised my hand, reassuring her. She pursed her lips in response.

 

--

 

Afternoon, while I was writing, Noelle grabbed the hem of my clothes and sniffed it.

 

“**sniff, sniff**”

 

She looked up to me.

 

“Papa, why do you always smell nice~?”

 

I paused for a moment wondering why. Then I sniffed my sweatshirt and my hands. I don’t smell anything out of order. All of the people I’ve been around with said the same thing… I smell nice.

I ruffled her hair. Her cat ears raised and she began purring. She really loves it.

 

“What do I smell like?”

 

Her tiny hands gently grabbed my hand and sniffed it.

 

“You smell like~ strawberries~!”

“Do I smell like strawberries, Francesca?”

 

She was cleaning the room when I asked her.

 

“**sniff, sniff** Mmmmm, nyou dyon’t smell like strawberries… nyou smell like wet grass to me”.

“Nooooo~ Papa smells like strawberries~!”

“**sniff, sniff** I dyon’t think so…”

 

Noelle’s limbs stiffened and looked at Francesca with puffed up cheeks. While Francesca was busy dealing with Noelle who was about to cry, I delved into my own thoughts. 

I smell like strawberries from Noelle and wet grass from Francesca. At the Elves Cabin, Clara told me that I smell like a bunch of flowers. Freya and Maya never told me what I smelled like, but somehow... I smell different to each one of them.

It might have been a side effect of the ring I'm wearing. If I try to remove it now, they'd definitely run away as soon as I removed my ring.

Character Reference
Noelle-chan
No actual source to provide, Image is not mine.