Chapter 233

“What? Master Singer Lloyd Frontera is in the heart of Hell?”

This was a lava bath somewhere in the metropolitan area(?) near Hell Castle.

About fifteen satans were soaking in the lava.

Satans who, even today, gave their parents more worries.

Satans who carved their parents’ wrinkles even deeper.

Satans who succeeded in back-breaking their parents with every kind of misbehavior, gathered in little clusters.

Normally, they were the kind of satans who would brag about their own impiety and villainy.

But today was a little different.

Because a fresher topic than usual had been tossed onto the table.

“Lloyd Frontera?”

“Wait, the guy from the rumors with those otherworldly, impossible high notes?”

“I heard Hell Knight Sir Georexius went to his grave from listening to that singing.”

“Heh. Why wouldn’t he.”

The one-horned satan who brought the news snickered.

“Didn’t you all feel it a few days ago? When the Hell Gate opened.”

“Yeah, I felt it.”

“Then you must’ve felt the man of acclaim stepping into Hell too.”

“Of course. But Lloyd Frontera is in the heart of Hell?”

“Yeah.”

The one-horned satan nodded.

“You bastards are slow on the uptake. The King of Hell issued proclamations all over the place this morning.”

“Is that for real?”

“Of course.”

“Really?”

“Do you think I forged a proclamation from the King of Hell out of thin air?”

“Fair point. You wouldn’t.”

“Exactly. So believe it.”

“Fine. I believe you. Then let’s go listen to the master singer! To the far edge of Hell!”

“…I said Lloyd Frontera is in the heart of Hell.”

“So we go to the far edge.”

“Why?”

“If you were me, would you just believe what a bastard like you says?”

“……”

“Let’s go! To the far edge of Hell!”

The fifteen satans who had been soaking in the lava stood up.

They gathered their things and set out on a journey toward the far edge of Hell.

And it wasn’t only there.

Near Hell Castle.

On the slope of some nameless volcano.

In the exhaust-choked abyssal purgatory.

All kinds of satanic fiends heard the news of Lloyd Frontera.

And began their journey toward the far edge of Hell.

Every reason was the same.

‘They’re calling him a master singer, right? Saying he’s praised and celebrated, right? Then we have to confirm it. Just how terrible is his singing, really. And if that singing is even slightly different from the rumors…’

They would spread slander.

They would nitpick the smallest thing and exaggerate it.

They would tear into him and defame him until he wanted to die.

They would smear the master singer’s reputation.

Because he was doing better than them.

Because he was doing better than them for reasons they couldn’t understand.

Because someone unqualified like that had to fall, no matter what.

Because they thought it would make them feel even a little better.

They would grab him by the hair and drag him down.

‘Hehehe. Brace yourself.’

The satans sharpened their sinister knives in their hearts.

Lloyd Frontera?

Otherworldly impossible high notes?

The master singer of the century?

Every time they heard rumors like that, their insides twisted.

He didn’t look particularly superior to them, so they couldn’t understand how he was gaining fame and praise.

They were better than a guy like that.

If they ever got the chance, they could become far more famous than him.

But the stupid, thick-headed world couldn’t recognize it.

That was why they were tragically buried in obscurity.

But someday, they would rise too.

They would show their true worth.

So they had to drag down the guy wearing fame he didn’t deserve.

That would set this stupid world a little straighter.

That was what the satans believed.

Dank jealousy.

Sly competitiveness.

With a whole pile of envy hidden inside them,

a full thirty thousand unemployed satans gathered like a storm cloud at the far edge of Hell.

At the sight, Javier was aghast.

“…Don’t tell me the reason you asked the King of Hell for cooperation was this.”

“Yeah. Obviously.”

“You predicted this from the start?”

“Of course.”

This was the far edge of Hell.

From atop a sharp rock that rose straight up, Lloyd shrugged.

Then he looked down at the thirty thousand satans gathered like a cloud beneath the rock.

‘Perfect.’

Even better than expected.

This was more than enough to satisfy him.

As he watched the horde, the corners of Lloyd’s lips lifted with the warm satisfaction of a farmer at harvest.

Then he continued.

“Think about it. What kind of neighborhood is this?”

“Hell.”

“And here, when satans hear about someone getting famous and praised, what do you think they do?”

“You assumed they would show envy and jealousy.”

“Yep. Correct.”

Lloyd snickered.

“That’s why. I figured they’d gather to drag me down and tear into me. And this is the result.”

Lloyd swept a hand across the plain.

“Woooooo!”

At his gesture, the thirty thousand satans roared back.

The plain filled with a harsh, howling din.

At first, their screams were a chaotic mess.

But as time passed, the shouting unified into one demand.

“Sing a song! Right now!”

A threatening prompt.

Ferocious stares.

The gathered satans’ mood grew even more menacing.

Looking down at them, Lloyd’s smile turned strangely meaningful.

He cupped his hands like a megaphone.

He activated the Asrahan Heart Technique.

He reinforced his vocal cords with amplified Mana.

His throat-clearing—about ten times louder than usual—rode through his cupped hands and echoed across the plain.

“Ahem! Ahem!”

From the moment that sound rang out,

the plain that had been filled with rough howling fell silent.

The satans all shut their mouths at once.

Tens of thousands of eyes fixed on Lloyd.

Everyone waited.

For Lloyd’s singing to begin.

Everyone hoped.

That they could find something to nitpick in Lloyd’s singing.

At the moment everyone’s dank craving and hope reached its peak,

Lloyd’s smile turned sly.

“You idiots didn’t seriously gather here expecting me to sing for you, did you?”

“……!”

Everyone flinched.

Lloyd continued calmly.

“But I don’t feel like singing.”

“……”

“Why should I?”

“……”

“Is there some reason I have to sing for you?”

“…That’s ridiculous!”

A one-horned satan snapped and shouted.

“We came all the way here! To hear your singing!”

“Yeah, and?”

“And you’re saying you won’t sing! Does that make any sense?”

“Yeah. It does.”

“…What?”

“What does you bastards gathering in huge numbers have to do with me singing?”

With a shameless grin, Lloyd asked back.

“B-But!”

The one-horned satan stammered.

“The King of Hell issued a proclamation! That you’d sing here!”

“Yeah. It just got canceled.”

“……”

“You idiots are pathetic—gathering in this huge crowd just to hear a song that won’t do a damn thing for your lives. Isn’t that right? Looks like you’re all so idle you don’t have anything better to do.”

“……”

“Besides, did I ever promise you anything? No. So why are you acting like it’s my duty to sing? Whether I do or don’t is up to me. Right?”

“……”

“So I’m not doing it.”

“No! Even if that’s true—!”

“Then let’s just say you all got baited.”

“……”

“Ah, does that make you even more pissed?”

“……”

Bubble, bubble.

Heat boiled up inside the gathered satans.

They looked up at Lloyd with blazing eyes.

If they could, they wanted to tear that human apart on the spot.

But they couldn’t.

Why?

Because the silver-haired knight standing by that bastard was too strong.

The one who had taken down a Hell Knight, a commander of Hell’s First Legion.

If they charged in carelessly, ordinary satans like them would be slaughtered—whether thousands or tens of thousands.

As the satans trembled with rage, Lloyd poured contempt on them.

“Still got something to do here? Or is it just stubbornness? I’m going to do something far more important than dealing with you lot. If you’re pissed, come at me. If not, crawl back to where you came from and try being good children to your parents.”

“……”

The satans fell silent, steeped in fury.

Leaving them behind, Lloyd climbed down the far side of the rock.

Javier, who had been waiting, furrowed his brow.

His eyes—unlike him—looked genuinely worried for Lloyd.

“Um, Lloyd-nim.”

“Yeah, what?”

“Those… those are the satans you gathered by asking the King of Hell to cooperate, aren’t they?”

“Yeah, they are.”

“Then why did you treat them like that?”

“Hm?”

“You won’t gain anything by treating them in such a cold and harsh way.”

“You think so?”

“Yes. I thought that once they gathered, you would sing that horrific… song and capture their hearts.”

“So you thought I’d use them as laborers that way?”

“Yes. That’s why I’m worried.”

“What are you worried about?”

“Won’t they resent you and try to sabotage your work because of this?”

“Yeah. They definitely will.”

“Pardon?”

“They definitely will.”

“Then why would you…?”

“Do that?”

“Yes.”

“Because I want them to sabotage my work. That’s how the work moves forward.”

“Pardon?”

“Not much time to explain. Let’s start. Follow me.”

He gestured at the bewildered knight.

He led him to a spot near the far edge of Hell that he’d already picked out.

It was flat terrain with a wide-open view.

On one side, it even bordered a bubbling lava pond that hadn’t fully cooled.

“Alright. From here, let’s do some digging.”

Thud!

He pulled a folding shovel from his pack and handed it to Javier.

He gripped his own shovel firmly as well.

Javier tilted his head.

“You intend to dig here?”

“Yeah.”

“What is this digging for?”

“Hunting.”

“What?”

“In a few days, the prey will come pouring in.”

“Prey…?”

“Yeah. Precious prey that’ll supply the key materials we need to build the railway.”

“……”

Javier looked at Lloyd with a strange gaze.

What does this man think about as he lives?

It was truly impossible to understand.

To the point where, if he could, he wanted to peer inside Lloyd’s head at least once.

Even that grin—like he already knew everything that was going to happen.

“What are you staring at like that?”

“……”

“I’m not some prophet. No one in my family line had any weird powers either, alright? This is a process of predicting and preparing based on actual calculations and design.”

“……”

“So for now, just dig like I tell you to, yeah?”

“Understood.”

He still had no idea what Lloyd was plotting.

Or what he was preparing.

But he could guess one thing.

‘He definitely knows more about Hell than anyone else.’

That thought came to him.

Even on the way to meet the King of Hell.

The way he spoke with the King of Hell.

And even now.

Lloyd-nim kept giving off the feeling that he alone knew something about Hell that Javier and everyone else did not.

‘But…’

Whatever it was, he would trust him for now.

At least Lloyd-nim wasn’t someone who harmed those around him.

He was someone who had devoted himself countless times for the estate and everyone around him.

So this time as well—he would trust him.

The silver-haired knight made that vow.

And he faithfully followed Lloyd’s instructions.

“So I just dig the ground according to these construction guidelines?”

“Of course.”

“Ssssss!”

Before he knew it, [Construction Guidelines] had been engraved into the ground in fine detail.

From then on,

Javier dug hard alongside Lloyd.

They dug, hauled, and dug again.

They dug without tiring.

It was digging worthy of a Grand Master.

Ppodong and Bangul joined in too.

Thanks to that, the group managed to dig out a massive tunnel in less than half a day.

Overall, it was a large tunnel shaped like a gourd.

The entrance diameter was about ten meters.

The slope of the passage leading from the entrance was a steep sixty degrees.

And at the end of that hundred-meter passage, there was a huge chamber.

The chamber was eighty meters wide, two hundred meters deep, and fifty meters high.

Lloyd dug a modest bathtub in the center of the chamber.

Then he filled the tub to the brim.

Hamang handled that job alone.

“Hamang! Ha-mamang!”

Slurp!

There happened to be a boiling hot spring nearby.

Hamang sucked up the hot spring water like he was drinking hot coffee, blowing on it as he went. He carried it back. He spat it into the tub.

Once the tub was full, it was Ggoming’s turn.

“Ggoming?”

“Ggoming?”

“Do you like baths?”

“Ggoming!”

“You don’t really enjoy them?”

“Ggomi-ming!”

“Hm. Too bad. I noticed you’ve got some fleas in your feathers lately.”

“Ggoming?”

“Then you have to wash up, right?”

“Gg… Ggoming!”

“Good. Thanks for deciding. In you go.”

“…Ggoming!”

Splash!

Ggoming jumped into the hot spring water.

He didn’t want to at first.

But once he got in, his face slackened like he was comfortable.

“Gg… Ggomi-miiiiiing…”

“Feels good?”

“Ggomi-iiiing…”

“Good. Then stay like that. For about ten hours.”

“…Ggoming?”

“That’s how the stock gets fully infused.”

“……”

From then on,

Ggoming had to continue a hot-spring soak he never asked for, for a full ten hours.

And the water barely cooled.

Because the geothermal heat was so abundant.

Thanks to that, Ggoming’s feet swelled up nice and puffy.

Because of that sacrifice(?),

the hot spring water Ggoming soaked in brewed into proper parrotbill stock(?).

“Hm hm, smells good.”

Lloyd carefully scooped up the hot spring water.

So careful he wouldn’t spill even a single drop.

He sprinkled it evenly near the tunnel entrance and along the passage.

Only then did a satisfied smile spread across Lloyd’s face.

“Whew. Done.”

A tunnel instead of a glass-bottle trap.

Parrotbill stock instead of chicken-stock bait.

With that, preparations were complete.

Locally tailored construction materials that wouldn’t melt or warp in Hell’s lava heat.

Materials that would stabilize the railway roadbed foundation, supporting it and preventing differential settlement.

At the same time, materials that could be supplied as the rails and sleepers laid on top of the roadbed.

All to be obtained in one go, in massive quantities.

Now it was time.

Time to hunt the countless lava centipedes those furious satans would bring to him.