Ball of Nothing

Chapter 205 First Stop - Gluttony 1

Zero didn’t know how long he’d slept for but his neck made a painful crack when he got up. It must have been hours judging from the pain. Beside him, Baal made himself extremely comfortable by snuggling towards his tummy with his head on Zero’s lap. The young doctor felt his eyebrow twitch a little. If Baal could cover him with a blanket, why couldn’t he shift him into a more comfortable position?

"Bell! Wake up, we’ve arrived!"

Baal moaned and decided that the wisest thing to do was to snuggle back into the blanket. Zero rolled his eyes. For an ancient Demon Lord, Baal can sometimes be no different from a child. The teenager sighed wistfully before yanking the covers off with one hard tug.

The Demon Lord tumbled out of Zero’s lap and onto the hard carriage floor. He almost whined with tears in his eyes but remembered at the very last moment that he had an image to keep as a Demon Lord before settling with sulking. Zero wasn’t amused with Baal’s antics. If there was something he’d become mature in, Baal swore it was definitely nagging. The Demon Lord cursed his overly efficient secretary. She was definitely a bad influence on the worrywart teen doctor. Nobody needed an overly kind and concerned mother-hen to peck them over every single little thing. A man needs his space to breathe!

Zero wasted no time and rolled Baal out of the way with his knee before folding the blankets and placing them nicely on the seats again. The Demon Lord couldn’t understand why Zero kept insisting on participating in menial tasks that could’ve been left to servants or done up with magic. The brunet insisted that it was a way of life and something about being centered to the world. Baal bet that it was Hua Tuo’s teachings and groaned when Zero tried to influence him.

The teenager hopped out of the carriage and slipped on the muddy ground, landing on his bottom with an ’oof’. Baal merely morphed into a bird and settled down in Zero’s hair. The young doctor was slightly annoyed at how cosy Baal seemed.

The Demon Lord was greatly startled when Zero shook his head vigorously and tumbled off into the mud. He morphed back at once with his face full of nastiness and glared at his giggling best friend.

Zero wasn’t expecting to be hit in the face with something cold and awful smelling. The smile was wiped away almost instantly and he turned to look at his chortling pal. With narrowed eyes, Zero decided that payback was needed.

Baal dodged the returned favour cheekily and the two friends began a mini mud-slinging battle. Before long, the glares turned into mirth and hearty laughter. The rat coachman had departed, leaving the two to their own world. They were so engrossed that neither of them was aware of a new person’s arrival.

"If I knew you were comfortable with the swamp lands, I wouldn’t have taken a loan from Mammon to prepare a townhouse in haste for your arrival."

Zero found the voice familiar and turned around. He ignored Baal’s latest mud ball and waddled over in an attempt to hug the Lord of Gluttony only to be shunned.

"Don’t you dare come near me reeking of mud!"

The teen then looked at himself and Baal who was also covered from head to toe in the same nastiness. Beelzebub didn’t comment when Zero conjured up water magic to clean them off and wind magic to dry them. If anything, he was envious of Zero’s portable bath system. While Beelzebub was a talented Demon Lord, he wasn’t adept in magic at all. Still, he didn’t comment and led them to the townhouses built for the esteemed guests.

"It’s been a while, I’m so happy to see that you’re doing well!" Zero gushed.

Beelzebub tried his hardest to not blush and turned away, coughing into a fist to regain his ’Lord-like’ composure like how Lucifer and Mammon taught him to. Baal was doing his best not to laugh at the awkward manner Beelzebub carried himself with. Even as one of the most feared Demon Lords, Baal simply dismissed the etiquette expected of him. Beelzebub was trying too hard.

Even Zero noticed how stiff and different Beelzebub was behaving. Concern was written all over his face as he followed their host to their lodging. The youngest Demon lord did his best to ignore his ex-room mate’s concern. He heard it from Lucifer and Mammon that Zero was making his rounds before returning to the material world. He didn’t want to appear as weak or incapable in Zero’s eyes especially when they parted so he did his best to hold his chin up high with back straight and chest puffed. It felt strange pretending to be someone of importance but it was something Beelzebub didn’t have an opinion about. Ever since he was discovered as a Demon Lord, his life had made a complete one-eighty.

"Is Beel ok?" Zero asked Baal through their mental connection.

Baal didn’t really answer. While Beelzebub was doing fine, he knew that this definition of ’fine’ didn’t constitute well in Zero’s dictionary. As long as there was something bothering his patient, Zero will not give them the doctor’s verdict of being ’fine’.

Beelzebub showed them to their rooms and told them to meet him in the main hall where they would then dine. Zero didn’t manage to catch them Lord of Gluttony before he left. Disappointed, Zero flopped onto the bed and Baal took his leave.

"Holler if you want to go somewhere. Don’t think that I’m letting you out of my sight..." Baal narrowed his eyes in warning and Zero nodded like a pecking hen.

The moment the door shut, Zero hopped off the bed. He called for Mii and Bob to appear before him. "What’s wrong with Beel? He was acting strange but he wasn’t sick or injured..."

The Eternal Dragon appeared with a poof and the strawcherry fairy decided to continue working in Zero’s mindscape.

"With all due respect, young master... Lord Beelzebub might be feeling a little out of place with his new status as a Demon Lord."

Zero looked confused and the dragon had to explain what ’social expectations’ were. Zero had a hard time understanding it but Bob’s explanation certainly helped with many questions lingering on his mind. It explained how Rhinestone became the way he was and why Rayneld had a hard time making friends. Thinking about it, it could explain a lot about the villagers’ behaviour in Half Moon village.

"Come to think about it... didn’t Clowis mention something similar?" Zero thought aloud and Bob shrugged.

"Perhaps. Cockatrices aren’t exactly well-liked. It didn’t matter if they were kind-hearted or not, people just didn’t like them because of the species they were. If history told a terrible tale about how cockatrices killed many, the descendants of these victims will come to learn to hate the descendants of cockatrices because of what happened to their ancestors. Similarly, the stories told by cockatrice ancestors about how humans tried to steal their eggs and kill their young will incur their hatred. It would be hard for these two species to bury the ill-feelings they have towards each other and start a good relationship on a different foot without some drastic changes. Right now, Lord Beelzebub is forced into a role of Hell’s saviour. It’s not going to be easy for him to escape the demands from the people who worship him."

Zero sat down on the edge of the bed to ponder through Bob’s words. The Eternal Dragon took his leave and left Zero to his own thoughts while he helped Mii out in the mindscape. Ruth would be meeting them after paying respects to his family in the vampire village. The last minute change in plans by Coux made the two assistants busy with Zero and Baal snoozing away. If it weren’t for Sekkin’s tip-off after his return that Ruth’s fallen family members were slowly turning into mindless undead from the thickening miasma outside of domains, Zero might have to witness something that Baal wouldn’t be happy with.

"What’s the situation like?" Mii asked Coux.

The secretary sighed, feeling a headache build up. " Ruth arrived just in time. They were burnt and their ashes were scattered. Sekkin thinks that Ruth needs some time alone to mourn. I guess the Roth village would be the last stop after all. Zero might be disappointed to know that the Roths are no longer there."

Mii nodded grimly with a pursed lip. Being Zero’s information filter was a tough job. Not only were there system limitations, she had to coordinate between different realms. Truen had recently began to pile work and Mii was feeling the stress take a toll on her mental health. Her ability to cope with Zero’s immature problems were dwindling and it was obvious to Bob who offered to take over that aspect of her job.

"They have a new request... The Great Gods will supply the materials and finances required but they want Wiser and company to create a weapon befitting of Zero for his travels," Mii told Coux.

The half-succubus raised a brow. Zero was a pacifist. Also, he had great magic and special skills that could easily get him away from any scuffles or conflicts. Why would the Great Gods want to commission a weapon for someone unwilling to fight? Besides, Zero has a bodyguard-guardian capable enough to do the dirty work for him.

"Don’t question it... it’s something Isis saw and Uriel confirmed it. They want a weapon that wouldn’t kill but could defend its master."

"Are you talking about an intelligent weapon like the ones used to slay Gods in legends?"

Mii grumbled a little before confirming it. "I don’t know if it’s just me but the Great Gods seem to want Zero to walk the path of a hero or something... On the other hand, Lucifer wants to teach Zero how to become the perfect destroyer although Zero’s constant destruction of plans, relationships and properties in the Abyss is taking a toll on their resources. Thankfully Hua Tuo is the only sane influence Zero has."

Coux didn’t have the heart to tell Mii that she was wrong. Hua Tuo and Buddha wants Zero to tread the toughest path between becoming a hero and a destroyer. To her, she didn’t want Zero to walk any of those path if she had a say in the matter. All she wanted was for Zero to be happy and enjoy life to the fullest as much as he could. She didn’t want to lose the adorable child to the cruelty of the world they lived in.

"I will see what I can do," Coux relented. A weapon that doesn’t kill befitting of Zero’s kind-nature... Coux didn’t know what it would be just yet but it certainly was better than giving the young healer a sword and telling him to cut the heads of his enemies off because he had the right to defend his honour in that manner.

"I’ll leave it to you then," Mii concluded and ended the party call with Coux. She then looked through the list of things to do that Truen sent and groaned. One down, twenty-seven more to go. At this rate, she would be working until next year as it was!

"One day," she swore. "One day I will quit this job and earn my freedom!"

Bob decided that the best option right now was to silently retreat into his personal corner of Zero’s mindscape. Mii was positively raging and an angry strawcherry fairy was a snappy one. He knew that whatever Mii was working on would be beyond his ability to help. Hence, he decided to do the next best thing and peak at what Zero was doing.

The young doctor thought that he would try and spy on Beelzebub using the Mii’s map. The tracker was blinking and Zero was calculating how high he should grapple before making that perfect landing and slapping the Demon Lord with a bunch of healing spells.

"Young master, I highly advise against that plan. Perhaps you could try talking to him at dinner or after without Lord Baal in hearing range."

The brunet almost ripped the curtains off their hinges when he heard Bob’s voice in his head and cursed. He could’ve fallen out of the window and hurt his head very badly while ruining his clothes with mud again. Couldn’t Bob give him a little warning?

The Eternal Dragon deadpanned. "And how should I do that, young master?"

Zero blinked and grinned sheepishly before apologising. Then his stomach rumbled. "I guess it’s the perfect time to interro- I mean, question him at dinner," Zero announced louder than necessary and dashed out of his room.

Baal who was in the other room heard Zero’s announcement and frowned. That brat better not be up to something again.