Chaos.
"...Th-the [Grand Duke of the Underworld]...?!"
"The one called the right hand of the [Lord of Darkness]... y-you mean a [Disaster]-class demon...?"
"I heard he vanished completely after appearing in the [Eastern Empire] decades ago..."
Rimuru's residence was thrown into utter turmoil by Adelio's explosive declaration that he was the [Grand Duke of the Underworld].
Gazel and his close aides knew very well how dangerous the [Grand Duke of the Underworld] was, a being measured for centuries as [Disaster]-class, on the same level as the [Demon Lord]s.
Even the [Goblin]s and [Kijin], who didn't know much about him, at least knew the name Guy Crimson, one of the [Demon Lord]s, so they immediately grasped just how dangerous Adelio had to be.
If he was the right hand of the strongest and first [Demon Lord], the only being besides the [True Dragon]s to be treated as equal to those living natural disasters that could devastate the world alone, then he had to be a monster beyond ordinary comprehension.
"Lord Adelio..."
"...Is it really true? You, one of humanity's greatest military powers... are an attendant of a [Demon Lord]?"
"There were times I felt like you weren't human, but... don't tell me you really weren't human after all..."
Even so, the monsters' reactions were not as extreme as the knights of [Dwargo].
They still didn't know.
They didn't know what kind of upheaval would one day be caused by the fact that a monster carried a [Hero's Egg].
"...N-no, but that's impossible if you think about it normally, isn't it?! Lord Adelio is definitely a [Hero] who possesses a [Hero's Egg], so how could you possibly be a monster...?"
"True... that part is hard to explain."
"...To begin with, he's been called a [Hero] for hundreds of years already... common sense was never going to apply here..."
"Good grief..."
Dorph, Henrietta, Burn, and even Zen.
The leaders of [Dwargo], who almost never lost their composure in front of their subordinates unless something truly extraordinary happened, swallowed hard as they stared at Adelio, who was so naturally giving off demonic magic.
If they didn't have memories of Adelio helping Gazel resolve problems in the West, they might have drawn their swords on him right then and there.
That was how shocking Adelio's true identity was.
"...Uh, I've got a question. If Adelio is a monster, what exactly is the problem?"
Just as almost everyone was still reeling in shock, Gobta alone scratched his head and voiced the question without a care.
He still didn't really understand what [Hero]s or [Demon Lord]s even were, so the idea of a monster living among humans didn't feel especially strange to him.
"G-Gobta...!"
Rigru, sitting beside him, gasped in horror and hurriedly tried to cover his mouth, but—
"It's fine, Rigru. I was planning to explain anyway."
Stopping Rigru, Adelio opened his mouth again.
And then—
"There's a lot I need to explain, but to give you the conclusion first... I'm a [Regressor], a human who reincarnated as a monster."
—he dropped a second bombshell.
Should it be called a small mercy in the middle of disaster?
"..."
Ria and Shizue, who had known everything from the start, and Rimuru, who already knew he was a [Regressor], stayed silent.
"...[Regressor]."
The monsters who knew the story of Araki Byakuya only looked mildly surprised.
"A-a [Regressor]?!"
So the only ones who were truly stunned this time were the knights of [Dwargo].
"Then that means... Lord Adelio also came from another world...?"
They understood the concept of a [Regressor] even better than the monsters did, but since they had never actually met one before, Adelio's revelation clearly shocked them.
"I was originally a human living in the world Shizu came from too. For some reason, I ended up reincarnating as a demon."
When someone with a strong soul is transferred to another world through reincarnation, the language and magicules of that [World] can sometimes alter them into a different race.
Rimuru was one representative example of that, and Adelio was the same.
And because of that, it also explained, at least to some extent, the contradiction of Adelio being a monster while still possessing a [Hero's Egg].
His soul had originally belonged to a human body, so people were made to roughly understand it as the [Hero's Egg] having settled into his heart-core.
"I see... I had wondered how you came to possess my grandfather's sword, but if you met him in hell, a realm belonging to another world, then it is not so impossible a story after all."
Perhaps because [Regressor]s had never fit into any fixed mold and only scattered, chaotic records remained of them, Gazel's mutter was enough to make the leaders of [Dwargo] reluctantly nod along as well.
But unfortunately—
"And maybe because of that aftereffect, I was a demon carrying a [Hero's Egg] from the moment I was born in hell. The demon who found me and took me in as her servant was Ria."
—there was still one more problem.
A major problem that might be just as important as Adelio's identity and status, or perhaps even more so.
"Hmm... huh? Wait... I feel like I just heard something huge..."
Rimuru, who had been quietly listening to Adelio, muttered as if something felt off. Then she ran his words through her head again and snapped her head around.
"..."
"Hehehe."
There, in her line of sight, sat Ria neatly beside Shizue.
"...N-no way... right...?"
"Heh, what do you mean?"
Throwing Rimuru's question right back at her as a question of her own, Ria looked over the gazes now pouring toward her one by one and spoke softly.
"It's not that strange, is it? If the [Hero] of the [Hero Party] is a demon, there's no reason I wouldn't be one too."
It was, for all practical purposes, an admission that she really was a demon.
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