Chapter 66
The Damned (3)
Someone once said that sports are unscripted dramas.
That tendency becomes even stronger in sports where the winner and loser are clearly distinguished.
You think you’re losing, only to come from behind.
You think you’re winning, only to get overturned.
That kind of drama.
It was also why fans screamed themselves hoarse even when there was an obvious difference in strength between the two teams.
They might steal a win from a powerhouse, and even if they lost, they could still look forward to the future.
[Even if our chances are only 0.1%, we will never give up.]
[The moment you give up, the match is over.]
[Why do we love sports? Because no one knows who will win.]
As those sayings suggested, sports were a culture where the outcome could never be declared with certainty.
This world already lacked entertainment as it was, so it was only natural for people to become completely immersed in sports.
It didn’t matter even if they were nobles born of exalted blood.
[Will it go in? Will it go in?! Shooooooot! Goooooal! Chaemess United take the lead in the dying moments of the match!]
[T-That was truly incredible team play! The Leor players are hanging their heads!]
A private training hall that only members of Mephisto’s royal family were permitted to use.
Relay magic was being broadcast through a crystal orb placed at the center.
Chaemess United and Leor.
Two bitter rivals who couldn’t stand each other.
Normally, Chaemess United—Chae-U for short—would have been at a disadvantage, but they had managed to turn the game around.
Even the commentators were so excited that they were stumbling over their words.
“....”
And there was one person who had watched the entire scene unfold.
Keirin, a princess of Mephisto and the named user known as “PrincessCheonggu” in the gallery.
She barely managed to steady her trembling lips before making a post in the gallery.
After finally pressing the “Post” button and uploading it, she unleashed every emotion she had been holding back.
“Kyaaaaaaaaghhhhhh!!!”
Keirin ran around the entire training hall like a lunatic, screaming in delight.
No.
Calling it a cheer would be generous.
It was closer to the roar of a wild beast.
Every bit of dignity, elegance, and etiquette expected of a princess had been thrown straight out the window.
Her reaction was pure, unfiltered instinct.
She was so happy that she unconsciously released mana, causing minor and major damage throughout the training hall.
If a stranger had seen the expression on her face, they probably would have thought—
Even someone high out of their mind couldn’t make a face like that.
“Is it real? Is it real?! It’s real, right?!”
After charging around the training hall like a rabid dog, Keirin finally returned to her seat.
She was so excited that not only was her breathing ragged, even her blue skin had flushed red.
[It was truly excellent attacking play. Even the defenders joined the buildup.]
[That’s right. Partially abandoning their defense actually ended up...]
[Kone passes inside—]
“Ahh!”
Keirin groaned in disappointment.
They had just squandered a chance to completely sink Leor.
But another attacking opportunity remained.
She held her breath through the nail-biting match, her palms slick with sweat.
[And that’s the final whistle! What an incredible comeback victory!]
[The Chae-U players are dropping to the ground in joy. They handled the pressure magnificently.]
Clap clap clap clap!
The instant the match ended, Keirin applauded with genuine emotion.
The fans in the stadium responded with a standing ovation for the players who had secured such a thrilling comeback victory.
The relay-magic crystal orb had been linked with orichalcum, improving the image quality, sound quality, and finally the stability of the connection.
The hologram it projected showed Keirin exactly what she had longed to see.
[Leor’s players! There isn’t much time remain—huh?]
[Marta intercepts it! They immediately launch the attack!]
[Out to Kone on the left. Kone breaks through! Leor need to stop him here!]
[Ah! The defender clears it away.]
“Ah, seriously. How the hell did they actually win?”
The tension suddenly drained out of Keirin, and she practically collapsed into her seat.
She rubbed her face dryly in disbelief before looking back at the broadcast.
The camera showed the players one by one.
Every single one of them wore an exhilarated expression.
“Yeah. You look so much better smiling. You were always gloomy because you kept losing.”
That loss last time against the weak team that had suddenly gone on a hot streak?
She had forgotten all about it.
Why?
Because they had beaten the rival she hated just from looking at them!
It felt as though a decade-old weight had finally been lifted from her chest.
And replacing that frustration was an enormous flood of positive energy.
In other words—
Dopamine.
There was a reason people said sports were a culture more dangerous than drugs.
‘It happened exactly like Grylls said.’
Keirin quietly opened the gallery.
Just as Grylls had said, they had conceded three goals and then scored four.
Such a ridiculous event had actually happened, and the gallery was in complete chaos.
One thing in particular caught Keirin’s attention.
└ Wild Grylls) If our defense concedes three goals, then our attackers just need to score four.
└ That sounds fucking stupid, but it actually makes sense...!
└ A fine answer indeed lololololol
└ That sounds like something a man who has discovered the truth would say lololol
└ I’ve come on a pilgrimage to this sacred post. Please let Chae-U qualify for the Chals.
└ I’ve come on a pilgrimage. Please let me get together with the girl I like.
└ Please let the stocks I bought go up!
└ Please let me do well on my exams!
└ I’m a commoner, please make me a noble—
A so-called “pilgrimage to the sacred post” had begun.
It was a kind of folk belief where people made wishes on posts that seemed to have predicted the future.
But Grylls’s sacred-post pilgrimage was somewhat different.
After all, nobody had genuinely expected Grylls’s words to come true.
The impact came precisely because reality had pushed through an absurdly tiny probability.
‘I should give him more uniforms.’
Thanks to the orichalcum, she had been able to watch the thrilling comeback victory with her own eyes.
Normally, the relay would begin cutting out here and there around the eightieth minute.
This time, however, the broadcast had remained perfectly clear.
Keirin watched the rest of the coverage while humming happily to herself.
The match might have ended, but one of the highlights still remained.
The manager’s interview.
[You’ve finally defeated Leor. How do you feel?]
[Needless to say, I’m delighted. The fact that our players refused to give up makes this victory feel even more valuable.]
Chae-U’s manager had no hair whatsoever.
In other words, he was bald.
Well, bald managers were extremely common in the league, so there was nothing particularly remarkable about it.
His bald head was simply so striking that people called him “Baldy.”
Baldness—and hair loss in particular—was a universal pain shared regardless of race.
Of course, mocking someone for that pain in real life was something a decent person shouldn’t do.
The gallery was different.
If you wanted to make fun of it there, you could do so to your heart’s content.
And so, bald people were frequently mocked in the gallery.
[What do you think was the key to victory?]
[I believe the players’ fighting spirit was the biggest factor. And...]
After the standard manager interview, the MVP interview remained.
Naturally, the MVP was the player who had scored three goals and completed a hat trick.
In soccer, where every single goal was precious, scoring three goals by yourself was incredibly difficult.
Since he had managed to pull off something that difficult, it was only natural that he would be named the Most Valuable Player.
[You looked especially light on your feet today. And the comeback itself hardly needs explaining. What happened in the locker room?]
[The manager told us this. If we concede two, score three. If we concede three, score four.]
“Hm?”
Keirin’s eyes widened at the interview.
The words sounded strangely familiar.
She quietly began recording the interview.
[At first, I thought he was talking nonsense. But the moment I scored the equalizer, something occurred to me.]
[And what was that?]
[If we concede three, then all we have to do is score four. That’s the answer.]
‘...Could the manager be using the gallery too?’
The interview was far too coincidental not to raise suspicion.
Still, it wasn’t necessarily a bad thing.
It meant Chae-U would probably play much more aggressively from now on.
Until now, Chae-U had focused so heavily on defense that they had even managed to lose games they had practically already won.
They had been forcing themselves into a style that didn’t suit them, so naturally they couldn’t show their true ability.
“Hehehe~”
Keirin hummed as she began cleaning up, basking in a happiness she hadn’t felt in a very long time.
The thrill of the comeback victory still seemed to course through her entire body.
‘They say baseball doesn’t really start until the bottom of the ninth. Maybe it feels something like this?’
Thinking about it that way, she could understand why people watched baseball too.
Until the third out, you could never be completely certain who would win.
Having gained a new realization, Keirin left the training hall.
Before stepping outside, she didn’t forget to change out of her Chae-U uniform and back into a dress.
“Excellent work, Princess.”
The elderly butler was waiting for her the moment she came out.
Keirin nodded in response to his greeting.
There was even a faint upward curl at the corners of her lips.
Perhaps noticing something from that smile, the butler cautiously spoke.
“It seems you made progress in your training.”
“Yes. I made considerable progress for the first time in a while.”
As she spoke, Keirin suddenly thought of her father, Asmode.
He had entered training around the same time as she had.
Perhaps the butler knew how Asmode’s training was going.
“What about Father?”
“That is...”
The butler hesitated at Keirin’s question.
He fidgeted, looking reluctant to answer.
Keirin raised one eyebrow at his reaction.
“His Majesty... did not appear to make much progress in his training. On the contrary, it seems he lost control.”
“Hm?”
Keirin’s eyes widened.
Asmode had lost control?
Demons had a tendency to release mana whenever their emotions became intense.
Hadn’t Keirin herself released mana while running around like a rabid dog?
Fortunately, the emotion she had been feeling at the time had been overwhelming joy.
If it had been rage instead, the resulting destruction could have been enormous.
Judging by how cautiously the butler was speaking, Keirin could infer that Asmode had exploded in anger.
“I thought he’d been calm for the past ten years. Did something happen?”
“I do not know the details either. But I am certain something unpleasant occurred.”
“Hmm. Understood. I’ll keep it in mind.”
Keirin nodded and continued walking.
The butler bowed deeply and departed.
On her way back to her private room, she thought about Asmode’s anger.
‘I thought he’d mellowed out considerably. Was I wrong?’
Asmode was an object of fear.
He possessed overwhelming strength, along with an unmistakable charisma that could never be hidden.
Keirin could feel warmth from him because she was family.
To everyone else, however, he was practically the Demon King himself.
‘Well, I suppose even he has moments like that.’
Keirin didn’t think too deeply about it.
At the very least, Asmode never harmed people.
He might smash everything around him, but he had never once raised a hand against Keirin in her entire life.
Soon afterward, she entered her private room and threw herself onto the soft bed.
“Hehehe.”
Once again, a strangely perverted giggle escaped her.
It looked utterly ridiculous against her normally cold and haughty appearance.
She wore the kind of goofy smile one would never expect from her.
‘When was the last time I felt like this?’
A thrill so rare that even the memory of it had faded.
Demons craved pleasure so intensely that even drugs often failed to satisfy them.
And yet Keirin was experiencing a pleasure unlike anything she had ever felt before.
‘This isn’t the time for this. I should get back on the gallery.’
She planned to spend the rest of her free time posting and browsing to her heart’s content.
The gallery had already been taken over by Chae-U fans who had risen from the dead.
[From this moment on, this is the Chaemess United Gallery.]
A post like that had even made it onto the popular board with an enormous number of upvotes.
Of course, considering how many users were constantly active in the gallery, the ratio of upvotes to downvotes wasn’t overwhelmingly one-sided.
It was roughly two to one.
Even that was incredible.
Title) ???: You suck.
PrincessCheonggu
(Photo of an emblem depicting a hawk)
You suck so bad lolololol
└ She immediately starts teabagging them lololol
└ Ah lololol you can’t resist after a comeback like that.
└ Seriously, how are you supposed to resist? lololol
└ KingLeor) You win one game and suddenly act like this lol
└ PrincessCheonggu) Yep~ Came back from three goals down~ You guys suckkk haha.
└ KingLeor) It was one game. You’re trying so hard, how cute.
└ PrincessCheonggu) So what was the score? 4–3!
└ KingLeor) Lol, and are you even making the Chals?
└ PrincessCheonggu) We beat a trash team, so that’s good enough~
└ Lololol she’s really good at getting under his skin.
└ ???: Do you know why you lost? Because you faced our Cheonggu!
└ These Cheonggu bastards acting all smug is pissing me off lol
└ Then win next time~
“Hehehehehe.”
Keirin was finally able to feel genuine “happiness” again.
While all the Chae-U fans were basking in peak euphoria—
└ Allfather) I have good news and bad news. Which would you like to hear first?
└ Wild Grylls) Hmm... the bad news first?
└ Allfather) The heart exploded.
└ Wild Grylls) Sir?
Grylls began receiving all sorts of news from Allfather.