Esper Harem in the Apocalypse

"How… do you know that?"

"How indeed," Rudy smirked.

"Stop playing games, Rudy."

SIGH!

"Come on~" Rudy shrugged his shoulders and said, "That's common sense."

"How is that common sense?!"

"Well… I don't know how to explain it, but in the human world, parents take their children to church for blessings and all. So that should be similar here."

"Hmm, you are not wrong. So it was just a random guess, I see." Virgil sighed in relief and said, "You can ask more questions if you want to. I don't have much time to keep you entertained."

"According to you, no one knows who is the incarnation of the lord, not even the host itself. So how does one know that the host has died? Earlier, you said he was dead. Did I hear wrong?"

"No." Virgil shook his head and answered, "It's like… you just know it. You can feel it when that happens. It's hard to explain."

"I kind of get you," Rudy muttered and thought, 'It's like how I feel when Angelica is inside me or not. I just know it.'

"Any more questions?" Virgil asked with an amused look on his face.

"Is there a way to know who the lord is? And if the previous lord is dead, where is the current lord? And how does all this work? How does the lord choose one to be his incarnation?" Rudy recalled asking the same question a while ago, but he didn't get his answer.

"There is no actual way to know that, really. But there is one way," he nodded as he said that. "The Lord's throne. Only he can sit there, and every ten years, some come to check whether they are the incarnation or not."

"Take me to that place," Rudy demanded.

"Not today. Maybe three days later, and coincidently, that happens to be the ten-year thingy I just mentioned."

"Oh, okay. Now, answer my other questions about the current reincarnation."

"We are not aware of his current incarnation. The previous one died 969 years ago. And before you ask it, the last summit was 1008 years ago," Virgil stated.

Rudy raised his brow after finding another plothole in Virgil's statement.

"Didn't you say the summit occurs every one thousand years? So if the last one was 1008 years ago, doesn't it mean—"

Virgil interrupted Rudy and uttered, "I know what you are trying to say, but please… don't finish that sentence. Please."

After seeing the earnest look on Virgil's face, Rudy decided to change his question and asked, "That's an anomaly, right?"

"Indeed." Virgil nodded and shook his head before saying, "Every other vampire king and leader of the other races thinks that the chain has broken. Hence, they celebrate, break the rules, and cause havoc everywhere."

"I can see that happening…"

"They think that they are free and the Lord failed to incarnate."

"That leads to my other question. How does the Lord choose his incarnation?"

"There are no requirements, to be honest. As I already mentioned, he can incarnate into the body of a vampire, dragon, elf, fairy, or the other races."

"Human too?" he asked with a judging look on his face.

"No. Every race except humans," Virgil corrected himself.

"...racists…?"

"Did you always pass jokes in between a serious conversation?" Virgil let out a weary sigh and shook his head in disbelief.

"Bad habit of mine…"

"The reason why the Lord doesn't incarnate as a human is that the incarnation occurs once every ten thousand years, and the host himself never gets the Lord's powers as long as he is unaware of it. Thus, vampires and the other races can live for ten thousand years, while the humans live for a mere 70 years," Virgil asserted.

"Correct me if I am wrong, though. I haven't been to the human world in the last 60 years," he added.

'This house was demolished a month ago, but it has been abandoned for 60 years. It belonged to my best friend from high school who disappeared one day under the red moon.' Rudy recalled what the old lady had told him the night he first learned about Rias.

Rudy turned to Virgil with a judging look on his face and asked, "Your human wife… or rather, you third wife, used to live in the house by the forest?"

"Yes."

'Well, that was obvious from the start when he mentioned he had a human wife.'

"Coming back to the lord, I understand why there has never been a human incarnation, but what about the other races? Surely, not all races can live for ten thousand years, right?"

"Indeed. Even the average lifespan of a high vampire, including royals and nobles, is around four thousand years. It's even lower for the other vampires. But of course, that's just an average."

"I see."

"And the other races have around the same. Here is the fun fact, no one has ever… no, none of the incarnations has managed to stay alive for ten thousand years. Even the Lord must know about this."

"So there is no way to find out." Rudy placed his hand on his chin and muttered, "Not going to lie. I am kind of interested in all this."

Rudy recalled what Virgil uttered a while ago and asked, "What do you mean, my other vampire kings? I thought you were the only vampire monarch."

"No. I am the king of this kingdom. There are many vampire kingdoms with different kings ruling them. And I am not trying to brag, but I am the calmest king of all. The other kingdoms are a mess, even more after the anomaly with the Lord."

"Not to mention how they all want to start a war to increase their lands. It's honestly disgusting. This world is already big enough, and they still want more. Wars bring nothing but loss. Thousands will die and lose their families, and those who risk their life won't even get a reward. That is but foolishness. I hope the next incarnation of the Lord arrives soon and stops all that."

"Yeah, me too."

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Thanks. @IcewaterKat, for the gift!