“Damn... Damn! Azul! Can’t you steal it somehow!?”
“Every noble in the country knows that the piece belongs to Lady Buttersauce. Stealing it is possible, but unwise.”
“Then what should I do!? You want me to lie down and die!?”
“Why don’t I reach out to the person who brought in this Music Box?”
Azul had only tried to gently steer his master away from madness. While he didn’t have any sense of loyalty for this master, Azul would be out of a job if Dona fell from the ranks.
“Hm. Easy for you to say... The man seems to have gained a position like the ‘third’ advisor, somehow.”
“That’s...”
Naturally, even Azul had heard rumors about this man, but didn’t expect that he was the one to have brought in the music box. As far as he could tell from rumors in the city, the man was a terrifying being known as the Demon Lord. Someone very far off from the kindness he saw in the music box.
“Frustratingly, my wife, White, has told me I am strictly forbidden from making any contact with him. Harts was just nodding along, of course. That idiot.”
“...Is that so, sir.”
Azul frowned for a moment as Dona brazenly called White his wife. While Azul wasn’t from this country, he didn’t even want to imagine such a pure and elegant woman married to this man.
“No matter... One day, we’ll rob him of everything. I can’t wait to see the look on Butterscotch’s face, then.”
“Yes, sir...”
Relieved that he at least held his master from doing anything rash today, Azul raised the danger level of the Demon Lord in his mind. Perhaps his character changed entirely depending on who told the story. Some called him a tycoon, some called him the Demon Lord, and others called him a noble from across the sea.
(With my master acting this way, we are sure to become enemies at some point...)
While this was happening in Dona’s manor, the village of Rabbi was concerned with a much more important matter. The arrival of Madame Butterscotch was approaching.
Under the Same Moon
“We better change out the fence. And expand that area over there...”
Nighttime. Tahara was walking around the village with a notepad in his hand. While there weren’t any real light sources around, he had incredible night vision as a byproduct of being a super sniper. He continued taking notes as if it was light as day.
“Should we just shave down that mountain?”
He mentioned some crazy ideas from time to time, but he could do it. Tahara’s attacks are usually directed in all directions around him, but if all of them were to point at a single target, he could surely destroy an armored tank, so why would a mountain be out of the question?
“You’re hard at work...”
Tahara turned around to find Yu wearing an enchanting smile. While her beauty was accentuated by the moonlight, any player of the Game would have jumped out of their skin upon seeing her in such darkness... and begged to be killed in the light, at least.
“The Secretary’s counting on us, after all...”
Tahara responded with a can’t-be-bothered expression, as if he was bothered by something. He was a man who loved laziness and doing nothing, after all. He was definitely not the type to take initiative on anything.
“You’re behaving well yourself. I was waiting for the population to decline around here, thanks to you.”
“How mean. I have always acted how Mister Secretary wants me to.”
(That’s the thing.)
Tahara thought, up until this point, that Yu was the one who had the best chance of understanding what their leader wanted. Unlike Shizuka, Yu was extremely smart, albeit crazy. She didn’t do short-sighted things like fight for no reason, act or lie when she could easily be found out, or kill as many people as she could indiscriminately. She was the type to infiltrate deep... by the time everyone on the surface realized it, their world would be an irreversible hellscape. The worst type of serial killer.
“So, what does the Secretary want? I bet you’ve got a few good guesses, at least.”
They never skimped on prep work or money when it was necessary. They schemed many steps ahead until they achieved the inevitable result they wanted, no matter how much blood, lamentation, and infamy they would reap along the way. In that sense, Tahara considered Hakuto Kunai and Yu to be very similar. Still, Tahara had no malice nor distaste for them. If they didn’t operate that way, they wouldn’t have survived in that world. There must have been times when trapping and even killing someone was the only option to survive. Tahara, too, had a similar life.
“To be honest, I don’t get the whole picture, yet, either...”
“Huh... Didn’t expect that.”
Lighting a cigarette, Tahara subtly gauged Yu’s expression. She wasn’t lying, he determined. He didn’t have any reason to believe so other than his own intuition, which he trusted wholeheartedly.
“He did say that he wanted to go in a different direction than the Empire...”
“He did. Also that going down the same path twice would be boring.”
“And you’re okay with that, Yu?”
Tahara suspected that a path like this would become boring for her. The Yu he knew would have much preferred to trample all over a world filled with potential lab rats, making them surrender everything along the way.
“Tahara. I... touched the end of the world.”
“Here we go again with your nonsense...”
Tahara blew out some spoke while ruffling the hair on his head. Yu would often say some cryptic things out of the blue. She spoke of philosophical concepts in a weird phrasing you might expect from scientists on the brink of insanity.
“Besides, I feel the presence of God within the Secretary...”
“D-hah ha ha ha! What the... This again? The mystery of the human body? Evolution? Something like that again?”
“No, it’s much different. I sense it stronger and stronger with time. Don’t you feel it a little, too?”
With that, Yu walked away towards the hospital without another sound. Her lab coat could be seen dancing in the tar of night that obscured one’s vision even a few steps away. Tahara watched her leave in silence before eventually putting out the cigarette he was smoking in his portable ashtray. He began walking through the village again.
I feel the presence of God within the Secretary.
All the while considering the meaning of those words that repeated in his head.
Meanwhile, the Demon Lord who had just been called God...
“Well, I knew live TV was too much to ask for...”
...was settled in the most expensive room of the resort, twiddling with the TV remote while lying on the down comforter of his futon. Right now, he looked just like a Japanese working Joe on a business trip. Not a god by any stretch of the imagination.
“No sweet dumplings in the room, either... Food’s a no-go too, I guess.”
According to its original setting, there were supposed to be all sorts of Japanese desserts placed in each room and, of course, the dining hall. The Demon Lord couldn’t find them anywhere. He concluded that the crackers in the Base must have been an exception.
“But some stuff gets restocked on its own. Not too bad.”
The Demon Lord had performed various experiments to see if items like soap and shampoo were replenished and renewed, just like the water. Now, he didn’t have to worry about those resources when running the business. If he would have had to craft them one by one, he seriously could never have had enough SP.
“Master Demon Lord! These hot springs really are amazing! The water! The steam!”
“Calm down, Aku.”
The Japanese-style sliding paper door opened as Aku, wearing a yellow yukata, came sliding into the futon with force. She apparently expected to sleep in the same futon as him, as if it was natural.
“I took what’s called an herb bath, today!”
“Hm... Yeah, I can smell the herb
s on you, it’s nice.”
“Really? Hee hee hee...”
“You’re sleeping next to me again...?”
Still, the Demon Lord didn’t chase her out of the room. At the end of the day, he was easy on Aku. As he went to turn off the lights with the remote to go to bed, stomping could be heard from the hallway.
“Aku! I told you to be my cuddle pillow today!”
Luna was wearing a yukata in her signature color, pink. Yu must have put it on her.
“Aku’s in my bed right now.”
“P-P-Pervert! What are you going to do to Aku!?”
“I don’t know what you’re imagining, but I wouldn’t throw that stone if I were you.”
Aku was always a fast sleeper, but perhaps aided by the hot springs, she had fallen asleep in no time. Even Luna fell quiet at seeing her asleep.
“F-Fine... Then I’ll sleep here, too.”
“No, you should go back to your room.”
“Shut up... I’m the lady of the village!”
With that, Luna curled into the futon on the other side of the Demon Lord as Aku. He was now sandwiched by a child and a flat-chested girl. The only thing the Demon Lord felt now was annoyance.
“This is seriously a pain...”
He couldn’t help but say it out loud this time. Luna cut back with her brazen attitude.
“I’m the lady of the village... I’m the top dog here...”
Luna’s eyes slowly closed at the comfort of a top-tier down comforter. Even a Holy Maiden must have never experienced such a soft bed (if one could call it that) before. Another marvel of the Empire’s technology, maximized in comfort and softness.
“Why is it... so soft... I can’t believe...”
Luna tossed and turned a few times as if to fully experience the softness, and her butt brushed the Demon Lord’s left hand. Immediately, Luna screamed.
“Y-You...! You just touched my butt!”
“How many false accusations are you going to spread?”
“D-Don’t you try and make excuses...! This bad hand is under arrest!”
Luna grabbed the Demon Lord’s arm and made it her pillow. Was that all she wanted from the start?
“It’s p-pretty hard... And the veins are t-twitching...”
“Stop saying it like that!”
While the weird argument continued in the bedroom for a while, the Demon Lord decided to leave the resort once everyone was asleep and have a smoke. It felt like there was so much to think about, but he couldn’t quite wrap his head around it all.
(Tahara’s here, and the Madame will arrive in a few days... This will speed up the improvements in the village, for sure.)
Things were smooth sailing. Considering the fact that he was thrown into a fantasy world all alone, he was doing incredibly well. The thing was, he couldn’t shake the feeling that he was forgetting something important. The Demon Lord desperately tried to remember what that was.
“Hey! What kind of pillow gets up on its own!?”
“I never resigned myself to the life of a pillow.”
He turned around to see Luna, looking irritated.
“What are you doing alone this late? Y-You’re not going crawl into a Bunny’s bed, and...”
“Talking with you makes thinking seem stupid.”
“Thinking? What about? About this village?”
“That’s part of it.”
Now that he had dragged so many people into this plan, he had to follow it through. The Demon Lord had no intention of backing down against any opposition, from a position of power or otherwise. Looking up at the night sky, he exhaled a long string of smoke.
“Hey... Can I ask you something?”
“Hm?”
“Why did you choose this village? There are so many other places with better conditions.”
A poor, desolate village of demi-humans. Luna felt like no one in their right mind would have chosen this place as their headquarters. While the Demon Lord could have come up with plenty of reasons, like the village belonging to a Holy Maiden, and that he was broke, he decided to give a more vague answer that didn’t seem so jaded.
“There were a few factors... But it seems like you and Aku are getting along well. It all kind of fell together.”
Perhaps there was some kind of meaning in meeting Aku early into his time in this world, and some meaning in meeting Luna, too. The Demon Lord kind of dodged the question by stating this concept that was prevalent in Japan.
“Fell together... Hey, just one more question?”
“What now?”
“Do you have any friends...?”
“Huh!?”
The Demon Lord let out a stupefied yelp at this question out of the blue. ‘Come on, loner,’ he nearly replied, but Luna’s expression was dead serious, for once.
(What’s going on, all of a sudden...?)
Confused by the question out of left field, the Demon Lord searched for an answer.
(Everyone makes a few friends in their life...)
He thought, but couldn’t picture any friend of his. He recalled many classmates, coworkers, bosses, and acquaintances, but the elusive important person remained hidden behind a thick layer of fog.
“Oh... So you’ve been calling me a loner all this time when you don’t have a friend yourself!”
“I’m not like you, loner!”
The Demon Lord puffed on his cigarette after Luna’s triumphant declaration. At this rate, he could earn the dishonorable moniker of the Demon Loner.
“How’d you get from talking about the village to friends, anyway?”
At this question, Luna showed some sign of hesitation, strange for her. After a while, she seemed to have made up her mind, and answered hesitantly:
“If this place becomes famous... I thought, someone I know faraway might hear about it.”
Her words seemed like a devout prayer, almost making the Demon Lord stand up straight. Seeing Luna’s profile now, he could sense the aura of a Holy Maiden.
“...It’ll be famous. More than any village, town, or city in this entire world.” The Demon Lord guaranteed this with confidence. He sincerely believed that the world he had created and improved would never lose to anything else.
“H-Hmph... Keep working hard for my village!”
Shaking his head at Luna’s same-old attitude, the Demon Lord looked up at the night sky.
A few days later, Madame Buttersauce, an important figure of the nobles’ party scene, arrived at the village.
The Madame’s Visit
An extravagant carriage wearing the crest and flag of house Butterfly stopped at the entrance to the village of Rabbi. One servant after another climbed down from it, and finally they ceremoniously opened the carriage door. From within it emerged Buttersauce Butterfly herself, her massive body swaying to and fro. A celebrity of the party scene, she was the empress among the nobles’ wives, garnering their frantic support and loyalty. When she said the sky was green, then it became so. Not even Dona Dona could find an opening in the solid army of madams. They were becoming a large force that was difficult to ignore.
The power structure of Holylight was fractured into numerous tiny pieces at the moment. As a nation, Holylight still ran with the three Holy Maidens and the Holy City at its core. While there was the Holy Church and Holy Knights’ Order below them, the Church was both a bureau to select Holy Maidens and a school to train children talented in magic. As such, it was an apolitical organization.
Then there was a group of nobles led by Dona Dona. They ruled the vast mining region in West Holylight. Aided by some of their mines producing Spell Stones fit for the Water element, their financial strength was head-and-shoulders above the rest. With ‘donations’ to specific members of the Holy Knights’ Order, Dona Dona and his men continued to grow their forces.
Then there was a group of hawks led by Marshall Harts, who led nobles near the border of Holylight to the north. While they had less money, they were united under an irreplaceable bo
nd, forged through fighting together in war. Many of the Knights’ Order followed this group, too. When it came to combat strength, no group came near Harts’.
While smaller in numbers, the patrons of the arts, led by Buttersauce and Butterscotch, could not be ignored. They held numerous rare items desired by nobles, and many of them were artists themselves. They garnered the respect and reverence of the masses. Often described as nobles among nobles, almost no one in this group would be caught fighting on the streets, as such would be to advertise their savagery. Buttersauce and Butterscotch led the wives of the southern nobles. Each and every noble’s wife was proud and powerful — but if the husband had married into the wife’s house? Forget about it. Such a husband was completely at the mercy of his wife. Many mines could be found in the south (mostly in Madame Butterfly’s land), too, putting their financial strength comparable to Dona Dona’s group.
Below all of these groups were the middle and lower classes. Further below them, underground, the Satanists curdled. At first glance, Holylight was a nation united by faith, but under the surface, it was terribly divided.
“Welcome, dear Madame...!”
The Demon Lord and Tahara, each wearing a tuxedo, performed an elegant bow with a hand to their chest. They both played their parts rather well. Seeing the pair, the Madame smiled. In contrast to her flashy appearance, she had a keen and critical eye for character and detail. These two, however, she found satisfactory.
(As good-looking as our last encounter...)
The Madame found the Demon Lord to be extremely attractive. He had a certain sense of dangerous allure only the worst criminals possessed, but for women with the nose to smell it out, this scent was irresistible. The man beside the Demon Lord, Tahara, was also an extremely dangerous man. Despite his humble attitude, his icy stare seemed to bring the Madame’s deepest desires to light, piercing through every last one of her organs. The Madame even vividly imagined him killing any opposition without hesitation and nonchalantly leaving the scene.
“What a pleasant village... It’s nothing like the rumors I’ve heard,” the Madame quietly blurted out, looking around at the village, surprised. The fence that surrounded the village had been completely redone, and the farms and houses had been relocated to preserve the scenery. The village appeared to have an open design with plenty of space, rather than just being deserted. For the Madame, who was accustomed to the bustling streets of the Holy City, the village was a welcome change in atmosphere.
Demon Lord, Retry! Volume 2 Page 8