Mikan was shaking at the one-sided battle that had just played out in front of her. In truth, that wasn’t so much a battle as it was a massacre. She didn’t understand what happened, but she witnessed the Sand Wolves run into a strange wall before they could even reach this man. Everything about him was outside her realm of knowledge. What’s more, he had just called himself the Demon Lord!
“...The silver fox is foxy... My butt is tingling.”
Yukikaze felt a hot pulse in her rear end after watching the one-sided beat-down. While the Sand Wolves never reached that silver fox due to a mysterious barrier, she was determined to conquer any obstacle for him... Even the obstacle under her robe.
“That thing’s dangerous...!”
“...Very dangerous. My chastity is in danger.”
“We better get to the Holy City and make a report!”
“...I better get to the Holy City and clean myself up.”
While their conversation wasn’t cohesive, that was nothing new.
Meanwhile, Aku, who had been watching from the carriage, said with excitement:
“Wow, Master Demon Lord! My heart’s pounding really fast...”
Placing her hands on her heart, Aku blissfully closed her eyes. He had saved her from a life without purpose. He always protected her, without fail. Even if the Demon Lord turned out to be a truly evil person after all, Aku knew that she couldn’t leave him. If it came down to it, she was ready to take on the rest of the world by his side.
“...Did you two behave? Talking to you, Luna.”
The Demon Lord returned to the carriage, leisurely taking a seat. Luna had already changed into the blazer, which added a sense of daintiness to her appearance. She at least looked like a princess now. Perhaps bothered by the skirt that went with the blazer, Luna squealed with a blushing face.
“Th-That wasn’t too bad... Keep protecting me like that.”
“I wasn’t protecting you in particular...”
“A-Anyway, don’t you have something to say!? You know!?”
The Demon Lord sighed internally. He was an adult, after all, albeit by the most basic definition. He was well aware of what to say to a girl who had just changed into a new outfit.
“Looks pretty good on you. Looks really good, actually.”
“D-Duh... A lady like me looks great in anything!”
Luna declared this with glee, puffing her non-existent chest. However, the Demon Lord’s hearing didn’t miss her quietly whispering ‘hee hee... I knew it!’ under her breath. His extremely keen hearing couldn’t have missed a pin drop a mile away. It wasn’t his fate to become the kind of protagonist seen in rom-com animes who remained oblivious to the adorations of girls around him.
† † †
“Aww... All the doggos I collected are gone,” a girl said softly as she watched the carriage leave. She had feline ears on her head, and was even wearing gloves that resembled tiger paws. She was an Anima, something like a beast-human hybrid. A very high-level one, at that.
“Good thing I found something much better than the doggos.”
Her face was even painted up with tiger stripes. In contrast to her dainty face, her physical strength was off the charts. In fact, behind her was a Shield Liger, a monster incomparably more threatening than a mere Sand Wolf, presenting the top of its head to the girl in a sign of obedience. An attack by just one Shield Liger would force Holylight to deploy their Knights’ Order. Even then, there would be countless casualties in the process of taking the creature down.
“Is he really the Demon Lord? That’s the king of the Hellions, right? Why is he with humans? Why is he with a Holy Maiden?”
In accordance with her younger appearance, she spoke her thoughts out loud. The Animas neighbored Hellion territory, and were engaged in a long-lasting war with them.
“In any case, it’s not going to be fun if he makes it to Hellion territory.”
The girl’s thoughts jumped all over the place. Like her appearance would suggest, thinking didn’t seem to be her forte.
“But... he just might be able to beat them...” the girl said, and jumped on the back of the monster behind her. Without any commands, the creature took off, shrinking into the horizon in an instant.
While the journey seemed long yet short at the same time, the Demon Lord’s party was approaching the Holy City. There was sure to be new encounters and troubles waiting ahead. The Demon Lord, the Evil Princess, the Holy Maiden, the silver Dragonborn — rumors of whom were rapidly spreading — and the Satanists were now in the picture with them. The havoc wreaked by the Demon Lord was about to reach the level of a national catastrophe... But that’s a little ways down the road.
Chapter Three: Trouble in the Holy City
The Demon Lord’s Army Emerges
—En route to the Holy City, Holylight
“Hah ha ha! Finally! The time has finally- kfah gfah!”
The Demon Lord had stepped off from the carriage to take a break, but as soon as he opened the Admin screen, he let out an insane cackle. Eventually he had laughed himself into a coughing fit. It looked pretty dumb.
“I knew he was an idiot.”
“M-Master Demon Lord is... just a jokester!”
Aku attempted to salvage the situation, but Luna’s glare remained harsh. In fact, it grew more accusatory by the second.
“That look... He’s thinking of something perverted.”
“B-Butt...?”
Blushing, Aku covered her rear. Luna was proving herself to be a bad influence on Aku during the past few days of travelling together. Without paying any mind to them, the Demon Lord rambled off:
“I have some contemplation to do... Get in the base, just to be safe.”
After saying this with a strangely show-boating attitude, he produced the base he created the previous day, and in a split-second, at that. Materializing a well-constructed building in less than a second... if it were a magic spell, this would have made the Demon Lord one of the best mages in this world.
“Oh, the magic house! I always wanted to see what was inside.”
“Miss Holy Maiden! There’s an oil drum bath in there!”
“Oil drum? What’s that?”
As they chatted their way into the base, the Demon Lord called to the coachman. He was strangely attentive from time to time... or perhaps it was just his Japanese nature.
“Please, feel free to join them.”
“I-I wouldn’t dare, sir...! I’ll be feeding the horses right here. Please don’t mind me.”
The coachman shrunk his head into his shoulders. Reflexively, the Demon Lord answered with a polite nod. He was a typical Japanese man, after all.
“Then have one of these, please... It’ll be refreshing.”
The Demon Lord made the coachman hold a Mild Heaven to his mouth and lit the cigarette for him. With all the color drained from his face, the coachman was on the verge of tears, but braced himself and inhaled. He must have thought that he would have been torn to shreds if he had refused. From his perspective, the Demon Lord was an existence that defeated a Holy Maiden and her knights single-handedly, as well as nonchalantly exterminated a sea of Sand Wolves. The coachman saw before him none other than a bona fide Demon Lord.
“M-My... shoulders feel... lighter...”
A coachman’s job involves prolonged use of his hands and shoulders. This coachman had worked for the Holy Church for years, building up exhaustion in his shoulders. Now, all of that melted away with a revitalizing sensation. This was because the Demon Lord’s cigarettes each had the effect to heal 40 Stamina. Considering that the Stamina of a top-tier warrior in this world was around 50, to a normal person, healing 40 Stamina was like getting a brand new body.
“Th-Thank you, sir...”
“It’s important to rest when you can while on the job.”
The coachman could only fake a twitching smile in response. Despite all of his tiredness being swept away, his face only lost more color by the minute. He seem
ed to be terrified by what the thing in his mouth could possibly be. Was the Demon Lord going to ask for his soul in return? Was there a curse on it that would spell his demise in a few days? The coachman cowered in completely misplaced fears.
(Alright... That was pretty mature and approachable of me.)
The Demon Lord was putting in some wasted effort yet again. He didn’t seem to understand how other people perceived him just yet. Even his smile was intimidating, making it difficult for most anyone to feel comfortable in his presence. While Aku and Luna had gotten used to it, it took them some time.
(Now, I really have to make up my mind...)
He finally started thinking about the big question. When he had opened up the Admin screen, an astonishing message had appeared:
Congratulations!
Your SP is over 1000!
Unlocked: Summon Advisor
Unlocked: Final Judgement
(Finally, it’s time...)
Lighting his own cigarette, the Demon Lord squinted into the air.
(That last battle must have netted me all this SP...)
For the first time in a while, all of the Demon Lord’s mental cogs were turning. He had ended up with 1200 or so SP after taking down the horde of Sand Wolves. It felt like he had just won the lottery.
(Summon Advisor... for 1000 SP, huh?)
The command was incredibly expensive, but he was sure that it would be worth it. The advisors were under Hakuto Kunai’s command, and they had been created to protect the Sleepless Castle. Any one of them could take on an army. Both to protect the party and to expand his options, summoning an advisor seemed critically necessary to the Demon Lord.
(Then... the question is who to summon.)
Kunai had commanded an army of two thousand men, all armed with contemporary war gear, but those were faceless mobs in the game... which left him with eight people he could truly call advisors. Four women and four men. Four of them were younger, while the other four were older.
(Think... Who do I need most?)
The Demon Lord contemplated with layers upon layers of forethought. He may not have access to this much SP ever again. It was a once-in-a-lifetime decision. He recalled every last detail he could about the backstories of the advisors he had created.
The first advisor that came to mind was Ren Miyaoji. Bringing to life everything Akira Ono wanted to see as a game designer, she was the best advisor there was. A beautiful and brilliant master of martial arts, born of noble birth, she was a sixteen-year-old girl way too perfect to ever exist in the real world. Amazingly, while her HP was lower, her overall stats exceeded even those of Hakuto Kunai, the final boss of the game. As a functional second final boss of the game, she was the source of many a miserable experience for the players. At the same time, she was the most popular character among them. Despite her status as an enemy character, she had enough charm to be liked by most people who played the game. She would appear as cold as ice on the surface, but had a kind heart. Secretly, she had strong reservations against the Game hosted by the Empire day after day.
(Can’t go wrong with Ren...)
Ren was loyal, too. Due to her past, she was in a position to harbor nothing but great gratitude toward Kunai. He didn’t have to worry about Ren attacking him out of the blue. From what he could tell by watching Zero from the inside, characters from the game had their own free will, and acted according to it. In other words, they were faithful to their backstory. Summon a dangerous advisor, and the Demon Lord could end up being killed.
The next candidate who came to mind was another one of the younger advisors, Akane Fujisaki. She was the same age as Ren, but Akane was the sun to Ren’s calm and collected moon. A less polite way to describe her would be as a thoughtless idiot. She enjoyed anime, comics, and video games, and was an extroverted geek. She would appreciate being summoned to a fantasy world more than anyone else. In combat, she specialized in close-range brawl. For some reason, she wore a china dress and wielded a pair of tonfa, making use of being the fastest among the advisors.
(She’s going to put the “C” in crazy around here! I can’t take that!)
Next, he thought of Yu Kirino, an older member. She was a genius doctor and scientist. According to her chilling backstory, she had performed countless human experimentations to satisfy her sadistic urges and in pursuit of her lifelong goal of uncovering the mysteries of the human body. In the end, she had killed over eight hundred patients, leading her to be sentenced to death by the ethics tribunal. At twenty-two years old, she was an elegant beauty in a lab coat. Recalling her backstory, the Demon Lord felt a shiver go down his spine. He wondered what could happen if she came to life equipped with free will? He wasn’t confident that she would continue to serve him without question.
(But Yu could cure any disease or injury.)
While she was a brilliant doctor on her own merit, her Special Ability was almost game-breaking. She could even heal Aku’s leg in an instant, the Demon Lord thought. His first-hand experience with various powers from the game, which had now materialized in this world, made him confident of that.
The last female advisor was Shizuka Matoba. She was the same age as Yu, but more insane. After repeatedly committing senseless murders in the capital of the Empire, the Royal Realm, she had earned the moniker of Walking Calamity. According to her backstory, she murdered everyone she came in contact with without exception, bringing down chaos upon the Royal Realm. Born with a fetish for taking apart human bodies, she was a psychopathic serial killer for the history books. Her Attack rivaled that of Ren’s, and was a berserker in combat.
(No freaking way! I’m a dead man if I summon her!)
Shaking the thought out of his head, he scratched Shizuka off of his mental list of candidates. At the same time, he also scratched off all four male advisors from the list, since all of their powers were too centered around combat. In this world, so far, the Demon Lord had no trouble taking care of combat on his own. He wanted to summon an advisor that could do something that he couldn’t.
(...Yu’s the one.)
While the Demon Lord didn’t expect any illness to befall him, he had to prepare for the worst. Since Yu was also a scientist, he hoped that she could concoct something to combat magic spells, too. The problem was her dangerous choice of avocation, as well as her razor-sharp intelligence. If he were to let her be, she would go around killing without a second thought, dissecting people to her heart’s content, acting only to quench her desires. To boot, she had a particular fetish for younger boys... in truth, the Demon Lord had no idea what would happen after summoning her.
(Dammit... Why did I have to make every one of them a weirdo!?)
The Demon Lord cursed his past self. The backstories he had created were now coming back to bite him.
(Gah, just do it already...! At least I can handle Yu if she decides to attack me.)
A trio of NPCs that were not under Kunai’s command came to the Demon Lord’s mind. If they were to show up here, the Demon Lord wasn’t confident that even he could handle them. With a sigh of relief, he made sure that none of them were on the list.
“Admin Feature... Summon Advisor.”
With his mind made up, the Demon Lord uttered those words.
(I... said it. It’s... starting.)
There was no turning back.
“Yu. Come hither to my presence...”
Yu Kirino
“Yu. Come hither to my presence...”
With that call, two pillars of light, one black and one white, appeared in front of the Demon Lord. When the pillars merged into one, a woman appeared, wearing a lab coat. Most would have called her beautiful. Long, straight black hair and an hourglass figure. For many, she had the ideal female appearance.
“At your service, Mister Secretary.”
The Demon Lord felt a sense of nostalgia. Hakuto Kunai’s official title in the Empire had been the Secretary of Citizen Happiness Management. He replied with an attitude becoming of that title, as
he slowly, and carefully, gauged his advisor.
“Yes. Thank you for coming...”
“At your command, Mister Secretary, I would go anywhere... Are we in the next arena?”
Looking around at the unfamiliar landscape, Yu looked slightly confused. There was a strange aura of daintiness when the icy woman showed such an expression, but the Demon Lord’s nerves were about to burst.
(She’s talking... All on her own.)
Watching a character he had created moving and talking in front of his very eyes evoked a powerful emotion within the Demon Lord, but he didn’t have the time to watch in awe, at the moment. As he was considering how much to tell her, he realized:
(In any case... She is crazy hot...)
Yu had garnered fanatic popularity from the community of masochistic players. Now, the Demon Lord was beginning to understand where they were coming from. It’s worth noting that Yu and Shizuka were extremely popular among female players, too. Strong female characters must have been appealing to women as well as men, he imagined.
“Now, where to start... First of all, we are not in the Empire. Nor in any of the other nations, for that matter...”
Carefully, the Demon Lord formed his words as he observed Yu. He was sure that none of his advisors would have ever thought that the Empire and the world it resided in was all within the digital world of a video game. Certainly, they didn’t doubt that they were living on Earth, and in the real world. Obviously, they wouldn’t have believed the Demon Lord if he had told them that their world was created by someone... him.
Still carefully choosing his words, the Demon Lord explained what had happened to him so far. Appearing in the Great Forest all of the sudden. Being attacked by a devil-like creature. The fact that a fallen angel seemed to be related to the cause of it all. That they were headed to the Holy City now... No matter how eloquently he chose the words to describe them, these events hardly seemed plausible. But Yu kept a serious expression as she hung on the Demon Lord’s every word, going into deep thought here and there.
Demon Lord, Retry! Volume 1 Page 12