“Don’t worry. I’m here to recruit you.”
“R-Recruit me...?”
As the Demon Lord began his spiel, Luna began to look around the bar. Her glances were rather sharp, inspecting the atmosphere and build of the bar. There wasn’t much discussion to be had between the Demon Lord and Sammie, as they quickly came to an agreement. Most importantly, putting up a location in the commoners’ quarters would be tax-free. On top of that, there was a huge customer base with all of the workers gathered there. No businessperson would pass up an opportunity like this. For the time being, Sammie’s apprentice would run the branch in the village of Rabbi, while she would drop in now and again to check on the place.
“Here’s something to get you started. I’m looking forward to having good food in the village.”
“Wha...? H-Hey! These are gold medallions!”
“It seems only fair in exchange to have your best apprentice.”
The Demon Lord placed two gold medallions on the table. For a small business owner like Sammie, every bronze coin counted. Even with her bar doing this well, she had seldom held a gold medallion before.
“The village doesn’t expect revenue from the quarter you’ll be in. We just want high-quality establishments. I’ll put in a word with my advisor about you, Mama. Don’t worry about a thing.”
“A-All right...”
After the Demon Lord and the Holy Maiden came and went like a tornado, the shimmering reflection of the gold medallions illuminated Sammie’s face. Since many of her patrons kept a tab, this big chunk of money gave her a breath of relief. While the Holy City brought in more patrons, it also came with more expensive ingredients. With two gold medallions, she had a lot of legroom.
“Maybe he’s... really the Demon Lord.”
What came to her mind was what she imagined the Demon Lord to be, and the legend of a hero who only appeared in trying times. Those figures always seemed to come with tragic endings, while this Demon Lord made it seem like any tragedy would beg for his forgiveness.
After leaving Kanpai, the Demon Lord and Luna toured the rest of their destinations from Artemis to the Adventurers’ Guild, taking care of business. For these locations, Luna’s title made the job very easy. At Artemis, the manager practically agreed just to not upset Luna, and the Guild agreed to a large scale recruitment of their staff, considering the offer to be like a public project.
(Now, maybe we should head back to the village.)
Since they couldn’t very well vanish from the middle of a crowd, the Demon Lord turned into an alleyway when he realized that Luna was acting a bit strange. Luna had lost her usual clamoring nature since they had entered Kanpai.
“What’s the matter? Something you don’t like about that bar?”
“It’s not that... I just feel a little nostalgic.”
While he couldn’t read the expression on Luna, who was looking down at the ground, her tone was not a cheery one.
“Oh, you’ve been to that bar before?”
“No, I just remember looking at it from the street.”
“I remember you looking around the place without even talking. Different from your usual high society?”
“...It’s not that. Back then, I couldn’t even go into any restaurants.”
That rang a bell in the Demon Lord. He remembered that Aku had mentioned something before.
“Right. You were scouted out of an orphanage, right?”
“Yeah.”
After Luna’s short answer, the Demon Lord produced a cigarette from his pocket and lit it. He figured that this meant Luna had lost her parents when she was young, was abandoned by them, or didn’t even know who her birth parents were. Not even the Demon Lord would jest about anything like that.
(Nostalgic, huh...?)
He tried to imagine what Luna’s situation was. Naturally, she must not have had any money, or perhaps looked too unkempt for any restaurant. He couldn’t help but make a connection with how Aku looked when they first met.
“...You earned your position through hard work, huh? It’s respectable. Nothing to be ashamed of, in the very least.”
“You think I don’t know that...?”
“Then be proud. You achieved something that most people can’t. I lived my life crawling through dirt at times, doing embarrassing things.”
“You? I can’t even imagine that... I think you were mightier-than-thou since the moment you were born.”
“Ha ha! Sorry to disappoint you, but I’m not that exceptional.”
“T-Then... Ah!”
The Demon Lord pulled Luna by her waist, and prepared for Quick Travel. Luna wrapped her arms around him in return, but her pink eyes shone curiously.
“O-One of these days... You better tell me about your past.”
“Let’s see. Maybe when you’re a grown woman.”
They vanished from the alley and immediately arrived at the village of Rabbi. The sky was already darkening, on the brink of dusk. The Demon Lord immediately sent a Communication and reported the day’s work to Tahara.
Making work as quick as you always do. Helps us out a bunch, sir.
And there’s something I need to speak to you about. Let’s take a dip in the hot springs.
Hot springs...? W-With you, Mister Secretary!?
What’s the matter? I know you prefer the public bath, but there are too many eyes there.
Tahara did prefer the public bath, and the Demon Lord was the one who wrote that backstory in the first place. Back when he wasn’t rich, Tahara would take his sister to the public bath, and wait for her to come out in the freezing cold. This short story had led to Tahara still preferring the public bath, without paying any mind to the lavish hot springs resort under his nose.
I’ll see you at the hot springs.
F-For real!?
Before the Storm, Part 2
Shortly before the Demon Lord and Luna returned to the village, Tahara had been staring at a map in his office at the resort. With each thought he had, he scribbled on the map, made lists on notepaper, or circled a line of text he had already written. If the Demon Lord were to see this document, he would have been astounded. Of course, Tahara only considered himself faithful to the Demon Lord’s intentions by executing the project at this scale, and that he could do much more.
“Journey of a thousand miles starts with a single step, huh?”
While this genius had his mind set on their final base being the Sleepless Castle, his ideal was to create a massive capital and have the castle overlook it. Controlling the world with force and fear was the way of the Empire, after all. Tahara was sure that such an approach would cause something somewhere to crack, making an opening for devastating retaliation. When Tahara reached to write something on a piece of paper once more, the door opened without a knock.
“...Oh, it’s just you, Tahara.”
“The Secretary isn’t back yet.”
Watching Tahara, who was scribbling something without even looking up, Yu gave him a look like she was seeing an endangered animal.
“You’ve certainly changed. You’ve never shown initiative before.”
“Hm...? Yeah, guess so.”
“It looks like you’re enjoying yourself, though. At work, nonetheless.”
Tahara finally looked up at this and wore a dumbfounded expression. Then he moved the red pencil from his ear to the space between his upper lip and nose. After pondering like this for a while, he remarked, “Work, huh...? Oh, my bad. I didn’t think of all this as work. Wow.”
“Huh? Did you hit your head or something?”
Yu snarled, but Tahara lit a cigarette, unbothered, and savored the puff of smoke he exhaled.
“How do I put this... Everyone’s having fun, right? Before we got here, work just meant a bunch of people dying. Darkness. All I got from it was this powerful emptiness.”
“Emptiness, you say...?”
“But what we’re doing here is different. At least we’re making something. Leaving s
omething behind. That’s a luxury we didn’t have in the old world.”
“Who knows how long that will last? There will always be opposition, and the secretary will not tolerate them. He will strike them down with merciless force.”
“Well, yeah. What I’m trying to say is that, even if we make a thousand suffer, as long we can make a hundred thousand happy, we’re much better off than before,” Tahara explained as he tapped cigarette ashes into his ashtray, but Yu still wore the puzzled expression. Tahara was feeling rather fulfilled by his work now, especially considering his previous blood-soaked line of work. Yu, on the other hand, had no interest in the lives of others. Her conclusion was cut and dry.
“Oh, so it’s just about the numbers.”
“Agh! Don’t you have a shred of a heart, or even a gram of empathy in there?”
“I don’t need either of those things to research the human body. If the Secretary wished it, of course, I would happily extend my research to those things, as well.”
“Research? It ain’t something you can measure with beakers and test tubes.”
Although they shared their love of their absolute leader, their ideals could not have been more different. Tahara would kill a hundred thousand if need be, but Yu would do the same purely for massacre’s sake.
“Anyway. You got the thing I asked you for?”
“Yes. I can attest to its effectiveness.”
Yu produced a small vial from her pocket that contained a clear liquid. It was a toner that used the water from the carbonated springs. In this hot climate, both men and women had damaged skin. With this, those who never made it to the hot springs could still care for their skin, too.
“Carrots can’t be our only specialty... I’ve got ideas, like this toner and boiled eggs, but we’ll definitely need the Sleepless Castle at some point.”
“Yes. With our castle rebuilt, we can squash anyone that opposes us.”
“Hold your horses. We don’t even need to use it for blunt force. I’m talking about the productivity of the Sleepless Castle. Food plants, factory lines... We can run those to the max, and have it sitting in the center of the country.”
“I understand the need for the food line. What about the factories?”
“We can make electronics, or something.”
“Electronics!?”
Yu was speechless at the idea. It seemed so foreign to this fantasy world. But, even when they had no source of electricity, the hot springs resort operated as intended. The lights on the ceiling turned on, and the automatic doors worked just fine. With that in mind, production of electronics suddenly seemed possible.
“If we really need electricity, there’s Area Modification.”
“Area Modification...!”
The Demon Lord did have such a power. Simply put, the ability allowed him to modify the arena to keep things interesting. Most video games did have an array of fields to host their gameplay in, but performing that in this world would be a display of unimaginable power, akin to the creation of a world. It wasn’t something any mortal should have had the power to do.
“In the old arenas, there were power plants. Stuff like mines, food storage, factories, and hospitals, too. Even ridiculous facilities like a pool or forest.”
“You’re...”
Yu couldn’t help but consider the implications of what Tahara had just rapidly proposed. Of all things, he was planning to turn this fantasy world into one with electronic technology, and even creating parts of the world anew.
“Is that really what the Secretary...”
“You really think the Secretary’s thought of every little idea I’ve had?”
Tahara put out his cigarette with a sigh. Of course, the Demon Lord himself had not thought of any of these things. He would have tumbled out of his chair if he had been sitting here listening to the conversation. After the two fell silent for a few moments, a reserved knock came from the door. Aku appeared, holding drinks in her hands.
“I’ve brought you two some coffee!”
“Oh, you didn’t have to do that, little Aku.”
“Thanks, little girl.”
Both Yu and Tahara treated Aku well. In fact, they treated her with great care. They were sure that there was something important about her, judging from how well their precious Secretary was treating her. They both saw Aku as a rare example of a guest of the Secretary’s.
“So, little girl. Did the Secretary tell you anything?”
“U-Um, I didn’t really understand most of it...”
“Oh yeah? Like what?”
“Um, like he wants to make a p-pool...?”
“...Yeah?”
Tahara grinned, as Yu only stared intently as she sipped on her coffee.
Even after Aku left the room, it was filled with ominous silence. Yu was the one who broke it.
“It does look like he’s thought of everything.”
“No duh. I can’t even throw anything over his head.”
Tahara threw up his hands in the air. Their conversation continued, but eventually came to an end when Tahara received a Communication. As his expression flip flopped throughout the conversation, Yu watched with a curious expression.
“Sorry ’bout that. I’m hopping over to the hot springs for a bit.”
“Now wait a minute...”
When Tahara stood up as he scratched his head, Yu grabbed his hand.
The fibers in his durable Kevlar jacket began to crack.
“What do you mean? You’re not going to share a bath with the Secretary, are you?”
“Ow! That hurts, for real! Let me go, you idiot!”
“Answer me... Or do you want to kiss your arm goodbye?”
“What was I supposed to say!? He invited me!”
“Why would he...! Impossible!”
Finally, Yu’s nails dug into the Kevlar, leaving marks like a cat had scratched it. Yu’s grip, as well as her obsession, was incredibly strong.
“A-All right! I’ll tell him to invite you next time! I’m serious!”
“...You better be sincere.”
“I am! For real!!”
Tahara screamed desperately. He seemed more terrified than in pain.
“If you’re lying, I’ll pour acid down your throat. And poke your eyes full of needles. And cut off each of your fingers with scissors.”
“Why does everything you say have to be scary!? Go back into the horror game you crawled out of!”
Tahara yanked his hand away from Yu’s and practically fled out of the office. If the Demon Lord had overheard this conversation, he would have lost all strength in his legs, his black hair turning white in an instant.
“Hot springs... with the Secretary...!”
Yu laughed, now with an expression of pure ecstasy. When the time would come, God only knew what would happen to them.
Invader
Tahara took off his clothes in the changing room and placed his folded up towel on top of them. While he simply preferred the public bath, he himself exuded an air reminiscent of the yesteryear of Japan. The contrast of his appearance and his inclination for high-tech guns seemed to verify his extraordinary genius.
“Hot springs with the Secretary, huh...? Never thought this day’d come.”
Tahara took a look around the changing room. Unlike the public bath, it was deserted, like it was barely used. In fact, this side of the hot springs was almost exclusively used by the Demon Lord. Tahara looked at the mirror to see the reflection of his well-toned body on the spotless mirror.
“I’m not training as much as before. If at least Nomura was here...”
Tahara scratched his head as he frowned, although he had a perfect six-pack. His arms, that handled all of the heavy guns, and the rest of his body were built like loaded springs, without anything extraneous about them. Even men would have stopped and stared at his body.
“Guess the Secretary’s already in there...?”
He walked into the hot springs area through the doors and star
ted by rinsing off head-to-toe with a shower. On the arm that Yu had grasped, he could still see scratch marks. Color drained from his face.
“I can’t deal with that rabid woman...”
Just as Tahara mumbled this, he heard a voice from the star-gazing bath in the back. He walked over there to find the Demon Lord sipping on a cup in the tub. Apparently, he had a floating tray of sake with him.
“Thanks for coming, Tahara.”
“Sake in a tub under the stars, huh? You know how to party.”
Tahara stepped right into the hot spring and tossed back the cup offered to him. With the effects of the hot springs and the sake’s effect of healing Stamina, he felt heavenly.
“Whoo! Now this is where it’s at!”
“I prepared some things to go with it.”
On another tray, there were octopus salads, edamame, chilled tofu, and sashimi in a neat display. A Snack Platter that the Demon Lord had produced with SP. On their own, these items healed anywhere from 20 to 40 Stamina in the game, as opposed to the set’s 15. This led to the item’s poor reception in the game, but in this world, variety seemed much more treasured than the amount of Stamina it healed.
“Sashimi, too...! Ah, that’s good!”
“Maybe we should start thinking about obtaining some seafood.”
“Hrm. Fishing’s the fastest way, but it burns up Stamina...”
“Mm.”
Fishing was a Survival Skill that allowed the user to fish in any area for 30 Stamina. There was a ridiculous variety of what they could catch, too: fish, of course, as well as black abalone, shark fins, tuna, giant squids, sea bream, pufferfish, fishes with human faces, seaweed, sea shells, etc. The game hosted various other exploration skills, too, such as searching for water veins, food, herbs, or items, as well as burglary and treasure hunting. Each of them yielded different items, many of them highly valued, which allowed the players to make money off them. They were like production jobs in any sort of RPG.
“Didn’t expect most things from the Arena to come to life in this world, too. I don’t know what exactly is going on here, but...”
Demon Lord, Retry! Volume 3 Page 16