Chapter 158

The Operation Begins

A meeting between a certain pair of individuals began as Yuki ran amok in town . One sat atop the throne reserved only for the lord of the demon realm while the other genuflected before him in an expression of subservience .

“Well, Haloria?” The king addressed his servant . “What did you make of him?”

“Yuki is an odd man, my king,” responded the agent . “Travelling with him has taught me that he is nothing if not inconsistent and bizarre . ”

“And what, precisely, is that supposed to mean?” The unexpected answer caused the king to c.o.c.k an eyebrow in interest .

“Like many other demon lords with dungeons at their disposal, he is confident in his martial prowess . However, to my knowledge, it doesn’t appear as if he is drunk on power . Unlike others of his kind, he remains fully rational . This is something that can easily be seen in the way he treats those that he holds dear . He appears to be rather intelligent as well, as evidenced by how easily he saw through your words and read your intentions . Despite seeming smart, however, he completely skimped on negotiations . He thoughtlessly went along with your suggestions without even bothering to question them,” said Haloria . “In summary, My King, both the retention of his rationality and the disparities in the level of his intelligence lead me to believe that he is a man of many contradictions . ”

“Putting it like that certainly does make it seem that way,” chuckled Phynar . His subordinate’s observations had him quite amused .

“I believe that the issue may stem from his outlook on life . It is so different from my own that I cannot see him as anything but strange . ”

“I can see that . I guess the best way to summarize your observations would be to say that his values differ from ours . The only way we can really understand him would be to change the way we think . ” Phynar put a hand on his chin as he spoke . “He doesn’t act like any of the other demon lords I’ve met . Not even those that were of the demon race were nearly as eccentric . He’s so different from everything else in this world that I’m tempted to think he might have come from another . ”

Little did Phynar know, his conjecture had hit the nail on the head .

“Surely you jest, My King . ”

“I suppose I do,” laughed the blonde .

A shadow approached the two individuals situated in the throne room as they continued to converse .

“My King, I have returned . The stage is set, and my mission is complete . ” The hooded man spoke in a respectful tone no different from Haloria’s . “I have taken all the necessary steps to ensure that our newfound collaborator is now free to take action at any point in time . ”

“So it’s done? Did it all go as smoothly as expected?”

“Of course, My King . Everything is as per your orders . Our collaborators can expect to take action in relative safety . ”

“Great . I wouldn’t want him to turn on us because we can’t keep our promises,” smiled Phynar . “In fact, I’d like him to continue working with us even after all this . I’m going to be counting on you to make sure everything goes as planned . ”

“I understand . I will ensure that his experience remains positive,” said the hooded figure . “I do have one other thing to report . ”

“And what would that be?”

“The demon lord has made contact with humanity’s hero . The two appeared to have met in a bar . Do you have any further instructions?”

“Humanity’s hero? Oh, you must be talking about the girl you mentioned in the report you made the other day . I’d say that you probably don’t need to worry about it . He did know he was being watched, right?”

“I believe so . ” The king’s subordinate nodded . “We happened to make eye contact . He stared right at me even though I was supposed to have been hidden . ”

“Then it should be a-okay . That was probably just his way of telling you that he thinks it’s okay for us to know that they’ve made contact,” said the king, cheerfully . “Besides, her enemies are our enemies . Sharing enemies doesn’t immediately make us allies, but it does mean that our foes will be worse off . And that, that is something I appreciate . I believe that it’s safe to leave things as they are . Let Yuki deal with her . I’m sure that whatever he has in mind will be to our benefit . ”

“Understood, My King . ”

The subordinate bowed, which led Phynar to nod in satisfaction .

“Thank you for the report,” said the king . “If all the preparations are complete, then I suppose I’ll send for him tomorrow and tell him what it is I’m going to have him do . ”

***

“Well, Yuki? What do you think of partic.i.p.ating in a martial arts tournament?”

The demon king called me in for another audience the day after Leila sat me down and nagged my ear off . He was situated on the throne with the same big smile on his face as always .

“A martial arts tournament?” I asked, skeptically .

“Mhm! That’s right! It’s a huge event . All of the demon realm’s proudest warriors gather to show off their strength and compete to be named the strongest . It only lasts a few days, but it’s still considered one of the most important events that the capital is home to . It livens up the city the same way any other festival would . ”

“So it’s basically a festival? That sounds fun . ”

I paused for a moment to contemplate the possibilities . There’ll probably be food stalls all over the place, which means Enne’ll be in for a treat . Literally . But uh… so people come from all over just to “show off their strength?” Yeah, that sounds like a… mild way to put it . Iunno about you but that sounds downplayed as f.u.c.k . I’m pretty sure the whole thing is just going to end up as a bunch of violent fights where people try to almost kill each other .

“The fiend faction is partic.i.p.ating . They’re dispatching some of their finest warriors in order to demonstrate their strength and gain public support . That’s where you come in . I want you to not only crush them, but also stand out as much as you can . I want you to win first place and take home the t.i.tle of the demon realm’s most powerful combatant . ”

“Look… I know that sounds pretty simple on paper and whatnot, and I don’t really want to throw a wrench in your plans or anything . But, just sayin’, I’m not exactly the greatest fighter . I mean, I’m pretty decent and I’m not about to just fall over . I’m totally fine with chewing bubblegum and kicking a.s.s and all that, but I can’t say for sure that I’ll be able to win . Especially if I don’t really know what I’m going to be up against . ”

While I wasn’t the worst fighter, I only really knew how to brawl . I was more or less incapable of approaching any sort of combat scenario with anything but brute force . I could use a sword and I could cast magic, but I relied much more on my stats than I did any sort of technique . I was fairly confident that I would be able to easily destroy anyone else that relied purely on power, but I had no confidence in taking down martial masters that spent their lives perfecting the finest details of their craft . Ehhh, you know what? If I end up stuck against someone like that, then I’ll just fly around and bombard them with magic from up high . Obviously won’t work if they’ve got wings too, which is uh… bad . I don’t really have a plan B right now, but f.u.c.k it . I’m sure I’ll figure something out if push comes to shove .

“I’m sure it will be just fine,” said the king . “I made use of my authority and had all the other partic.i.p.ants examined at the time of your registration . You should be the strongest of the bunch . ”

Wow . Talk about abuse of authority . Dude’s literally doing whatever he wants .

“There happen to be a few individuals you might want to pay a bit more attention to, but we’ll tell you everything you need to know about them a bit later . We have their weapons and their styles doc.u.mented already, so you don’t have to worry . ”

“Thanks . So I’m guessing you guys will be working behind the scenes while I do all this s.h.i.+t and get their attention up front?”

“Yeah, what about it?”

“Then I suggest you take this . ” The king handed me a ring .

“What’s this thing supposed to be?”

“Why, it’s an accessory, of course,” he said . “It is enchanted with the ability to allow you to change your hair and eye colours at will . You’re free to keep it even after you finish helping me, if you’d like . ”

The first thing I did was a.n.a.lyze the item and check its stats .

***

Ring of Transfiguration

Quality: A+

Description: Pouring magical energy into this ring allows its bearer to freely change the colour of their eyes and hair .

***

Long story short, it was a handy little high-performance tool that would allow me to better my disguise . Hair and eye colour weren’t exactly things that one could readily change under normal circ.u.mstances . Most would probably a.s.sume that whatever hair and eye colour they saw me with was natural .

“Cool . Thanks . ”

I put the magically enchanted item on one of the fingers on my left hand . Of course, I made sure to avoid my ring finger, which was already decorated by the gift I had gotten from Lefi . Alright, let’s give this thing a whirl . I should probably make it a totally different colour from usual to add to the effect . Something really bright and eye-catching would probably work best .

With a few criteria in mind, I began thinking of different colours before finally arriving at a conclusion . I focused on the one I ended up choosing and began channelling my magical energies through the ring . A faint bit of mana coursed through my eyes and hair . And as it received, my transformation found itself complete .

“Huh… neat” I looked myself over in the mirror brought to me by one of the maids in the demon king’s employ . My black hair and my red and black odd-eyes were both gone . Everything had instead been dyed silver . Yeah, this’ll work . This plus my fake stats’ll make it pretty d.a.m.n hard for people to figure out who I really am .

The serious contemplation I was in the midst of was interrupted by a giggle . I turned away from the mirror and spun around in order to look at Leila, its source . The sheep-horned demon had an even bigger smile on her face than usual .

“What?”

“I’m sorry, My Lord . I couldn’t help myself,” she said whilst stifling another snicker . “Your hair matches Lefi’s quite well, I must say . ”

Only after Leila’s remark did I come to realize the implications of my decision . All I had wanted was a bright colour . I could have picked anything else . Blonde, red, and orange were all within the realm of possibility . And yet, I had picked silver . And it wasn’t just that . I had subconsciously picked the exact shade of silver that Lefi’s hair shone in .

“Uhhh… So, just saying, this wasn’t intentional . I just wanted something that stood out . And this is just how it ended up . I wasn’t actually trying to make myself look like Lefi or anything, alright?”

“Of course, My Lord . I totally understand . ”

Although Leila claimed that she caught my drift, the way she was looking at me made it obvious that she really hadn’t . Please cease and desist . You’re making me feel all awkward .

“Anyways . ” I faked a cough, drained the ring its mana, and changed my hair back to its default colour before turning to face the demon king . “As I was saying, I hear you loud and clear . I’ll do what I can to nab first place . So when exactly is this tournament thing happening anyway?”

“It’s set to start in five days . I’m sure you have some last-minute training to do, so I’ve prepared the parade grounds for you . Please feel free to use them . ”

Training? Yeah uh, I’ve kinda never actually practiced martial arts or anything . Like, tell me to train all you want, but I’m not actually going to get anything done since I kinda don’t know what I’m even supposed to be doing . Oh wait, I got an idea . I’ll come up with some flashy looking spell that goes with the whole festival mood the city’ll have going for it . Yeah, that actually sounds pretty nice . I’mma do it . Oh, oh, another idea . I could totally make it into a combination spell, one that’s actually a bunch of smaller spells weaved together into a combo . You know, it’ll be like setting things up in a P*kemon Contest for extra points . Yeah, you know what? I’m really starting to look forward to this whole martial arts tournament thing . And just to be clear, it’s not because I’ll be working to further King f.a.ggot’s agenda . It’s time to show the ma.s.ses what a demon lord can really do .