Volume 7, Chapter 18: The Demon’s Temptation, Part 2

[Oooooh! Princess, my deepest grat.i.tude to you.]

“I-is that so? Well, that’s good……”

Is that really enough, Richard?

I could see that he was extremely pleased, hugging the “signature board” that I had handed him as if it were a treasure, visually adoring it.

Although I don’t know for sure, this [Elder Lich’s] magic power, from what I can see, is no lower than that of a [Greater Demon], but definitely less than that of an [Arch Demon]. He’s a pretty powerful magical creature, and I definitely can’t underestimate him, since he was formerly human.

At first, when I arrived in this boss room, I was worried about how I would make him surrender, but when I turned on my full pressure, Richard surprised me by suddenly falling to his knees.

[Ahem…… pardon me.]

It’s quite useless to try to keep your dignity while you still have that colorful signature board in your pocket, you know?

“…… By any chance, had you already heard of me beforehand?”

[Yes, of course.]

After affirming, Richard-kun’s eye cavities began to sparkle brightly within his silver skull. …… oh, oh my.

[I’ve been an immortal for hundreds of years…… having gained various pieces of knowledge, I learned that there were many worlds, but I knew that the Demon World had to be somewhere. I heard rumors of a Princess from the Greater Demon that I’d gotten acquainted with as a monster.]

“………Eh?”

What? Rumors of me have spread to the Demon World all the way from Tess?!

[Consigning one of the Pillars of the Demon World, the [Demon Lord] to the void with an amazing show of force, adding their name to the center of the [Twelve Pillars of h.e.l.l], and taming another of the Twelve Pillars, the [Dark Beast], called the “Unstoppable Beast of the Demon World” that was obsessed with violence, leading and taking an army of Demons headed by four [Arch Demons], devouring all comers in the Demon World, the diabolic, truly demonic Demon Princess.]

“Oi”

[Guwaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaahhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh!]

Silencing his hot-blooded speech with a small poke at his forehead, Richard screamed and was blown into the wall of the 50-tatami boss room.

…… I made a mistake in adjusting the power. I put in the same amount of magic power as I instinctively did when Tina invaded my personal s.p.a.ce, but it seems that Richard got defeated by that and now couldn’t get up… before he came back crawling on all fours like an insect.

Well…… it’s disgusting.

[Thank you.]

“………………”

…………what?

Richard seems to be pretty energetic despite having cracked his skull and being defeated. Truly, an immortal. He’s also the healthiest amongst monsters that I’ve seen. I wonder if he’d like to drink my special green juice? It’s a health drink that I made all by myself out of 100% seaweed. …… Well, I don’t know.

[Because you didn’t hit my ribs……]

Oh yeah, he was a skeleton.

Still, what was with that “rumor”? It’s baseless to the extreme.

What Twelve Pillars of the Demon World? I don’t know where this large idol group came from, and now, before I knew it, I’ve gained such an embarra.s.sing nickname……

Should I resume my singing lessons again?

“……Richard. It’s not good to listen to such rumors, you know?”

[I don’t see the problem…… Ah! I-I understand, stop! I’m going to die, I’m going to dieeeeeeee!!!]

When I grabbed Richard-kun’s skull in my hands and gripped it tightly, it gave off grinding noises and he replied me obediently with a desperate tone.

[……F-for now, leave the rest to your humble servant. The Dungeon Master a.s.sociation will announce the advent of the “Princess” of Monsters, and carry out Princess’ will.]

“Good, I’ll leave it to you, Richard.”

At Richard’s affirmation, I smiled at him thinly in my [Duke’s Daughter Mode].

The real reason for me to come here was to put the Dungeon Masters under my control.

Previously, in the Holy Kingdom, I had let the vampires infiltrate the underworld to gather information and clean up the garbage of society, so in this world, I’m using the Monsters.

Since they don’t look like “people”, it seems that they have had little effect on human society, and in this world the [Adventurer’s Guild] has a decent influence beyond the boundaries of nations.

For the general public, it would seem as if the dungeon masters and the adventurer’s guild would be at each other’s throats, but in fact they actually have a give-and-take relationship.

Without dungeons, the Adventurer’s Guild would not be able to secure a stable income nor material for adventurers, and if dungeon masters didn’t have adventurers, they wouldn’t be able to maintain stable [Food]sources.

In addition, the fact that the capture of dungeons could be left to adventurers meant that countries wouldn’t actively attack them with their armies.

It worked well, adventurers and monsters. Soon, though, both of them will begin moving according to my will, before they even know it.

Doesn’t it feel very Demon-like to do all this? It’s absolutely the kind of thing those muscle-headed idiot Demons who only have magic power would never say.

“……But, will the other dungeon masters really move at my command?”

I’m a little nervous about that. I didn’t think that there was a Dungeon Master’s union, but with my direct threats…… Would they cooperate without my direct involvement?

[Do not worry. Since we’re monsters, they have instincts to obey those who are strong. It will take time for the human masters, but since there are many of them who were betrayed by the human nations and the [Heroes], it’s only a matter of time.]

“I see……”

After all, they did all sorts of things, those Heroes.

I heard that one of the other human dungeon masters, had their lair “raided” by the Heroes the other day, even though they dutifully paid their taxes and residence fees to the countries.

The Heroes were steadily making enemies……

“Well then, it’s time for me to meet with Mr. Hero.”

[Certainly. Princess, would you like to wear this?]

Richard took out the [Magic Power Gemstone] that he had received from the Hero earlier from his robes.

Surely, the hero couldn’t have been the one generating the zombies…… I had my doubts, but I had thought that that “Kan-chan” would surely have been a proper hero.

However much she disliked [Other Maidens], no matter how vain, no.

“It’s fine for you to hold on to it, Richard.”

[Understood. Then, please take care. Although she looks that way, she’s considerably skilled. Although, I am acquainted with one of the Greater Demons, I want to enter Princess’ [Fan Club (Guards)], so I think I’ll go and interview, until then I’ll be in your care.]

“My [Black Company (Guards)]? Okay.”

There are some strange Demons, too.

…… Are they all m.a.s.o.c.h.i.s.ts? Once they joined the company, they would start by drying the seaweed in the subs.p.a.ce.

[Also……]

“……What is it?”

Because we’re cooperating, I’m willing to listen to your requests, but what is it now?

[Could you sign this T-shirt for me too?]

“……T-shirt?”

Hey, I guess there were T-shirts in this world.

[It’s my casual wear.]

“……………”

Apparently, those villain-like black robes were his work clothes.

＊＊＊

“Hmm……!”

In the middle of the dungeon, at a dead end, Kanzo pushed her magic power into the stone, and the wall opened, revealing a pa.s.sage.

Because it required a certain amount of magic power and strength, it couldn’t be opened by a normal scout, and would be difficult to discover without a considerable magic power in the first place.

Behind that dark pa.s.sage was the “corpse storage warehouse” for sending in undead monsters to this dungeon.

It was linked to several pits and managed the humanoid corpses that dropped down from those holes. Small animals and others were used as food for the ghouls.

Sometimes, strong adventurers would survive, but they would end up being brought down by the monsters roaming the dungeon, and their equipment auctioned off to the dwarves.

Competent adventurers were listed in the guild, so sometimes they would be returned as-is.

As a dungeon, it was the locked-off type, which didn’t attract many adventurers, since they didn’t need too many bodies, but for the sake of making a [Magic Stone] from transforming corpses into monsters, a large number of corpses were needed.

“…… How did you find this place? Did you have a strong informant within the scout corps? Oh, I guess it doesn’t matter.”

Kanzo thought about the what the [Saint] could possibly have had up her sleeve to crawl in here, but abandoned the thought before heading for the corpse storage quickly.

She didn’t know if the girl had lost her way or discovered it, but either way, given that she was the [Saint], this would be trouble.

She was going to watch the Saint get attacked by the moving corpses…… so she had said to the Elder Lich, but internally, Kanzo was getting impatient.

Recently, due to Kanzo producing too many zombies, the number of corpses has decreased.

If the Saint used her rumored [Saint Magic], everything might be purified and turned to ash even before the dead bodies could begin to move.

Those corpses were the “seedbeds” for the [Magic Stones] that Kanzo wished for. Although she expressly said that it had been a *coincidence* that that product had been made, it wouldn’t do to have a decrease in the number of seedbeds.

Kanzo had never been prudent about her actions, and hated being patient more than anything.

“[Magic, defend my body…… Shield]”

As Kanzo walked along the tunnel quickly, she prepared herself for battle, strengthening her body and protecting it with magic, and reinforcing her weapons by applying enchantments.

Kanzo didn’t make light of the [Saint] despite her comments about their foolishness.

Just being a young woman who looked pretty and was attractive to men made her an enemy to Kanzo, but to disrupt her hobbies, this could not be allowed.

*bang*…… As she opened the door of the corpse warehouse, she could smell a slight odor, and feel the frost magic that was used to keep the dead bodies from decaying.

Hundreds of human and monster corpses were neatly arranged as the pa.s.sage opened up. There were also some fairly large corpses, but because of the cold haze, it was hard to see.

In that place that looked like the chiller of a meat processing plant, Kanzo felt something move in the corner of her vision.

“Haa!”

As Kanzo struck out with her sword gracefully, her target snapped off and bounced away.

“……Huh?”

One of the skeletons that managed the warehouse was shattered, rolling about on the floor, and Kanzo frowned.

The skeletons, which were just bones animated by low-grade spirits, were the weakest existences in this dungeon, moving only by magic power. Even though their muscles had rotted, the zombies still had greater power, and their defenses were better, too.

In addition, even among the undead, the bloodless skeletons would take a long time to create magic stones, but even after that amount of time, they would only make an extremely tiny garbage-like magic stone.

“……Where is she?”

Since there were a certain number of skeletons working, there were signs of movement.

There might be some corpses that might have started moving after feeling out Kanzo’s magic power, but she felt that there was “something” there before all that.

Because of that, Kanzo attacked that moving thing without thinking.

“[Let there be Light!]”

“!”

When Kanzo turned around to face that faint voice, she saw a light far from him, and several corpses collapsed.

“Tsch,”

Kanzo clicked her tongue and began to run in that direction silently.

It wasn’t the same as the [Holy Magic] that she heard about, but it was a spell aria that had similar meanings to that of [All Light].

Rumors said that the [Saint] didn’t learn her magic in this world like Kanzo did, but rather used the magic of her own original world.

“[Let there be Light!]”

“Wha-”

Once again, the voice sounded out faintly and the light shone from far away, and several corpses fell.

“……Little girl.”

As the “seedbeds” were crushed, Kanzo stepped up her pace even as her face distorted with anger.

In that moment, faintly…… as Kanzo wielded her sword, feeling a slightly different movement from skeletons, the kobold zombies fell to the floor.

“……s.h.i.t.”

Zombies that had just started moving didn’t have magic stones within their bodies.

Moreover, the power of a hero seemed to have some force of purification, and the zombies that Kanzo defeated could not be resurrected as a zombie any more.

“Where are you! Come out!”

Kanzo, who had reached the limit of her patience, barked out. At first, she pretended to be a hero that had just incidentally pa.s.sed by, and was thinking of attacking her under the pretense of carelessness, but even knowing that she would be on the alert, she shouted out.

“……Oh my, this is quite the strange place. Kan-chan.”

“!?”

Turning around to face the voice, there was a beautiful golden girl standing there smirking at him, the one she’d met at the underground weapons shop.

Author’s Notes:

Next time, will the petty hero ever make her way out after being exposed to the malice of a Demon?

App’s Notes:

Hi Folks! Fun chapter to work on, with a little more world building and the start of the big conflict coming up. Let’s have some fun together!

Arm’s still broken but getting better all the time. I’m starting to be able to spend time out of the splint.