Was planning on releasing this yesterday, but got sleepy really early (compared to my usual bed time) and yeah. It"s done now, though!

"So we"re aiming for around the peak, where the legendary sword is supposed to be, right?"

"Yes, that is correct!"

But upon hearing that, Angelica"s face paled a little.

"If we have to go back on that trail again, I feel like my bones are going to snap from all the fighting… But since you"re here, demon lord, at least we won"t be wiped out, I don"t think…"

I was honestly surprised at the sentiment.

"I see. You intend to clear the way yourself the entire way, don"t you. Amazing; how fitting of a hero."

"What are you talking about? Obviously we have to go back later, right?"

"Yes. I am certain you shall one day be regarded as one of the most exemplary heroes to have ever lived."

"You can say that all you like, but I wasn"t even able to defeat the demon lord, so "exemplary" might be too much… And if I do kill you, it would just be patricide… Well, if it ever does happen, I"ll give you head start of five steps; I wouldn"t want Mama to be sad, after all."

At least give me like fifty steps! Be a little more forgiving in your murder scenarios… But, for now, I will just focus how strong Angelica"s feelings are for her mother. I should have any number of chances to become friendlier with someone as compa.s.sionate as she is.

As we got closer to the top, the road became easier to traverse, which meant the battles became that much more relentless.

"Kuh! I"m even being attacked by drakes now?!"

Small dragons known as "drakes" had targeted Angelica. The path alongside the mountain ridge pa.s.sed near a forest, and, while the scenery was nice, we were also in plain view of any flying monsters.

"Hey, aren"t these things demons? Can"t you use your demon lord power to stop them?"

"Dragons are intelligent and do belong to demon society, but drakes are just monsters. It might be possible to domesticate them when they"re still young, though."

"In other words, I just have to deal with them… It"ll be kinda tough to fight them by myself, but… I just gotta do it!"

I had to help her out here. She could only really defeat two drakes by herself, and it would take her too much time to chant healing magic while fighting alone. I stepped out in front of Angelica.

"I will be your wall! As soon as you"ve performed an attack, retreat behind me at once!"

"Got it. I"ll work with you just this one time. Beggars can"t be choosers, you know."

"It"s completely natural for daughters to rely on their fathers. No need to be shy."

"Yeah, yeah. Ignoring the fact that we"re only in this pickle because my stepdad is the demon lord in the first place."

I guess Angelica had enough leeway to keep up the banter. She left a shallow cut on a drake, then immediately hid behind me. Good. You couldn"t avoid a drawn-out battle with this cla.s.s of monster; you were basically forced to adopt the strategy of slowly, meticulously robbing it of stamina. It was inadvisable to try to overpower it with pure force; the drake could fly, and there wasn"t a lot of room on this mountainous path, so one wrong step meant you could fall off a cliff.

Then, Angelica slipped and lost her footing. I quickly reached out and pulled her up by the arm. Thank goodness for my demon lord reflexes.

"If you were fall from here, it would be quite an ordeal having to rescue you."

"That was really close… I felt like I was in even more danger than when I went through your castle…"

"The reason for that is because you did not thoroughly conquer the castle. You instead chose the shortest path to get to me. There were numerous extremely dangerous rooms that were prepared for interlopers."

"I can"t believe I was just saved by the demon lord…"

"It may be through marriage, but I still consider myself your father."

"……I guess you do."

Out of nowhere, Angelica gave a tiny, bashful smile. h.e.l.l yes! This time, I"m sure I became closer to my daughter! Well, I was holding onto her arm, so we were literally closer, but I was confident that we had gotten closer interpersonally as well.

It felt like friendship had finally blossomed between us. Trustful allies who fought together on the battlefield! Compared to just climbing mountains together, this was several times more friendly!

I never imagined that all these monsters would aim for Angelica, but, otherwise, I could call this plan a great success.

Now then, I should lighten my daughter"s load a bit. I thrust my arm out in front of me.

"Rupture!"

A drake"s stomach exploded, and it fell from the sky just like that.

"Ehhh, what the h.e.l.l… Isn"t that cheating?"

"This is explosion magic. I used it when I fought with your party… No, maybe I didn"t use it? I would have used it if I were in more danger. You guys had the tables turned on you in the first phase, so…"

"Don"t tell me that now, I"m totally going get b.u.mmed out! Come on, making it into the demon lord"s castle isn"t supposed to be this disappointing…"

Angelica became dispirited, but I didn"t really mind since I achieved my original goal.

Finally, we were close to the peak. While walking along a rugged trail, we found a small cave entrance near the summit.

"Ah! There"s a treasure chest in here! And it"s really clean, not rusty at all!"

Ugh…… I should have had them prepare a more worn-out chest… The subordinate I a.s.signed for this task did a sloppy job. What should I do if she figures it out?!

However, Angelica didn"t seem to care and just opened the treasure chest. What she pulled out was a thin but well-forged weapon that I could only call an excellent sword.

"Incredible… This is a way better sword than any other I"ve ever used before… I could definitely believe that this was left here by an angel…"

Actually, it was made by a demonic swordsmith, but at least it was the work of a nationally-renowned demonic swordsmith. There was no doubt that it was a wonderful sword. When you were the demon lord, powerful weapons were gifted to you left and right. Due to that, the castle had storage rooms full of the things just lying around.

"Well done. This is your reward for scaling the mountain."

"No, I wasn"t able to do it alone."

Angelica held out her hand.

"Demon lord, it"s because we worked together as a pair. You have my grat.i.tude."

I did it! We"ve become war buddies now! Laetia would probably be overjoyed to learn how much closer we had gotten!

"It"s only natural for me to help my daughter."

I grabbed her outstretched hand. It was quite rough, considering it belonged to a young girl.

Then, Angelica grimaced.

"All right… Now the problem is that we have to go back down the mountain… But, I guess we have no choice…"

"If you"re that against it, should we just go home now?"

I already accomplished my own goal, after all.

"Nah, of course there"s no way we can do something that convenient."

Her willpower was truly admirable. Angelica struggled on the way down as well, but we successfully returned to the base of the mountain.

"Well done, Angelica. I"m sure Laetia will be proud. You are truly a hero."

"Well, you know, I finally got a good weapon, I can"t just let myself bite the dust on the way back…" Angelica gasped out between breaths.

"Even though I could have just teleported us home…"

Angelica slowly turned to stare at me with a blank, surprised face.

"Did you forget? Once I"ve been there before, or, more accurately, as long as I can imagine the destination, I can teleport there."

"……Y-You… should have said something earlier~! I was fighting like my life was on the line! I feel like I just got scammed!"

Angelica began to swing her new sword at me wildly.

"Hey! That"s pretty dangerous, you know?! Stop it!"

"Shut up! You really are the worst!"

"But you"re the one who didn"t want me to talk to you and kept interrupting me! It"s not fair for me to be the only one taking the blame here!"

"Shut up, shut up!!!"

My relationship with my stepdaughter may have taken one step forward, then three steps back…

 —  — Chapter 16