It was the morning after Harukara’s celebration.

As I was making everyone’s portions for breakfast, Beelzebub walked in from a door that led to the outside for some reason.

“Where were you off to?”

“Merely a walk around the area. As expected of the highlands, the air feels as good as it is refreshing. Especially after a night of drinking, it’s an excellent change of pace.”

She’s so healthy and wholesome that I can’t think of her as a member of the demon race.

“There’s a recent movement to have the entire demon race be more aware of their health. Exercising in the morning is an excellent practice. One has heard that back in the war with this country, we demons would attack at night. That kind of nocturnal lifestyle is no good. It’s better to do things in the morning”

“Having to deal with monsters first thing in the morning sounds terrible… Let’s continue maintaining the peace alright…?”

“There are no plans whatsoever to start a war so you need not worry. Similar to how your country has no intention to take over any of the demon races’ territory, we demons harbor no such intention either. Perhaps it’s because gaining control over such a large territory would be unmanageable. Considering our respective administrative capabilities, the current situation is just right.”

From this conversation I could a.s.sume that the chances of the demon race invading was pretty much nil.

“Ah yes, about the matter of awarding you the demon race’s medal of honor, the date of the ceremony has been decided upon. Please do accept it.”

“Oh, from the peace division or something right?”

Since I had once stopped the fighting between members of the dragon race, I had apparently earned the admiration of the demon race and they wanted to give me some kind of award. It’s apparently a great honor but since I’m not too well connected with the demon race I wasn’t too sure about the particulars.

“Well, maybe I’ll gratefully accept it then. Let me know the date.”

I mean, ‘I can’t make it since I have plans that day’ isn’t really an excuse I’d ever see myself giving.

Beelzebub said it would take place three weeks from now. It’s pretty soon isn’t it…

“Got it. I’ll let Harukara know to take those days off.”

“Very well, we’ll have plenty of food ready.”

At the mention of food I had a bad premonition.

“Um… there’s no way demon race cuisine is all spicy right…?”

Yesterday Harukara cried and said “My lips are starting to puff up… can you please add some honey to it…” while eating the hot pot. If all of their food was spicy then that would be really troublesome.

“Not all of our cuisine is spicy, you have no need to worry. If sweet food is preferable then we shall prepare the dishes with that in mind.”

“Thanks. Food culture really varies from region to region doesn’t it”

Since they were going out of their way to prepare food for us, it’d be pretty inexcusable if we were unable to eat it.

And so we decided that we’d  be heading over to the award ceremony to receive the demon race’s medal of honor.

I’ve never been to the demon race’s territory before so I was quite interested. I would’ve been too afraid to go before, but if Beelzebub was any indicator of how the demon race behaves then there probably wouldn’t be any problems.

Harukara on the other hand was afraid.

“T-the demon race’s territory…? I can’t see any good coming out of this… would it be alright for me to suddenly get a tummy ache that day?”

“You’re so scared you’d feign an illness huh”

“There’s probably going to be some weird food waiting for us there… Even if they say it won’t be spicy, I’m sure what’ll end up happening is that they’ll just take it down a level…”

After going through h.e.l.l, her doubts ran deep…

“Eh? Harukara onee-san, you’re going to feign an illness?”

It seems Farufa was listening in on the conversation.

“Farufchan that was just an expression okay? Although, I have a feeling my tummy really will start to hurt that day…”

Harukara, are you trying to trick a little girl…

“Don’t worry!”

Farufa placed her hand to her chest like she was making a pledge.

“Farufa is tight-lipped! None of the demon race people will know you’re actually feigning an illness! Trust me! I’ll make sure to tell them that you’re definitely not feigning an illness!”

“Wait, please wait! If you go out of your way to tell them that I’m not feigning an illness then they’ll be more suspicious!”

“Farufa knows exactly how you feel Harukara onee-san so don’t worry! Eating the food Beelzebub made especially for you was tough wasn’t it? You’d rather avoid it because it was no good right?”

“W, well… not exactly how I’d word it, but yeah…”

"You can be sure Beelzebub-san will just happen to hear about it! That Harukara onee-san said demons are no good!”

Cold sweat started to pour down Harukara’s face.

“Uhm… I’m really grateful that you’d go so far for my sake, but would it be alright if you didn’t…? If people think I have a negative image of demons then that’s just going to lead to more trouble for me… I’m only afraid of their food okay…? If someone really misunderstood, they might think I feigned an illness because I actually hated the demon race itself…”

I clapped Harukara on the shoulder.

“Harukara, just give up. At this rate, Farufa’s going to end up telling everyone you’re feigning an illness. Your reputation with the demon race will surely take a dive when that happens…”

“She will won’t she… This is just going to end up like a cliche… She’ll say she definitely won’t let anyone know but in the end everyone finds out, it’s going to be that pattern for sure…”

That kind of gag-like situation was common in j.a.pan too. Guess it’s one of those things that happens anywhere.

“Fine… I don’t want any weird rumors to start spreading around in the demon territory so I’ll make sure to attend…”

Harukara’s attendance was decided.

With this, everyone in the family will be going.

“Since we can just reuse the dresses we had from before, that shouldn’t really be a problem right?”

However, we’ve gained a new family member since the last time we needed to wear dresses.

“Sorry ane-san…”

Rosary floated by.

“I don’t actually own any dresses…”

“I see, I see. Then let’s pay a visit to the town and buy—— hang on?”

How does a ghost even buy clothes? Can they even wear those in the first place?

“Now that you mention it, you’ve always been in those village girl clothes. Can you change out of those?”

“After I became a ghost I’ve always worn this. I have no idea how to change out of them…”

d.a.m.n! So there were these types of problems too!