In reality, the Demon Lord was on the verge of a heart attack. Dammit! I just told you I’d summon your sister. What’s a Grand Angel, anyway?! He cringed, eyeing the ring given to him by the Still Angel on his finger. It had changed over the annihilation of the Central faction. Now it was brimming with divine energy that seemed to promise miracles if he’d only wish for them. “As I’ve said, tomorrow comes before ‘someday.’ We have much work to do.” These desperate words to end the conversation managed to straighten the backs of the attendees, who quietly chastised themselves for getting too carried away.
The meeting continued with them discussing these plans in detail, and concluded with the promise to hold another formal meeting in Rabbi.
Once the summit was over, Harts and Sambo immediately went to prepare their men to return to Gatekeeper. Most of them were tasked with transporting the corpses of Central soldiers, which were strewn about the battlefields along with the bodies of Xenobian soldiers. There were too many dead to dig marked graves for.
While preparing for their departure, Harts sent for more manpower from Gatekeeper just to carry what Yu had given them.
She casually walked up to Sambo as he bellowed commands. They hadn’t seen each other in quite some time. “Mister Sambo, how are your eyes?” she asked with a smile.
“Oh, Miss Kirino! They work perfectly, as you can see!” Sambo pounded his chest. “I’ll never be able to thank you enough!” In his eyes, Yu seemed like a goddess of salvation after she’d restored his sight.
“There’s no need for thanks. If anything happens to them, please come to the village of Rabbi anytime,” Yu offered.
“If I can ever be of assistance to you, Miss Kirino, I will be there in a heartbeat!”
Yu beamed at Sambo’s kindness and he let out a hearty laugh. She had made a point of making connections with every powerful figure she could: the Butterfly sisters, Olgan, Cake, Sambo... All in preparation for a battle brewing—for war.
Harts came over to Sambo as Yu took her leave. The generals stared blankly at the towering stack of wooden boxes, all stuffed with gold medallions.
“A hundred thousand gold medallions on the spot. He certainly put his money where his mouth is,” Sambo said.
“Two years’ pay, up front... And all these supplies,” Harts added.
Towers of flour, meat, vegetables, spices, and fine wine reached dizzying heights. It was hard for them to believe that the days of the north battling starvation had come to end.
“Lord Harts, it’ll take all the men in the fortress to carry all this back!” Sambo said.
“And all of our wagons.”
“Our comrades will dance in joy! This calls for a celebration of the ages!”
Harts gave a rare smile to Sambo and relaxed his shoulders. “A celebration... You’re right. There’s certainly cause for it.”
Above them, dawn’s light brightened the sky as if to drive away the storms that had darkened Holylight for so long.
“I wonder who Lord Lucifer is, exactly,” Sambo said, still thinking of how the Demon Lord’s presence filled the meeting room even when he seemed extremely selective with his words.
“While I don’t believe him to be some divine deity...” Harts started.
“Yes?”
“The policies he’ll set forth will bless the people of Holylight like a gentle rain after this drought.”
Those Water Spell Stones that the Demon Lord had promised to distribute for free would be a merciful blessing to the people worn out by the war.
Sambo laughed. “I’d welcome anyone who would bring rain to this dusty land. Even a demon.”
Harts echoed his laugh as they departed the castle to give orders to transport their goods back to Gatekeeper.
Tahara and Yu watched them leave from a window.
“They’re a pair of jolly old-timers, aren’t they? That’s how I want to grow old,” Tahara said.
“You were quite generous with them,” Yu said.
“Those two have to build our grand national army. We’ll lay down the foundation for them, but a strong army takes time, money, and effort.”
“Armies are inefficient money pits.”
“We don’t need an army to win fights, but a country needs a show of force. It doesn’t matter how strong you and I are. Who’s gonna sleep easy in a superpower state without a formidable army?”
“Like I said. Inefficient...” Yu watched a caravan come and take Harts and Sambo’s place, led by elegant men on horseback waving banners of House Butterfly. “And what is that, Tahara?”
“I gave the Madam’s sister a call. Those are professional carriers who transport her art.”
“What? All you need is a Back-Up Backpack. This is so wasteful.”
“It’s not all about being efficient!” Tahara said. “That caravan’s gonna parade down the travel roads, advertising to everyone it passes that the Central faction lost!” This was his ulterior motive for sending Harts back with an exorbitant amount of supplies. The parade of unending wagons would announce the end of the civil war to all who saw it. Rumors would be rumors, but this was hard proof. In a world with no digital media, Tahara didn’t underestimate the word of mouth.
“That death-racer-looking Holy Maiden was something else, huh? I thought you’d chew her out for her impertinence, or whatever,” Tahara teased.
“She’s head over heels,” Yu said coolly. “Whoever she’s into, she won’t be a threat to us.”
“Nothing scarier than women in love... Whoever could she be into?”
Tahara’s sarcasm went unnoticed as Yu turned to leave the room, presumably heading off to collect those Holy Coins.
The dust had settled on the civil war and Holylight’s rule had drastically changed. The nation’s population would all take the news of Lucifer’s return as a shock, whether they rejoiced or trembled at the information. Some, surely, would connect the dots and realize that Lucifer was none other than the Demon Lord.
That very Demon Lord had Quick Traveled to the casino penthouse, finally reuniting with Aku.