But Diablo’s tension was broken when another, unexpected figure hurried over to him.
“Rem! Shera! You two are still alive!” Klem beamed as she approached them.
““Klem?!”” Both girls exclaimed.
“I’ve been looking for you, Diablo!” Klem turned to face him haughtily. “This Demon Lord going out of her way to look for someone is unheard of!”
“You... What are you doing here?!” Diablo asked, taken aback.
He didn’t think he’d meet Klem here, whom they left behind in Faltra. He could see Edelgard a short distance behind, too.
“Klem, is everyone in Faltra all right?!” Rem asked her in a panic. “Did something happen?!”
“Mm? The city is fine,” Klem said composedly. “I would not have come here if something had happened there, would I?”
“Ah... Yes, you’re right...” Rem breathed a sigh of relief.
“But if we don’t defeat Emperor Gelmed, it’ll only be a matter of time until Faltra is reduced to ruins as well!”
Rem clenched her teeth. There was no denying that. As ominous as Klem’s words were, they were fact.
“Come with this Demon Lord!” Klem took hold of Diablo’s arm and yanked, as if urging him to follow. “We cannot leave that thing to its own devices!”
“You mean Emperor Gelmed? True, we cannot neglect to do something about him.”
Diablo spoke while sticking to his Demon Lord role play, but he was anxious on the inside.
Shouldn’t we keep it a secret from Noah that Klem is a Demon Lord...?
Diablo turned to look at Noah, who took a step forward to face him.
“We don’t have a moment to spare anymore, so I say we bargain,” she said, eyeing him defiantly.
“Oh?”
“I already know that this girl is Krebskulm, the strongest Demon Lord.”
“Huh?!” Lumachina gasped.
The paladins at her side reached for their blades.
Right, Lumachina didn’t know...
The only ones in the room who knew about this until now were Diablo, Rem, Shera, Rose, Sylvie, and apparently Noah and the Palace Knights.
“Mm!” Klem nodded. “This Demon Lord is Krebskulm!”
“...Are you sure you should be saying that?” Rem asked nervously.
Klem didn’t seem the slightest bit disturbed.
“I don’t like annoying situations like this one, but I wouldn’t be able to fight Emperor Gelmed while hiding who I am,” she shrugged.
“...I’m surprised,” Rem said. “I didn’t think you’d interfere in a war among the races.”
“Noah told me that Emperor Gelmed wouldn’t create a country that makes tasty biscuits! And I want to try an apple tart, too!”
“...An apple tart?”
“Oh yeah, that cake was so tasty!” Shera exclaimed, clapping her hands together.
“Nn?! You’ve had an apple tart before, Shera?!” Klem asked with round eyes.
“Yeah! Noah gave me some before!”
“I want to eat it too! This Demon Lord demands an apple tart!”
Diablo did note to himself that he hadn’t seen anything like an apple tart in Faltra. It must have been a rare sort of cake in Lyferia.
“The Demon Lord Krebskulm says her objectives are in alignment with ours, so we decided to cooperate with her,” Noah said, bringing the conversation back on track.
She very much had the facial expression and mannerisms of some kind of master manipulator. Diablo thought to himself bitterly that had the Gelmed Empire not invaded when it did, Diablo and his group would have had to go up against this woman.
I can’t say for sure we’re on the same side, even now...
“Your objectives are in alignment?” Shera cocked her head. “So that means... Noah, you’re fighting for apple tarts, too?!”
“...What in the world are you saying, Shera?” Rem asked, glaring at her.
Klem was the only one who would fight for something like biscuits or apple tarts.
“That’s not what I...” Noah started, but then changed her mind. “No, maybe that’s not too far from the truth. I do want to drive out these invaders and create a country where people are free to eat tasty apple tarts. In that regard, I can’t deny what you said.”
“Yay!” Shera grinned at her.
Rem didn’t seem convinced, though.
“...I suppose that’s as good a reason as any to protect Lyferia’s people,” she eventually admitted.
“I see you’re a woman with a strong sense of justice.”
“...I am an adventurer. Protecting the races is my calling, and I can’t forgive what Emperor Gelmed is doing. And, of course, there’s the matter of the Emperor being after me...”
“It doesn’t look like Emperor Gelmed has much time left,” Noah crossed her arms. “From the looks of things, he wants the Girl of the Vessel in order to rejuvenate himself before he dies of old age.”
“...Given what he said, that seems likely.”
“This is just hypothetical, of course, but have you considered that if you were to kill yourself, it wouldn’t be long until Emperor Gelmed dies naturally?”
What?!
Diablo stepped in between them.
“Spare her your nonsense!” he bellowed. “How can you say for certain that her dying isn’t the key for the ritual magic to trigger, or that there aren’t other Girls of the Vessel besides her?!”
“My apologies if I offended you,” Noah said, taking a step back. “But I think you misunderstood me. I was asking if the anxiety of this situation was making her contemplate suicide.”
This time, Rem stepped in between Diablo and Noah, who were again glaring at each other.
“...The thought did occur to me, but my answer remains the same. I am a summoner. And besides, I’ve already gone through something similar before.”
“Something similar...? I don’t think this is the kind of situation one runs into often...” Noah muttered.
Noah seemed to know a great deal, but apparently she wasn’t aware that Klem was originally sealed within Rem’s body.
“...Let’s just say I have a great deal of experience when it comes to my body’s nature as a ‘vessel,’” Rem let out with a thin smile.
“I see. If you say you’re used to trouble surrounding this matter, I’ll believe you. Gewalt’s reports already drew a picture of you as a stouthearted girl.”
“Aah... yes...” Rem said, regarding Gewalt with an unpleasant glance.
Gewalt simply winked back at her — a wink so flamboyant Diablo half-expected it to produce some kind of comical sound effect. Rem defeated him in combat by using the 《Demon Lord’s Fang》, but he was still, by far, the stronger summoner. Given these circumstances, Rem seemed to not get along with him at all.
†
“Now that we’ve each revealed what we know, I think it’s time we plan our strategy going forward,” Noah suggested. “We’re effectively all backed against the wall here. If we don’t eliminate the threat pressing down on us, we can’t even consider thinking of the future.”
“Hmph...” Diablo scoffed. “We need only defeat Emperor Gelmed. What more is there to consider?”
“Encouraging words. However, even you can’t hope to do this on your own.”
You can’t do this on your own. Diablo wouldn’t have been a famous solo player if he was the kind of person to simply nod and go along with such a statement.
“Heheheh... Would you like to have a taste of my power and see for yourself?” he asked Noah menacingly.
“No, I believe I’ll abstain. Fighting and exhausting ourselves here would only benefit the enemy. And I’ll admit, I’m skeptical as to whether I’d even be able to convince you to begin with.”
“As you should be,” Diablo said coldly.
“No!” Klem raised her voice. “Without Diablo on our side, we can’t beat him!”
“You can leave this matter to me,” Diablo nodded assuringly.
“Heheh... You’re confident, aren’t you?” Noah said, cracking a wry smile. “But you don’t have any way of getting close to the Magimatic Castle, do you?”
“You make it sound like you do.”
“Of course I do. I am blessed with capable comrades, after all.”
Diablo turned his eyes to the Palace Knights. She probably had some kind of specialist in the field of movement magic. Diablo, by contrast, was an Annihilation Sorcerer, optimized for maximum firepower. He could use basic flight magic, but he wasn’t any good when it came to placing buffs on his party.
We need to cross the barrier and get inside the castle... Can high level teleportation do that?
Faltra had a barrier for repelling the Fallen, but it had never prevented him from teleporting in or out of the city before. Perhaps the same logic applied here.
“Right now, I’m the group’s leader,” Noah said, placing a hand over her chest for emphasis. “I know that if we make the most of our talents and cover for each other’s weaknesses, we’ll be able to defeat the Gelmed Empire. I don’t imagine you’ll reject this offer?”
“I don’t like it,” Diablo whispered.
Several of the Palace Knights displayed clear enmity and bloodlust toward him for that comment. The magi gunner girl and the Elf swordsman — Thanatos the Undying, if he recalled — both glared at him. But Diablo wouldn’t have stuck to his Demon Lord role play for as long as he had if he was the type of person to let the normies’ scornful gazes get to him. No, Demon Lords always responded to any situation with an indomitable smirk.
“Why should you be the leader?” he asked defiantly.