At dad’s request, I brought the salt pump over to Lotz, but the real reason I came here lay elsewhere.
“I didn’t expect you to come,” Myurei said with a confused look when he saw me.
“Dad said it’d be fastest to let a werewolf or a kentauros deliver this,” I said hurriedly.
“I’m grateful you went out of your way to bring this as quickly as possible. My grandfather ordered the very first salt pump from the Demon Army’s engineers decades ago, and this is supposed to be the improved version. It seems to work much better. I’m amazed by what the Demon Army engineers can accomplish.”
Myurei oohed and aahed over the pump as I showed him how it worked. I then handed it over to let him tinker with it. As he poked and prodded at it, he asked, “So, what did you want to talk to me about?”
“You knew I came here for a different reason?”
“Obviously. Sure, this machine is important, but there’s no way the Demon Army would send the famous Friede just to deliver it. One of the delivery kentauros working for Mao’s company would do just fine.” Myurei placed the pump on his desk and turned to me with a serious expression. “I’m guessing it has something to do with Ryuunie, am I right?”
“How could you tell?”
“Heh.” Myurei grinned and said, “I know you think I’m basically Ryuunie’s mom.”
“I do not!”
Myurei was usually very perceptive, but he had a bad habit of jumping to odd conclusions, especially when it came to Ryuunie.
I cleared my throat and said, “I just know you and Ryuunie have been good friends since your school days.”
“Well, that’s true.”
“Oh, also everyone at university thought you two were an item because you were always hanging out together.”
“I don’t know who told you that, but they’re lying. Never utter those words again,” Myurei said with a grimace.
Maybe I shouldn’t tell him the girls had heated debates about who was the top and who was the bottom, then... The debates were so famous even I’d heard about them, and I went to school ten years after they did.
“Don’t the kids these days talk about how you, Yuhette, and Iori are secretly in a three-way relationship?”
“Please pretend you never heard that,” I retorted. Now that’s just not fair. I guess I did the same thing though. Sorry.
I cleared my throat and said, “We’ll get nowhere like this so I’ll just get straight to the point. I want to know more about Ryuunie.”
“Well, you picked the right guy to ask, Friede Aindorf! So, what do you want to know? His favorite foods? His favorite color?”
“Why would I come all the way here just for that?!” I exclaimed. He’s hopeless.
When it came to Ryuunie, Myurei acted just like Jerrick and Professor Kite whenever the topic of dad came up. I started racking my brain for how to effectively get the information I wanted from him.
“For starters, you’ve already heard the news about my mom, right?”
“Yes, I heard she’s pregnant. Congratulations, you’re going to be a big sister, Friede. Wait...” Myurei suddenly frowned. “The only reason you’d come to me asking about Ryuunie now is... Does your father intend to have him inherit...”
Oh, wow. He’s sharp! Is this why everyone respects him so much?!
Myurei looked me in the eyes and finished asking, “...the Demon Lord’s Vice-Commander position?”
Okay, well, you were close. It seemed like Myurei was so enamored with the vice-commander position that he hadn’t considered anything bigger.
“Not quite. He wants Ryuunie to be the next Demon Lord, not a vice-commander.”
“Ah, I guess that’s fine. He’d be a perfect fit for the job.”
Is it just me, or were you more excited about him becoming a vice-commander instead? It was hard to grasp what Myurei was thinking.
He grinned and said, “Let me guess, he’s reluctant to take the job?”
“How could you tell?”
“I can read him like the back of my hand. Half of the time, anyway...”
Why the sudden humility? I thought, then asked, “Even half of the time is better than nothing, so can you tell me why you think he’s so reluctant?”
“You sure are determined to get him to take the job, huh? Did Professor Veight put you up to this?”
“No, I came here of my own accord. That’s why I needed an official excuse to come see you.”
Myurei was Lotz’s viceroy, which meant that someone like me, with no official title, couldn’t just meet him whenever I wanted. Technically, I could have used dad’s name to set up a meeting, but I felt bad about doing that.
Myurei nodded in understanding and said, “You’ve got initiative, I like that. In fact, you might be a perfect fit for Ryuunie’s vice-commander.”
“Where the heck did that come from?!”
“Of course, by all rights, I should be his vice-commander.”
Come on... This is getting nowhere. Myurei was a little too obsessed with the position of Ryuunie’s vice-commander. Thankfully, he got back on topic quickly.
“I’m kidding. Anyway, I suspect the reason Ryuunie is reluctant to take the position is that he’s worried.”
“About what?”
“It’s a long story, so I hope you have time.” As he said that, Myurei sat down in his chair. “He went through many painful experiences as a kid in Rolmund. I was blessed with a happy childhood, so I can’t even imagine how much he must have suffered. Those experiences humbled him, but they also instilled a deep sense of responsibility in him.”
Myurei spoke briskly, his expression dead serious.
“He lost his father and grandfather, and the only reason he survived was thanks to the efforts of Barnack and Professor Veight. Not only that, his political rival Eleora took pity on him and allowed him to live in exile in Meraldia instead of executing him. After that, Ryuunie and Sir Woroy lived under the protection of the Demon Lord, so Ryuunie doesn’t feel as though he’s truly accomplished anything on his own.”