Chapter 11

When the Demon Lord returned to the party from the bathroom, there was an uproar. The Demon Lord, who was wearing a gorgeous jet-black dress, was the star of the celebration, but the five hundred or so female demons in attendance were all afraid that they would be incinerated if they didn’t maintain magical barriers when in her presence. “…” A hint of gloom crept into the Demon Lord’s expression. She used to emit power strong enough to disintegrate anyone in her vicinity until she was five, but thanks to eight years in the Holy Spring, she no longer possessed that dreadful ability. It was even safe for her to interact with humans now. Her time spent with the Princess, a powerless young woman, was proof enough of that. Sadly, old impressions and rumors didn’t die easily. Some looked on in envy at the Demon Lord’s beauty and strength, but most kept their distance. Many of the demons attended the party simply to score some points with the greatest of their kind. Whether it was asking for poverty relief or wanting permission to maintain control of old captured human territory, they always came to her with their problems and petitions. Naturally, the Demon Lord understood what they were trying to do, and she knew that the great majority of the “likes” that she got on social media were also just given to get on her good side. “…Hey, Princess.” The Demon Lord spotted the beautiful (on the outside) girl whom she had accidentally abducted from LMAO Castle. The Princess looked exceedingly noble in the brand-new, custom-made dress that the Demon Lord had ordered for her. Despite her graceful appearance, she was hurriedly tasting and comparing the hundreds of cakes that had been prepared for the event. “Oh, Demon Lord! H-h-h-h-how do you do?” the Princess said upon spotting her. “How are the cakes? I heard that Nanny carefully selected the very best from among those that are popular in human society,” the Demon Lord stated with a smile. “They’re all absurdly delicious! I can’t believe that food this good is truly real! My father is always trying to save money, so I could never have imagined this level of extravagance back at my castle!” The Princess could not stop stuffing herself, even with her beloved Demon Lord right in front of her. The Demon Lord didn’t see the behavior as rude. Instead, she found it endearing. Obviously, the Princess harbored an uncommon level of affection for her, which made things slightly uncomfortable. Still, the Demon Lord appreciated that the Princess expressed her true feelings rather than hiding them. There was no deceit. The Demon Lord didn’t trust the Princess over the Demon Generals, of course, but she was grateful for her openness. It was a world away from the female demons who smiled to the Demon Lord’s face while whispering things like “Make sure to keep your distance from the Demon Lord” and “Don’t forget your shield” behind her back. “I’m glad you like them. Enjoy the party to the fullest, Princess. I asked Nanny to make your bed for you. If you get tired or have too much to drink, you can rest in your room.” “What?! Aren’t we sleeping in the same bed tonight?!” “…I don’t remember promising anything like that…” “Are you kidding me?! You said you would, Dilly!” “Who is Dilly?” The Demon Lord skillfully dodged the Princess’s advances and began walking back to her seat. “Demon Lord! Good day to you. I am the vice commander of the Dullahan Tribe. I am honored to celebrate your birth on this most inauspicious of days, for you are both the heavens and evil incarnate—” “Demon Lord, what a lovely day this is. I am the wife of the leader of the Troll Tribe. You recently rejected my husband’s proposed invasion of a human settlement over SNS—” “Demon Lord, I—I—I am the l-l-leader of the s-s-skeletons. I h-h-heard that you want p-p-peace with the humans. As a f-f-former human in life, I am g-g-greatly moved—” “Hey, can’t you all see you’re bothering the Demon Lord? You should be ashamed of your greed. Ah, pardon the interruption, Demon Lord. I am Mino, a secretary for Minotaur Group LLC. We have a contract we would love you to take a look at—” One demon representative after another foisted their request upon the Demon Lord, competing for her attention with various forms of flattery. This was easy to forget given the cease-fire established three years prior, but there were some among these demons whose diet had consisted primarily of humans, and others who had kept them as slaves. Such activities had been their livelihood, but now they couldn’t even invade human land without permission from the Demon Lord. Many demons had lost their families to human warriors and pleaded with the Demon Lord for revenge. The Demon Lord didn’t intend to make light of their petitions, but she ensured that none of her people would harm humans. However, there were those sly negotiators who sidled up with contracts designed to swindle money from the Demon Lord’s estate. The young woman was inexperienced in such matters, so she left the negotiations to her trusted aides. “Hey, listen up! The Demon Lord is clearly exhausted, so that is enough for tonight.” Head in her hands, the Demon Lord looked up when Nanny, an aide who had served her family for over one hundred years, arrived to rescue her. “Nanny!” The Demon Lord was so relieved to see her face. She quickly scurried to hide behind the old woman. “Can’t you see the toll this is taking on her? There is no way she can discuss matters with a clear head when crowded in such a fashion. Now get away! Scram!” Nanny exclaimed, quickly waving her hands to drive back the throngs of demons. None knew if Nanny had the power to back up such a command, but her status as a direct attendant to the Demon Lord left few willing to push their luck. “Sorry that you had to do that for me, Nanny.” “Don’t worry about it. I can handle fools like them in my sleep. I have no family of my own, and I owe the Demon Lord family for graciously taking me in. You’re like a granddaughter to me, my lord.” “Thank you.” The Demon Lord sighed, and she scanned the venue for someone she could talk to without reserve… Unfortunately, there was no such person in attendance. Her trusted members of the Demon Generals—Mako, Nicoletta, Pino, and Oniko—were nowhere to be seen. “…Huh? Nanny, do you know where the Demon Generals went?” “Ah, yes. They are all currently indisposed, likely from overindulgence of alcohol. I carried them to their beds while you were in the bathroom.” “Really? Thank you, Nanny.” “It was nothing, child. I only did what is expected of me. I am sure they were tired from their journey with the Hero as well.” “Huh, but…” A single doubt rose in the Demon Lord’s mind. “Mako doesn’t drink. Did she pass out, too?” “…Yes. She was undoubtedly overjoyed to see you again after so long apart. I’m afraid she collapsed almost immediately. She doesn’t handle her liquor well, it seems.” It didn’t make sense to the Demon Lord that Mako would drink in her presence. After all, the beastman was bad with alcohol. Still, she couldn’t imagine that Nanny would lie. “…I see.” “Okay, it is almost time to end this party. I’m sure you’re tired, so I will handle the closing remarks. You go on to bed, dear.” “Yeah, I’ll do that. Thank you, Nanny.” The two exchanged a smile and walked side by side. Any strangers who saw them would have mistaken the pair for a grandmother and granddaughter. No sooner had the Demon Lord returned to her room than she flopped on the bed. She may have brought this on herself by driving out her father, the Demon Overlord, but she was fed up with parties. They made for good opportunities to improve relations between demons and humans, but talking to so many people was exhausting. “Haaah…” The Demon Lord buried her head in the sheets and sighed. How wonderful would it be if she had a person who loved her by her side at times like these? The visage of a certain boy appeared in the back of her mind. They had never met. Well, technically, they had seen each other once. Plus, in the social-media era, you could see what someone looked like even if you had never met them via their profile picture. The icon didn’t tell her everything about him, but she was still grateful that she could see his face despite the distance between them. “Hero…,” the Demon Lord muttered to herself. She then rolled onto her back and lifted her smartphone. She checked her messages, but there was nothing from the Hero. She felt a sudden wave of emotion and tapped his icon to enlarge it. A relaxed smile spread across her lips. Thoughts of what he was doing began to drift about her mind. He was likely relaxing after enjoying dinner in Balse. It then occurred to the Demon Lord that he wouldn’t be training with Oniko that night, so she tapped on their text thread and sent him a message. [What are you doing right now?] It felt unlikely that he’d respond immediately, but the Demon Lord’s heart still pounded as she waited for the notification that he’d read her text. One, two, five minutes passed, yet he still hadn’t checked it. He’s been sleeping outside his entire journey, so he’s probably taking this chance to enjoy a good night’s rest in a soft bed, the Demon Lord reasoned. “Ah…” Her eyes caught the strap dangling from her phone—a birthday present from the Hero. Two little wooden people dangled from a thin thread. The Demon Lord had attached the gift to her smartphone as soon as she’d received it from Mako, but things had been too busy during the banquet to examine it. One of the figures looked like a sweet girl with horns on her head, and the other was a brave boy holding a sword. When the Demon Lord looked closely at the girl, she could tell that the Hero had glued on the horns himself. “Ha-ha…” Smiling, the Demon Lord tapped the trinket. This caused the girl to peck the boy on the cheek, and the Demon Lord blushed a deep shade of red. If only days like this could last forever…, the Demon Lord thought as she calmly drifted off to sleep. Late at night, when all the attendees had left the castle and all the maids were asleep, someone slinked down the corridors of the palace, holding a candle. Her body was hunched. She struck her hip with one hand and let out a sigh, then made a thin, creepy smile that suggested some plot of hers was progressing exactly according to plan. “All capable of standing in our way will be extirpated,” she muttered. The crone opened a hidden door somewhere in the wall of the passage, which led to a chamber where four demons were sleeping comfortably on the floor. It was Mako, Nicoletta, Pino, and Oniko, the members of the Demon Army’s Four Demon Generals. “As I am now, I cannot kill you. But I can manage this.” The old woman set her candle on a desk in the hidden room and began to chant a spell under her breath. The window in the secret chamber then blew open, and she screamed, “Kazoomkle!” Four times, she intoned the spell, and with each incantation, a member of the Demon Generals was enveloped by luminous particles and hurled out the window. Unlike the teleportation spell Zoomkle, which sent you to a specified location, Kazoomkle flung the target to a totally random, faraway place. “…The Demon Generals have been broken and scattered…and the Deepsleep Whiskey will have them out for a while yet…,” the old woman said with glee, though slightly out of breath. Kazoomkle wasn’t incredibly advanced magic and didn’t require much power to use, but casting it four times in a row had to be a lot for one her age. “It’s almost time… Nyeh-nyeh-nyeh, now, if I can just get ahold of that body…” Wind blew in softly from the window, causing the flame of the candle to illuminate her face. The light revealed none other than the aide who served the Demon Lord family for hundreds of years, the woman whom the Demon Lord thought of as a mother-like figure—Nanny. A sinister grin rested on her face.