“Ah, shit, what a bad experience.”

About an hour after Loren and Lapis had visited her room only to close the door softly and leave again, Gula was released from the maids’ clutch.

The maids must have done a lot of things to her after that visit. Loren and Lapis were sitting in a guest room sipping tea prepared by maids and waiting for her when she came in, and the state of her startled them. Her long blond hair was a mess, and her disheveled clothes were slipping off her body. She was fixing them as she went.

In such a state, Gula sat facing them and watched them sip their tea with reproachful eyes.

“You guys are having tea while I’m having a hard time.”

“We didn’t want to disturb you.”

“You’ve worked hard, Gula. Thank you for your consideration.”

Loren greeted Gula with a teasing remark, but Lapis gave her a nod and some words of gratitude. Loren wondered why, but he soon realized the reason.

Gula was a being called Evil God, so she definitely wasn’t the type to be overpowered by maids, even demon ones. The maids were able to torture Gula as they wished because she had condoned it. Of course, it would have been very easy for Gula to fight off the maids and torture them as she wished instead, but she seemed to think that it was necessary to let the demons know that she was currently a harmless existence.

“It’s okay. It’s not going to diminish my power. In fact, it was pretty delicious.”

“The fire-logs… Did they stuff them into your mouth?”

“The curiosity of demons is unforgiving… I got three.”

As Gula sat down next to Lapis with a scowl on her face, the maid who had been waiting in a corner of the room immediately offered her a steaming cup without making a sound. Loren didn’t want to be in a situation where he felt like he was being watched or had a maid waiting by his side at all times, but Lapis said that this was the norm, and that he wouldn’t want to go through the trouble of calling for the maids every time he needed them.

“That reminds me, where do you live when you’re in Kapha, Lapis?”

“I’ll invite you over someday.”

Lapis answered evasively, and Loren got a bit anxious. It wasn’t about where she resided in Kapha, what he was rather interested in was where in that city people who were used to having maids waiting on them lived.

As if to interrupt that train of thought of Loren, Gula asked Lapis:

“So, what’s the situation? Will you explain it to me?”

“I’m not sure what you want to ask. Is it about accepting my mother’s request or not?”

“Mother? Whose?”

“Mine… Well, I have to start from there, right?”

And with a sigh, Lapis began to tell Gula the whole story.

But the whole story was just that, Lapis’ mother had a commission for them to do, and the reward would be the right to use the white greatsword. Explanation ended pretty quickly.

“So, Lapis-chan’s mother is a Demon King.”

“Yes, well, she is.”

Gula sounded impressed, but Lapis responded nonchalantly.

The title ‘Demon King’ tended to conjure up images of great things, but after listening to Lapis’s explanation, Loren thought that the position was more like that of a General in other countries. It was still quite impressive, of course, but compared to a sovereign, it was inevitably much inferior in terms of power and bloodline. To demons, the equivalent to a sovereign was the Great Demon King.

“And what does Demon King-sama want us to do?”

“I’ve just heard about it from my mother, more or less.”

Lapis replied, and gave some orders to the maid who was standing by. The maid bowed deeply and walked away, then returned a moment later with a round object covered with a cloth in her hand. She placed it on the table, bowed, then retreated to stand near the wall again. Lapis removed the cloth covering the object and told Loren, who was watching the maid:

“My mother’s request is, throwing this into the crater of a certain volcano.”

What appeared from under the removed cloth was a black metal helmet. There were numerous patterns carved on it, but overall it was a very plain, all-black helmet. It wasn’t even decorated – it was something made for practical use only. The helmet didn’t look like something a Demon King would go to the trouble of asking someone to transport it for.

“This thing? Dump it in a crater?”

“Can’t we just melt it down?”

Not really understanding the purpose of this commission, Loren and Gula stared at the black helmets on the table and made those comments. Lapis shrugged.

“I also thought that maybe we could just throw it into some furnaces around here… But seems like it’s not a good idea.”

According to Judie, this black helmet possessed powerful magic, and normal furnaces wouldn’t even make it lose its shape. The reason for this was not well known, but it was said to have been brought from the land of humans a long time ago.

“It seems that this helmet alone can’t do anything, so it’s been sitting collecting dust in a corner of the warehouse. But recently, the situation has changed a bit. It seems to have something to do with the man in black armor we encountered in the dwarven village.”

Judie had almost forgotten about this helmet, but a certain circumstance happened, and the warehouse was ransacked to the ground. The helmet was found during the cleaning up afterwards.

“A certain circumstance, huh.”

“Yes, a certain circumstance. I don’t know what it is either.”

It was obvious that Lapis was the cause of that ‘certain circumstances’, but she calmly replied to Loren without even batting an eye. It wasn’t like Loren was not in the mood for some quips, but for now, the best thing to do was listen.

Lapis calmly continued.

The black helmet was known to be very durable and to have been infused with some kind of powerful magic, but when it came to actual use, no one had ever been able to get any effects equipping it. Thus, it had been stored away as an unidentified item.

Judie knew all this, and was about to have the helmet put in the back of the warehouse again, when something stopped her: In other Demon Kings’ warehouses, several magic-infused items similar to this helmet had been discovered. In total, the four items found were a helmet, an armor, a shield, and a longsword, all black.

The items produced no effects on their own, but they all had extremely similar auras and magic powers. They were thought to be the type of items that would only show their true power if all parts were assembled, so they were gathered in one place for research.

“But before we could do that, a bandit invaded.”

It was not clear how the bandit got into the demon territory, but he managed to sneak into a Demon King’s warehouse and steal the black armor. While running away from the pursuers, he sneaked into another Demon King’s warehouse, where he obtained the long sword before disappearing.

“The bandit was said to have called himself Magna. He’s a young man with black hair.”

It was a strange thing for a bandit to announce his own name, but the man called Magna didn’t seem to mind being chased or surrounded at all, and proudly claimed that these items belonged to him. He was still on the run now, slipping through the demons’ pursuers and the tight security.

“It’s obviously that man.”

Recalling the face of the man in black armor they had encountered in the dwarven village, Loren grumbled.

“It’s probably him. In addition to his own power, the flashes of light he called forth and the physical strength that allowed him to receive Loren’s blow may have been the result of those unidentified magical items.”

Some magical items come in sets of several pieces, and they must be equipped together in order to be truly effective. The black armor set that the Demon Kings were keeping seemed to be one of these, but it looked like just the armor and sword were enough to produce some effects.

“Our report has confirmed that, and we do not know what kind of effect it will have if the full set is assembled.”

“So before they can be assembled, let’s just destroy them. It’s a rather cowardly way of thinking for a Demon King.”

Fearing that the helmet would be stolen, and considering it had no power on its own, Judie decided to destroy it to prevent the whole set being assembled. In Loren’s opinion, it was the same as admitting to being unable to prevent a thievery. In short, the Demon King recognized that she couldn’t stop that Magna guy.

“That’s one way to see it. But the truth is, it’s just not something worth protecting. Collecting the other items in the set is also troublesome, so she wants to destroy it.”

“So, a crater. Why doesn’t she just go there herself?”

Since ordinary furnaces couldn’t destroy the helmet, it wasn’t hard to understand why Judie wanted them to dump it in a volcano crater, where the fire never stopped. But Loren believed that it would be faster and more reliable for Judie to go there herself, given that she was a Demon King.

“About that… There’s a reason why Demon Kings do not come near that place.”

“That’s strange, isn’t it? That crater is within demons’ territory, right?”

If not, it would be quite a troublesome story. Loren was worried, but Lapis gave him a nod.

“Yes, it’s in the center of the demon territory.”

“Seems quite far… So why don’t Demon Kings go there?”

Loren asked, and Lapis hesitated for a moment before giving up all intentions to lie and answered with a troubled smile.

“The truth is… There’s an Ancient Dragon living in that volcano.”

Dragons, the most powerful beasts. It was generally believed that encountering one is the greatest misfortune and the last thing ever happened in one’s life.

It was said that the longer a dragon lived, the wiser and more powerful it became. Among the dragons, there were those that had existed for a long time, since the time of the Gods. They were called Ancient Dragons, and are feared by all. Loren couldn’t find the word to describe how suicidal it would be to climb a mountain inhabited by such a being.

“If a being as powerful as a Demon King approaches the mountain, they would be warned and attacked. That’s why powerful demons can’t get close.”

In their party, Loren was a mere human, Gula could conceal her Evil God’s power, and Lapis was considerably weakened as her legs and eyes were artificial. The idea was that they could sneak up the mountain and dump the helmet into the crater before the dragon noticed them.

“This… The reward isn’t worth it, right?”

That white greatsword was certainly a very powerful weapon, but Loren thought it was too cheap for a request like stepping into the Ancient Dragon’s dwelling. It seemed that Lapis had the same opinion, so she nodded.

“I think it’s possible to get some additional compensation, though.”

“What about refusing?”

“It’s not a bad idea, but… Just use common sense. Do you think you can get out of here safely with a Demon King being displeased with you?”

Loren seriously pondered which would be less difficult: to reach the volcano crater under the watchful eye of an Ancient Dragon, or to return to the realm of humans under the watchful eye of a Demon King. It seemed that both would eventually end up being impossible, though, and Loren exhaled deeply as he dropped his gaze to the floor and thought about how troublesome this whole situation was.