Chapter 9- The Demon Lord and Hero Encounter

On a rainy day, a 21-year-old-looking woman sat in an office chair backing the table piled with documents and empty snack and drink packets. Also, the dark office behind was no better documents lying in stacks on the floor, and the room was messy with empty packets.

“Good grief.” The woman said before taking a bite out of a green apple she held in her hand.

Her pigtails looked unkempt, and her cowlick stood out as the only clean part of her hair; her left eye was yellow and her right red. They both gazed into the never-ending distance as though they saw something. The door behind, opposite the woman, opened and a more mature-looking woman.

She had complimenting red wings and red hair, her gold-honey eyes, which had round glasses, were a different beauty altogether. She wore a white and golden long robe and held neatly arranged documents. She switched on the lights to reveal the messy office. Her name was Seraviel Burgundi.

“You never cease to amaze, do you?” she asked the younger woman on the chair.

“Little Servi, I ‘m bored.” Replied the woman in the chair.

“You need to clear your office, and we need to get going to Ranzia. King Aro has started preparing for your coming; you are the one who brought the date forward.”

“Huh...?”

“You said when we find Lisa, you will come within the next seven days.”

“I said that in haste, I didn’t think we would find her soon…” she said, throwing a tantrum before turning the seat around and facing Seraviel, “But can’t we just delay a bit more?”

“Stop being a child already. We need to leave. Besides that, you may not get another chance like this.”

“Fine, I get it.”

With that, she stood up from her chair, the storm still sounding in the distance playing as a BGM to the woman’s rise. She immediately transformed; the night cloth she was wearing changed into a black and pink battle dress, with purple embroidery, and her unkempt hair still retained its form, except it was neater and glowed.

“I guess we should head east of here. Only you, Lisa and I will be going.”

“Yes, as you wish. My lady, Galim Hajun.”

*****

“Good morning, non-February 14th, time to head for another dungeon visit.” Probably wondering why the greeting, well, that’s a practice I do for eight days after Valentine, to remove whatever memory of what happened, which has never worked.

For seven days now, we have been clearing dungeon floors, for six days now and the day after the slave incident, we managed to get some info. Darwin, the slave trader, was introduced to the business opportunity on a trip to Narto’s capital, Rasio, where he was offered the chance to make more money and got into slave trading.

According to him, his tent was only a branch; the real deal was elsewhere. Also, after retrieving the slaves, I found out why Elsa needed the box: there is a curse put on slaves that makes them follow their master’s every wish; if they disobey, they could experience a pain equivalent to being burnt alive throughout their entire body.

“That must be a pain, being burnt alive.”

There was also an elf in the mix from Elsa’s village, her name was Fiona, and she was sold to the Northern Empire by kidnappers trying to make quick cash. After the whole incident, Darwin was arrested for slavery and illegal businesses.

Knock… Knock… Knock.

“Great Shinta, we are being summoned.”

“Huh… By who?”

“The King says he wants to add someone to our group, they are former subordinate of the last demon lord.”

“Whaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaat?”

*****

“Why are we here?” I asked, hunching my back and walking lazily in the hallway.

We ended up in the castle a few hours later. I was walking through the hallway and gazing into the distance for a while. Our party was invited to the Free Garden to rest while Aro prepared for the new visitor. The garden was a sight to behold; the name was a small description of the beauty, it looked like a landscape gotten from the gods themselves. Nu was pretty interested in the flowers, specifically the clematis, while Glass was interested in the irises.

Elsa said that the garden is regarded as the apex of nature’s blessings, mostly seen as the best landscape by the goddess of Nature, Gea. Around ten minutes later, a guard came to call us to the throne room. With him were Marquis Band, Alex’s father, and Marquis Rice, Chelsea’s father; they were to escort us to the throne room.

*****

“Long time, Lord Irashime.” Aro, the king, greets me as we enter the room.

“Hey there, Aro. How has running the kingdom been?” I asked in return.

“Fantastic, as you can see, the guards have kept a close eye on the merchant you brought in the other day, and the other girl has been returned to the Magi Dynasty.”

Alex and the others were busy interacting with the few nobles onsite while I was talking with Aro. Afterwards we were giving a space to seat in the nobles section, specifically the first row, Aro then ordered for the demon subordinates to be brought in, the doors were opened and in came three women, one with pink pigtails and a cowlick, she also had a yellow and a red eye, looking twenty or so; the second was a woman with red hair and wings, she had gold-honey eyes and looked way more mature than the first; and the third looked like Aisu in his human form except that her hair was blue and lighter at the tips, she also looked my age.

*****

“Welcome, Lady Hemon. How was your friend’s journey here?” asked Aro, who was sitting on his throne and joyfully expressing a warm welcome and gratitude.

“We’re fine. Where is the hero?” answered the pink-haired lady.

“He is not the priority here, Lady Hemon.” Replied the red-haired and winged lady.

“Ooh… is that Little Aisu?” asked the girl with blue hair, pointing towards the place where Team Typhoon were sitting.

Chuckles.

That came from Hemon, the pink-haired girl, she immediately charged straight at the red haired boy with a large portion of mana to cover her left hand and tried to punch him… Boom…Cr...Cr…Crack. Then a blonde elf with blue eyes stopped the attack with an Earth spell resembling a wall.

“You seem strong. What is your name?” asked the pink-haired girl.

“I have no reason to work with a demon like you, so my name is out of the question.” The elf replied.

The clash was strong enough to send the entire hall into panic. The elf shifted from Earth magic to using her staff, while her opponent continued with her left hand. The stalemate went on for around five seconds until Hemon, the pink-haired lady, used her right hand to punch the elf in her gut. The elf flew through the window and out into the sky, but it turned out the elf used defensive magic to block the attack, and she was followed by Hemon outside, where their battle increased in intensity and power.

*****

WHAT WAS THAT? I thought I would have needed to use my teleportation. That was the thought that crossed my mind after Elsa and Hemon took their battle outside; the pressure was too strong, even if they were holding back.

“Seriously, she needs to learn to restrain herself.” Said the red-haired lady. “I am deeply sorry, King Aro, for my mistress’ behaviour. I shall go and call her back to order.”

“Lisa can’t be left out of the battle. See ya, Servi.” With that, the last lady in the party turned into a great sword and flew out of the broken window.

“Sister, wait up.” Aisu followed suit and went out too.

This sure turned into a lot of trouble. Aisu is in battle against his look-alike, Elsa is fighting Hemon, and the entire congregation is in despair. Aro looks confused as well. I am not surprised because the people he brought have started causing problems.

“I guess there is nothing we can do, is there?”

“You’re right, Eighty, Sister is in battle, meaning we have no chance of entering.”

“Symphony, my name is ‘Eighteen’, not Eighty.”

*****

The battle continued very fiercely in the skies above, a clash of blue and dark purple that turned the clear blue sky dark and cloudy. The elf, Elsa, was visibly struggling against her opponent, while Hemon took this for a fun game on the other hand.

Opposite their battle was the clash between two female look-alikes, one with gold hair becoming lighter at the tips, and the other with the same hair but blue becoming lighter, not gold. In their battle, they clashed as katana and great sword, their weapon forms, a few times, but mostly stayed in their human forms.

“I see you have grown stronger, Aisu.”

“Yes, Big Sister. Strong enough to go toe to toe with you.”

The two separate clashes shook the capital, the elf against the humanoid demon and the weapon clash. Soon enough, the weapons went to join the other two and assist in the battle. But not long after…

“This ends now. It was fun sparring with you.” Said Hemon, gathering a lot of her mana into a condensed point.

“Aisu.”

“Yes, sister.”

“Let’s leave here for now.”

“Yes, ma’am.” The two of them then left the battlefield for Elsa and Hemon

“Elsa, I advise you to back down; you can’t survive that attack.”

But Aisu’s words never reached Elsa; the noise generated by the mana was on par with that of a jet engine, and yet it was the size of a basketball.

“Take this as a parting gift.”

“Huh… This is-” the elf struggled to say.

“Galim Fort Brea-…Oow.”

Hemon’s magic attack dispersed upwards and cleared the clouds, bringing back the clear day again. On her pink hair was the hand of a red-haired and red-winged lady, precisely the one from her party.

“Servi that hurt.” Replied Hemon to the red-haired woman.

“Lady Hemon, aren’t we supposed to be more coordinated than this?” Servi replied to Hemon’s rants.

“Magic Storm, sorry for my lady’s misconduct. I will see to it that she is strictly reprimanded.”

Elsa, covered in scratches from the battle, sheepishly smiles and says. “It’s okay.”

“By the way, Lisa, why did you just rush to battle like that?” Servi turned to Lisa.

The shivering Lisa started speaking, or rather stammering. “I-I-I…j-j-j-just wanted…t-to…help, the m-m-m-mistress. T-t-that is why I-I-I-I-I-I left the can-”

“Just save the explanation for later.”

“I guess you have someone you fear, right, Big Sister?” Aisu chipped in before they headed back to the castle.

*****

I wonder what that magic power was; it seemed extraordinary. I thought to myself. The clear sky turned dark and cloudy, and after the insane presence of mana disappeared, it became clear once more. Everyone in the throne room wondered what had happened up there, but it was clear the match had ended.

A few seconds after the mysterious magic power disappeared, the five of them came back: Aisu, his look-alike, Elsa and Hemon were looking rough, which is to be expected since they just finished a battle, but the red-haired woman was in one piece and intact. The most out of shape was Elsa, but Nu used healing magic on her when she got back to where we were, so she should be okay. Also, Aisu’s look-alike and Hemon seemed down for some reason.

“I am deeply sorry, King Aro. I will try to keep an eye on her.” Said the red-haired female.

“It is okay, above all else, you managed to keep us safe.” Replied Aro.

“We will pay for damages incurred, and also provide the workforce.”

“Now, now that’s just too much for us, paying is okay.”

“Fine then.” She finished before taking a bow and turning to us. “Team Typhoon, I am humbly sorry for the rude greeting my mistress offered. I am Seravi Burgundi, this Lisa and our mistress’s name is Hemon. Pleased to make your acquaintance.” She finished by bowing

“Pleased to make your acquaintance, too.” Said Alex, standing up from his seat and bowing to them and was followed by Chelsea.

“Lord Irashime, I think you are to speak too.” Whispered Glass to me after Alex and Chelsea bowed.

“I hope we can work together,” I said, standing up and bowing also. I really hope things will be okay with them.

*****

After Aro allied with Hemon’s state, Hemon said she was going to join our group as the new rookie, which kind of pissed me off in a sense. Aisu and Lisa turned out to be siblings, but only a few of us, being Aro, Marquis Band and Rice, Typhoon, Hemon, Seravi and the two of them knew they were created by Donovan, the god of creation.

While walking home, we also realised that Hemon and Seravi were cover-up names, created to not cause problems.

“Huh, you are…Demon Lord Galim.” I asked in surprise when she told us. It was only the eight of us, the two behemoths and Seraviel that were there.

“Yes, I am the Great Galim, but I dropped the demon lord title long ago.”

“I see.”

I guess wanting to know about her is going to be easier than I thought. This world really is full of surprises. As we walk home, Galim takes hold of my right hand, which makes Nu and Glass jealous. The two started squabbling over my left hand, and soon enough, both of them started arguing with Galim to stop her from being chummy with me.

I really hate being the center of attraction. I thought to myself as we watched the three of them argue.

Elsa also looked a bit down, maybe because of something that happened in the fight or so, but I think it will be best to not dive deep into it. I mean, she might end up talking with Aisu about it, since he is the only one she has recently opened up to. I guess this world still has mysteries that can’t be solved cheaply.