The country of Demons ?Xaos? was located far north of ?Victorias?.

One room in the castle of the Demon King, located within the country, had ‘Evila’ warriors sitting at a long table, looking at each other.

Three chairs were arranged on each side of the long table in the fashion of confronting each other. Five of them were occupied while another one person sat at a position overlooking them with an attendant standing next to it.

That made a sum of seven people in the room. The only standing person, a woman by the name of Kiria, spoke.

“I would like to open the demon conference now. First allow me to take attendance, beginning with the lowest ranking one like always.”

Then Kiria shifted her gaze to the person sitting the farthest away from her.

“?Rank 6?, Grayald-sama.”

“Yep.”

A young man in his 20s with darkish skin answered.

“?Rank 5?, Shublars-sama.”

“Here~ Fufu.”

A sociable and voluptuous woman answered with a smile.

“?Rank 4?, Ornoth-sama.”

A man with the face of a wolf nodded.

“?Rank 3?, Teckil-sama is absent today due to other commitments.”

A small click of the tongue could be heard. It came from

“?Rank 2?, Marione-sama.”

a man with a grim face, obviously a hardliner. He was frowning in a bad mood. Kiria continued without paying him any heed.

“?Rank 1?, Aquinas-sama.”

“Yeah.”

A man with red hair muttered quietly.

“Now onto today’s agenda. If you please, Your Highness Eveam.”

Kiria turned the topic to the blonde girl sitting next to her, Eveam.

“Okay.”

She opened her closed eyes and was about to speak, when ?Rank 2? Marione promptly raised his hand.

“..What’s wrong, Marione?”

“It is wrong on so many levels, Your Highness. Why are we missing one person for the conference?”

“Because I gave him a job to do.”

“A job? Is it more important than this conference?”

“Yes. Besides, I was going to touch upon this in the conference anyway. Hear me out first.”

“...Is that so.”

He still didn’t look satisfied, but backed out for now.

“Okay, I will be frank with you: The ‘Humas’ succeeded in summoning Heroes.”

“Is that verified, Your Highness?”

Shublars asked, so she nodded.

“Yeah, Teckil reported it. There is no doubt.”

“I see. You sent him into the ?Human Territory?.”

Marione nodded understanding.

“Yeah, although I am having him look into the ?Beast Territory? now.”

“Right, we need to be more wary about the ‘Gabranth’ than the ‘Humas’ anyway.”

“Indeed. The other day I got a report of my subordinators getting attacked. Of course they retaliated at once.”

Grayald stated as a matter of fact, but with a definite anger.

“Yeah, the Heroes certainly are a threat, but we can ignore them for now. The ‘Gabranth’ with their stronger physical abilities and their ‘disguise technique’ are extremely troublesome. Moreover, they’re belligerent.”

“They can’t use magic, but have this weird power instead. I think it’s still developing, so now’s the time to strike.”

Marione said that, but Eveam shook her head.

“No, as I told you before, we will not go to war.”

Marione suddenly slammed onto the table, attracting everyone’s attention.

“Are you out of your mind? Our brethren are getting killed! We have to smash them before they become an even greater threat!”

“No, then we will just follow the same path as the previous king! We are pursuing a world, where all races can live in peace!”

“So we just need to eliminate all hindrances!”

“No! Doing that will only bring about hatred! Conflict calls for more conflict, instigates the flames of war and ultimately destroys our ?Edea?!”

“Then what! Are you telling us to sit back and accept their actions!?”

“Exactly!”

“Wha..!?”

He didn’t expect her to affirm it, so he froze up.

“The previous king.. My brother took power by killing our father and tried to create a world for only us ‘Evila’. As a result we have the current situation. Is this what we want? Do you call a world, where each race glares, fight and hurts each other, a righteous one?”

Everyone shut up and listened to her words.

“My brother was too radical and was assassinated because of it. The ‘Gabranth’ were probably responsible for it, but that does not matter now. Anyway, excessive domination will result in strains without fail. These strains will increase, eventually turning into conflict. Isn’t that sad? All living beings in this world have a right to live. Why do we have to fight over that..”

She expressed her words by casting her eyes down saddened. Kiria noticed that her shoulders were lightly trembling and softly placed her hand on her shoulders.

“I’m fine, Kiria. Thanks.”

Then she raised her face and looked at everyone.

“All races joining hands would be the best outcome, but even without that, there should be a way for us not hurt each other!”

“Such idealism.”

Marione discarded it with that.

“Yes, it is. But at this rate, the flow of blood will never end.”

“We are the ‘Evila’. Why do we have to watch out for other races?”

“Life in itself is a wonderful thing!”

“..”

Eveam was seventeen, but looked like eight years old. In Marione’s eyes, she was nothing but a brat. But the power in the gaze of this brat took away his breath for a moment.

“That is why we don’t fight at full power! Waging war is just absurd!”

“Mh~ But Your Highness, all the other races ignored your letters for a peace treaty.”

Shublars was right. Eveam was repeatedly sending out letters to reconcile, but there was no reply. They didn’t respond at all.

“That’s just as unreasonable. During the previous king’s reign, the killing was endless and he used to stab them in the back through means of letters too. It’s not strange to say that we are bound together with them through hatred. So it’s no wonder that they consider a treaty for peace from our side as some prank.”

With sighs, Grayald uttered like speaking to himself.

“Presumable neither the ‘Gabranth’, nor the ‘Humas’ can ever forgive my brother’s atrocities. I understand that. However, unless someone severs the chain of hatred, the sorrow will only increase.”

“Are you suggesting we are to be the edge to sever that chain?”

Marione said with a mocking smile.

“Indeed.”

“Impossible. We lost people too. You can’t expect them to suddenly accept that. Are you saying we should stay low until peace is achieved? When will that be? Maybe at our ruin?”

“No! I’ll protect the ‘Evila’!”

“Don’t make me laugh. Everything you said so far only endangers us!”

Even Eveam showed an expression troubled for words towards Marione’s vigour.

“Nevertheless.. I’ll..”

“The ‘Humas’ will train their Heroes and attack us before long. The ‘Gabranth’ are just waiting for their chance, too. Either way, we’re out of time. We can only kill each other until one side perishes. Please withdraw the ceasefire!”

Yes, the reason the ‘Evila’ didn’t attack other races was that Eveam used her authority as the Demon Lord to enforce a ceasefire. The Demon Lord’s orders were absolute. Since ancient times, capital punishment awaited the one that went against them.

“Let us remove all hindrances with all our might before it’s too late! Your Highness!”

Hearing these words, Eveam fell silent for a while. Lifting her head, she looked at Marione. But her expression showed no signs of yielding to him and seeing that, Marione frowned.

“I will not withdraw the ceasefire!”

“Your Highness!”

“Why don’t you calm down a bit, Marione-dono?”

“Shut up, you beastman defect!”

Marione scowled at Ornoth, who had interjected, ready to kill him.

“To begin with, why is a ?Taboo? like you here! You‘re just—”

“Shut up!”

“!?”

A sudden bellow. The atmosphere became stiff from Eveam‘s shouted words. She glared fiercely at Marione.

“Are you defying the Demon Lord‘s order?”

“Grr... Hmpf!”

He left the room with a snort.

“Shouldn‘t you be stopping him, Your Highness?”

She showed a faint smile to Shublars‘ question.

“N- No.. My conviction will not falter.”

Then Aquinas, silent until now, spoke.

“He has a short temper, but that‘s just his own way to worry about the future of the ?Evila‘.”

Of course he meant Marione.

“I know.”

“His wife and child were killed by the ‘Gabranth’.”

Orneth quietly closed his eyes. Eveam clenched her fist frustrated by looking at him. She understood had Marione held an extraordinary grudge because of that incident. Still, she believed it to be wrong to dominate out of hatred.

“You are dismissed for today.”

Looking the complete opposite from before, she left the place spiritless and heartbroken together with Kiria. The others left one by one too, only leaving Aquinas and Ornoth behind.

“Don’t take it to heart. As I said just now, Marione just has a short temper.”

Ornoth inadvertently smiled on the sudden words from Aquinas.

“No, I’m more worried about Her Highness.”

“..?”

“What do you think about her ideals?”

“...I think it’s naive. Too naive.”

“....”

“However,”

“Mh?”

“If a world without grief really exists, I would like to see it.”

“..Yeah.”

“But as long as we’re the only ones striving for it, it will be futile.”

“You’re right.”

“..Someone.”

“Mh?”

“If there was someone unbiased against races who could act as a mediator..”

“It’s not feasible for Her Highness?”

“It’s impossible for the princess.. no, Her Highness on her own. Besides, she’s the representative of us ‘Evila’.”

“Right. We need someone that is neither affiliated with the ‘Humas’, ‘Gabranth’, ‘Pheom’ and ‘Evila’. He could act as a mediator.”

“Now that’s idealistic.”

“Still, you’ll continue to support Her Highness, right?”

“Yeah.”

“And I swore to support you back then.”

“....How duteous.”

Giving each other a faint smile, they stood up from their seats. Aquinas thought:

(A mediator.. That’s really idealistic.)