“This castle really ruins the entire image I had about demons..Oh?”

As Yuriga guided them to the banquet hall, Seran unreservedly looked around the place, spotting a particular painting. It was a giant painting hanging above the large stairs in the place most easily spotted, giving off a rather peculiar atmosphere.

“This one’s different from the rest, no?”

This place was filled with many various paintings, all of them being scenery paintings except the one in front of them. It depicted two people, one of them being a demon with a dignified face with a matching expression, and a human swordsman confronting him. The human held—the very Holy Sword Rand that was now in Seran’s hands.

“This is a scene portraying the previous Demon Lord Adonies-sama.” Yuriga explained.

If he was the previous Demon Lord, that would make him Luiza’s father. Indeed, she greatly resembled him.

“So that guy must be Randolph, huh.”

The hero of humanfolk Randolph, who had defeated the Demon Lord during the demons’ greatest invasion of humanfolk territory, leading to the absolute war 300 years ago, was a hero amongst heroes. His heroic tale was known by the entirety of the humanfolk, and even a young child could recite it easily. Naturally, many statues had been built after him.

“But there was no need to depict him as some villain, right?”

Contrary to the former Demon Lord’s dignified and calm expression, Randolph’s face was distorted in fury, looking like the bad guy from a novel. It was the exact opposite image humanfolk gave him.

“Luiza-sama adores this painting, and she often looks at it,” Yuriga spoke with an admirable tone, as she looked up at the painting.

“Hmmm..but this Randolph looks a bit familiar, I don’t know why.” Lieze traced Yuriga’s gaze, tilting her head. “This kind of villainous face..Ah, I got it! It looks like Seran who’s about to finish off a wounded enemy groveling in the dirt!”

“Now that you mention it..”

“Yeah..”

Kyle and Urza agreed.

“You guys are rather cruel today, huh..It just looks that way because I’m holding the same sword, right?”

“No, the way you look ready to gut the other person sure resembles you a lot.” Shildonia looked at the painting, nodding to herself.

“You guys are just..”

“But that means you are very reliable, no?” Angela tried to provide a follow-up, which failed spectacularly.

“I get it already, you can stop..” Seran felt like he might suffer more wounds if things continued, so he dropped his head, and walked on forward.

“Now, both the invited and uninvited, eat at your heart’s desire!”

Luiza sat at the tip of the long table, welcoming her visitors with her arms wide open. Lined up on the white tablecloth was a myriad assortment of foods, which at least looks-wise didn’t differ much from humanfolk cooking, and the scent alone stimulated your nostrils in a pleasant way. Boiled soup in great variety, an abundance of fruits, it even looked appealing to the eye. It was all food that would most likely be served in a high-class restaurant. Humanfolk and demons were separated with the table between them, sitting across from each other. To match up the numbers, the two dragons sat with the demons. Three-Arms and Flame-Eye were already seated, with only Thunder-Breath missing.

“Ah, he won’t be coming, that narrow-minded fool,” Luiza said, making it clear that Thunder-Breath couldn’t even stomach the idea of eating with humanfolk.

Then again, Kyle was dubious that a four-legged animal like him could even sit at the table like everyone else.

“Huh~ I guess demon cooking isn’t much different from ours..I expected some gross stuff like snakes or insects, where even the look of it made you gag.”

“We do have that, but we matched up with your preferences. Though, we could prepare something like that for you?” Luiza offered, but Seran immediately shook his head, almost frantic.

He had anticipated them to add some weird ingredients, but his tongue wasn’t skilled enough to separate the taste between these, and he also didn’t want to.

“Very well, this is food made by a human, and the taste should be to your liking, so enjoy it.”

Luiza saw Kyle and his friends not touching the food and showed a bitter smile. They had already passed the stage where they had to worry about being poisoned. They most certainly didn’t let down their guards, but it would come off as suspicious if they didn’t eat the food, so they carefully reached for it.

Even as their dinner started, they couldn’t exactly calm down. Especially Kyle, he was always conscious of Three-Arms sitting across the table, unable to enjoy the food. At the same time, Three-Arms used the tableware far too small for him, working on his food.

To think I’d end up eating dinner with my mortal enemy..

Kyle couldn’t help but wonder how things had ended up this way, while not even fully tasting the food. It felt like he carried sand to his mouth with every bite. He glanced over at the dragons, who hesitated to eat for a different reason.

“I really don’t get it..why would you cut it up, or grill it? Just biting it would be a lot faster.” Ghrud poked his finger at the meat in front of him, grumbling.

“Seasoning, huh..I can’t even tell the differences, and how do you use this?”

Irumera seemed just as confused, as she closely inspected the fork at her table, flashing question marks on her head. As dragons could even live off of rocks or dirt, they don’t really choose their food. This must be a first for them to actually eat any kind of cooking.

“What helpless fool you are..Here, like this.”

Shildonia seemingly couldn’t watch those two struggle to eat any longer, as she gave them instructions. Since she did the same for Zeurus before, she was actually quite used to it.

“What’s wrong? No need to hold back.”

Amongst the faint noise of tableware being used, Luiza spoke up with no remorse.

“Err..well, I was just surprised that demons eat a meal the same way as us.”

Lieze figured that this was a rare chance to hold a proper discussion with demons, so she boldly spoke up. She somehow managed to create a smile while doing so.

“..You’re right, it’s exactly as it looks. Even as demons, we’d prefer eating something delicious, after all. However, our tastes can vary greatly, so not everything is accepted by everybody.”

Surprisingly enough, Flame-Eye was the one to answer, which made Lieze open her eyes in surprise. This emotion seemingly got conveyed, as Flame-Eye showed a teasing snicker.

“Hehe, it’s true that I think of humanfolk as mere trash. However, as you have defeated Ganias, I cannot quite see you in the same light..And, you even managed to fight back against that woman, you certainly aren’t just some average humanfolk. I’d love to hear more details about that, by the way.” Flame-Eye glanced over at Yuriga, flashing a fiendish grin.

Yuriga’s face tightened up, but she couldn’t start arguing now as she was in the presence of Luiza.

“Ah..Back then, Urza and I fought against her two versus one..” Lieze tried to be considerate of Yuriga, explaining the circumstances.

“Oh yes..I think you were Kyle and Seran, right? Despite being humans, I could see your strength.”

At the same time, Three-Arms started talking to Kyle and Seran, who he sat across from. The two immediately raised their tension, but Three-Arms simply flashed a pleasant smile that showed his fangs.

“Don’t be so wary of me. As I mentioned before, I hold humanfolk in much higher value than most demons. Though I don’t know how you feel.”

“But when it comes to a fight, you won’t hold back at all, right?”

“Of course, I always fight with everything I have.” Three-Arms made it sound like it was the obvious conclusion.

From that onwards, the conversation between the three of them continued.

“Hmm..so this is how the current humanfolk are doing.”

Unbefitting of his outer appearance Three-Arms was actually considerate when talking to Kyle and Seran, asking about this and that from the human world about which he had an interest, and the two explained everything that they could afford to. Kyle still couldn’t fully believe such a thing was even possible.

“I see, it seems a lot has happened in the past 300 years..Ah, one more thing. I was curious about Randolph’s standing. How does humanfolk feel about him?”

“His heroic tale is the most well-known in all of humanfolk. Doubt there’s anybody who hasn’t heard of him?” Seran suggested, and Kyle agreed.

“I see..He’s famous even to the demons. Known as a villain, of course, but everybody recognized how strong he was.” Three-Arms must have remembered Randolph, as he gently rubbed the scar on his face. “There is just one thing I’m curious about..or rather, which I find unbelievable. How did Randolph manage to defeat Adonies-sama.”

“Depending on the story, the details are a bit different, but..it apparently happened at the end of a one-versus-one battle,” Kyle explained.

The battle to the death seemingly continued for a day and a night, with the defeat of the Demon Lord declaring the end. Many heroic tales explained this the same way, and it’s even used as lullabies for children to fall asleep to. However, Three-Arms’ expression grew stiff.

“So that’s how you see it. However, for us..”

“Three-Arms.” Luiza stopped him mid-sentence.

A sense of tension filled her voice that didn’t exist before.

“There’s no need to speak of that.”

“However..”

“I said it’s fine.”

“Understood..” Three-Arms still didn’t seem too satisfied, but he couldn’t win against Luiza’s quiet pressure. “..What about the demons then?”

Kyle and Seran were curious about what he was going to say, but Three-Arms already changed the topic, and since Luiza went back to her dinner, they didn’t see any possibility to ask about that, so they changed the subject.

“Oh really, so you made her surrender. How, and in what way? Was she frustrated after all? I hope she was crying at least a little bit.” Flame-Eye was laughing with all her heart listening to Lieze, who explained the events at Callan.

Leaving aside the contents, they were getting along just fine.

“Hmm..I really can’t tell much about the taste, after all.”

“Also, it’s far too soft. Can’t we just get some rocks..”

“You people..What a waste of food, really.”

When it came to the dragons, they showed the same eerie reactions toward the food in front of them, which left Shildonia baffled. She remembered Zeurus being the exact same when she showed him. Contrary to Kyle’s individual assumptions of how this dinner would go, chaos ensued in a different way that ensured a joyful atmosphere.

“I’d say this was a successful banquet. I had your rooms prepared, so feel free to take a rest.” Luiza spoke a few closing words and left the room.

Kyle would have preferred to talk with Luiza a bit more, but after the story of Randolph came up in the conversation, she had been a bit absentminded. More than anything, because Three-Arms kept on talking to them, he missed his chance.

“Messed up your timing, huh? Wanna go after her?” Seran asked, but Kyle shook his head.

“..Nah, she seems to be in a bad mood. I don’t want to get on her bad side for now.”

“Because of the talk about her old man? ..Well, I got to dine just fine, so I’ll leave it at this for today.” Seran seemingly enjoyed the food he was given, as he looked in the direction Luiza had walked off to.

Likewise, Lieze, Urza, and Angela all seemed satisfied with the food itself. Shildonia managed to drill some enjoyment into the two dragons, creating a pleasant atmosphere in the room. The only person not fully accepting of this was Kyle, sighing in disbelief at how relaxed all of his friends were. Right as he wanted to leave the room, Three-Arms called out to his back.

“Wait, there is one more thing I wanted to ask.”

“What is it?”

Kyle turned around while trying his hardest to suppress his anger towards the demon, answering with a calm voice. However, Three-Arms didn’t even try to hide his excitement.

“What’s with that abundant hostility you’re directing at me?”

“..What might you be talking about?”

Kyle tried his hardest to suppress this hate for Three-Arms during the dinner, but that seemingly didn’t help much.

“Your eyes hold such resentment to the point it feels like we’ve met before..but I can’t quite wrap my head around it.”

Three-Arms must have experienced something like this before, as he spoke confidently. Since the reason for Kyle’s resentment didn’t happen yet, it made sense that Three-Arms didn’t remember. Receiving such ill will from someone for no reason must be upsetting. And yet, the person in question was happy about this, open to receiving more.

“I don’t remember dealing with a human over the past 300 years, nor do I know any reason why you would loathe me like this..But that doesn’t matter. I personally am happy to encounter someone as strong as you.” Three-Arms grinned, emitting a different pressure from Luiza like he could crush everything in his path.

Kyle’s hair stood on edge, but he tried to remain calm and took this comment at face value.

“..I’m not interested in needless fighting. Not to mention that it’s necessary to hold back your feelings depending on the situation.”

Not like I’m one to talk,?Kyle commented in his mind. The entire reason why he started to loathe Three-Arms, namely the loss of Lieze and his hometown, was fine at this point in time. If not, Kyle may have set out for a battle, but there was no need to do so.

“Hmm, I don’t mind if you attack me whenever and without restraint, but..as you are visitors of the Demon Lord-sama, I cannot do so myself. I’d be thankful if you caused some kind of problem, to be exact.” Three-Arms used violent terms, and turned his back towards Kyle, walking away.

Kyle quickly reached the conclusion that it would be best to get away from this place as quickly as possible.

Upon returning to the rooms prepared for them, Kyle and his group began discussing the demons again.

“I once again realized that there’s no big difference in thought process and mental attitude between demons and humans..it does seem like we could reach common ground, at least. A lot different from what I’ve heard at least,” Urza muttered her impressions.

“Yeah, I felt the same way. I definitely can’t come to like Flame-Eye’s nasty personality, but we have people like her in humanfolk as well.”

Lieze seemingly shared similar sentiments, showing a troubled expression as she remembered her conversation with Flame-Eye.

“Basically, the demon territory isn’t actually uninhabitable, and demons aren’t unreasonable monsters either..It’s easier to think of this as a gap in culture and thought process.” Shildonia said, yet sounding a bit bitter as she reminisced about the time she was fighting the demons.

“But even if we understand them to be this way, there’s no guarantee that they feel the same way, right? It sure looks like they think of us as convenient pets at best..I guess history up to this point must heavily weigh into that.” Seran shrugged.

The endless fighting between humanfolk and demons had continued for thousands of years, and their feud won’t end just because their Demon Lord Luiza wished for it.

“Also, with absolute rule bestowed upon the Demon Lord..a single Demon Lord could easily change the direction the situation might evolve into..It sounds efficient, but also equally dangerous.” Angela pointed out a huge problem.

Luckily, the current Demon Lord Luiza sought a friendly relationship with humanfolk, but in the event that someone from the pro-war faction ascended the throne, it would turn into an all-out war.

“Personally, humanfolk and demons look the same to me..”

“Stop saying that. You won’t be able to continue with that attitude.”

Ghrud observed Kyle’s group discussing the demons, letting fly a backhanded comment, only to immediately get reprimanded by Irumera.

“Either way, we’ve learned a lot about them. Once we’re done with our business here, we should proceed to leave quickly.”

It’s not as if they didn’t feel welcome, but the sheer danger of being in the enemy’s hideout was too much. Of course, everyone agreed with Kyle’s sentiment and nodded.

That night, Kyle and his group were resting in their rooms, but Irumera and Ghrud were gone. Apparently, they were still not fully used to humanification magic, so there was a time limit on how long they could use it. Since it would undo itself while asleep, they took their dragon shapes and rested elsewhere. Klaus seemingly didn’t return himself, and Minagi took a rest on the ship. Kyle and his group made sure to stay on guard just to be safe.

Of course, the chances of Luiza plotting anything against them this late were rather slim, but the same couldn’t be said about Thunder-Breath or the mysterious Flame-Eye. And when Seran was on guard duty, it happened. The moon soon reached a full moon, and Seran realized something when looking outside the window.

“Great moon..Hm?”

Facing the room they were on, there was a window up on the second floor, which revealed a shadow.

“That’s..the large stairs?”

Seran remembered the layout of the castle, understanding that somebody was doing something there, which tickled his curiosity. He was seduced by the idea to go check it out.

Let alone a human castle, can I really just walk around in the Demon Lord’s lair like that? Will I get in trouble later? Then again, we’re guests, so if I look around after a trip to the toilet, there won’t be any problem, right? I’m the guard, so if I spot something suspicious, I have to check it out..

Seran came up with several excuses, convincing himself. In the end—

“Act first before you worry, yup.”

He reached that conclusion and stepped out of the room.

After walking up the stairs, he reached the painting of Randolph again. Amidst the darkness, he spotted Luiza with a faint light in her hand. The sight of her looking up at the picture depicting the individual who had slain her own father looked so vague and translucent, that you wouldn’t expect her to be the one who ruled over all demons.

“..What do you want?”

Seran tried his best to conceal his presence while approaching her, but Luiza called out to him without turning around.

“Well..I saw a light, so I was curious.” Seran answered without hiding anything.

“Whenever I’m alone, this area is off-limits..but you didn’t know about this, so I shall forgive that,” Luiza said, still looking at the painting when a faint glimmer of severity filled her voice. “..Perfect timing. Have you decided to serve me?” She continued the conversation from the morning.

“Ah, there’s actually something I wanted to ask before that..Why do you want the sword so badly?” Seran voiced a doubt he had for a while.

“I told you right? That sword is my weak—”

“No, not that.” Seran shook his head. “If it really was a weakness, then you wouldn’t need to tell me about it. You’re just adding a reason to it.”

“Why do you feel that way?”

“I mean, you don’t care about anything at all, right?”

“......”

No response came.

“The only kind of interest you show is related to the positive relationship between humanfolk you’re aspiring for, I guess? Then again, that also feels half-baked to me..and yet you feel oddly infatuated with this sword alone. I was curious about that.” Seran said, arriving at a certain conclusion. “Is it related to the reason why you wish to get along with us humanfolk?”

This was just a simple guess of his, but he seemed to be somewhat close to the truth, as Luiza shot around to glare at him. So far, she kept a calm attitude towards everything she was confronted with, this being the first time she revealed something resembling strong emotions. Her expression contained anger, agitation, sadness, and a sense of having somebody touch upon something she didn’t want to be touched, everything mixing into the glare she was showing Seran at this very moment. Her eyes even looked a bit dampened all the while doing so.

Being hit with this raw and ghastly fury, even Seran regretted his actions, but it was already too late to repent, so he didn’t look away and accepted all of it. Despite only a mere few seconds have passed in reality, it felt like an eternity to Seran. Surprisingly enough, Luiza was the first to avert her gaze.

“..I commend your courage. It’s been three hundred years since somebody had the nerve to say this to me, the Demon Lord.” Luiza said, sounding oddly dejected. “But, do not overstep your boundaries. Even demons have things they don’t want others to find out.”

“Yeah, I get it. My bad..I didn’t know that it was such a big deal to you. I didn’t mean to anger you.” Seran lowered his head, which left Luiza a bit perplexed.

“Human, I had assumed you were a man unable to apologize judging from your attitude, but I guess I was wrong,” Luiza spoke with a teasing tone, leaving Seran disheartened.

“I’m not that insolent of a guy..also, my name is Seran.”

“Seran..Seran, is it? To think I would learn the name of another human.” Luiza showed a bitter smile and turned his back towards Seran, who was about to ask the meaning behind those words. “Now then, it’s time for me to rest myself. You go and return to your room..Seran.” She said and walked away without turning around.

“Crying, laughing, getting angry..I guess demons aren’t that different from us after all..Like any other woman I’ve seen before,” Seran muttered while watching Luiza’s back walk off into the distance.

“Where did you go? Did something happen?”

Upon returning to the room, Seran was greeted by Kyle who presumably had just gotten up, asking him with a quiet voice.

“Err..I ran into the Demon Lord, ended up in somewhat of a fight, and made her cry.”

“Hold on, pause. What did you do?” Kyle woke up instantly, pushing up his body from the bed.

Seran nonchalantly explained the previous incident, which left Kyle holding his head in his hands.

“What are you thinking? Not even I’m that reckless.” Kyle was utterly baffled.

“I really don’t want to hear that from you..You wanted to ask for her reasons, right? I just thought I’d shoot my shot.”

“And since she got angry about that, I guess it was no good, after all..Also, I still can’t believe you just went and angered the Demon Lord of all people, I’m scared to even get up in the morning..”

“Should be fine. Doesn’t seem like she’s that bothered by it.” Seran bluntly declared, but Kyle was worried about something else.

“She might be fine with it, but what if Yuriga finds out?”

“..Lord help me.”

Yuriga was the embodiment of loyalty, so if she were to hear about Seran making her master cry, there was no telling what she might do. Just imagining this, Seran grew pale.

“..Worst case scenario, we have to either ask Ghrud and Irumera for help, maybe even deceive them, and have them help us escape.” Seran was already considering escape plans, and Kyle agreed.

“Anyway, we achieved our major goal. Now we just need to get information in regards to Targ, and then immediately return to the humanfolk territory.”

The measurements for their new armor were already completed, and they handed over Zeurus’ hide. The rest was on the other side, so Kyle could only put faith in them.

“Before any more trouble can arise..” Kyle muttered like he was praying, looking outside the window.

“I know it sounds weird coming from me, but you’re basically asking for it if you say that.” Seran retorted, but Kyle skillfully ignored him.

The following morning, an unexpected incident woke up the group.

Thunder-Breath’s corpse was found.