……  … …


  ◆ Demon King Modes

  「To think that Death God Zarxis is still alive …」


  I heard about Zarxis after Lord Diehart returned to Nargol.

  Zarxis was the subordinate of my dear mother, Nargol.

  My mother tried to destroy this world and is dubbed with the name of ‘Demon King of Destruction’ or ‘God of Destruction’.

  I couldn’t bring myself to destroy this world, so I betrayed her along with my subordinates, and working alongside with Oudith, the opposition leader.

  Mother was defeated in this land by my own hands and Oudith’s. Ever since then, this land is cursed by eternal night, and thus this cursed land came to be called by the name Nargol.

  Moreover, Zarxis was supposed to have died by my own hands. I never thought that he had actually survived.

  「What the hell is he trying to do …」


  Zarxis was the loyal subordinate of my mother. He might be trying to bring a calamity upon this world.

  「But then, Your Highness, the power of Zarxis is immaterial before yours. He’s not worthy of your attention」


  I nodded in response to those words from Ruugas.

  Zarxis usually created his own domain and snatched away the power of the people who walked into that domain.

  It’s the same even for gods since many gods have become the prey of Zarxis.

  The only exception of that power are the people who have the power of my mother, Nargol, or someone recognized by Zarxis. That power won’t work against my mother. Thus, it also didn’t work on me who has the same power as my mother.

  Even though there’s a slight remnant of my mother that survived, it isn’t a threat to me.

  「Come to think of it, Zarxis’ power also didn’t work on Lord Diehart, what does that mean?」


  Ruugas’ question made me curious about the same thing. It seems Lord Diehart can move just fine within Zarxis’ domain.

  I can think of several reasons. For example, the demon sword in Lord Diehart possession is something made by my mother. Maybe that demon sword protected him. But, that’s nothing more than a guess.

  「I don’t know. What is he doing right now?」


  He was on the verge of dying when he arrived at the Demon Lord castle. I’m told that he seems to have been ambushed by the hero party after trimming the horn.

  I don’t know why the hero party was there, though. It turned into a fierce fight after he encountered the hero party, and then he lost. As expected, the full hero party is too much for Lord Diehart to handle all by himself.

  That was a problem. I need to think about some kind of measures. If he is defeated, we lose completely.

  Maybe Lord Diehart needs a comrade by his side. But, the one who possesses power rivaling that of hero’s comrades in Nargol is just Lord Runfeld. But, I feel uneasy if it’s just Lord Runfeld. Maybe I need to strengthen the entire troops of Nargol.

  「Currently, Lord Diehart is preparing for the goddess creation ceremony」


  「Humph!」


  It’s only one day since he returned, is his body capable of moving around already?

  「Yes. He says that he wants to perform the ceremony right away…」


  「I see」


  I have nothing to say if the person himself says so. At least the number of persons who can match the women of the hero would increase by one with this.

  Thinking about the rarity of the material, the user of that secret ceremonial arts won’t be successful as long as he doesn’t possess high enough magical power. But, it’ll be okay if it’s Lord Diehart.

  「At least we can feel at ease for now」


  I muttered to myself.

  === === ===

  ◆ Black Haired Sage, Chiyuki

  「Hey, Chiyuki-san. What should I do?」


  Shirone is pacing around restlessly inside the room.

  「Calm down, Shirone-san. Walking around restlessly like that won’t solve our problem」


  Shirone became restless like this after we returned to our room in the Rox Kingdom. Please stop pacing back and forth restlessly in my room. I have a hard time calming myself.

  「But then, why is Kuroki in this world, too … Geez, this is too confusing」


  Shirone is at her wits end.

  I’m also in similar situation. To be honest, I don’t know why is this happening.

  I’m racking my own brains here, you know. The identity of Diehart was that of Shirone’s childhood friend.

  We almost killed him in that fight.

  At that time, save for Reiji, the rest of us were in a chaotic state.

  Shirone, who should be able to overtake that dragon, couldn’t move due to the chaotic situation and desperately stopped Reiji who was about to use his Light Cannon of Heavenly Might.

  I even think why did we have to mercilessly attack the childhood friend of Shirone.

  Reiji said that it’s just a shapeshifter who took the form of Shirone’s childhood friend.

  But, since Rino, who possessed the mystic eyes of truth which can rip apart any kind of illusion, affirmed that he really was the childhood friend of Shirone, he must be the real one.

  In the first place, how did our enemies gain the information about the appearance of the childhood friend of Shirone.

  Beside, speaking of disguise, they should just turn him into a beauty instead. Since it definitely would stop Reiji.

  That’s why I concluded that he is the real childhood friend of Shirone.

  I think the possibility of him being a shapeshifting demon was really low. Or rather, Reiji is more suspicious whether he is a fake or a real one. Could it be that he wasn’t attacking us since he was the real one? I can’t help but think so since the real person himself might be playing dumb.

  And then, if he’s really the real childhood friend of Shirone, why is he in this world?

  「There’s someone who should have performed the summon in demon king’s side…」


  I muttered my hypothesis.

  That’s the only conclusion.

  「And that guy is the one who summoned Kuroki」


  I nodded upon hearing Shirone’s words.

  「And then, naturally they did some kind of mind control on him after summoning him, right?」


  Thus, I can understand the reason for him to willingly become the dark knight.

  「That …」


  Shirone’s face paled.

  I’m surprised at her expression. From her story, I got the feeling that he’s not someone special to her, just her acquaintance who she knows ever since their childhood. But, her attitude when she knew Diehart’s identity is abnormal.

  She should be calmer than this.

  「Get a grip already, Shirone-san. There’s nothing we can do even if you fuss over that matter in this kind of place. You should calm yourself and think about a way to get him back」


  I says so while tapping Shirone’s shoulder.

  「Yeah …」


  Though Shirone is nodding to my words, I know that she’s yet to calm herself.

  This is something that we have to think about after this.

  He is a hostage in a certain meaning. Now, we cannot afford to recklessly attack Nargol.

  Moreover, the nature of the man can’t be applied to Reiji. If we invade Nargol, it might turn into battle to death against him who’s protecting Nargol. We can’t do that, too.

  There’s still another problem. And that was when he came to attack us. At that time, I have no idea of what we should do.

  The childhood friend of Shirone was extremely powerful. Far more powerful than Reiji. He isn’t the kind of opponent against whom we can go easy.

  My former impression of him according Shirone story is just an extremely weak guy. But, he is ,in fact, anything but weak.

  A monster in certain meaning who can take on all of us together. I think that he might be strengthened with some kind of magic. The matter of regaining him back might prove to be far more difficult.

  I should consider some sort of measures.

  Nevertheless, I wonder how many people were summoned to this world aside from us.

  I’m thinking about the event in that basement. We might be able to settle this if we have that man’s cooperation. But then, that man always hid his face and never showed it. Is there some sort of reason for him to do so?

  Some kind of secret that’s unknown to us. That’s also unknown to me.

  「It seems there’s so many things I need to think about …」


  Since I don’t know, and I’m too lazy to think about the things that even Shirone don’t know about.

  And Shirone has yet to cool her head.

  I heaved a sigh upon watching her.

  === === ===

  ◆Goddess of Wisdom and Victory, Rena

  「Rena-sama. The horn was successfully stolen by the dark knight」


  Nier reported to me.

  「So the horn was still stolen, huh …」


  I’m heaving a sigh.

  I, who was shocked by what happened in that night, returned to my own house in Elios.

  Since I can’t negate the effect of that magic potion from the outside, I have no other way but to negate the effect from the inside.

  Thanks to my tremendous magic resistance, I can negate the effect in just one night.

  That’s why I don’t really want to think about Kuroki again. I never want to think about something like sleeping together with him, or have a meal together, or even think about strolling around with him, while he’s wearing a collar on his neck in all these instances. I definitely do not want to think about such things. No, and by that I mean, absolutely NOT.

  But, it’s true that I want him. At that time, let’s give him a collar with a beautiful gem. It would definitely be a perfect match with him.

  But, the matter of him taking the horn was a failure on my side.

  Because I headed back to Elios, those girls who felt that there’s something strange with my action followed me all the way back to Elios, too. As a result, the horn was taken away.

  He’s going to use that horn to make a fake goddess with my hair.

  I can’t let him to do that. Why do you want to make a fake goddess, Kuroki? Even though you have the real one here!

  「YOU HAVE NO NEED FOR A FAKE GOODIE, JUST TAKE ME AWAY WITH YOU!」


  I unintentionally shouted out what I thought.

  Nier is showing a puzzled face.

  「Uhm … Rena-sama …」


  「No, it’s nothing. Thanks for the report. You may go back to your duty, Nier」


  Nier leaves my room in heed of my order.

  Leaving me alone in this room.

  I can’t calm myself. My heart is in turmoil. This side of mine is something that I never show to my subordinates, the war maidens.

  And I know the cause for all of this. I recall the origin of all of this.

  「As if I’m going to let things end in this way. Prepare yourself, KUROKI!」


  I made such a declaration while looking toward Nargol’s direction.

  ◆Dark Knight, Kuroki

  A girl is standing before me.

  A girl with silvery white hair.

  She is the new goddess that I created right after I returned with the horn of the holy dragon king, the last ingredient.

  With the combination of the hair of the beautiful Rena and the horn of the Holy Dragon King as ingredients, she was born as an extremely beautiful girl.

  She is shorter than Mona or Rena in terms of height, but her breast size is around the same.

  「YEAH!」


  I unintentionally made a guts pose. Thereupon, my wounded body starts screaming in pain.

  「Ouch …」


  I should restrain myself from making excessive movements. Though my wounds have recovered to some extent with healing magic, I can’t overexert my body yet.

  Nevertheless, I wanted to perform the secret ceremony as soon as possible.

  I recall the scenery on that mountain.

  They seem to be really enjoying themselves.

  Reiji, who is surrounded by Shirone and the others, seems to be really happy. That was such a dazzling scene.

  I, who couldn’t move any longer due to the wounds that covered my body, couldn’t do anything but look at that spectacle.

  The spectacle of Reiji and those goddess. I was jealous of them.

  Really, really jealous of them. I’m fine with just one goddess. But, the goddess that I wanted was none of them.

  The goddess that I actually want is the one in front of me right now.

  This small goddess is looking at me with a curious expression.

  「Since you were born from my magical power and Rena’s hair, your name is Kuna」 [TL : Kuroki + Rena = Kuna]

  I slowly brush Kuna’s hair.

  「Kuna?」


  Kuna is tilting her head.

  「It’s your name, Kuna. My name is Kuroki. Please take care of me after this, Kuna」


  Kuna is staring at me.

  「Kuroki」


  Kuna calls my name with her cute voice.

  All the thorns that were binding my heart disappeared when I heard her voice. With her by my side, I won’t fear anything.

  I stared at Kuna.

  Her beautiful pupils are staring back at me.