A New Household Member
Lavinia Acan stroked the core the dwarf had made.
"A dud."
"Pardon?"
"Useless."
The dwarf looked like he was about to cry, but she wasn't making it up.
Magia and mana were mixed together in a strange, unstable way, causing the quality of the magia to drop sharply. And the core didn't even operate properly. They had tried to forcibly adjust its structure to match magia, and in the end it was nothing more than an expensive piece of scrap metal.
"Magia cannon. How?"
"Well, the core of a magia cannon and a golem are completely different things!"
A magia cannon only needed a refined sphere of mana loaded inside the shell. With that alone, the cannon would fire, fueled by that power.
The process was so simple that it didn't matter whether mana or magia was driving it. In fact, the cannon became more destructive once the wilder magia became its energy source.
"…Hmm. I'm sorry to say this to you, Logar, but this thing is a disgrace to the word core…"
"You're not sorry at all, are you?"
Raymon avoided Logar's gaze.
"That's not true. I respect you deeply. But this core's design is simply outdated. Something the kingdom might've used… oh, about thirty years ago."
"Well, I'm not a professional golem artificer!"
The dwarf who had lined the first floor of the Demon King's Tower with hundreds of magia cannons bellowed in protest.
The golem artificer hurried to salvage the situation.
"B-but the durability itself is incredibly solid! As expected of you, Logar!"
"Too late!"
Logar switched on the magia cannon standing to the side. With a low hum, light flickered to life.
"M-my apologies!"
"Be careful next time. Understood?"
Raymon bowed repeatedly. Logar snorted and patted his shoulder.
"Golem. Level?"
"You mean what level we're making the golem?"
"Mm."
"Of course—the highest!"
"You."
"Yes, Princess."
Raymon answered.
"Blueprint."
"Yes, I'll draft something right awa—"
"Latest."
"…Those are state secrets. I could prepare something slightly older…"
"Latest."
"…If you give me a little time, I'll draw it out."
Just as he said, blueprints for the latest-generation golems were classified strategic materials and couldn't be carried around.
But Raymon had taken part in their design and construction himself. It took three days to recreate the complex structure in his mind onto paper.
"Oh, so this is…"
Logar received the blueprint and gasped in admiration. He was a master craftsman, but not a specialist golem artificer.
Naturally, his understanding of golems was limited—but this blueprint, containing the distilled essence of Acan design philosophy, ignited his craftsman's soul.
"Beautiful! Absolutely beautiful! To think I'd lay eyes on something like this…!"
"Build it."
"Of course! Acan may be unmatched in designing golems, but when it comes to making them, no one surpasses me!"
Logar tossed a corrupted manastone into the forge of the Demon Realm. The Bloodfire Stone, which devoured magia, began to radiate scorching heat.
"Attach."
"…Eh?"
"Engraving. Circuits."
A golem core couldn't be completed simply by hammering minerals. High-purity (corrupted) manastone had to be engraved with magic circuits and runic formations.
Creating that structure was the role of the golem artificer.
"Urgh… understood."
The dwarf and the golem artificer locked themselves in the workshop. Until the core was complete, Lavinia had little to do.
But she instinctively knew what her role in golem construction would be.
Replacing the golem's mana-based energy source with a complete magia-based one. And during that process, identifying and correcting every issue that arose.
But before that, a fully functioning core had to be completed and tested through repeated experiments.
"Cher."
Lavinia called her companion.
The titan rumbled closer, lowering its head. She patted it gently.
"This."
Grrh?
She opened her subspace and pulled out a twitching tail—the Succubus Queen's tail she had taken in exchange for cooperation.
"Attach it."
Cher shook his head violently.
He had known Lavinia for a long time and, though he had become a chimera, his essence remained that of a titan.
A macho titan instinctively recognized that the tail belonged to a succubus and did not wish to graft the tail of a sex-fiend onto his own body.
But—
"Attach."
He never had a choice.
GROOOO—!
Cher bolted away at full speed.
"Stop."
Lavinia chased him, tail in hand.
***
More than a year had passed since he had descended into Arein.
Much had happened.
Ernan Hilderan of the Hilderan Kingdom.
Elena Hilderan of the Hilderan Kingdom.
Kaede Jespine of the Jespine Empire.
And Lavinia Acan of the Acan Kingdom.
He had kidnapped three princesses.
He had struck a deal with one of them.
He had stopped a Hero's campaign once.
He had killed two Demon Kings and turned the Hero, Hillen Cargill, into his underling.
Compared to before his regression, things were definitely better—tower progress aside.
Back then, freshly one year into his descent, Berze had kidnapped two princesses from two kingdoms and devoured countless foolish Heroes and raid parties who underestimated him.
Thanks to that, the Tower rapidly reached the sixth floor.
At the time, he had been accompanied by a thousand monsters as a reward for graduating first in the Demon King Officer Academy, along with countless graduates from demon-folk academies who admired his abilities. His start had been unmatched.
A virtuous cycle—he slew the Heroes who underestimated him, summoned stronger monsters, strengthened the Tower.
Back then he truly felt like an undefeated sun.
Not that he wanted to return to that time. No one knew the ending of that path better than he did.
"The first floor is nearly done."
The installation of the magia cannons was almost complete. Once the golems were built and placed, everything would be perfect.
"The second floor…"
On hold until enough magia had accumulated to summon a Balrog.
The third floor—no ideas yet, so also on hold.
"The fourth floor…"
The princesses' floor—but in truth, it belonged to Ernan Hilderan.
The environment she created with her spirits, and the summoned spirits themselves, dominated the entire fourth floor.
"An incredible talent."
The Tower naturally corrupted all mana into magia.
Yet the fourth floor remained green and vibrant.
That was Ernan's doing. She was suppressing magia corrosion by sheer force of will.
That someone like her had willingly taken his side was a stroke of luck. Thanks to her, he convinced Kaede and kidnapped Elena.
Because of that synergy, magia points were piling up at a frightening rate. Even though he had repaid his debt for summoning a Balrog, it wouldn't take more than a month to summon another.
"And the one I look forward to nearly as much as Ernan is Elena."
Right now, she lay like a corpse on the third floor, but once just enough mana drained from her body, she would be able to learn magic.
And the moment she learned to regulate her mana through magic—
The world would realize a new archmage had appeared.
"But first I need a magician to teach her…"
Two new people had appeared, but one was a crazed chimera creator and the other a golem artificer. Neither was suitable to teach Elena.
Just then—
"Demon King."
Gordon knocked on the door.
"We've received word from Granada. She has arrived near Hotonwalk with the elves. She avoided entering the town because of people's attention. What shall we do?"
At last, what he'd been waiting for had come.
***
After parting with Kain, Granada headed straight to the Golden Moon Merchant Guild. There she met the elves who had been slaves.
Their number had increased to thirty-three, but had not grown any further since two weeks ago.
"We searched every slave market on the continent, but we could not find any more elf slaves."
It wasn't all that strange.
Ever since the nations had agreed to ban cross-race slavery, the number of elf and dwarf slaves had steadily decreased.
"A fortunate thing."
And the fact that there were only thirty-three of them was, in a way, pleasing to Granada. No one enjoyed seeing their own kin reduced to slavery.
Furthermore, he needed to bring those thirty-three under the Demon King's command. He prayed that the number would not increase any further.
The thirty-three elves he met for the first time looked far cleaner than he had expected.
That was because Aman, acting under the Demon King's orders, treated them not as slaves but as free people. Thanks to that, their wariness had softened, if only a little.
Aman, now a member of the merchant guild, gathered all the elves who had been working there.
Granada took a deep breath, then opened the door.
"Greetings. I am Granada of the Maple Tribe."
"…An elf?"
Dozens of eyes turned toward him. Thirty-three pairs of pointed ears made Granada feel a wave of nostalgia, as if he had returned to Elven.
And it wasn't just that.
Then—
"…Granada?"
"Charlotte?"
One of the elves he had actually lived with back in Elven was standing there.
"It really is you, Lord Granada?"
"Why are you here…?"
"Well, I left to search for you, and then…"
"Good heavens."
The unexpected reunion made Granada stiffen in shock. It was a meeting he absolutely did not want.
"So you were the one who saved us, Lord Granada?"
"No. That's not it."
He rubbed his face.
"What do you mean, not it?"
"Unfortunately, I'm in a position where I must force a choice upon you. I'll only say this once, so listen carefully."
Granada hesitated for a moment, then clenched his teeth.
"From this moment on, all of you must swear loyalty to the Demon King for the next one hundred years."
"...!"
***
Charlotte of the Maple Tribe felt utterly devastated.
Her mind understood. But her heart would not accept it.
To serve the Demon King.
And not just any Demon King—
the blazing Demon King of Flames who dominated current rumor.
She was an elf. She was supposed to protect the World Tree, to stand at the forefront in fighting the demonfolk. Yet here she was, going to swear loyalty to a Demon King.
The other elves felt the same; the atmosphere was heavy.
They had agreed—for now—but doubt continued to gnaw at them.
"Is this truly the right thing to do?"
"It is."
Granada did not bother comforting them. His persuasion played a part, yes, but in the end, the choice had been their own.
The responsibility belonged to them entirely, and with time, the weight would dull.
"Is there an elf here who wishes to return to the life of a slave?"
No one answered.
Their miserable lives as slaves were still fresh in their memory.
They had briefly tasted sweetness—if only for a moment—by living as elves, not slaves. There was no one foolish enough to abandon that and return to the nightmare.
It felt like betraying the World Tree, yes. But knowing another elf was already following this path reduced their guilt.
Moreover, it wasn't forever—after a hundred years, freedom was guaranteed.
"That's how it is."
"If it weren't for you, Lord Granada, no matter what happened, none of us would ever have chosen to become the Demon King's subordinates, even if we were forced back into slavery."
"Thank you."
"But to think you of all people would be serving a Demon King…"
"The Demon King I serve is different from the ones you know. In the Tower, the only demonfolk is a single black-skinned servant, and there aren't even any monsters. Instead, there's a dwarf Hero and a princess."
"That's the strange part. No matter how I think about it… are you sure the person you're serving is truly a Demon King?"
"It sounds strange even as I say it, but yes."
"You talk as if I'm not standing right here while you spout nonsense."
A foreign voice cut in abruptly.
Charlotte instinctively swung her fist, but Granada blocked it with his hand.
"Stop. This is the Demon King."
"…The Demon King?"
Red hair, red eyes—his presence radiated a heat that evoked blazing fire.
Yet she felt no magia typical of demonfolk.
If anything… he felt closer to a spirit.
"…?"
The elves looked at Granada.
"It may be hard to believe, but he truly is the Demon King. He simply has reasons for concealing his magia."
"Is that even possible?"
"What about this?"
In an instant, his crimson hair turned black. His red eyes darkened into deep obsidian.
The pure mana-like aura resembling a spirit vanished.
Dense magia flooded from him, unmistakable and oppressive.
"Now do you believe I'm the Demon King?"
"…How?"
"Does that matter?"
"No, it doesn't."
As if her previous hesitation had been a lie, Charlotte stepped forward, speaking on behalf of all 33 elves.
"We have already resolved to serve you, Demon King. But before that, I want to ask one thing."
"Speak."
"Will you truly release us once one hundred years have passed?"
"Of course."
"Then can you swear upon the First Demon Emperor and the Sacred Law revered by demonfolk?"
At her bold question—
"I swear upon the Great First Demon Emperor and the Sacred Law."
He answered without a moment of hesitation.
"I promise that after one hundred years, your freedom will be yours."
Charlotte knelt.
"By the Great World Tree, I swear to give the Demon King one hundred years of loyalty."
"We swear!"
The elves bowed as one.
The Demon King smiled, satisfied.
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