After teleporting back to the castle, I spoke to Elysia about what I wanted from our partnership with the dwarf.
I don't want a military alliance or to use them to boost the economy of the kingdom I took control of. In the first place, a military alliance will be useless, seeing that I don't need help on that side, and Dwargon doesn't need my help either, except if they get attacked by a true dragon or Guy.
But in the first case I would only be able to help them if it's the weakest of them, and for Guy, with our relationship, I would probably help him destroy them, getting a good meal out of it.
For the economy, I couldn't care less about it. The human nation can go bankrupt for all I care, and for the succubi, they are already strong enough so that money isn't a problem.
They just have to kill some powerful monsters to sell their body or just take what they want by force.
I only want the dwarf for their architecture when we construct Shadow Garden or when we need to expand the city.
I also want their blacksmith skill to make us weapons and armor when we ask them to. As for what they get in return, first, I will not turn them into mindless puppets to force them to do it anyway, and we will pay them for their work, either with money or with material.
After informing Elysia of what I wanted for our relationship with the dwarf, I dismissed her, leaving me with my three daughters.
I was about to ask them to also leave when I saw that Shiro wanted to ask something. "What do you want, Shiro?"
She hesitated a few more seconds before finally asking her question. "When you attacked that dwarf, you said you did it because he looked at you. But people look at me all the time, so what did he do wrong?"
I looked at her wondering if I should tell her the truth, but I decided against it. One day when she is more mature I will explain, but now she is too innocent to be exposed to all the degeneracy in the world.
"You don't have to worry about it, sweetheart. One day when you grow up, you will understand why I did that."
She nodded her head, not pursuing the matter further. Wendy and Sherry sighed in relief, seeing the innocence of their sister had been preserved.
After that they left, leaving me alone in the throne room. I sat on the throne while making barriers to make sure no one would disturb me.
I wanted to be alone to study the egg in more detail, to see if I could stop its influence on me or at least communicate with it.
So I close my eyes, looking into the part of my soul where the egg is. When I found the rippling purple mass looking like an egg in the middle of the abyss in my soul, I remarked on two things.
First, the egg had grown since the first time I saw it. It was not a significant growth, but it was enough for me to notice.
If that was the only thing, I would just have assumed it was natural for it to grow over time, but its growth didn't have anything to do with time. It was because he was feeding.
All the emotion I absorb that would normally go into the void to be transformed into energy for me to use is now directly going to the egg, making it grow.
When I saw that, I was furious: 'How dare a parasite eat my precious emotion?' I thought while preparing to destroy it.
But when I was going to use Taboo to erase it, for the second time the egg communicated with me.
This time it didn't speak. It used emotion to make me understand. The mix of emotion that he used was difficult to describe, but in short, its message was that I could trust it, that it was a good thing for me, and that it was not an intruder but a part of me.
It took me some time to understand the meaning of the bundle of emotion it made me experience, and when I understood its meaning, I thought it was just a last-ditch effort to survive, so I once again prepared to destroy the egg.
I activated the destruction ability of Taboo. With it, there will be no way for the egg to come back. Its existence will be destroyed on a fundamental level.
But when the destruction started, I felt an agonizing pain inside my soul. I immediately stopped. The pain was worse than the one I felt when I fought Luminous. I was prepared to feel pain since the egg was attached to my soul, but it was far worse than I imagined.
The destruction of the egg in itself was painful, but the real pain came from the void in my soul. It rebelled against me when I attacked the egg, causing pain all over my soul.
It was like the void where the egg had taken place in protected the egg, telling me it needed its presence.
Seeing that a part of my own soul sided with the egg, I did reconsider what the egg said about being beneficial for me. Maybe it wasn't a deception. Maybe it was telling the truth.
I thought about it for hours, but in the end I couldn't be sure without knowing exactly what the egg was, and I couldn't destroy it with the risk that a part of my soul would rebel against me.
In the end I stopped thinking about that problem, deciding that if my own soul was defending it there was little to no chance that the egg was a bad thing for me, and I decided to address another matter.
Since I already looked into the egg problem, I will now look into the seed problem. Well, it wasn't much of a problem considering I knew what it was, but I didn't know everything about it.
So I looked at the demon lord seed, searching if there had been any improvement. Compared to the last time I saw it, there had been no growth or sign of any changes.
I tried to analyze it again but came to the same results as last time. Still, there was one person I knew that could tell me more about it.
I opened my eyes, seeing the still empty throne room. Several hours had passed, and it was the middle of the night.
I used thought communication to call Guy. A few seconds later I heard his voice. "What do you want, Lilith? We saw each other not even two days ago. Don't tell me you already miss me."
"Of course I miss you. You are the first man to make me feel so happy. You even confessed to me."
"I don't ever recall confessing to you, and the only thing you like about me is my emotion. You said it yourself."
I rolled my eyes even if he couldn't see me. "I don't just like your emotions. Let's just say it's one of your most attractive traits, and you said I was your rival. In my book, that counts as a confession."
"Sorry, but I don't like you in that way. Besides, don't you already have your secretary?"
I slumped on my seat, devastated by his rebuttal. "How can you be so heartless after all these moments we've lived together?"
"Let's stop here. I appreciate your nonsense and find it funny, but let's get back on track. What do you want?"
I redressed myself on my throne, my tone more serious this time. "Alright, I will tell you. After our fight I discovered that I gained something called a demon lord seed. Since you call yourself a demon king, I thought you could tell me more about it."
I waited for his response, but even after half a minute he remained silent. "Hello, can you hear me?"
I started to think that he was passing in a tunnel or maybe another dimension, since a tunnel couldn't cut off thought communication.
"Yes, I am still there. I was just thinking." Finally, after a full minute, he spoke again.
"So? Seeing how long you took to respond, you definitely know something."
He returned to silence for a few seconds, but before I could complain, he chuckled and talked again. "Fine, I will tell you about it, but first tell me what you already know."
"I don't know much. Just its name and that it represents the qualifications to become a demon lord. I couldn't find the method to hatch it or why I did have one."
"Hmm, well, you already know most of what you need. I won't tell you how to hatch it, but knowing you, it won't be long before you do it. In fact, I am surprised you didn't already become a demon lord."
"Why can't you just tell me the method? And what do you mean I should already be a demon lord?" I was irritated when he refused to tell me but still wanted to know his reason. Maybe knowing the method would make it harder to hatch the seed?
"I won't tell because it would be cheating. I didn't have any help when I hatched mine, so why should I help you?"
"You really are petty enough to not tell me for such a stupid reason!" I was starting to get really annoyed. First I couldn't find anything about the egg, and now Guy refused to tell me anything about the seed because he found it funny.
"Don't be angry. You will probably become a demon lord like me in a few decades, maybe a century."
I calmed myself, suppressing my annoyance. "Can you at least tell me something about it?"
"Hum, yes, I suppose I can at least tell you some basic information. Like you said, the seed represents the quality to become a demon lord. Obtaining one is easy. You just need to have the necessary strength and not be recognized as the subordinate of someone."
"So I met the Quiteria when I evolved, and the seed immediately formed in response?"
"Yes, your evolution should have been the last of your evolutionary path, and since the world acknowledged your strength, you were given the seed as a means to evolve further."
I thought about what the Guy said, and it was a pretty sound theory. Since my evolution I haven't sensed any sign of advancement toward the next evolution.
My strength was still augmenting, but contrary to before, when I felt there would be a next step in my evolution, I couldn't sense anything.
"What does it mean exactly to be a demon lord?"
"It just means that you are not bound by the limit of your species anymore. It won't give you any responsibility. You are free to do what you want, so there is no downside to becoming a demon king or a hero."
"A hero?" Of course if there was a demon king, there would be a hero. I wonder if when he created the world, Veldanava looked into other worlds to take some inspiration.
Or maybe it's the other way around, and it's the auteurs of my world that received some insight on the central world and used it to make a story.
"Heroes are the counterparts to demon lords. Demon lords are generally majin. Heroes, on the other hand, are human, elves, or dwarves, but so far no hero has been born. The king of the dwarves and the king of the elves should have the qualifications, but the requirements to become one are much more strict than those of a demon lord."
So Duran is a hero. I didn't realize at the time, but that's probably because he is so much weaker than me.
"Now that I answered your question, let's speak about something else. What have you been up to?"
"Well, I have taken control of the three kingdoms that were forced to go to war, and I am planning on constructing an underground city for the succubus. I also met with the dwarf king to have some dwarfs help in the construction and also for making weapons for us."
"Oh, you already met the dwarf?" It surprised me that he was more interested in the dwarf than in me taking control of the humans' country.
"You aren't interested in me taking control of humans? I would have thought you would have asked more questions."
"I don't particularly care if the humans are living good lives or are oppressed by a tyrant. I only care if they are alive."
"I see. Well, for the humans, they are treated correctly. I think? I didn't really change anything compared to before."
"Well, that's good for them. For the dwarf, you mentioned that you wanted to ask them to make weapons for you?"
"Yeah, I realized my weapon needs an upgrade. I can't continue to use material creation to make one."
"I think you would be fine with only that. I barely use my own sword. In fact, since Veldanava gave it to me, I don't think I've ever used it."
"Veldanava gave you your sword? It must be super powerful."
"Yes, it is, but let's go back to your weapon. If you need one, I recommend you go visit the dwelling of the spirit."
"Why would I need to go there? A unique grade weapon should be easy to make for the dwarf." It's true that normal material will make a mediocre weapon, so I will need rare ore and a powerful monster core to make my blade, but the dwarf already has great quality Magisteel, and I can kill any monsters they should need.
"Because of your nature. I don't know exactly how you were created, but your aura has a mind and darkness affinity of high quality. Your weapon will naturally take the characteristics of your aura as time passes, but it is best to have a weapon with an alignment toward darkness and mind, to have a weapon that truly corresponds to you."
I thought about it, and he was right. A weapon will naturally take my aura propriety, but one with it from the start will be the best for me. It will take far less time to make it evolve, and I will have a better affinity with it than with another weapon.
"Still, why go to the dwelling of the spirit?"
"Because the blessings of an elemental of darkness on the Magisteel will give your weapon the best affinity possible for darkness, and for the mental affinity, the spirit of darkness should also have some affinity for it."
It made sense, and if I want to have the blessings of an elemental, the best place would be their home.
"Okay, I will go. Give me the coordinate."