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I was preparing to greet the visitor, [Desire] Demon Lord Eligor herself.

No amount of vigilance would be enough against her though.

After I checked the monsters I had in my [Storage], I turned to Ciel.

 

“My Demon Lord, leave it pyui to me.”

“Have you recovered enough magic power to be able to use [Perfect Trace]?”

“I still haven’t, but pyufufufu, those valuable items should be enough to get me there.”

“Those, huh. I’d rather you not use those, but if things call for it, go ahead.”

 

There were two approaches in magic power recovery.

One was increasing the rate at which magic power was recovered, while the other was simply gaining a certain amount.

When it comes to S rank monsters, the latter was usually insufficient. It was like letting a drop fall in the vast ocean. However, Ciel had legendary-class items that gave plenty of magic power to its user. Still, because even us found it hard to acquire such items, we reserved it only for absolute emergencies.

 

“Understood! But I wonder who I should transform into, you know, just in case. Kuina-sama’s a strong contender as always, but Marcho-sama and Duke-sama are great options too. I guess I could transform into that Guru fellow too. Gufufufufu, oh how I love going on a rampage.”

 

Whenever Ciel, someone who ordinarily had low stats for an S rank monster, uses her [Perfect Trace] and thus gain tremendous power, she gets a bit too excited.

There was no denying she was excellent and helpful, but her tendency to get carried away was quite the flaw.

 

“Alright, let’s go.”

“Pyui ‘kay!”

 

Just what can that Demon Lord be planning?

 

◇

 

Afterwards, I headed outside and let the High Elves guide me to our visitor.

The High Elves watched over the city as well as some of the area outside it through their wind. Aside from a few exceptions, as soon as someone enters their area of vigilance, they should know about it.

And if that someone was deemed potentially dangerous, the elves would continuously monitor them but not take action as long as the latter don’t do anything harmful within the city. However, once the other party enters the dungeon proper without permission, they would be eliminated right away.

 

“[Desire] Demon Lord Eligor, what’s the purpose of your visit?”

“Yoohoo. I came to have fun. Your city seems quite boring though, [Creation] Demon Lord Procell. Then again, you did just make it.”

 

This was just a spare dungeon, but for some reason, a sense of competitiveness arose from her bad-mouthing of the new city. If only I can show you Avalon right now.

 

“To have fun? Please, stop with the jokes. We both know you’re not that kind of Demon Lord.”

 

There were Demon Lords that made decisions based on their emotions and there were those that made decisions based on their logic.

She was the latter. She might appear and sound carefree, but she was making cold, calculating plans underneath. So, it simply wasn’t believable that she would to take the risks involved in going to another Demon Lord’s dungeon just to have fun.

 

“I really came here to have fun though. It’s just that I also have other business with you.”

 

She said so and smirked.

 

“Alright, I’ll let you in this time. Follow me to my estate; let’s have tea there.”

“Ehh, you’re going to invite another Demon Lord in just like that?”

“Says the one that invited me in a few days ago. For today at least, you genuinely seem to want to only talk, so I won’t be rude and turn you away.”

 

If she really wanted to attack, she would have brought a bigger force. She wasn’t a delusional fool that would think she could take me down with only the ten monsters in her [Storage].

 

“Touché. I’ll take you up on your offer of tea, then.”

 

What does she want to talk about? Well, regardless, I better keep my guard up.

 

◇

 

I led her to the drawing room of my estate and gave her some tea.

Ciel was the one that made the tea; it would seem the High Elves and Dwarf Smiths’ tea-making techniques were still lacking.

 

“No way, this is so delicious. This is my first time to taste such wonderful tea. I was about to spend a fortune to get really good tea, you know, but I’m not so sure I want those anymore.”

 

The tea we served was made from leaves stored within Ciel. And those leaves were made through selective breeding of the best leaves gathered from all over the world.

 

“I had no idea what taste Demon Lords of this world favored, so I’m glad it’s to your liking.”

“As far as humanoid Demon Lords are concerned, you can be sure they’ll love this. Ahh, that cleared my head. I don’t suppose you could give me some tea leaves to take home? I’ll be in your favor.”

“Sorry, but I can’t. If we were in Avalon, I can give you as much as you want, but over here, well, you know.”

“I see, it’s made there. And that’s why I wasn’t aware of such a tea.”

 

After she said so, she took a bite of the apple pie served with the tea. Based on her sparkling eyes, it should be safe to assume that she liked that as well.

 

“Phew, that was so delicious. Well then, let’s get down to business, shall we? The main reason I came here is to invite you to the [Evening Party].”

“Ohh, the [Evening Party], huh.”

 

The [Evening Party] was an event where Demon Lords from all over the world would gather and socialize.

When Eligor and I last spoke, she had confirmed that such a thing also happened in this world.

 

“Can I even join? In the [Evening Party] of my world, the only way to join is by being forcibly Transferred by the Creator. So, whether I want to come or not is inconsequential; the only thing that matters is whether the Creator wants me to be there.”

“Don’t worry; I’ve consulted with the Creator beforehand and he approves of it.”

“Wait, Demon Lords of this world can get an audience with that guy just like that?”

 

The Creator I knew of treated us as nothing more than tools for his entertainment, so the thought that that guy would take requests from us was simply unbelievable.

…or is their Creator simply different from the one in my world?

 

“I’m quite a favorite of the Creator, so mine is a special case. I really think you should attend. Like it or not, you’ll spend some time here, so won’t it be better to get to know your potential enemies?”

“Is it? Won’t it be better if the other Demon Lords don’t know of me at all? They can’t attack me if they don’t know I exist, can they? My dungeon doesn’t look like a dungeon. As far as they’re concerned, it should be just another human city. Of course, all these rely on you not telling the others about me.”

 

The only Demon Lord that was aware of me should be Eligor.

As long as she remained silent, I should be safe.

Objectively speaking, the best way to secure her silence and thus my safety was to kill her. I didn’t like such a method to begin with, but my lack of information on Eligor, her powers, and her monsters made this even less appealing.

 

“Don’t be naïve. Demon Lords with good information networks will find you sooner than you might imagine. Besides, do you really think the Creator will just let you be?”

“Of course not. Not the Creator of my world, at least.”

“Exactly. Do you know how I found your city this quickly? It’s because the Creator told me about it. Otherwise, it might have taken me about a week to find it. Now, I might have said I consulted with the Creator, but based on how giddy he seemed, it felt more like he was waiting for me to ask. If he gave more than your whereabouts, I wouldn’t have been surprised.”

 

I was certain of it now: the Creator here and in my world were one and the same.

I could also be called a favorite of the Creator, but in a different sense than Eligor’s. That in mind, it made perfect sense for him to meddle now but not before or later: now would entertain him a lot more.

If I was attacked when I was on the brink of dying of starvation or when I just built my spare dungeon and thus still had no defenses yet, my defeat was almost certain. On the other hand, if I was given enough time, I could become nigh unstoppable.

Either way, that would be boring for the Creator. So, now when I had some war potential but not too much was the time to kick things into motion. Knowing it only makes it more irritating.

 

“Alright, I’ll come to the [Evening Party] then.”

 

Knowing the Creator, if I choose not to go, a penalty would be imposed on me.

Damned if I go, damned if I don’t.

The only reason I wasn’t being given a “choice” was so that I could blame myself for the choice I picked.

 

“Thanks for being cooperative. Now, I think you already know this, but let me just remind you: you can only have up to 3 monsters to escort you to the [Evening Party]. Moreover, those monsters have to be able to fit within the venue.”

“Yes, I’ll bear that in mind.”

 

Ciel had a sure spot, but as for the other two, I would have to think on it.

Whom to bring was extremely important because even though fighting in the [Evening Party] was generally prohibited, there were exceptions. It was those loopholes that got me here in the first place.

 

“Speaking of which, I’m going to bring the monster I made with your medal. It’s going to be amazing; look forward to it.”

“You sure you want everyone to know about the monster?”

 

S rank monsters were overwhelmingly powerful. Just having one of them was enough to change the course of a battle.

And if the monster’s existence was hidden from the enemy Demon Lord, that enemy’s plans would be thrown out of order the moment the S rank monster comes out.

 

“Definitely. It’s the monster that’ll make my dreams come true, after all.”

 

I didn’t fully understand, but she must some other reason to do such a thing.

 

“Well then, I’ll be going now. Pretty busy preparing for the [Evening Party] and all that. I’ll tell you the date later, okay?”

 

I didn’t inquire as to what could make her so busy.

An [Evening Party] was supposed to be a simple gathering event… with the occasional surprises by the Creator. So, aside from the three monsters to accompany the Demon Lord as well as the ten others in the [Storage], there ordinarily wasn’t much one had to prepare for. Ordinarily.

 

At any rate, I escorted Eligor out.

My wish of a peaceful time until I could return to Avalon didn’t seem likely to happen, so instead of being passive, I should become proactive and make plans on how I could to bring back souvenirs to Avalon.

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