Volume 6 Chapter 12 (1/2)

A letter from the [Black] Demon Lord had arrived.

The letter talked about two main points.

First was that he wanted me to come to a meeting of just the two us 10 days later at a specified place.

The second was that in the case I refused to meet or in the case that I told anyone that he made contact with me, [Wind] Demon Lord Stolas's dungeon would be attacked.

At this point, I assumed a few things.

One was that the other party had always been waiting for me to lose my magic power. Another thing that I assumed was that somehow or another, information was leaking to them.

R'lyeh Diva, who headed our intelligence corps, had not reported anything, so it might be safe to assume that the information leaking wasn't due to an enemy monster hiding in another dimension. Needless to say, an investigation was necessary.

My lead as of the moment was in the letter. Namely, the specified date of 10 days later.

Originally, when an A rank monster has been named, the Demon Lord to do so would lose their magic power for half a month*. However, thanks to Aura, my recovery period—which was supposed to be longer than normal since Duke was an S rank monster—was shortened to 8 days.

Now, knowledge of my recovery period becoming shorter was limited to just myself and Aura. If this piece of information was to leak to the enemy, the date of the meeting would no doubt be changed. Put in another way, if the date hasn't been changed, that information still hasn't been leaked.

If we could compare the patterns where information was leaked and where it wasn't, the investigation would become easier.

At the very least, I could rule out that there is a spy in my immediate surroundings.

”And can the reason he can hold Stolas hostage is because he has those artificial heroes…?”

Originally, unless an old Demon Lord could reason out that they received some kind attack from a new Demon Lord, they were not permitted to attack the latter.

Among the monsters that we killed in the campaign to save Marcho, perhaps, some were monsters of his, and if so, he could justify attacking me. However, that reason shouldn't be applicable to attacking Stolas.

But then again, the [Black] Demon Lord had a way to be exempt from this rule: his artificial heroes.

These artificial heroes were undeniably humans. They were theoretically stronger than an average A rank monster, but humans nonetheless.

Even though the [Dragon] Demon Lord had managed to destroy the training facility for them, there were still plenty of already-trained artificial heroes remaining. If the [Black] Demon Lord willed it, it was possible for Stolas's dungeon to fall.

That being said, if he thought that just that much fighting force was enough, he was looking down at us too much.

I can lend support to Stolas, after all.

Even though there was a recent decrease in my fighting force—the Avalon-Ritters were all destroyed in the Marcho campaign, and Fel and Rozelitte returned to their rightful masters—I had gained more than I lost.

After making Marcho my own monster, her whole army became under me.

As of the moment, her focus was on rebuilding her dungeon, so none of her monsters were in Avalon, but if I felt like it, I could dispatch her whole army to Stolas's dungeon.

”What is he thinking? Why is he challenging Marcho and me? He must know his remaining human army has no chance in winning against us. …No, even if he knows that Marcho survived, it doesn't necessarily mean that he's aware that she became my subordinate through [Rebirth]. Is that why he's making light of me?”

If that hypothesis was correct, then there was a 90% chance that his source of information were some humans in Avalon.

On regards to Duke receiving a name, my monsters were not forbidden whatsoever to talk about it. Even if my monsters talked about it when they were buying their congratulatory gifts as well as the food and alcohol for the party, to most humans, the term naming would not make much sense.

To the humans being used for intelligence gathering, however, if the order given to them was to report anything strange, the enemy side would definitely know of my condition.

”If he's using humans, then it stands to reason he doesn't know about Marcho.”

It hasn't been long since Marcho came here, and my monsters shouldn't have what happened to her as their topic for conversation with the humans.

Following those patterns, since my monsters, other than Aura, didn't know that my recovery time had become shorter, the human spies would have no way of knowing it too.

”What an incredibly aggressive enemy. Threatening us right from the start. Looking down at us, to boot. I'm not inclined to negotiate with him, to say the least.”

I wondered whether I could get along with someone who would threaten to harm Stolas, a good friend I owed a favor to.

At any rate, for the time being… just to be safe, I should make sure to keep the information about Marcho and about my recovery time, an absolute secret.

To defend against potential leakage of information, I thought that it was better to temporarily send Marcho back to her dungeon.

If I could make the [Black] Demon Lord remain unaware about those two pieces of information, there was a chance he could make a fatal mistake.

All that said, it was foolish to act solely on optimistic assumptions.

While I hope I'm right, I should also plan for possible counter-measures in the case that I'm not.

To that end, one card in my deck was necessary: Rorono and her talents.

I'm going to ask too much of Rorono again… I'm getting too spoiled by her.

◇

In the evening, after finishing my scheduled meeting with some merchants in my residence in Avalon, I headed toward the [First Tree]. While recovering, that place overflowing with golden life energy was where I was going to be living.

When I arrived, I saw Rorono and something that wasn't there when I left.

”Is this… the tent?”

I involuntarily spoke such oafish words.

In order for me to live in apple orchard, Aura asked Rorono to build me a tent. However, what I saw before me was more than what I imagined.

”I didn't have time to build one from scratch, so I brought a prototype carriage.”

”That thing I mentioned… you really went ahead made that?”

”Only until halfway through. I became busy and had to leave it alone, but today, I did my best to finish it at least this much.”

Some time ago, I had the idea of someday going on a long trip using a carriage, so I asked Rorono to make one.

The carriage before me was twice as large as an ordinary carriage. Furthermore, it was made of a lightweight mithril alloy.

The ones to pull it weren't the Silver Golems often seen in Avalon, but rather Mithril Golems. Compared to horses, golems had far greater pulling power. So, with them, weight was not as much of a concern. And since that was so, Rorono then had more leeway on designing the carriage.

That being said, considering that we would be the ones to use it, Rorono prioritized ensuring our safety first—by improving its defensive and offensive capabilities—before thinking about comfort.

”If it's this, I'm certain master will be able to have a relaxing time. Moreover, I've also incorporated some parts that were made by my [Materialization]. For example, the gravity reduction feature used in the [Mechanical Warmaiden] helps reduce the weight of the whole thing. If you wanted, we can make the Darkness Dragons be the ones to pull it, thus making it into essentially an airship. I am proud of my work.”

Rorono said so with a proud face.

She then got closer and looked up to my face.

Always wanting to be spoiled.

”Thank you. I'll be able to have a relaxed time here more than in any tent.”

I did as she wanted and brushed her head. When I did so, she smiled.

To say she overdid it would probably be boorish of me. After all, it would prove itself useful when we do go on a vacation via air travel someday.

”May I go in?”

”Mhm. It also has all the necessary furniture, so you can live here right away.”

And so, I went inside the carriage together with Rorono.

Upon entry, I noticed that the inside greatly resembled my bedroom. The difference was that this one was made under the premise that it would be inhabited by multiple people at once.

In addition, there were also such things as a shower room and a kitchenette, among others, inside.

It was luxurious beyond any ordinary carriage.

As Rorono said, it was already filled with all sorts of furniture. Aside from the spares for my residence, there were also new ones made by Rorono as well as ones recently bought in Avalon.

When I looked at the bed, I saw a fluffy fox tail jutting out of the bed's sheet.

”Kuina, you were here too?”

”Yeah ♪! It's hot spring time, so Kuina came along too!”