Volume 7 Chapter 1 (2/2)

”Kuina and Rorono sure are late”

”I think Kuina-chan's in the middle of her special training. Though she had made a new special move, she seems to think she can still improve it. So, after returning and notifying me, she went to the [Crimson Cavern] to train some more. As for Rorono-chan, she has been working all this time; I'm worried, actually. Her development death march might turn into a literal one.”

”Those two are really working hard, aren't they? Of course, you are too.”

”Not as much as you or those two, but I won't turn down a compliment.”

My subordinate monsters were really doing their hardest. I should too.

My eyes then wandered toward the letters I collected. The letters were addressed to me and were mostly from the merchants in the city, but there were some from other places.

As I stared at the letters, I continued my idle chatter with Aura.

”Oh yeah, while wandering around Avalon today, I had some interesting thoughts. Firstly, I think we should increase the shop we directly manage.”

Presently, Avalon directly managed only three shops: Rorono's blacksmithing shop; the Mythological Foxes' shop; and Duke's inn.

To give the [Black] Demon Lord some harassment of our own and to further develop Avalon, I believed we should add new shops.

”What kind of shop will we open?”

”…”

While talking with Aura, I unconsciously crumpled the letter I just read.

”Is something wrong, master?”

”A little. An unpleasant letter was mixed in.”

One particular letter could not be ignored or be taken as a joke. It was inside an envelope that bore the family crest of the royal family of the Axera kingdom.

Even before I read it, I could feel nothing but a strong premonition that it would be troublesome, at best. Upon reading it, my suspicions were proven true, and so, I thoughtlessly crumpled the letter.

”How unpleasant of a letter was it?”

”Just a bit. Just enough to make me want to destroy a kingdom.”

”Sounds fun. But if were to do that, our stock of bullets would not be enough. Not even nearly. We're going to have Rorono-chan work harder, don't we?”

”Aura, I only think this sometimes, but even though you look so calm and gentle, you're the most bloodthirsty out of all of us, aren't you?”

”That's nonsense, master. I am an elf that loves nature and peace.”

I did my best to hold myself from retorting and calling her a trigger-happy maniac.

”In case it wasn't obvious, I was just joking about the destroying part. Anyway, according to the letter, royalty from the Axera kingdom is going to personally visit Avalon, the one and only city in this remote region. To establish a friendship, they say.”

There was nobody foolish enough to take those words at face value. After all, just a couple of months ago, we were at war against the Axera kingdom. Worst of all, their state religion was the one founded by the [Black] Demon Lord.

As of the moment, that kingdom should still be suffering from the tide-turning attack made by the [Dragon] Demon Lord.

Although being friendly with them was good, their reason for doing so was obvious: to get something that would help them defeat the [Dragon] Demon Lord. Namely, the golem corps and aerial bombardment corps they saw in our previous war, and our vast funds.

I could not think of any reason to help them bring down the [Dragon] Demon Lord, someone I was greatly indebted to.

Moreover, the timing of it was dubious.

”No, it's timed precisely. He really won't let up, will he?”

It was surely another of the [Black] Demon Lord's ploys.

If I were to turn down this request of cooperation, it would be taken as a sign of hostility against the kingdom. Since Avalon was a commercial city, merchants who would associate with us would be negatively affected and perhaps be forced to stay away altogether, which would then hurt our economy and growth.

On the other hand, if we were to cooperate, we would be making an enemy of the [Dragon] Demon Lord.

Neither choices were ideal.

”But he's still looking down on me too much.”

I could use this move of his and set a trap for him instead.

More than anything, I could guess what he was planning to propose in our meeting two days later: in all probability, it might be to have a lenient nonintervention agreement.

He was convinced his side would have an overwhelming advantage if ever we were to fight, making a nonintervention agreement look appealing to us.

He also seemed convinced that the Axera kingdom would forever remain his pawn. If so, then let's exploit that conceit of his.

My plan was to act, for the meantime, according to the [Black] Demon Lord's expectations—like going along with that nonintervention agreement—so that I could get his guard down enough to lay some traps.

As I thought of such things, I wrote a reply to the letter.

Axera was referred to as the city Procell fought in a war. Now, it is the name of the kingdom(which was referred to before as an empire) that city belonged to. This is just a guess, but maybe the city Procell fought against was Eclaba all along. As an aside, according to LN vol 4, the religion’s name is the Rigdolg faith.

To summarize:

City=Eclaba

Kingdom= Axera

[Black]’s religon= Rigdolg

I’m going to stick to these names from now on, no matter the change in the future.