Chapter 6 (9): Preparations
"Okay, now that the hard parts are done with... I'll have to set your race to be hidden if you don't want it shown, which we do in some rare cases, though not as rare as this... Name is Verene... planned role in a party?" (GM)
"Whatever is needed. Vanguard, I guess. Ryuu's party has two rearguards, one vanguard, and one midguard, so we could use another" (Ver)
"What weapon would you be using?" (GM)
She shifted just her arms and hands into human-sized wyvern forelegs and claws, and smiled.
"I usually fight with only my body and no external weapons. I also can use magic while fighting in close range, so that works out just fine" (Ver)
"I guess that works... Well, the last thing is your age" (GM)
"Uh... first, I'd like you to guess how old I am, just for fun" (Ver)
"Based on your appearance, I'd say about fifteen, but the way you act makes me think more like ten... however, wyverns mature slowly, so maybe more like fifty, however, as Ryuu raised you, that means you are younger than her, probably several years younger than she is, so I'll go with my estimate of ten years old" (GM)
"I'm about eight or so-" (Ver)
"Well, I was close" (GM)
"Not at all. I'm eight weeks old, give or take a few days" (Ver)
"I think... we need to set your age to hidden as well as your race... and, you know what, let's just set it such that you can hide any information you wish to hide other than your name. By the way... can you hide your collar, or will you be covering that up all the time?" (GM)
Ver just made her collar vanish as she replied to the other parts of what he said, and then her card, with that feature, was made personally by the guildmaster, as the rest of us had ours made based off of our student ID cards.
"Well, here you all go. You are now officially B rank adventurers, however, I still would like you to take care of that earth dragon to show me your skill" (GM)
"Sorry, but we are still students, so we can't accept that quest without approval form the headmistress" (Ryuu)
"Oh, right... I forgot about that. Well, I'll be seeing you soon, I'll bet. You five are, honestly, probably going to become the talk of the town within a week, by bringing down an oni or something like that unscathed" (GM)
"We'll see, but... eh, who knows, honestly" (Ryuu)
"An oni wouldn't be as surprising to have show up near Ryuu as anyone else... anyone who knows her well knows the general idea of 'if Ryuu gets involved in something, expect the unexpected' or something" (Mae)
"Any bets... on when... we'll encounter... an ancient dragon?" (Elise)
"Two months" (Char)
"Three weeks" (Mae)
"I would love to eat some dragon steaks... so I hope it's next week or so" (Ver)
"Who knows, we might have another SS ranked magical beast join us instead of getting some steaks" (Ryuu)
The guildmaster looked flabbergasted, then he spoke in a tiny voice with his face resting on his palms.
"You girls... are treating an encounter... with an ancient dragon... like some kind of amusement... or a lucky find in the market... betting on when it'll happen... and so, I'm betting on 'hopefully never' so as to stay sane" (GM)
Everyone looked at me, then started laughing.
"I guess that we really have had our mindsets change after meeting Ryuu. Back when I first wanted to be an adventurer, I thought that I wouldn't be able to take down anything stronger than a pack of terror wolves for a long time, unless I had a party which was much stronger than me doing most of the work. Now, I've been trained by someone much stronger than me, and I've improved such that I could probably solo a lesser earth dragon. Any of us probably could, I think... It might also have something to do with sleeping with Ryuu, which means constantly being exposed to her full aura... and, over time, absorbing it. It seems to have all kinds of effects, like increasing our mana, speed, strength, reaction times, and more. Seriously, when I joined the school, my mana value was 132. Now, it's 544. Char's was, what, 1600? It's now almost 5000, right?" (Mae)
"1662 to 4997, yes. We've all been improving more rapidly than our classmates" (Char)
"Mine... went from... 2820... to over... 6500" (Elise)
"In... in two months... everyone had their mana... more than triple? What... that's either... they killed dragons every day, or... were blessed by some God... or Demon Lord... or divine beast... or something like that" (GM)
"Something like that, yes, though it's less 'blessed' and more 'power rubbed off on them' I think" (Ryuu)
The guildmaster froze at that, then rubbed his forehead.
"To have the bit of your mana that simply rubbed off on someone boost their mana by a few thousand... just... what the hell are you..." (GM)
"The destroyer of common sense" (Char)
"The one who made a greater wyvern evolve into a divine beast" (Ver)
"The one... I love..." (Elise)
"The girl who learned from demon generals" (Mae)
"You are all saying things that may be true, but don't really answer his question. The answer is... well, first things first. Guildmaster, remember that whatever is said here stays here, as per our agreement" (Ryuu)
"Yes, of course. I'd hate to drive away such promising adventurers by exposing some of their secrets" (GM)
"Good. Now, to answer the question of what the hell I am, I'll tell you my name and title. I am Miryuu Maou, also known as the Demon Lord. It's nice to meet you, I hope it stays that way..." (Ryuu)
"I... I think... you... urg... I know that I said this will stay in this room, but... I'm going to make a recommendation to you... Meet the king about this, and do so sooner rather than later. The more you delay it, the worse it will become when it comes out, if it ever does... and I think it will come out at some point somewhat soon. Those kinds of secrets have an unfortunate habit of exposing themselves at the worst timing possible" (GM)
"I... I guess we may as well do so soon, as there are two things to talk about, my identity and Ver's" (Ryuu)
"The problem is how to set that meeting up... My father - Sir Gazef Austine - could do so, but..." (Mae)
"Same with mine, but he doesn't even know about Ryuu being my roommate, let alone the Demon Lord" (Char)
"Maybe... the headmistress?" (Elise)
"Or I could do it... if you wish" (GM)
"I think we should talk with Sir Austine, then probably set it up through the headmistress... After all, Duke Ascham is known to hate demons, so I'd rather not have him learn about my identity until later, and Sir Austine could be put in a tough spot if it got out that he knew who I was and didn't report it" (Ryuu)
With that, we began to finish up what we were doing at the guild, and Mae sent a letter to her father asking to talk on the first day of the weekend, if that worked for him. The next morning, she got a letter in reply saying that it did, so we met him at his house on the arranged date.
"I assume this isn't just to talk with your dear old dad, considering that you brought your friends" (Gazef)
"No, it's not, though I would like to do a bit of that too. However, we are planning to meet the king and talk to him about Ryuu and Ver's respective identities, as not doing so... the benefits are not worth the risks" (Mae)
"A wise choice. So, what do you need me for? You want me to set up the meeting?" (Gazef)
"You know the secret, but you didn't report it to His Majesty, that could be seen as treasonous... in the worst case. Therefore, I propose that you say that you met her as my fiancee, but that you didn't know about her being the Demon Lord" (Mae)
"I see... in that case, I won't be able to set up the meeting, so I assume you have someone else who would do so instead? Ah, probably Greywood, right?" (Gazef)
"Correct. Since it's almost certain that you'll be there to guard his majesty, you'll probably be asked if you knew about it, considering that Mae may well be in the room with me" (Ryuu)
"Ah, I see. That's why you asked to speak with me to get our stories straight" (Gazef)