Over back in the castle, unlike what his master believed, Brad's group were in a bit of a tricky situation.
Less than three hours after his master and Jeanne left for Night City, a certain group of undead reached the castle. Though the undead lord was a rather important person even in Lambda as a whole, it was rare for it to receive more than one guest a decade so no one could expect this.
Well, to be specific, the true master of the castle had predicted that they would receive more visitors but he didn't think there would one coming at such a coincidental timing.
The undead that appeared were of the skeleton faction like the undead lord, with their leader, being a death knight.
Death knights were superior in every way compared to skeleton knights, but even though their colour had changed and usually equipped complete sets of plate armour that hid their true bodies, they were still skeletons.
But, unlike the undead lord who held a rank equivalent to Viscount, the death knight could wield the power of an Earl due to his position in the Demon Lands.
As the undead lord welcomed the death knight to a conference room, Brad listened on from beyond the window while maintaining the stealth that he had cultivated in the Cursed Territory.
"Welcome, Sir Dain, but this is quite the sudden visit."
"Hmph, dare you give me lip, boy?"
Despite being the oldest undead in this castle, the death knight's voice was stern and full of vigour.
"Of course not. Simply curious."
While the undead lord was still polite, it wasn't as exaggerated as with Isma because it didn't have a reason to act that way around the death knight.
Furthermore, it was wary since it had a feeling that this wouldn't be a peaceful exchange.
"Hmm, very well. Tyrion,"
As the death knight spoke the undead lord's former true name, its eye flames flickered for a moment. An undead's true name didn't have as much power compared to a spirit's, but depending on how it was used it could temporarily strengthen or weaken the undead so this was a blatant show of the death knight's superiority.
Besides feeling a little nostalgic, the use of this name had no effects on the undead lord, but it couldn't reveal that fact.
Satisfied by the undead lord's acting, the death knight nodded before continuing.
"Did that filthy crossdressing bloodsucker visit you?"
"If you mean Lady Isla, then yes."
"Hmph, someone like that doesn't deserve a proper title. Anyways, I assume she spoke of a certain plan being considered by the Demon King. What was your answer?"
"I said yes."
"What?! You dull-headed fool! I thought I was overthinking but to think you would actually-, didn't you think of the effects this would have on our Fleshless order of nobility?"
"Sir Dain, with all due respect, are you saying that I should have put our objectives over the wish of His Majesty?"
While his face wasn't shown, the way his armour clinked and clanked from his shaking was proof that the death knight was about to explode from rage.
"That Demon King is but a child being controlled by the bloodsuckers. We allowed all of these foolish 'entertainment' events to develop in order to satisfy the Curse of the Demon Throne, but if we let those bloodsuckers lead us into war against the lower races, when we win the balance between our power and theirs will be destroyed!"
The vampire order of nobility and the skeleton order of nobility, were basically the two factions of nobles that competed for the most influential in Lambda. As immortals, they had little to no problems regarding succession and therefore could promise stable reigns. Furthermore, as most of the Demon Kings were younger than some members of these immortal factions, they always wielded power that only overwhelmingly powerful Demon Kings could threaten.
In other words, whether there was a Demon King or not, these two factions basically ran the Demon Lands.
"Sir Dain, while I understand your concerns, no matter how much influence those bloodsuckers gain from this, with the Immortal Emperor still alive they will never be able to threaten us."
"Of course. Even the Demon King himself could do nothing to us, but how could we be satisfied with merely staying alive. In our eternity, what point is there in living emptily?"
With no rebuttal prepared, the undead lord stayed silent. Seeing that the hard way wasn't producing the results he wanted, the death knight tried to switch to a gentler method.
"My comrade, have you forgotten the king who brought you into the world of nobility and made you who are today?"
The death knight's question reminded the undead lord of the one who granted it its former true name, the no life king who was its mentor. However, no ripples were created in its undead heart.
"Yes, I still remember. But that is a debt I owe to the king, not to the order."
"You-!"
While watching the confrontation between the two, Brad considered contacting his master. He had to use telepathy which used up mana, unlike the undead lord who could call him through the magic ring, but it would still be possible to reach him at this distance.
'Hmm..., no. Master is surely taking care of serious business so I can't disturb him. Besides, even if that death knight and his entourage turn violent, things would be under control with me and Bony here.'
***
Early (?) in Night City, Jeanne, Kaili and I were up and ready to have fun. Jeanne looked surprised by my decision but Kaili loved it.
"Yay!"
She seemed a little too excited since this should be her hometown, but it also showed what kind of life she had been forced to go through.
'Now then, where should we go?'
There were many places of entertainment in Night City, but since the main target audience was adults, there weren't many family-friendly attractions. Rather, R-18 was mainstream here.
'Gambling is obviously out, I don't trust humans when it comes to that so there's no way I would trust demons. There's something like a movie theater but according to Ein it's either gore or history, so no to that too. Hmm, is there any sport here that we could watch?'
I spent a few more moments pensively thinking before a decent idea came to mind.
"Why don't we go see flyball?"
"Flyball?"
"Oh! Oh! I've heard of that. It's the thing where they throw something and then the other guy swings at it, right?"
"Yep."
Unsurprisingly, Jeanne wasn't aware of the sport but Kaili seemed to have an idea. I couldn't be sure until I got there but from my perspective, flyball sounded like baseball but with several adjustments.
Since Kaili approved we headed to the nearest stadium in the east quarter, where a flyball match would soon begin. This sport was apparently very popular in Lambda so matches were held not just in Night City, but all over the Demon Lands.
I thought demons would just stick to watching people beating each other up, but looks like anything can get boring if you repeat it for a few centuries.
I was a little suspicious when I bought our tickets, since only 'open' seats were left, but I didn't think that something could actually happen at a simple baseball game.