Milim slowly opened her eyes and sat up in her bed with a long yawn. No one had attempted to disturb her sleep since she was staying in Tempest.
'How could I beat into my faithful servants, the fact that I don't need to wake up with the sunrise?' She mused as she lazily walked towards the bathing area of her quarters. Another wonderful luxury her own castle didn't have.
The only private area to herself was in the nearby river.
'That's it. I'm not letting them treat me like some forest bum!' She promised herself, already knowing that no matter what, she would not get her way back in her domain.
The small population consisting mostly of humans and dragonewts worshiped her like a Goddess, but at the same time they couldn't wrap their heads around simple things, such as cooked food and an indoor bath with warm water.
The maids, assigned to cater to her needs, rushed forward and filled the bath for her, adding a strange thing called liquid soap that made the whole bath smell like a garden but also fun bubbles to play with.
Some sort of magic was used to fill the bath with water almost instantly and warm up the water to just a perfect temperature. While she soaked in the water, one of the maids worked on her nails with a small file.
'If they continue treating me like this, I could start growing my nails again.' She shuddered at the memory of the last time the head priest cut her nails with crude scissors. It was such a bother at the time that she simply stopped growing them to avoid the tedious procedure.
After the bath, she was toweled down and helped to dress in one of the outfits gifted by Buku.
Next in the daily plan was a delicious and plentiful breakfast. It would have been easy to order one of the maids to get whatever she wanted but eating by herself was so boring.
'I wonder if I'll meet Aura or Mare at the dining area.' Truth be told, she still hasn't figured out where most of Tempest's leaders disappeared to for long periods of time as no one had explained to her what Nazarick was and where it was located.
Even threats of violence didn't work.
'Maybe I can trick someone into spilling the beans. I'm sure someone will slip up.' She started to devise new and devious plans on how to find out where Nazarick was.
Lost in her own thoughts, she absentmindedly entered the Tempest Royal Castle's dining area.
Unfortunately, neither her uncle nor her friends were there. She looked around in hopes to see at least someone she could eat breakfast with but there was no one she was that close with.
She sat down at an empty chair and looked around, watching the people. Save for servants, there were very few other people present. As usual, one of the waitresses rushed over and greeted her with a smile. "Good morning, Lady Milim. Are you ready to order?"
"I guess. I want cocoa with extra marshmallows and… hmm… oh, I know! Pancakes!" She responded even without looking at the menu.
"With the blueberries on the side as usual?" the waitress asked.
"Yes." Milim said absentmindedly as her attention was caught by an elderly man in a butler's suit entering the room. He was followed by a group of women in maid dress and men in manservant suits.
Something intangible about this old man immediately caught her attention. He definitely was on the stronger side as he was hiding his aura with the strange ring everyone with some semblance of strength wore.
That was no obstacle to her. She instantly activated her |Dragon Eye|.
"Dragonoid…" She mumbled. 'That man is a dragonoid like me!'
Without thinking, she jumped to her feet, pushed the table aside, and rushed towards the man. "You!" She shouted after him.
The old man stopped and looked at her with a confused expression. Milim ran up to him and shouted. "Who are you?"
"My name is Sebas, young lady." He answered with a light bow.
"You are a dragonoid! How? I thought I was the only one." Milim continued shouting.
"I was made as a dragonoid by my creator, Lord Touch Me. I'm afraid I cannot tell if I have any direct connection to you, young lady." Sebas looked at the confused girl.
"But…" Milim walked around Sebas looking him up and down. "I thought… Does my uncle know about you?"
"I apologize but I'm not aware who you are referring to."
"Veldora! My uncle is Veldora." She said impatiently.
"Oh, you must be Lady Milim. Yes, I have met Lord Veldora twice."
'My uncle didn't even know. He probably didn't even bother to find out about the abilities of those who cater to him.'
"So… do you have an alternate form? You know, with the scales, wings and all." Milim asked, making another circle around Sebas.
"Yes, I do possess an alternate form, but I do not have wings."
"Great. I want to have a brawl with you. Dragonoid to dragonoid."
"I'm afraid you will have to put this request to Lord Momonga. It would be unbecoming for me to engage in a brawl with a guest, even if invited to do so." Sebas bowed once again.
"Sure, I'll ask him." Milim broke into a wide smile. The man clearly was no pushover; the amount of magicules he possessed was enough to give her a thrilling fight.
"If there is nothing else, I should be on my way." Sebas told her politely and waited for a response.
"Sure. Don't forget that you are fighting me if Momonga agrees." She said with a loud laugh and returned to her table. As thrilling as an idea of a real fight was, breakfast was more important at this moment.
The best thing about eating alone was that no one scolded her for eating too much. After another two portions of pancakes, a large bowl of ice cream, and half an apple pie, she finally was too full to eat.
'Ugh… I shouldn't have eaten so much.' She clutched her stomach, which was making weird sounds, on her way to Momonga's office. He wasn't there too often, but if she arrived, the actual leader of Tempest would definitely appear.
Her stomach continued the loud protest against her decision of eating so much even when she reached her destination. Two undead guards in dark plate armor stood at the entrance, holding bardiches.
"Hey, I need to talk with Momonga." She exclaimed as a loud bubbling growl interrupted her otherwise majestic presence.
"Lord Momonga is not present at the moment." One of the guards responded in a raspy voice.
"Then call him in!"
"I am not authorized to contact Lord Momonga directly." The guard didn't give in to her demands.
"Then contact someone else. I want to talk with Momonga!" She pushed past both guards and entered the office. Neither of the two undead tried to stop her.
The interior of the office gave the same feeling as the overly luxurious castle of Clayman. Without much care, Milim walked up to the office table and looked at the contents on the table.
There were some colorful buttons that she obviously pressed a few times.
{ Lady Milim I must urge you to refrain from pressing the buttons on the request panel! } Albedo's polite but stern voice interrupted her playing around.
{ Sure. Is Momonga coming or not? }
{ Lord Momonga is notified about your request and will meet you within fifteen minutes. }
{ Hurry up! } She messaged back.
{ Your impatience will not change anything. If waiting for fifteen minutes is not a viable option for you today, we can reschedule the meeting for another day. }
Milim gritted her teeth and slammed her hand on the panel. To her surprise, nothing broke. 'Huh? Should I hit harder? Clayman's stuff would have broken with this amount of force..'
{ I will remind you once again to refrain from damaging Lord Momonga's office. Your transgressions have already been reported to Lord Veldora. }
'She told on me to my uncle? That bitch!' Milim lifted her hand once again to hit the table but stopped midswing. 'Dammit! I just know they will not give me sweets if I… How did it come to this?' Milim let out a long sigh of defeat and sat down in Momonga's chair.
After a moment of boredom, her curiosity got the better of her, and she opened one of the drawers. Save for a stack of paper and neat rows of pencils and pens, there was nothing of interest inside.
She took one of the sheets, and a pencil, and started to draw one of her favorite fight scenes from a manga she recently read. This proved enough of a distraction from the wait that she didn't even notice that office doors opened.
"You wanted to meet me?" Momonga's voice interrupted her work.
Milim instantly looked up and on instinct put her hands over her drawing. "Yes!" She screeched in surprise. "Argh... Yes." Milim then said in a calmer tone and quickly shoved the drawing into her pocket.
'Why did he have to bring that thing with him?' Only then she noticed Rubedo standing behind Momonga. 'Ugh, he definitely knows I don't like that majin. Ohh… Momonga thinks he can intimidate me with her. Hah, he underestimates me.'
Milim stood up from the chair, walked to the sofa, and sat down with a carefree smile. Momonga sat down opposite her and asked. "What did you wish to discuss?"
"I want to spar with Sebas." She exclaimed. "He told me he needs your permission."
"I'm afraid I will have to deny your request. But I can offer Rubedo as a substitute. She is eager to test her abilities against a strong opponent." Momonga calmly responded with his burning gaze meeting hers.
"But I want to fight Sebas. He is a dragonoid like me!" Milim raised her voice in a whine.
"Sebas is the head butler and has many duties."
Milim glared back at Momonga. 'Maybe I should challenge you. Put you in your place! Just because my uncle lets you rule doesn't mean you can talk with me like this!' Yet a gut instinct told her she would not enjoy a fight with Momonga either. Of course, she would not lose, but the undead overlord gave off this subtle feeling of dread.
"I'm not backing down until you let me!" She stomped out of the office and shut the doors with enough force to break them out of their hinges.
The next day she came into Momonga's office again and made the same request.
The day before, Momonga had declined her request.
Today, however, she decided to have a different approach. She simply didn't leave the office and started to read manga while glaring at Momonga with one eye over it.
The Overlord seemed unphased at her theatrics and just sat at his table and signed documents for an hour.
Thus the battle of wills had begun. Over the next few days, Momonga was present in his office for most of the day and she just sat there repeating the same request every thirty minutes or so.
When that didn't work, she amped up her antics and stood behind him looking over his shoulder.
Unbeknownst to her, Momonga was used to his former bosses behaving in a similar fashion and sometimes just watching him work.
Of course, he was not working on any sensitive information while in the castle's office. On top of that, this childish standoff proved to be beneficial as many of the Tempest's citizens used the opportunity to meet him.
After the fourth day, Momonga just made a smaller chair for Milim to sit on, as an indication that she is not going to win.
The only thing that still let Milim continue was the pure spite and the pride of the demon lord who had never lost a fight. Her next tactic of asking as many questions as possible also proved to not be as effective as she thought. Momonga was more than happy to answer all her questions about what he was doing.
'So all his servants are eager to do his bidding but same as mine they are too stubborn to listen to his suggestions.' She mused as she watched Momonga argue with more than one faction leader about decreasing work hours and taking more frequent breaks.
"So you will not let me fight Sebas?" Milim asked once again on day five. "I will not back down until you let me."
"How about we come to a different agreement? I could let you interact with Sebas on a more regular basis but it can't involve fighting." Momonga proposed. 'If I give in and let her fight soon enough she would want to challenge everyone.'
"But I want to see how strong he is. I have not fought anyone in a while!"
"Didn't you spar with Aura?"
"That doesn't count. We were just playing."
'I know this is a huge risk but Veldora trusts she won't be our enemy.' Momonga mused. If he would bring Milim into Nazarick she could theoretically find a way back there by brute forcing past all defenses.
'Wait I have not seen her teleport or use any kind of transportation magic. She just flies everywhere. Could it be that she can't teleport?'
"Milim I have a question for you… can you teleport?"
"Why do you need to know, ha? It's not like teleporting is that big of a deal. Flying is much better anyway!" Milim instantly replied in a very defensive tone.
'She can't teleport. I guess if she truly wanted to harm us we might not even be able to stop her anyway. I still don't know where her upper limit is. It clearly goes beyond everyone else by a wide margin. In the worst case scenario, her power is truly infinite.'
"If you promise to not seriously harm him, I could offer another opponent."
"Who? And don't offer to fight her!" Milim pointed at Rubedo who was standing next to the maid group near the door.
"Not her. The elemental you wanted to fight when you first arrived."
"Uuuh!" Milim squealed and jumped to her feet. "Let's go!"
Momonga chuckled at her childish antics and teleported with her to the fourth floor of Nazarick.
Organizing a fight with Gargantua was not an easy feat but it would give a valuable insight into what Milim was capable of.
With a promise that Milim would not seriously harm the massive elemental, Momonga put a multilayer shield around the small island he resided on and watched from outside.
Milim's speed and strength were beyond impressive. No matter how hard he tried Gargantua could not land a hit on her, while Milim slammed her fists into the elemental with such force that the entire floor shook.
Even within the first minute or so, it became glaringly obvious that Milim was capable of exerting just enough force to harm the elemental but not overly so.
Contrary to what her impatient and somewhat explosive personality implied she was capable of perfectly controlling her power.
After about five minutes of fighting, she started to become careless and Gargantua finally managed to hit her back with full force sending the petite demon lord into collision with the ground. Yet Milim managed to stop her momentum and went on the offensive with a loud laugh.
'It was enough to damage her!' Momonga noticed that her exposed shoulder and face had scratches and bruises. It was no surprise that they healed almost instantly as |Ultraspeed Regeneration| was common among powerful entities.
The fight predictably ended in her favor as after half an hour Gargantua started to run low on magicules and needed to stop. Once Momonga canceled the shield, she landed next to him with a huge smile on her face.
"That was awesome."
"Was this enough?"
"What do you mean?" Milim asked.
"Was this fight enough to not demand a fight with Sebas?"
"I guess… but… but I want to have more fights. This was so much fun." Milim said as her smile faded.
"I think that can be arranged. Let's say, once a month."
"Only once a month? But… but-!" Milim looked at Momonga with big, glistening eyes. When he didn't give in, she just said, "Once a month will be fine."
'I guess I could use her for testing purposes. She no doubt can take the full brunt of an ultimate skill.' Momonga mused as he brought Milim back to Tempest's castle.
Proofreading by Sad_Smiles, alassandro, I AM THE STRING CUTTER, Abyssalidiot, Kazuma, and Visur Nyxan.
AN: Thank you for reading the story, and if you have caught up to the latest chapter, you can check out my other work or join my discord server (Link is in my profile) where additional chapters are available.