I have no words left.
After I woke up, I looked outside the cave and the moon shone brightly in the nighty sky.
I sure slept a lot. I didn't plan on sleeping for 'real'.
..That's bad. I should have just used my 'high uncommon healing potion' that would have been better.
Why am even bothering with not using them as I please? I should take it as a lesson.
For now, it's okay.
'Where is Demon lord?'
As if in response to my thoughts Demon lord appeared in front of me.
"Hey, no beasts around?" I asked unable to see any beasts with her.
Guess, no sparring partner.
"I tried to look but.. you are just too weak. I don't think any beasts here would be defeated by anyone who isn't at least a B ranker" She shrugged.
"Understandable. Let's go back. Today was a waste of a day." I replied..doesn't she already know about my rank and her beasts?
...
Well, guess that's my confirmation of how much I have influenced her mind.
"Well, it's time to go back," She said with a sigh.
I nodded.
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"What happened to you?"
"Who has the galls to hurt my maid?"
I couldn't help but ask when I saw Liza covered in bandages from head to toe, demon lord was the same.
But what surprised me more was the teenage onee-san, I had initially thought it wasn't consensual but it seems I was wrong. She looks worried, very much, unhealthily so.
"In these last few days, there have been multiple successful attacks on breeding farms and prisons in other continents."
Other continents, of course, that's what happens when you have the whole world in your palm, you can't manage them alone
Well, seems like Elina is doing just fine with the information I gave her.
Now that they have increased their manpower considerably, I very much hope for large-level battles to happen.
I, of course, will be on the sidelines, stealing the kills of high-rankers.
My precious Exp.
This is just lovable. Things are so easy when you have seen the game walkthrough already or read the fandom page. You can plan things out and make it look so easy.
...But how did any of it involve Liza's injuries?
I waited for Liza to continue.
"I decided to go and check for mysel-"
"And you returned like that? An SS+ ranker?" Demon lord said interrupting Liza in the middle as she shook her head
...SS+ ranked as a maid.
I also shook my head like the demon lord albeit for a different reason.
"I have no excuses," Liza said, her head hung low
"Did you at least capture them? If you killed them that's fine too" With her eyebrow arching, the demon lord asked
"..."
Oof, my condolences Liza.
Understanding the meaning of Liza's silence, the Demon lord let out a sigh as she rubbed her temples.
It's demon stuff, guess, I should go and draw some manga while my system brings me information on what's actually happening, I do have a rough idea but not exact details.
Elina, you are doing a good job but.. the fact that you just somehow made it possible to deal with an unexpected visitor that is Liza ..just how good are things on your side?
Rescuing people from farms and prisons is as easy as pie if you have a perfect blueprint of the location.
But it also means you will face problems if unexpected things happen.
Liza is the demon lord's personal maid, ain't no way she is weak. It's not only about being an SS+ ranker but her fighting skills and expertise should give Liza a huge advantage.
So, how did Liza end up being the one to run with her tail tucked between her legs?
...or
Liza wasn't an unexpected variable, she was lured.
Ah, damn.
Of course, people have brains.
The rough structure of my plan was to give people a blueprint to help increase their hope and morale so that they finally decide to go for the damn war instead of being sneaky all the time.
War needs to break out for me to kill high-rankers with ease.
I, of course, haven't planned any details or how things will work out.
And someone now is filling those spots.
Well, not bad, I guess.
Killing one of the closest aid of the Demon lord is one way to declare war on her face.
I wanted to know how Liza managed to escape, depending on her answer I could try to think of what's going to happen next.
Was Liza able to escape because they wanted her to or did she really manage to escape?
Well, it didn't matter. I can just make my system stalk every damn one of them and have their plans in the palm of my hands in a matter of minutes.
My OP stalker system is the best.
"Well, you should go take a rest ...after you bring me my copies of my manga that I asked you to make"
"What an asshole!" demon lord said trying to make a shocked expression in a most exaggerated manner, her hands covering her open wide mouth.
Is she still hung up on that?
Also, you look like an idiot.
Ignoring her, I worked on the manga and of course, tried to control the water that my feet were touching to raise my proficiency.
Not liking my response, the demon lord let out a grunt and decided to focus her attention on Liza.
"Liza report everything to me in detail once you recover... also, why haven't you used healing potion? Why bandages?"
Wait...
That is actually a valid question, I turned around waiting for a response just like the demon lord.
"....I just didn't want her efforts of bandaging me to go to waste"
"What...?" Demon lord asked with genuine confusion apparent on her face.
The other one-san had a ..blush on her face or was it an embarrassment of realizing that she could have used healing potion. Though, I can understand why it didn't occur to her.
Every other species except demons in this place are slaves and who give slaves healing potions, so whenever they are injured they use natural methods instead of potions.
So things probably went like this - Liza leaves this place- then she returns with injuries- onee-san sees Liza's injuries - gets worried- and starts bandaging completely forgetting healing potion exists- all the while Liza simply watches Onee-san with a smile (probably)
Still.. Liza, between loving someone, simping over them, and being straight-up idiot. I wonder, which one are you?
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The days continued to pass by.
My swordsmanship training course ended. I am almost done with learning the dagger course.
In simple words, I have made a lot of progress.
clung!
"Well, a day or two for you to start working on hand-to-hand combat and that wouldn't take more than 2 or 3 days since you are already good enough with it," Demon said deflecting both my daggers.
What do you know? I am dual-wielding daggers!
"You say that but I haven't won against you, not even once," I said as I leaped backward, creating enough distance.
Look, I know I can't win against her, she is an SSS+ ranker but we are talking about skills here. Despite learning everything from her I can't beat her even in terms of raw skill.
"That's only natural, I haven't taught you everything, so you are not on my level. If I had to say, 25 percent is all you learned." She said as she kicked off the ground with a sudden burst of speed.
Since she is restricting herself to my rank I am able to see her attacks and respond to them.
"That's what I don't get, what's with this half-assed training?" I asked as I brought both the daggers closer to my chest, using them to block off her attack.
"It's not my fault that your rank is measly F-, if you want to learn more from me you have to be a higher ranker. I can't simply teach you something that requires more strength and speed than you can exert" She said as she disappeared from my sight and appeared at the top of my head, giving me a damn roundhouse kick, right at my head.
For a second, I felt like everything went blank and my grip on my daggers loosened enough for me to drop them as I also fell to the ground.
'Eligibility criteria is fucking annoying!'
I thought, clutching my head as I tried to get up only to realize my head was spinning.
"Why the head? You could attack somewhere else"
I asked trying to stand properly.
"Last time I tried to attack there you said the same thing." She said looking down there as she shook her head and continued "Stop making excuses, an enemy won't stop attacking your weak and defenseless parts just because you don't like it"
What excuse!?
You don't attack someone's balls! That's common sense! You demon!
I still remember sacrificing my arm to save my little brother. My arm which was twisted in ways that shouldn't be possible got healed using my potion.
The pain I felt was real.
Just thinking about what would have happened if I didn't sacrifice my arm scares the shit out of me.
"Whatever, I still want you to show me all the things even if I can't perform all that stuff right now," I asked, I can remember all the moves and learn to perform them myself.
"Did you not hear me? You lack speed and strength for them, your rank is low, what I mean to say is, you can't learn something that you won't even be able to see"
Ah, that makes sense.
It makes so much sense that it's kind of annoying.
"Well, that sucks."
I sighed, disheartened.
On the bright side, I think I can definitely say despite not learning everything I am pretty much a pro at handling scythes, swords, and daggers.
In this world, pro doesn't simply mean normal but ...skills to be able to split the damn river in two, of course, you need a high rank behind your techniques which I currently lack.
The fact that my rank is the only thing stopping me from splitting the damn river in two goes to show that despite not getting a complete course from her, I am already at a pretty monstrous level.
...Though, if I got the complete course, man I wouldn't have to worry about a single thing.
Well, guess I will have to create my own moves from here on out.
"You know, you can just learn everything from me if you stick with me until you are a higher ranker," the Demon lord said breaking me from my inner thoughts.
"That is true but I only got like 40 days. I will be leaving after then"
40 days left to complete the quest, 40 more days to keep Demon lord away from having any thoughts of destroying the world.
After that? Yeah, go ahead. Do whatever.
Why should I deal with another world's Demon lord!?
And it's a world inside a hidden dungeon, definitely not my problem!
"Where are you going after 40 days anyway?" I could feel the anger and disappointment in her voice.
Ah, well, it was only natural. I have spent almost 2 months with her at this point. We lived in the same room, ate together, trained together (I am the only one getting trained), did experiments related to my 'energy' and 'psyche' powers, drew manga, she read my manga.
We have basically spent almost 2 months like we were attached at the hip... if that's the right term, damn can't google it.
And now it was coming to an end.
That's right.
And since it's coming to an end, it's only natural for me to get my Exp.
At best, there's only a week's worth of things that the Demon Lord can teach me. After that, because of my low rank, she couldn't teach me anything else.
You see, I am almost 25 percent done and not turning it into 100 percent would be pretty disheartening and everyone knows the initial stages are easy, the real deal is always what comes after!
'Time for things to get rolling'
I thought as Liza appeared before us, her ragged breathing showed the urgency of the situation.
"M-my queen, t-they have declared a war" At those words, Demon lord's usual unconcerned eyes had a sharp glint.
Since the day Liza came back, the attack reports have been only increasing, the demons who have once managed and conquered the areas around the world were getting pushed back and killed.
In normal circumstances, nothing like this would have happened if I had come here directly to the demon lord after leaving the prison.
A war can't happen unless both parties have something that they could use to put up a fight.
And I gave that 'something' to Elina.
Perfect blueprints helped them increase their manpower, places where beasts were controlled by demons, places to hide, and pathways that would lead to the treasury of demons.
Elina is an earnest kind type, even if she herself can't formulate plans she will do everything to make sure she can give the information to someone who can.
And she did.
Didn't I say at the beginning? With Elina, it would be a breeze.
You might ask why would they launch a war instead of trying to stabilize themselves right now. It's because, that would be troublesome for me.
Well then, time to get started farming the EXP.
"Hey, Demon lord? Wanna know their attack plan and formation?"
I had already asked my op stalker system to bring me the information.
I am a guy who can't stand unfairness. That's why it's only natural to help her out too.
I am just being fair.
That's all.