◇Before the Dark Citadel◇
Hugi-Mugi, who should have been flying to Calgosi, landed on a
mountaintop not far from the Dark Citadel. On his back, the Dark One
Yuigarde regarded the building with plain irritation. His minion Phufun
pressed the magic ring on her finger to her lips, her expression grim.
"Calsi'im," she said, "what is happening in the Citadel?"
"Y-Yes, missus!" came the skeleton's voice through the magic gem on
the ring. "As soon as you all left, the rebel demons came to storm the Dark
Citadel! We, the Brave Remainder, have barricaded ourselves in the throne
room, but we can't keep them out forever!"
Phufun massaged the bridge of her nose. Calsi'im the skeleton was in
charge of one of the Citadel's defense teams. His team, the "Brave
Remainder" they called themselves, was composed entirely of old demons
who could no longer fight. Internally, Phufun was fuming that such a
useless team would be their last holdouts.
We have to hurry, she thought. They won't last long... Perspiration
dripped down her face as she considered her options, when Yorminyt the
Serpent Princess walked up next to her. She looked at the magic ring she
had been using to communicate with Calsi'im.
"Oh?" she said. "What isss that fassscinating little thing?"
"Huh?!" Phufun started. "O-Oh! It's something I picked up when I was
infiltrating a human city. It's a very helpful magic item that allows you to
have conversations over long distances. Thanks to this, I can learn about the
rebels' movements as they happen."
Just as she said, thanks to the magic ring, they were able to hear from
the demons on watch that the rebels had attacked the castle as soon as it
happened, and hastily turned the group right around. The ring, incidentally,
was something the Fli-o'-Rys General Store had sold as a test release and
was still observing to see if it was ready for market.
"But what's with that?!" Yuigarde shouted. "Coming to attack right
when I'm gone. Lucky sons of bitches, I suppose! Well, I won't let them
have their run of the place! Gah ha ha!"
Yorminyt closed her eyes tight in exasperation, tilting her head to the
side. "Lucky sssons of bitchesss"?! she thought. How can that sssimpleton
not realizzze that their plan wasss to attack when he wasss gone. Thisss isss
exactly why he'sss a problem. She turned to look at the Dark Citadel. Which
meansss it'sss sssafe to asssume that sssomeone hasss infiltrated the Dark
Citadel. She delivered a loud sigh. An enemy demon would have never
made it inssside back when Lord Gholl wasss ssstill with us. Hisss
confederate Uliminasss and her Sssilent Lisssteners would find them right
away and have them executed... Not that there were demonsss who would
rebel againssst Lord Gholl in the firssst place. She looked back at Yuigarde
and sighed again, even more loudly. None except usss... We truly made a
terrible misssstake.
The Infernal Four: the lamia Yorminyt the Serpent Princess, the
doppeladler Hugi-Mugi, the lichsteed Sleip, and the lupine Fengaryl.
Fengaryl had died, leaving only three seats filled. When Yuigarde had
launched his ploy to usurp Gholl as Dark One, the Infernals took his side.
But they did not do this out of a preference for Yuigarde. They thought it
would serve as a wake-up call to Gholl, who was refusing to bring his army
to attack the humans and was behaving in ways that made demons think
that perhaps he was considering making peace. However, when he received
Yuigarde's challenge, Gholl abdicated the throne without a fight. Yuigarde
became Dark One before the three knew what was happening.
Yuigarde had launched an all-out attack on Klyrode Castle, the greatest
bastion of humanity, and was utterly defeated. Afterward, demons
everywhere began to yearn for the days of Gholl, and rebellions began to
spring up. Yorminyt was in the process of realizing that she was one of the
parties most responsible. She sighed.
"Huh?" Yuigarde glared over in Yorminyt's direction. "Why d'ya keep
sighing, Yorminyt? Something up?"
"No, Dark One," said Yorminyt. "It'sss nothing." She kept her eyes
fixed on the Dark Citadel. "But I mussst hurry, or elssse the Dark Citadel
will fall completely under their control. I ssshall go ahead and ssstrike
sssome terror into the rebelsss." As she was speaking, Yorminyt's lower
body transformed back into its natural form as a lamia, and she raced into
the forest at top speed. Yorminyt hissed. "He'sss going to realizzze sssooner
or later..."
In no time at all, Yorminyt had reached the front gate of the Dark
Citadel. It seemed to have already fallen—the gate was defended by
demons who were not soldiers of the Dark Army. Yorminyt slithered
straight up, revealing herself.
"Y-Yorminyt?!"
"It's the Serpent Princess!"
"An Infernal is here!"
The demons all started shouting at once as they rushed in to attack.
Yorminyt fixed them with a glare. "The Ssserpent Princesss will not fall to
rabble like you." She charged right back at the oncoming force.
As she charged, Yorminyt swung her tail at lightning speeds. "Gwaaah!"
the rebels cried out as they flew through the air. Her tail was thick and
sinuous, but it struck as fast as a whip, and sent every last one of her
assailants flying.
"Who'sss next?" Yorminyt's snake-like tongue flickered in and out of
her mouth as she stared down the remaining demons standing in front of the
gate. Her pupils were narrow and serpentine as she slithered along on her
tail. She was every bit as majestic as befits the one deemed the Serpent
Princess. As she slowly approached the gate, the guards shrunk away.
"H-Hey," a demon said, "there's no way we can take her, is there...?"
"We need to report to Master Zanzibar..." said another. "Tell him the
Infernals are back..."
The guard demons fled back inside the Dark Citadel with great haste,
and Yorminyt followed after them. She kept her distance, so as to not seem
like she was tailing them. All she had to do was follow, and they would take
her to their ringleader.
◇ ◇ ◇
"Gah ha ha!" Yuigarde the Dark One cackled as he watched Yorminyt
from the forest. "Check out Yorminyt! The old viper's already broken
through the gate! We gotta get inside too!" He followed her in through the
Citadel gate, deliberately stomping on the unconscious demons Yorminyt
had left strewn about. "I'll teach you to rebel against me!" he shouted.
Some of them screamed in agony as he trod over them. Yuigarde looked
down with a satisfied smile.
Seeing what was happening, Phufun hurried up to stop Yuigarde.
"Master," she said in an evident rush to get the words out, "I understand
how you feel, but please restrain yourself! Once these demons are arrested,
we are going to use the spell Subjugation and force them into the slave
battalions. Please, try not to injure them..."
Yuigarde glanced back at her out of the corner of his eye. "Keh. Fine,"
he spat. He gave a nearby rebel one last kick, sending the demon flying, and
marched on into the castle.
Once he had gone inside, Phufun gave a sharp whistle. At that signal, a
number of Dark Army loyalists assembled behind her. Phufun turned to
face the man and woman at their head. "Coqueshtti. Doctor Mephisto. Take
these rebels to the underground prison. I will see to their subjugation."
The two mad scientists—Coqueshtti, who looked like a charming little
girl, and Doctor Mephisto, who was a devil—bowed.
"Understood," said Coqueshtti.
"Understood, madame," said Doctor Mephisto.
They sent their minions to gather up the unconscious demons and drag
them off to the prison. This was Phufun's team. They were specialists who
worked in an underground laboratory, where they tended to the wounded
and researched ways to increase the power of the army's demons. They
were not fighters. When the rebels attacked, they had hidden themselves in
the forest in order to set up a field hospital and protect the secret data from
their experiments, and waited for Phufun's return.
As Phufun was watching her team, she heard Yuigarde's voice ring out.
"You punks! Who do you think you're messing with? Huh?!" A section of
the Dark Citadel shattered with a terrible sound.
"M-Master! No!" she called, running into the citadel after Yuigarde.
"Repairs to the Dark Citadel aren't cheap! Think about what you're—" She
heard another violent smashing sound as her master, heedless of her
warnings, broke another section of the building.
◇A Mountaintop near the Dark Citadel◇
"Master Zanzibar! Are you hurt?" Meiden the devil ran up to her fellow
devil Zanzibar's side. Zanzibar was clutching his shoulder in agony. His
face was pale as he gazed up at the Dark Citadel.
"Not badly..." Zanzibar said. "Only...I didn't expect the Dark Army to
return so soon..."
Zanzibar's strategy had succeeded. He'd lured the Dark One Yuigarde to
the Calgosi Coast and led his rebels to attack while he was away. Shortly
before, he had used his agents inside the Dark Citadel to spread the
misinformation that the Klyrode army was attacking from the south,
sending off the main force of the Dark Army and giving him a clear path to
take the citadel.
However, there were two things that he did not anticipate. First, he did
not expect such dogged resistance from the Brave Remainder, who'd stayed
behind when the main force was sent away under false pretenses and
barricaded themselves in the throne room. Zanzibar was aware of another
route which led into the throne room through a ventilation shaft that
connected to the space above the ceiling, but the Brave Remainder
destroyed that passage, preempting his attempt. The rebels tried all kinds of
strategies to drag the Brave Remainder out of the throne room, but the
holdouts kept the door shut tight, defending it for everything they were
worth.
His second miscalculation was that while his rebels were wasting time
dealing with the Brave Remainder, the Dark One Yuigarde returned faster
than Zanzibar had anticipated. Yorminyt of the Infernal Four led the charge
into the Dark Citadel and easily scattered the rebel forces. They were
overwhelmed, sending them scrambling away in a desperate retreat.
Zanzibar exhaled sharply in frustration. "Master Zanzibar," said Meiden,
looking at him with concern written on her face, "you mustn't do anything
reckless. You still have the wound that lamia woman gave you." True to her
words, green blood was oozing out of a wound in Zanzibar's stomach.
"Then it seems my pet strategy—my plan to take the citadel with only
my hand-picked loyal fighters—has ended in failure." He clicked his
tongue. "Loath as I am to admit it, it would have been better to bring the
whole rebel army to attack."
Meiden shook her head. "No, Master. If we had brought those savage
fools with us, they would have demanded a grand reward. It would have
made them proud and arrogant. From the long-term perspective, I believe
your strategy was best." She knelt before her master.
Zanzibar glanced at Meiden before looking back to the Dark Citadel.
"Well, be that as it may, the fact remains that we have lost. We must retreat
for now, but one day I will defeat him and reign as the new Dark One! I
promise you, Yuigarde, you will get what's coming to you. Just you wait."
Leaning on Meiden's shoulder for support, Zanzibar, the lord of the
devils, limped into the forest. The rebels who had managed to escape
followed after him. His plot to seize the Dark Citadel had ended in failure,
but word that the devils—the strongest single faction within the Dark Army
—had risen up in rebellion against the Dark One Yuigarde spread like
wildfire among demonkind.
◇The Calgosi Coast◇
Hero Gold-Hair gave the knights in the fast coach a big smile and a
hearty wave. "Thank you for everything!" he said good-naturedly.
The knights grinned and waved back. "Of course!" said one. "We help
each other out in times of trouble! The Klyrode army is always an ally to
the people!" The other knights all crowded around to see Hero Gold-Hair
off. Actually, they weren't looking at Gold-Hair—their attention was fully
focused on Tsuya who was standing beside him. During the trip, she had
time and time again carelessly bent over, giving the knights eyeful after
eyeful of her generous bosom. She really had ended up with them wrapped
around her little finger. Even now, they were staring at her with slackened
lovestruck faces as they waved.
"Let us know if you ever need anything, Tsuya!" said one of the knights.
"We'll help you out any time!" said another.
Tsuya smiled back at them like she always did, bowed deeply, and called
out, "Thank you so muuuch!" Naturally, when she did, she gave them
another peek at her cleavage. The knights clattered in their armor as they
leaned forward out of the carriage to get a better look.
Hero Gold-Hair interposed himself between Tsuya and the knights. He
was clearly positioning himself deliberately to block Tsuya from their line
of sight. "Well," he said, "we had best be off!" They took their leave, Hero
Gold-Hair pushing Tsuya along by the shoulders.
"Tsuya! I'll see you later!" a knight called.
"Come visit us any time!" said another. They kept waving, grins
plastered on their faces.
When they reached a turn in the road, Hero Gold-Hair let out a deep
sigh. "Finally!" he said. "I thought we'd never get away from those vile
louts."
"Huuuh?" Tsuya asked, still smiling, "Looouts? But they seemed like
such niiice peeeople!"
Hero Gold-Hair gave Tsuya the side-eye. Those knights were leering at
her breasts and butt the whole time! How oblivious is that girl?!
Tsuya noticed the look Gold-Hair was giving her. "Oh, nooo!" she cried.
"Did I meeess something uuup again? I had no ideeea!" She frantically
looked over her own body.
"Look, don't worry about it. Just act like you always do." Hero GoldHair patted Tsuya on the head. "More importantly, we need money! That's
what we should be focusing on."
"We dooo... We weren't able to seeell our stuff at aaall!"
"Oh, right!" said Hero Gold-Hair. "Those knights said that there's some
kind of tool—a Magic Sensor—that can tell right away if someone's selling
stolen goods!" he grumbled. "What a troublesome contraption. What
bastard came up with something like that..."
The Magic Sensor was a device Flio had invented to do something about
the recent flood of stolen goods and counterfeits that had store owners and
merchants' associations everywhere scratching their heads. Hero Gold-Hair
had no idea that it was the invention of the former Hero Candidate who was
summoned and deemed a failure that had him—who had fallen from his
place as the so-called strongest Hero in history all the way to becoming a
wanted criminal—even further in a bind.
"We have to find some kind of work..." Hero Gold-Hair sighed.
"I knooow..." said Tsuya, looking glumly at the remaining money in her
Bottomless Bag. "We're almost ooout of moooney..."
"Hey," came a man's voice from behind them, "are you two looking for
work?" Hero Gold-Hair and Tsuya turned around to see someone who
looked to be a middle-aged man. His skin was deeply tanned, and he carried
a steel plate slung over his shoulder.
"Hm?" said Hero Gold-Hair, folding his arms as he looked at the man.
He stood in front of Tsuya with his chest puffed out, covering her. "It's true
that we're looking for work, but..."
"Oh?" The man grinned at Gold-Hair's behavior. "Not bad!" he said.
"It's good for a man to make a point of protecting women. I think I like
you!" He pointed a finger at himself. "I'll give you a good job! Come with
me!"
"Hmph." Hero Gold-Hair gave the matter a bit of thought. "Fine," he
said. "We'll at least hear you out." He followed after the man, with Tsuya
clinging on to him. And the three made their way down the road.
◇The Dark Citadel—Throne Room◇
The Dark One Yuigarde sat on his throne, looking down at his underling
Calsi'im kneeling before him. "Good job keeping the throne room safe,
Calsi'im!" he said. "Gah ha ha!" Yuigarde was in a good mood. Zanzibar,
who had raised arms against him, was badly wounded and his forces had
been driven away.
Calsi'im lowered his head. "No, no! Any one of your servants would do
the same, Dark One!" Calsi'im was a veteran soldier, the oldest in the Dark
Army. He was so old, his bones so dry, he looked as though he might
crumble at a moment's notice. The others in his company were like him, old
enough to die at any given moment.
Yuigarde grinned. "Nah, it was huge! Holdin' off those devils without
any help. Well, the Infernal Four did, a bit. But Yorminyt couldn't even
capture that Zanzibar guy! And the rest were completely useless!" Yuigarde
turned his gaze to the side of the room where the Infernals were standing.
All three of them—Yorminyt the Serpent Princess, Hugi-Mugi, and Sleip—
were scowling.
"Oh, what," Yorminyt muttered under her breath. "The devilsss are the
ssstrongest in the Dark Army! And I, a sssingle fighter, fought my way
through and injured their commander. That should be a praissseworthy
performance!"
"If we had flown inside, we would have broken the castle, yes! Yes, the
castle broken!" Hugi-Mugi's heads whispered to each other. "We are only
suited to large-scale battles, yes! Yes, battles of large scale!"
Sleip's shoulders were heaving, his face wet with perspiration. He had
just come running back to the Dark Citadel from his encampment. By the
time I heard the news, Zanzibar was already gone! he thought. Don't be
ridiculous!
Yuigarde looked away from the three and back at the skeleton. "Now.
Calsi'im. I wanna give you a reward. Whaddaya want?"
Calsi'im raised his head at the Dark One's words. "Can I ask for
anything at all?"
"Yeah!" said Yuigarde. "Just name it!"
"Well, then..." said the skeleton. "Could I ask for a promotion?"
"A promotion?" Yuigarde rested his chin on his hand. "You're a captain
of the defensive reserve, right? Hrm... You want me to make you a
commanding officer?"
Calsi'im shook his head. "No, no, not a commanding officer." He looked
to his side, where the very aggravated Infernals were standing. Calsi'im
grinned brightly as he looked at them. "I know! Since Fengaryl died, his
seat has been empty... Oh, I would very much like to be made one of the
Infernal Four..."
"What?!" Yuigarde's eyes shot open wide. His smile vanished and his
face became a mask of pure rage. Calsi'im, however, was staring at the
Infernals with a big grin on his face. For a while, Yuigarde just glared. And
then, suddenly, he burst into an enormous bout of earnest laughter. "Pfft!
Bwah ha ha ha ha ha ha ha hah!" Yorminyt, the rest of the Infernal Four,
and everyone else in the throne room stared at him. "Hilarious!" Yuigarde
roared, grinning wildly. "All right, fine! I'll make you one of the Infernal
Four!"
Yorminyt and the rest of her colleagues watched on in awe. The throne
room was in an uproar. "Oh, splendid!" cried Calsi'im. "Well, then, excuse
me!" He took to his feet with evident effort, went over to where the Infernal
Four were waiting, and filed in behind the rest of them. "I'm quite old, so
you'll have to forgive me for sitting down!" He took a handkerchief out of
his bag, dusted off the floor a bit, and sat down with proper form.
"Wh-What are you trying to do, old man?" Sleip asked him, an
expression of disbelief on his face.
"Oho ho!" Calsi'im laughed. "Just looking out for the Dark Army,
young lad!"
And so, the skeleton elder Calsi'im shot up through the ranks, becoming
one of the Infernal Four—the very top of the Dark Army. The rebel spies
within the Dark Army transmitted the news promptly to their commanders,
and soon it was known among all demonkind.
◇Klyrode Castle—The Maiden Queen's Chambers, That Night◇
The Maiden Queen sat at her desk, silently writing, moving her pen at a
feverish pace. There had not been any large-scale invasions from the Dark
Army for some time, but Her Majesty still had hardly a moment to rest.
There were negotiations with neighboring countries to attend to, requests
for aid to answer, supplies that needed to be delivered, banquets to organize
in the honor of the knights returning from the front... And on top of the
military matters that consumed her time, there were her regular duties
involved in governing the country. There were all sorts of regular meetings
she had to prepare for and attend, conferences with merchants' associations
from all over the land...
Day after day she labored silently to govern the kingdom. In her father's
time, there had been aides to take care of all this, but they had been
implicated in corruption after looking the other way when the former King
appropriated the kingdom's wealth for his own use. On top of that, he was
discovered to have been diverting public funds to his own illegal
businesses. Dissatisfaction with the royal family had never been higher.
Moreover, he had mishandled the case of Flio, deeming him a failure and
banishing him without looking into the matter while declaring the utterly
useless Hero Gold-Hair to be the Hero, much to the cost of the crown's
prestige.
But fortunately for the Maiden Queen, right as these crimes were
coming to light, the Dark Army launched a massive attack on the Magical
Kingdom of Klyrode. Everybody had thought that it would be impossible
for her, inexperienced ruler that she was, to repel the attack—but they were
wrong. With doubting voices on every side, the Maiden Queen crushed the
Dark Army's attacking force marvelously. She perhaps had an easy fight of
it, as the Dark One Yuigarde had charged in blindly with no plan
whatsoever, but nonetheless her victory sent her popularity soaring through
the roof.
The Maiden Queen hadn't rested on her laurels, but pursued every
matter seriously and diligently, day after day. That was the Queen on whose
desk, next to a cup of tea, rested a plate on which sat some manner of baked
sweet.
"Well," said the Queen, "shall we stop there and take a bit of a break?"
She set her pen down and stretched her arms high above her head. She
assembled the papers into a neat and tidy stack, and set the plate with the
sweet in front of her. For a while she just admired it. It was a yellow cake,
glazed with a white icing. She took a small piece with her fork, and brought
it to her mouth. "Mmm..." she murmured, a big smile filling her face as she
chewed. "Delicious! Truly splendid!"
She could no longer stop herself. At first the Maiden Queen had used
her fork in a properly refined manner, but as she ate she became more and
more entranced until, after finishing off the last morsel of cake, she picked
up the plate itself and brought it to her mouth to lick clean. She sighed,
sinking into her chair, satisfied. "Oh, what a marvelous little treat..." She
picked up the teacup and sipped her tea. "I have so many onerous tasks, but
as fatigued as I am, the Fli-o'-Rys Company's new lembon cake always
perks me back up. Thank goodness for them." She gazed at the empty plate
as she drank her tea.
A few days ago, Rys had been making cakes with the rather excessive
lembon stash she had unwisely accumulated. Flio and everyone else in the
house had liked them very much, so she decided to make a day's worth of
cakes to sell. Flio had offered one to the Maiden Queen, and she liked it so
much that the next time she made an order from the Fli-o'-Rys Company,
she privately requested for some of those cakes to be delivered as well.
The Maiden Queen put down her cup. "I would love to eat a little more,"
she mused, "but were I to do that, I would have no lembon cake for
tomorrow. I shall have to restrain myself." She stood up. As she did, she felt
a strange sensation around her stomach. "Hm?" She narrowed her eyes,
fearfully stretching her right hand against her midsection. It didn't feel
right.
"I-It can't be..." Sweating nervously, the Maiden Queen rushed to the
mirror on her dresser and stripped down to her waist. Covering her breasts
with her hands, she looked in the mirror at different angles. She was
undeniably plumper than she had been half a year ago. Her breasts, which
she might have liked to be a little bigger, were the same as ever, but her hips
and waist had definitely grown.
The Queen had many ideas as to what might be the cause. She spent
every day from morning till night hard at work, while also attending
banquets for foreign emissaries or feasts for returning knights where she ate
a fair number of grand dishes and drank good liqueur. It seemed like there
were more such occasions every day. And when she worked, she ate those
lembon cakes... She was eating an unhealthy and unpredictable diet, and
was far too busy to get proper exercise. The results were before her eyes.
"How could I have let things become so dire..." she muttered, pressing her
hand against her waist, a cold drop of fearful sweat running down her neck.
Suddenly, the Maiden Queen laughed—a single amused chuckle. "What
do you know!" she said. "Not long ago I was too busy with governance and
the threat of the Dark Army to even have the time to worry about my
figure!" She gathered up the clothes she had cast off and put them back on.
"It is because the Dark Army has been hamstrung by uprisings within its
ranks. My elite forces and Lord Flio are more than capable of dealing with
the small skirmishes that pop up here and there. And with the Conversation
Gem Lord Flio made that allows me to contact him at any time and the
Magic Sensors taking care of the issues with stolen goods and counterfeits,
we are well enough secure. Secure enough for me to be bothered by my
waistline." She clasped her hands together and closed her eyes. "It can only
have been the will of the heavens that sent Lord Flio to our world in our
hour of need. Gods above, I offer you my most heartfelt gratitude." She
bowed her head in prayer.
After some time passed, she opened her eyes and looked up. "But that,
of course, does nothing to address the situation. Now, what shall I do... I
have heard it is quite difficult to lose weight in one's late twenties..."
The Maiden Queen returned to her desk, vowing to herself to cut
tomorrow's portion of lembon cake in half.