After receiving a call from Nell, I left home early the next day.
After sneaking out of the nearest teleportation door to the Kingdom, I got on Rir, which I brought with me as usual, and headed for the royal capital along a secluded road.
At first, I was going to leave Enne behind since I wasn't expecting a battle, but she said to me with a stern look, "…I still have not forgotten when master was kidnapped before" to which Lefi added, "That fool tends to get involved in many things, Enne, you must protect him" so I had no choice but to bring her with me.
Also, Layla and Lyuu asked me, "Yuki, should we prepare enough food for the next few days? It may come handy in case of an emergency…" "Master, you put all the important things in your item box, right? I'd like you to confirm everything!" to which I showed them the contents of my item box.
Illuna and Shii also asked, "Onii-chan, are you sure you're okay? Please be sure to return home, okay?" to which I replied, "I am strong, so you don't have to worry about it".
As a matter of fact, I have been noticing such a trend every time I go out for a while now, but lately I felt like my family members have become even more overprotective of me.
…Well, I do realize that I had also been worrying about them a lot lately, so I couldn't really say anything about it.
I had gotten used to going to the royal capital like this, and after about two hours of running, the outer walls of the royal capital became visible in the distance.
From here, it would be impossible to go unnoticed, so I made Rir proceed slowly so as not to frighten the humans while I kept my gaze single-mindedly on the surroundings.
After reaching the huge gate of the outer wall, I was soon led into the royal capital by the soldiers waiting for my arrival there.
With a tense expression, they told me that they had received a message from the Hero. They were told that the Demon Emperor would be on his way here and that as soon as I arrived, they were to lead me to a reception-like room in a nearby building, and Rir was also with me but smaller.
It seemed that Nell was already on her way here as she arrived in less than 10 minutes.
"Hey, Oni-san! Sorry, I made you wait a bit."
"No, it's okay. You're probably busy right now."
I left the building with her and we both rode on Rir, which I made bigger again.
Me in the front, Nell in the back.
"Right, the elves are also here, and I'm also here to deal with any trouble as well. They are so respectful of me though that it's a little embarrassing." (Nell)
"Hahaha, well, you did help the elves a lot during the last war, didn't you? You are a hero after all." (Yuki)
"Yes, I'm the hero who got captured by the Demon King! How scary is that?" (Nell)
Nell said as she laughed and hugged me from behind.
Her fragrance wafted through the air and the feel of her soft body was pleasant.
"Oh, I'm scary, so scary. I'm gonna have to cage you up a lot more, so you will not become an enemy of me!" (Yuki)
"Fufufu, I told you, didn't I? I'm looking forward to you trying it." (Nell)
While continuing to play with each other, we proceeded through the royal capital.
We soon arrived at the royal castle in the center of Alshir, the royal capital, and were immediately ushered inside, where Nell led me to a place that looked like a conference room.
There were soldiers standing by the wall and a man and a woman facing each other across the table.
There, King Reyd Glorio Allysia of the Kingdom of Allysia and Queen Naphthalese Faraye of the Elves.
"Demon King, it has been a long time."
"Oh, it's been a long time. Welcome."
I also returned greetings to the two, and together with Nell, who came with me, we chatted for a while about what was going on.
We talked about each of us, our countries, and the current situation.
Well, I guess that was as far as the greetings go.
"So, you have something to tell me?" (Yuki)
"Yes, I have some matters to discuss with you. The world is in a time of great change. There are airships developed by humans, the world's divides are weakening, and interactions between humanoid races are increasing. Then the next thing we need is entertainment." (Queen Naphthalese)
"Ah, Bread and Circuses."
(T/N: Bread and circuses is a metonymic phrase referring to superficial appeasement.)
That sounded like a word that was originally used in a judgmental way, but I guess it was actually necessary.
It was something we needed to have in order to live happily day by day.
"Oh, that's an interesting way of putting it. Well, as far as food is concerned, since transportation by airship is expected to improve the situation, we have to think about entertainment. So, I've decided to organize a festival for all humanoid races together."
"Oh…! That's great, that's very exciting."
A joint festival with other races.
It was a great opportunity to interact with other cultures, and it sounded like a lot of fun.
"But as we were planning this, Finar had a few words with me. [Looking ahead, I would like to add more elements to the festival]."
"Elements?"
Naphthalese nodded and said, "What what we would like is – a proxy battle… or something."
"…I see."
With that one word, I understood what the Leaders were thinking.
"It's probably because of the Demon Race's fighting instinct… I guess that couldn't be helped with them."
"Mm. Just recently a great war took place and ended in our victory. Therefore, all races are satisfied now except some people from the Rogard Empire…but that will change as time goes by. However, the Demon Race, in particular, has a strong sense of value that power is everything. Finar has been thinking on how to deal with it, but it will take at least a hundred years to solve that problem."
The natural instincts of living creatures did not change so easily.
In this world, the natural environment was more severe than in my previous life, and because of this, no race could escape from "fighting instinct," which was strongly embedded in them, especially for the Demon Race.
The demon race had a strong tendency to be like that, but having seen the changes of people in my previous life, I was sure that other races could also change in time, albeit slowly.
There was also the fever of having won a war, but that too would cool off at some point.
But a proxy battle for the festival, huh? I could think of something…
"So we need some sort of competition?"
"You're very perceptive. A tournament would be fine…but we wanted to make it a little more different than just simple battles. However, in a joint competition with other races, there will inevitably be advantages and disadvantages due to differences in ability. We were discussing what to do about that."
After the Elf Queen, King Reyd followed.
"As Your Highness Naphthalese said, Humans and Elves do not stand a chance in a competition of physical abilities such as running and jumping. It would be better if the competitions were more tactical…but for now, we are thinking of having a competition which involves both magical and physical abilities. That way, all races can still be in the competition."
"What do you think, Demon Lord? Do you have any good ideas?"
I thought about what they said for a moment.
A competition with the nature of a proxy battle.
When I heard that, what came to my mind first was sports. And the Olympics.
The Leaders were thinking of creating something equivalent to that.
However, in this world, there were no easy-to-understand ball games, but they did have a lot of simple physical competitions, such as athletic competitions, weight lifting, track and field events.
When I asked Layla about it, she told me that the most popular among them regardless of race were competitions in which they fought each other.
That was interesting, but in such a game where physical ability was highly involved, as the King said, it would be difficult for a human or other weaker humanoids to win.
In other words, it would become something like a battle between Lefi and I.
There would be times when I could beat her, but it was only when she was not familiar with the game or its tactics yet.
…Yes, I do know of many competitions where you could win by understanding the tactics even if there was a difference in physical ability.
In this case, I had to think of ones that could be played by a group of people, rather than those that could be played by individuals.
Soccer, baseball, and basketball come to mind first… Hmmm…
If the rules of games such as soccer, baseball and basketball become widespread, they would probably become well-known and really popular like in my previous world, but it would still take them time to spread.
It would be nice to have the first glorious event here, but…well, for now, maybe I should take this opportunity to teach the concept of the games themselves.
And I would be happy if the magic of this world could be combined with the games and modify them to something unique to this world.
Eventually, if a professional sport could be created for each race, that would be best. I've got a lot of free time, and so I could watch every game.
However, as someone who had experienced playing sports in my previous life, I knew that sports wasn't simply kicking a ball or throwing it, and since I was only an amateur who liked to watch sports and didn't really have in-depth knowledge about it, I could only teach them the bare minimum of the sport.
To make the game interesting to watch, it would be better for players to know some formations that become well known in my previous world, but since I didn't know that much, I had to let the guys in this world figure it out for me.
In this case, would rugby or football be more suitable?
Of course, games like rugby and football also had complicated rules that could be troublesome for amateurs. But wait, that might actually make things more interesting in how the games would be played.
However, the strategy on how to carry a ball in their hands, running to bring it to the goal, and most of all, physical confrontation while in a formation might be easier for people in this world to understand from the beginning.
I think the people who would participate in these competitions might be soldiers or people who make their living in bloody battles, so they might like such things.
Unlike other competitions, there would be a lot of physical contact in rugby and football, so it would be very exciting.
Well, it would be more or less just for my taste!
It was the same with professional wrestling and martial arts, but when big men really clash with each other, that shows a powerful image.
But, when it came to scrums and line clashes in rugby, I guess humans wouldn't stand a chance against the physically powerful races.
Humans were capable of a lot of things.
They have dexterity, a certain amount of magic, and above all, wisdom.
They demonstrated their true value especially in group battles, in which they could be considered strong enough for other races to take notice of them.
Weak humans have been able to survive and continue to make their presence felt as a part of the humanoid races because they have compensated for their differences in ability by focusing on their wits and using different fighting styles, such as formations.
However, they lacked strength, especially in terms of "force". They could be considered really weak.
The same was true for the elves.
The elves were able to compete with other races because of their superior magic, but in terms of physical strength, they were even weaker than humans.
I would like to see elves playing rugby, though the picture was quite surrealistic.
…When I thought about it this way, I realized that the demon race was strong.
Dwarves and Beastmen excelled in strength, but their magical abilities were not so good.
I did not know if this was the reason, but I got the impression that they were a little inferior in terms of brain power.
Compared to these races, the demon race was the most chaotic, and although it was difficult to generalize them, they were basically stronger physically and had better magical abilities.
They could compete with Dwarves and Beastmen in terms of strength, and like the Elves, they could control magic at will.
However, because of their small number of members and their lack of cohesion, and because of the way they think, they were never able to win any wars… If a wise King like Finar were to make a serious attempt to conquer the world, it would not be easy for him to accomplish, but it would certainly be a difficult task for other races to fight back against him if all the demon races moved under his command.
Well, thinking ahead, Demon King Finar might have already realized that it would be a bad idea in the first place, which was why he was simply ruling his domain properly while acting as my black-hearted councilor when he had the time.
Well, considering the different characteristics of different races, I felt like it would be better to divide the games based on race instead of ranks, but that would move far away from our intended goal.
If the goal was to have a "proxy battle," it would be better to have each race compete on their own terms… But if the competition were to be based on something else, such as F1 or bicycle racing, the differences in physical abilities might become irrelevant.
This world was a world with magic, and personally, I would like to see a "Vehicle Race" of some sort.
If I were to think realistically, horses… that would be horse racing, but it might also be fun to watch it as a competitive event.
Other than that, maybe a monster race?
…Sounds good and fun. It would be exciting to see the fastest monsters in their respective ranks competing against each other.
It would also be fun to have them compete in an exhibition match, regardless of the difference in skill level. I would love to have our Rir participate.
No, no, no, wait, calm down. My thoughts have strayed too far.
If we considered it as mere entertainment, that could be possible, or rather, I would like to propose it, but what we needed right now was a competition among humanoid races…
…This was a tough one.
"…I have a lot of ideas, but for now, I'll tell you both what competitions I can think of. Then you can consider what to do with it."
Saying so, I took a whiteboard out of my item box.
"What's that?"
"It's a writing board. You can write on it and then erase it… Uh, well, it's a tool for explaining things. It's hard to explain what I am thinking if I don't make it visually clear."
"…It looks pretty handy, but do you always carry something like that around with you?"
"Huh? Oh, yes. It is very convenient after all."
One of the Demon Lord's secret tools, a whiteboard!
The Demon King always went all out when explaining things to someone, so he had to carry something like this…
Incidentally, I didn't know why Nell was muttering with warm eyes, "Oni-san, you haven't gotten over your habit of putting everything in the item box", though.