Editing Shinmai Maou no Keiyakusha:Volume 5 Chapter 2 (section)

===Part 1===

After meting out pleasure as a punishment to Maria and Kurumi, Basara and Lucia returned to the room Mio and Yuki were waiting in together.

--Maria and Kurumi have been sent to another room, and will return to this room once they have gotten enough rest.

The intense climaxes has broken up Kurumi’s consciousness, and it seems that the lingering aftertaste of the bliss Basara had given Maria were still intense. As the both of them hadn’t made the Master-Servant Contract yet, both Mio and Yuki will likely activate the curse due to jealously if Maria and Kurumi were to be brought back to this room in their current states. Mio is the only daughter of the Demon Lord Wilbert, who is looked upon as a princess by the Moderates Faction; thus, things like subjugating Mio to deactivate the curse when they had just arrived here needs to be avoided.

''…Also,''

Since the Moderates were of course made up of Demons only, there must still be quite a number whom still hate the Heroes, it wouldn’t be safe to leave a defenseless Kurumi alone in a room. Additionally, though it’s not something to be worried about – by taking care of Kurumi, Maria can also get rid of any potential thoughts of leaving them. Although he thought that what he had done just now was probably enough to make Maria realise how important she was to him, she wouldn’t have been in so much emotional pain if her regrets were so easy to be rid of, so this is some insurance. And right now—

“—I’m sorry, for coming back so late.”

Basara said while opening the door. He saw Mio and Yuki having tea, and Zest went to wait by the wall when he entered the room.

However – likely because she had foreseen Lucia coming over to scold her for letting Basara use her spatial tunnel, Sheera is nowhere to be seen, but there is currently another person in the room. Probably here on Sheera’s behalf, an old male demon with a long white beard was currently having tea with Mio and Yuki.

“<nowiki>------</nowiki>”

Lucia who had showed no reactions even when Basara had intruded in on her office, suddenly tensed up visibly when she saw that aged demon, and her expression slightly became solemn. Lucia’s nervous reaction--

''…Who is that?''

--made Basara understand that the person was definitely not someone normal. Although he was happily speaking with Mio and Yuki, that’s likely because of them being on guard.

“Ah, Basara… --Welcome back.”

Seeing that Basara had returned, Mio became at ease; but once she realised the one behind him was Lucia and not Maria or Kurumi, she raised an eyebrow, like Yuki.

“Basara… Why is Maria not back with you?”                    “Didn’t Kurumi go after you?”

Basara went towards them, and answered

“They’re fine. Maria’s problem has been resolved, and she will be back a while later.”

“Resolved… Are you sure?”

Mio glanced at Lucia, and returned her sights back to Basara, and he nodded with a [Yes].

“I see… That’s great.”

Mio patted her chest and sighed in relief, and Yuki too became relieved and said no more. Thus – it was Basara’s turn to ask questions. Standing beside the table, he asked:

“Excuse me, may—“

''I know who are you?'' But without a chance to finish his question, the answer came from his side.

“—Klaus-sama, why are you here?”

Lucia asked with a tone much colder than Basara’s, to which the one known as Klaus smiled and replied:

“Oh ho, Lucia-dono… Why do you seem so surprised? Is something wrong?”

“Don’t mind it, this is just a coincidence. I had heard that someone had seen Maria in the city, so I came here to take a look. Although age has already began creeping up on me, it seems that my intuition is still in good order. Speaking of which, Lucia-dono doesn’t seem to be really sincere; Mio-sama has come to visit the Demon Realm, but yet you didn’t notify me?”

“…Ramsas-sama ordered me to keep it a secret before he returns.”

“I see… It really does seem to be something that he would say.”

Smiling, Klaus’s line of sight then shifted from Lucia to Basara--

“So you are Basara-dono… that Jin·Toujou’s son?”

And he stretched out his hand towards him, offering a handshake.

“I apologize for introducing myself this late -- this old man is known as Klaus, nice to meet you.”

“Nice to meet you too… I am Toujou Basara.”

Seeing Basara return his handshake, Klaus’s smile widened.

“Mnn… you really do look like ''him''.”

“You know my dad?”

Deducing from his demeanour and Lucia’s reactions and wordings, Klaus seems to hold a relatively high position within the Moderates Faction. For someone like him to have met Jin before, Basara was somewhat surprised.

“Not really… It’s just that in the Great War, I’ve only caught some glimpses of Jin. Ara, back then, your father was someone who gave us lots of headaches. The man known as the [God of War] back in those days, for his son to visit our city as a guest… I guess times must’ve changed a lot…”

Hearing Klaus say with a faraway look in his eyes, Yuki said with a low voice:

“Basara… He seems to have been Wilbert’s adviser in the past.”

"Wilbert’s adviser -- the one known as 『Virtuous Elder』?“

“Please, you’re flattering me. This old man is as you see right now, only just a plain old man. As I am relatively older than the others, I just give some of my humble opinion whenever someone comes to me asking for advice.”

Klaus modestly replied with a slight giggle.

''…Although I do know that he holds a pretty high position, I was not expecting for him to be one of Wilbert’s advisors.''

Since that is the case, it’s easy to imagine just how much weight his word carries in the Moderates Faction.

And from his attitude when speaking to Lucia--

''…He's probably one of those hoping for Mio to succeed Wilbert and become the new Demon Lord.''

Ramsas wants to extract Wilbert’s power within Mio’s body -- while Klaus’s standpoint on the issue was the exact opposite. With that, as someone serving under Ramsas, Lucia’s tenseness when speaking to Klaus is understandable. Just then--

“Speaking of which, why did you take our guests to a room used by our maidservants…? In such a shabby room, how do you expect for them to get proper rest?”


Clapping his hands after saying that, a few maidservants then entered the room.

“This old man has prepared a better room for our guests. Since Basara-dono has also returned, shall we go over now?”

With that, maidservants began moving their luggage. The colour of their attire were different from Lucia’s and Zest’s, which showed that they were indeed maidservants serving under Klaus. Seeing this, Lucia hurriedly said attempting to stop him:

“Klaus-sama, please hold on. It is Ramsas-sama’s will for them to stay in this room, if you act like that, I will be unable to—“

“--What are you talking about? When Ramsas-sama returns later, this old man here will report to him about it personally. Since the city is so big – there should be plenty of unused rooms much more suitable for Wilbert-heika<ref>His majesty</ref>’s sole daughter Mio-sama, is there not?”

Though her protest had been cut off mid-way, Lucia still stood firm.

“That is your decision alone, and that is completely unrelated to me. Providing reception to Mio-sama and the others is my responsibility.”

“Then the decision to allocate for them to use this room, was it Ramsas-sama own decision?”

Similarly, Klaus too refused to back down.

“You’ve already gotten the honour of welcoming Mio-sama, so at least leave their residences for the next few days to this old man. No need to worry, since everyone in this city already knows that this old man will never back down once he has decided on something, no matter who it may go against; so even if you fail to dissuade me, Ramsas-sama will not blame you for neglect of duty.”

“Klaus-sama…!”

With unspeakable anxiety, Lucia still continued opposing.

“Lucia-dono… What else do you still want nag at this old man about?”

“……!”

Those words silenced Lucia. Although she might very well be the aide of the Moderates Faction’s current leader Ramsas, that does not mean that she is the second in rank in the Moderates Faction; but instead, that old man before her is the one who had that very position instead.

Unable to stop him – having lost the initiative, Lucia could only just stand there, appalled and stunned.

“It seems that you now understand. As for Maria-dono and Yuki-dono’s sister who are currently resting in another room, I will be dispatching someone to bring them over later – with that, I’ll be taking my leave now.”

After saying so with a smile, Klaus then left with Mio and the others who had a somewhat awkward expression on their faces.

Standing by the wall, Zest became unsure of what to do, but—

“—you’ll go over with them. The one who ordered you to look after Basara-dono is Mother, so Klaus-sama wouldn’t make things difficult for you and Mother.”

“………Yes.”

Hearing Lucia’s words, Zest gave a slight nod before following after Basara’s footsteps.

And with that – only Lucia was left in that room.