Editing Shinmai Maou no Keiyakusha:Volume 5 Chapter 2

==Chapter 2: Within Intertwining Thoughts==
===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.


===Part 2===

“My, I apologise for letting everyone experience that—“

Led by Klaus, he said to Basara and the rest.

“His majesty Wilbert passed away not many years ago, so not many people are really sure about whose name to call after ‘His Majesty’<ref>Something about honorifics denoting respect for a King/someone in a highest position of power. I improvised something similar in english</ref>… this is just too embarrassing.”

“May I ask… what kind of person was Wilbert-san?”

Basara asked. The information that Basara and Yuki knew were all from the mouths of the people in the [Village] who had taken part in the Great War. Wilbert had possessed the power to hold the Moderates Faction together and unite the whole of the Demon Realm for a period of time, yet he had chosen to withdraw his troops from the Human Realm and live a peaceful life in the Demon Realm, and had been called the strongest Demon Lord in history. 

However, even with the narratives from those people, that was no different from the lives of a noble person in a normal history textbook in the Human Realm; even after going into more details, all that would be known is their ranks and achievements – what kind of person the person in question were, will never be known. Hearing that question—

“—he was someone more valiant than anyone, yet more tender than anyone.”

Klaus answered while looking off at a faraway place in the air.

“In the past when the majority of the Demon Realm were completely fixated on getting revenge against the Gods who had exiled the Demons, your Human Realm became a good stronghold for our militancy for us to invade into the God Realm – until the point of time his majesty Wilbert appeared, where the situation changed.”

''Because—''

“He was a great negotiator who always thought about the weak and possessed an incomparable power, and he called for no more war and for peace… To not be bound anymore by our past shackles, to not seek revenge for our ancestors who were treated unfairly and with injustice, and to live for our present and our future and start creating happy days for all of us. Wilbert-sama’s will deeply moved us, giving a great shock to all of our hearts. Gradually, we supported him, and the number of people doing so increased – and in the blink of an eye, our Moderates Faction led by Wilbert-sama, successfully became the largest force in the Demon Realm.”

After that—

“His majesty announced the withdrawal of our troops in the Great War – so far, we were all just one step away from realising his majesty’s dream. Originally, our very first period of peace with no fighting at all was supposed to follow immediately after in the Demon Realm – however, fate is just too cruel.”

At that point, Klaus sighed before continuing:

“One day – Wilbert-sama came down with a serious illness.”

“…Serious illness?”

Basara asked.

“That’s right… Right to the end, all of us never found out just what illness that was, much less what caused it. It had slowly drained the Wilbert-sama who was known as the strongest Demon Lord of his power slowly day by day… up to the very last moment he drew his final breath. Following the time flow of your world, it would have happened approximately one and a half years ago.

“……………”

Klaus’s words, caused Mio’s expression to become sombre while she walked beside Basara. Learning about the cause of her father’s death – and knowing that Wilbert transferred his power to Mio while he was at death’s doorstep had indirectly caused the parents who had raised her to die before her eyes, the two emotions – sadness and sorrow, as well as countless other emotions, must now be swirling within her heart, Hence—

“<nowiki>------</nowiki>”

Without stopping or slowing down at all, Basara grasped Mio’s shoulders. As if to tell her, even if her blood or adoptive parents are no longer alive – her older brother is still right here by her side.

“…Mnn.”

Seemingly having understood Basara’s intentions, Mio then slightly leaned against Basara after letting out a small sound. Although it appears that Klaus had noticed their movements, he seemed to ignore it and didn’t turn to look back, and said:

“After Wilbert-sama passed on, both the Radical and Conservative Factions joined hands and crowned that young man known as Leohart as the new Demon Lord, while Wilbert-sama’s brother Ramsas-dono took up the responsibility of leading the Moderates Faction. However, we had never known that Wilbert-sama ever had a brother until that day, but since Ramsas-sama is a very daunting figure…”

Klaus let out a sigh—

“He had suddenly appeared in the city, most likely after finding out that Wilbert-sama became confined to bed with an illness. While that was still fine, the problem was that no one knew just what Wilbert-sama was even thinking, suddenly appointing that brother of his to take over the leadership of the Moderates Faction in his last words… and that Ramsas-dono had done just that; yet he had shown not a shred of grieve at the passing of his younger brother, and while repeatedly disregarding our protests, he had made decisions and orders which pained us, putting to waste Wilbert-sama’s kind thoughts and intentions for Mio-sama whom he had loved just as much as the Demon Realm. Many of the Moderates Faction who had found our calling thanks to his majesty’s way of thought, have been unable to accept Ramsas-dono’s personality and already left the Moderates Faction… We, who were once the largest power in the Demon Realm, have now been reduced to this current state.”

He spoke of the state of affairs after Wilbert’s death with a regretful expression.

“Lucia-dono, too, had also admired his majesty Wilbert… But ever since she became Ramsas-dono’s aide, she only follows his orders obediently.”

While leading them through a grand gallery three-stories high, Klaus continued:

“However -- for most of us, our loyalty towards his majesty has not reduced one bit over these years.”

As Basara, Mio, and Yuki stopped amidst following Klaus--

『————！』


They drew a breath simultaneously, for they noticed a large group of people looking towards them. From maidservants, clerics, and servants who cooked and cleaned, to soldiers donning a sword -- their numbers exceeded into the hundreds.

They shouted at the shocking sudden appearance of Mio and the others:

『——Mio-sama, welcome！』

Voices overflowing with passion overlapped each other, making the air itself in this atrium shake.

“Eh… This…”

Seeing Mio becoming flustered at the grand welcoming, Klaus smiled and said to her:

“Mio-sama… would sending them a simple greeting be fine with you? They’ve been waiting here for a very long time for his majesty Wilbert’s daughter to appear.”

“Greeting..? How should I go about doing that…”

Seeing Mio sending him a plea with her eyes, Basara reluctantly nodded and said:

“Don’t think about it too much, Klaus-san said a simple greeting would be enough, so giving them a wave should be fine?”

“Yes, that’ll be good.”

Klaus smiled and nodded, and Mio then walked towards a spot where the people on the floor below can see her.

“Um… Like this?”

She then lightly raised her hand -- and the masses returned a large reaction, with happiness as if eagerly awaiting the arrival of the new monarch. Amongst it--

''…Hmm?''

Basara noticed that the sights of some of the people weren’t focused on Mio alone. Following their gazes--

『——————』

He immediately understood what they were looking at, and slightly widened his eyes. On the wall of the atrium -- behind Mio, near the top of the wall, a gigantic portraiture hung there.

The one depicted was a male demon with the same hair colour as Mio -- no mistaking it, it was a portrait of Wilbert.

From the viewpoint of the ones below, it was as if Mio is carrying on Wilbert’s legacy, with Wilbert watching over his own daughter.

“…Basara, is this really fine?”

Yuki had noticed it too, and asked at a volume where only Basara could hear. What Yuki was worried about, was those people below having hopes that Mio would become the new Demon Lord. Mio herself wanted to be rid of any and all fights amongst the demons over her and live peacefully in the Human Realm; since she has no intention of becoming the Demon Lord at all, she should try to not do anything that would give people any ideas. And yet--

“Can’t be helped… Since the stage has already been prepared to this extent, we’ll just cause unnecessary conflicts if we don’t go along with it.”

With a solemn face, Basara took a glance at Klaus. The old demon who had probably arranged this performance, was gazing warmly at Mio.

Using subordinates to have Mio lower her emotional defenses, and using the pressure from the masses to make Mio feel that [I have a duty to fulfil as the Demon Lord] -- as expected from Klaus, that wily old fox.

Perhaps he had already prepared all of this long ago. Who knows, with the excuse [a more suitable room has been prepared] to forcibly dissuade Lucia and then leaving that room, was all part of that plan.

''…However.''

From the night Lucia had arrived at the Toujou Residences with the invitation from the Demon Realm, already more than one month already passed.

This side was already more than naturally and thoroughly prepared. How this side would move and what type of tricks they would play -- Basara had thought up some possibilities and countermeasures, so the current situation was still within his expectations. Of course, how the situation will develop may not go as expected--

''…No matter what, avoiding being led around by the nose by them is a must.''

This place is the Demon Realm, as well as the Moderates Faction’s stronghold. They have the home field advantage.

''--But still,'' Toujou Basara told himself.

''For obtaining the future Mio and us all want,''

''For going back to the Human Realm -- and living our lives together, the gambit must be played.''


===Part 3===

After having that sudden audience before her,

The new guest room they were brought to, was a luxurious suite that was worlds apart from the previous room.

Furniture, carpets, wallpaper, ceiling, no matter what it was, all of them had an incredible amount of details and felt extremely luxurious; an even larger area, and an even higher ceiling, all of the differences in the two rooms further amplified the differences felt in the spaciousness between the two places.

Just how big was the place? Six bedrooms, three living rooms, three dining rooms, and many bathrooms everywhere.

Although it was already obvious that the treatment from Klaus’s camp who wanted Mio to become the new Demon Lord was different from Wilbert and Lucia who wanted to extract Wilbert’s power from Mio, there were uneasiness over being welcomed to live in such a grand and magnificent Suite. However, even after asking for a more normal room from Klaus, that unmovable old demon only answered: [Don’t worry, you’ll get used to it immediately]. Laughing it off, he declined in a roundabout way.

Following Japan’s flow of time, the time right now was a little before dawn; but as they had already enquired Maria about the differences between the two Realms, they’ve already adjusted their body clocks<ref>internal body clocks</ref>, so right now they don’t feel tired.

Hence -- one hour after moving into the new guest room, Naruse Mio was now amongst some hustle and bustle.

As there is still some time before dinner, Mio had accepted Klaus’s suggestion and went into the city with Basara and Yuki to tour around. Other than Zest who was to serve Basara, there was someone else who came with them.

“--and right now, we have come to Aderbell Plaza!”

The young lady with a maid uniform said with her arms wide open with a big smile. Her name is Noel, the guide Klaus had sent to Mio and the others. As she had been very lively during her self-introduction with no fear and shyness towards Mio as Wilbert’s sole daughter, the two of them soon got along with each other pretty well.

A fountain and a stature of Wilbert was in the center of Aderbell Plaza, and with it being well accessible from many places, it is a hub where many people pass through.

The plaza was packed with many people, with many vendors and open-air shops attracting many customers -- just like downtown areas of Tokyo.

--However, this downtown area is still different from the ones in the Human Realm.

Firstly, the Moderates Faction and the Current Demon Lord Faction are in a war, and this town is no exception.

Many soldiers can be seen within the plaza, the sword hanging at their waists and their armour confirmed their preparations for war.  Secondly, it was something that is obvious -- everyone here is a demon. However, none of them have yet to notice that Basara and the other humans have been mixed into the crowd. The reason for that is in their clothings.

“…We really weren’t found out.”

“That’s right, just as I had said. Feeling more at ease now?”

Noel giggled while giving a reply to Mio. Mio, Basara and Yuki had indeed gone through a transformation, but all that could really be changed was their clothing. Basara had changed into a cleric’s clothing, and Mio and Yuki had changed into a maid’s clothing. That was all that is to their disguises. But yet the reason their cover has not been blown yet was--

“Demons that look completely different from us… there’s so many of them.”

Before Mio’s eyes -- amongst the bustling demons, majority of them are like humans. Of course, some of them are zoomorphic, while others are completely different from a human; but most of them are very much like a human, to the extent where they seem no different from a real human.

And one of them would be Noel; though her outer appearance is exactly the same as a human, it is the truth that she is a demon, and there isn’t any surprise from anyone at all when she came to this place. Thus, absolutely no suspicions would be raised at all even if Mio and the others came to this place, since they appear to be of the same race as Noel.

“There’s nothing unexpected about this at all. Our ancestors of the Demon Race were originally exiled from the God Realm… and since the Human Race were created with appearances similar to that of Gods, it’s mostly a given that we’ll look very alike.”

It has been said that amongst the Demon Race, there were many in the Medieval Times <ref>or Middle Ages</ref> who accepted hybridization and had left behind their future generations; amongst the ones remaining in the Human Realm, were the Vampires and Sprites<ref>supernatural legendary creature, often depicted as fairy, ghost, or elfs</ref>.

Relatively, some of them had chosen to bring their children back to the Demon Realm. Due to these children not being thoroughbred, they were often discriminated against -- and the Moderates Faction that Wilbert led became a haven for them. Very quickly, Wildart City filled with these demons who were half-human, and marriages amongst them happened often. With each generation, the number of demons who did not look like a human anymore soon increased.

「Speaking of which--」 Noel smiled and said:

"Although Mio-sama has Wilbert-sama’s bloodline, you look exactly like a human.”

“……..You’re right. Nn, right..."

When Noel exclaimed that, Naruse Mio remembered again… the fact and reality that she was not just a normal Human.

Rather than saying that this didn’t feel real to her or that she lacks consciousness about the situation… might as well say that she deliberately tries to not think about it. Even if she was forced to see the ones she had been forced to believe as her parents die before her and had learned the fact that she is the Previous Demon Lord’s daughter--

''…however,''

Despite having her normal daily life vanishing without a trace from the day the parents that raised her died – stemming from the dribs and drabs in the daily life with her adoptive parents, Naruse Mio still sees herself as a human. Although those precious days are never coming back, those little things are all that's left that’s precious to her.

And now, she's once again received another precious thing; Basara completely sees Mio as a human, and Maria isn’t forcing her to have the consciousness as one of the Demon Race; Yuki and Kurumi don't regard her as an enemy, and she has friends like Aikawa and Sakaki in school. Living a normal daily life with them all, is now what is most precious of all to Mio.

''…That’s right.''

I must not lose the precious daily life that I have, that is the very reason that I have come to the Demon Realm for.

''I want to live as a Human, with Basara – as Naruse Mio.''



With Noel at the lead, a line followed her towards the east, coming to a corner where shops have gathered.

「………」

Nonaka Yuki silently maintained her vigilance towards their surroundings.

--She had originally chosen to remain within the castle together with Kurumi and Maria, but this would mean that Basara and Mio would be out alone. This place is the Demon Realm, and those of the Demon Race are everywhere; even if Noel and Klaus have no problems with it at all, there would be a great disturbance once Basara’s real identity was uncovered that might very well put their lives in danger, so the more battle prowess present, the better it would be.

…But.

In the Demon Realm that is thickly laden with demonic power, not even half of 「Sakuya」’s power could be used, with the upper limit being just like in Zolgear’s Mansion and possibly less.

Basara uses the demonic sword Brynhildr, Mio has demon blood, and Zest is a demon; and with Noel who was sent by Klaus to guide them around, they probably should have enough power. With all these, the person who would most likely drag everyone down is Yuki. 

However, even if Zest and Noel are able to fight, they might not be reliable – as long as it remained unconfirmed if they will help our side, it would be for the best if Yuki came along with them – that was the decision they reached after she had discussed with Basara and Mio.

''…Also,'' leaving Mio alone with Basara is ''dangerous''.

That is mainly due to another different reason. If say, after they had left and if Mio’s face were to suddenly turn red for an unknown reason, or if the buttons on her maid attire were not done properly, or if her underwear were to mysteriously go missing, or the likes of it, she would never be able to accept what would happen after that.

Although, since Zest and Noel were also present and thus there isn’t a need to be too much worried about ''that'' happening, people must learn to expect the unexpected, so keeping an eye on them would be for the best. And thus Yuki had resolved herself, and kept up her vigilance, not letting up even once. In the end, Noel who was at the lead now turned around and said:

“…Um, Yuki-dono？”

“What is it?”

“You are a Hero, so I guess it’s normal for you to be somewhat nervous… but if you remain this tense, you’ll easily attract attention. Please do try to have a smile on, and have that smile remain there.”

“……I understand …Hehehe.”

“What's the use if you just say it out!？ What’s with your expressionless face, there’s not a shred of emotion at all!”

“However, Yuki… Noel’s right, you’ll be conspicuous if you’re too nervous, so do try to relax more.”

“……I’m sorry.”

“No need to apologise… With you here, we can put ourselves more at ease.”

Saying that, Basara brought his hand onto Yuki’s head. Basara’s warm smile and care, moved Yuki into moving along with his hands—

“Basara--…”        “—stop right there.”

The moment she saw Yuki moving even closer towards Basara, Mio immediately pushed herself towards Basara, not intending to let Yuki have a head start.

“You… Why are you trying to put on a kissing show here in the middle of the road?”

“……Tch.”

“[Tch] yourself! Don’t get ahead of yourself!”

Mio grabbed Basara’s hand and pulled him away from Yuki.

“E-Everyone, please look this way~!”

From the side-lines, Noel at this moment raised her hand and said:

“The flower shop over there is pretty famous within Wildart City, and many of the flowers and plants in the city come from here!”

Probably worried that they’ll attract unwanted attention if the argument went on, she moved her raised hand and pointed in a certain direction, at a flower shop.

“Oh—it’s pretty unexpected that the royal palace would utilise the services of a flower shop on the streets.”

“Yes… The reason is that, the boss of that shop are on good terms with his majesty Wilbert.”

Hearing Basara’s curiosity, Noel gave her confirmation and gave a relaxed sigh after confirming the topic has been changed. Just then—

“Mn? Aren’t you Noel? Did you sneak out of the palace again to buy snacks again?”

A male whose burliness was completely disproportionate to the flower shop walked out. Those words seemed to have earned dissatisfaction from Noel, who then said while pouting resentfully:

“No way! I came out today together with new people to have them become familiar with the place!”

“I see, those few do indeed look unfamiliar… It is pretty unexpected that even you have begun to look after new people, so it seems that the problem of the short handedness in the palace has become this serious…”

The male boss said while observing Basara and the others.

“P-Please mind your manners, florist-san… Do you want me to complain to the one responsible for bringing in your stock and bring down your partnership?! If you want to apologise, do it now, Ortega-san!”

“Ha… Do you even have the power to do that?”

“There wasn’t a need to ridicule me like that, was there?! I’m speaking for real!”

“Hmph.”

After giving that reply to the raging Noel, the man called Ortega looked at Mio and said:

“Speaking of which – the young lady here, is Wilbert’s daughter, right?”



“—so after Wilbert had spent so much effort just to send her to the Human Realm, now those idiots call her back?”

Ortega’s words brought about a sudden breathless nervousness, instantly freezing the atmosphere.

''…W-Why?''

Mio began panicking. So, other than Ramsas who wanted to extract Wilbert’s power from her and Klaus who wanted Mio to be the new Demon Lord, there were people like Ortega who had opinions similar to her, wishing for her to remain herself? Although that is already surprising to her by itself – that is not the problem here. In order to prevent a commotion, the news of her coming to the Demon Realm was not supposed to be revealed to the public.

''So where did he get that information from?'' Basara and Yuki immediately took action, standing in between Ortega and Mio from the left and right, separating the two of them.

“—how did you know that. From what Noel had said, you are someone who has opportunities to exit the city, right?”

Basara asked with an aggressive tint in his eye, and Ortega impatiently scratched the back of his head and replied:

“Stop being so aggressive with this old flower shop man, little brat – don’t worry, I didn’t hear that piece of information from anyone else.”

“…So how did you know that?”

Ortega narrowed his eyes at Mio and said:

“I see, you probably don’t know how she looked like… You look a lot like Ashe-san.”

“Ashe… do you mean my mother?”

“Yes. Not only do you look like her, your eye colour is the same as her’s.”

Mio had always thought the ones who raised her were her biological parents, and as those memories were too overpowering, she never really thought about her biological parents, and only learnt their names, so—

“……She had died not long after giving birth to me, right?”

To Mio who said in a low voice, Ortega nodded.

“I see, so you already know it?”

“Yes, Maria – the girl who came to protect me told me about that too when she told me of my real identity.”

“……………..”                              “…………………”

Listening from the sides, Basara and Yuki who already know about it remained silent; but that silence was different from the silence from before – it was of worry for Mio. As that caused Mio to feel thankful – 

''…My biological mother…''

To date, she had learnt that her parents were her adoptive parents, and that her biological father was the Demon Lord—

She had learnt about that from Maria after her adoptive parents had been killed by Zolgear and after she had escaped the danger. Amongst the questions she had raised to Maria back then, naturally of course included her biological mother.

And what she learnt was that, it wasn’t just her biological father Wilbert who had died, her mother had died even earlier – not long after giving birth to Mio.

“—but boss<ref>kanji used was 主人 <Shu Jin>, which can mean master/owner/host/chief/head/landlord/etc…</ref>, why do you know so much about Ashe-denka’s<ref>-殿下, also [royal highness]</ref> appearance?”

Having remained silent up till now, Zest suddenly asked.

“Although Ashe-denka is part of the Demon’s lineage, I had heard that she had grown up in the Human Realm, and the Human’s blood within her is strong; Mio-sama’s appearance is like a Human’s, probably inherited from her mother. Ashe-denka had fallen in love after knowing his majesty Wilbert and became pregnant with Mio-sama, and soon took up residence in this Realm.”

''But—''

“Reportedly, his majesty Wilbert is a pure-blooded high-class Demon, and is too far apart from Ashe-denka whose demon blood is thin and had grown up in the Human Realm, so of course there were many who opposed their marriage. In order to let the Radical or Conservative Factions find any excuses for trouble, she had to live in seclusion in the city’s solitary tower – not only even a single portrait or even a single photo of her was allowed to exist, even the number of people who knew of her existence were few – so, just how do you even know how she looked?”

“--exactly because she lived that sort of life.”

To Zest’s question, Ortega lowered his voice—

“No matter how much Wilbert gave his time to interact with her, her life in the tower was no different from being under house arrest. To her, these flowers that I delivered to her were probably the only times she could get some happiness… so she requested through Wilbert for me to teach her how to nurture or look after beautiful flowers, and so I often went to that place.”

And said while looking at a faraway place in the sky:

“She was such a good girl… She had no qualms at all even though she had totally no freedom, always smiling more radiantly than the flowers I had meticulously cared for; even if those around her gave no blessings, as long as she could be with Wilbert, be by his side, bear his child – in other words, you, she would be completely happy and satisfied.”

“………I…….see.”

As to being the Demon Lord’s daughter, it all still felt surreal to Naruse Mio. That’s why, when the city’s maids and soldiers gave their welcome to her, she didn’t know how to react.

''—and she thought that this all was not too bad, at all.''

Because there wasn’t a need to change her thoughts. Because her biological father as the Demon Lord had transferred his power to Mio, Mio had become a target to be fought over and had resulted in her adoptive parent’s deaths; although Zolgear who had taken away Mio’s peaceful everyday life wasn’t free from blame, Wilbert too held some blame, but it’s useless blaming someone dead. The stuff with him and his wife, caused no emotions in Mio at all. To get revenge for her adoptive parents – that was Mio’s all before she met Basara; then again, the reason she had come to the Demon Realm was to solve the problems revolving around Wilbert’s power within her. Thus, even after hearing the story about her biological mother, she felt no special emotions at all, yet she still—

“………Thank you for telling me about my mother.”

“Although you do not know how your mother looked like at all, does knowing that you look a lot like you mother bring you some happiness?”

Ortega’s question, caused Mio to smile bitterly and reply:

“As to whether I’m happy or not, even I am not clear about that……… Since after all, I know completely nothing about my biological mother except her name – at least, I feel that it’s a good thing to know more about her.”

Hearing Mio’s thought, Ortega gave a deep sigh while saying: [I see]. Just then—

“Umm, Ortega-san, please let the news about Mio-sama remain a secret, ok?”

Noel who had lagged behind the discussion interrupted and said:

“If people were to find out that the information leak was from you and me bringing Mio-sama here were to be revealed, experiencing a death would be a given, if I were to say it.”

Ortega gave a [Hmph!]—

“No need to worry, quickly be on your way – staying any longer will be getting in the way of my business<ref>his flower stall</ref>.

Turning around after saying that, he then disappeared into his shop.


===Part 4===

Now – after Noel had already brought them around the market once,

“—alright, last up, we absolutely have to drink tea from this shop before we can consider this complete!”

She once again came back to Aderbell Plaza and stopped before a café. At this place, one can enjoy the plaza’s open-air observatory, a favourite of the young and old, it was a shop which had many customers. While Basara and the others were queuing up behind Noel and other customers, Zest glanced through the inside of the shop.

“?   What’s the matter, Zest?”

“…Basara-sama, please enjoy the café, I’ll wait here outside.”

After bowing to Basara and the rest, Zest turned around and left the café.

And then she headed towards the dark alley behind the café.

''…this place should probably be safe.''

There were a few people in that shop, and it would be best if Zest were to avoid having contact with them. Right now she was not alone, Basara and the rest were also present, so she can’t let her own problems cause disruption to them. After coming to a place where there was no one, Zest released a sigh and leaned her back against the shop’s wall. Just then—

『……….』

Something appeared before Zest from within the alley’s darkness. Possessing long ears, looks very similar to a cat, but has something growing out on its forehead – a unicorn pup.

It had no collar, and it doesn’t seem to be someone’s pet; it hadn’t come into the city to forage for food, but instead it was chased in here – no matter what it was, it probably shouldn’t be able to survive in this place.

<nowiki>『-------』</nowiki>

The little unicorn raised its head to look at Zest, and ran towards her feet to sniff at her shoes. Seeing how it interacted with a stranger—

“This isn’t a place someone like you should be at… but I suppose you have no other places to go.”

Zest slightly bent down and caressed its small head. The little unicorn also narrowed its eyes, and began playing with her hand. Seeing this, Zest couldn’t help but to think – this child is just like me.

--Even though the power Zolgear held within the Council was the lowest, he was still one of the unified rulers of the Current Demon Lord Faction.

Zest had been created to be his subordinate, and lived a subordinate’s life; when she was almost killed by her master Zolgear, the one who saved her was the enemy Basara.

Not only had Basara saved her life, he helped the her who had nowhere to go to look for the optimal solution, negotiating with the Moderates Faction and giving her safe place to stay; Sheera who had voluntarily looked after her also treated her well.

The number of things Zest was thankful to Basara for were numerous.

''…However.''

She would occasionally think – ‘’am I really allowed to remain here?’’

But that thought remained a thought. Right now, she had nowhere else to go.

…No.

To tell the truth, there is still someone she could still rely on, only that she chose not to. Hence—

“……Basara-sama.”

Zest said out loud his name quietly.

--Since taking refuge in the Moderates Faction, there was never a day where she stopped thinking about him.

Not only just that, thoughts like [I want to be by his side] and [I want to serve him] within her increased day by day. On the day the messenger from the Moderates Faction came to the Toujou Residence, Basara had told her that she was welcome any time to come back if anything happened, but she was unable to do that.

…Since,

If she were to go to the Toujou Residences for real and got rejected, not being allowed to be by his side – she would truly have nowhere to go.

--So when Sheera let Zest be in charge of looking after Basara, she was truly happy.

Being able to see him again, hear him call her name again, tears had almost welled up in her eyes.

…Even then,

Zest cannot be by his side, since Basara thinks that Zest should remain in the Moderates Faction; when he interacted with either Mio, Yuki, Maria or Kurumi, the caring eyes that he would show them would most likely never be shown to her.

「…………Even then, I still--」

Zest squatted down, and the little unicorn licked her hand, as if worrying about her.

After remaining in this posture for a while—

“—Oioioi, what are you doing here?”

A rough voice shouting came from the alleyway connecting to the Main Street. When Zest raised her head to look, she saw the ones standing there are the ones from the café that made her decide not to enter the café.

The four male bodies were wearing blue armour, they were the guards stationed in this neighbourhood. Just to avoid making contact with them, she had left the café and gave up the chance to have tea with Basara and the others—

''…I should’ve taken refuge in a place further away.''

Just as she was feeling regret over her own judgement—

“Those clothes… a maid from the castle? If I remember correctly, it’s probably—“

The soldiers looking into the alley noticed her appearance, and the soldier beside the one who just spoke nodded and said:

“Oh – this girl is the one the higher ups took in, the Zolgear’s subordinate, right?”

The expression in his eyes he used to look at Zest also cooled down substantially.

“Oi, what is someone who was the Current Demon Lord’s dog doing sneaking around here? Are you planning to blow up one of the shops filled with customers?”

“……No. I was running an errand, and am currently having some rest here.”

“A person alone hiding and having some rest?”

Hearing him say so suspiciously, another soldier said while sneering:

“Say, Glen, you didn’t mean [A person], but [A thing] instead, right?”

Despite receiving gazes filled with extreme contempt and verbal insults, yet—

“………”

Zest endured it silently. It was nothing surprising, from the perspective of the soldiers of the Moderates Faction, there would definitely be animosity towards Zest who was part of the Current Demon Lord’s cadre; enemies like Basara who put themselves in their shoes were extremely rare. But it was because Basara was that sort of person, Zest could not hold any hate towards him.

“Why the hell would those higher-ups make such a dumb decision, to take in the sex slave of some arrogant big scum?”

“Who knows, that might’ve been a better decision? After becoming tired of playing with the maids serving them, those big figureheads cannot go to some brothel on the streets, much less call a prostitute into the castle. Having some different flavours to play with is nice, and the fact that it’s a second-hand product makes no difference.”

“That makes sense… So those higher-ups just want to find a toy with lasting appeal, right?”

The gazes of the soldiers with their mouths full of insults towards Zest became dirtier, and their eyes began looking all over her body brazenly, before stopping on a certain place. The place their gazes were all fixated on, were her large breasts which had grown to the point where her breasts were obvious even in her maid uniform, while she dreamt about Basara in her days.

It had grown to the point where during their reunion, Basara couldn’t help but to look at them. Back then, Zest didn’t mind it at all – instead, it made her happy; but right now, those gazes only made her feel disgusted.

“—Say, let us have some fun too, ‘kay?”

After the soldier named Glen said that, the other soldiers looked at each other and smiled, and they began approaching her. Seeing this—

「……Quickly be on your way. 」 

Zest nudged the little unicorn on its back, letting it seek refuge in the other end of the alleyway before facing the soldiers before her.

“…….”

"What’s wrong…? You do service those higher-ups in the city often right?”

Facing these soldiers with dirty smiles on their faces, Zest remained silent.

''…I guess it’s inevitable that other people would think that…''

Zolgear’s prurience<ref>Inordinately interested in matters of sex; lascivious</ref> is well known throughout the Demon Realm, and it is only matched by a few. Thus, they could hardly be blamed for thinking that Zest who had fought under him was like that too. But in reality, Zolgear had created her in a way so that her power comes from her virginity, and thus have never requested for Zest to do the thing between a man and woman with him. Although she didn’t know what intentions he had—

''…But still,''

She is now glad that he had done that. If Zolgear had encroached on her– she would’ve cursed for all her life. To have never been encroached by anyone, that matter is now Zest’s most important wish. Now that Zest had managed to get the task of looking after Basara while he is in the Demon Realm, it would be fine even if it was on a whim or was just a joke – she wished to be able to serve Basara as a woman.

That moment of happiness shall become Zest’s most treasured memory, pushing her to continue her life.

That’s why, she can’t be sullied by these soldiers before her.

''…However,''

It was only with Basara’s help that she was able to come to the Moderates Faction and become Sheera’s subordinate. If anything were to happen here now, she might cause him trouble – and that was something she could not allow to happen.

“…………!”

"That’s right that’s right, stay like that quietly. Things like a maid, was originally supposed to be used for things like that.”

One of the soldiers boldly stretched his hand towards Zest biting her lips in resentment.

Though separated by her clothes, her breasts which had grown bigger due to longing for Basara were about to be touched by someone else – but right before that happened—

“—enough is enough.”

A hand, with that voice, came from the side, and grabbed that soldier’s arm.

<nowiki>『————！?』</nowiki>

This unexpected development not only shocked that soldier, but also everyone else—

“…Basara-sama!”

Zest too widened her eyes in shock. The one she had longed for – Toujou Basara had appeared by her side, and after giving her a wink—

“She is a maid serving under Sheera-sama. You do know that if you do anything to her, there will be serious consequences?”

By saying that in a polite tone while blocking them from Zest, it was probably to avoid the trouble from having their identities exposed and thus going along with cleric’s attire, trying to send them away like another servant. One of the soldiers then said after regaining his calm:

“Who the hell are you… are you with this person?”
	
“That’s right. She is someone important to me… Showing her disrespect, might cause trouble to me.”

“Another servant, huh… stay right there and don’t move. If you’re nice, we might let you play a bit too.”

Seeing him laughing and turning towards Zest, Basara gave a deep sigh.

“…I guess there’s no other way.”

In the moment Zest saw Basara whisper that – that soldier was blown away.



What Basara had done, was one of Aikido’s moves. <ref>[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Aikido Aikido] : a modern Japanese martial art</ref>

He had swiftly grabbed the soldier’s wrist and pushed it downwards, and focused his energy to twist it – as a result, that soldier who wanted to violate Zest turned a circle in mid-air.”

Although there was the option of bringing Zest away from that place or shouting to attract the attention of the other people on the streets, there was of course a reason Basara chose to use force.

--It was to resolve the problem at its root.

They were people who couldn’t be reasoned with, what just happened may repeat again if they were to run away now and if Zest were to run into them again. In order to not have a ‘next time’, they must learn the errors of their ways right here and now.

Thus, the moment that soldier landed on his back on the ground, Basara pulled and twisted on the joint of the hand he was grabbing onto, dislocating both the shoulder and elbow joints while creating two cracking sounds in the process.

“ ! ! Gaaaaaaaaaaaa--aaaaaaaa!!?”

Basara then mercilessly kicked his foot at the soldier squirming and screaming on the ground, the impact dislocated his jaw, and the originally sharp scream turned into gibberish. After that—

“Dear dignified soldier… can you please not scream like that just from having a few of your joints dislocated by this insignificant cleric?”

Basara looked down at that soldier, and purposely harshly ridiculed him. Not only was it to fell his spirit, it was also to make the other three develop a fear towards him, hoping to make them run away from fear – but alas, the situation did not develop as he hoped it would. While one of them did nothing out of fear, the other two drew their swords. To that—

''…would be best if I don’t take out Brynhildr here.''

It would be best if they were to remain thinking that he was just a cleric throughout. If these soldiers were to lose to a cleric, they probably wouldn’t have the face to tell it to the other soldiers after returning to the palace.

“You arrogant brat, stop acting big!”

Seeing the soldier at the front moving his sword to make a slash at him, Basara simply moved sideways to avoid it. Since this alley is narrow, in order to avoid hitting the sword on wall, the room to swing the sword is very limited. So, it would be very simple to just make the sword miss its mark.

“That’s too obvious --  hmph.”

In a flash, Basara dug his left elbow into that soldier’s lower jaw.

That attack was unbiased, and cracking sounds was released from that soldier’s upper and lower teeth.

<nowiki>「——————」</nowiki>

Receiving the impact on his head, the now unconscious soldier collapsed on the ground – Basara then released another kicked at his chest, causing him to hit the other soldier holding onto his sword.

“ ! …Move aside, you idiot!”           “—you’re the idiot here.”

Once his movements stopped, the results couldn’t be changed. While his opponent had his footing slightly messed up, Basara frog jumped on the left and right walls going out of his opponent’s view, doing a flip over him and connected his right heel with his forehead, producing some cracking sounds. The soldier staggered for a bit, rolling his eyes, before collapsing backwards.

''Settled.''  Just as Basara wanted to release his breath—

“--?”

He sucked in more air again. The soldier from just now who couldn’t do anything had now extended both his hands and expanded a magic circle. This place is narrow, a shop full of customers was just beside them, and they are soldiers – Basara had thought they had that self-awareness, and thus would not use any magic to avoid doing damage to nearby buildings and civilians. Probably because they panic, they now lost their calm.

“You scum…!”

''Although how bad that person is, he is still a soldier, so how could he'' – to deal a blow to him before the magic activated, Basara began to move towards him.

--But there was no need for that already.

Because before Basara moved, the magic circle already disappeared. Not only that—

“Ah…Oo…Aaa…!”

That soldier who attempted to release magic now lay on the ground, paralysed, with fear obvious on his face.

Just why? Basara somewhat had an idea – and thus without even turning around, he said to the one behind im:

“Calm down, Zest – killing them would be going too far.”

“…But these people wanted to kill you.”

From her anger-filled cold voice, the S-Class Zest’s killing intent was evident. Thinking back, Zest had used many different types of magic circles; the moment these kind of stuff activated, no one will know what will happen to this neighbourhood. Thus—

“Don’t worry about me. What I wanted to do was not to have them harass you anymore, and it does not mean – I want to kill them. There is no need for you to do these sort of stud, and let yourself turn into just like these people who wanted to kill me.”

Hearing Basara say that, Zest slowly cancelled the magic.

“………I understand. I will… listen to Basara-sama’s orders.”

“I’m sorry. I made the first move, yet I’m saying this.”

After saying that to Zest with a bitter smile, he looked downwards to check on the collapsed soldiers. That soldier who originally wanted to violate Zest but was taught a harsh lesson by Basara,

“Wuu…aaa…uh….uoo---!?”

Suddenly feeling Basara’s gaze while moaning in pain, his face froze up.

“Relax, I only just dislocated your joints, and didn’t break any nerves. The pain you feel right now is only from moving around on the ground. If you see a doctor after returning to the palace, the joints can be fully put back.”

“Oh…aah…?”

“It’s true. If you know that you are in the wrong, then don’t do these sort of stuff again. If you get caught by me again, I definitely won’t let you off the hook – even if Zest wants to kill you, I wouldn’t mind it.”

“---…---…!”

Seeing him nodding his head vigorously, Basara said: [Ok] and also nodded.

“We’re going now. When the others wake up, remember to tell them what I just said. Let’s go.”

Basara grabbed Zest’s hand after saying that, and walked towards the alley’s other end.

If anyone were to see them walking out of the alleyway the soldiers walked in from, the information of them defeating those soldiers might spread. Their priority right now should be concealing their whereabouts by taking more turns within these alleys, drawing as much distance as possible from that place. Thus—

“Zest, why did you not take any action even though you met—“

Basara suddenly could not continue with his reprimanding tone.

Reason being – Zest suddenly hugged him tightly, with no intention of letting go.

“……I’m sorry, to have caused you trouble… Please bear with this for now.”

Tightening her hug, Zest’s body shook slightly.

''…I see.''

Toujou Basara understood it. Despite receiving protection as a witness, Zest who once was part of the Current Demon Lord Faction would receive a lot of complex grudges in the Moderates Faction, and would face many different challenges; if she were to cause any trouble, she would fall into a very difficult position. Thus in order to maintain her current situation, she beared with those soldiers.

“You must be very scared… But, it’s all fine now.”

Basara returned Zest’s hug, rubbing her back to placate her.

--Reportedly although Zest was Zolgear’s subordinate, she had no bodily contact with him.

While this is a good thing for her, it also meant that she had built up no immunity or resistance towards other people’s actions concerning her body; moreover as she was to maintain a close distance with Zolgear while he did lewd acts, it wouldn’t be weird if she were to develop any physiological hate towards it. Despite all that, Zest still beared with the actions of those soldiers.

''…Probably because Zest has got a strong sense of responsibility.''

Or perhaps she was scared that if anything happened, blame might be placed on Sheera who was supervising her, or even Basara who handed her over to the Moderates faction, thus gritting her teeth and bearing with it all.

Hence, Toujou Basara said it as if delivering it into her ears:

“Zest – you are a girl. Will you promise me, that you will treasure yourself in the future?”





Basara had called her a [Girl], and worried for her, After that—

“I beat up those guys just now… it was because they wanted to do what girls hate the most to you.”

“……!”

In Basara’s arms, Zest’s breaths came to a stop.

''…I can’t…!''

If she were to be careless even a little, her tears would come out. She had not expected that it would not only be Mio and the others – Zest was also receiving Basara’s care. Though it was incomparable to Mio and the others, it was still a fact that Basara right now is by her side, hugging her.

And gazing at her – worrying for her.

“Back then, I saw you restraining yourself to that extent… Could it be that ever since you came here, things like that had happened?”

For Basara who was worrying for her, Zest shook her head while within his arms and answered:

“…No. I was always by Sheera-sama’s side, and I would remain within the city.”

“Then, did anyone in the city do something like that to you?”

“No… Because Sheera-sama always treated me well.”

“—Really?”

“Really – I have never been touched by another male. Please believe me, Basara-sam!”

Zest began panicking from Basara’s questions, and nervously confirmed them.

The reason Zest was trembling, was because her body was almost touched by a male other than Basara.

“Like hugging me like this, Basara-sama is my first…”

“I-I see… I’m glad you’re fine.”

Probably because she had a large reaction, Basara believed her. Thinking that—

<nowiki>「————————」</nowiki>

Zest suddenly felt her energy suddenly leaving her whole body.

Having her fear that Basara would mistakenly think that she had an affair with another male – the nervousness that was present until now left her exhausted.

“—Oh?”

Basara quickly grabbed onto Zest who almost collapsed.

“Are you fine…?”

“I’m very sorry… The moment when I think about Basara trusting me, my energy suddenly—“

Zest tried to stand up by herself, but her legs couldn’t summon the energy to do that.

“I’m sorry, Basara-sama, I’m very sorry… I will immediately stand properly…!”

She did not want to cause trouble to Basara, yet she had become like that. Zest became nervous to the point of wanting to cry.

“You have nothing to apologise for – here you go.”        “Ah--…”

In the blink of an eye, Zest ended up being carried by Basara on his back.

“Y-You can’t, Basara-sama… You can’t do something like that, so please put me down.”

''I should be the one looking after Basara…'' Seeing Zest becoming flustered, Basara bitterly smiled and said:

“How can I do that? Didn’t I just say – you should treasure yourself more?”

“But…!”

“If you’re worried about being seen by others, I’ll just put you down when we leave the alleys. So just try letting me carry you, and think about what I mean by treasuring yourself.”

Saying that, Basara began walking slowly, and—

“…I guess occasionally relying on others is great too, right?”

Hearing Basara say that while smiling, Zest resisted as if not being able to tolerate these sort of jokes:

“My job is to be responsible for looking after you, Basara-sama. Now that I’m being cared for by you, how could I—“

[I see]. Basara suddenly interrupted her in a low voice.

“Since you don’t like it, then forget it – I don’t want to be like those people from just now, doing something that you don’t like to you.”

And then simply began to place Zest back on her feet.

In that moment – Zest suddenly thought that she was about to be coldly brushed away by Basara—

“No – D-Don’t!”

She tightly shut her eyes, and tightly grabbed onto Basara’s shoulders, afraid of separating from him.

However, after ten long seconds, she realised that Basara had not let go of her. When she worriedly and timidly opened her eyes—

“Ah--…”

And she couldn’t hold back her deep sigh. Because before her eyes, was Basara’s loving expression.

It was just like the expression he would often show to Mio and the others. Other than that—

''—what did I, just do?''

That hasty reaction, originally dwelled within her heart, her true feelings.

''…Ah…''

Hence, she could no longer conceal her true self. She clearly remembered, the result and ending she wanted for that youth called Toujou Basara and herself; and with that sentiment, the one who caused her soul to tremble incessantly was no one other than Basara – and her emotions for Basara immediately became stronger. However, being this bold towards Basara—

「…Now I have realised, Basara-sama, you are so naughty. 」

Zest pushed her face against his back and said while rubbing it against his back.

Basara gave no reply, only just returning a sigh and a bitter smile.

“Sorry… But for today, I need to protect that part.”

But his voice suddenly became serious, and continued walking while carrying Zest.

“Basara-sama…?”

As she couldn’t see his expression, she asked back worried, feeling some inexplicable unease, and thus missed Basara’s whisper at the end.

He said in a cold and frightening tone:

“I swear to definitely protect you all – no matter what I have to do.”


===Part 5===

“There being someone like that amongst the guards in the downtown area…”

After meeting up with Mio and the other in the café and returning to the castle,

Hearing Basara and Zest’s encounter with the downtown guards, Noel’s expression became depressed.

Right now – Yuki had returned first as she was worried about Kurumi’s condition, and Basara, Mio and Zest are now visiting the east side’s training field.

The ones currently training, are the selected outstanding soldiers like guards and knights of the Moderates Faction.

“The castle’s soldiers really do look more like soldiers…”

Basara commented while looking at the soldiers training.

"Of course! Here, the knights and trainee knights are the pride of the Moderates Faction!”

Noel was right, every one of them seemed dashing.

However – even while being optimistic, these numbers were small.

Of course, the past war between the Heroes and Demons or the past conflict between Demons were different from the modern soldiers using modern weapons to make up for their lack of strength in the current modern conflict with the Human Realm, with the main difference being [Individuals] with a lot of power; to list some examples, there were Jin who was known as the God of War who defeated countless demons, and Wilbert whose power was matched by none and had united the Demon Realm. At the core of the Current Demon Lord Faction, there were the Conservative and Radical Factions with long histories, and the heroic-like figure of youth Leohart who had rapidly gained power was also a pretty good example.

The Moderates Faction has people like Maria, Takigawa, and Lucia with A to S Class powers; with the Moderates Faction led by Wilbert’s brother Ramsas, it is obvious that they have a lot of strength, and now Zest is also present. So even if the Current Demon Lord Faction has many high-class demons or ones with equivalent fighting powers, the fighting wouldn’t be one-sided.

Therefore the Current Demon Lord Faction will also try to avoid consuming or depleting their fighting potential, by attempting to not let the current situation of the war turn into an all-out war, since that would mean the deciding factor wouldn’t be numbers.

--However, that doesn’t mean numbers doesn’t matter.

In the current situation where both sides has a limited amount of fighting force, what would decide the outcome in the end would be the amount of soldiers.

In a war where there is a need to defend a civilian town, the importance of troops was obvious.

Because even if someone has the ability to wipe out all of the enemy, there is no guarantee of being able to protect all comrades. 

In the past – when Wilbert was still the Demon Lord, the reason the Moderates Faction had its moment in the glamorous spotlight was because many capable fighters had come under his command, attracted by his qualities or his ideals. This Wildart City, is the proof of its brilliant days. Yet [End the war, and create eternal peace in the Demon Realm] – the goal the Moderates Faction sang so highly of, was a pipe dream realised only because of the existence of the strongest Demon Lord Wilbert; thus after losing the overwhelming lord, soldiers of the Moderates left Wildart City one after another. At first, they tried putting in their all to try to complete Wilbert’s unfinished ambition, but in the end it was just too large and too big of an ambition, not something the ones left behind could do. Hence—

“So in the end, they had to recruit fighting forces from the outside, just like the taking in of those who had Human Blood mixed in them – so the ones Basara had met, was one of the disadvantages of the last-minute cramming?”

“I’m really sorry, Mio-sama… I’ll ask the executives of the downtown guards to re-educate them on their ethics.”

Noel bowed deeply and apologized to Mio who had a look of displeasure on her. In order to face the Current Demon Lord Faction whose forces were growing quickly, the Moderates Faction could only open their gates and accept various types of people in order to fill up and scrape together enough forces. This, was the current miserable situation of the once greatest Moderates Faction.

''…In the end, Mio is a trump card they want to use to break out of the current situation.''

No matter if Mio chooses to become the new Demon Lord or to let go of her inherited power, her presence in the Moderates Faction would be similar to Wilbert’s influence. In the current war with the Current Demon Lord Faction where they wanted to protect the civilians, they most probably want to make use of Wilbert’s sole daughter to woo their past soldiers and comrades to return. Regretfully, it seems that the Moderates Faction have now been backed into a corner to this extent. They were holding on to such hopelessness, so it’s somewhat understandable.

“……………”

As Basara was organising his thoughts and feelings, a horse carriage suddenly came in from the gate near the downtown area. The white carriage was covered in luxurious ornaments and carvings, and it was obvious that it was on a different level from the carriage Basara and the others had taken.

“That is…”

Taking a closer look, Lucia and her subordinates were lined up before the gate, and the white horse carriage came to a stop before them. After the door opened, a male demon exited the carriage before Lucia and the others who bowed.

“ ! <nowiki>-----</nowiki>”

Beside Basara, Mio suddenly stiffened her body. The male who exited the carriage, his posture and appearance were just like in the Wilbert’s portrait. The nearby training soldiers also stopped and kneeled, and Noel and Zest also did so. The male demon noticed the movements here, and responded with his line of sight, and – his sight turned to Basara and Mio.

''…This is bad.''

Basara and Mio were still wearing the cleric and maid uniform they wore to go into the city area, so they might be mistaken for servants who didn’t know their manners. Just as Basara didn’t know what to do, Lucia whispered something into that male demon’s ear, and in the next moment—

<nowiki>「————！」</nowiki>

Toujou Basara sucked in a breath. Just by looking in this direction from far away, that male demon – a shocking oppression made it through to Basara.

If – he had shown any movements with the intention of drawing nearer, no matter how little it was, Basara might have immediately drawn out Brynhildr instinctively. However—

<nowiki>『——————』</nowiki>

The male demon didn’t move towards them at all, only simply walking into the castle following Lucia and her subordinates, as if uninterested in them. 

Being freed from that oppression, Basara finally released his breath.

“……!”

By his side, Mio appeared to have been frightened by that feeling of oppression just now, to the point where she was still trembling even now. Thus Basara held her shoulder—

“Mio… Don’t be scared, he already went away.”

Saying so gently, Mio then put a lot of energy into nodding. Seeing that male disappearing into the castle gates, Basara asked:

“Originally we were told that he would return only tomorrow – Zest, is he ''that person''?”

“…Yes, Basara-sama.”

Towards Basara question, Zest nodded and answered:

“That person is the current head of the Moderates Faction – the elder brother of the previous Demon Lord his majesty Wilbert, Ramsas-sama.”
[[Image: Shinmai_v05_077.jpg|thumb]]
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==Translator's Notes and References==

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