Master and Slaves

I don’t know how much time has passed because I don’t have a watch, but it might have been quite a while.

I finally arrived in front of Mateus’s room and knocked.

"Come in."

Mateus let me in without asking who was there.

"Sorry for being late."

I apologized to the troubled-looking Mateus.

"No, more importantly, look at Tiria."

When I looked in the direction Mateus pointed, Tiria was being hugged by Helene.

"Look, Sir Hiroyuki came back. It’s okay, Tiria."

Helene patted Tiria’s back like a child while turning to face us.

"Ugu... snff... Master?"

When Tiria confirmed it was me, she stood up on shaky legs and crawled toward me.

Her face was completely drenched in tears.

"Tiria..."

I was stunned by her abnormal behavior.

"Ah... aa... Master..."

When Tiria reached me, she hugged my feet.

"Master! Please don’t throw me away! I won’t be selfish anymore! I’ll do anything! So... so... uwaaaaaahhh!"

"Tiria."

I crouched down and hugged the desperately pleading Tiria.

"Aaaahhh!"

Tiria clung tightly to my neck and wailed.

When I looked at Helene, she sighed and explained.

"Sir Hiroyuki, after Tiria apologized, you suddenly left the room. Tiria thought you were abandoning her. It was terrible for her."

"I see. Sorry, Tiria."

I hugged Tiria too.

Tiria cried and apologized over and over while in my arms.

"Sir Hiroyuki, I heard Tiria was selfish this morning."

Helene refilled my cold tea and spoke to me while sitting on the sofa.

"Yeah, I do remember saying something like that. I won’t tolerate that kind of thing."

"Is that so?"

"Yeah. You also said you wanted to sleep with me again... Ah, right. I didn’t answer."

"Why didn’t you answer?"

"Because I was planning to go home."

When Helene heard that, she was shocked.

"I-I’m sorry!"

"No, it’s fine."

"...Sir Hiroyuki, have you calmed down?"

Mateus, who was also refilling his tea, joined our conversation.

"It’s not enough time to calm down completely. ...But I’m slowly getting used to this world."

I looked down.

"Master..."

Tiria was sleeping with her head on my knee.

She must have cried herself out.

I brushed her soft platinum bangs aside.

"...Nnn..."

She smiled happily.

But her hand was still gripping the hem of my clothes.

"You’ve become very attached."

"It seems so."

Mateus smiled while looking at Tiria.

I looked at Tiria and answered.

"Well, I should apologize to Sir Hiroyuki too, but since the summoning was decided by the king, I can’t apologize easily. Please forgive me for that."

Mateus spoke to me with a serious expression — completely different from before.

I see.

It’s a national matter... Defeating the Demon King.

Still, I, as the party concerned, knew nothing about it.

"About that, could you tell me more about my summoning and the Demon King?"

"Yes. Sir Hiroyuki is the party concerned, so that’s fine. However, there are also confidential matters, so I can’t tell you everything, but is that alright?"

"Yes."

"Then... first, do you know of the Gelzil Demon Kingdom?"

"I’ve heard the name. Tiria told me it was the country ruled by the Demon King..."

"It’s slightly different. It’s the country ruled by Demon King Geizer."

"How is it different?"

"The Demon King isn’t just Geizer. There are others. Pamyura’s Belzevute, Sardia’s Lucifer, and Lasha’s Ravana are famous. These are called the Three Demon Kingdoms and the Three Demon Kings."

"The Demon Kingdoms...?"

"Yes. There are twelve confirmed Demon Kingdoms in the Demon Realm. Ah, Sir Hiroyuki, you destroyed one, so there are eleven left."

Mateus let out a laugh and took a sip of his tea.

"So there are other Demon Kingdoms..."

"Yes. The Gelzil Demon Kingdom hadn’t been confirmed as an enemy until three years ago when our country was invaded. It’s possible there are others."

There are multiple Demon Kingdoms, each with a Demon King.

"The Demon Realm is a world of the strong devouring the weak. Countries that arose there are powerful, and their leaders, the Demon Kings, are also strong. The Gelzil Demon Kingdom is one of them. As I mentioned earlier, our country was invaded by Gelzil three years ago."

Mateus took a breath and began speaking about the battle with the Gelzil Demon Kingdom.

"Our country, though small, has many excellent people. Thanks to them, we somehow managed to hold out. But holding out meant we were always on the defensive and couldn’t launch an offensive. We were losing ground. That’s why the plan to assassinate Geizer was drawn up. A small, elite force was to head to the Gelzil castle and kill Geizer. But the saying ’easier said than done’ applies here. First, the method to enter the Demon Realm. We couldn’t create a gate to the Demon Realm, so we had to use one created by the enemy. And one they didn’t know about. If they knew, they would ambush us."

"Sorry. What exactly is that ’gate to the Demon Realm’?"

"Ah, yes. It’s a ’hole’ that appears in space and connects the Demon Realm to this world."

"A hole?"

Come to think of it, when I escaped from the collapsing castle after defeating the Demon King, I passed through one. Was it that?

"I don’t know the details. I do know that the Demon King army appears through it."

So it’s not a simple, unstable thing, but a larger, stable one?

"I understand. Please continue."

"Yes. And once through that gate, we had to definitely kill Geizer. If we failed, they would strengthen their defenses and we could never use this method again. But even if we failed, it was still better. Strengthening defenses would weaken the offensive. There might be a chance to launch an attack. Either way should have worked. But it didn’t. Not a single person who went to the Demon Realm returned. It failed. And even then, the Gelzil army’s power didn’t weaken..."

"So you didn’t strengthen your defenses?"

"Yes. There were other reasons too — they were already well-defended from the start, reinforcements came from other Demon Kingdoms, etc. But none of them were true. We only found out after sending the next force."

"You sent the next force without knowing the situation?"

"That’s why we sent them. Their mission wasn’t to assassinate Geizer. We ordered them to bring back as much information as possible. Even so, only two out of twenty-five survived."

"I see. But why did you send a reconnaissance unit at that time?"

"Because the defense of the gate to the Demon Realm was still weak even then."

Is that weird? Mateus asked with a smile.

Well, it is weird.

They were being assassinated, but the route wasn’t well-guarded.

Even though they were elite, a small number wouldn’t significantly affect the war, so setting a trap wouldn’t work.

...I see.

"So Geizer was confident in his own power."

"Yes. He thought he could protect himself. He actually repelled an attack once. We analyzed the information they brought back and reached the same conclusion. So we decided to accept Geizer’s challenge."

Mateus ended the story and picked up the cookies that had appeared on the table.

"Hmm. As expected, Nene’s cookies are delicious."

"Thank you, Master."

Helene blushed slightly and thanked Mateus.

"How about you, Sir Hiroyuki?"

"Haa. Then one more."

A golden-brown cookie, about the size of a circle made with my thumb and index finger.

I picked one up and put it in my mouth.

The rich aroma spread in my mouth.

It felt a bit lacking in sweetness, but this must be Mateus’s preferred taste.

"It is delicious."

"Yes, yes."

Mateus seemed happy as if it were his own.

Helene blushed beside him, embarrassed.

"Well, where did we leave off?"

"You said you accepted Geizer’s challenge."

"Oh, yes, yes. However, even with our forces, we couldn’t kill Geizer. There weren’t enough experts left after the first assassination failure and repeated battles with Gelzil. So we asked for help from ’outside.’"

"’Outside’... you mean summoning?"

"Yes. That’s why we sent someone who could use summoning magic to defeat Geizer."

Mateus took a breath and took a sip of his tea.

"...Hmm, I suppose I should explain summoning magic here."