34: Towards the Academy

~10 years ago~

"That bitch trusts us completely. Byron, is the curse ready? Are you sure it will work?" (Volmund)

"Don't doubt me. I spent so much time around her that I know how absurd her recovery powers are. Trust me. I developed this specifically to counter that."(Byron)

"We’ll give you the signal. Byron, you just need to follow it."(Liliana)

"Ah, I got it. But remember, I'm taking the credit for saving us from the so called ambush."(Byron)

"Yes, let’s make a promise."(Liliana)

The night before the fateful day, while Yurishia was sleeping, her 3 companions decided to meet one last time.

"I've gotten sick of her. I'm tired to have to butter up to her and pretend everything is going her way. I'm doing this for my little sister… bwah!! My sister is a little sadist who would drain the blood of a rat if she could and then watch it squirm."(Volmund)

"When she realizes that she’s been betrayed, what kind of pathetic expression will that person show? I can’t wait to see it?"(Liliana)

"I start to imagine Yurishia's stupid face, you know. But after realising that she’s been deceived, it’ll be seriously hard to endure our laugh, right?"(Byron)

"She won’t be suspicious of it, because she’s just a fool intoxicated by her ideal. An ideal our dear Liliana has successfully planted upon her."(Volmund)

"Fufu. Like you say, a fool is easy to deceive. But even I'm surprised how naive she is. It's like she was a stupid man. All I have to do is wink and she'll roll over. Getting close to her was easy. Having to support her and pretend I care about her feelings was the actual hard part, hahaha!"

Liliana who was always gentle and smiled to everyone, had a smile tainted with desire and greed on her face.

Volmund that always had a carefree smile on his face, let out a malicious laugh.

Byron was laughing in high spirits that it echoed across the dark alley.

"It's her fault to begin with. I mean she's not pure blood. She's just a summoned mongrel. If she keeps this up she might actually kill the hero. If that happens then she'll definitely be named Maou. While true that the Maou must be the strongest Mazoku, we can't allow anyone other than a pure blood Mazoku to claim that title."(Byron)

"You got that right. Those who aren't nobles have no right to aspire for greatness. They only exist as our tools. Pawns that we can use however we want."(Volmund)

"And after Yurishia is gone, we can dictate the direction in which society shall go. As the Warlord's trusted companions, our word will be absolute, fufu!"(Liliana)

"Alright. Let's get some sleep then. I can't wait for tomorrow, hahaha!!"(Byron)

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~Present Day~

"Lady Yurishia, I can't believe you did it again!"

"Why are you complaining about this time? I didn't make you do any cleaning now."

"Err… well… nevermind."

After I made Shizu my woman and she cleaned herself up… we didn't walk out the front door. I teleported us out of the building. Then I teleported everyone back to the ship. Before leaving Shizu actually left a funny note behind for whoever came looking for the guild master: "I quit. Love Shizudelia Dummdelia Dinluludim Yamdeena"

It would be funny to see the face of whoever walks into that office. But now back to important stuff. It was time. Time to return to the demon kingdom. Nelia confirmed that I now fullfil all the requirements for joining the academy. Since the academy was in the no-man's land between the 4 factions we didn't need the ship anymore. It served us well, but it was time to abandon it. So I simply teleported all of us to the outskirts. The land itself hasn't changed so I still have access to it.

A landscape that I was familiar with was spread out before my eyes. Not even a single blade of grass could be seen in these dark and barren lands and lava was ceaselessly flowing out from the volcanoes that I could see in various places. Fissures on the land were deep to the point where their bottoms couldn't be seen. Far out into the distance, there was a mountain range so high that it looked like it was touching the sky. This was the territory known as no-man's land. The thing that actually was knew was a town. At the bottom of mountain there was a town surrounded by a lava moat.

"Well, that's it. The town of Vilethorne."

Couldn't they have picked a better name? I swear, the naming sense for demons in this world is… sheesh.

"Hey, Nelia, I just thought of something. What are we going to do about lodging and meals? It's not like we own a house here."

"That won't be an issue. The Mazoku take great pride in this Academy. Why do you think there are houses here to begin with? Those who enter will be automatically given a place to stay alongside a form a student ID, which acts like your wallet. You can shop all your groceries with it and the Academy will pay the bill."

"I see… wait, you mean I have to cook? I suck at it."

Bessie took a step forward.

"If it's cooking your worried about, I can handle that. Us demi-humans are trained from small age to fend for ourselves. That includes the ability to cook."

"Well that's good to hear. Guess you'll be our chef then. At least we know who to ask for milk."

"For the last time I'm not a ducking cow! Duck! Can you please cancel this order already? It's embarrassing."

"Nope. It's fun."

Eventually I will get bored of it. But as of now, it's still funny.

"So, how do we even do this?"

"This year's recruitment should be soon, so we are lucky that you managed to gather the required amount of servants so fast. But to be sure… we just need to go an ask."

Sounds easy enough. Let's see what's gonna happen now.