Side Story “The Darkness in Motion”

Translated by Dawn

Side Story “The Darkness in Motion”

~Hera’s POV~

“Ha, I’m bored.”

Saying this, I let out a sigh. At that moment, I was lying on my bed in my room in the Demon Lord’s Castle, waiting for the time to come.

Since then, the Demon Lord has issued a standby order, and the leaders of the Demon were not allowed to leave the Demon Lord’s castle.

Since I was also an executive of the Demon Race, I naturally could not go out of the Demon Lord’s Castle, and the only thing I could do was lie down on my bed.

“Hey, Amon? Is there anything interesting?”

I asked my aide, Amon, who was standing by, but the answer I got was the same as usual.

“This is the 199th time you’ve asked me, ‘Is there anything interesting?’ You know? My answer is the same. If there was such a thing, I would be the one to tell you.”

They still spoke to me in a matter-of-fact manner. Well, that was what I liked about them, and that was why I made them my close aide……. But still, I was really bored.

“Hm? This is…”

“What’s wrong?”

When I asked Amon about their unusual behavior, they gave me a very interesting answer.

“It looks like one of my demons that I left out there got killed.”

“Heh, isn’t that amazing?”

Compared to other races, we demons were not only stronger in our physical abilities, but we also possessed a considerable amount of magical power. That was why the demon race had continued to reign as a superior race in this world.

It was not unreasonable to be a little curious about the fact that there was an opponent who could slaughter such a supreme race, even if it was just a familiar demon. I wonder what kind of person defeated their familiar.

“However, I believe it was the Skull Dragon that defeated him. I had entrusted the resurrection of the Skull Dragon to that one.”

“Oh, I see. So that’s what it is after all…….”

My interest quickly fizzled out when I learned the identity of the being who had defeated him. One of the races that could compete on equal terms with us demons was the dragon race. They were also one of the races that excelled in power, and although they did not have much of an overt confrontation with us demons, they were an inevitable opponent for the demons who would eventually hold supremacy over the world.

If it was a dragon race with power equal to that of the demons, it would probably eat him as food and not even bother with him as a familiar demon.

“But there’s something that’s been bothering me.”

“What is it.”

“If the Skull Dragon really defeated my familiar, then the city in the place where it was resurrected should be filled with negative energy by now.”

“But you don’t feel anything like that?”

“So, isn’t it strange—”

Amon was thinking about my question with a quizzical look in their eyes. Certainly, it was unnatural that the Skull Dragon had been resurrected, and yet nothing had happened.

The Skull Dragon was one of the most powerful evil dragons that existed in ancient times and were filled with negative energy, and even the demon race would not be able to get away with just anything if it was exposed to that energy. The fact that an existence of that magnitude had come back to this world and remained quiet was, even in my eyes, an anomaly.

“If I remember correctly, the Skull Dragon was sealed up in……”

“The labyrinth city of Orargrand in the kingdom of Schells.”

“The Kingdom of Schells…”

I frowned when I heard the name of that country, the kingdom of Schells, the place where my time-consuming project came to a halt, and I didn’t have very good memories of that country.

Come to think of it, there was a little boy that I tried to take care of before I left that country, but I wonder if he was doing well. Well, next time I saw him, I’d make sure I’d finish him off.

“Please excuse me…….Hera-sama, Amon-sama. The Demon Lord has summoned all the executives. Please hurry and prepare yourselves and come to the throne room.”

“Oh, so the wait-and-see order is finally being lifted. Now I can get rid of boredom!”

“Hera-sama…”

Suddenly, there was a knock at the door, and the person who entered told us that the Demon Lord had summoned me, and my face involuntarily broke into a smile. Since I was that bored, there should be no problem if I looked a little happy, but why was Amon looking at me with a dumbfounded face?

Anyway, if the Demon Lord was calling me, as an executive, I had to answer the call. I wasn’t going to the Demon Lord’s place to escape boredom or out of any personal feelings, you know? Wait, are you listening to me, Amon?

Once I decided to do so, I took off my clothes and prepared for a hot bath in order to get ready right away. I’d been cooped up in my room for so long lately that my body had been feeling a little sluggish……. And lately, my breasts were kind of growing, and the underwear I used to wear was getting tighter. I had to buy new underwear next time…

As I was thinking that, I headed for the bathhouse, not caring that Amon was hurriedly trying to hide my body. It was not that I didn’t want to be seen, so I didn’t care if they saw me. ……Eh? You don’t want other people to see it? Oh dear, what an obsessive aide you are to me.

After taking a bath and changing into clothes for an audience with the Demon Lord, we immediately headed for the throne room. After walking for a while through the huge structure of the Demon Lord’s castle, a large door leading to the throne room came into view.

When I went through the door, I saw all the other executives. It seemed that I was the last one to enter the throne room.

“Hey, Hera. What took you so long? Have you been taking a bath again, huh?”

“Shut up, Gregory. That is my business.”

“I’m saying that it’s natural for a subordinate to act immediately when the Demon Lord calls for action. Or, unless your body odor is so bad that you have to take a bath. Hahahahahaha!”

“Heh, you’ve got some nerve. Do you want to die here?”

One of the executives, Gregory, was the one who was trying to pick a fight with me. He was the worst kind of guy, a guy with good looks, but a disappointing personality on the inside. And because he was good-looking and a senior executive, he was just as strong as I was, so he was popular among other female demons. For some reason, I couldn’t explain it.

“Come on, you two, you haven’t forgotten that it’s forbidden for executives to fight each other to the death, have you?”

““Asmodeus.””

In response to our threatening atmosphere, someone intervened. Gregory’s and my voice unexpectedly overlapped with his.

This man was Asmodeus, another one of the executives. Unlike Gregory, Asmodeus was not a frivolous man, but his hard-nosed personality made him someone neither Grigori nor I wanted to have much to do with. Moreover, like Gregory, he was extremely popular among the female demon tribe, and he had 66 wives.

“Tch, you harem bastard, don’t you dare to talk to me!”

“Gregory, I love all the wives I have taken equally. That word is an insult not only to me but to all my wives. Take it back, or else……”

“Guh…tch, all right. I take it back.”

“Good. Hera, I understand that it takes time for a woman to prepare herself, but you too must be ready in advance to answer the call of the Demon Lord at any time.”

“I know.”

After saying that, Asmodeus returned to his position. By the way, the power relationship between Asmodeus and us was not so different, but when Asmodeus was offended, he was very persistent, so we always ended up giving in. After such an incident, the Demon Lord finally appeared on his throne and told us that he had summoned the executives.

“From now on, we, the demon race, declare war against all nations and wage a war to unite this world by the hands of the demon race.”

“Ooh, at last, the time has come……”

“The time of the demon race has come, hasn’t it?”

“Long live the Demon Lord!”

The executives shouted with joy at the Demon Lord’s words. In the midst of all this, the Demon Lord waited once for the executives to quiet down and then gave an order.

“For a start, we will drop the major cities of each country to serve as a foothold for the unification of our demon tribe. I will ask each of you to take down the cities of the countries you have designated. I have left the detailed assignment to Hecate, so I ask each of you to fulfill your roles. With that, we will disband.”

Then, the assignment of executives was announced by the Demon Lord’s aide, Hecate, and for some unknown reason, I was assigned to Orargrand in the Kingdom of Schells.

Well, just as well. I had the Skull Dragon incident to think about, and I might be able to find out something there.

With that in mind, I proceeded with Amon to prepare for our departure for Orargrand.

Dawn's notes:

Hmm, I'm just telling that I'm still not sure about Amon's gender since I couldn't tell by their conversations, and the Author also not mentioning about Amon's gender. For Demon Lord, I'm just guessing since by the looks of it (at least for me) Demon Lord's gender is male. Don't know. I might change it later in the series.