The demon king Albatross is the most famous demon in the world. The one who declared war on the whole human race.
She has ability values that are easily chronicle rank, high magic powers, and an ability to reincarnate while retaining memories.
This is her sixth reincarnation. Her long life means she’s collected a lot of knowledge, which she used to build up her demon army.
The hero’s party at the time had a lot of trouble with that reincarnation power, so they locked her in a ‘sealed space’ to contain the threat of the demon king.
And back here in present day, unfortunately, the time for the demon king to be reincarnated fell on our generation.
If she’s killed, she’ll just reincarnate, so we’re holding back the threat of the demon king by basically helping her kill time.
I don’t know how long we can keep this up, but there haven’t been any problems so far, so I guess we’ll keep it going as long as we can.
After all, once you decide to have a pet, you have the responsibility to look after it until the end.
And as I think about that, the demon king calls out to me.
“Hey Loyd, I heard you went to the Kingdom of Atlanta. When you win the holy war, I’ll tell you a secret about Atlanta.”
She says while sitting back on her throne and looking down at me and Sephilia with a smug expression.
“Today’s topic is meat manju.”
I say while lifting a circular wooden lid, revealing two meat manju.
We went out of our way to cook this on the floor where cerberus was, so even the container is still hot. The meat manju are in peak condition.
“Meat manju…”
It’s plain to see that her excitement is dropping. I thought for sure she’d raise her hands with excitement, so I’m surprised to see this reaction.
“What? You don’t like them?”
“I very much do, but I am not too good with them because every time I sink my teeth into one, there’s a high chance of me getting burned.”
Then stop doing that?
When I tell her that, she roars ‘you fool!’
Why is she mad at me? I never understand what makes this demon king boil.
“How about leaving them on a plate for a bit? You can also drink water, not to mention there are various ways to control your gluttony. I hear there are even mad people out in this world who separate the red bean paste and skin before eating them.”
“That last one doesn’t have to be a meat manju, right?”
I know the first two very well, but not that last one.
“Sephilia, meat manju are at their tastiest when they are piping hot. Purposefully leaving them to cool down or washing down with cold water is a disservice to the artisan who made them.”
“It’s better than burning your tongue.”
I say coldly.
It sounds plausible, but she’s asking for too much.
Also, one of the weaknesses of meat manju is that when they get cold they harden, and they don’t feel the same when you eat them. I can eat them both ways.
“Ah, you are correct. I apologize.”
Says Sephilia while bowing.
Let’s sum up what the demon king wants.
She wants to eat the meat manju while they’re piping hot, but without burning her tongue. And because of that, waiting for them to cool is not an option.
She’s a tough opponent.
“How about I cast Protection in your mouth? That should protect you from burns, so you can enjoy the meat manju while they’re hot.”
“You really are a genius mage, to bring up magic here…”
I’m apparently a genius meat manju handling mage. I don’t know if I should be happy about that or not.
The Water Protection I cast this morning would soften the meat manju a lot, but that wouldn’t meet her demands.
She demands that the meat manju be piping hot.
Protection and Water Protection. A true mage weighs the pros and cons and decides what magic fits each situation.
Not that I ever thought I would cast Protection magic to eat meat manju.
I give the demon king the steaming hot meat manju, but just as I’m about to cast Protection, she opens her mouth wide and takes a big bite.
“So hot!”
That’s what you get for rushing, Al. I really wish she’d learn how to wait.
I’m exasperated, but treat her burn with Healing.
“I think the way you bite into it without any hesitation is the reason why you get burned, Al.”
“They’re tastiest when I do that. Uu… Too hot…”
She says with tears welling up in her eyes, and I cast Protection.
I end up giving her thirty of them. She eats a lot considering she has a small body.
And she looks very satisfied, so she tells us about the Kingdom of Atlanta.
“A hundred kilometers north of Atlanta there are the underground ruins of Almada, where the giant water dragon Levithesis has been sealed for two hundred years.”
Eh… There’s a monster like that?
The scope is pretty big, being sealed for two hundred years.
Deep sea monsters are largely unknown, so this is the first I’m hearing of it.
I’m kind of interested, so I ask about this Levithesis, and the demon king gives me information about its characteristics.
Giant deep sea dragon Levithesis.
A giant water dragon that’s a hundred meters long, and much stronger than regular water dragons.
Its strength rivals those of legends. It’s covered in a magic reflecting armor, and physical attacks are completely shut down by Water Protection.
That’s a real monster right there. It might be on par with an alraune queen, the strongest monster I’ve faced.
“Invalidating both physical and magic attacks is against the rules.”
“Legend ranks care not for rules.”
“Those things are really scary uh?”
“Well, it’s said it’s ridiculously strong because it’s Undine’s pet. She treated it like a kid…”
My shoulders tremble a little when I hear Queen Undine being brought up.
She’s not bad or anything, but I’m a little traumatized.
“You know Queen Undine? What are things like between you two?”
“Well… A long time ago, I saw a baby turtle being picked on by kids. I stepped in to stop them, and the baby turtle, overcome with emotion, guided me to the Kingdom of Atlanta. That was when I met Undine.”
“That’s a real lead into a fable.”
Whispers Sephilia.
It sounds like this will take a while
Then she starts talking about how they met. Incidentally, this was the demon king’s fifth reincarnation, so the same one that started a war.
From what I can tell, their relationship is surprisingly not bad. It was like a couple of lovebirds where the demon king was the comic character and Queen Undine was the straight man.
Also, according to this story, Queen Undine was a gentle, kind, graceful, and noble lady.
A real person of character. Is that how her normal personality is?
Anyway, as for Levithesis, it was usually left free to roam around, swimming around Atlanta and repelling invaders.
And Queen Undine had it before the demon king showed up. But one day, it started attacking not just invaders, but people of Atlanta too.
From the point of view of the demon king, it was like it suddenly went mad.
“And then what happened?”
“The capital at the time was Almada, so it became a battlefield. I also supported Undine as we fought.”
Two chronicle ranks fighting together must have been really intense, but it was hard to be happy when the reason why Levithesis started rampaging remained a mystery.
“We defeated it completely, but Undine wanted it sealed. She maintains the seal every year.”
“That must have been tough on her.”
“Yes. And she was strange ever since then.”
“Strange?”
“When I left the room a bit, she would come right after me.”
“Hm?”
“If I spoke to one of her subordinates, she would get really jealous, and she would frequently angrily ask if I was abandoning her.”
She sounds super needy.
Her pet being sealed probably caused her to be too dependent on the demon king, because they got along so well.
“It got really serious when I said it was about time for me to return to the surface. She yelled ‘if you’re going back there I’ll kill you’, and attacked me with her treasured sword.”
I was feeling sorry for Queen Undine, but this just feels like the origin story of a yandere.
It’s always like that. It’s in her nature already, but then some sort of shock happens.
Queen Undine loses her memory, but she’s still the same person, so it always ends up going down the same path. History repeating itself.
“So how did it turn out?”
“I managed to get away, but I swore I would never get close to her domain. Uu… Just thinking about it makes a chill run down my spine…”
It sounds like Queen Undine traumatized the demon king.
After that, nothing major happens. We have dinner, play brave cards until late at night, and overall, just have fun.
By the time we go to sleep, we’ve completely forgotten about Queen Undine.
Join my patreon to support me and read ahead.
