"So, Xania, how well do you think I did? Was I convincing enough?"

"I think that some elves will probably try to leave the forest, but not for the reasons you think."

"What do you mean?"

"They did ask you if they could become your servants, didn't they?"

"But that's probably because they have no idea of where to go, no? Why else would they ask for that?"

"Why else indeed..." Xania lets out another sigh. Seriously, what am I missing?

"In any case, it's probably going to be a while until anyone actually leaves, I cannot wait that long."

"Why? Do you need to go somewhere?"

"Didn't you say earlier that some beastkin had been kidnapped? I have to go rescue them!"

I got a bit sidetracked rescuing Rax and saving the elves, but I still need to deal with Kalroth. I need to find that contract crystal for Nera, get him to leave the dark fairies alone since they are my students now, same for Xania, Arana is probably going after him right now, and I think that Ranna also wants him to be beaten to make up for helping him before. There was also now this business with the kidnappings. That's a lot of reasons for me to go beat up someone that I've never even met...

That weird prophecy Arana made worries me a little, but I cannot just ignore him at this point.

"Stop saying that you 'have' to do all of these things. The reason why you keep helping people is because you want to."

"Well, maybe I'm just weird, but I cannot just ignore someone trying to bring slavery back if I can stop it. What is that Kalroth guy thinking anyway? Didn't you work for him until today?"

That question made her stop to think for a moment.

"This was not something I was expecting, but now that I think about it, I probably should have... A lot of demons romanticize the idea of a demon lord, someone strong enough to do whatever they want and make people listen to them. But if you think about it, a demon lord is just someone who intimidates others with their power to make them obey, even if they don't want to. Slavery is not too far away from that."

What she just said does not sound like something that she's only realized just nownow. It seemed more like something that she’d known for some time, but that she had been trying to ignore.

"But if he's such a bad guy, why did you think so highly of him? I remember how you kept talking about how great he was."

"Someone as strong as you wouldn't understand... My tribe is surrounded by potential enemies much stronger than us. We have a history of being forced to commit many degrading or evil acts for the sake of our freedom and survival. Being under the protection of someone as strong as Kalroth is like a dream for us, it's just natural that I would think highly of him."

"But he was not protecting you out of kindness, he only wanted to take advantage of you."

"In the demon wasteland, everyone is always trying to take advantage of everyone else. Just so you know, Kalroth was not always the way he's now, a lot of people tried to trick him to make use of his strength in the past. He once told me that he had decided to never show kindness to anyone ever again, and I could see how that decision made him crueler and crueler as time went on. I have to admit that I was also going on that path until you dragged me off of it kicking and screaming."

"But you have to admit that you feel much better now." I smile at her, causing her to stifle a scream and look away from my face.

"You have been getting away with being so nice because all of your enemies have been much weaker than you, but what are you planning to do when you have to face someone without such a large power gap? Kalroth is much stronger than a normal demon lord."

"He's still below level 400, no? There were monsters stronger than that in the infernal caverns."

I know that intelligent beings are harder to beat than monsters since they are smarter, can use equipment, and tend to have a more varied and refined fighting style. But the hell dragon was level 500 and boss monsters are also tougher than regular monsters. I don't think that Kalroth could be stronger than that.

"If we were talking about a fair fight there's no way you could lose, but if you hold back against him as much as you hold back against everyone else, you're going to be in trouble. And his minions might join the fight too."

"Well, then I guess I could hold back a bit less."

Up until now, it's not just that I've been avoiding killing my opponents. I've been fighting in such a way that there would be absolutely no risk of anyone dying, most of the time I've even made sure that nobody got injured. There's a lot of room between that and going all out to kill my enemy, it's not like I need to go from one extreme to the other.

That said, the idea that I might end up actually killing someone scares me a lot, for quite a few reasons...

"And what will you do if he tries to use those beastkin he's kidnapped as hostages?"

"I admit that could be a problem, depending on the situation."

"He could make his minions threaten each one of them at the same time. Unless you can stop time or something crazy like that, there's no way you could save them all."

"No, I cannot stop time yet."

"That's right, and that's why you need to think... Wait, what do you mean 'yet'?"

"Oh, I've been working on a spell to stop time, but it was a bit more difficult than I expected and I got stuck."

Xania is staring at me with her eyes wide open. Did I say something weird again? That's the face people always make when I say something weird...

"Anyway, I think that I'll go with you. I'm afraid of what will happen if you try to face Kalroth alone. I already asked the elves to let Rax stay in the village until I come back."

"That's great! Let's get going then!"

...

I just realized something.

"Hey Xania, do you know where Kalroth is right now."

"No, how am I supposed to know that?"

Well, that's a problem I should have seen coming. Before I could start panicking, I felt Longleg jumping to one of my hands. I had forgotten that I still had him.

When I lift my hand, he points in a certain direction.

"Is that where Kalroth is?" He nods. "How do you know that?"

Instead of answering, he shrugs his shoulders, which does nothing more than raise even further questions.

---

 

After walking for a while, we saw an enormous black castle in the distance surrounded by a small town.

"Hey, isn't that the castle that the demon king had in this continent?" Xania said.

Now that she mentions it, that castle seems very old and is partly in ruins. I think I read that the demon king built one castle on each continent. Was this really one of them?

The walls are all black with some red highlights, the entire castle is built with very sharp angles and its many towers have very long spikes at the top, giving it a threatening air. It certainly looks like the type of place where you would expect an extremely powerful and terrifying villain to reside.

I guess it makes sense for Kalroth to make that place his lair if he wants to be the next demon king.

There are a few demons in the town, but it seems empty for the most part. Soon after we enter, we see a group of three orcs dragging a man with cat ears from a chain.

I approach them. "Excuse me."

"Uh? What do you wa-"

Both the orcs and the beastkin stop moving when they see me.

"Hey, aren't you guys Garerg's lackeys?" Xania seems to have seen them before.

"Who's Garerg?"

"That old orc you almost killed with a single punch."

She didn't need to mention that, she just scared them even more.

"Could you please leave that man with us and leave?" I don't think this will work, but I'll try asking nicely first.

"Oh... of course! We cannot say no to such a beautiful lady!"

They're really leaving just like that? They were a lot more polite than I was expecting.

"W-what do you want from me? The other demons didn't want me because my illness makes me weak."

The beastkin man also seems afraid of me. What illness is he talking about? Mmmm... I think that there's something wrong with his muscles, perhaps I'll be able to do something when I have more time.

"Don't worry, we're here to help."

His chain is really weak, so I break it with my bare hands.

"Help?" He looks at me with doubt.

"To rescue you and the others who were kidnapped. Do you know where they are?"

"In the castle, I don't know where exactly... I know that I'm not in a position to ask for anything. But could you please save my daughter?"

"Was she captured as well?"

"No, but she's probably rushing to this place as we speak."

"What do you mean?"

"That girl has been taking care of me ever since I got this illness. She's incredibly strong, but that made her reckless. And she's a really good tracker, I'm sure that after hearing about our kidnapping she began to chase after us. That demon lord is too much even for her... please, you need to stop her before she gets herself killed."

His daughter should be a catgirl, right? I would love to become friends with one of them, but the only one I know does not seem to like me very much... perhaps this one will be different.

"Don't worry, I'll make sure to keep her safe when she arrives."