Chapter 401: Playing House

「Still, it seems that the letter that Chubby-chan desperately wrote has arrived properly. Maria-chan was very worried~. After all, the best way to create an atmosphere of urgency is to have the people involved do it. Hey, it had the atmosphere, right? How was it?」

The devil in the skin of a child said so with a pure smile that has no malice at all. Come to think of it, like Satella, Maria also uses wind magic, right? In terms of ability, even Satella would be no match for her. In short, Maria can use one or two teleportation magic easily. It’s even possible that this magic is better than Raptiolenis, which is a magic that even I don’t know about. It might be too late, but I found a trace of the flow of magic power along the window. Tch, it was my fault for not being careful enough, huh.

「King Dias, please get behind me!」

Noct-kun finally recognized Maria’s presence and stepped in between King Dias and Maria. It was after Nell picked a fight, so I don’t think it will provoke Maria anymore… but just in case, I, Nell, and Lily will do something about it.

「No, it would be meaningless with this distance. Besides, if her target is my head, I wouldn’t be in this world anymore.」

「B-But…!」

「Wow, he’s a handsome guy who can read the mood~. He’s powerful for a young human, and he might be someone who has a promising future. I will give you Maria’s autograph, here! The boy over there, who looks like he’s in the biggest crisis of his life, is also quite handsome, so I’ll give one too! Here~」

「Eh, ah… t-thank you.」

「…… The Great Eight Demons do autograph activities, huh?」

「Do you want to shake hands too? Being able to touch me for free is a big treat, you know?」

「「………」」

Dias and Noct were overpowered by Maria’s out-of-place talk. They accepted a set of autographs taken out of nowhere and stared at them, wondering what to do with them. If someone suddenly appeared and forcibly gave an autograph to you, you would be confused, of course.

Even Dias, who’s handsome both physically and mentally, can’t deal with Maria. For the time being, I made eye contact with him and told him to leave it to me. I also reminded Noct not to provoke her.

「Hey, Maria, don’t behave as you please. Even if you try to kill the king, I will stop you before you do it.」

「Nell, you’re not so smart, huh? As this handsome guy said, I’m not here for something worthless like that~」

「Haah?」

「Ababababababa…」

Noct, caught between the pressure of the two, is on the verge of fainting. Incidentally, the entire room is beginning to squeak violently. At this rate, both the room and Noct will break. Good grief.

――――Clap clap!

I clapped my hands loudly to shift their attention to me. Ugh, the bloodlust also came this way.

「…… From each other’s point of view, it’s inevitable to be belligerent, but please understand the important part first. Maria, what do you mean by playing house?」

「Playing house (war), it means we’re going to imitate humans’ playing. No matter what era it is, humans will always be eager to play an encampment game if left alone, right? So, I want to try playing it. I knew that Deris would probably return to this country before coming to visit me, so I made preparations ahead of time. That way, I could play with you earlier! Maria-chan likes a fairy tale country, so the stage is Crocus!」

「Wait, what about the promised Love and Peace? It might be playing for you, but it’s a great disaster for humans. Don’t involve an unrelated country.」

「No, I involve them exactly because of Love and Peace, you know? We the Great Eight Demons are beings that must be the necessary evil of the world. If we don’t spread fear like this, arrogant humans will soon get carried away. We have to show them our absolute power on a moderate and regular basis. You see, despite being the Great Eight Demons, Hund-chan was defeated the other day. So, I have to get rid of all the stigma of the Great Eight Demons on the Jiba continent~」

「………」

Those are plausible reasons. However, no matter what she says, her top priority is to fulfill her own desires. She said about stigma and necessary evil, but those were only words after all. Also, don’t bully Hund-kun, you bastard.

「Also, I was thinking that everyone’s trials were too lenient, so I was thinking to make some adjustments~. I had high hopes for Rimudo, but he didn’t fight at all. And he was too lenient that he acknowledged it with just that. Did he drink too much juice that he became like that?」

「Okay, I understand. But even in war, there are minimum rules. If you don’t set the conditions for victory, it’s just a slaughter. You said that it’s playing, so you’ve decided on that, right?」

「Of course~. It’s a serious playing and an opportunity for me to judge everyone. I’ve come up with the rules properly~」

「I don’t have the slightest expectation, but I’ll ask it for Chinatsu’s sake. Just say it.」

「I’m happy that you’re motivated. One, the victory condition is to recapture the throne of Crocus. To make it simple, you just need to make the queen of Crocus sit on the throne. You can take the throne physically and let her sit there, or you can use magic to teleport the queen to the throne. I don’t care what method you use. But I will disturb you, of course.」

How kind of her that she allows us to use anything. But well, if Maria is going to get in the way, it will be so difficult that climbing Rimudo Mountain is like a child’s play.

「Two, the minimum number of members in your force is Haruna, Chinatsu, and Touko, and there’s no upper limit for the helper.」

「Ha? No upper limit?」

「Yep, no upper limit. The three girls can have anyone as a helper. I don’t mind if it’s Deris or Nell, or someone from another country. They can put anyone in their party, no matter how much the number is, and they can even form an army. If I had to say, the bonds the three of them have built up with other people so far will be put to test. Yep, Maria-chan is so kind~」

「…… Just how much force did you bring from your country?」

「Hmm? It’s not much, I brought all my daughters.」

「Haa!?」

All of her daughters… she’s bringing the main forces of her country. What about the defense of her country?

「I roughly know what Deris is thinking~. Don’t worry~. Even with the forces that I left behind, they can annihilate the large country around there. Now, do you understand that I’m going to play seriously?」

「Yeah, I understand. I understand that you have no intention of letting the girls use the gate at all…!」

「That’s not true~. I and Gramps Vakala just want to judge you fairly. If you show us your strength, we will acknowledge you~. And Lily-chan, it’s a good chance to see your older sisters, you know? I hope you participate as well~」

「………」

Since the appearance of Maria, Lilyvia has been silent. But I didn’t miss her raised eyebrows at the mention of the word ‘sisters’ for a moment.

「There’s no specific time limit, but let’s do it until I get tired of it. I’ll be patient with you for a few years. Deris, you guys got away from me ten years ago, but let’s have fun together this time. And while involving each other’s cute children whom we have raised carefully.」

In the end, Maria made a real vampire-like smile and disappeared from this place without a sound.