One of the higher races of the great forest was the Ogre.
Near the village where those Ogres lived stood the training grounds of Araki Byakuya, the man who had taught them the Oboro Shinmei Style.
On the surface, it looked like nothing more than a small hill beside the forest.
...They're both already here.
After leaving the Sealed Cave, I flew to the area near the Ogre village and spotted two figures crossing swords atop the hill.
One was an old swordsman with the distinctive horn of an Ogre on his forehead. The other was a brown-haired Hydwarf clad head to toe in armor.
Those two swordsmen, known respectively by the epithets [Sword Demon] and [Sword Saint], stopped sparring and sheathed their blades as soon as I landed on the hill.
"It has been a long time, Lord Sword Emperor."
Unlike how he was described in the novel as looking to be in his forties or fifties, the Hydwarf Gazel Dwargo still retained the appearance of a man in his thirties.
The current emperor of Dwargo was wrapped in a [Heroic Aura] very similar to old Gran's.
An aura as solid as bedrock, the opposite of the kind Sylvia and Ermesia gave off.
Rumble...
Ever since I made contact with him to repay the debt I owed old Gran, Gazel had been coming to the great forest like this whenever he had time.
To hone his martial skill, or to meet Hakurou and me.
"...Yeah. It's been a while, King Gazel."
In the original flow of events, this was land directly tied to the sealing of the [Storm Dragon], so he would have avoided visiting if possible. But because I vouched for him as a [Hero], Gazel had continued coming here even after ascending the throne as emperor.
"...And like I always say, you really don't have to call me [Sword Emperor]. Adelio is fine. We're not even that far apart in age."
It did not look that way at all, and it was honestly hard to believe, but... I was actually several decades older than Gazel.
Still, as a demon of the [Grand Duke] class, my appearance would not age even after hundreds or thousands of years, so the Hydwarf Gazel looked older than I did.
To a complete stranger, we would probably look like uncle and nephew.
And Ogres, who aged faster than Hydwarves, showed the difference even more clearly.
"Heh heh. You look exactly the same as when I first met you, Adelio."
Araki Byakuya's grandson, Hakurou.
Of the three of us here, his race had the shortest lifespan. A hundred years ago, he had still looked like a black-haired middle-aged man, but now he had become a full white-haired old man.
Of course, that did not mean his martial ability had declined.
If anything, his sword aura had only grown stronger. He was by no means someone you could call weak.
In pure skill alone, he was a swordsmanship prodigy who surpassed even Guy and Chronoa.
That was Hakurou.
"...It's been a while, old master."
When I returned the greeting, Hakurou smiled gently like an ordinary old man and slowly nodded.
Then he asked what had brought me to the great forest this time.
"Has something happened, perhaps, to the sealed [Storm Dragon]?"
"No. Nothing that dangerous. It's just... I thought it was about time I started preparing for something that will happen a little later on."
Something that would happen later.
More precisely, what would come when "that slime" reincarnated.
I had come here to smooth out those events as much as possible.
The named Ogres and the Kingdom of Dwargo would both be heavily affected by his reincarnation.
"...By something that will happen later, do you mean a power struggle among the [Demon Lords]?"
Gazel, who had no idea that the future held a world-shaking upheaval brought on by a single slime, offered the most plausible answer he could think of.
"Well, it's not entirely wrong. In a way, you could say it starts because of the [Demon Lords]."
The petty scheme of a lesser [Demon Lord] trying to create a new [Demon Lord].
Considering that [Demon Lord] and the clowns, it really was about the same as some childish game dressed up with cheap tricks.
They had thrown themselves into a stage far too big for them with power that couldn't even beat a single one of the [Primordial Demons], and in the end, they lost to a newcomer.
But the damage was still considerable.
The clearest example was the noncombatants of the Ogre village.
They had been living peacefully in the great forest, only to die unjustly because of the greed of a [Demon Lord] and a majin.
The monster ecosystem might be ruled by the law of the jungle, but interference from a third party could never be called the natural order.
The Jura Great Forest is a non-aggression zone even among the [Demon Lords], but those clowns broke that rule.
I was one of Guy's servants and close aides myself, so if I had not also held the status of a [Hero], I should not have entered the Jura Great Forest either.
The non-aggression rule existed under the pretext that Veldora might be influenced by the powerful magicules possessed by a [Demon Lord] or their close subordinates and break his seal.
But if those clowns break the pact first... then we don't need to keep honoring it either.
If I could help the Ogres and use the clowns' rampage in the great forest as proof, then I would gain justification to openly make use of my standing as part of a [Demon Lord] faction inside the forest as well.
If I pulled that off, I would gain a reason to deal with that troublesome Deathman bastard without any backlash, and I would also be able to help "that slime."
As a bonus, Milim would no longer need to keep up her act, and it would become much easier to ride the wave when Gazel and the forces of the great forest formed an alliance.
...If something can be used, I should use it to the fullest.
Preventing losses that could be prevented, and making sure to secure every possible gain. For a demon who made a living through [Contract], that was the most important virtue of all.
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