Three months after the subjugation of the [Orc Lord].
In the eastern part of the continent, where a dark shadow seemed to hang over the land despite it still being daytime,
at the far edge of that east, the puppet nation of Jistav, which bordered the two lands blessed by the [Storm Dragon] and the [Scorch Dragon], grew darker still as it welcomed a [clown] radiating ominous magic.
"Ow, my whole body's killing me... I worked so hard to get everything ready, and not only did we fail to make a new [Demon Lord], we ended up stirring up the [Sword of Spirit] for nothing... and on top of that, look what shape my body's in..."
Half-sprawled across a sofa so luxurious it looked expensive at a glance, the smiling-masked [clown], Laplace, grumbled at the body that still feared Adelio's killing intent.
After lightly tapping the cracked mask that had been damaged in his recent fight with Adelio, he turned his head toward the man standing a few steps away and looking out the window.
"...This one hit pretty hard, didn't it? Considering how much time we put into it, we got almost nothing out of the whole thing."
Discarding his usual playful gaze, Laplace looked calm and sharp as he spoke—not as a mere [clown], but as the vice chairman of the Moderate Harlequin Alliance.
"Indeed."
But the man only smiled and nodded at Laplace's words, offering no further answer.
"That aside, I got to see something pretty interesting this time. I more or less expected the [Sword Princess] to show up once the [Sword of Spirit] appeared, but where exactly did that slime come from?"
As naturally as breathing, the man changed the subject and lightly swirled the wineglass in his hand before turning his gaze from the window to Laplace.
"I should start making preparations too. If Milim ends up disappointed by how this turned out and starts rampaging for no reason, even I'd be in trouble."
New preparations.
What the man meant was a new piece he could still use at the very end of this game. In other words, he intended to secure the strongest possible piece for his next "plan."
"Righty-o. Then I'll make sure we're ready on our side before the next plan begins, Lord Clayman."
Poof!
Before long, Laplace vanished in a puff of smoke, and the man who kept staring at the sofa where he had just been sitting—Clayman—slowly smiled.
A wicked smile that suited the very word demon.
**
"...Hmm, so Adelio had foreseen even this..."
At the top floor of the royal castle in the armed nation of Dwargo.
This highest floor, where only the current king and the four close aides he personally acknowledged were allowed to enter, was now filled with the low murmur of troubled thought.
"...Your Majesty. What did the intelligence division report?"
The one who broke the silence to question Gazel after his quiet mutter was Dorph, commander of the Pegasus Knights.
Alongside Burn, the supreme commander of the armed forces and the [Paladin] known as the Admiral Paladin, he was called one of the Adventure King's old companions and was, in practice, Dwargo's second-in-command.
"...They say the [Orc Lord] was subjugated and the war has ended. More than that, the surviving 130,000 [Orc]s did not go berserk, but evolved into High Orcs and scattered across the great forest."
"What...? Is that really true?!"
The more than two hundred thousand [Orc]s had lost their king and been defeated—that alone would have been shocking enough—but to hear they had not gone berserk and had even evolved into High Orcs...
With three completely unforeseen outcomes appearing at once, even Dorph, who had served the king for many long years, could only doubt his own ears.
The same was true for the other three aides, including Burn.
"......"
Starting with Burn, who frowned with cold sweat on his brow, there was Henrietta, the leader of Dwargo's intelligence division and the Knight Assassin who unusually carried elf blood in her veins, and Zen, the court sorcerer who had served the current king Gazel longer than anyone.
Even these people, who might not match Gazel in raw strength but were not far behind him in experience, found the war that had broken out in the great forest highly irregular.
Of course, the same was true for Gazel himself.
'The war was ended by the intervention of multiple high-ranking majin and the [Hero Party], and those majin appear to be subordinates of the slime Adelio spoke of...'
Knowing that this entire affair was deeply tied to Adelio, Gazel closed his eyes and thought.
'The [Hero Party], which had not moved in decades, has begun acting again, and now a being has appeared who commands monsters and grants them evolution... It seems the time has come for the state of the world to change once more.'
Ever since Clayman, the lowest-ranked of the Ten Great Demon Lords, rose to become a [Demon Lord], there had been no major shifts in the balance of the world.
That was because the ancient [Demon Lord]s and [Hero]es, beings powerful enough to draw the eyes of the entire world, had all halted their movements.
But now one of those mighty [Hero]es was moving again, beginning with the great forest. If so, new changes were bound to follow.
"...It can't be helped. If I want to learn the slime's true identity and Adelio's intentions, there's no choice but to go to the great forest myself."
"Y-you mean..."
"Yes. Assemble the Pegasus Knights. It seems I'll have to take the field myself for the first time in a long while."
Cutting through the tangle of thoughts in his mind in a single stroke, Gazel rose to his feet as he ran a hand over his beloved sword.
He would go to the land of the [Storm Dragon], where his master—and the one he had regarded like a master—were waiting.
**
Meanwhile, the new ruler of the great forest, who had drawn the attention of two massive powers...
"...I'm pretty sure he introduced himself as a 'demon' back then..."
...was currently struggling with all her might to learn the true identity of the man she couldn't stop thinking about.
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