The banquet hall of Walpurgis.
Built in the style of an ancient kingdom, the hall was filled with drifting magicules. Its ceiling had been made to resemble a night sky, and beyond the ten doors set into the walls to match the ten chairs around the round table at the center, space itself seemed to shimmer.
As I looked around at the marble pillars, dark and understated yet beautiful, I noticed something strange.
"...Why are there ten chairs? Leon shouldn't be here yet."
This was still the era when the former Demon Lord [Curse Lord], Kazaream, was alive.
But even including him, one seat among the Ten Great Demon Lords should have been empty.
The six true Demon Lords other than Rimuru and Leon Cromwell, the two who would become Milim's subordinates, and Kazaream.
That made nine in total.
"Could there be a Demon Lord I don't know about?"
"......"
Something felt off, but seeing Guy quietly seated and waiting, I pushed the question aside for now and took my place behind him.
*
After a little while, Milim and Ramiris entered the hall, each guided in by Rain and Misery.
"Huh? That's Rio!"
"Oh, Rio! You're joining in today too?!"
Milim, dressed the same as always, and Ramiris, buzzing around like a fly, came over to me.
Since both of them had come alone, it looked like they hadn't brought any subordinates.
Normally, the rule at Walpurgis allowed each Demon Lord to bring up to two attendants, but Milim had no desire to bring the priests staying in the Forgotten Dragon City, and Ramiris had no subordinates at all, since she didn't even know where the followers from her days as the Spirit Queen had gone.
For reference, Rain and Misery were Guy's subordinates, but since they also served as ushers gathering the Demon Lords into the hall, Guy seemed free to bring two more attendants if he wanted.
That was why he could bring me here.
"By the way, why are you participating today? You've never come here before."
Ramiris tilted her head in midair as she asked. Just as I was about to answer—
"I'll explain it myself once everyone is here. Wait until then."
Before I could say anything, Guy, who had been sitting there with his eyes closed, opened them and answered Ramiris in my place.
"Why?! Can't you just say it now?"
"I want to know too!"
"Come on, just wait. There's a reason."
Milim and Ramiris kept pestering Guy, but when he refused to tell them anything to the very end, they quickly gave up and settled for talking only to me.
Then more time passed, and—
Thud... thud... boom...
The next one to enter after Milim and Ramiris was a fearsome-looking [Giant], with short dark-blue hair and a massive body several times larger than mine.
His name was Dagruel.
King of the giants, and an ancient Demon Lord known by the epithet [Earthquake].
"Hm... a new demon."
Murmuring that as he looked at me with interest, he sat down in the especially enormous stone chair among the ten seats.
'His magicule count is completely absurd.'
Click, click...
And almost at the same moment Dagruel took his seat, one more person entered.
"Yaaawn..."
He was a [Fallen], with dull ash-gray hair, faintly glowing turquoise eyes, a tired-looking face, and a constant stream of yawns.
His small frame and hunched back made him look weak, like a boy, but in truth he was an extremely powerful Demon Lord known as [Sleeping Ruler], the one who had taken the seat of "the strongest swordsman in the world."
His name was Dino. An angel hiding many secrets... no, a fallen angel.
*
The sixth to enter wore white holy robes fit for a pope, stood around two meters tall, and had strikingly sharp fangs—a [Vampire].
...No, he really was a pope.
Because his true identity was Roy Valentine, the pope of the Western Holy Church, one of humanity's greatest military powers.
At the same time, he was also the one acting in place of the "true vampire Demon Lord."
'...So she didn't come after all.'
I'd heard that she had always hidden herself until Rimuru appeared, so it was only natural that she wasn't here now.
"......"
Anyway, with an expression that looked vaguely irritated, he swept his gaze around once, then returned to his seat together with a butler-like vampire following behind him.
*
The seventh and eighth Demon Lords arrived together.
One was a male [Lycanthrope] with spiky blond hair and the largest build here after Dagruel.
Wearing only a single piece of light golden armor over one shoulder and a black coat, he was Carrion, king of Eurazania, the Beast Kingdom, and the man known as [Beast Master].
"Hey, it's been a while, everyone."
Surprisingly, he was one of the most sociable Demon Lords present, and he greeted those already seated at the table.
"Yeah! It has been a while!"
"......"
Guy, Dagruel, and Ramiris merely nodded, while the rest ignored him, so Milim was the only one who actually answered him directly...
Still, by the standards of this place, that was a pretty warm response.
"...Still as noisy as ever."
And the Demon Lord who entered alongside Carrion was a beautiful woman with a voluptuous figure and the great wings unique to a [Harpy].
Like Carrion, she was a Demon Lord who also ruled a nation: Frey, queen of Fulbrojia, the Heavenly Wing Nation, empress of the harpies, and bearer of the epithet [Sky Queen].
Unlike Carrion, she wasn't very sociable, and quickly took her seat with her two close harpy warriors in tow.
'That makes eight with Frey included. The remaining Demon Lord is...'
Just then, while I was briefly lost in thought, a voice of indeterminate gender rang out.
"My, it seems I'm a little late."
A mechanical tone.
Footsteps that made no sound at all.
And a dark, uncanny aura that felt sinister to the core.
"......"
A [Deathman] appeared, wrapped all over in a cloak and wearing a peculiar mask.
'He's here...'
That figure was none other than—
Demon Lord [Curse Lord], Kazaream.
'...The clown who brings misfortune.'
The foolish clown who would end up summoning that bastard into this world.
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