Employed by the Demon Lord

A carriage was waiting at the forest's exit.

It was a large carriage drawn by three horses. Its body was painted black and decorated with silver. It appeared to bear the Demon Lord's crest.

Mabel and I climbed aboard, and the carriage began moving slowly.

I could see outside through the windows.

"So this is the Demon Lord's Territory."

The road was surrounded by a wide grassland.

A large river flowed in the distance, with boats traveling back and forth along it.

A scaled Merman was steering a boat.

A girl was swimming near one of the boats. She had fins near her ears. She was probably a Mermaid.

A wolf-like beastman was herding sheep across the grassland.

The person carrying a large load near the carriage was probably a bear beastman.

"There are all kinds of people here."

The people of the Empire had said that the Demon Lord's Territory was a chaotic place.

They had claimed that magic beasts would attack anyone who set foot in the territory.

They had said that vicious beastmen lived here and abducted humans.

That was what I had been told—but when I actually saw the place, everyone was living perfectly ordinary lives.

In fact, it was more peaceful than the Empire.

There were no bloodthirsty cavalrymen racing around, and no guards threatening travelers.

"The Demon Lord's Territory has a small population, "

Mabel said.

"So we ask people of different races to handle the jobs they are best suited for. We put the right people in the right places, in other words."

"That's quite rational."

"We would very much like you to work in the Demon Lord's Territory as well, Thor-sama."

"Me too?"

"The reason the Demon Lord's Territory invites guests from the Empire is to learn new technologies and acquire new knowledge."

This was completely different from what I had expected.

I had been ordered to become a hostage in the Demon Lord's Territory.

My father had even told me to "go die"—to become a sacrifice.

And yet the people of the Demon Lord's Territory called me a "guest."

In fact, I had been welcomed by an elven girl and treated as an honored guest.

"May I ask you something?"

"Of course. Go ahead."

"There must have been people who came to the Demon Lord's Territory as hostages—no, as envoys before us. What happened to them?"

"The last time was fifty years ago. I wasn't even born then, so I only know what I've heard..."

Mabel thought for a moment before saying,

"Apparently, they left soon after arriving here."

"They left without telling anyone?"

"Yes. We didn't place any restrictions on their movements. We did hear that they were worried about traveling through that forest alone, so we tried to escort them home... but apparently, they slipped away in secret."

"I see."

Things were starting to make sense.

The Demon Lord's Territory considered people from the Empire to be envoys or guests. That was why they welcomed them.

But the Empire believed it was sending hostages or sacrifices.

So the people who were sent here tried to escape.

Since they were fleeing in defiance of the Empire's orders, they didn't go back and report after escaping.

As a result, they ended up being treated as missing.

"Thor-sama... will you stay in the Demon Lord's Territory?"

Before I knew it, a pair of violet eyes was staring intently at me.

"There are no alchemists as talented as you in the Demon Lord's Territory. We need someone like you here. Please lend us your strength. We will do everything we can to help you live comfortably. So—"

"I've come here for the sake of friendship between the Empire and the Demon Lord's Territory."

I said it.

I didn't want to tell someone who had welcomed me, "No, no, I'm actually a hostage sent here by the Empire to be a sacrifice."

"I intend to do whatever I can for the sake of the Demon Lord's Territory."

"Thank you very much!"

Mabel leaned toward me. Much too close.

Every time the carriage rocked, the pendant I had just repaired swayed. And, incidentally, so did her ample breasts.

The Empire's claim that 'elves have poor physical development' was apparently wrong.

There were still so many things I didn't know.

"...Ah, we'll arrive at the Demon Lord's Castle in about an hour."

Perhaps realizing that she had gotten too close, Mabel blushed and returned to her seat.

"Once we arrive, you will have an audience with the Demon Lord. Please prepare yourself."

The Demon Lord.

The king of the demonfolk and ruler of this territory.

If I wanted to survive in the Demon Lord's Territory, this was someone I absolutely could not afford to anger.

Mabel and the minotaurs had welcomed me, but what would the Demon Lord be like...?

I was thinking about that as the carriage carried me onward.

"Demon Lord Lukie Evergard-sama is entering!"

A voice echoed through the throne room of the Demon Lord's Castle.

I knelt motionless before the empty throne.

We had arrived at the Demon Lord's Castle, and I had been brought here immediately.

The minotaurs stood at attention in the throne room with spears in hand. Apparently, they were the Demon Lord's personal guards.

Mabel was kneeling behind me in the same manner.

When I looked back at her, she waved and said, "I'm with you." She was a good person.

"So you are the guest from the Empire."

After a while, a masked figure appeared in the throne room.

I couldn't tell how tall the figure was. The figure seemed taller than me, at least.

The figure wore a robe embroidered with gold thread and a mask covering the upper half of the face. I couldn't see the expression. All I knew was that the figure had long golden hair and was probably a woman.

Two horns extended from behind the figure's ears.

Horns were a characteristic of high-ranking demonfolk, and the larger they were, the more magic power their owner was said to be able to wield. That was what people said, anyway—but I had no idea how large ordinary horns were, so I couldn't judge. Still, as the Demon Lord, this figure was undoubtedly a powerful wielder of dark magic.

The Demon Lord possessed the strongest 'dark magic power.'

'Dark magic power' controlled death and nothingness in the literal sense.

That power was strongest in the king of the demonfolk—the Demon Lord.

"I am Lukie Evergard, the Demon Lord."

The Demon Lord sat on the throne and looked at me from behind the mask.

"You are Thor Rigas, a guest from the Dorgalia Empire."

"Yes, Your Majesty."

I answered while remaining on my knees.

"I am deeply honored to receive a personal greeting from Your Majesty."

"I will ask you directly. What can you do?"

The Demon Lord got straight to the point after exchanging only the briefest of greetings.

"The reason our Demon Lord's Territory welcomes guests from the Dorgalia Empire is to acquire knowledge and technology from the human world. Since you have come here, you must possess some special knowledge, do you not?"

"A little alchemy."

"...Hmm. How interesting."

"That is a technology we do not possess in the Demon Lord's Territory."

The Demon Lord sighed, and the aide spoke up.

A blue-haired man stood beside the throne. According to Mabel, he was this country's chancellor.

"I see. So the Empire has so many alchemists that it can afford to send them to other countries. The Dorgalia Empire is a truly fearsome nation."

No. It simply treats alchemists as useless.

──I almost objected, but kept quiet.

"Very well. Then we will prepare a workshop for you. You may freely practice your craft there. Is there anything you need in order to work as an alchemist?"

The Demon Lord said that.

No one had ever said anything like that to me before.

"I would be grateful if I could have a room to work in."

"Understood. We will prepare one. Anything else?"

"Alchemy also requires equipment."

"I see. Then make a list of what you need and submit it. Anything else?"

"Materials, in particular. Specifically, chunks of metal that I can use up without worry—old swords and armor that are no longer in use would be fine as well. It would help if you had anything like that."

"I see... Kelv. Didn't my grandfather, the Demon Lord before last, have a warehouse somewhere?"

Demon Lord Lukie looked toward the blue-haired man—the chancellor.

The chancellor nodded.

"The Demon Lord before last had a fondness for collecting things. Rusty swords, broken armor and shields, books we cannot read... he collected all sorts of things."

"My grandfather's hobby was collecting junk, after all."

"Given his position, I cannot agree with that wording, but... in any case, it would be best to give him the warehouse where those potentially useful materials are stored."

"Could a pile of junk really be useful?"

"That is something the alchemist himself should determine."

"──Indeed."

At the chancellor's suggestion, Demon Lord Lukie turned toward me.

"There is a guest room beside the warehouse. We will give it to you as your private room. The warehouse contains junk that the previous Demon Lord collected as a hobby. You may freely use it as materials. It is all very old—dating back to the era when 'Hero Summoning' was practiced—so I cannot say whether it will be useful."

"From the era of 'Hero Summoning'?"

"Indeed. It dates back to the era when our Demon Lord's Territory was defeated by the human world."

The Demon Lord nodded.

"Use your abilities as an alchemist to create whatever you like. If you make something worthwhile, we will purchase it from you. If it proves useful to the Demon Lord's Territory, we may even consider mass-producing it for our people. We would appreciate your help in that case."

"...That is more than I could have hoped for. But—"

"What is it?"

"Why are you going so far for my sake?"

The treatment I was receiving was far too generous.

For someone like me, who had been treated as useless in the Empire, it was almost impossible to believe.

"I am someone who came here from the Empire—in other words, an outsider. I do not understand why you would do so much for me."

"Because we wish to learn from the human world."

"To learn?"

"We demonfolk were defeated long ago by human wisdom and heroes summoned from another world. You know that, do you not?"

I knew that.

During the era when humans and demonfolk were at war, humans summoned heroes from another world to fight the demonfolk.

The summoned heroes wielded powerful Skills and fought for humanity.

Every one of those heroes pursued 'strength' with frightening determination.

They willingly fought 'magic beasts' and raised their Skills and levels.

Their 'obsession with strength' eventually spread to the humans of this world as well.

The Empire I came from was obsessed with strength because of the heroes' influence.

The heroes grew even stronger and defeated the Demon Lord.

The demonfolk and the demi-humans who had aided them were banished to the northern lands.

And that was how the world came to look the way it does today.

Apparently, the otherworldly hero who defeated the Demon Lord was satisfied and returned to the original world.

Hero Summoning is no longer practiced.

But the knowledge and items left behind by the heroes still remain.

Even the units of distance and time used across the continent were introduced by heroes from another world.

"The demonfolk were defeated by humans. That is a fact. So we demonfolk decided to learn from that defeat."

The Demon Lord murmured while touching the mask.

"We have no intention of fighting humans anymore. But we must continue learning from them. Otherwise, the lives lost in that war will have been for nothing. Besides, summoning from another world may happen again someday. If we have not learned by then, we may be destroyed for good this time."

When I looked at Mabel and the chancellor, they nodded as they listened.

This really was the policy of the Demon Lord's Territory.

"That is why we invite guests from the Empire. We invite people here, interact with them, and acquire the latest knowledge. Otherwise, we will never catch up with the Empire."

"Is that why you are treating me so generously?"

"Indeed. Creating an environment where you can make full use of your abilities is also for the sake of the Demon Lord's Territory."

The Demon Lord nodded.

"It is also the policy of the Demon Lord's Territory to place people where they can best use their abilities. Our territory has a small population, after all. We cannot afford to make people do work that does not suit them. That sort of thing is a luxury only possible in the populous human world."

I understood the Demon Lord's reasoning.

The Demon Lord's Territory invited guests from the Empire to acquire technology and knowledge from the human world.

They were preparing a workshop and materials for me so that I could make full use of my abilities.

Anything I created would become an asset of the Demon Lord's Territory, while the territory would learn what alchemy was capable of.

...This was bad. I was getting excited.

A workshop, and materials I could use freely.

Those were things I could never have obtained in the Empire.

I also liked the policy of the Demon Lord's Territory.

The Demon Lord's Territory had chosen an approach that was the complete opposite of the Empire's.

The Empire had summoned powerful heroes from another world and used them to defeat the Demon Lord.

So it maintained the policies that "we are right" and "strength is everything."

The Demon Lord's Territory, on the other hand, had been defeated by the heroes and humans.

So it had adopted the policy of "learning from humans" and invited humans into its territory.

If that was the case, then I knew what I had to do.

As an alchemist employed by the Demon Lord, I would cooperate with the Demon Lord's Territory.

I would use my 'Creation Alchemy' Skill in this place to create things that surpassed anything in the Empire.

If possible, I would create something even greater than the items used by the heroes.

I would create items so powerful that the 'strength' worshiped by the Empire became completely meaningless.

"I am grateful for Your Majesty's kindness."

I offered the formal bow appropriate for a noble.

"First, I would like to show you what my alchemy can do. Please accept that as my repayment for your welcome."

"...O-oh."

...Huh?

For some reason, the Demon Lord sounded flustered.

As I wondered about that, the chancellor beside the Demon Lord cleared his throat.

"You must be tired from your long journey. Someone, show Thor-dono to his room—no, Mabel, stay here. And Thor-dono, there are many hot-tempered people in the Demon Lord's Castle. Try not to walk around alone. Now then, Your Majesty."

"That concludes the audience with our guest, Thor Rigas."

After the chancellor spoke hurriedly, the Demon Lord spoke up.

Afterward, another maid led me out of the throne room.