The Demon King's Army, Western Legion (1)

The news of the withdrawal of the artifact, the Sun Orb, was practically a declaration of defeat. As the heat subsided, the news spread rapidly across the entire Demon Realm. For a while, it was the hottest topic in the gallery as well.

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Looking through the gallery's reactions, all the blame and vitriol were directed at the humans, while several posts expressing gratitude and worship (?) toward me were popping up.

"If they take this meme too far, I'll have to start deleting them."

Fortunately, the forum users walked a fine line with their Head Mod worship, never quite crossing into brain-dead spam. Since I was in a good mood and the weather was finally cooling down, I decided to let it slide for now.

And then...

"Oh, this looks interesting."

An analysis post that caught my eye was uploaded.

"Troll down."

As soon as they got slightly triggered, quite a few human spies started popping out from all directions. Bless their hearts, they sacrificed themselves to generously replenish my pitifully low point balance.

Furthermore, with the Sun Orbs gone, the temperature of the Demon Realm returned to normal.

As the users gradually returned, the gallery became livelier than ever.

"Wait, it feels like we have even more people than before."

The post refresh rate had visibly skyrocketed.

[That's because word of mouth spread after you started selling ice and various other items, Head Mod.]

"Ah, that makes sense."

When I handed out free sausage bread, a massive wave of Archeinian refugees flooded in. When I gave the fatigue recovery potion to the Fixed Nick 'Red Secretary' as a contest prize, it drew in the witches.

So, this new influx...

"Is it the ice crowd?"

[That has a very refreshing ring to it.]

In any case, the great Sun Orb fiasco concluded, leaving the Ared Empire with nothing but an astronomical deficit.

Even after that, human trolls constantly tried to infiltrate the gallery, but they were instantly suppressed by my two sub-mods the moment they posted. Perhaps because almost all of their usable accounts had been banned, things finally quieted down for a while.

"Now that the weather is cooler, sales for cooling sleeves and cooling mats are starting to decline."

However, ice was still in steady demand. I updated the announcement, stating that all items except ice would be marked as sold out once their current stock ran dry. For the ice, I changed it from unlimited to a daily limited quantity, doubling the price.

"True."

This was a medieval fantasy world, after all. Normally, if you wanted to eat ice, you had to wait for winter or hire a mage whose services cost a fortune. Even in Earth's history, ice was once an incredibly precious commodity.

"There's a reason ice houses existed."

Even then, commoners couldn't even catch a glimpse of it unless they were royalty or high-ranking nobles. Yet, in the middle of summer, all you had to do is open the gallery shop, spend a single copper coin, and click a button to get five kilograms of ice. It was an absurdly generous event.

Since the heat was subsiding and ice was no longer a matter of life and death, the users didn't have much of a complaint about the price hike.

As I was browsing the gallery and adjusting the shop...

"Sooooon~~!"

A voice calling for me echoed from the first floor.

"What is it?"

"Mom's heading out now. I put some food in that 'refrigerator' device you mentioned. I'll try to come back as often as I can, so take care of yourself, okay?"

"Yes, have a safe trip."

Since this wasn't the first or second time, I sent her off calmly. She said she had things to take care of, but she never gave me any details.

"Yaaawn~"

I dazed out for a moment, and since my mother had left, I decided to organize some things in the cabin. First, I set up the hammock in a corner of the living room.

"And you, you little pebble."

I stared at the stone. It was like a monkey's paw, dragging me into bizarre incidents every time I made a wish.

"I wish everything goes smoothly from now on. Do you even grant wishes like that?"

Naturally, there was no response. It was just a dull, ordinary stone, so it didn't flash or glow.

"Oh, by the way, that wasn't an official wish, okay?"

Lest I get dragged into another bizarre incident. I tucked the Stone of Fortune—as confirmed by the Operator—deep into a hidden corner of the ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠bookshelf. Keeping it nearby might lead to me accidentally making a wish without realizing it.

Afterward, I returned to the living room, climbed into the hammock, and opened the gallery.

At that exact moment...

"This is actually amazing."

The newly unlocked features were exactly what I needed right now. Thanks to the point acquisition rate doubling once again, my depleted points began to climb rapidly.

"Just look at all the copper coins piled up in my inventory."

I could now easily convert the copper coins that had been piling up due to the daily limit. My worries instantly melted away.

Then, a sudden thought crossed my mind.

"No way..."

I glanced toward the Stone of Fortune. There was no change in its appearance, but...

"It's just a coincidence, right?"

Strangely, I couldn't shake the feeling that my luck had improved because of it.

[Congratulations, Head Mod!]

"Thanks."

For dinner, I bought a pork cutlet bento box from the shop. As I ate, I browsed the gallery as usual.

Now that the heatwave and the Head Mod fanart trends had died down, the new hot topic in the gallery was...

"Another war."

It was the same old, exhausting war between humans and demons.

After suffering two major defeats on the Eastern Front, the humans had deployed their artifacts to crush the soaring morale of the demons.

"But they failed miserably."

Thanks to me releasing unlimited ice and items, the demons managed to endure the heat relatively well. On the other hand, the Hum-Elf-Dwarf Allied forces stationed on the front lines were directly exposed to the scorching heat and grew completely exhausted.

As a result, the already high morale of the demon army soared even further, while the Allied forces' morale plummeted straight through the floor.

It seemed they were now launching a massive counteroffensive to make up for their losses.

"There isn't a single place that isn't in deep trouble."

Why couldn't everyone just stay in their rooms and browse the gallery in peace?

"Wait, why are the Hum-Elf-Dwarf alliance and the Demon Realm even fighting in the first place?"

Back when I was just Derek, a naive half-demon youth living in a remote mountain village, I never gave it a second thought. I had only muttered things like, "I hope all those idiots just drop dead."

But things were different now.

"There has to be a reason this war started."

Unfortunately, there were no books or records about it in my cabin. Even when I searched the gallery...

"There's absolutely nothing about it."

Even digging up the very first posts by the Fixed Nick 'War Correspondent', or looking through the archives from the era of the previous Head Mod—the former Demon King—and his sub-mods, only yielded fragmentary information that the war had been going on since long before their time.

"Hmm. Well, there is one way."

As a last resort...

"Operator. You there?"

[Yes, what is it?]

I decided to call the Operator.

[Head Mod, you want to know why the war started?]

"Yeah. I still have two questions left from the chicken bribe, right? You said I could ask anything."

[That's true. However, there are so many different reasons, I'm not sure which one to explain first...]

"I'd like you to explain all of them."

[Well, you see...]

Gulp.

For some reason, anticipation and tension washed over me as I waited for her explanation.

But right then...

Notifications began to chime in the admin chat.

"A link?"

I asked the Operator to wait a moment, clicked the link, and entered the post.

Title: [Title: Is this the place called the gallery, beep-?]

"What on earth is this?"

A new gimmick poster had appeared.