The Demon Lord's Business Meeting (1)
Raban tried to adapt flexibly to the sudden change in situation and resist Inian. But Inian's ferocity overwhelmed the feeble black mage with room to spare.
"Argh! If you're gonna pull this shit, I'll call the mascot!"
"Have you finally lost your mind, sawayo!?"
"You're the crazy one! Our business was just getting off the ground, and now you're attacking out of nowhere!"
"The business plan you wrote is full of goddamn false advertising, sawayo! The CEO could bolt in the middle of the night, and people would just say, 'Serves you right for investing,' sawayo!"
Raban couldn't understand Inian's rage, but he knew what he had to do right now.
"Let's go home! We'll talk at home!"
He had no desire to bicker until the mascot caught them, hear something like 'I guess I need to turn this punk into a magical girl?' and get hit by that transformation beam. Inian, grumbling, swallowed her fury and nodded.
She'd beat him senseless the moment they entered the dorm if he didn't give a straight answer about the flaws in their main business plan.
"I'm coming back a bit late today, sawayo."
"What, gonna hit up that Rabbit Sweets cafe with your school friends again? It was pretty good."
"Other business, sawayo. ...And when did you go there?"
Raban shrugged. Being a black mage meant stress piled up on the job. Sweets were the perfect antidote.
"Salamandine requested a meeting, sawayo. I'll squeeze every bit of Ivory Tower intel out of her, so look forward to it, sawayo."
"Fine. If you don't get the goods, you're demoted to baron."
"The legitimacy of my title is guaranteed by bloodline! It doesn't depend on the likes of you, sawayo!"
Thud, thud, thud. A knock at the door.
Raban, midway through wolfing down a triangle kimbap, scratched his head and opened it.
'She hates dirtying her own room, so strategy sessions are always in mine.'
That finicky demon bitch. Grumbling inwardly, Raban swung the door open—and faced Inian, her expression utterly drained.
"Didn't you look about the same yesterday?"
"I realized whiny brats are better than perverts, sawayo. Fat chance I'll go back to that neighborhood, sawayo."
Raban tilted his head. Any perverts among the Four Heavenly Kings?
"They seemed to have some philosophy or conviction when fighting me."
Inian swallowed the curses bubbling up. The guy lacked self-awareness. Considering the familiars that black mage summoned, it was no surprise. You couldn't fight those things head-on without the world ending, so even trash like him went all-out in those situations.
"One lazy slob who finds everything a hassle, and one pervert, sawayo."
A promising opener. Raban tossed her a triangle kimbap as payment for the story and settled in.
Inian slowly recounted her meeting with the Four Heavenly Kings.
"Well, Dine Ifrit. Let's hear it, sawayo."
Dine Ifrit and Inian met at the Rabbit Sweets cafe. Dine claimed it was 'to avoid mascot attention,' but to Inian, it just looked like her hobby.
"What did you call me here for, sawayo?"
"First off."
Dine paused, pondering. Inian had accepted her warning outside the counseling room without showing violence. She seemed reasonable enough for dialogue. So maybe she could be a bit more honest here.
'Honesty is the most effective weapon against those lecherous mascots!'
"Your goal is returning to your original dimension, right?"
Inian glanced around with a subtle nod, questioning if such talk was safe in public.
"Relax. I'm used to dodging mascot surveillance. Normies can't hear us."
"Good, sawayo. And if you could lift the restrictions on this body while you're at it, that'd be perfect, sawayo."
"Exactly. So you need to join forces with us."
"Us? Weren't you allies with the magical girls? You two seemed to sync well."
She'd heard from Raban, but asking directly felt more natural.
Dine scoffed 'Ha!' and shook her head at the calculated question.
"No way. We only teamed up out of necessity against that horrific abomination."
Inian wanted to applaud. How did she know Raban's true colors so well?
"We're fundamentally opposed to the mascots and their minions."
The Four Heavenly Kings. Homunculi following the footsteps of Ebon, the great pioneer banished by the dictatorial Mother Fairy.
"We're researching dimensional gates to trace the pioneer Ebon, who ventured beyond this dimension."
"I need to return to my home dimension, so our interests align, sawayo?"
"Yes. Spot on."
Inian nodded. Reasonable and trustworthy motivation. In a world sealed by the Mother Fairy, methods to open gates to the outside would surely help her too.
But one snag.
"No interference from the Management Bureau, sawayo?"
"Management Bureau?"
Inian thought it a sensible question. The Dimensional Management Bureau—familiar yet annoying to dimension-hopping demons. Raban would call it a 'multidimensional Fair Trade Commission' in his twisted way. They were hypersensitive to crumbling dimensional borders.
But Dine didn't get it.
"No other organizations besides the mascot imperialists? They manage the magical girls, sure."
Pure ignorance. Inian pondered, then realized why.
'Entering Hikarius would be suicide for them.'
Easy to enter this world, hard to leave. From the Bureau's view, it was a mana sinkhole wasting resources.
'No need to worry about them, sawayo.'
"Fine, sawayo. Lead the way. You said 'us,' so you're not alone, sawayo?"
Dine smirked, the smile of a schemer whose plot succeeded. She stood, meticulously earning cafe points and stamping her card, then headed out.
Her destination: a campground on the outskirts of Hikarius City.
"Wait a sec. I'll light a fire...."
"Hold up."
"What's the issue, sawayo?"
"You're not about to say the Ivory Tower's base is an RV or something, right? An organization of four living in a camper?"
Inian sighed. His imagination ran wild in weird directions.
"It's the condition for entering their base, sawayo. They create gates using the elements they represent."
"So Salamandine needs fire, Sargasso needs water to open gates?"
Raban stroked his chin thoughtfully, then muttered unconsciously.
"Then Grata would be the hardest to hunt."
"...You're already plotting to betray your potential allies first, sawayo?"
The logic checked out. Places without water or fire were easy to find; wind didn't work indoors. Even if they generated their elements, preparation could counter it. But earth? You're standing on it everywhere. Grata could retreat to the Ivory Tower from any corner.
But gearing up to stab them in the back before even allying? That brain of his.
"This is why you don't deal with shady black mages, sawayo."
"Shut it. You're shadier than that black mage. So, you followed through the fire gate—what was waiting?"
"Not 'who,' but 'what' is more accurate, sawayo."
***
Beyond the flame gate lay a space brimming with starlight. Familiar to the demon Inian.
"Starlight leaking from dimensional rifts, sawayo?"
"Oh, you recognized it? Only Sargasso among us uses it properly."
Clack. She tapped the floor with her heel. The Ivory Tower's walls, made of transparent crystal, accumulated light from the dimensional boundaries outside.
"Let's go. They'll be gathered in the central sector by now."
Passing the crystalline outskirts revealed a chamber of boiling lava and surging flames.
"This is my assigned space—nothing special. Just pass through to the center; ignore the formality."
At the edge of the red waves stood a white door with a subtle golden sheen, dissonant from the surroundings. Like carved ivory.
Dine knocked. Tap, tap.
The door opened. Beyond the ivory gateway loomed a massive sculpture, bathed in ivory light. A robed figure raising a staff. Hooded, with hair spilling from beneath.
Before the giant statue stood three figures.
"Let me introduce: the soggy one's Sargasso, the hefty one's Grata, the one flapping wings and charging... huh?"
Dunamis flapped his eagle wings, swooping in close. Upon reaching Inian, he dropped to one knee.
"Oh, such sorrow! Why does a noble one hide the most beautiful part of her form? Reveal your lovely feathers to us!"
"...Hah."
First impressions ruined. Salamandine covered her face with her hands.