Pastel walked down the corridor of a luxury hotel. She was alone, without the Demon Lord or Melissa.
“Boo hoo~.”
An evil presence~.
It was all purple~.
The corridor, rented for the entire floor, was quiet without a single person.
Pastel twirled the keyring with her finger. When she arrived at the door, she inserted the key and turned it.
Pushing the door open, she saw a grand and ornate room inside. The sounds of conversation floated in softly.
Toward the terrace?
“I can’t believe I ruined my first impression, and now I’m having to deal with all this. Someone is taking a leisurely train trip while I’m here sweating it out gathering information. Hey, you better get in line properly. Got it?”
“O! Sounds right, Captain! I’ll just make my mark with Pastel without challenging her!”
“Who are you teasing right now?! Wow, me. Hey, listen up.”
Pastel tiptoed over, peeking her head out to spy on the terrace.
“Who’s that person in front of you? Huh? Who do you need to line up for? Huh? Tell me!”
Leonard, leaning on the railing with a wine glass in hand, pointed to his friend.
“That would be….”
His friend from the Inspection Department pondered.
“His Excellency, the Great Governor Pastel?”
Gasp, emotion!
One million times the incentive!
“Is this guy serious?!”
Leonard grabbed the back of his neck.
“But Captain!”
Another friend raised his hand high.
“The title of Governor Pastel is cool, and I’m proud to be a subordinate, but being the subordinate of a shabby captain is just not stylish!”
“Gah! You guys! From now on, don’t call me your captain! I don’t deserve it!”
Wow.
Pastel clasped her hands and shouted.
“Got it! No more Captain Leonard!”
“What?! Who just said that! Who is that brat! Think the Inspection Officer is easy to deal with?!”
Leonard glared around. Then he spotted His Excellency, the Great Governor Pastel, peeking at the terrace and flinched.
“Hehe.”
Pastel energetically waved her hands as she entered the terrace.
“Hey! Friends! Long time no see! Did you miss me while I was gone? I wasn’t lonely, but I missed you guys!”
The friends cheered.
One of them quickly shouted.
“Pastel! Captain Leonard was trying to privatize the organization!”
Quick-witted snitching.
“Hey, hey!”
Leonard was horrified.
“What?!”
Pastel covered her mouth in surprise.
No way! No way!
Privatizing the organization!
All organizations on Sky Island exist to serve the Great Governor Pastel, and such evil deeds!
Shock.
Shock!
Pastel’s expression turned sour.
“Ugh, I’m fine. Even if Captain Leonard is trying to usurp power and privatize the organization, Pastel isn’t sad!”
Pastel shouted bravely.
“Pastel believes in the friendship with her friends!”
With that, she placed the briefcase she brought onto the table. As it opened, shining gold coins revealed themselves.
“Gold coins, friends!”
Pastel lifted the bag of coins like a crown atop her head.
“Gold coins, my friend also believes in friendship!”
Yay!
The pile of coins sparkled.
“Wow! Pastel! The Great Governor!”
Her friends cheered, this time with a different meaning.
“Good friends! Let’s show our friendship! Everyone line up!”
The gold coins were distributed.
To the friend who insisted the most that everyone should line up for His Excellency, the Great Governor Pastel.
She took a handful of coins.
“One million times the incentive!”
“Wow!”
Even to the friend who had snitched the fastest.
“Hundred thousand times the incentive!”
“Wow!”
After distributing everything, the briefcase snapped shut.
“Gah!”
Leonard, who had sneakily lined up and received nothing, tore at his hair.
“Is this unpaid work…?!”
“Pew pew~!”
She wiggled her fingers side to side.
“Privatizing the organization is not the virtue of a public servant.”
“Hey! Those guys used to be my subordinates, you know?!”
Leonard protested justly.
His pink irises widened.
“Gasp.”
That was!
That was…!
Her finger pointed at Leonard.
“How dare you call your friends subordinates!”
Ding ding ding!
“Disqualified on the character test!”
Disqualified on promotion criteria!
Everyone is disqualified~!
“Gah!”
Leonard ruffled his hair.
“Hahaha!”
Pastel laughed, patting Leonard on the back.
This is the ordinary life of Boraborayo~.
“Why did you arrive so late?”
The lively atmosphere subsided. The stout Leonard sat on the sofa, crossing his legs.
“There was a little accident as per the letter. I fainted thanks to a cult group committing a massacre right in front of my eyes.”
Leonard looked dumbfounded.
“With that happening, wouldn’t you think to take a magic airship instead of the train according to the original schedule?”
“Business inspection is important. The train’s viability is still a concern.”
Chastised without reason, Pastel pouted and stirred her teaspoon. Sugar piled high in her green tea.
Leonard turned away with an expression of disbelief.
“Yeah, that’s your business to deal with. You seem to have come here without finishing all the scheduled activities; is something wrong?”
“Wow. Quick-witted Leonard! That’s why I like you!”
Leonard shot her a sidelong glance, then clicked his tongue and turned away again.
“Right, right! Something did happen!”
Pastel raised her glass with a bright expression. She almost drank, then noticed the mound of sugar in her tea.
Will I end up spitting blood if I drink this?
After thinking for a moment, she set the glass down. She took out the magic stone pepper shaker and sprinkled the stone powder.
White and black powders floated in the tea.
Leonard’s expression became even more disgusted.
Pastel stirred with the teaspoon.
“What should I talk about first?”
She explained the unhelpful political situation of the Magic Union Kingdom and Princess Ellie’s delicate position.
Leonard’s eyebrows twitched.
“Oh, that. It’s a mess here. Sky Island is much better. What kind of nonsensical republic is this?”
Leonard’s fingers tapped on the table. He seemed to be retracing the situation he had grasped after arriving here first.
“But that’s probably partly due to your clan. The Dove faction did reach an agreement at the last secret meeting, but that’s not something to openly discuss in the Parliament. The existence of the Demon Lord is confidential.”
“Oh, is that so?”
Although they had decided to regard Craft as an ally following the Demon Lord’s assurance, it would be difficult to clarify the stance in front of the parliament where public opinion is focused.
“The prophecy of the Demon Lord’s appearance is already known to the public, so the hawks are in a stronger position. In a political situation where uncompromising statements gain strength, giving off the impression of cooperating with Craft while keeping the fact of contact with the Demon Lord confidential….”
“A serious political risk.”
“Exactly. If public sentiment completely turns and the hawks seize the Parliament, it would be an even greater problem than now.”
I see.
Pastel gulped her sugary green tea. Even with a lot of sugar, a bitter taste filled her mouth.
Originally, the radical faction that could share the confidentiality of the Demon Lord’s existence needed to understand the situation and subtly avoid mentioning confidential topics.
But is the moderate faction exploiting the inability to mention confidential matters and applying pressure instead?
It’s a dilemma of state secrets and public politics…
It would simply be easier if the moderate faction declared that the Demon Lord instructed Craft to cooperate, and they would follow, but then that would give the Empire justification to respond aggressively.
Pastel smiled brightly.
“I understand! I might have been a bit too much toward Ellie!”
As a princess caught between the kingdom and friends, it might have been considerate of her, but forcing the choice between a traitor and a betrayer as a friend is truly too much.
Pastel thought softly.
“In that situation, I will need to use a more moderate justification.”
She had planned to mobilize the Demon Realm Company’s troops to capture an appropriately evil demon under the pretext of apprehending evil demons, but she would have to divert with a justification that would yield fewer public backlashes.
Finishing her sugary green tea, she stood up.
“I brought along some sufficiently bad demons, right? Let’s take a look.”
Leonard looked at her oddly but readily guided her.
They arrived at the soundproofed door at the corner of the hotel.
A former Knight Corps member, no, just a Knight stood like a sentry and saluted.
“Your Excellency! All is well!”
“Thank you for your hard work.”
As the door opened, the inside of the room was dark.
It was so dark that Pastel flinched slightly. However, since she was the Great Governor, she pretended to be fine and confidently entered the room.
A faint smell of blood lingered.
It was a sticky odor that didn’t seem to go away.
Hmm?
Pastel looked around in confusion.
Lights illuminated the room. A demon was bound to a central pillar.
After crashing the secret meeting venue with explosives, the radical faction had tried to provoke by declaring, “We can’t even trust the existence of the Demon Lord!” and fled after causing a terror attack on Craft’s railways—only to be caught by the Knight Corps.
A typical example of an appropriately evil demon who follows the wicked Demon Lord…!
With a gag over its mouth, the demon glared with ominous eyes. Blood trickled down its jaw.
Blood?
Huh…?!
“C-Cruelty?!”
Pastel trembled.
She quickly turned to Leonard.
“Leonard, are you really that bad of a person?!”
Leonard was downgraded from a friend to just a bad person in an instant.
“Who are you teasing?”
Leonard looked incredulous.
“If I torturing him earlier would have made work easier!”
“How dare…!”
The demon had actually spit out a loose gag. Its furious eyes flickered with anger.
“How dare you feed this noble Nathaniel Priestley nothing but raw mackerel three times a day…! I will never forgive you!”
It was an almost tearful cry.
The blood from the mackerel dripped down its chin. A smell that didn’t need to be differentiated between blood or just its fishy scent filled the air.
A raw mackerel in the corner of the room displayed its presence, flapping about.
Flap flap.
Mackerel mackerel.
“Gasp!”
Pastel covered her mouth with both hands.
Three meals of mackerel!
This demon!
This demon!
Eating well and living well…!
“Phew!”
Pastel wiped her forehead unnecessarily.
“I thought it was cruelty!”
Glad it wasn’t!
