Book 2: Chapter 8

「Orel huh. What are you doing?」

Vermudol called out to the red haired Majin Orel who was standing around in the reception hall on the Demon King castle first floor. At the back of the hall, there were two Mazoku that seemed to be quarrelling over something.

「Oh, why if it ain’t Demon King-sama. So you’ve returned. Well, it ain’t anything important. The newcomer and the Aulokk guy were havin’ a fist fight.」

Hearing those words, Vermudol reflexively breathed a deep sigh.

As a matter of fact, fellow Mazoku having a fist fight wasn’t a rare scene.

As part of the nature for the race known as Mazoku, they were not suited for the method known as discussion.

When they try to discuss with a fellow Mazoku who has a conflicting profit or claim, in the end, it wouldn’t end until one of them, or both of them yield.

An adult way of dealing with it……That sort of phrase did exist, but in terms of how Mazoku would take it, they would say 「What do you mean adult when a grudge is left behind. Don’t make me laugh」, and it would end up like this.

If a grudge was going to be left behind through discussion, then there was no longer any other choice but to exchange blows.

If one punched the opponent, beat them, and won, then their own claim would pass right away, making it easy to understand and prompt.

In other words, Mazoku were a race that exchanged blows over trivial things.

That was why Orel’s claim that it wasn’t anything important was also not mistaken.

「……So, what is the reason?」

「Ahh, you’ll understand if ya just listen to ‘em.」

After saying that and smirking, Orel gave way to Vermudol and Nino.

When the two continued to the back of the room, there was a fierce fist fight between the newcomer Gudion and Aulokk taking place.

「Nino is mineee!」

「Nino is my partner -de aru! Resign yourself!」

「Don’t screw with me! I’m not foolish enough to give her to some guy fresh off the farm!」

「In that case……There is no choice but to make you submit with my fists!」

「Bring it on!」

The one to send out his fist first was Gudion.

However, Aulokk avoided Gudion’s fist, and using that fist as a foothold, he jumped up.

Going further and making a barrage of kicks to Gudion’s face, he then escaped while making a spinning jump backwards.

Nino made a kick at Orel who was laughing hard from seeing that spectacle and muttered to him.

「……What is this.」

「What ya ask, ahー……A harem?」

At the same time she heard Orel’s words, Nino made a dash with a speed that made her vanish from his field of vision.

She put a knee to Gudion’s temporal region and knocked him out, and put a fist into Aulokk from the front and blew him away.

「Gufuah!」

「Gah!」

Gudion and Aulokk fainted from the attacks that showed no mercy, and it ended with the displeased looking Nino being the only one standing.

「Don’t need it. Finished.」

「Ahー……Yeah, right.」

When Orel said that and turned his gaze towards Vermudol, Vermudol just shrugged his shoulders.

Whether it was Gudion or Aulokk who would have won, it probably would have had this sort of conclusion anyway.

No matter how the situation before his eyes had turned out, Vermudol tried to think positively by thinking that being able to confirm that Aulokk had become much stronger than he thought he would was a good harvest.

「Well, be that as it may. It looks like I’ll need to think of a way to reach a settlement other than through a fist fight.」

「Looks like it. For dignitaries as strong as the Four Cardinal Generals, there aren’t that many guys that they can exchange blows with though.」

「But they can exchange blows with a fellow Four Cardinal General, right?」

「True.」

Vermudol breathed a sigh at Orel who had admitted that so easily.

The Four Cardinal Generals were an assembly of the top four muscle-brained Mazokus.

Some sort of solution was necessary. A solution that wasn’t through discussion.

「I wonder what should be done.」

While Vermudol was muttering that, Magic Operated Armors were carrying Gudion and Aulokk to the sickbay.

Since the two of them had large frames as they were, they would be a nuisance to just leave them in the reception hall where people often pass through.

「……Being as simple as possible. But something that makes them use their heads……」

「That sure is a difficult problem.」

Orel replied with a face that said that he wasn’t thinking about anything, and then he was kicked by Nino.

Just as Vermudol was heading to the Throne Room while worrying over the problem, a voice resounded from the opened Demon King castle entrance that announced visitors.

「All of the Four Cardinal Generals are entering!」

「Nn……」

When Vermudol looked back at the Magic Operated Armor’s voice, the Four Cardinal Generals were standing at the castle’s entrance.

The Northern General Altejio, the Southern General Raktor, the Eastern General Fainell, the Western General Sancreed.

When speaking of level of muscle-brainedness, the order was Raktor, Fainell, Sancreed, and Altejio.

In particular, Raktor’s level of meatheadedness could even be said to be an immovable first place in the Zadark Kingdom. If he tried a way of solving problems other than fist fights using Raktor and succeeded in it, then all Mazoku would surely be able to accept that method.

「Demon King-sama, we have been awaiting your return.」

Vermudol nodded to each of the Four Cardinal Generals that bowed side-by-side, and then spoke out a question that had suddenly hit him.

「Is this alright? I am sure that you all are busy.」

「That is not the case.」

Fainell answered like that, and expressed a thin smile.

「With Rokuna-dono’s assistance, she made it so that the maximum results would show with the minimum connection to us and oputimi……Ahー, she oputimized it.」

「Oputimized? Ahh, optimized.」

Vermudol nodded, and send words of gratitude in his mind to Rokuna who shut herself in the underground.

She was the first type of Mazoku that he had created, but she was far more capable than Vermudol imagined her to be.

「In that case, this is perfect. Everyone, please gather in the Throne Room.」

Leaving the Four Cardinal Generals, who had question marks showing on their faces, as they were, Vermudol headed towards the Throne Room.

Volume 2, Chapter 9