CH 135

Gise gave up.

In front of him was the Land Dragon who was enjoying the scent of his tea like always. Then, when his tea had finally gotten cold, Credia poured Ra-chin’s tea into his special barrel, and the blonde-haired girl came to pick him up.

The Guardian Dragon had been with those two who had been dressed like fools earlier in the shop. Why were those two treated so specially by Aiful and Credia? Gise didn’t know the reason. He didn’t know and it was mortifying. So he continued to stay inside the Tea Room, getting several refills on his tea. He wanted Aiful and Credia to be aware of his troubles, so Gise continued to persist. But then the evening sky was dyed a deep orange, and it was time for the Tea Room to close. It was only then that Aiful spoke to Gise with a smile.

“Is Gise possibly killing time for Trans Happy’s stage show?”

Gise tried asking what this Trans Happy stage show was, a question that left Aiful feeling a little surprised. But she quickly began to smile again and told him it was an open event here at Freedom Promenade.

And then with an innocent look on her face, “Would you like to come with us?”

Gise’s tenacity was finally rewarded.

Margherita noticed there were scratches lined up on the Demon Lord’s back. She had seen marks like these before. When she was a child, she didn’t own any real weapons, so if she ever needed to hurt someone, she only ever had two options. This wound wasn’t made with someone’s teeth, so it must’ve been a woman’s nails.

It was pretty easy for Margherita to figure out how these marks were made. She forced herself to hold back her jealousy from carelessly springing forth in her heart with some false reasoning.

“Bell, I’m going to try something a little more intense today.”

“Yes, I’ll leave it all to Margherita.”

Receiving the Demon Lord’s permission, Margherita pulled out the whip. The only thing was that this wasn’t meant for play, it was a whip meant as a weapon. The woman fixated on the Demon Lord’s back, carrying a brutal smile on her lips as the corner of her eyes slowly began to redden. She was however delighted to see the marks across the Demon Lord’s back had been overwritten by her own. Her smile slowly began to grow as she played her whip like an instrument, the Demon Lord’s groans her concerto.

After a round of play, Margherita invited the Demon Lord, who was breathing heavily, clutching his shoulders in a mixture of pain and pleasure, to an event at Freedom Promenade. All the while erasing the previous scratches from her mind, convincing herself that they’d never been there in the first place.

Inside Master’s Hideaway. The Hero Gray was waiting inside a booth for the event to eventually begin. There was a single cup in front of him, but he was more focused on how strange it was how dimly lit the store still was. It didn’t feel like a big event was going to happen in here at all.

Eventually Gray did speak up to one of the women inside the store. The girl timidly walked up to Gray’s seat. She was one of the store’s so-called assistants, not a hostess who took in customers. The lovely red-headed girl with freckles quietly asked Gray,

“Dear customer, who are you waiting for today?”

“No, I’m just here because Marilyn told me there was an event going on tonight.”

The girl thought about Gray’s words for a second before her expression naturally brightened.

“Dear customer, Marilyn’s invitation was surely to the event going on at Freedom Promenade.”

“Seriously?”

“I believe so”

Gray was troubled. He didn’t know that. What was Freedom Promenade again? But then the girl timidly made him an offer.

“Dear customer, would you like me to guide you to the venue?”

“That would actually be a great help”

In this way, with the new girl he had just met acting as his guide, the Hero Gray left Master’s Hideaway.

“Ah, it’s about that time”

Just as one set was finishing up, Reeve moved to end the current game.

“Oh, any time now,” “We’ll continue this tomorrow,” “You’ve already been cleaned out!”, and the other men playing slowly began gathering their things together as well while saying some selfish things. The assistants started helping everyone while Berunal sat still, weirdly staring at them all.

“Ah, that’s right. Sorry Rosen Princess. We’re closing up early today since Trans Happy has their open event. Strawhat is picking you up after he finishes his errands right?”

Berunal began thinking to herself. Actually, I won a little today. Ah, I’m so happy. It feels so good to win. Master will be meeting with Margherita, so he shouldn’t care anyway. Although I feel like I’ve forgotten something important.

“Please take me along too.”

Thus Berunal decided to come along to the event as well.

This was the special stage set up right outside of Trans Happy. People had gradually gathered from this way and that, looking forward to the event. The girls and all their dragons had each come by Trans Happy early as well.

Then in the blink of an eye, a huge crowd suddenly surrounded the stage all at once. As the people gathered, the two owners of Trans Happy, Maron and Makoto, took to the stage to greet them all.

“Everyone, we welcome you to not just Trans Happy, but to all of Freedom Promenade! This is the city of freedom! The city of anything and everything! And now, it’s SHOW TIME!”

With their words an upbeat rhythmic tempo began picking up, and the first performance began. Wearing only the minimal amount of clothing, dancers dressed in bright, colorful ornaments appeared on stage. It was a show put on by men and women wearing whatever they wanted.

Gise was enjoying himself.

He was a little disappointed because the owners of the cake shop and the owners of the steamed bread shop came with, but Aiful was still there next to him. She was carrying an innocent smile and moving her body in time with the rhythm. So beautiful. So cute. Gise had completely fallen in love with her.

Gray was puzzled.

Having met up with Marilyn at the venue, he wanted to spend some time with her. But Marilyn had instead given him a carefree smile, telling him,

“Oh my, Gise. I see you were with Marionetta¹. This girl’s a really good child, so be sure to shower her with lots of affection. Marionetta too, do your best to not be hated by Gise,”

before she headed off somewhere else with another customer. Feeling troubled, Gray glanced over at the girl next to him, Marionetta’s face. Marionetta in turn looked back at him, but she quickly diverted her gaze as her cheeks began to blush.

The Hero started to feel a little nervous, but before he could think of anything to say, a huge wave of people rushed into them trying to join the rest of the crowd.

“Ah”

Marionetta reached her hand towards Gray looking for help, and Gray gently took hold on reflex. Thus they were both swept away by the wave of people together.

The Demon Lord was in heaven.

Margherita was sticking much closer to him than usual. Their inability to move properly inside the large crowd only exasperated his suffering.

“Bell, sorry”

There was also the fact that Margherita continued to sexily whisper into his ear more than normal. Wonderful, ohh, if she wanted to go another round, he was already good to go. Unfortunately it was impossible to move in this huge crowd of people. If he was to move even a little bit, then his pleasant place might no longer be touching Margherita’s pleasant place. Thus the Demon Lord was stuck under the pressing of the crowd with a growing, deadly affliction.

Berunal was drunk.

When she was the angel Beruiel, there was never a need to eat or drink anything, and on the odd occasions that she did, she could always activate {Detoxification}. But right now she was in human form. There was also the fact that she already had a few screws loose right now. But most importantly, the drunk, fluffy feeling was irresistibly fun.

“Are you alright Rosen Princess?”

Looking to her side, there was the beautiful Lady Bluegreen. She had been taking care of Berunal this whole time. She had been protecting her from the other old men which was why Berunal had gotten so sweet with her.

“Sister, I want to drink some more”

Thus Berunal was able to enjoy her night on the town.

“Next up is a couples game with a wondrous prize! Hop to it girls! Bring our couples up to the stage!”

As Makoto screamed out her orders from the stage, several people jumped out into the crowd. As everyone moved, Makoto started to explain the rules of the game.

“This thing I’m holding is a special long cookie from the cake shop! Couples are to eat this from both ends, and the ones with the smallest amount left at the end of the time limit will receive a 100,000 ril gift card to be used anywhere in Freedom Promenade! Now, won’t anyone take the challenge!?”

Gise unconsciously clenched his fist. What a great chance this was, he thought. He had to invite Aiful up there by all means.

“Hey, Aiful…….”

But when Gise looked to his side, Aiful was no longer there.

“Bloody fool! We wouldn’t be here if we weren’t going to participate!”

“Way to go Buzz and Doug, as I expected from you both!”

Instead, Gise noticed a commotion on stage and heard the roar of the audience around him. Looking up on stage, there was Buzz in a bright red dress standing with a confused Aiful and Doug in a black cheongsam with a Credia who looked like she was already having a lot of fun.

Gise fell straight from Heaven down into Hell.

“Brother, what a cute girl you have with ya! Come on down!”

A nice, body builder transvestite grabbed Gray’s right hand and Marionetta’s left, forcing them both up on stage. Gray and Marionetta looked down at the gigantic crowd a little confused. But then from the bottom of the stage, “Good luck you two!” Marilyn smiled and shouted out her encouragement. That was all Gray needed to get serious.

“All right, Marionetta. If this is a match, then we can’t afford to lose. Let’s do this”

Gray’s sudden words left Marionetta feeling a little puzzled, but she gave a small nod nonetheless.

“Well, anything can happen here!”

For some reason Reeve and Berunal were brought up on stage as well.

“Kyaa! What’s Reeve doing up there!?”

“Stoooop!”

“You, girl, switch with me!”

A number of upset cries rose from the audience. Most of them were quite shrill.

But upon seeing them up there, Margherita grabbed hold of the Demon Lord’s hand.

“We can’t afford to lose either!”

Thus the Demon Lord and Margherita naturally participated in the game as well.

Surrounded by roars of laughter, bellows of anger, and shouts of encouragement, the stage featured a great uprush of excitement.

In the shadows, Ellis’s group were secretly using the search ability of the dragons to confirm Berudeus and Berunal’s existence.

“That Berudeus guy is definitely the Demon Lord. You can’t mistake that magic power.”

“The Berunal girl isn’t a demon, but there is definitely something off about her.”

Ra-chin and Fe-rin then analyzed everyone.

“Hm?”

“What’s wrong Ra-chin?”

“That girl who’s with the Hero, there’s something mixed in there.”

“Marionetta? Is it dangerous?”

“No, it’s nothing like that. It might be some kind of blessing or a curse.”

Ra-chin felt something strange with Marionetta. Just, it doesn’t sound like it has anything to do with any demons.

“Hmm, well then, let me give the Hero just a small amount of payback. Frau, aim me at the Hero’s back.”

Frau realized Fe-rin’s intentions, but after lightly tapping his head like you would a naughty child, she helped him out, aiming his head towards the Hero who was currently struggling with the cookie on stage. Then for just a moment he released a bit of his High Heat Breath onto Gray.

“Yeowch!”

When the Hero suddenly felt a small burn on his back he unintentionally took a step forward. The cookie snapped in two before Gray continued forward, accidentally meeting his lips with Marionetta’s.

“Yes! Disqualified!”

The two of them turned to look at Makoto upon hearing her sudden call.

Nearby under the watchful eye of the audience, the Demon Lord and Margherita had already finished their cookie. Margherita had bitten the Demon Lord’s lip as they did, wrapping her arms around his back and leading to a deep kiss right there on the stage. Obviously they were both disqualified as well.

Berunal, who didn’t understand what the rules of the game were, was commenting about how delicious the cookie was as she ate it by herself next to Reeve. All the women in the crowd section were able to sigh in relief.

In the end, the Doug/Credia team were able to make a come from behind victory after the Buzz/Aiful team fell to their embarrassment.

Thus Freedom Promenade’s long opening day was able to peacefully come to a close.

1. Maria, Margherita, Marilyn, and now Marionetta. I think Author has a thing for girls named Mary.