The Strongest Demon Lord and His Absolutely Useless Minions' Grand Conquest - The reunion after 3800 years starts with a slap.

The door opened. The stone air of the throne room trembled. The torchlight flickered in unison. Klaus rose slowly, his gaze fixed beyond the great doors. Walking from the dim corridor was——a young woman. Red. That color struck his eyes first. Flame-bright crimson hair swayed with each step. Golden eyes caught the torchlight and gleamed. A small silver piercing adorned her left ear——a replica of the human kingdom's royal crest. A faintly fading magical seal marked her right wrist. Her height was around 165 centimeters, her frame slender, yet her footsteps carried absolute certainty. As if returning to her own castle. Something stopped in Klaus's chest. 3,800 years. That much time had passed. And yet the woman before him——hadn't changed at all from back then. Eternalis, the immortality elixir made from Noctslily and dragon's blood stone harvested from the depths of the Dark Continent——a flower that bloomed only once every five hundred years. The drug's effects were real. "Leina……" He realized the name had left his lips. 3,200 years reigning as the Demon Lord of the Dark Continent Noctaria. All his oppressive presence, all his conqueror's stance——vanished. Completely stolen by those golden eyes he'd seen 3,800 years ago. "……Why are you here" *Crack.* A sharp sound echoed through the hall. Klaus felt heat bloom across his cheek. For 3,200 years, his body had deflected any magical attack without a scratch——and now it staggered. He caught himself against the armrest of his throne. Silence. "The Demon Lord just——!?" "Slapped him——!?" "Rank S is——!?" The surrounding minions erupted like a disturbed hornet's nest. One collapsed to the floor. Another trembled, clutching a companion's sleeve. Leina stood with arms crossed, unmoved. Her expression was calm. But deep in those golden eyes, 3,800 years of something burned. "3,800 years' worth. With interest" Klaus pressed his cheek. ……It hurt. It really hurt. A Demon Lord with 85,000 Magna of magical power, completely shaken by one human woman's slap. But what occupied his mind now was something else—— *(3,800 years. I made her wait.)* That fact crashed down on him now, heavy and late. "……Your power has increased considerably" "I can't believe you're saying that!!" Leina's voice rose. Her golden eyes blazed. "I abandoned my status as a princess!! I left my country, my family, everything!! And when I got here, you said 'world conquest comes first, so wait'!! How many thousand years were you planning to make me wait!?" "……My subordinates are too incompetent. Progress has been slow" "You think that's an excuse!?" In that moment. A vacant voice drifted from the corridor. "……Sorry. I got lost. Where is the throne room……?" Leina turned. At the end of the corridor——the dead end of a single hallway——a demon minion was patting the wall in confusion. Leina paused, then looked back at Klaus. "……This is a straight hallway, isn't it?" "Yeah" "……" Then came a dull *thud*. A minion standing at the entrance had walked straight into a stone pillar. "Ow!!" he yelped, collapsing in a heap. No one went to help. And in the corner of the throne room——two minions who'd completely forgotten about intruder defense were grinning at each other with cards spread out. "ROYAL STRAIGHT FLUSH!!!!!!!!" A cry of joy echoed through the hall. Leina tracked the three of them with her eyes. "……Lost" A beat. "……Unconscious" A beat. "……Cards" A long, very long silence followed. Leina closed her eyes and took a deep breath. Then——exhaled. "……I see. You're right. This really isn't progressing" "That's what I said" The moment Klaus nodded quietly, Leina's eyebrows shot up. "Don't agree with me!! That's where you apologize!!" "……" Klaus opened his mouth, then closed it. He tried to speak, but couldn't find the right words. As a Demon Lord with over three thousand years of history, his vocabulary for apologies had rusted away completely. The minions began whispering in the distance. "The Demon Lord's comebacks are so bad……" "After 3,800 years apart……" "Read the room……" A thin blue vein appeared on Klaus's forehead. --- Leina spent a moment in silence, surveying the hall. The minion who'd hit the pillar was still sprawled on the floor. The card players were shouting "One more round!!" The lost one in the corridor was still touching the wall. "Understood" Leina crossed her arms again. Determination kindled in her golden eyes. "I'll help. After waiting 3,800 years, I'll finish this myself and stand at Klaus's side" Klaus's expression became complicated. There was joy——that emotion existed somewhere. But faced with the woman who'd appeared before him for the first time in 3,800 years, he had no idea how to arrange his face properly. He kept losing the timing to sit back on his throne. "……Do as you wish" Leina moved immediately. "Alright!! First, environmental cleanup!! You all, clean this hall!!" The minions flinched. They put away their cards. They got up from the floor. They returned from the corridor. Everyone lined up, more or less. "Scarier than the Demon Lord……" "So that's what Rank S means……" One minion cautiously raised his hand. "Um……where's the vacuum cleaner?" Leina stopped. "There's no vacuum cleaner in the Demon Lord's castle!! A broom!! Use a broom!!" "……Which end is up?" Leina's eyes went cold. She turned slowly and faced the minion directly. He gave a strained smile. "……The thin end is up. Take it and sweep the floor" "Understood!! ……Where's the floor?" "Where you're standing right now!!!!" A different commotion was starting elsewhere. The minion assigned to wet-cleaning had put a bucket on his head "just to try," and the one cleaning the corridor had entered a magnificent lost loop. "Where's the garbage bag?" "On the shelf" "Where's the shelf?" "Right down the corridor" "Which way is right?" Leina listened to this exchange go back and forth ten times. Stone-still. Expressionless. Just listening. "……The direction you hold your rice bowl with" "What's a rice bowl?" Leina closed her eyes. Deep breath. One. Two. Three. ……Ten. Klaus, sitting on the throne's step, watched the entire scene unfold quietly. "……I've endured the same suffering for 3,800 years" Leina turned. In her eyes, "I just really empathized with that" and "but it pisses me off" floated simultaneously. "I just really empathized and now I'm pissed off" Still, Leina persisted patiently. She went to each person, removed the bucket from one's head, straightened another's broom, taught left and right using her own body, and walked a garbage bag to the shelf together. Klaus watched from the throne's step the entire time. 3,800 years ago, it was the same. Leina was always like this. No matter how absurd the situation, she never gave up. Even while angry, she saw things through. That persistence, that flame-like core strength——Klaus had fallen for it 3,800 years ago. *(Nothing has changed.)* Klaus's eyes narrowed quietly. --- By evening, the throne room was slightly more organized. "You did well," Leina said, returning from the kitchen. She carried a large pot in both hands. Steam rose from it——faintly, red. The surrounding minions began backing away slowly. "That smells spicy……" "It's stinging my eyes……" "Maybe we should keep our distance……" As the minions retreated step by step, Leina approached without hesitation. "Here, Klaus. I made this for you as thanks. It's my masterpiece" Klaus accepted the bowl. Steam hit his face. His nasal passages stung. This wasn't——spicy in any conventional sense. *(Drink it, then.)* Leina watched with expectant eyes. Those golden eyes looked straight at him. The fact that this was her first home-cooked meal in 3,800 years spun through his mind. Klaus drank without changing his expression. His entire body——froze. The sensation in his tongue vanished. His throat burned. Molten lava poured into his stomach. A destruction more localized and merciless than any magical attack he'd experienced in 3,200 years passed down his esophagus. Leina smiled. "How is it?" Klaus, eyes watering, slowly nodded. "……It's good" "I'm so glad!! You see, because of Eternalis's side effects, I could only eat this for 3,800 years. So I wanted to share it with you" Klaus stopped. Eternalis——the immortality elixir's side effect dulls the user's taste. The result: extreme spice tolerance. Leina had lived with that side effect for 3,800 years. *(……I forgot.)* Klaus didn't release the bowl from his hands. "The Demon Lord's eyes are watering!!!" A minion shouted. "He's crying from emotion!! Even the Demon Lord gets moved by Leina's cooking!!!" "I want to try it too!!!!" "Me too!!" The minions surged forward. Leina cheerfully served them. Minion One took a sip. "I'M DYING!!!!!!!!" The throne room descended into chaos. Two rolled on the ground. Three ran screaming "Water!! Where's the water!!" Four collapsed silently. In the midst of that noise, only Klaus quietly finished his bowl. Eyes watering. But to the end. --- When night had deepened, the noise in the throne room finally settled. Leina stood beside Klaus. The minions were either collapsed in the distance or brazenly resuming their card game. "Hey, Klaus. We need to talk" Her tone had changed. The brightness was gone, replaced by something harder. When Klaus looked at her, her expression was unusually stern. "While I was traveling the light realm as a Rank S adventurer, something kept bothering me. Through the information network of the Brave Compass adventurer's guild, I kept hearing the same story from multiple sources" "The Zelfarn Empire's movements are strange" Klaus's brow furrowed. The Zelfarn Empire——a military empire that had spent 120 years unifying nearly all of the light continent Fortis. Standing army: 120,000. Population: approximately 1.8 million. Officially, they claim to be humanity's protectors. "The scale of their military expansion alone, well, for an empire that's normal. But that's not the problem" Leina paused slightly. "The empire apparently possesses——a weapon that nullifies magical power. I've heard the rumor multiple times from different sources" The air in the throne room changed. The noise from moments ago vanished as if it had never been. Klaus and Leina both fell silent. A weapon that nullifies magical power——if it was real, individual combat strength meant nothing. The greatest strength of the demon race lay in physical ability and magic. If both were sealed, numerical disadvantage became catastrophic. "What's the source" "I don't know. But……the technology's origin might not be from the light realm" Klaus's eyes narrowed. "Not from the light realm?" "I don't know. That's why we need to investigate" "……Yeah" A quiet tension ran between them. The day's comedy-filled chaos crystallized into this single point of weight. Then. A carefree voice echoed from deep in the corridor. "Demon Lord——!!! I accidentally put all the garbage back where it came from——!!!!" Klaus and Leina pressed their foreheads simultaneously. Leina exhaled deeply. Klaus exhaled deeply. "……We'll start investigating tomorrow" Klaus nodded quietly. "Yeah" The night in Schwarzkaiser was slightly noisier than usual. And beneath that noise, a quiet concern that only two people knew about lay buried like a seed.

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Episode 2

Name: The Strongest Demon Lord and His Absolutely Useless Minions' Grand Conquest
Author: Novelia

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