Before I knew it, the hall had gone silent.
Only the sound of the air conditioning carried through the space. The guests who had been making so much noise, even the mercenaries who had been groaning on the floor, had all been struck speechless by the appearance of the woman who ruled this place. Even I felt like it had gotten a little harder to breathe. As expected of a first-rate Demon King. She understood how to stage an entrance dripping with pressure.
In that place, the first one to speak was, surprisingly, Sera Pendragon.
“What the hell.”
Her muttered voice was a little hoarse.
“What is she? That’s not normal.”
Her pupils were blown wide. You could blame it on the side effects of <E3>, but she was clearly shaken beyond that. I nudged Sera with my elbow.
“That’s Lord <Storm Coffin>. Her head’s insane, and so is her strength. You can tell?”
“Yeah, that—my ether perception.”
She seemed to hesitate for an instant, then whispered in an extremely low voice that only I could hear.
“It’s not very useful, so I’ll skip the details. Technically, I can sort of tell things like that. It’s really vague, though.”
“Oh. That really does sound useless. An ability that just lets you look at scary people and get scared?”
In reality, it would depend on how she used it, but I tried needling her anyway. Sera Pendragon barely reacted. She kept glaring at Lord <Storm Coffin> with a serious face.
“I can tell. She’s definitely not even in the same conversation as <Amber Briar>.”
“She’s strong?”
Yukine Indo cut in there. At some point, she had appeared beside me. She was looking at Lord <Storm Coffin> with eyes too cold to be called calm.
“Instructor. Is she tonight’s main event? Can I go first?”
“We’re not fighting her herself. No matter how you three go about it, you can’t beat her.”
“Can’t?”
Yukine Indo’s brow twitched, showing faint dissatisfaction. I was gradually starting to understand something. Her emotions appeared between her eyebrows.
“If we can’t, what about you, Instructor?”
“Depending on the situation, one-on-one, maybe.”
I gave her a careless answer. It might have been a little too overconfident, but letting them think that was not a bad thing. Besides, I meant about half of it. My swordsmanship was decent, and more importantly, my ether perception while using <E3> was strong.
“Master, be careful.”
Shirogamine spoke without turning around, her voice tight with tension.
“She is profoundly evil. I can tell by reading her mind. I believe we should make absolutely certain she can never recover, right here and now.”
“Did you hear a word I just—”
I started to say it, then stopped. Pointless. She definitely had not. More importantly, there was someone else I needed to watch.
“Once again, good evening, Yashiro.”
Lord <Storm Coffin> greeted me with theatrical politeness. She was smiling, but the smile was so monstrous it only made my skin crawl.
“Are you quite finished chatting with those rare little beasts?”
“Rare beasts? Damn you, Demon King. We are proud students of the Academy—”
“Shirogamine, shut up. I’ll kick you.”
Immediately after the warning, I actually kicked her in the shin. Shirogamine made a face so funny it should have been illegal, but now was not the time. I took one step closer to Lord <Storm Coffin>.
“I’m not here because you invited me.”
That much had to be declared up front.
“You’ve been an incredible pain in the ass, so I came to complain directly. Sending me about a hundred invitations a month, you lunatic. And I’m not touching the money you wired me, either. Don’t launder cash through my account.”
“How hurtful.”
“When all I want is to speak with Yashiro the <Reaper> and build a relationship of mutual trust.”
“Like hell.”
I knew Lord <Storm Coffin> was eager to expand her power. She was definitely planning to swallow up the conflicts that had been dragging on through western Tokyo for the past several years. She was not even trying to hide it. To that end, she was gathering Demon Kings who would serve under her and Heroes who would work for her.
I had no intention of getting involved in anything that stupid.
“What displeases you so?”
At times like this, Lord <Storm Coffin> spoke as if she were trying to reason with an unreasonable child.
“If you so much as wished for it, I would guarantee you lifelong protection as one of my personal knights. You would never want for anything again.”
“You’re insane.”
I was thoroughly sick of her. Every Demon King, without exception, developed mental abnormalities as a result of ether enhancement surgery. Lord <Storm Coffin> was no different. She was making me feel that fact down to the bone.
“I don’t want to do this job for the rest of my life.”
That would be a nightmare.
Spending my nerves on murder as a business until I died, or until someone killed me. And under someone else’s orders, no less. I wanted to reject that way of life with everything I had. My only hope was to get my hands on a decent pile of money and live somewhere like Hawaii or Switzerland.
“Oh. What a shame. Tonight, I truly thought my sincerity and feelings had finally reached you. But if that is not the case, then the reason Yashiro the <Reaper> would act must be—”
Then Lord <Storm Coffin> smiled. Here it comes, I thought.
“Him, yes? Ishinoo the <Musician>.”
She said it like a conclusion.
“If you were to move for personal reasons, I can find no other cause.”
“So you know.”
“The dragon with its face split in half. In truth, they have been troubling me as well.”
I tried to read as much of Lord <Storm Coffin>’s true intent as I could from her expression.
But of course that was impossible. I would have to ask Shirogamine afterward. Bringing that catastrophically annoying Shirogamine all the way here was about to pay off.
I continued questioning her.
“What do you know about them?”
“Oh, all sorts of things.”
Lord <Storm Coffin> looked delighted from the bottom of her heart. I could not tell whether it was a bluff. She laughed with genuine amusement.
“And since we happen to be in the middle of a party, I would like you to provide one little entertainment.”
There it was.
She took the bait, I thought. Lord <Storm Coffin> was insane, same as every other Demon King.
In her case, she loved conflict itself. Whether she was the one fighting or watching others do it, she adored it to an abnormal degree. I had been sure she would try to make me fight. Her opponents would probably be her personal guard, the Storm Guards—the five first-rate Heroes rumored to draw annual pay of no less than one hundred million each.
“The fighters will be the famed Yashiro the <Reaper> and my loyal Storm Guards.”
Then Lord <Storm Coffin> looked deliberately between me and the three girls around me. Her gaze was malicious enough to make me feel ill.
“And those adorable little rare beasts of yours shall take part as well.”
“Hold it.”
I panicked a little.
“They’re too lousy to make good entertainment.”
Yukine Indo would put up a good fight, and at minimum, she probably would not get herself killed.
But what about the other two? If Sera Pendragon took unrecoverable damage, or if the worst happened, her father would kill me. Shirogamine was out of the question as a fighting force—but I still needed to ask Lord <Storm Coffin> questions. I needed her mind-reading ether perception.
“I can fight for all four of us.”
“Are those rare beasts so precious to you? Now I am curious what sort of relationship you have with them.”
I would have preferred she keep doing that for a while. Lord <Storm Coffin> looked down at Shirogamine, Sera, and Indo with arrogant interest.
“What are you to Yashiro?”
“I have no name to give a Demon King!”
The first one to react and make that declaration was, of course, Shirogamine. I figured as much. I had thought this before, but this girl’s fear response had to be broken. It definitely was not just the influence of <E3>. There was something insane at a much deeper level.
Then Shirogamine turned back to me. Annoyingly, her eyes were brimming with fighting spirit.
“I will face that <Storm Coffin>, Master.”
“You really don’t listen to a word people say. For starters, I’m not letting you fight.”
“Instructor. I can do it.”
“Yeah—fine. Sure. Indo, can you?”
“Yes.”
“Wait, Indo. The first strike is mine! For Master’s future, I will take that commander’s head.”
“Shut up! Indo, keep her quiet.”
“Yes.”
“Wait, Master, I—ah! Indo, what are you doing?”
Leaving Shirogamine aside, I hesitated.
Fighting alongside Yukine Indo was not a bad idea. The problem was how to steer things there. Right now, to harass me, Lord <Storm Coffin> would insist either on all four of us participating or on me alone providing the “entertainment.” We needed a compromise somewhere. I could suggest a tag match and wager something—
“Hold on, Mr. Yashiro.”
Suddenly, Sera Pendragon grabbed my arm.
“You can go lie down somewhere. I’m thinking through how to handle this.”
“No.”
Sera’s gaze darted left and right.
“Outside—it’s that way? No, but it’s getting closer. It’s big—what the hell is this?”
“What are you talking about? I’m busy thinking. Shut up for a second.”
“I told you, my ether perception only gives me vague stuff! This is bad! This is—”
After shouting, Sera’s face went slack as if she had been struck. She held her breath and looked up.
The high ceiling of the entrance hall.
I followed her gaze.
Just as cracks spread across it.
“Oh?”
Lord <Storm Coffin> looked up. A strangely hard sound ran through the ceiling. Vibration. The unreal sight of widening cracks. The sensation of something breaking. By the time those omens became decisive, the entire entrance hall had erupted into chaos again.
“More guests. What a delightful day.”
Lord <Storm Coffin> narrowed her eyes. Incredibly, she looked a little pleased.
“This is bad.”
I grabbed the three girls by the shoulders and pulled them back—I wanted to believe I had made it just in time.
The next instant, the ceiling collapsed, blew apart, and a whole party of new “guests” came raining down.
In other words, my plan for tonight had now been completely blown away.
That was always how it went for me. I could not remember a single plan I had ever made working out properly.
Still, making something of it anyway was the business of being a Hero.
Nothing for it.