Interlude: Deep in the Ground
“Still only thirty percent…”
By the eerie light emitting from an old altar in the darkness, a man was toiling away at something alone.
“What can I do ya for?”
An accented voice spoke from behind him.
“Your Majesty.”
The man turned and saw only the empty air—no, there was a black silhouette that was darker than its surroundings, like a shadow puppet.
“Oh, do stop calling me that. I’m just a measly court attendant now, ya hear?”
“Surely you jest, sire. I am but a temporary shadow made for gathering information, no more than mere garbage before the Troll Lord. My body, my heart, my soul all exist solely to be offered to Your Highness—”
“Enough.”
The joking tone disappeared as the shadow interrupted the man sharply.
“Respect and reverence are all well and good, but worship simply won’t do.”
“…But of course. How foolish of me… Please forgive me, Your Majesty.”
“I told ya to stop calling me ‘Majesty,’ didn’ I? Keep it up, and I’ll call ya ‘Your Highness,’ ya hear?”
“I am not at all qualified to be called by that title.”
“Ya think? Well, yer right. I’m nothing but a goblin myself—a far more fitting name than something as ominous as Troll Lord.”
“What a terrifying goblin you would make, sire.”
The man smiled faintly.
“Awful, ennit? Just look how adorable I am.”
The man remained silent at the joke that came from the shadow.
“Oh dear, bombed that one, didn’t I? Maybe the Holy Woman will console me.”
“Ha-ha.”
“Doing well, is she?”
“If you mean Shizuka, she’s holed up in her usual place, refusing to come out.”
“She mad or what, eh?”
“No, she is simply very unsociable. Not to worry—she will still work in accordance with orders when the time comes.”
“Well, people en’t machines. Gotta treat ’em with respect.”
“Understood, sire. I shall endeavor to humor her wishes as long as it does not interfere with the progress of our plan.”
The man accepted the shadow’s orders.
“…So, speaking of progress. How’re we looking?”
“It’s still only thirty percent, I’m afraid.”
“Slower than we expected, ennit?”
“Yes, my ‘Charm’ skill and the imitation Geist we made can just barely bind the demon lord—the Sandstorm Lord, that is—in the Dens of Evil.”
“He won’t obey us, eh?”
“I ordered him to attack the nearby city in order to deepen the miasma in the Dens of Evil, yet he is reluctant to take people’s lives, making for little progress.”
“Demon lords en’t supposed to have such noble values.”
“I couldn’t agree more. Perhaps our best course of action would be to capture the Yowork Kingdom imperial mage who copied the ‘Geist’ skill and have him rebind the Sandstorm Lord for us in order to reach our goal more quickly.”
“Ah, no can do, sorry to say.”
The man looked confused at the shadow’s response, prompting further explanation.
“That Yowork Kingdom mage is dead, ya see.”
“…Dead?”
“As a doornail. He became a dungeonmaster, which is all well and good, ’cept the dungeon went up in flames and him along with it. And after I had ol’ Touya revive that labyrinth to help create a little girl demon lord, too… That’s all gone to the dogs now, eh?”
The shadow’s manner of speech was so peculiar that it was difficult to understand at times; nevertheless, the man gleaned that the gist of the meaning was “We revived a labyrinth to create a new demon lord, but it was destroyed along with the mage who became its dungeonmaster.”
“In that case, I suppose we have no choice but to continue in our current course.”
“What’s the shape of things right now, then?”
“We’ve increased production of Sandstorm Soldiers in various parts of the Dens of Evil in order to thicken the miasma, and my people are working to defeat the hero and his associates whenever they attempt to track down the Sandstorm Lord.”
The man spoke as if the demon lord was his subordinate.
“The Sandstorm Lord en’t gonna go down to the hero, too, I hope? The current hero is nothing to sneeze at, ya hear?”
“There’s no need to worry. The Sandstorm Lord is incredibly quick to flee. Not to mention, I’ve assigned the lesser and intermediate demons we borrowed from Lord Green to guard the demon lord, and Lord Green himself will step in if need be.”
“Don’t rely too much on a greater demon like Lord Green, though, eh? They seem like they’re loyal to demon lords, but in the end it’s their own skin they care about the most. And Green is especially quick to stab ye in the back if ye en’t careful.”
“I will take your warning to heart, sire. Still, Lord Green’s goal is the same as ours. I should think he will hardly betray us, at least until the goal is achieved.”
“I sure hope yer right.” The shadow shrugged. “Don’t suppose we can trap the hero in a Geist?”
“It would be difficult to lure the hero and his companions into an area with all of the conditions for casting a Geist on them, and what’s more, they all have that wretched Parion’s protection in the form of a Divine Talisman…”
“Ah, right, ‘Charm’ doesn’t work on ’em, either. Oh, well. Forget it, eh?” Dismissing the topic, the shadow moved on. “By the way, howsabout we use that other doohickey? The one they slipped to us on the sly.”
“Ah, the Evil God’s Spawn Fragments. I gave them to the Sandstorm Lord, but thus far he refuses to use them. Though he did throw one at the hero a few days ago, utterly wasting it.”
“I’d hardly call that a waste. No ordinary potion or magic can cure the corruption from those things, and even the ol’ pontiff’s Unique Skill would have a tough time. That oughtta take the hero out of our hair for a while, eh?”
“No, I’m told that a Shiga Kingdom noble who happened to be present was able to cure him with a Holy Tool.”
“Well, en’t that a shame…”
“But it seems the Holy Tool broke in the process, so hopefully that won’t happen again.”
“Got it. Do ye have any spares left, then? If’n ye don’t, I can give ye some of mine. I shipped most of ’em out to the Overgrown Labyrinth and the Demon’s Labyrinth, but I en’t sent any to Tarou yet.”
“No, we still have five more. In an effort to prevent the Sandstorm Lord from wasting any more, I’ve taken two into my own hands, and given the rest to Lord Green.”
“Dearie me. You trust those demons too much.”
The man bowed his head silently at the shadow’s warning.
“Well, don’t say I didn’t warn ye. Keep at it, eh? I’ll check in again but soon.”
With that, the shadow puppet vanished into the darkness.
“I promise I won’t let you down.”
The man bowed deeply to the now-vanished figure.
“No matter what, I will undo the seal on the Evil God’s Prison for Your Majesty the Troll Lord.”
His words, too, disappeared into the dark.
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