WE THOROUGHLY ENJOYED THE DEMON PERFORMANCES
And so, day two of the music festival.
Kuku went ahead to the venue first, and the rest of the family took our time getting to the stage at the burial grounds.
We handed over our tickets and went inside, and sure enough, there was a row of gravestones-turned-seats with a good view of the stage. I guess that was where we would be watching from. It was a cursed spot, but maybe it was fine for demons.
An artist was already performing, and the demon fans were cheering.
After a little while, the leviathan sisters Fatla and Vania, Fighsly, and even Beelzebub came over.
“These are our seats, no?”
Oh right, the seats beside me were empty—must have been Beelzebub’s.
“Work has finally calmed down. They made me man the booth for bizarre-yet-delicious vegetables created from selective breeding.”
Beelzebub was fanning herself. That sounded like something the agricultural minister would do.
“Kuku isn’t known at all among the demons. I’m still a little worried about that…”
Even if the venue was packed, she would have a hard time if they treated her like an away team. I hoped it wouldn’t cause her lifelong trauma… That was the one reservation I couldn’t let go of until it was all over.
“You fool. The audience recognizes that one must be recognized as a skilled performer to be allowed to stand on the biggest stages of the music festival. They will listen carefully.”
All I could do was believe Beelzebub for now.
“I just gave her the opportunity. It is she who decides if she will seize it. It’s on her shoulders to choose whether she will succeed in leaving a good impression on a large audience or fail.”
“It sounds like you’re distancing yourself from her, but you’re right.”
All we could do was watch.
Falfa and Laika folded their hands naturally, like they were praying.
On the other hand, Flatorte seemed relaxed as she sipped a drink while she waited.
Actually, she might have only appeared calmer than she was.
“Becoming too familiar with a minstrel will make me attached, and that’s no good. If I begin to worry about their personal lives, I can no longer be as nerdy as I have been until now.”
That sounded like something that someone who was in too deep would say. Maybe she was right.
Kuku’s turn was approaching slowly.
The one who performed before her was a fat troll who was apparently an opera singer and certainly had the voice of one.
And then, it was Kuku’s turn.
The MC introduced her: “Miss Kuku is a novice almiraj, one who has recently had a vast change in genre.” She wasn’t a novice in terms of her career, but this was her first performance in her new genre.
“I can’t sit still, so I’m going to float up and look from above!”
Rosalie left her seat and drifted upward.
Kuku finally appeared from offstage.
There was a strap attached to her lute so that it hung from her shoulder. She was the picture of a singer-songwriter.
“I’m Kuku. My first song is called ‘Thank You.’”
Then she began to play a somber yet gentle melody on her lute.
It’s time~ It’s too sad to have to say good-bye~
So I’ll say instead, thank you~
I hadn’t heard her practicing this song at the house before.
But when I heard the lyrics, I could tell right away.
This song was for us.
I won’t be gone forever; I’m just moving somewhere else~
We’ll live on in our separate places, live on in our own times~
And we may forget each other, ’cause that’s just part of life~
But part of life is remembering, too~
So it’s okay, no surprises, come and see me anytime~
Thank you, thank you, thank you~
When the first song was over, I stood up and applauded, tears running down my face.
“You did it, Kuku!”
My daughters followed suit and stood up, too. And it wasn’t just us; so many members of the demon audience were giving her a standing ovation.
Among them all, only Flatorte stayed sitting, pressing her hands against her eyes and sobbing quietly.
It was like a master looking on as a disciple reached greatness.
Kuku’s songs were amazing, and they touched our hearts. They didn’t always have to be dark.
In the end, Kuku played seventeen songs, left the stage for a moment, was hastily brought back onstage to the fervent calls for an encore, played another three songs, and then it was finally over.
“Here, a new handkerchief. I have plenty, so pass it on.”
Beelzebub sure did have a lot of handkerchiefs.
Now that she mentioned it, I noticed we were all crying.
That night, I immediately grabbed Kuku into a hug when we reunited.
“You did it! You were incredible! Everyone was cheering for you!”
“Thank you so much! I never thought it’d go this well…” Tears rolled down Kuku’s face as she smiled. “This is all thanks to you. I have no idea how I can tell you how grateful I am…”
“What? There’s only one thing to say,” I replied as I recalled Kuku’s performance. “And that’s thank you, right?”
Kuku beamed and said, “Thank you!” and hugged me again, and I gently stroked the backs of her ears.
That day, thanks to Beelzebub’s kindness, we had one of the rooms in the castle prepared for us for a celebration party.
Plates of food just kept coming in—it was a huge feast.
Kuku’s expression was also bright. I mean, that was a given after her performance went off without a hitch.
“Interested parties from various venues who saw you sing today have already sent in mounds of requests. Here is a quick list of all of them, Kuku.”
I couldn’t really read demonic script, but I could see that she had tons of work coming in.
“Is this…enough work to live in the castle town here…?” Kuku looked at the list, astonished.
She’d probably never had requests like this before.
“Perhaps. Well, you used to live in the human capital, so why don’t you see if you can make a living there as you take on a healthy amount of work. I can lend you a wyvern for transport, so it wouldn’t be impossible to do both at the same time.”
“That’s great, Kuku. You’re suddenly a hit! This means you were a big hit with the demons!”
But Kuku didn’t seem to be honestly happy yet—maybe because it didn’t feel real to her.
All these happenings were such a sudden change, so I understood.
Our feast continued, and the mood was peaceful from beginning to end. Halkara was already passed-out drunk, and Falfa and Shalsha were already asleep from exhaustion.
Vania laughed at Halkara for being drunk, then passed out herself fifteen minutes later.
Her older sister, Fatla, was irritated. “She never learns…”
Flatorte had barely had any water, but she was barely talking to Kuku, either.
Of course, I could tell, because I was keeping a careful eye on my family.
But I wasn’t sure how to approach the subject, so I just watched.
Flatorte appeared to be dealing with some sort of conflict that the rest of the family wasn’t.
If she wasn’t, she would have been having more fun or been sadder about Kuku leaving.
And then, just as the feast was about to come to an end—
Flatorte asked Kuku, “Can I borrow your lute?”
“Yes, sure.”
It was a precious tool of her trade, but Kuku allowed it. Flatorte had an oddly cryptic look on her face, but I doubted she was going to do something she shouldn’t because she was drunk.
“Are you going to sing a parting song?” Laika asked.
As a fellow dragon, Laika was probably worried about Flatorte.
“Not quite,” Flatorte said, and she stood right in front of Kuku. “I have one song for you. It’s not very good, though.”
Then she began to play—
“WOOOOOOOAAAAAAAAH, DESTRUCTION, DESTRUCTION, DESTRUCTION! WOOOOAAAAAAAAHHHHH, EXECUTION, EXECUTION, EXECUTION!”
This was one of Schifanoia’s songs!
But Flatorte was a better singer than Schifanoia, so her performance had a bit more flavor. I didn’t know if I should be pleased, though.
Flatorte’s mouth and eyes were opened wide as sound poured out of her.
“Schifanoia! In the past, you’ve sung as Schifanoia so much that you even knocked yourself unconscious. It may not sell, but that’s because you believed it was right, so if you ever want to go back, then you should. Don’t be an idiot and think you have to seal it away forever! You aren’t smart enough to follow what’s popular in society! If you were, you would’ve sold out ages ago!”
Flatorte’s loud voice echoed in the room.
“Even I, Flatorte, have made mistake after mistake, and I found myself here. There might not be a right answer, but as long as you keep going, you’ll never totally fail! So sing how you want! It’s your life!”
Flatorte then thrust the lute out to Kuku.
Kuku gripped it tightly.
“You are master and pupil,” I murmured, and Laika and Beelzebub beside me nodded.
“This is something the master can tell the pupil all because she’s made her mistakes.”
Laika watched the two with a refreshing smile.
Flatorte’s grown a lot, too. People could change by meeting others.
“It’s because of you that this could happen, and it’s all right to be proud of that. I perhaps wouldn’t have reacted this way without you,” Beelzebub said as she poured me another glass of alcohol.
“This is strong, so please don’t give me too much…”
“It’s fine. The demon king’s performance at the festival tomorrow is in the evening.”
Oh right, we had to see Pecora perform, since we were national guests.
“What is she going to do? Is she going to raise a lit torch or something? Or give a closing address?”
Beelzebub smiled bitterly and muttered, “You’ll see.”
What was going to happen now…? The demon king had to do something…
The next day, Laika apparently woke up early to train with Fighsly. She sure was a hard worker, even in the morning…
Falfa and Shalsha both said they’d gone to the library to read some books. They must have woken up early, since they fell asleep during dinner.
Everyone else—besides Rosalie, who didn’t need sleep, being a ghost and all—slept for so long it could be counted as sleeping in. Even me.
“You’re finally up, Big Sis.”
Rosalie startled me when I opened my eyes, hovering right in front of me.
“You could’ve woken me up earlier, Rosalie…”
“I did, and you said, ‘I’m going to sleep until I wake up naturally today. My head hurts from drinking last night…’ I will always do exactly as you say, you know.”
Oof, it’s been a long time since I’ve had that much to drink…
I went to check on the others, and Halkara must’ve fallen asleep while she was changing, because she was sleeping in her underwear, out for everyone to see.
Flatorte had fallen from her bed.
Kuku was the only one lying on her back while she slept, like a corpse. She apparently had to sleep very still so her ears wouldn’t get tangled up.
I woke them all, and we had a light brunch.
During that time, Kuku had a lot to say to Flatorte. They really were like master and pupil.
“You can’t cater too much to veteran fans. If you make it too comfortable for them, new fans will stop coming and your numbers will decline. Fans don’t go out of their way to say why they move on. They just do.”
Move on was just a fancy way of saying they quit being fans.
“You can keep going with lots of initial fans, but as they taper off, you’ll eventually wind up playing in big music clubs just before you go on hiatus. You always need to plan for a comeback by constantly bringing in new fans.”
“I’ll keep that in mind. Now that you mention it, there are a lot of minstrel groups that go on hiatus after four or five years.”
The two could probably maintain this relationship no matter where Kuku went.
Now, what would Demon King Pecora’s ritual be like?
“Because we were invited to this music festival, Kuku also got the opportunity to perform. Both Miss Pecora and Miss Beelzebub are wonderful people,” Laika said with joy, but I knew they weren’t that pleasant.
“What is Pecora going to do to us? I’m a little excited but also nervous. More nervous than not. She hasn’t come to see me in all this time. She’s up to something…”
My bad feeling would be on the money, since these things always seemed to happen to me.
“It sounds like an important affair, and I’m sure she has plenty to do as the demon king.”
Laika, you are too trusting. That’s a good thing, though.
Well, there wasn’t much point in being on alert now, so we headed for the arena.
I say we, but it was Fatla and Vania who took us there.
“Her Majesty has given us strict instructions to direct you to the seat with the best view.”
“Oh, I heard she’s been practicing a lot!”
We were placed in a carriage. This is practically an escort…
“What is she planning on doing…?” I asked the two, who were in the same carriage.
“In demon tradition, it is a ceremony in which the demon king makes a contract with the spirit of music.”
“She is relatively free to choose how. The current demon king thinks that entertaining the spirit of music is the price to pay for the contract.”
I kind of got it, but I kind of didn’t…
The massive arena could apparently fit fifty thousand people. All the seats were full—this was the highlight of the affair. Citizens who couldn’t get inside were gathered outside.
And we were sat in our reserved seats.
What is going to happen…?
At least she probably wasn’t going to just do some ceremonial ritual and leave it at that…
Once the darkness of night finally fell—
A light flicked on, illuminating a special stage.
There came the demon king Pecora, wearing a dress that was more garish and frilly than usual.
“Demon King!” “Demon King!” “Deeeeeeeemooooooooon Kiiiiiiiiing!” “Long live the king!”
The venue erupted into cheers. I almost wanted to plug my ears!
“Hello! It’s me, the demon king! Have you enjoyed the music festival?! I will be closing out the event!” Pecora called, facing the magic item that amplified her voice—a microphone, basically.
Then, she started singing.
Cover the world~ In darkness~ And everyone will become one~
These lyrics were as scary as Schifanoia’s!
But her voice was sweet, like a fairy tale!
Deep chanting rippled across the arena in response to Pecora’s singing.
Not only that, but all the demons who could create flame did so in the same rhythm, lighting up the venue.
“Don’t tell me she’s…an idol?!”
Darkness~ Darkness~ Twenty-four seven, three sixty-five~
It’s dark wherever the light is not~
Pecora was dancing along with these inauspicious lyrics. She was really good at it.
I noticed Vania, who was sitting nearby, was waving something around that looked like a massive flower. She was a fan?!
I leaned over to ask Fatla, who was watching on with a blank expression.
“Uh, what is all this…?”
“Her Majesty wondered if there was a most efficient way to gather national spirit, and she came to this conclusion. Younger people typically aren’t interested in these old-fashioned affairs and tend to ruin them, but apparently, even they get very involved with this.”
“When you put it like that, it almost feels like a good plan.”
“Additionally, a similar thing happened at the previous music festival. There were eight groups in total spanning five hours.”
“That’s way too long! Are they really going to bring out that many people…?”
Flatorte was looking on like a critic with a serious expression—she was even taking notes.
“I see. A performance-style idolization and yet still orthodox.”
Idolization? So she really was an idol.
The performance of Demon King Pecora kept going.
You can have all the demon powers you want~
Make it a skull, make it a heart, make it both~
Sing until blood comes from your throat~
The greatest darkness is the greatest love~
The concepts in the lyrics were all uniform, but there were too many power words in there.
Pecora was dressed as an idol, and with her genuine ability to sing and dance, she was more of a real idol than I’d imagined.
Falfa was singing along with “All the demon powers you want~ ” and Shalsha was singing “W-want~ ” just a little bit behind. I guess Pecora was popular with kids, too.
“Now then, I’ll be stepping out here for a moment. Up next, we have our percussionist unit, made of mining engineers from Ban Bababa Mine, Silver Only Please!”
Several people who looked like Cyclopes came out onstage and started making beats.
There were lots of people who took this opportunity to go to the bathroom, but I guess now was the time. I wasn’t really interested in percussion, either, so I felt bad for them.
Afterward, plenty of demons wearing idol clothes appeared and belted out their tunes.
“This originated when the demon king wanted to lengthen her performance by making her underlings do it.” Fatla just gave me a huge spoiler. “I believe she was only trying to hassle them at first, but once they gave it a shot themselves, they seemed to get really into it, and the scale of the event just grew and grew.”
She looked like she was fighting a headache.
“The ones at the bottom are usually at the mercy of the ones on top, aren’t they? I totally understand…”
“I hear she even has a secret intention to perform in the human kingdom and gain fans there.”
The humans probably never suspected that was how the demons would be making contact…
It was an idol event at its core, but sometimes strange sideshows came into the mix.
Fighsly performed a battle with some beastly-looking creature. This was like the gladiators being made to fight against wild animals in the Roman Empire…
“This is Fighsly-style slime fist! It can make any demon stronger! Please contact Fighsly if you would like to learn! I am also accepting work!”
She sure was neck-deep in her business. She was obsessed with money, as always.
And then, I realized something. Actually, that might’ve just been a question of time.
“Beelzebub’s not in her seat.”
Vania grinned. “I wonder why~ I wonder where she went~”
Honestly, it didn’t even matter if she gave me an answer at this point.
“Lady Beelzebub resisted up until the very last moment, but Her Majesty pushed too hard, so she finally gave in.”
Just after Fatla finished speaking, Pecora came out on the stage again.
Yep, Pecora sounded like the most popular. She might be the demon king, but she was also a truly high-caliber performer.
“It’s me, the demon king! Next, we’ll have a duet! All right, you can come out now!”
Beelzebub, embarrassed, stepped out onto the stage in a gaudy idol costume.
It wasn’t like her regular outfit was completely unlike something an idol would wear, but this was more like an underground idol style.
“Th-this outfit came out of the agricultural administration activation project budget… This is a legitimate expenditure…”
“Yes, it is! It passed the account auditing bureau’s checks!”
The people sure were understanding.
“Miss Beelzebub, you seem embarrassed, but I don’t quite understand. You want to do idol things like this. I know!”
“Th-that’s not true…!” Beelzebub denied it, her face red.
“But we have record of you going all out in your service job in the past.”
“Wh-why do you know that?!”
Oh, right, she worked really hard at our Witch’s House Café in the past… She changed her attitude and speech, too…
“You only mind because you’re in front of demons right now, but I bet if you weren’t the minister of agriculture, you wouldn’t mind it, right? Right? Right?”
This is bullying… This demon king really was rotten…
“F-fine! I’ll do it! Hello! Beelzebub heeere! I looove spicy food! We’re gonna get this over and done with today! Can’t wait to hear you cheer!”
These workers have it rough, I thought, as if this had nothing to do with me.
“Oh, no, your character will die if you do that. Speak haughtily like you always do, please.”
That received a hard no from the demon king.
“I-is that so, Your Majesty?”
“And please look down on all your fans! As you were, then!”
Beelzebub took a deep breath. “Wah-ha-ha! Consider yourselves blessed to hear the beautiful voice of the great, high-ranking Beelzebub! Let the tears flow! If you yawn while I’m singing, you will be executed!”
“Very well done! Then why don’t we start with our first song? ‘Love Triangle, Black Magic Circle’!”
After that, the two positively shone onstage.
There was one part where they flew around and did midair acrobatics as they sang.
If I summoned someone just like you~ (Pecora)
We wouldn’t have to kill each other~ (Beelzebub)
But there’s more value in the original~ (Beelzebub)
So we have to kill each other~ (Pecora)
The lyrics were gory, but I was willing to ignore that.
The cheers from the crowd were even louder than they had been before.
“Get to work, Minister!” “I’ll have you impeached!” “You’re working harder here than you do on your agriculture work!”
There even came jeers of love (?). I guess the people liked Beelzebub, too.
But there was something that made me uneasy—the way Kuku was watching the stage with glistening eyes.
“This is an option, too…”
“Hey, Kuku? You don’t need to do any of this stuff, okay? I think you’re perfectly fine as you have been just using your lute, okay? I’m really, really serious!”
From the second song on, Beelzebub was clearly into it, and what Pecora said about her actually liking it wasn’t entirely a joke for the act.
After warming up the audience, both Beelzebub and Pecora left.
And then, everyone who performed today would come onstage to all sing the demon national anthem or something like that to close off the event.
And indeed, all the performers slowly came together so that it began to feel like a finale.
But then, Fatla pulled my hand. Vania got up, too.
“Excuse me. Come with me, please.”
I had a really bad feeling about it, but I couldn’t say no.
Just as I thought, I was pulled up onto the stage for the finale.
All the demons turned to look at me, wondering what this was about.
And then Pecora raised my hand up into the air.
“An announcement, everyone! This is my elder sister, Azusa, the great Witch of the Highlands!”
The arena boiled with excitement at Pecora’s introduction. Boiled over, practically.
Awww… Now all the demons know about the Witch of the Highlands…
“Elder Sister, please sing the demon national anthem with us!”
“You made me a celebrity pretty quickly…”
And so I sang a song I didn’t really know the words to along with the other demons.
An announcement echoed throughout the arena: “This year’s music festival has now come to an end. Please take all your trash home with you.”
“There’s a lot I could say, but the top of the list is that it was really fun.”
“I’m very happy to hear that.”
I told Fatla, who had kept her calm composure the entire time, how I felt.
“Oh man, it was insane this year. Insane, it was! Insanely insane!” Vania was muttering to herself like a video on an endless loop, so she was useless.
As state guests, we were included in the after-party.
But again, it was Fatla who had brought us there. We’d probably have to go straight to Pecora. Well, I was a performer, too, so I had the right to go to the after-party! I had been forced to perform, after all!
Pecora appeared right before me with great confidence on her face.
“How was it, Elder Sister? I worked very hard for this. I whittled down as much state business as I could in order to practice!”
I probably shouldn’t tell her that was the one thing she shouldn’t be whittling down on.
“Yeah, Pecora, it was impressive.” I patted her head, also as a way to tell her she did good work.
She beamed happily, like a puppy, so I guess it was worth it.
“He-he-he! Thank you!”
It wouldn’t hurt to have such a troublemaker little sister, I suppose.
And since I got the feeling that Beelzebub was trying to avoid me, I went to her myself.
“You’re not bad at singing.”
“Th-that’s because you can leave anything to me and it won’t be that hard…”
“You could dress up like that and perform in the human world. You’d be a hit.”
“You do not have to say that! I will not do it!”
It still sounded like it was embarrassing for her. This was on a different scale from the Witch’s House Café.
She’d probably end up doing it if I kept pestering her, so I’d stop it there. I felt bad for her.
“Look, I’m complimenting you. Aren’t you happy about that?” Today I was going to be a little more aggressive.
Beelzebub didn’t seem totally out of it, either. “Th-thank…you,” she said, her face red, and turned to the side.
She wasn’t very straightforward, and that did check the box for cuteness, in its own way.
But when my daughters came up to her with, “It was really good!” and “That was a great performance,” she suddenly got all excited.
“That is my true skill!” she cried. She really changed her attitude depending on who she was talking to…
And there was one other significant matter that needed addressing.
Kuku came up to me, looking like she had a very important announcement to make.
“Miss Azusa, since I’ve received quite the volume of work requests here in the castle town, I’ve decided to stay. I will work here for three weeks before returning to the royal capital.”
“Yeah, that’s a good idea. But promise me one thing.”
I placed my hands on hers. For the first time, I realized how small Kuku was.
Her long ears made it feel like she was taller than me, but she really wasn’t.
“If you ever feel like you can’t take it anymore, or you think you can’t do it anymore, then come back to the house in the highlands. Your worries won’t solve themselves if you fret about them alone. Come by anytime. You’re our family, so you can come whenever you like.”
“O-okay…” Kuku’s voice was quavering behind tears.
Oh dear, I’ve made her cry again. I wasn’t happy about that.
“And be sure to eat. Take care not to end up fainting again. Oh, I made you promise two things…”
This time, Kuku smiled and said, “Of course!”
It might be nice to do another going-away party for her back at the house, but it would probably be best to just say our good-byes here.
Well, there was no problem at all! All the strange people I’d met were happily doing their thing all over the world, and we did come into contact occasionally.
That was when Fatla and Vania came over in a rush.
“Oh, what happened?”
“Pardon me, but you’ve received several requests from several theaters to perform… The first one is called Talk Show: As the Demon Lord’s Big Sister. Most of them are roughly the same…”
Ugh! My stage appearance is affecting me already?!
“There are lots of interview requests from newspapers as well! You’re so popular!”
“No, Vania, that doesn’t make me happy! I don’t want to be popular!”
It sounded like my notability was skyrocketing here in the demon lands… I wonder if I’ll start being treated like a demon boss, and people from the human lands will start coming to defeat me…
I’ll just pray that my little house in the highlands never gets called a horrible, scary dungeon…
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