Using the 24-faceted orbTrapezohedron, I returned to my mansion in Pelneet.

“Aaaahhhh!! Shuuya!”

“Nn――”

“Guildmaster!”

As soon as I stepped out of Paredes’s mirror, Rebecca and Eva hugged me. Veronika also joined in. I tightly squeezed them back.

…It’s been really a long time since I last felt the soft pressure of Eva’s hidden big boobs.

“Nn…”

Eva immediately closes her eyes, apparently wanting me to kiss her.

But you know, right now…is…

At that moment, I sensed an unnatural fluctuation of magic elements. Is it coming from around Mel or Bennett? Oh well, whatever. I guess it’s okay for now.

“…Haha, you’re exaggerating. It’s not like we haven’t seen each other for many years.” I pat Eva’s back while having my mind focused on her boobs.

Her metallic legs are bumping against mine. How nostalgic.

“Ojou-sama…”

“What a happy face she has… It makes me happy as well.”

Dee-san and Lily commented. While hugging my bloodkin, I faced Dee-san and bowed.

At that moment, “”Master!””

Mamani, the captain of the Blood Beast Squad, genuflected, and imitating her, Souther, a member of the same squad. Fuu of the same squad was behind them.

“Milord!”

And with a slight delay, Bia of the same squad as the other three shouted while shaking her thick lamia torso.

Ajul, adopting a daunting pose, opposed Bia’s words by shouting, “My lord!”

The eyeballs assembled on his ring-shaped head…are mysterious and interesting, no matter how often I look at them. Just what you’d expect of a precious race put for sale at the Underground Auction.

I wonder how Hundred Demon Ajul would react if I showed him Adombraly? He looks like he’d ask Adombraly whether he wants to become one of his many eyeballs.

Let’s try it out later while introducing Adombraly to everyone.

“Master, just as I mentioned in my regular blood messages, we’ve gathered a big amount of large magic stones.” Mamani stands up while talking and shows me a brand-new item box.

Her animalistic aura has clearly increased. She’s the sole tigerwoman among the Light Demon Lucival. Her whiskers are squirming right now, too.

“Nice. I’ll take them later on.”

Then I shift my eyes to Head Maid Isabella. 1 The Vice-Head Maids Anna and Krychiwa are next to her as well.

“””Welcome back, master.”””

The conduct as they greet me is top-notch. It immediately wakes the urge in me to act like a noble. I’m the one who has hired them, so I must treat them politely.

When I strengthened my awareness in that direction, I separated from Eva, Rebecca, and Veronika. Feeling slightly guilty, I approached the three maids.

“…I’m sure you had your fair share of troubles while I’ve been away…You did well to keep things running over here. Thanks. However, please consider this short period of absence as rehearsal. Our journey is actually going to start for real from now on. That’s why I leave taking care of the servants, including Mimi over there, to you three.” I bow my head.

“Master…”

“Y-Yes! You are a kind master…”

“Just having you say this is already plenty!”

Isabella, Krychiwa, and Anna place their hands on their chests and answer me while deeply moved.

“Good grief, no matter what you do, you’re truly a handsome guy!”

“Huh?”

“Not huh! Let me hug you more!” Rebecca retorts and leaps at me.

――Ughh!

I didn’t fall over, but shoulder tackle as Lucival packed quite the punch despite her slender body.

But, Rebecca whispers while crying, “Shuuya’s…scent…”

And then she puts her arms around my waist and strengthens her embrace, pressing her face against Hal’Konk as if to crush its buttons and fasteners.

“Nn, me too!”

“Me too.”

I got hugged by everyone while involuntarily rotating to the side.

“Hahaha, I got it, so don’t jump on me like that!”

I rotated with a speed similar to that of a spintop. Because my speed kept growing, Rebecca screamed, causing everyone around us to suddenly burst into laughter.

Using that opportunity, I stopped the rotation by focusing on my legs and trunk while making sure to not let everyone fall off. Then I grabbed the edge of Rebecca’s outfit – the Muntomi dress with the pretty feathers – and gently guided her slender body towards the ground.

“T-Thanks.”

“Don’t mind it. As usual, your collarbones are beautiful.”

“Sheesh, you lecher. But, thanks for the compliment…”

Just like that I stroke her head so as to tidy up her long, blond hair that got disheveled earlier. Once I do, Eva and Veronika glare at me with eyes full of jealousy.

Because I feel slightly awkward, I shift my eyes to the maids. In response, the maids bow simultaneously just like before while smiling at me. No matter how often I see it…their magnificent conduct is wonderful. It’s a first-class maid technique they learned at Resonante’s Boarding School.

All of them are pretty. Mimi, who’s behind them, too. I wonder whether she’s been properly taking care of Popobumu?

Now then, next are Vice-guildmaster Mel and Bennett, who are standing next to the maids. Since before they’ve been emanating a distinctive, tingly aura as conspicuously outstanding beings. The soldiers behind the two are only adding to that aura. Those must be the puppet soldiers Veronika mentioned.

In addition, I’m also curious about the unnatural magic elements, but…first I focus on Mel and Bennett. The Red Moon’s Puppet Corps wear all the same uniforms. The color is focused around red. A mark of the moon wreckage and full moon, which had been visible during the battle at the Dignified Heaven’s Shrine, has been engraved on the left side of their breastplate. And they also possess a small silver badge with a chain. The full moon’s design is big. But, the moon wreckage looks prettier. Fine, silver dust colors a twilight world. It reminds me of stars twinkling in an aubergine-colored night sky.

It has a great fashion sense. But, I have my shoulder dragon and Gatrance-form, so yeah…

In case I were to suddenly enter battle while wearing the new uniform, and if I expanded Hal’Konk at that moment…the new uniform would end up torn apart. It’d possibly be a solution if the shoulder dragon woke up and I got him to devour the new uniform, but…shoulder dragon-kun doesn’t seem to be inclined to wake up in such a convenient manner for me.

The Gatrance-form which comes out of a wearable, computer-type of item box is a protective clothing similar to tights, so it might be fine though.

“…Welcome back, guildmaster.”

“Welcome back, guildmaster.”

Mel and Bennett greet me while being all smiles.

“…Yo, long time no see.” I answer their greeting casually.

Thereupon Veronika moves next to the two with light, nimble movements. She faces the two with a smile while also wearing a red outfit.

Veronika, Mel, and Bennett are the leading gang of 【Moon of Dignified Heaven】, the successor of 【Remains of the Moon】. It really suits them, no, rather than suiting them, it looks pretty damn cool on them. Their current outfits aren’t inferior to the uniforms of the Great Knights of White Nine. Those are the outfits of the strongest leaders, in name and reality, of the dark guild.

Who has designed them?

“…From the fact of you coming out of the mirror, it was immediately clear, but Veronika has already informed us about us Lucival having built a new base in the deeper parts of the Sea of Trees.”

While listening to Mel’s explanation in a proud manner, Veronika whispers, “That’s only natural.”

She folds her arms triumphantly in front of her tiny breasts. But, going by the mood…she apparently hasn’t told Mel and the others…about me having had sex with Quiche and Kisara many times over. It looks like she plans to ignore this matter altogether, just like Viine.

“…It’s slightly outdated information, but we heard about several underground ruins in the Whirlpool Forest of Demonic Fog from Viine-san, and new sorcery dolls from Mysty-san. Mysty-san has mentioned that she’s developing her dolls while adding all kinds of materials based on her brother’s research data. But, she’s has extensively complained about the matter with the heart of Demi-God Munjay.”

I didn’t know that.

“I remember that she defeated a monster that appeared from a failed experiment, but I have heard nothing from her about Munjay.”

“Okay. As for the experiments with Munjay’s heart, it’s about a new sorcery doll that uses the remaining energy of Munjay’s heart…according to what we know. It looks like she couldn’t bring it up…in front of the orcs you recently added as subordinates, guildmaster, but she has been grumbling about having run out of Totola masks and wanting the hearts of orc shamans.”

I see. That’s why she has pretended to not be interested in the orcs, huh?

“The stories of Yui and Kaldo, who have been going berserk on the roads of Radford Empire in the west…and our reports have been properly passed on, right?” Mel asks while looking at Veronika.

Still, an orc shaman who believes in Demi-God Munjay, huh? The orcs basically believe in the Eight Great Orc Gods. But, just like Quema’s Totokhun clan worships Fierce God Kisarame-sama…other clans might worship Demi-God Munjay. Even nowadays, you might be able to find some clans worshiping him in the underground. It might be a nice side entertainment to search for orc shamans during our upcoming underground exploration.

“…Ugh, that part…I reported about the Red Moon Puppet Soldiers I created with the skills and ! Because guildmaster texted me, 『I definitely wanna see the puppet soldiers who can use whip-staffs and heavy blades! I wonder just what moves they can pull off!』 with so much excitement that it seemed like he was able to hear my voice through the blood message, my heart started to throb as well, I got totally wet♪ That’s why I made a special exception and prepared my tuned gems here, hihi♪” Veronika’s cheeks become bright red while she’s talking.

But, her fishy look abruptly ends, changing into a penetrative stare while she rotates sideways as if dancing. After turning her back on me, she approaches the puppet soldiers who have been lined up in the back.

Those are the bodyguards she touted about during our blood message exchange. Commonly known as Red Moon’s Puppet Corps. The appearance of the new, horned puppets is pretty neat, especially with the angle of their horns. The outlines of their heads and helmets are nice too. They’ve been created with a focus on a slender, inverted triangle from their cheekbones to their jaws. There are fangs visible at their coated lips, but the modesty around that part gives them a slightly womanly touch.

On top of a protruding bone breastplate, both shoulders are awesome tetragons, and their mantles are red as well. Each of them carries either a whip-staff or a heavy blade as a weapon.

Well…it’s not like I’m a Mysty fanboi, but…her new sorcery dolls are cooler. Then again, that’s just a matter of my personal preferences, I suppose. Besides, the huge difference in materials also plays a big role here.

Immediately after I thought about all that, those puppets started to move with a trembling of their armor. They held their halberd-like heavy blades, which resemble my Baldok a bit, level, pointing the sharp-looking blade points my way. It’s not a stance belonging to the Wind Spear Style.

On the other hand, the puppets holding whip-staffs…move their staffs as if handling a snake sword. Whip-based wires connect the bone blade pieces. A flock of bone blades extends towards the ceiling with a clattering like winding snakes. Their pointed ends seem sharp. They’re quite flexible, so I got to take back my previous words and admit that they’re not bad at all.

With the wires connecting the staff’s bone blades, the blades themselves look like the fangs of real snakes.

They’ve given me a demonstration. I feel like the former demonic marquis has twitched inside his ring, but it’s probably just my imagination.

“…Splendid. To be honest, their movements exceed my expectations. For them to move independently like sorcery dolls…won’t Mysty suffer a heavy shock from that?” I express my true opinion.

“I doubt that. If I’m nearby, they’re honestly quite strong, but…” Her expression looks like she’s not that dissatisfied, but it sounds like she doesn’t want to expose too much of her abilities.

I wonder whether they’ll turn into useless junk the instant she’s further away from them. Then again, even the previous puppet soldiers could be used as guards. Hence, they might be soldiers that can be used to imposingly fill the head count, even if Veronika isn’t nearby.

They might also be a nice addition to Cydale’s military forces, if they can be used there. I think I’ll chat her up about it later on. But before that…

“Are there actually martial artists from some leading school or some such inside those puppets?”

“That’s quite rude! It’d be one thing if they only included my techniques, but so far as it goes, Mysty’s sorcery doll technology and Zeeta’s alchemy were also included, okay? Putting it like that is demeaning towards those two. And, just like I’ve also told you through the blood messaging――”

The whip-staff of one puppet soldier attacks Veronika.

“As long as I’m nearby――”

While talking she dodge the blades attached to the whip by crouching down.

“Like this――”

Then she stops a blade approaching her face from the left by pinching it between her fingers. Thereupon, the ring of Adombraly reacts once more.

A stir occurs around us because of the battle scene unfolding all of a sudden.

“So? You see, they can move quite freely, can’t they?”

…Yeah, it’s incredible. No wonder she’s already obtained , the third gate of .

“…Veronika, I got it. Did you tell him any other information?” Mel looks quite refined, probably because of her decent way of speaking and as an effect of her outfit.

As I look at her with eyes full of admiration, Veronika vigorously shakes her head, “…T-That’s already…pleeenty! Right, guildmaster…?”

Veronika turns her head my way, and sends a wink my way. She also sticks out her small, pink tongue.

That’s probably her implicit way of telling me to 『deceive Mel together』 with her.

That’s why, I cooperate with Veronika, saying, “Yeah…”

But, “Hehe, I know it anyway, guildmaster. Veronika hasn’t told you anything, right?”

“Aww, it got exposed.”

For an instant Mel directs a cold stare at Veronika, but she immediately changes it into a gentle look, and turns her face my way.

“Very well, I’ll bring you up to date then.”

“Please do.”

———— End of Part 1 ————