—Demon Lord’s Castle: Office.

Two months had passed since we returned from our date… no, from the inspection at Svenmarina.

That would mean that it had been four months since I had been kept in the demon lord’s castle.

Time flew so fast. It was getting a bit cold at this time of the year. Autumn had already deepened, and winter was drawing near.

Even so, it hardly snowed around the demon lord’s castle in this temperate demon realm, so there were no changes, aside from me changing my clothes to a gray v-neck sweater.

The reason for that was, well, to make it easier to drink.

I always chose similar clothes because of my poor fashion sense. I liked monotones and calm autumn colors.

Svenmarina was a place of endless summer, but the demon lord’s castle was just a normal one.

Azel had high defense, yet he seemed to feel cold. He had been wearing a large red shawl over his usual fitted Asian-style clothing.

But no matter how the seasons changed, people’s daily lives went on.

I was no exception to that, as I went about my business as usual from stretching, training, and baking.

After finishing my regular work, I was at my customary last stop, leisurely tending to some paperwork.

“Alright, I’ve double-checked the documents you’ve looked over and sorted them according to where they’ll be taken after this. I’ve arranged the newly brought documents according to their priority, so please prioritize those with red tags. Also, I heard this from the army commander’s aide, but it seems that adventurers from the human realm are becoming more and more prominent. What should we do?”

After ensuring that there were no more omissions of confirmation stamps or signatures for particular matters, I placed the bundles of documents separated by location in a wooden document drawer.

“Okay. Here’re the documents I handled just now. I’ve already read and memorized the contents, so I don’t need them.”

“Mm. Secure. Shred. Compress.”

I received and double-checked the bundle of documents handed to me while hurriedly checking with Azel the non-daily reports from each department.

The documents that Azel had sent off flying and deemed unnecessary were gathered in a barrier with magic circles.

Just like that, they were minced like in a shredder, then compressed to the size of a marble and thrown into the trash can.

He really could remember its entire contents, so it was just easy to throw them away without checking.

“As for the issue with humans… It’s inevitable if the demons living in those areas were defeated because they were weak. Still, if they are causing damage to the town or stealing young animals, it will end up troublesome… Only kill the invaders and adventurers who want to steal.”

“Understood. I’ll write a document with your reply, so sign it later. Oh, and please stamp this one.”

“Okay. Ask the Air Force too.”

“Of course.”

I was filling out the documents while Azel was running his eyes over the papers, stamping on them without looking.

“Oh, right. There’s something wrong with the amount of compensation claimed. Has there been a disaster in this town recently?”

“Huh? There’s none. North Road is a snowy town where avalanches are frequent, but it’s only happened three times this year. Last year, it was eight. Before that was six. Seven. Seven. Four. Eight. In the first place, it’s a town where half of the residents are yetis and snow women. They’ll be more than happy to be covered in it, so what are they going to use it for… Hm? One hundred and fifty-eight gold coins, isn’t that the cost of a snow festival? I’ll shut it down.”

“I see… Isn’t that fine? As I recall, there weren’t many recipients for medals, so there’s extra money for the event this year, right?”

“Well, we have three hundred eighty-one gold coins to spare. But if you allow them even once, they’ll get carried away, y’know. When they accidentally caused a huge loss twenty-two years ago, they got down on their knees and swore that they’ll never demand anything costly again, and yet…”

“You’ve become easier to talk to than you used to, so I guess they thought they’d be able to proceed the way you are now.”

“I’m going to melt their mountains this time.”

“Hahaha. Snow melting, huh… Wait, you mean mountains?”

“…You’re really getting more and more preposterous. My lord.”

“Hm?” “Huh?”

I turned off the switch from my nonstop work mode, and we both tilted our heads in wonder.

I was so focused, I got careless. Actually, Reisen was also in the office the whole time.

“You’re making a tremendous amount of progress at work, but why is he sitting on your lap…?!”

Reisen mumbled, saying he didn’t understand, and looked at us with a contradictory face of a dead fish—no, a dead phoenix.

Yeah. That’s right. I had been sitting on Azel’s lap the whole time while working.