At the same time that the Demon Lord was tenderly enjoying his time with the Goddess of Darkness, outside his sphere of influence, known as the demon country Eskaria, in various locations, things that would become critical to the Demon Lord’s future were occurring—things over which the Demon Lord had neither control nor knowledge.

For example, on the border of the Great Borm Forest…

“Hero, Hero!”

“Hero, this weak?”

“Hero, this slow?”

“Can’t catch us, can’t catch us!”

Following their venomous words, the strange creatures filled the air with disgusting laughter. Roughly the size of a child, but with heads too big for their bodies, faces so ugly they could produce heart attacks, noses so long and crooked as to pass their mouths, filled with razor-sharp teeth…

Yet, out of all their qualities, what would stand out the most was their colour. Skin a sickening shade of green, with shaggy dirty-brown hair and eyes, completely brown as the earth itself. From these eyes, anyone with basic knowledge could tell these creatures were indeed ‘cursed’ by Lady Gnome, Goddess of Earth herself, and were the type of species which would show that.

High Goblins—that is, one possible evolution of a regular Goblin, many scores faster and more agile, yet with the exact same appearance.

The Hero who had made himself their enemy grunted as he swung his golden-coloured sword, and brilliantly missed for what felt like the twentieth time in a row. “Just die already, you little-” he said, beads of sweat dripping off his face.

The High Goblins couldn’t contain their laughter as they pointed their sharp, ugly fingers and held their stomachs. One of them drew its rusty, bent sword from the makeshift sheath it had created and jumped for the Hero’s back.

The Hero, in response, forced his body into a twist to block the attack with his own sword.

Yet, this left him open to attack, and another of the High Goblins jumped at the opportunity, setting its teeth into the Hero’s back.

With a shudder, the Hero cried out in discomfort. Due to Lady Luciel’s blessing, there was no pain, but there is no one who would be pleased by the sensation of Goblin teeth in their back.

As the advanced tactic of ‘shaking his back’ proved fruitless, the Hero attempted to thrust his sword in the creature’s direction and managed to scratch its skin. Its reaction was—

To fall to the ground, clutching its arm and screaming out in pain. Its voice was many times louder and more pained than it should have been, considering the severity of the wound—it was likely it had never once been injured before.

“How do you like that, you little brat?! You’re in for a world of pain, you stinking bastard!”

It seemed people saying these kinds of lines passed for Heroes.

The Hero, paying no mind to the injustice implied in his words or the scowl on his face, snapped his fingers and called out the name of a skill. “[Holy Sword’s Exorcism]!”

The High Goblin’s voice raised in volume as the small wound increased in size, from a scratch to a cut to a gash, all while emitting a dim light. Once the wound was so big it covered the whole thing’s body, the demon collapsed to the ground, covered in blood and shrieking in pain.

The other High Goblins, after a few seconds of horrified silence, once again called out in their raspy voices.

“Hero, weak!”

“But skills, strong!”

“Don’t get hit, don’t get hit!”

Once more, the High Goblins ran circles around the Hero—though they put notably more effort into dodging his attacks.

“How do you like that, you shitty little brats?!” The Hero slashed left and right at the monsters without any semblance of strategy. Naturally, the chances of hitting a speed-oriented High Goblin with attacks like these were basically zero.

“Hero, dumb!”

“Hero, berserk!”

“Hero, musclehead!”

The words stung the Hero’s heart, so, enraged, he increased his speed even more than before. By some manner of miracle, he once more managed to scratch one of the High Goblins.

“Gotcha! [Holy Sword’s Exorcism]!” he called out once more.

The High Goblin, shrieking and thrashing, fell to the ground, covered in its own blood.

“Hahaha! Let’s see how you like that, you little bastards!”

Again, it seemed people saying these kinds of lines passed for Heroes.

A different, female Hero raised her voice from the sidelines, a concerned expression on her face. “Reynald, calm down! Don’t let them get to you!”

A faint blush worked its way onto Reynald’s cheeks as he stammered a response. “Sorry, sorry, Ebstrea! You’re right, yeah, I should calm down.” After taking into account the High Goblins’ previous actions, he took a deep breath and closed his eyes for a moment, mapping out the terrain around him in his mind.

Ebstrea took the chance to chant and cast a spell, lifting her staff and pointing it at Reynald. “[Light-Attribute Magic: Minor Sense Reinforcement]!” she said, causing a small beam of light to exit the tip of her staff and enter Reynald’s chest.

“There!” Reynald turned around and stabbed one of the remaining High Goblins as it charged at him, piercing it square in the chest. Unfortunately for him, this twisted his upper body by more than ninety degrees—of course, there was still no pain, but the opening it created gave one of the other High Goblins the chance it needed to throw a rock at the back of Reynald’s head. Although their strength could by no means be compared to an Ogre, an Orc or even a Hobgoblin, Goblins were still fairly strong, especially so for High Goblins.

Thus, the stone hit Reynald’s head with a formidable amount of force.

“Ah- what… can’t…” he muttered, before collapsing

The things chortled in a way similar to before as they approached Reynald’s body and surrounded him. One crouched down, picked up the stone—larger than it had initially seemed—and raised it over its head, preparing to deal the finishing blow.

As though Reynald were smiled upon by good fortune, Ebstrea just happened to finish her next spell at that time. “[Light-Attribute Magic: Exorcising Beam]!” As implied by the name of the spell, a beam of light shot out from the tip of her staff and pierced the High Goblin holding the rock.

Unlike Reynald’s skill, this spell was a proper exorcism, and reduced the High Goblin to a pile of dust.

“Other Hero!”

“Dangerous, dangerous!”

“Kill, quickly!”

Though the monsters’ quick decision-making caused a moment of panic, Ebstrea soon chanted another spell and swung her staff, summoning several balls of light.

“[Light-Attribute Magic: Lances of Light]!”

The balls changed shape, basically taking the form of—as the spell’s name implied—a set of lances, and launched themselves at the High Goblins. Ebstrea’s aim had been right-on, and each of the High Goblins received a spear right through the heart.

Ebstrea, breathing heavy breaths, rested her staff on the ground as support and collapsed onto her knees. “Ah, nonono,” she said, shaking her head, “quickly…” Half-crawling, she made her way over to Reynald and cast a spell. “[Intermediate Heal]...”

The spell wouldn’t recover his blood or his vital energy, but it’d close the wound, so it was better than nothing.

With no better course of action in sight, Ebstrea gripped her staff with both hands, raised it overhead and—

Whacked Reynald, straight in the forehead.

With a groan and a grumble, Reynald regained his lost consciousness, blinking and staring.

“If you’re waking me up,” he mumbled, sitting up, “then… you got them?”

“Somehow.”

“Man, why does Lady Luciel have us Heroes deal with monster extermination like this…?”

“We’re contributing to the peace, right? Ever since Lady Theliel disappeared, everyone’s been way stricter. I don’t blame them…”

“Well, yeah, I guess if there’s something out there capable of killing Lady Theliel, we should deal with the small fry while we can.”

“Also, it’s training, right?” A bright smile covered Ebstrea’s face, despite the beads of sweat rolling down her cheeks.

“Trai- Training?! Ebstrea, I could’ve died! Actually, I almost did!” Reynald, belatedly, realised he was shouting, and averted his gaze as such. “Ah, uh, thanks for saving me, by the way,” he added, an awkward blush creeping onto his face.

“You’re welcome. We Heroes have to stick together, after all. But isn’t it natural that it’s dangerous? We’re fighting monsters, you know. If you don’t get a sense of danger, you might forget this is real, and then…”

“Ah, that’s true, I wouldn’t want to become like Yxon…”

Together, they shuddered at the thought of this person called ‘Yxon’.

Yxon, the Barrier Hero, who had a rather personal relationship with one of the Demon Lord’s attendants…

In a different place, at roughly the same time…

No matter which way one looked, there was brown. Up, down, left, right, all was covered by the same, uniform brown—the same brown as the High Goblins’ eyes.

“No, no, no!” the place’s sole occupant shouted. As she stomped on the floor several times, her light brown hair jumped this way and that, and her mouth was locked firmly into a pout. From the side, this may have looked like a child, throwing a tantrum.

Yet, the trembles caused by her feet were no joke, in large part due to the girl’s identity.

“Why is she only targeting my adorable little monsters?!”

Yes, the Goddess of Earth, Lady Gnome, was throwing a tantrum because of the several fights that were taking place.

“If she continues that way, she’ll find my village…”

Despite its name of ‘Goblin Village’, this name contained not only Goblins, but also many of their evolutions, such as Orcs, Ogres and even a number of Trolls.

“You, you, you, you faker, you!” Lady Gnome shouted, stomping her foot once more. “Messing with my cute little monsters… I’ll punish you, you know! Uhm, uhm, uh… Ah, I know! I’ll ask Lady Entropy and Lord Astaroth for help! They’ll help me!”

Without a single thought concerning her difference in respect for Lady Entropy and Lady Luciel, Lady Gnome decided to ask Lady Entropy for help and set about establishing contact.

In yet another place, blue spread in every direction, never-ending and never-starting.

Lady Undine, Goddess of Water, smiled and spoke in a rather sing-songy voice. “Ahaha~ I wonder why Lady Entropy needed my power~? That was a strong monster, too~”

She cleared her thoughts of Lady Entropy, focusing only on the other party. “Then, let’s monitor the new Ice Statue properly~” she said, her eyes firmly locked onto a screen-like image of Richard and Philia.

“This should be truly interesting~”

Her mouth in an amused smile and her eyes narrowed happily, she paid her full attention to the screen, and as such, she didn’t notice the black tentacle that crept up on her from a crack in the blue surroundings…

“Pawn,” Philia said, “have you gotten used to your new powers, yet?”

“Y… Yes, Your Majesty!” Richard answered with a salute, his face several shades darker blue than it had been when he woke up that morning.

“Hmm… Well, you seem to have a talent for blending in with the background, so your rapid progress is to be expected. Did you call it your Hero skill? As expected of someone so irrelevant that, in the grand scheme of things, they’re only a background character.” The blue flames that passed for Philia’s eyes gleamed with ridicule, and a laughter-like chattering resounded through the icy castle as she clacked her jaws together.

“Your words are too kind, Your Majesty!” Richard responding, flushing an even darker blue.

Of course, these words were basically nothing more than verbal abuse, perhaps enough to get Philia removed from her position if this had been a company on earth. But Richard spoke nothing but his true feelings—in other words, he really did enjoy this.

“Then, now that I’ve pulled out most of my pawn’s potential,” Philia said, “we should pay a visit to my liege and see how he’s handled the other. There was a strong balance change, so I’m sure he’s done something interesting… and perhaps quite stupid.”

Once more, she chattered in the way only an undead could, and the Demon Lord shuddered as an indescribable chill travelled up his spine…