The ballroom.

Like much of the castle, floors polished so well I could see my reflection in them, a ceiling so high it evaded the light coming from the black candelabras…

The main difference with much of the castle, then, were the hustle and bustle, the boisterous mood and the presence of a monster that was usually not called upon.

That is, in the corner, on a small stage, was an assembly of instruments that could rightfully be called an orchestra, floating in the air. A monster known as a Spectral Symphony, which under normal circumstances practically did not appear.

Just like many of my Living Armours, this thing was artificial, down to its soul itself. But unlike the Living Armours, who needed decision-making ability, this thing had not been provided with an ego—it was more accurate to compare it to a robot than a person.

In any case.

Much like the throne room, the ballroom contained a throne set atop what was essentially a small staircase. Unlike the throne room, the throne here was decorated with gold, and the red cushions were actually comfortable to sit on.

Next to it stood another throne, decorated with a tad more religious iconography. In it sat Lady Entropy.

Then, as for me. Seated in that comfortable throne and looking out across my subjects. I had traded in my usual black military uniform with cape for something similar, in that it was also military-styled and mostly black, but significantly more fluttery, with a deep red cape that only covered one shoulder and, in general, far more ornamentation and such.

Well, I did not dislike it.

In front of me, on one of the higher steps of the flight of stairs, stood Charlotte.

“All ye who have gath’red on this night o’ the full moon,” she said, using a magic item or a spell or something to amplify her voice, “I thank ye f’r your pres’nce fr’m the depths o’ my heart. All who should aspire t’ call th’mselves his s’bjects should already know o’ this, but His Highness has rec’ntly b’come a yet great’r being. Let us cel’brate this, and wish for him t’ continue growing.”

A nearby maid poured me a glass of wine.

Yet her grin was unheard of even for a Ghostly Trickster Maid, and it felt like the temperature dropped several degrees simply by her being there.

I could not help but follow her with my eyes as she floated away.

“Your Highness?” Charlotte asked, her head canted to the side.

“A-Ah. I was a little distracted. What do you need?”

“If one like me may be so bold as t’ make a r’quest, a few words, please…”

“Hmph. Very well.” For a few moments, I stared into my wine, and then rose up from my throne and took a step forward, my cape fluttering behind me. “All of you who have gathered below me. As Charlotte said just now, you have my gratitude for being here. It is only eleven short years ago that I was taken under her wing, and it has only been five since I have managed to unite the area. This would not have been… Well, it would have been difficult without your help. Putting that aside. Everyone! We have successfully gained the… cooperation of the drakonids and the elves on our conquest against Luciel. Some of you may soon be repositioned to work with them, but let us not talk work tonight. This is a night of celebration. In my name as the Prince of Darkness, I raise my glass to Lady Entropy!”

Without even stopping to consider how odd it was to raise a glass to someone who was present, I raised my hand into the air.

While I was at it, I appraised the wine, figuring anything that was meant to poison me would be magical in nature.

And it was certainly poisoned. Not just that, but it was a poison specifically designed to mess with my mana signature—put simply, if I drank it, I would die, but it would not affect anyone else.

With a shake of my head, I cast [Fire-Attribute Magic: Purify].

As I had planned, my words of celebration and… appreciation, if one could call it that, created rather a merry mood. I sat back down.

With a gesture from Charlotte, the Spectral Symphony started playing.

I raised my glass to my lips and took a sip.

… Dyed water.

Well, I had purified it, after all. I shook my head and turned my attention to the side, to find Lady Entropy hiding her face behind her sleeves, her ears wiggling as if there was no tomorrow. “Come now, Lady Entropy,” I said, “this will not do… You must show them a dignified goddess. One they can look up to.”

“This is… ‘Cause of what you said…”

Despite her words, she removed her hands from her face.

“Well, I suppose it is my fault,” I said, chuckling to myself.

I beckoned a maid over and had her prepare a sweet wine, which I then gave to Lady Entropy—after all, even if one made a very low estimate of Lady Entropy’s power, there was no way a maid at perhaps ‘3’ would approach a goddess at ‘1200’.

Only upon considering all that did I realise Lady Entropy felt substantially stronger even than Sylph in her own divine realm, all while on the surface world. I truly did seem to be used to her.

“To… To Astaroth,” Lady Entropy said, timidly raising her glass. I could barely resist the urge to reach over and stroke her head—judging from her ears, she could tell.

“Is it t’ thy liking, Your Highness?”

Charlotte, in her hand a wineglass of her own, approached my throne and addressed me. A good half an hour had passed, now.

Incidentally, her glass, even from a little ways away, smelt so strongly of iron that there could be no doubt as to its contents. Since that was just how it was supposed to be, I felt no need to comment.

“It is pleasant, Charlotte. Good work. If there is one complaint, it is the poison in my wine.”

I took another sip of my dyed water.

“Pois’n…?” Charlotte asked, “I do hope thou art alright, Your Highness.”

She did not actually appear that worried, but she did narrow her eyes at my glass.

“I am fine. I learned my lesson last time I was poisoned. Well, I will have to have a look at that maid later… That aside, the dress suits you, Charlotte.”

“Oh my. And here I had thought it t’ have escaped thy notice…” She spun in place in what was probably an attempt to show the thing off to me, with its delicate frills and intricate lace decorations. “Thy new outfit, too, suits thee very well. ‘Tis very b’coming of thee.”

“I said this before, right? My subjects are all dear to me, but you five especially. As if I would not notice if you put on a different dress. That aside, where are the others?”

“They appear still t’ be changing. ‘Tis taking them rath’r long…”

Perhaps they were wrestling with the maids about what to wear. I could imagine the blue ones getting obstinate about putting the lot of them in something they did not want to wear…

Well, in the end, the maids would probably give in, so there was no real problem.

Such musings were interrupted by the doors swinging open.

To my delight, it was my Demon Generals, the idiot trio and even Nyx.

As a matter of course, a path was cleared so the seven of them could reach me.

A long, elegant black dress for Tempest, and she had even removed her hat, though her hair was the same mess as always.

A red dress for Davna, though something looked… off. In addition, she did not quite look comfortable.

Navillus was actually wearing clothes for once, though it was little more than a fluffy blue sweater and an equally fluffy scarf.

As per the norm, Nexu and Asami matched. A black, red-accented suit and a black, red-accented dress. Also as per the norm, the brassards were on their arms.

Alpine… Looked the same as usual.

Even Nyx appeared to have changed her clothing, though there was not much difference other than an increase in ribbons and frills.

Since she looked uncomfortable, I decided to address Davna first, after identifying the source of that ‘off’ feeling.

“Davna. Turn around a moment.”

“Hm? Sure, gotcha.”

“Ahh, as I thought… Davna, that dress has holes for your wings and tail, you know?”

“Huh?”

A moment later, her tail and wings were back where they were supposed to be. She immediately looked more comfortable.

After a small chuckle, I leaned back, paid the lot of them some compliments and told them to enjoy the revelry.

Of course, alcohol was off-limits for the children.

I finished another glass of grape juice.

At some point, I had switched from the spell Purification to Detoxification. It still ended up eliminating the alcohol along with the poison, but at least the taste was left intact.

A nearby maid offered me another glass with an absurd grin and a bead of sweat on her face, but I ignored her completely and stood up. After all, Lady Entropy had also gone through several glasses—more than I had, in fact. Of course, I had given her most of those, though…

For a moment, I considered how delicious that sweet wine must have been. A few other reasons for her drinking like this came to mind, too, but I decided it was not worth thinking about and approached her.

I cleared my throat and closed an eye.

“Lady Entropy,” I said, “surely we will soon enough bore of this if we sit here in observing silence. That is not to say I do not enjoy spending time with you like this, but… Well.”

I cleared my throat once more, and then extended a hand in her direction, folding the other behind my back.

“May I have this dance, my princess?”

Her gaze went left, right, left, right, before settling back on my hand. “I’m not,” she said, trying to hide her face behind her sleeves, “something as great as a princess…”

“Nonsense. What is the partner of a prince if not a princess? Or what, are you implying my title is false, as well?”

“No, that’s not what I—! Mmgh… Bully.”

Yet despite her words, she lowered her arms and, after a few moments of hesitation, took my hand.

With an unnecessarily dramatic motion, I pulled her to me, causing her to drop her glass—of course, a maid caught it—and inadvertently pulled her close to my chest.

With the apparent decision that her face was to remain hidden, she stuck closely to me, which in turn made me rather conscious of her softness and body heat. With a formidable amount of mental strength, I managed to distract myself.

“W-we cannot dance in this position,” I said, taking her to the dance floor. As a matter of course, a path was cleared for us—a little focus on my divine powers told me there were scarcely any who did not want to see us dance.

As much as her ears fluttered, she did separate herself from me just a bit, allowing me to wrap my free arm around her waist. As though by instinct, I understood the steps I had to take to lead her all across the dance floor.

One, two, three, one, two, three. In, out, in, out, we matched our steps, to the music, to each other, to the dancing shadows, to the world.

And thus, on that dark stage, the goddess of creation and the king of destruction danced their dance.

After we both thoroughly had our fill of dancing, I took her back to her throne—I could not imagine, being taciturn as she was, that she particularly wanted to dance with anyone else, and a quick inquiry confirmed this—accepted another drink, and then headed off to a demon I thought I recognised.

Indeed, it was the purple-haired, scantily-clad boy I thought it was.

“Xhaos. To look so miserable… I cannot say I expected you to like this kind of thing, but in that case, why are you here?”

Indeed, he looked even worse than he had before I gave him the job of torturing that one Hero. To say he looked bored out of his mind would not even begin to describe it—from the pileup of glasses on a nearby table, it seemed alcohol was his only solace.

Well, I am fairly certain he is older than he looks, so it is probably fine… I cannot be bothered, anyhow.

“L-Lord Astaroth!” He quickly slammed the glass of what appeared to be some kind of whiskey he was holding down his throat, then tossed it onto the pile and turned his full attention to me. “Well, you’re right in assuming I don’t like this. But mister big bully Smile dragged me along, saying it was good for my development. Boooo. Who needs to develop? I’m just happy as I am, thanks.”

I turned to follow his gaze, which had momentarily flitted away, to find Smile was indeed standing there, socialising with every demon he could find. His current target appeared to be a vampire I believe was called Raoul, though it seemed he had also talked to several of Davna’s lieutenant generals.

“I see. You have my sympathy.”

“Sympathy doesn’t solve my boredom!”

I sighed, shook my head and called out to Smile. He approached, a questioning expression on his mask.

“Did you need something, Lord Astaroth? If there is anything I can do to help…”

“Smile. If you take a guest to a party, I do believe it is your responsibility to make sure they do not die of boredom. Entertain your companion.” I placed a hand on Xhaos’s head, though he swiftly shook it off.

“Ah, I’m sorry, Xhaos,” Smile said, turning his gaze down to him. “I didn’t realise.”

I figured that was enough from me and returned to my throne.

“Well, ain’t this quite the party ya’ve got goin’ here.”

It appeared that at some point, Lilith had entered the hall. Her outfit of choice was… If I recalled, it was what she was wearing when I first met her. A Devil shaman’s formal outfit, or something.

It covered about as little skin as her usual clothes, so it did not look particularly out of place.

“Lilith. You have returned. How is your tribe’s condition?”

“They’re doin’ just fine! Were really happy to see me, too. If anythin’, I would’ve liked ta just stay there, ‘n I’m sure ya’d have let me, but… Nah. This is the place I belong, after all.”

“I am glad to hear it, Lilith.”

“So, I heard y’ evolved ‘n were holdin’ a party, but… This is all high-society ‘n stuff, ain’t it? I feel kinda outta place, y’know.”

“Nonsense. You are a Demon General, you know? It would not do for you to avoid public events. You should take pride in your title.”

“I mean, I guess that’s true, but… Right, actually, there’s a few things I’d like to ask ya.”

“Then ask.”

“First off, do ya mind if I, uhm… Occasionally… Y’know, visits ‘n stuff…”

“You wish to visit your family? Very well. As long as it does not interfere with your job, you may go whenever.”

“Right, thanks. As for the other thing… Um, yer formerly human pets are waitin’ outside the door, y’know? Should I go call ‘em or what?”

“Evyna and Saniel…? Very well. Call them inside.”

And so she called them in and then went off to socialise.

Evyna was wearing the same colourful robes as always, but Saniel—

I did not know from where, but she appeared to have obtained a suit of armour in the style of the Living Armours. It would not have surprised me if she had just asked for a suit down at the Corpse Foundry—that is, the place Living Armours were produced—but at the same time, I did not even want to imagine which imbecile would have told her where…

I decided to stop following this train of thought.

“Trying to solidify the ‘Dullahan’ look, are you?” I asked, raising an eyebrow.

“Arthur! I, uh, didn’t know you liked big, fancy parties like this. But I guess it does fit a demon king-like style… Anyway, yup! How is it? If I carry my head under my arm and get on a headless horse, I’ll look like I’m straight from an RPG, right?!”

The grin on her face was almost reminiscent of the ear-to-ear grins dullahans were said to have in the legends back in the old world.

“ ‘Astaroth’. Sorry to disappoint you, but we do not have any headless horses. Though I could have the coven look into it…”

“Pl-please don’t, mister Astaroth…” Evyna said, “I’ll get nightmares…”

“It was a joke, Evyna. They are busy enough as they are messing around with materials. That aside. Saniel, how is your condition? Exhausted? Listless? A stomach ache, perhaps?”

“H-how did you know that, Arthur?”

“I said, ‘Astaroth’. They are symptoms of mana stagnation. Come closer.”

She did as I asked without question, coming close enough for me to touch her without standing up. Well, she did look confused, though.

Is she just naïve, or is my new skill making her obey me so easily… Perhaps a bit of both.

I put down my wineglass and grabbed both her hands in mine.

Without even a shred of the delicacy I had shown to the children, I dumped mana into one hand and pulled it from the other. I could not imagine having her magic circuits flooded by foreign mana was a terribly pleasant experience, but if I performed a deep clean here, that would lengthen the time until I needed to clean her out again.

Once I felt that the mana I was pulling out was the same mana I was pushing in, I stopped and separated my hands from hers, though all four hands were left covered in disgusting black goop—miasma.

I simply swapped out my gloves for clean ones from my [Storage]. Saniel…

She could deal with her own problems.

“Well, you should be fine for another while, now.”

“Th-thank you,” Saniel said, staggering as she walked away.

Evyna followed her with her eyes, then turned back to me. “B-by the way, mister Astaroth?” she said, her usual meek expression on her face.

“Speak.”

“Is… Is that alright?”

With the hand that was not holding her grimoire, she pointed, and I followed her finger to find—

Lady Entropy, leaning on one armrest of her throne, with unfocused eyes, drooping ears and a faint blush on her face.

I could feel trouble brewing, so I swiftly used my new ring to create an air barrier between the thrones and the ballroom to prevent any sound leaking out. Evyna, taking the hint, swiftly departed.

“Erm… Lady Entropy?” I said, extending an arm in her direction.

“Ashtaroth…” she replied, gripping onto my arm with both hands.

…

It seemed I had been feeding her drunk without consuming a drop of alcohol myself. Perhaps my calling out to her had snapped her out of a drunken daze and brought her back to reality, at least a little.

“Wh… What appears to be the matter, Lady Entropy?” I asked, forcing a smirk onto my face with my reliable ally [Pokerface].

She pulled my arm closer to her, and me with it, and pushed my hand onto her head. “Thoshe clothesh… You look sho handshome…” she said, nuzzling her head into my hand and giggling like mad.

She is so… different from usual…

“Is that so? From the depths of my heart, I am grateful for your words.” I fulfilled her unvoiced request by petting her on the head.

“Mwu…” In an absurdly uncharacteristic display of emotion, she pouted, turning her gaze away. “Alwaysh, alwaysh like that… Why are you alwaysh sho cold to me?”

… Is she a clingy girlfriend? And what is with that absurd mood swing?

“It is my personality, Lady Entropy. Rest assured that it is not your fault—as I said before, you are dearer to me than the world itself.”

Her pout only worsened, however.

“But, but! You were sho nice to Charlotte and Davna up north! You even let Davna shleep with you! Why can’t you jusht do that with me…?”

“No, no, I did let you sleep with me, remember? And th-the thing with Davna was platonic! Like a… Like a father and a daughter. Would you rather I have left a crying girl alone?”

Well, I certainly would leave most crying girls alone, though… After all, crying people were more trouble than they were worth, unless I was already involved with them.

And ‘an adoptive daughter’ certainly did count as ‘involved’.

“You jusht don’t get it…”

I rose from my throne, knelt down in front of hers and leaned forward, embracing her.

“Thish ish… Nice, but not what I…”

An idea came to mind.

Really, it should have been obvious.

“Is this perhaps…” I said, bringing my mouth to her ear, “about that matter we discussed that one evening when I was still personally training Alpine…?”

A silent nod.

“And you are saying that you now wish to… For your own sake…?”

Another silent nod.

I dropped my spell, called Charlotte over to announce our retirement for the night and escorted Lady Entropy to her room.

Of course, I sobered her up there using a touch of magic and confirmed again her intentions.