◇

And so, the inspection of the entire base had come to an end by the time the setting sun went down.

Azel drooped from the railing of the scenic deck where we first came to and stared at the setting sun with a hopeless expression.

Actually, we were supposed to have lunch then spend a few days inspecting the site, but it was all packed into half a day, which was unusually fast.

Azel was exhausted and dispirited, but I thought he did his job well enough that he should be proud of himself.

Why is he so disappointed…? He should be giving himself more credit, don’t you think?

I gave myself a big pat on the back for running through the whole demon race walking while I wiped the sweat off my forehead and caught my breath.

“Nghhh… What a stubborn human…!”

Ulysse didn’t expect me to somehow manage to stay on course and hatefully glared at me.

He kicked me in my leg, though it didn’t hurt that much since Ulysse was just a young demon.

Demons with strong physical strength, and demons with strong magic power. Even demons had variety.

However, the fact that it didn’t damage me, a human, made him feel even more insecure and shouted, “I will not allow someone from a weak race to have more defense than my offensive power~!” and struck me repeatedly with small moves.

Yeah, it didn’t really hurt. Ulysse was quite adorable.

“I also use magic, but… I’ve been working out too. Don’t get discouraged.”

“Don’t comfort me, you stupid human!”

He got furious at me despite comforting him, and I was at a loss that I ended up frowning.

Hmm, he’s going to be pissed off if I pretended that he got me here. Next time, I should pretend that he got me right at the beginning. I’m not a good actor, so I wonder if I could actually do that smoothly.

—Well then.

There was something I had to do at the present for my next mission.

“Uuu, dammit. It’s over… Uhuu… uuu…”

It was a high-level mission to somehow cheer up the lord of despair over here.

I hurriedly approached Azel, who was in too much shock and drooped his head on the railings even more and more while grumbling and grieving.

I’m worried, he was so depressed like he was a different person in his work mode. Don’t tell me the “Demon Lord of Lamentation” came from that…?

“Azel, you’ve worked hard. So, uhmm… Why are you so sad? Did you have a place you wanted to go to, or something you wanted to do before the sun went down?”

I stood right beside him and placed my hand on his shoulder, but Azel only turned his face to look up at me with a dreary expression and muttered.

“D-Date…”

Date.

I went blank with my eyes wide open, unable to say anything to his unexpected words.

I didn’t know how to take it, but Azel, who was burdened with even more hopelessness, finally curled up at the hero’s feet, unbecoming of a demon lord.

Watching him hug his knees in despair, I thought that mushrooms would grow sooner or later.

Azel was mumbling something, with gloominess I hadn’t seen since that time when we misunderstood each other and destroyed our relationship.

“Hey, you! What did you do to my lord?!”

“Uh, huh…?”

Ulysse couldn’t wrap his head around the situation when he saw Azel sitting down and creeped closer to him.

Huh, whether it be something I did, or something he couldn’t do with me… Weren’t they just jokes?

“You must have done something for the demon lord to be on his knees. What have you done?! Say it! Tell me or I’ll eat you!”

“That would be a problem. Let’s see… Apparently, Azel… wanted to go on a date with me.”

—The look on Ulysse’s face was of envy, anger and confusion that you couldn’t really do or wouldn’t see too often.

Ahh, I honestly thought they just said that plan to go to the inspection as a playful joke.

But by the looks of it, Azel seemed to have thought differently. For him, he wasn’t going for an inspection today, but rather on a date, while doing the inspection on the side. That might’ve been the reason why he was so excited that he woke up so early and dressed up.

Now, I get it. That was why he was trying to finish the inspection with the pacing of a race walking.

The sooner he gets it done, the sooner he would be able to go on a date, or rather, an outing. Azel must really like the city of Svenmarina.

Thanks to that, I became a marathon runner, which was too good of a workout to help the demon lord so he wouldn’t do things by himself.

I gently kneeled down to Azel at my feet, as he stared down at the cobblestone deck with eyes so distant that I wondered if the truth of this world lies in there.

I snuggled up to him with a strange feeling of being a little embarrassed and… happy.

“Uhmm, Azel…”

“Uwa… What is it…?”

He looked dark and gloomy. I managed to push away my embarrassment and bumped our foreheads together.

“The day’s over, but… Will you go out with me tomorrow? I need to shop things for myself. —…Let’s go on a date.”

“W-Wha, ah?! Whoa, hu, uwaah…!”

Then, as soon as I stared into his night-colored eyes and went on to ask him out on a date, Azel broke down.

He recovered, then rolled around in his human form while howling. But finally, he jumped onto the railing and fired rays of light magic like a pillar of light, towering the heavens in the sky.

Azel usually smiled with a stern or intimidating look, but now he was smiling with a very relaxed expression.

He now looked divine.

Despite being a demon lord shrouded in darkness, Azel looked truly divine as he showered in light and rejoiced, with the setting sun in the background.

“…My lord really just wanted to go on a date…”

Ulysse stared at Azel, flabbergasted, and murmured silently in a burned out condition that could almost turn him into dry sand.

I guess he had no choice but to believe what I had just said to Azel, who had started to become cheerful like he had a sudden change of heart.

I could understand his confusion well. I wasn’t still sure why Azel suddenly switched from being sad to happy either.

Actually, we were just going to shop together, but I guess that was also one way of putting it.

Come to think of it, I never heard anything about whether Azel had a consort or not, or any of that love affair talk.

Perhaps it wasn’t really any of my business for them to tell me about those things.

Though, I knew he’d be popular, since he was a ruler who was stronger than anyone else, with an attractive appearance and self-confidence, and a gentle and caring nature.

They said that people in power loved affairs, and I wondered if they did that but didn’t date with others or had that much relationships.

If he wanted to have a serious relationship1It was originally “do something sweet and sour with someone” but I just assumed it meant something like this… with someone, he’d be able to do it right away, seeing as he had the looks and a position. That might be the reason why Ulysse would be delighted to go on a date with him.

Hmm. Or maybe, being with someone with a position wasn’t favorable. How complicated. But that would explain why he was so willing to touch and go out with me.

For sure, he was just keeping me company just as he sees fit since I was his property, someone who wasn’t a demon, but… I wondered why.

For some reason, I was glad that he was pleased with the little things, and I couldn’t help but loosen up my face in the same way as Azel’s.

“Hehe, Azel. It’s not safe, so you better get off there. Why don’t we take a short break? Let’s have that lunch we both missed before eating dinner. It’s a meat and veggie sandwich, so it’s not too heavy. Or, maybe you want to go where the soldiers are, since you might have a lot of things to catch up on? I’ll be fine on my own, so it’s okay for you to leave.”

“I’ll eat sandwich with Shal.”

I was so cheerful that I didn’t care if I was left alone, but Azel jumped off the railing and told me that he would eat with me with his usual pouty face.

This Azel. He acted as if nothing had happened, but that was only because nothing had happened.

However, Ulysse was reduced to ashes, seeing the current Azel, who was completely different from the usual demon lord that he knew. Let’s keep that in mind.

I took out the sandwiches for our lunch without particularly touching them by using summoning magic and shared them with Azel.