「Did you know? It’s possible for a human head to explode?」

「It will be fine, Merea-sama’s head is very sturdy after all」

「It’s true that I learnt techniques with a rather unreasonable method. However, there are things that people are suitable for and things that they are unsuitable for. It would seem like I’m not meant to learn things like the circumstances of countries, their specialities or their geography」

「Merea-sama will become a demon lord that will rule the world. So, it’s no good if you don’t memorise everything」

「This maid has quite the fundamental misunderstanding…!」

Second floor of the star tree castle.

Inside that castle, that was commonly referred to as the〈Demon Lord’s castle〉, in one of the study rooms on the second floor, Merea Mea could be heard protesting loudly.

Completely contrary to the garish colours of the first floor, inside one of the rooms on the second floor which had it’s interiors centered around white, much like the exterior of the castle, Merea was sitting in front of a desk which was equally white, trying his best not to cry.

「B, by the way, what about the others…?」

「They have all headed towards the various jobs assigned to them. By the way, the money grubber, who had left to do some trade a few days back, informed us by bird that he would be returning today. The paper reeked of gold so I tore it up and threw it away though」

「The choice of handing it over to me――」

「Definitely not. That horrible smell will stick to Merea-sama as well」

「Marisa really doesn’t hold back when it comes to Shaw do you…」

Merea repeatedly glanced at Marisa with a slightly sad expression as he traced the gilded patterns on the white desk.

He moved his red eyes around, putting an expression as if he were entreating her. Marisa herself, though she answered all his question but as she was speaking Shaw’s name――or more like his nickname――her eyebrows could be seen scrunching up.

Merea turned toward Marisa and despite her expression, he spoke to her.

「Well, putting that aside...I want to go out soon...or something like that?」 He scratched his head a little and spoke with an awkward smile.

「Haa, is that so?」

The maid had her spine stretched out straight and although she her slender figure made her look delicate but her ice like expression on her cold face didn’t betray any of her emotions. ――To be precise, nobody noticed that behind her back, she had clenched both her hands and twisted her fingers in vexation.

「Marisa has been rather strict with me lately」

「It’s the whip of love」

Even now, Marisa fundamentally spoiled Merea but even so, as she gradually realised what the right distance was between the two, her pride as a 『perfect maid』 and her desire to spoil Merea would compete with each other and so at times when they were doing 『necessary work』 she would end up being quite strict with him.

「It is precisely because I’m thinking about master」

As earlier, her internal conflict was hidden behind her cold expression and barely contained by twisting her hands but that fact had yet to come to light. At least, she seemed to think so.

「Is it really not okay if I don’t memorise all of this information…? Marisa has already memorised all of it right?」

Merea stopped his fake smile and this time, with a slightly fed up expression, he asked while pointing at something on the desk.

At the place he pointed at, spread on the desk, was a seemingly inexhaustible number of sheets of paper.

What was written with black ink on the papers was information not only about the countries in the eastern continent but also a considerable amount of information on countries in the other continents as well. Learning all of that information, seemed to be even harder than techniques to Merea.

If it had been arranged in a narrative style then it would be a different story but as the information had literally just been recorded and presented on the pieces of paper as is so it felt like the information refused to even enter his head.

「Of course, I have memorised it」

「Then it’s fine. It would be perfect if Marisa is always right next to me」

Merea laid down on the pile of paper and while looking up sideways at Marisa, he casually spoke. However, in complete contrast to that casual attitude,

「U!!」

Those words caused a large amount of heat to build up in Marisa. Especially the, 『always right next to me』 part resounded strongly in her mind and got distorted according to her convenience so thanks to that, in the blink of an eye, her face became bright red.

「Hm?」

「Ahh, no, i, it’s nothing」

When Merea tilted his head in confusion at Marisa suddenly lowering her head, she quickly waved her hand to interrupt her thoughts.

「Hnngh. ...An, anyway, I won’t say right away but please take care of a majority of it. Merea-sama also understands the necessity of it right?」

「Well――yeah」

Merea raised his body up and, with his hands locked behind his head, he nodded with a serious expression.

Even Merea understood that, when the time came, he would have no choice but to take responsibility and make a decision. In the week since they had arrived at this star tree castle, they had all finally gotten used to their lifestyle in Lemuse which was in sharp contrast to the time they spent fighting Mūzeg. It was extremely peaceful but Merea absolutely did not intend to get too used to such a lifestyle.

In the first place, the chances of such a lifestyle continuing was extremely low.

Since there was still the case of Mūzeg having to concentrate on the north and west so they still had quite a lot of time, is what Hasim claimed but, Merea and all the other demon lords knew that they would have to make preparations in this time.

「If I’m not sensitive to the situation of the world then it would be bad...at least I think so」

They had to find out information on other demon lords as quickly as possible and if possible then they would have to get in 『contact』 with them.

――Saving still seems like such an exaggerated concept.

In reality, it wasn’t such a one-sided affair.

In other words,

――Helping and being helped.

It was the same as when the current group was formed. It was the same as when they dealt with Lemuse.

That was fundamentally what it was.

In any case, 「If they don’t have a place to call home, then we will offer one」

They had somehow managed to obtain their castle from Hasim. Although not a separate country but their castle was wrapped in such mystery that amongst the citizens, it was considered their property to the point that it was known as the〈Demon Lord’s castle〉.

――I wonder if they’ll at least change that name?

Though he thought that, he decided to just go with it for now.

「In that case, we will also need to have our own ways gain information other than from Hasim-sama」

「That’s true」

Merea tilted his chair back and looked up at the ceiling. Marisa who saw that, heaved a sigh feeling like her persuasion had finally broken through. However, Merea didn’t let that gap slide.

「――But this amount in a day is insane!!」

Marisa’s love was too heavy. Merea pointed over at the shadow of the table where you could see an idiotic amount of papers stacked up, causing Merea to scream out.

In that moment, with his chair still tilted backwards, he jumped towards the window behind him and using his natural abilities, he jumped outside.

Right outside the window of the study, one of the branches of the large star tree had wound itself over the building and it was positioned in such a way that people could jump onto the branch and cimb their way to the tree’s trunk.

「Ahh! Merea-sama! You’re running away again!?」

「I’ve completed the quota for today anyway! It’s not like I’m skipping out completely right?!」

「But there’s still so much of my love left over! With this much love, I would be able to monopolise you from morning till nigh――No, it’s nothing」

Marisa, who had accidentally let her real aim slip, quickly tried to gloss it over. In the meantime, Merea had already made three leaps and made his way up the branch.

「Ahh, I let him get away today as well」

「What the?」, the demon lords remaining in the castle, looked out their windows at Merea running away, while Marisa followed his back with a regretful expression on her face. A pleasant and refreshing wind blew through Lemuse on that day.

◆◆◆

「Ph, phew, I somehow managed to shake her off today as well…」

While rubbing his head which was pounding with the sheer amount of information he had crammed into it, Merea walked through the city of Lemuse.

In just one week, he had managed to get used to the atmosphere of the city.

「Ah, It’s the white god~」

「Please don’t call me that…」

As he was walking down the well paved white stone road, a small girl walking past him called him that.

If it had been a few weeks ago then he may not have reacted to being called that way but it was different now.

As he turned towards the voice, he noticed a girl wearing a one piece which was as white as his own hair.

It seemed like the girl was on her way back from shopping with her mother as she could be seen holding a small leather bag.

The mother noticed Merea and while smiling, lightly bowed to him. Merea replied with a bow of his own but he really wanted to request the little girl to change the way she called him.

「Ah, I’ll give this to white god-sama―」

The little girl happily skipped over to Merea and opened up the leather bag in her hand and took something out of it.

「What is this?」

What was dropped into Merea’s hand was a glass gem with blue and green gradation constantly flowing inside.

「I have two, so I’ll give you one!」

「Ohh, that so? Thank you」

Merea thanked her and raised the glass gem towards the sky and gazed at it in the light.

「It’s really pretty」

It was most probably a practitioner's craftsmanship. He was able to notice the remnant of a technique on the surface of the glass gem.

The blue and green gradations wouldn’t lose to the brilliance of sapphire or emerald and the way they softly joined together was especially beautiful.

「But, is it okay for me to receive something this pretty?

He turned his gaze back towards the little girl and then bowed his body and matched his line of sight with hers before asking her.

The little girl gave a dazzling smile, before replying.

「It’s fine! Mom said that white god-sama was the one who protected Lemuse from Mūzeg! This is in return for that!」

Hearing such a thing from the girl, Merea floated a troubled smile but still gently patted the girl’s head.

The mother called out to the girl and the both of them turned to go back home so the little girl kept turning around and continuously waved towards Merea. Seeing that, Merea couldn’t help but smile as he waved back.

Once they had both disappeared, Merea once again looked over at the glass gem as he whispered.

「I hope, it wasn’t calculated by Hasim even till this point right? ――Seriously, this is just against the rules. I won’t be able to refuse various things then」

Even while saying that, Merea happily smiled and put the glass gem into his pocket.

◆◆◆

Merea was already well known among the citizens of Lemuse as the〈White God〉.

One of the reasons was that, he was known as the second advent of the pride and symbol of Lemuse of the past, the〈White Emperor〉Leilas Lif Lemuse.

The white hair that was a little too similar to what Leilas herself had.

In reality it was one of Leilas’ genes itself but as expected, the citizens had no way to know that fact.

Hasim had found out about that fact after a series of meetings with Merea but there was no way that Hasim would spread information to the citizens that he himself didn’t understand very well.

In fact, Hasim purposefully didn’t explain anything in order to make the citizens feel like this was the work of fate.

「White god, huh…」

Though Merea felt a rather complicated feeling. The expectations of Lemuse were a little heavy for the current Merea.

Saving the demon lords was his first priority.

Though he did want to help Lemuse out but that side had a central pillar known as Hasim and Merea was strictly an outsider.

Although he didn’t mind them likening him to Leilas but, if he stood out too much then it wouldn’t be good for Hasim’s sake.

Their innocent expectations of him, as the one walking the path as the master of demon lords, felt a little too heavy.

「What the, you’re making quite the depressed face right now, Merea」

Merea suddenly heard a dignified voice next to him and brought his thoughts back on track.

Just beyond the street he was walking on, he noticed someone standing there.

He finally realised that he had been walking with his head down so, in order to reply to the voice, he raised his head.

The one who came into view when he raised his head was,

「Rejoice Merea! We’re going to have snake meat today!」

Carrying a huge snake that went from the shoulder all the way to the ground, was Elma.

Though she had a little bit of dirt on her face, she was a black haired beauty with an extremely innocent expression on her face.

In addition, if he were to add to his first impression of her,

――She looks like a hero who had just come back from subjugating monsters.

「Hm? Is something the matter?」

「Nope, nothing at all」

Although she had beauty at the level that, if she were to be quiet and not move then she would be revered by everyone but on that day, it seemed impossible for her to show such an appearance.

However, Merea, himself liked this side of her much more since it made him feel close to her.