The ensuing silence that settled over the room in the wake of the Demon Queen’s question was so intense that a pin could have dropped from several hundred meters away and it still would have echoed throughout like a clap of thunder. Carmine and Victoria exchanged glances with Melanie, who shifted on her feet a bit before swallowing nervously.

  “U-um… how do you know it’s my underwear?” Melanie asked.

  “You’re the only one who wears skeleton-print panties in the whole castle, Melanie,” the Demon Queen replied, her voice coming out as a deadpan contralto. “Possibly the whole Underworld, actually. I suppose it could be worse, though – they could have been something entirely unbecoming of a Demon as opposed to something somewhat unbecoming. If they’d been ladybug-print instead, or something like that, then I would have thought even less of you than I do now.”

  Carmine scowled, but didn’t say anything. The Demon Queen, meanwhile, let out a tired sigh.

  “Your explanation, please,” she insisted. “I want to know who these people are, why two of them are humans, why one of them is a Paladin, and why the young man in particular is currently choking on your used underwear.”

  “In my defense, that pair is completely clean and actually hasn’t been used recently,” Melanie offered. Carmine elbowed her, and she cleared her throat. “I-I mean… there’s not really an easy way to say this, but… well…”

  “We’re here to try and prevent a Crusade from wiping out scores of both humans and Demons, and we had to gag him because we couldn’t leave him behind but also know he’ll say something stupid if he’s allowed to speak freely,” Victoria stated, impatiently. Carmine and Melanie gave her a surprised look, and she just rolled her eyes. “Melanie kept dancing around the issue, so-”

  “Stop,” the Demon Queen commanded, silencing her. “Who are you, Paladin? And why should I listen to you over one of my own personal servants?”

  “I am Victoria Firelight,” she replied. “Paladin of the Order of the Vulgar Sun, though I am not here on behalf of my Order.”

  “Who are you here on behalf of, then? And why should I believe anything you say, for that matter?”

  “It’s… complicated,” Melanie offered. “The four of us, we’re basically traveling together at the moment. Not of my own accord, mind you,” Melanie hurriedly added as she saw the Demon Queen’s eyes narrow. “Believe me, the last thing I want is to be traveling with these people. But I don’t really have a choice in the matter currently, unfortunately.”

  “And why is that?” the Demon Queen challenged. “What aren’t you telling me, Melanie?”

  At that, Carmine stepped forward, determination etched across her face. “Ma’am, to make a long story short in the interests of time… the young man and I are from another world. And no, it’s not Clay, or whatever the usual other world is. We come from a different world than that one entirely. Anyway, we were brought here for reasons we still don’t entirely understand, through means we also still don’t entirely understand, and now we’re stuck here. We come before you purely in the interests of averting a mutual catastrophe between the mortal realm and the demon realm. All we ask for is a chance to explain what’s happening to you, so you might help us prevent this Crusade before it can happen.”

  The Demon Queen stared at Carmine, a look of mild surprise crossing over her face. “That is quite the admission,” she noted. “Particularly to one such as I. You realize this could be misconstrued as the Gods sending you to me for a reason, correct?”

  “I’m aware,” Carmine noted. “But I’m also aware that you are not a woman to be trifled with or lied to, even if only by omission.”

  The Demon Queen stared at her before giving her a small nod. “You are certainly well-spoken for one so young. Tell me, who were you in your previous life?”

  “Believe it or not, I was my world’s Demon Queen,” Carmine admitted. “Though I have absolutely no interest in resuming that position here. And even if I did, I utterly lack the means to do so.”

  “You expect me to just believe that?”

  “Do you really think I’d be traveling with these three if I had the capability of threatening your power?” Carmine asked.

  The Demon Queen’s eyes narrowed. “Hm… I suppose you’re making sense so far. Continue, please.”

  Carmine gave her a grateful nod. She motioned to Chase. “He is our world’s Hero, though once again, he has no interest in resuming that role.”

  That got the Demon Queen’s attention. Her eyes widened in shock. “...If that is true, then you two would make quite the pair,” she noted.

  “That’s underselling it…” Carmine admitted. “But yes, it’s true – one world’s Demon Queen and its Hero, traveling together. And as for why we’re kids again…” She shrugged. “Just based on what we know, the person who brought us here fucked it up.”

  “Hang on, you know who brought you here?”

  “Yeah.”

  The Demon Queen paused. “...It was Tamamo, wasn’t it?”

  Carmine stared at her with wide eyes. “How did you know that?”

  “Lucky guess,” came the response, a bit too quickly. Carmine could have sworn she saw the Demon Queen’s face flush a bit red as well, though it faded very fast. She shook her head. “Anyway, you’re certainly not holding any information back. I like that.”

  “Glad to hear it. Anyway, to finally answer your first question… Chase – that is, the young man behind us – has quite the mouth on him. We figured it best to shut him up for this meeting. Unfortunately, we didn’t have an actual gag available, so we had to improvise a bit.”

  The Demon Queen stared at her. “You are certainly the oddest group of people to have ever stepped foot into this throne room.”

  “Even odder than the court jester?” Melanie asked.

  “Yes.”

  “Oh.” She paused. “So, I’m pretty sure when I signed on to serve you as part of your entourage, you mentioned something about a dental plan-”

  The Demon Queen let out a tired sigh. “Just… explain to me what happened to you, Melanie. Why exactly are you traveling with this group?”

  Reading on Amazon or a pirate site? This novel is from Royal Road. Support the author by reading it there.

  “Oh, that’s simple,” Carmine answered. “I guess as part of me being my world’s Demon Queen, I didn’t start completely without any Skills or Levels in those Skills. Apparently, some Skills, you can just innately know from past experience. I’m not quite sure how it works, and I suspect nobody else knows, either; my understanding is that Chase and I are very fringe cases in that regard. But be that as it may, the point is this – I have access to Spells I probably shouldn’t… including Summon Familiar.”

  The Demon Queen paused as she turned back towards Melanie. “...Let me get this straight – this girl summoned you as her Familiar somehow?”

  “Yes,” Melanie answered.

  “So you are now bound to her until she dies?”

  “Uh-huh.”

  The Demon Queen let out another tired sigh. “Great… There goes my Arch-Lich, I suppose…”

  “Respectfully, Ma’am, you’re taking that information rather well,” Victoria couldn’t help but point out.

  “Truthfully, Melanie gets on my nerves sometimes. I appreciate her talents as an Arch-Lich, but this is a minor reprieve for me. Plus, since Summon Familiar binds the Familiar to the summoner’s Level, I suspect that Melanie has lost most of what made her useful to me in the first place.”

  Melanie winced. “That’s a very cold way of putting it, but admittedly, it isn’t wrong…”

  “Anyway, that’s about where we are now,” Carmine offered. “Like I said, we’re coming to you because we want to avert this Crusade before it can truly kick off and get a lot of people and Demons killed.”

  “And why would you care, exactly?” the Demon Queen questioned. “You’re not from here.”

  “Well… we are now,” Carmine said hesitantly. “In any case, Chase and I… we were the playthings of the Gods back on our old world. When we both died and were brought here, we swore we wouldn’t fall into that trap again. All the two of us want is a life of adventure, where the Gods leave us alone and we can finally be free of their influence in a way that we simply weren’t back home. A Crusade going on actively works against the two of us keeping our heads down. So I suppose, in a way, you could chalk our being here as a product of the two of us being selfish and desiring to be free of any kind of divine influence.”

  “Aside from Tamamo, that is.”

  Carmine winced at that. “Yeah, aside from her. Though admittedly, she’s been mostly hands-off, and when she hasn’t, it’s exclusively been to help us in some way. That already puts her miles ahead of the Gods we dealt with back on our old world.”

  The Demon Queen nodded, then brought a hand up to her chin in thought. “You’ve given me a lot to think about, I’ll admit that much. I’m certainly inclined to believe what you have to say, though I do have one request.”

  “Name it.”

  “I want to hear what he has to say, too.”

  She motioned towards Chase, and immediately, the three other women stiffened.

  “Respectfully, Ma’am, that’s probably not the wisest choice,” Melanie ventured.

  “I don’t care. Let him speak. And while you’re at it, untie him, too; being tied up with Melanie’s special scented ropes and gagged with her underwear is a punishment I can’t even imagine. Frankly, I’m surprised he hasn’t tried jumping out a window yet.”

  “Believe me, I was sorely tempted to,” Chase managed to get out as the ball of underwear was pulled out of his mouth and the rope was cut free of his wrists. After taking a moment to rub the spot where he’d been bound, Chase looked up to the Demon Queen and gave her a nod. “Thanks.”

  “Can I trust you not to embarrass yourself?” she asked.

  “Honestly? Probably not. But I’ll certainly do my best.” He paused. “Not to embarrass myself, that is. I mean, I know from the way I phrased it, it probably sounded like the opposite of what I meant it to mean, but trust me when I say it was supposed to mean I would be on my absolute very best behavior during this meeting. That being said, sorry in advance if I say something weird; I just tasted more of Melanie than any man probably ever should, and my brain is still trying to play catch-up to what my mouth is saying as a result.”

  The Demon Queen sighed as she rubbed at her temples for a few seconds. “...Alright. Is everything these women have said actually true?”

  “Pretty much, yeah,” Chase agreed.

  “Okay. What parts are they leaving out?”

  “I mean, they just gave you the short version, really. It’s all accurate, just barebones. I’d give you the long version myself, but unfortunately, we don’t have that kind of time. I don’t know exactly when the Crusaders are planning to invade your domain, but it can’t be that far off.”

  “Understandable, I guess…” She let out another sigh. “Leave it to the humans in particular to make life difficult for everyone. Why can’t you all be more like the Elves, or the Beastkin? At least the Elves keep to themselves most of the time, and the Beastkin are at least cute…” She shook her head. “So, I take it you want me to try and parlay before this gets out of hand.”

  “That would be the ideal, yes,” Chase agreed. “And I must say, you are the first actually reasonable authority figure we’ve met since arriving in this world. It’s quite refreshing.”

  “Okay,” she responded, apparently unfazed by his attempt at flattery. “Might I ask why you didn’t request this of the human king first?”

  “Uh, yeah, funny story about that. See, it involves a swamp hag who’s excellent at cooking, some hungry town guards with a terrible sense of timing, and a major prison break-”

  At that moment, there was a large flash of light from outside the window behind the Demon Queen. It was so bright that it instantly washed over the entire room, shrouding it in a deep white. Everyone was forced to conceal their eyes from it, even the Demon Queen herself, despite her back being to it. It lingered for roughly thirty seconds, then dissipated.

  And when it did, the air was suddenly full of yelling and the impact of steel against steel.

  XXX

  Name: Chase Ironheart

  Level: 6

  Race: Human

  Class: Warrior

  Subclass: Swordmaster

  Strength: 20 (MAX)

  Dexterity: 15

  Intelligence: 10

  Wisdom: 13

  Constitution: 18

  Charisma: 16

  Skills: Master Swordsmanship (Level 10); Booby Trap Mastery (Level 8); Archery (Level 4)

  Spells: Rush (Level 7); Muscle (Level 4); Stone Flesh (Level 6); Defying The Odds (Level 1)

  Traits: Blessed

  Name: Carmine Nolastname

  Level: 6

  Race: Greater Demon

  Class: Arcane Witch

  Subclass: Archmage

  Strength: 10

  Dexterity: 13

  Intelligence: 19

  Wisdom: 19

  Constitution: 12

  Charisma: 8

  Skills: Master Spellcasting (Level 10); Summon Familiar (Level 10)

  Spells: Magic Dart (Level 7); Magic Scattershot (Level 5); Fire Magic (Level 5)

  Traits: Blessed

  Name: Melanie Vhaeries

  Level: 6

  Race: Ascended Human

  Class: Necromancer

  Subclass: Arch-Lich

  Strength: 8

  Dexterity: 13

  Intelligence: 18

  Wisdom: 16

  Constitution: 15

  Charisma: 12

  Skills: Raise Lesser Undead (Level 10); Raise Greater Undead (Level 3); Unorthodox Weapon User (Level 8)

  Spells: Touch of Death (Level 5); Gravesinger (Level 7); Armor of Bone (Level 3)

  Traits: None

  Name: Victoria Firelight

  Level: 7

  Race: Human

  Class: Paladin

  Subclass: Devotee

  Strength: 17

  Dexterity: 9

  Intelligence: 13

  Wisdom: 13

  Constitution: 19

  Charisma: 11

  Skills: Swordsmanship Mastery (Level 5); Blunt Weapon Mastery (Level 8); Archery Mastery (Level 5)

  Spells: Holy Light (Level 6); Ward of the Gods (Level 5); Bane of the Undead (Level 7); Divine Bolt (Level 4)

  Traits: None