"Finding about seven reincarnates should do it," Gabrielle summed up.
"Is there even that many?" the Demon Lord asked. Konrad got a strange sense of deja vu. "I never heard of others until now. Hell, I didn't know about this little duke here, either."
Little duke? Ugh.
And he should have, but it looked like he forgot.
Lucifer's ability to mess with people's memories was scary.
"Well, there was that red-eyed dude on Earth," Konrad noted. "The one destroying my guitar. And that other one who had those imps surround us during the garage concert?"
His eyes landed on Lily for confirmation, but the tiny ginger would only snap back at him.
"It's been ages, Konny boy, don't remember a damned thing."
Yuki was wringing her hands for a while, but she finally cleared her throat.
"W-what about me?" she asked, looking around with wide eyes. Or, with that brown one, they could all see. "Will you also torture me to lock up my psychologist?"
Gabrielle let out an exasperated sigh, rubbing her temples.
"For the last time, we're not going to torture anyone."
But from how they explained things—meaning, not at all—Konrad couldn't blame her.
"Hmm, don't think you'd count, Yuki-chan," the demoness pondered. "You were in a coma, right? That means he didn't reincarnate you, only gave you some of my memories."
Plus, didn't they talk about strong candidates?
Ones that could take a punishment? She didn't look like one.
Tiny and cute, that's what she was.
"Your memories?" Yuki repeated. "S-so everything I know—"
"Not everything," the angel interrupted. "You own skills this hellspawn never possessed. My brother didn't make you forget—but overwrote many things."
As if that sounded better.
Konrad was so pissed for her sake—and for himself, too.
But the emo girl only blinked, trying to put everything in its place.
"So that's why I understand you talking, even if this ain't Japanese?" was her conclusion.
And now that he thought about it, his Japanese was not as fluent as her Common.
"Hmm, can you speak draconian, too?" Lily asked, rubbing her chin. "Depending on when he copied me, you might remember stuff I've long forgotten."
Konrad's eyes lit up.
"Does that mean she could cast your spells?!"
The dragoness scoffed.
"Takes more than memorising words, Konny boy," she waved him off. "But I guess—"
"Enough of that already," Maou Midori grunted. "So we're returning to that Earth place now?"
If nothing else, that raised the archangel's eyebrow.
"We? No, you stay put here. Lilith and I—"
"Didn't you say no more restrictions?" the old man demanded.
But Konrad had his own worries, too.
"Hold on, if you both leave, and Lucifer shows up—"
"Meow will banish him," Lily said with enough confidence to make him feel stupid for asking.
Well, almost.
"He tried it in the heavens," he pointed out. "And that went well."
The angel rolled her eyes, looking impatient.
"It would've been a shameful day for all heaven-kind if he could banish us like that," she scoffed. "But he already did it on Earth, right? With your mana, no less."
"Huh? How did you even know that?!"
Was she observing them the entire time, but refused to help?
Gabrielle wouldn't react, complaining instead.
"I still don't trust you, Maou. Or Lilith," she said. Yeah. Their team had some trust issues. "It's safer if you stay here, and I'll keep an eye on the greater demon while taking Yuki home."
"Me? Home?! Wait," the emo girl protested, but ran out of steam halfway through.
As if she wasn't even sure what she wanted.
Konrad cleared his throat to break the awkward pause.
"It's my fault you ended up in here," he said. "Sorry. I'm sure Sorakumo-san has already worried himself sick. Not sure if we can undo the damage Lucifer had done, but—"
"I don't want you to," the emo girl pouted. "And, if they go, they could send Oto-san a message."
Even the way she crossed her arms reminded him of Lily's mannerisms.
"You don't want to what? Return?" he asked in confusion. "B-but that's your home."
"Is it, though?" Yuki mumbled, arms shifting to hug herself. "Is it a home if I don't remember? And what? I was some suicidal weirdo there. Feels like I know more about this world than mine."
"But—"
No. She was right. And he couldn't protest when he felt the same back there.
Earth was his home for fifty years, but he didn't recognize it at all.
He wanted to come back here. Return home.
"Well, that makes things easier, actually," Lily noted, breaking the ice. "'Cuz we ain't going with these bodies, either. So, Welf, you know what to do, right? Take care of Gabby, too, please."
And before Konrad could say anything—
She turned into a ragdoll once again.
Both girls, the little ginger demoness and the archangel, as well.
"There she goes again," the blacksmith sighed, watching them collapse onto the table. "Guess that means the negotiations are over already?"
But the Demon Lord chose that moment to straighten his back on his throne.
"Not by a long shot," he grunted with an enigmatic smirk.
Crap. And those two left them in the middle of an enormous nomadic camp.
If he decided to betray them now—
"We never talked about my conditions," Maou said, voice low. Okay, not an outright betrayal. Of course, he'd have some demands of his own. "I have two I'm not willing to compromise."
Konrad put his business face back on, fingers intertwined over the table.
"Let us hear them," he said, his throat feeling hoarse for some reason.
The Demon Lord wasted no time.
"First, the Horde. These nomads have been following me for decades in search of a better life. I have a promise to uphold to these men—and you're going to take them in. Every one of 'em."
And this was how long his forced calm lasted.
His face went pale.
A hundred and fifty thousand nomads.
Sure, Halaima was struggling with the lack of laborers. And thanks to the Church, it had the lowest population of all the duchies in Kasserlane. But if he took them in, he'd have the biggest.
Maou didn't even wait for his answer, straightening a second finger as he counted.
"And two," he boomed, but took a rather long pause there.
Come on, what could be even bigger than the first ask?!
And was Konrad projecting, or that old, wrinkled face got flushed pink?
"In those memories you showed me, I was somehow young," the Demon Lord noted, his voice changing. "I don't know how that happened, or why I'm back in this old body, but—"
"Oh," Konrad let it slip. "That was Lucifer, draining your vitality, or something."
Because Gabrielle left him in a rather dire state.
"And as for how you got young," he mumbled, averting his eyes, but then they landed right on Stella. "You, um, drained mine during our battle."
With the staff the necromancer was now holding.
It wasn't a great memory, or something he wanted to relive, but—
"Stella?" he asked without asking.
The former executioner nodded.
"Can sort that out. It should be easy, because, for being the Prodigy, you already reek of fear."
Rude. But true.
And he already knew he'd hate every second of what was about to happen.