The year was 2060. A person of androgynous appearance lay collapsed by the edge of a lake. She had short, blonde hair, a slim figure, and slender limbs. Though female, she could easily appear to be either a charming young girl or a noble young boy.

"Urgh..."

Her androgyny was not all that stood out. Blood caked her entire body, gushed out from her deep wounds. She was, to put it simply, on death's door.

"Am I to die here?" she rasped, choking on the blood in her throat.

The girl came from England, back in the human world. The scientists who gave birth to her always said that an English gentleman has a clever joke for all occasions, especially when one's back is against the wall. Still, being near death made humorous quips difficult. The blood loss had slowed her mind considerably.

Perhaps, she thought, this was heaven. And when she spotted the girl in the distance running towards her, that belief grew stronger. The girl had wavy, light blue hair, like flowing water, and was clad in an immaculate white robe. And although it sounded cliche, she really did look like an angel.

"Goodness, look at you!" the angel exclaimed. "What happened?!"

"Ah. Greetings, Angel. I see heaven saw fit to send me a beauty before taking me home."

"Well, I think heaven can wait. If you're still talking, you're still breathing." The angel closed her eyes and put her hand to the bloody girl's chest.

"What are you...?"

"Don't move," the angel interrupted. She then closed her eyes and began gathering energy.

A blue glow spread over the girl's chest, and her wounds began to heal. She watched in silent amazement as the treatment spread over her at a breakneck pace. Soon the bleeding stopped, her broken bones reconnected, and her skin reclaimed its vitality.

"That should tide you over for now," the angel finally said. "I'll go get someone from the village, so just wait here!"

"H-hold on!" The girl managed to stop the angel before she ran off. "There's something I need to ask, first!" She then raised her head a little and looked around. The land was unknown to her. That went without saying, as she'd never visited it before, but as a whole, it simply did not feel like Earth. Twilight gave her the impression the day was ending, but a thin haze hid the sun, and she could not discern if it was morning, afternoon, or evening.

The clear lake before her brought the tourist spots of France to mind. But she was surrounded by dense mana, and every drop of water seemed to pulse with magic. She looked in the direction the angel was about to run toward and saw small houses in the distance. That was likely the village.

"Just tell me one thing. Where are we?" she finally asked.

"The Demon World, of course."

"What?!"

"To be exact," the angel continued, "we're by Lake Amia, to the west of the capital." She leaned forward and gave the girl's hand a squeeze. "I am the water spirit Undine, protector of this lake and bringer of pure water to the Demon World."

"You're Undine? The spirit?"

"Indeed, I am. And you're...a human, right? I can't imagine how you made it here from the human world, but I would love to hear about it later. It isn't every day I get to meet a real human!"

The girl was suddenly filled with confusion. None of what she saw or heard made sense. Moments ago, she had been fighting against the Demon World's army. Her forces had been making their way towards Demon King Belial and the decisive battle that would guarantee humanity's safety once and for all. It had literally been a fight for life and death, and when all was said and done, she found herself in enemy territory: the Demon World.

Even more baffling was her sudden encounter with such an angelic girl who called herself the spirit Undine, no less. Were spirits not meant to be more mystical and unfathomable? Demons as enemies, spirits as mystical beings—suddenly it felt like her knowledge of the world was crumbling apart.

"I'll go fetch someone from the village, then. Stay put, okay? Just don't move!" Undine insisted. She then turned and hurried off with her robes fluttering behind her.

"S-sure..."

The girl she saved—bioweapon DH-12 Aquarius, crafted to protect the human world—sat there a moment, watching in stunned silence as the spirit ran for help.

Svanetia, royal capital and literal center of the Demon World. The palace had an unthinkable amount of work waiting for its ruler upon her return from over a year spent in another realm, as if it wished to welcome her back.

"Queen Echidna, I've written up plans to distribute the food shipments from the human world, and if you would just..."

"Queen Echidna, a report on the mana contamination of the Purite River has arrived for you to check at your..."

"Queen Echidna, scurrilous bandits have established a hideout on the outskirts of the capital..."

"Queen Echidna, three magic power reactors malfunctioned while you were on your campaign. I've written up an estimate of..."

"Queen Echidna, if you would give this expense document your seal..."

"Enough!" I finally shouted. "Give me your reports in order! And send that expense document to Shutina!"

I was Demon Queen Echidna, the Demon World's mightiest inhabitant and its supreme ruler. Svanetia was my seat of power. Over the past year, I had invaded the human world seeking the Wisdom Stone. Some might say that ended in a grand failure...while others might call it a resounding success. The invasion was rebuffed, but I made an ally of Leo, the Wisdom Stone's owner. Awaiting my triumphant return was a mountain of work that had piled up in my absence. Reports about every conceivable change in the kingdom, piles of proposals, decisions needing my stamp, and, well...far too much of everything! Even a demon queen would die from overwork confronting it all!

While I looked at one document, five more were plopped onto my desk. I glanced out of the window as an avalanche of paper steadily buried my office. There was such a beautiful view from the palace. The glittering lake and all the greenery surrounding it gave my heart a moment's respite. And yet, I could not forget that that same water and greenery were the source of my current woes.

"Alas, mana contamination."

At first glance, the Demon World seemed like a land overflowing with nature's beauty. We had broad plains of grass and trees, and rivers of water flowing into vast oceans. However, all of that had been contaminated by mana, and the contagion kept spreading. The western lands had been mostly reduced to desert. According to the central academy's research team, it was caused by an overabundance of mana.

Mana was an essential element in casting spells. It was also a major component of the Spiritual Realm, where the water spirit Undine and the wind spirit Sylph lived. When casting a spell, the  vocalized chant opened a channel to the Spiritual Realm and drew mana, along with the power of the spirits, into our plane to cause the desired miracle.

Spellcasting civilization started in the Demon World, and we have used magic there since the days of old...but that seems to be the problem. The academy's investigation concluded that ages of magic use had caused mana to build up in the environment and gradually eat away at it. The grass, the trees, the water, and every other part of nature was contaminated in our world.

According to the academy's calculations, we had time before the world succumbed, the water became too contaminated to purify, and the remaining forestland turned to desert. At least twenty years. Now, twenty years may seem like a lot. Anyone might think there was plenty of time to deal with the issue. I certainly know I did, at first. But if you truly thought about it, those twenty years ended up feeling horrifically short. In twenty years, the Demon World was going to be uninhabitable. Forget living a peaceful life. Those years would be spent watching the final seconds tick by until the end of it all.

I had avoided telling anyone except a trusted few to avoid a panic, but if news of it reached the general public, well...it did not take much imagination to guess how dreadful things would get. Panic, rioting, and the rise of extremist militants pushing for domination of the human world. When chaos took hold, there was no hope for peace or the rule of law. It would be a repeat of the violent King Belial's aggressive attempt to invade humankind.

Under my command, the previous year's invasion had ended with minimal casualties. We were only seeking the Wisdom Stone, after all, and I ordered my army to avoid needless killing and destruction. Many criticized that approach for being naive, and indeed it was, but it connected me with Leo.

The war hawks of the Demon World, however, were not so accommodating. They were the hardened warriors of our world, the ones who had honed their skills through countless civil wars. If they showed no mercy to their own kind, how could they have any for the humans? Every last human would be killed if it meant securing new territory to live in.

And if they did choose to invade, what then? My hard-won friendship with Leo would wither, and he would rise up again to defend humanity. And Leo was not someone I wished to fight. My lack of confidence that I could defeat him was certainly a factor, but I also liked him. As a person, and as a friend.

I had to avoid a war with the human realm. I had to avoid making Leo an enemy. I became the Demon Queen to break the chains of violence that shackled my realm, and to bring about a new age of peace.

"Phew." Before I knew it, there were far less documents to contend with. A veritable mountain still remained, but new documents had stopped coming in. I was finally alone in the office, and I dispelled the Acceleration spell I'd been using and mused about the future while stamping documents at a more leisurely pace. "There's nothing to worry about. I'm back in the palace, and most importantly, Leo is among our allies. Fending off the dragons improved our relations with the kingdom of Eris, and we can import food and water from the human world! What, may I ask, could pose a problem?!"

A year ago, when I'd decided to invade the human world to obtain the Wisdom Stone, conditions had been tragic. I'd worried that the stone did not even exist. I'd worried that the powerful hero might stand in my way. Even worse, I had fretted that even after obtaining the Wisdom Stone, it might not be enough to bring the Demon World back to its former glory. The entire plan had been a gamble, and yet I had been left no choice but to go. My world had been crumbling and I could think of no other options.

"And look at how much better things are now! I have food, I have water, and I have Leo! With twenty years, we can accomplish everything from first aid to full rehabilitative treatment!" Simply repeating those words out loud filled me with such courage! "Wahaha!" I cast Acceleration once again and began stamping my way through documents on rapid-fire.

"Echidna, I'm back!"

When the young man burst into my office, I immediately stopped. "Ah! Leo! That was a faster tour than I expected. So what do you think of the Demon World?"

Among all of my close acquaintances, my relationship with him was the most complicated. He was far stronger than the Four Great Guardians, and even stronger than I was, and yet he served me with the utmost loyalty. The man was none other than that hero of the human world: Leo Demonhart.

We'd been back in the Demon World for two days. While I was busy coping with official work and triumphant parades, Leo had been taking walks around the capital and doing research at the academy. He said if we were going to restore the Demon World, he first wanted to see what it was like with his own eyes. As always, he had his priorities right.

"Say, Echidna..."

"I know, I know," I interrupted before he could finish. "I'm sure you saw all the mana festering in this world. But worry not! We have twenty years! With all that time and a team as mighty as ours, the Demon World will never fall!"

"Shut up a second and listen," Leo insisted, grabbing me by the shoulders. He then continued in a hushed tone. "The Demon World will fall."

He looked serious.

"What?!"

"The Demon World will fall if we don't do anything, and we have less than one year."

"We only have a year?!" I leapt up from my chair and cried out in alarm.

Now, I trusted Leo. I thought very highly of his skills, and I knew he had a keen eye for details. But the Demon World gone in a year? That was just too much to swallow!

"That makes no sense!" I argued. "We just started importing food from the human world, so the deadline should be extended, if anything! Thirty years instead of twenty! Hell, a hundred years, even! Why did it shrink?!"

"The food imports messed us over. Look at this." Leo tossed a few photographs onto my desk. They were Stock-Prints, made with a spell that allowed images observed by a magical eye to be printed onto other materials. We called them photographs in the modern day. One photograph showed the people of the Demon World squabbling over who got to eat food made from the imported ingredients first. Another photograph showed a mountain of unsold and far less tasty Demon World foodstuffs.

"When people realize they've got it worse than others," he continued explaining, "they grow dissatisfied. Really dissatisfied. It's kind of like when you learn that you make a lot less than your peers. If you don't have anyone to compare yourself to, you're fine, but when you do..."

"Oh, sure. I know what you mean!"

Imagine how the denizens of the Demon World felt when they tasted human cuisine after eating nothing but awful, local food. Like Leo said, they had learned just how sorry their diets had been.

"Not everyone is going to be happy with different strokes for different folks," he added. "Once they know how good human food is, there's no turning back. Hell, all you've been eating is human food lately, right?"

"Guh!" My meals in the palace the past few days immediately came to mind. He was right. Most of them were heavily spiced, like Demon World cuisine, but there was mutton from Eris, and fish and rice from Largo...all of that came from the human world.

Foods grown in our world often needed detoxifying before consumption, which wasn't true of the human foods we imported. Sure, they had things like poisonous mushrooms, but a person didn't risk death simply by approaching within fifty feet of theirs. On the one hand, you had delicious smelling and tasting human food, and on the other, Demon World food which was both disgusting and dangerous. If people were given a choice, well, the choice was clear!

"And since there's a limit to how much food we can import from the human world," Leo continued, "anyone who misses out, well, they get stuck eating sauteed zombie dog, or giant corn with poison in one out every seven kernels. You know what'll happen if that keeps up, right?"

"They'll blame me, their queen. They'll start saying that they wouldn't be living such miserable lives if I'd just conquered the human world."

"Exactly. And the number of people calling for war will keep growing until they eventually outnumber your supporters."

"This might sound a little backwards, but could we not temporarily stop the imports?" I asked.

"That would have the opposite effect. No one wants to go backwards in life. Not after tasting how good things could be."

Leo had a point. People loved it when things got easier, but they were almost never pleased when things got harder. Imagine if you suddenly had to give up a part of your daily routine, or something you relied on was abruptly taken away from you. Stopping the imports would be just as bad.

"That covers food, and there's still a bunch of other problems related to our basic needs." Leo dropped a stack of documents onto my desk. Apparently he'd brought a copy of the academy's latest environment report with him. "Take living space, for example. Water and land contamination really sped up during this last year, while you were on your campaign in the human world."

"What?! How did that happen?!"

"We don't know yet. The report hypothesizes that opening the Great Spiritual Hole broke the balance of magic density in the atmosphere, but it will require a more detailed investigation. Regardless, if this keeps up, the environment will die before the people can overthrow you over bad cuisine."

The next document Leo laid on my desk was a report on public opinions gathered by Mernes' spies throughout the land. I read through some of the worrisome comments written within: "The Demon Queen is too soft!" "What's the point of forming a friendly relationship with the human world?" "With the almighty hero among her ranks, is now not the perfect time to destroy humanity and take their land?"

"We're low on personnel, too," Leo added. "You may be a progressive, peace-loving demon queen, but you're too progressive for public sentiment to keep up with. Not many potential successors share your philosophy. If you end up ceding the throne and the next crown-bearer doesn't follow in your footsteps, well..."

"I know. Violence will once again rule the Demon World, and the next king will invade the human world in earnest."

"Yeah. And I won't just let that happen. An ex-hero's still a hero," Leo replied calmly, but the implication was clear: we were likely to become enemies once again. He was serious. 

It would be bad enough if I didn't know him. But I knew Leo Demonhart too well. I understood what he had felt while living the past three thousand years, and I knew why he was exiled from the human world. Chances of victory aside, to force him back into being humanity's hero would be cruel.

"Food, the environment, and an heir," Leo stated. "These are the problems you have to solve within the year, Demon Queen Echidna."

I had no reply.

"If you don't," he continued, "the Demon World will be on the fast track to destruction."

It felt as though I had taken a blow to the head. How foolish I was in my optimism, in my levity! A twenty-year time limit? We can leisurely come up with solutions as long as Leo is with us? How could I have let myself remain so ignorant of situation? The destruction of my land was closer than ever!

It frustrated me to realize that by immersing myself in work after returning to the Demon World  I'd failed to grasp the situation. Yet even greater was the shock of learning that what I thought were good, helpful deeds...had all been for naught.

I put all I had into opening the Great Spiritual Hole, wanting to free my home from its stagnation. I imported food from the human world, hoping to give the people just a little bit of culinary joy. I became the first ruler who loved peace, figuring that the people were tired of constant strife and war. When Leo joined the team, I worked even harder to build a strong relationship with the countries of the human world. And what was the benefit?

The Great Spiritual Hole brought greater danger to the environment, and the imported food only sowed chaos among the people. And peace, well...I wasn't sure. Perhaps the people of the Demon World did not wish for peace. We had fought for hundreds and thousands of years. Perhaps there were soldiers angered that their jobs and their chances for glory had been taken away. To them and their families, I probably seemed like an incompetent ruler who ignored her people in favor of relations with the human world.

Perhaps all I had done throughout my reign had been for naught. Perhaps seeking the throne was itself a mistake. That was the greatest shock of all.

"S-so it will."

After hearing my report, Demon Queen Echidna leaned back in her office chair and hung her head. I couldn't make out her expression, but I was sure it wasn't rosy. And why would it be? Her incredibly important work deadline had just become twenty times tighter, and she was partially to blame. Hell, if she'd just laughed it off, I'd have dragged her from the throne myself.

"So it will," she repeated with a distinct lack of spirit. It appeared she needed time to recover.

While I waited, I realized a little review of what failure meant might be in order. "Don't fear failure." "Don't worry about failing, just keep trying." Everyone's probably heard such words once or twice. And many get the next part wrong. They don't say not to feel bad if you fail. It hurts when you fail, just like it hurts when you fall over, and it's okay to be discouraged. No one is telling you not to feel bad or cry when you fail. Go right ahead.

So you came to the realization your efforts were wasted, and the futility of it all is eating away at you. If failure hurt so much, why try again? What if you lived a quiet life, with no challenges but no failures, either? Anyone might think that. And that was where the true meaning of "don't fear failure" lay.

The question was, after you've grown sick of trying, could you get up and do it again? Could you endure the fear of getting hurt again? That was the very essence of "don't fear failure."

"Echidna."

"What?"

"...Nothing."

And that was why I decided not to say anything to Echidna. I believed in her. I knew that despite her kindly nature, she suppressed her feelings of anguish and invaded the human world to save her people. That even though she reigned over the Demon World, she wanted peace between both our worlds. And I knew that she had risked her life to save this stupid hero when he tried to take his own life after losing sight of its worth. The Demon Queen Echidna I knew—

"Leo..."

"Yeah?"

"Former hero and worthy rival turned loyal ally, will you hear out my humble request to you?"

"But of course, my queen. I wish only to serve you."

My tone must have lightened the mood, because Echidna chuckled and finally looked up at me. She then wiped her eyes with her fist and boldly requested, "I ask of you, Leo, to save the Demon World with me!"

I could see the fighting spirit in her eyes.

"I can't do this alone," she continued. "I've failed again and again. Yet...if you and I work together, we can save this world. That I believe. So please, lend the Demon World your strength!"

That's right. The Demon Queen Echidna I knew never feared failure. She was a powerful ruler, who faced any trial and overcame it. My answer was clear.

"I am Leo Demonhart, hero!" I proudly bellowed out, much like I did in my first interview. "I'm particularly skilled in swordsmanship, black magic, spirit magic, holy magic, and all other arcane schools! My portfolio includes solving countless problems in the human world over the past three thousand years. Whether it be in the human or the Demon world, I am ready to be put to work immediately!" I firmly gripped her right hand and looked her straight in the eyes. "You picked me over the Wisdom Stone, and for that, I am grateful. Allow me to repay the favor by granting your request, with everything I have!"

Echidna had tears in her eyes as she returned my handshake. "Shout a little less, moron," she retorted with a grimace.

"All right. I have the gist of what's going on, but..."

"Mm-hm."

"Why are we in the middle of mana pollution this bad of all places?"

The day after Echidna and I spoke, I went to visit a spot in the Demon World that was hit particularly hard by mana contamination. We were standing at the convergence of two large rivers, and there was a relatively large village nearby which saw a fair amount of foot traffic.

The issue of the day was, of course, solving the food problem! I couldn't quite do it alone, so I had dragged two servants along with me.

"Who are you calling a servant?!"

"Hey, stop reading my mind!"

"I don't need to read your mind with the way you're acting!" the woman walking beside me yelled back with an annoyed groan. "Th-the only reason I'm still here listening to you is because Master and Her Majesty told me to follow your orders! Otherwise, I'd probably be halfway back to the capital by now!"

The woman had wavy black hair and wore a long, black robe that covered her from head to foot. Underneath that robe, her pencil-thin waist and almost non-existent chest provided no hint of sex appeal. I could hardly believe she was a succubus, like Shutina. The bell hanging from her waist had a complicated seal carved into it. It wasn't simply a bell, however, but a tool for spreading curses.

That's right. The woman was no ordinary spellcaster—she was a curse-maker. Curse-maker Canaan. Great Guardian Shutina's greatest pupil, and a woman who let her thoughts run far too wild. She and my brother, DH-06 Virgo, had worked together to cause the berserk wyvern incident  which brought chaos to the kingdom of Eris. And she was my partner for our current mission.

"Well, I want to get this food issue out of the way first," I replied, answering her original question. "See, if people have a place to live and food on the table, they can put up with a bit of inconvenience here and there."

"You make it sound like a stroll in the park. So how are you actually going to solve it?"

"Simple. We increase the supply of human world food."

"Isn't there a limit to how much we can import?" Canaan gave me a dubious look. "Won't we max out our supply doing that?"

She had a point. Although we had the import project going at maximum priority, it still wasn't enough to supply all of the Demon World with human food. First of all, imports took money, and the dark army was nearly broke to begin with. If we continued importing at our current pace, our coffers would run dry before we knew it. That meant there was only one option left. I took a small pouch out of my pocket and shook it.

"What're those?"

"Seeds. If we can't import, we've got to grow our own stuff. And I know what you're thinking. There's no way these seeds will grow in Demon World soil. But don't worry, we're going to give them some vitomancy spells to make them tough enough to survive the contamination."

To get human crops growing in the Demon World, I'd have to apply the treatment at the seeds and saplings level. Testing that effectiveness was why I picked one of the most polluted places I could find. If our crops could grow there, they could grow anywhere.

"But I'm a curse-maker," Canaan complained. "That vitomancy-life stuff is my worst school of magic. You know that, right?"

"You might not be good at it, but your partner sure is. Isn't that right, Virgo? You may not be in your prime anymore, but you had the best healing spells of the DH series, by far. Still got it where it counts, right?"

"Tch!" The eight-inch-tall malformed doll on Canaan's left shoulder clicked its tongue in annoyance.

That doll was Virgo in his new body made of cloth. He had a pair of four-holed buttons for eyes and a zigzag-shaped mouth sewn on with string that made it look like he belonged in a small child's toy box. The effect was rather comical.

Appearances, however, were deceiving. Shutina's number one disciple, Canaan, had put everything she had into making his new body. The cloth shell gave my brother, DH-06 Virgo a new lease on life since he'd become nothing more than a Wisdom Stone, and despite its appearance, the body was constructed of rare and expensive materials that wouldn't collapse under the stone's power. He still looked like a doll, though.

I'd mentioned it before, but Canaan and Virgo were behind the wyvern attack in the kingdom of Eris. Our current venture was penance for the two of them, as well as an experiment to see just how useful they could be to the army. If they proved their worth, I'd reward them. If they were rebellious, well, they'd get harsher supervision. I'd discussed it with Echidna, and my role was essentially to act as their interviewer. And damn, it felt good.

I may have started out as nothing more than a lowly trial employee, suffering at the hands of Shutina and Echidna, but I had risen to become the dark army's examiner! My two assistants' career futures were in my hands! I'd basically become a god!

"You're thinking of something obnoxious again, aren't you."

"Wh-who, me?" I feigned innocence. "I would never! Anyway, this should be a good spot."

We came to a stop on a section of plains halfway between the village and the river. The grass growing all around was short, and the soil beneath it was soft. If the villagers wanted to start a farm, that was the spot to do it.

"We'll use this soil to experiment with improving the seeds. Virgo, I'll leave the soil and water analysis to you."

"Yeah, sure, just don't forget your promise." The cute little doll leapt off of Canaan and landed with disturbingly good form before kicking at my foot. "Got it, Leo?"

"I know, I know. If you do well on this job, then—"

"Give me a real body, you hear? And drop the surveillance on Canaan, too."

"Don't worry, I'll keep my word."

"Sounds like we're good, then. I'll get this stuff analyzed before you know it, just watch!"

"H-hey. Leo. Hold on a second." Canaan was eyeing Virgo with a worried look as he began sifting through the dirt.

"A couple hundred square feet oughta do it." I was busy drawing a line in the soil with my sword to mark our planting area when I heard her. "Hm? ...Whaddaya want, Canaan?"

"Don't you 'whaddaya want' me, Leo!" Canaan raised her voice and began following me. "Y-you're his brother! You should know better than to have him analyze soil!" Apparently she didn't think Virgo was up for the task.

"What's wrong with that? Don't you know you can use life manipulation and detection spells to analyze the composition of soil and water and stuff?"

"Of course I know that! And I know it's his specialty, too, but...!"

"But?"

Canaan lowered her voice. "Come on, this is Virgo we're talking about. H-he's a musclehead!" Then she whispered into my ear, "Let's be honest, he's got the mental capacity of a dog that knows a few tricks...if he's lucky. Th-there's just no way."

Ah. Of course.

That was the problem. She only knew one side of Virgo. And I could see where she was coming from. Among all of the DH Series, Virgo was a bit of a brute. He'd charge right at opponents without giving it much thought, and if you brought up something even a little complex, he'd say he wasn't interested and look away.

It made sense that Canaan considered him an idiot. I had too, at first. However, reality was different. The Virgo I knew might grumble and say he wasn't interested, but he never complained that something was too complicated for him. He was rough and impatient, but he wasn't stupid.

In conversation, purposefully not reading the room was a technique in itself. What really happened was, you completely understood the mood, then said something to shatter it in order to grab the initiative. Crude, but effective.

Being unable to read a room, and reading a room but purposefully choosing not to follow the expected flow, were two different things. Something very similar could be said about Virgo's mental capacity.

"Leo," Virgo pulled his hands from the dirt and called out just as I was finishing the boundary to our plot.

"Yeah. Figured it out?"

Apparently he had, and he began making his report while he brushed himself off. "I'll start with the magic perspective. There's contamination of all four elements. Gnome, Undine, Salamander, Sylph...they all seem to be a little off. Cast three layers of anti-magic spells on your seeds and saplings when you plant them to protect them from the worst of it."

"Whuh?!" Canaan froze. The look in her eyes told that me she couldn't begin to comprehend how Virgo had suddenly become so smart.

"Anti-magic spells, huh," I responded to Virgo. "So we'll want anti-earth, anti-water, and...anti-wind?"

"Don't skimp out on the anti-fire, either. Contaminated fire mana is seeping into the soil through geothermal heat."

"Got it. So what's the word from a scientific point of view?"

"This was a battlefield back in the day, right? I'm guessing the demon alchemists used a bunch of strange poisons here. There's plenty of secondary pollutants in the soil, like mercury, lead, selenium disulfide, and something that looks like methyl demeton...anyway, I'll handle what I can with bioremediation. You take care of the rest."

"All right, gotcha! Glad we had Professor Virgo on the job!"

"Don't give me that crap. You coulda done all of this yourself."

"Sure. But the truth is, my skills are only a pale imitation. They'll never compare to a real specialist. And, well...the stuff tires me out. Detailed analysis like this is best left to a vitomancy specialist like you."

That was mostly true. As DH-05 Leo, my specialty was Hyper Self-development. I could copy any technique and make it mine. There was no limit to my physical or mental growth. At a glance, that made me sound invincible, but in reality, it forced me to pick up powers I wasn't designed to handle. So compared to a specialist, I grew tired much more quickly.

Imagine a first-class Italian chef trying to make a Japanese dish. Sure, the chef would probably do a better job than a neighborhood housewife, but compared to a Japanese cuisine pro? Not happening. And the effort would be exhausting. Hell, when I fought Virgo back in Eris, he was always one step ahead of me with his hyper regeneration.

Virgo must have been thinking the same thing, because rather than argue, he just shook his head and said, "Well, whatever. I'll just do my job. So, what's next?"

"Next up is water. The river's right there, so it shouldn't be too hard."

"Got it," he replied. Then he tossed me a small notebook. "There's all the data from my dirt analysis. Give it a look over."

 I opened the notebook to find it filled with detailed notes on both the soil composition and the nature of the contaminants. He'd used Ghost Writer, a spell that copied whatever you said or thought onto some sort of medium as writing.

 I had to admit, what surprised me was how similar the soil of Demon World was to that of Earth. If you really compared them, they were ninety-six percent alike! So they were basically the same thing. Back when I was born, in 2060, the scientists did all sorts of research on the Demon World the invaders had come from, but one particularly ridiculous theory stood out: the idea that the Demon World was a small copy of Earth, in the far reaches of space. No one gave that theory the time of day back then, but as I stood there and saw it for myself, I began to think that scientist was on to something.

"No way... Th-there's just no way..." Canaan mumbled with her mouth still agape. I think she was still suffering Virgo Shock from his intelligence.

"What's with you? Still recovering?"

"I mean, come on, i-it's...it's Virgo!"

"You never heard where Virgo's from?"

"Y-yeah. He's like...a homunculus the sorcerers of the human world made to fight off Demon King Belial's invasion three thousand years ago, right?"

"Yeah, we're both from the mechanical civilization. They made us with the most cutting-edge technology at the time, and we were born with pretty much every field of knowledge imaginable preinstalled. The twelve of us were humanity's decisive weapon, its ultimate trump card. Do you really think the scientists designed one of us to be some brainless musclehead?"

"Y-you do have a point!"

"Well, there you go. We're humanity's guardians, and we have most of humanity's knowledge. Virgo just doesn't show it off." I gave Canaan a smug look as she struggled to comprehend it all.

Yep! That's us! The Demonhart Series! Saviors of the world, born with a human's heart and a devil's might!

Not only were we born skilled in magic, martial arts, and close quarters combat, but we also began life with talent in linguistics, military strategy, anthropology, and even table manners and music. We were immortal superhumans, and Canaan had to respect that!

"W-wait," she began to protest, "don't tell me you guys are...actually incredible?"

"You could say that, yes."

For the first time ever, Canaan looked at me with a bit of awe. A bit of respect. Perhaps she finally understood the gravity of the DH Series. Her and I had been enemies at first, and we really got off on the wrong foot, so I was glad for the chance to improve her impression of me.

That said, I had figured out the soil pollution situation. And with a master of life manipulation like Virgo up my sleeve, enchanting and fortifying the seeds and saplings I'd brought from the human world would go pretty quick. Apply a little time magic, and the wide stretch of empty land before me would soon be filled with delicious vegetables and rice!

Wahaha! See, this is the power of the DH Series! Food problem, shmood problem! Bwahaha!

However, pride cometh before the fall. The taste testing event held at the nearby village three days later proved humbling.

"Hmm...I must say, these vegetables..."

"Hm? What's that, chief? Would you like more?" I offered. "Because there's plenty left."

"Mm, not quite. Considering your efforts, Lord Leo, this is...rather difficult for me to say." The village chief, a senior elf, shook his head and laid his wooden fork on the table. "These vegetables are rather...wanting in flavor."

"Huh?" I looked around and saw that everyone else had followed suit. Their lettuce and sliced cucumber salads topped with olive oil and salt...remained mostly untouched. No one was reaching for more.

Allow me to correct myself. This food problem's gonna be a tough one.

"Lightning Spear!"

"Graahhhh!"

I blasted the alligator-like monster attempting to barge into my farm with a random spell, then let out yet another deep sigh. Several days had passed since the tasting event. "Hey, Canaan, make the curse barrier around the farm a little stronger. Like, enough to half-kill anyone who tries to slip in with ill intent, or wants to eat our crops."

"I know, I know," Canaan grumbled. "And how about your work, huh?"

"It's...not going too well, to be honest."

We were standing inside a small shack we'd quickly put together next to the farm. A girl sat at the poorly-made table in the center of the shack, munching on some of the fresh vegetables.

"Canaan, I want some more!" the girl suddenly cried out. "Gimme some cucumbers, cucumbers!"

"Right, right. I'll get them to you right away, General Lili."

"Some miso to dip them in, too!"

 The girl was Ruthless Fang Lili Alyosha, one of the Four Great Guardians—a mostly human demi-beastfolk with dog ears, a tail, and a voracious appetite—who was in charge of supply logistics. In other words, she got food and equipment where it needed to go.

After the taste test event, the first thing I did was invite Lili to the farm. It was important the logistics general see the place before we officially put it into operation, but the real reason I invited her was to be our taste tester.

Lili had been born and raised in the human world. She ate anything and everything, but she still preferred human food and ate far more of it than anything from the Demon World. Since neither Canaan nor I were big eaters, that made her a perfect judge of flavor.

The human crops selectively bred and enhanced to grow in Demon World soil were not up to speed in the taste department. That's what the taste test event taught me. So Canaan and I floated a theory: perhaps some of the selective breeding was unnecessary. Perhaps it ruined the flavor. With that in mind, we thought we could have Lili sample the vegetables grown on the farm while we bred them according to her preferences.

"That was great!" Lili said after polishing off a cucumber in the blink of an eye. She then held up the ten-point card.

"Okay, try this tomato next."

"Yummy! Nummy!" She devoured the tomato and held up the ten-point card again.

"Hold on a second, Lili!"

"Hm? What's up?"

"You're not just mindlessly giving everything a ten, are you?"

"No way! If it's tasty I give it a ten, if it's not I give it a zero, and if it's so-so it gets a five. That's normal, right?"

"I wouldn't say totally normal...but it's close enough, I guess. So, then, all of those vegetables you just ate...?"

"They were all super good! I can't believe you're a good farmer, too, Leo! I'm so impressed!"

"Stop that! And wipe your mouth before you get tomato juice on my clothes!"

"Oh, sorry!"

"Don't wipe it off with my shirt!"

Lili wagged her tail as she hugged me. Her genuineness was one of her strongest suits; she didn't have it in her to lie. If the vegetables didn't taste good, she would say so. Which meant there was no issue with the taste.

In support of that, I'd already had Canaan, a bona fide demon, try them. And since she didn't complain, it meant that the taste of human food should have been fine for demons...or so I thought.

"On top of everything else," Canaan interrupted, waiving a piece of paper in front of me, "we've got this issue."

That sheet of paper was another headache for us. It had been sent by Canaan's master, General Shutina, who was managing affairs back in the capital, and it held market research.

"Yeah," I agreed. "And Shutina compiled it, so I can't imagine it's wrong."

"Well, obviously! Master's reports are always perfect!"

"I know, I know. And that's the problem."

According to Shutina's report, sales of imported human food had gradually been falling in the capital's markets. Customers were curious about the novelty at first, but eventually went back to eating Demon World food.

An opinion poll conducted at local shops and bars included a fair number of bizarre and incomprehensible comments like the following ones: "Yeah, local food is pretty bad." "Human food's a lot tastier than demon food, that's for sure." "But if I had to say which I wanted to eat, it's got to be demon food."

Doll Virgo hopped up onto the table to join us, and we all groaned as we read.

"What's going on here? If they think the human food's better, they should want to eat it, right? Why are they going out of their way to have the worst food?"

"It's like a damn riddle. Why don't they want to eat what's tastier?"

"Canaan," Lili piped up, "are we done with the food? Can I take a nap?"

"Oh, certainly. Please, use the bed over there."

"Yeah, let her sleep. She's loud as hell when she's awake, and...hey! Quit it! Don't use me as a pillow!" Virgo managed to squirm his way back out of Lili's clutches.

"Hmph," Lili bemoaned. She remained curled up on the bed and was asleep within a few seconds. Seeing her like that made her look like just another innocent, slightly air-headed girl...but she was strong enough to slay a dragon with a single blow, and could even give me trouble. You really couldn't judge a book by its cover.

"How about you, Canaan?" I asked, returning to our discussion.

"What?"

"Unlike me and Virgo, you're a demon. You were born and raised here. Have you ever tasted human food you didn't like? Or found yourself really craving some demon food?"

"Hmm...no, can't say I have. Well, I was pretty surprised when I first got to the human world. I didn't think it was sane to eat green vegetables raw."

"Oh yeah, green food is kind of avoided in this world, isn't it."

That was something I'd only recently learned, but in the Demon World, the color green had the image of poison attached to it, so green foods weren't too popular.

When it came to food, appearance was key. No matter how tasty or healthy a dish was, if it looked like crap, chances were people wouldn't touch it. That was something I picked up when I was in the culinary guild.

That year, there was a big harvest of purple potatoes and purple cabbage, so the guild's restaurant put out a purple menu to take advantage of them. It ended up being surprisingly unpopular, driving away customers and putting the restaurant in dire straits.

Take, for example, the purple potato soup. It had a thick, purple-colored broth with boiled vegetables and salt and pepper to taste. It was also the most unpopular item on the menu. It tasted great, sure, but it was a visual disaster. The venomous-looking purple liquid robbed half the guests of their appetites, and the carefully boiled soup ingredients, being purple, just looked rotten. Plenty of customers left it uneaten, and we lost sixty percent of our regulars. The restaurant was on death's door.

That, I'd say, showed how important appearances were when it came to food.

It may have been due to the Demon World's mana contamination, but a lot of its food had weird tentacles, or a twisted shape, or some other grotesque form. I'd done my best to breed vegetables that didn't turn out so hideous. I wanted mine to look just like their human world counterparts... "Oh. Crap."

"Huh?" "What's wrong?" Virgo and Canaan both looked my way, but I was too distracted with my revelation to pay them any mind.

I had the answer from the start!

The food tasted fine, and it was healthy, but they didn't want to eat it. What was the answer to a problem like that? It wasn't the nutrition, or the flavor, no. It was the appearance!

"Eureka! I've got it!" I cried out. "All right, you two, listen up." Our path was clear, and I began explaining it to them. "The most important thing here is—"

Suddenly a series of explosions rocked the tiny shack. Whatever made the explosions was very close. The first one had come from above, and the others had been right beside us.

"Who the hell is blowing stuff up now, of all times?! I was just about to reveal the answer!"

"Quit your yammering and look outside." Canaan frowned and pointed out the window.

"Outside?" I did as she suggested, and... No wonder.

A troop of rough-looking men were slowly approaching our shack. Probably bandits. A dozen of them, about. We were only four, including doll Virgo, so they definitely had us outnumbered. And judging from how the shack's roof was burning, I'd guess they had launched a fireball or two.

Attacking a building with fire or water, then crushing the inhabitants when they fled in panic was a popular technique that skilled knights and mercenaries made good use of. That was the Demon World for you, truly a land of constant internal war and strife. Even the bandits displayed keen tactical acumen.

"Hyah-hah! Outta that shack, all of you!" they began yelling. "We're takin' it, along with the farm, and any valuables you got! Hand 'em over and you can live!"

"And we'll be helpin' ourselves to the women, too! Hyah-hah-hah!"

"Hyah hyah!"

I took it back. Bandits were morons in any world.

As I extinguished the roof fire with a weak Water Ball spell, I let out a faint sigh. The pack of bandits must have heard that we'd started a farm, and the human world fruits and vegetables we were growing currently fetched high prices in the markets. Also, none of us looked like we could hold our own in a fight, which was understandable. We had a weak-looking succubus, a scrawny human, and a little girl. Hell, they probably didn't even count Virgo, being a doll. Of course they underestimated us. It was like our farm was begging to be attacked.

And yet, that little oversight on their part helped prove my earlier hypothesis. Appearance and presentation truly were key. "Well, it looks like I had the right idea. That's good to know."

"Enjoying your epiphany, Leo?" Virgo chided. "Come on, let's murder those fools before they ruin the crops."

"Oh, this is the Demon World, alright. Nothing like getting hassled by assholes to remind me that I'm home. I can kill them all, right?" Canaan joined in. "If we let them walk all over us, it'll never end."

My two assistants started heading for the door with violent intentions.

"Not that I really want to grow vegetables," Canaan added, "but it looks like I'm stuck on this farm for a while, and I'd rather have less trouble than more. So let's just kill them all and send a message to the other bandits."

"Nah, we won't need to," I stopped her with a shake of my head. "Can you take them alive for me? We're heading to another spot tomorrow, so we'll just work them to the bone as farm labor."

"Huh? Excuse me?"

"I solved the riddle. I figured out why people don't want to eat food they know tastes good. As much as I'd love to explain, we've got to KO those bandits first. I'll leave that to you while I get busy modifying the crops. See ya."

"Huh? Leo? H-hey!"

I left Canaan complaining behind me and headed to the work room in back. There, I picked up some freshly-harvested corn and cast Alteration, changing only its appearance. If my prediction was correct, that would solve our food problem. Demons loved how human food tasted, but didn't want to eat it. How could we encourage them? By making it look like demon food, of course!

"Geez, what's his problem?!"

Leo disappeared into his work room, and I headed out of the shack with Virgo, complaining the whole time. The men outside immediately began staring at me, but I paid them no mind.

"Finally came out, huh?" one of the men yelled. "Well, listen up and listen good! We're the Klein Bandits, the most fearsome bandits around these here parts!"

"He's silent the whole time these idiots are burning down our shack," I continued to grumble, "and then he has some epiphany and vanishes? And he sticks us with cleaning up these small fry? Who does he think he is, solving it alone and leaving us out of the discussion?!"

"Yeah, you said it, Canaan," Virgo chimed in. "We DH Series often ended up working alone, so we got used to tackling problems and finding answers by ourselves. It's a bad habit."

"You know, that sounds really convincing coming from you. Was Leo always like that?"

"Hey!" the men yelled again. "Don't ignore us!"

"Nah, he was a real teacher's pet back in the day. Super quiet and relaxed all the time."

"Wow...I can't even imagine that."

"It's unbelievable how much Leo's changed, seriously. If only you could see what he was like three thousand years ago. You'd fall over laughing, guaranteed."

"At least describe it to me! Let me hear those old stories! What was he like?"

"U-um...hey, uh..." The men were growing antsy.

"Enough already! Shut up!" I looked up to see who kept interrupting my conversation with Virgo and noticed the farm was surrounded by a bunch of rather discouraged looking bandits.

Oh. Them. I'd forgotten about them. They were just so weak, I couldn't help it. I raised my hand and shooed them away. "Listen, I'll let you off, so just get lost. If you promise to never bother the farm again, you can leave without getting hurt. You don't want to die out here in the boonies, do you?"

"Who the hell do you think you are?!" the werewolf standing closest to me yelled back and cut down two stalks of corn with his knife.

Idiots! You're here to steal this farm, not ruin it! This is why I hate demon punks, they're the worst! I wish everyone except intellectuals would just drop dead!

"Listen up, you," he continued. "We're the feared and revered Klein Bandits!"

"That so?"

All the other bandits watched and waited as the werewolf took two steps forward, leading me to believe he was their leader.

Honestly. They were wasting their time. I'd covered the whole farm in a curse barrier, and the Whatever Gang was already inside in its influence. They'd entered without a plan—hell, they'd entered without even knowing it was there, and that had guaranteed their loss. It showed just how little skill they had, too. No matter how tough a stance they took or how solidly they put up their guard, it was too late for them.

"This shack and the farm are now property of the Klein Bandits!" their leader declared. "If you don't wanna die, give up all your valuables and get lost!"

"So the shack, the farm, and the money. Is that really all you want?"

"Since you've got such a smart mouth, you get the honor of being part of the plunder."

All the men began leering at me. I didn't normally like to admit it...but for a succubus, I don't think I'm all that attractive. Perhaps those guys were desperate.

"You've just become the mistress of Ludo Klein himself. In exchange, I'll let your husband escape with his life. Not bad, eh?"

"Hmph. You never had any intention of letting us...huh?" Did he say what I thought he just said? "'Husband'?" I slowly repeated it. "Who are you talking about?"

"Don't play dumb. I'm talking about that wimpy human holed up inside!" Ludo Whatever yelled back. "I know all about the two of you, frolicking around in this garden of yours day in and day out!"

Wimpy human? Husband? He couldn't mean General Lili. Which meant he thought Leo was my husband.

"I bet you and the hubby wanted to spirit yourselves away and stay on this farm to enjoy the simple life, but too bad. Your simple life's about to get a lot more complicated! Wahahaha!"

The bandits must have thought I was scared, because they saw me shaking and they all began to smirk. But fear had nothing to do with it; it was pure rage. Of all the people. Of all the people. Having to work under the maggot who had defeated Master and Her Majesty while I was away was insult enough. Being mistaken for his wife?! That was too much!

I'd made up my mind. Oh, had I ever. Every last one of those worms was going to die by my hand, as painfully as possible. There was no need for warnings. I immediately began ringing the bell at my waist while chanting my curse to all of them.

"Hey," they began to protest. "Don't try any funny b—"

"Spell of Command: Body Sealing. In the name of the dark spirit known as Shade, and Hades, the god of darkness, I command the Klein Bandits to be still."

"Gah?!" The bandits abruptly froze. Not just their werewolf leader, Ludo, but the entire gang of a dozen or so burly, armed men. "What the hell's going on?!"

"Boss! Sh-she's using curses! She's a curse-maker, boss!"

"She's a what?!"

"Some people are just too dumb to live," I remarked. "Way to notice long after you've stepped into my trap."

I was a curse-maker, and that was how we fought. Instead of typical weapons, we used bells and orbs that had been enchanted with all sorts of heinous spells.

My bell, in particular, had been enchanted with Cursed Paralysis. That fearsome bell allowed me to render a target's body immobile with my will just by ringing it, and they stayed conscious all the while.

The bell was, essentially, like the prayer wheels of old. It had its chants carved on the sides, and a scroll of Cursed Paralysis was housed inside of it. Just by willing the spell and ringing the bell, I could cast a curse on my target immediately, with no chant needed. And even more decisive was my curse barrier. It spread out like a spider's web throughout the farm, and while inside it, my curses were three to five times stronger. Which was why stepping into my territory without any preparations had sealed their fate.

That was how I operated. I lured foes into my lair and slaughtered them. They didn't call me the wiliest of dungeon makers for no reason. That was the might of Great Guardian Shutina's best pupil, Canaan the Maze-maker!

The bandits thought I was just some defenseless woman, and they paid dearly for it. They had heard the bell's ringing at point blank range, while standing in my curse barrier. They couldn't lift a finger. The battle was won the moment they stepped into my domain. All I needed to do was give the order. "Self-destruction Edict. Ludo Klein, I order you to take your—"

"Hold up, Canaan," Virgo sharply cut me off. "Don't kill them."

What a lucky bunch they were. In that case...hands? Arms? Legs? Feet? Legs it was. "Self-destruction Edict. Ludo Klein, I order you to harm yourself. Non-fatally."

My order was followed by the sound of metal plunging into flesh. "Gyahhhh!" The moment I gave it, Ludo's hand had sunk the knife it was holding deeply into his own leg.

My spell wasn't only for paralyzing my foes; indeed, it gave me complete control over their bodies. People stronger than I, like Master or Her Majesty, or Leo could resist it, but weaklings like those bandits didn't stand a chance. I could do as I pleased.

"Maybe that cut was too shallow. Self-destruction Edict. I order you to harm yourself non-fatally, more."

More plunges. "Gah! Grah! Ugah!"

"All the rest of you, too. Er...Aiden Ohma, harm yourself non-fatally. Ken Glaster, harm yourself non-fatally."

"W-wait," one of them protested. "I never told you my na—! Gyahh!"

"Who do you think you're dealing with? I'm Grand Sorceress Shutina's star pupil. Do you think I need my target to tell me their name?"

I had the spell Reaper's Eye active, which displayed people's names above their heads. Some curse-maker had developed it, long ago. You may think that simply displaying a person's name wasn't terribly impressive. And it wasn't, unless you were a curse-maker. To us, knowing someone's name meant holding their fate in our hands. Like those of the bandits who were standing before me.

A chorus of stabs and screams rang out.

"My. You have more guts than I expected," I voiced my disappointment. I had hoped the cutting part might last longer, but the werewolf Ludo forcibly resisted my curse, spoiling my plans. Perhaps that was why he was in charge.

"You're really...gonna regret that!" he said through labored breaths. "Don't think I'll go easy on you just because you're a woman! I'm taking you back to the hideout and making you wish you were dead!"

"You've got me shaking with fear," I mocked. "Would you take an apology?"

"Like hell I would! I'm gonna show you a fate worse than death!"

I noticed the other men were regaining control of their bodies, too. They were thirsty for blood and began drawing their swords while swearing at me. If they caught me, it wasn't going to be pretty. I definitely had an emergency situation on my hands.

"Well, you leave me no choice," I warned them. "This is self-defense, all right? Virgo, you ready?"

"You know I am. Do it!"

I snatched Virgo from my shoulder and threw him into the air as hard as I could.

"Huh?" The bandits were mystified. "What's that? Some kind of doll?"

"For now, it is."

At the moment, Virgo was just a cute little doll. A far cry from the twenty-something-year-old man that was his true form. He'd lost his body in the battle against Demon King Belial, three thousand years ago. However, modern magic and techniques could make him a body nearly identical to the original, as his demand that Leo give him one in exchange for farm work had alluded to. In fact, he'd already been given a body. If I spoke the magic words Leo had told me, Virgo would temporarily go back to his true self.

Leo had warned me time and time again to only use it during emergencies, which included my current predicament, right? I was surrounded by hooligans, and my chastity was in danger. I mean, if that wasn't an emergency, what was? Self-defense. My actions were absolutely self-defense.

"I set up the playing field for you, Virgo, so have fun knocking the pins down!" I held my hands up to the heavens and shouted the magic words, "Bruner Ahram—Unseal!" and a loud bang rang out.

"Whoa?!"

"...!"

Immense energy came pouring down from over my head, where I'd thrown Virgo. It was as if a miniature sun radiating heat, light, and vitality had suddenly manifested there. The bandits must have thought it was some sort of distraction spell from the sheer amount of light on display. I was surprised, myself.

Obviously it was no mere distraction. It was something far more painful for them. I'd awakened a beast who wouldn't rest until he'd beaten down every opponent who challenged him: DH-06 Virgo!

The source of all that light and heat came hurtling down from the sky and landed on one knee. After a few moments of silence, there came the sound of satisfied laughter, "Heh...heh heh heh..." and the fading light revealed that Virgo was a doll no longer. "Heh heh heh..." The tall, silver-haired man slowly stood up, then laughed again with absolute delight. "Hahahaha!" He was completely naked. "I'm back in business! My arms! My legs! I'm back in my real body!"

"Gahhh! V-Virgo, put on some clothes! Any clothes!"

"Just look at me, Canaan, I'm at peak freaking performance! I could kill Leo or Echidna in ten seconds flat with this body!"

"Gah! Turn around! Turn around!"

Virgo pranced about, shadowboxing, like an innocent child. It might have been a cute sight if he hadn't been talking about murder...and wasn't naked. His present state was the result of a feature Leo had added to the doll body I'd made. It allowed me, Virgo's master, to unseal his original body and temporarily restore it.

"You know, I was just starting to think being a doll wasn't so bad...but screw that!" Virgo rejoiced. "Having a regular body's the best! Looks and feels a billion times better, hahaha!"

Virgo continued to gleefully dance about, and the blood-covered bandits just stood there staring at him in disbelief. I sighed, then turned away from that vision of hell and began reflecting on the explanation Leo had given me.

"Virgo's been a core buried deep underground for the past three thousand years. Now, I can make him a body that's close to his original one, but I want him to get used to living in a body that's easier to maintain."

"You mean the doll body I made for him," I confirmed. "It shouldn't put much strain on his core to maintain...but what about when we need to fight? He can't fight as a doll, right?"

"When you're fighting, chant that unsealing spell I just taught you. I broke his human body down to the molecular level and sealed it in your doll, so it'll materialize when you unseal it again, returning Virgo to himself at his prime. And when you want to turn him back into a doll, just say 'Dahna Ahram—Seal.'"

"So...he can't just stay in his human body? I can't imagine he wants to be a doll."

"I'd love it if he could, but meeting my brother again like this was a miracle. I don't want to lose him in some accident, so we need to be cautious."

That's what Leo had to say. Was it brotherly love? Overprotectiveness? I wasn't sure, but I was surprised to see that side of him. I'd always thought of him as a smug bastard.

Regardless, there was another reason Leo had brought us along on the job, and that was to test out Virgo's new body. I assumed we'd end up fighting some punks at some point or another since the magic world wasn't a very safe place. What I hadn't expected was Virgo popping up naked when I unsealed him. Couldn't Leo have warned me? What if I'd done it in the middle of town?!

"Now, then," Virgo finally remarked with apparent satisfaction. He then chantlessly cast Disguise, and the dense mana of the Demon World immediately covered him and constructed an outfit. It was, I had heard, his signature outfit during the war three thousand years ago: a black armored suit made of synthetic materials, with a white military jacket worn over it. Virgo, in all his former glory, was complete.

"Hey, you guys!" Virgo turned toward the bandits, breathing like a wild animal.

"Eep?!"

"Who were you? The Whatever Gang? Listen, you guys are lucky. Really lucky. Like you just won a trip to Hawaii in the town raffle."

The magic power bleeding off of him was immense. If a weakling touched him...or even came near him, they would evaporate from the magic power he was emitting like raging lava.

Those punks' instincts must have kicked in, because they started to step back.

"See," Virgo continued, "you have the privilege of witnessing the very moment Virgo the Great came back. Rejoice! Because I'm going to..." He then abruptly vanished, or rather, he appeared to vanish. An instant later he was standing behind the werewolf, Ludo, putting him in a joint lock. The countless enchantments on Virgo's body really pulled through, because I couldn't even follow his acceleration.

"Gahhh?!"

"I'm going to give you a special, all-expense-paid, one-way trip to Pain Town!" Virgo announced. "So be grateful! Gahaha!"

Even from a distance, I could hear Ludo's shoulder joints creaking and cracking.

Virgo's specialty was hyper regeneration. He could use healing spells like no other, and he took advantage of his specialty to pull off incredible physical enhancements. With all of the buffs on him, the bandits must have looked like they were standing still.

"B-Boss! I'll save—"

"Oh, one's moving." I leapt into action. "Spell of Command: Body Sealing. Self-destruction Edict. I command you again to self-harm."

"Gahhhhhh!" Another stab.

"All right, who's next?!" Virgo taunted. "Who wants a piece of me?!"

"Eeep!"

Once the bandit group's head had effectively been crushed, its body and bones turned brittle. I had most of them under control with Cursed Paralysis. Those lucky...or unlucky enough to escape my curse's grasp had to deal with Virgo's beatings. Our combination spelled the end of the Klein Bandits.

"Gahaha! Hey, Canaan!"

"What?!"

"Can you believe it?! I finally got to mess shit up with you! What a blast!"

"...You know what, you're right!"

In retrospect, I had spent most of my time as a curse-maker holed up all alone in my dungeons. It wasn't because I wanted to, mind you, but my curses had the bad habit of affecting people around me, and they were most effective in the cramped hallways of dungeons, so operating alone was the rational choice. That meant I'd never fought alongside someone. Well, I'd been in a party with my master, General Shutina, twice or thrice or so, but the experience of fighting alongside someone I trusted felt very novel.

Meeting Virgo was, after all, something of a miracle. I happened to run into his core while expanding my dungeon, and then we formed an alliance to bring down Leo and caused that dragon uprising in Eris. But, ultimately, we couldn't defeat Leo. Not even working as a team. And that's what eventually led to us becoming coworkers on a farm.

A lot had happened, but at the end of the day, Virgo was my first friend. My best friend. A person I could trust to have my back, from the bottom of my heart. And since Leo was more or less the reason I met him, I should probably have felt a little more grateful to the man.

"Keep holdin' 'em down, Canaan! I'll take them out one by one!"

"I know, I know!" I yelled back, then realized I was grinning. I continued to grin as Virgo and I decimated the remaining bandits together.

The next day, as we prepared to leave the farm behind, I could hear Virgo bellowing out commands. "All right, you guys, let's hear you say the name of the two that beat you down one more time! Say it loud so that the whole damn Demon World can hear you!"

"Yessir!" the sorry looking Klein Bandits obediently replied as they stood in a line. "We were beaten by the great Virgo and the beautiful Canaan!"

The edges on their attitudes had been neatly shaved off, and so had their hair. A sign of remorse, apparently. It looked like they'd been beaten down pretty bad by my two assistants while I was busy tinkering with the vegetables.

"Good, good! So, tell me, who did the two of us beat?"

"A group of maggots who couldn't defeat you with a dozen men, sir!"

"Brilliant! So tell me, maggots, what are you going to do now?!"

"Work the farm until we die!"

"And you know what'll happen if you break your promise, right?" Virgo threatened them with a murderous look in his eyes. It was enough to make the poor guys rattle in terror. "Listen up. You go back on your word and that'll activate Canaan's geas. You'll blow up from the inside out, and your organs will be blasted all over the ground. The spell's active for exactly one hundred years, and it's effective throughout the entire Demon World. So don't think you can run."

"P-please, have mercy!" the bandits begged. "Mr. Virgo, Miss Canaan, we'll never disobey you again!"

"Will you fight off the monsters and bandits who come after the farm?"

"Sir, yessir!"

"We'll do our best!"

"We've quit being bandits! We're gonna be farmers now!"

"There we go!" Virgo approved. "All right, one last time—who was it that beat you down again?"

"Yessir!" the Klein Bandits all desperately nodded. "We were beaten by the great Virgo and the beautiful Canaan!" That tough looking group of men had been reduced to barely a shadow of their former selves.

Well, they did pick the wrong crowd to mess with. Like me, Virgo was one of the DH Series, humanity's strongest bioweapons. And Canaan was a quasi-executive in Echidna's army and one of the world's greatest curse-makers. The men didn't have a chance from the start. Hell, what surprised me was that they were all alive. Fighting such wimps while holding back wasn't easy, so I was impressed Virgo and Canaan pulled it off. Perhaps I could safely report to Echidna that those two were doing well, and that she didn't need to worry about them.

"Virgo sure looks like he's having a good time."

"Well, of course he does," Canaan replied. "He's got an actual body, and we solved the food problem. He'll be able to work shoulder to shoulder with his brother now, so why wouldn't he be happy."

"Really? To me, it looks more like..." I hesitated.

"Like what?"

"Ah, nothing."

Personally, I thought he seemed happier about being able to fight shoulder to shoulder with his partner, Canaan...but it didn't really matter. If he was happy, he was happy.

More importantly, Canaan was right. We solved the food problem right after the bandit incident. My theory had struck gold. All I needed to do was make the food look like demon food while keeping its original flavor intact. That convinced the masses to accept it. Human food suddenly went from being tasty but uninviting, to something that was actually desirable.

"I just don't get it," Canaan said, ruffling her hair in frustration. "They taste the same, and there's no change in nutrition...all you did was change how the food looked. Is that really all it takes to change people's opinions about food?"

"Yeah, it's a pretty big factor. Three thousand years ago, back when you demons invaded, the human world ran into a serious food shortage for a while. One solution that popped up was eating bugs."

"Bugs?"

"Yeah. Instead of eating meat and vegetables, we'd eat grasshoppers and caterpillars and stuff. They're pretty tasty and nutritious...but they're bugs. Most people took one look at them and called it quits. Hell, some people said they'd rather starve to death than eat an insect. That's just how key appearance is with food."

It wasn't the case everywhere, but insect cuisine was pretty major in some parts of the world. Caterpillars, grasshoppers, bee larvae, and those gross, resilient little bastards that love to pop up in the kitchen when you really don't want them to...they all made up the diet in place of bread and rice. Since they were specifically bred to be eaten, they didn't have any poison or germs, but plenty of people felt disgust at an instinctual level when it came to eating insects. During the famine, the only people who were fine with eating bugs were the ones who had grown up doing so.

One could say the same for our current situation. No matter how tasty or healthy food was, if it looked strange or unfamiliar, it would have a sorry time being an everyday dish. "It's tasty, but I don't really want to eat it" might seem like a self-contradictory view, but it really wasn't.

"See, I had it backwards," I explained. "At first, I wanted to avoid making it look gross like demon food usually does, but I'd totally forgotten that to people born and raised here, that 'grossness' was just normal."

"Oh. Yeah," Canaan considered. "When I think about it, people in your world are always eating those green leaves. To us, it looks like you're just eating poison, but that's normal in your world, and vice versa. I guess that's something to look out for when we're importing stuff."

"Yeah. Remember yesterday, when you said it was insane to eat leafy greens? That was the key. It really clued me in. Thanks, Canaan. I'm glad I brought someone from the Demon World with me."

"Wh-why the thanks? I-I didn't do anything special." Canaan looked away in a huff. "This is just my job."

Now, to be honest, I had four goals for our project. The first was to solve the food problem. The second was to see how Virgo and Canaan worked. The third was to test Virgo's new body and the sealing system. And the fourth...was to improve relations with a coworker I didn't get along well with. In other words, to make up with Curse-maker Canaan.

When I thought about it, Canaan was aggressive towards me for the same reason Shutina and Echidna had been. Back when we were enemies, I'd brutally beaten her down. On top of that, I ended up saving her life at the finale of the wyvern incident, so she had the shame of being saved by her hated enemy.

Also, she possessed the fundamental misunderstanding that I was some scumbag trying to get into her dear master Shutina's pants. But setting that aside, Canaan was a pretty stubborn person. No matter how much we worked together, if nothing else changed, she'd just keep seeing me as her former enemy, and not as someone to accept.

Interpersonal relations are hard. If humanity could forget all the sins of the past and get along, hell, there would be no war. While it was best to keep your distance with people you didn't get along with, that wouldn't fly where coworkers were concerned. So I wanted to patch things up with Canaan, before it had an effect on our work.

And how did you make up with someone you'd blown it with? Well, there were a variety of ways, sure, but the quickest option was always the best.

"Canaan."

"Wh-what?"

"Take care of Virgo for me," I said, bowing my head.

"Huh?" Canaan looked stunned. "Wh-what do you mean?!"

Sure, you could butter someone up or win them over with material gifts, but if you wanted to connect with them on a fundamental level and not just patch things up on the surface, sincerity was really your best bet. That was my conclusion.

"Virgo's been a core for the past three thousand years. He may seem stable now, but there's no telling what'll happen with his body. And if something does happen, you're the only one who can help him."

"...You mean sealing and unsealing him, right?" Canaan questioned. "Am I the only one who can use those spells?"

"Yeah, you are. He's using the powered homunculus I grew a while back as his body, but I designated you as its master, Canaan. No one else can work the seal system, not even me, its creator."

"Are you sure? I-I mean, he's your brother, right? And you haven't seen him in ages. Are you sure you want to entrust him to me?"

"He said you're his best friend."

Virgo was still yammering away at the bandits. I glanced over at him and began recalling what he'd told me the other day. "See, I thought Canaan was just a tool at first," he'd said, "but I had it all wrong. As we worked together to take you down, I started to take a liking to her. The way she thinks, her pride, what she devotes her life to. Not a bad woman, that one. Anyway, I owe her a bunch. Wouldn't mind her being my master, either. No matter how the dice rolls, I wouldn't regret it." Virgo was a pretty proud guy, one who never thought of following orders. Hearing that from him was really something.

Virgo and Canaan may have appeared to be polar opposites, but I figured they had some kind of deep connection, something that made them realize they were the same.

"That's why I'm trusting you, Canaan. My brother really believes in you."

I was answered with stunned silence.

"Take care of Virgo for me."

"I may have underestimated you a little," Canaan finally replied with a slight frown. She looked away and began nervously twirling a strand of her wavy black hair. "I-I mean, here you are, caring about your brother and being really upfront and considerate. I thought you were just one more piece of garbage."

"Hey, what's that supposed to mean?"

"Exactly what it sounds like." She faintly laughed, and for once it was genuine. Then, after raising up her right hand to show it was empty, she slowly held out her left hand toward me.

That was an old Demon World custom. Since its history was filled with constant war and strife, handshakes were, in essence, just a form of ambush. You would offer your right hand for a shake and blast your foe at point blank with a surprise spell from your left. The move was, apparently, terribly popular.

Canaan was offering me what spellcasters considered a "true" handshake. You waved your right hand in front of your face to prove that you weren't holding a weapon, then shook with your left. It showed that you weren't hostile, and you wanted to get along.

"Looking forward to working with you, hero...er, former hero, Leo Demonhart."

"Likewise! Thanks, Canaan."

In the end, it all came down to seriously engaging with people. Not only had I finished my first job in the Demon World by solving the food shortage, I had also received a nice reminder of the secret to mending relationships.