Harbingers of Change

With her handler gone for a moment, Elma stood on a smaller side street of Tempest's capital. The city guards were well aware of her presence and knew why she was there. It would probably take some time before she got an audience with Lord Momonga, not that there was any need to hurry.

Leaning against the wall, she observed the passing hobgoblins. Determined, happy, full of life. They were going about their lives without fear, just like the denizens of any decently run kingdom would. This was not something that would come to mind when seeing the monstrous leaders in person for the first time.

'I will have to find a way to occupy my time here. That is, if nothing goes wrong.' she mused. As the King's voice, her only task was to carry around the communication orb and maybe give some personal input from time to time, that's it. Unless she found a way to trick the shadow demons, any kind of spying was out of the question. At least she didn't have to return to what was before being in service of King Gazel. The fear of not being in control of her fate was ever-present, and this time, there was no way out of it. There was no cruel master to kill in his sleep, nowhere to run. She was at the complete mercy of fate this time.

'Maybe it is my fate to live among the monsters and learn all I can about their nation.' Elma thought to distract herself from the unpleasant feeling. Just observing daily activities wouldn't be spying, and thus no one would blame her for just being curious. A lot of how a leader thinks can be observed by how he rules.

{ Lord Momonga is ready to receive you. }

'Any details?'

{ You can shadow step directly to the throne room. You already know how to act. }

Easier said than done. But ensured by the knowledge that she would not be harmed as long as King Gazel and Lord Momonga came to at least some agreement, Elma could at least keep her composure. With a quick movement, she emerged in the throne room by stepping out of the shadow of one of the columns.

Lord Momonga sat on the throne, watching her silently, with two demons beside him, who were watching her as well. With a silent gulp, she moved forward, taking slow, steady steps, stopping about four meters away from the throne and kneeling silently.

"You may rise and speak." the demoness standing at the right of the throne said.

"I delivered the letter as promised, Lord Momonga. King Gazel appointed me as his voice and sends a communication orb." Elma said, standing up, taking out the small crystal ball from her pocket and holding it out. Demiurge walked up to her, taking the orb with a smile that made her blood freeze, and quickly returned to his position beside the throne, handing over the small object to his master.

Momonga took the orb with a practiced motion, holding it in his skeletal fingers for a moment. Once again, |Dark Sage| rescued him from a potentially embarrassing situation and gave him an instinctual knowledge of how the magical device worked. Minimal fueling with his own magicules made the orb glow as a strong, deep voice could be heard.

"I am the King of the Armed Nation of Dwargon, Gazel Dwargo. I hope my servant has caused no misunderstanding?"

"Not at all, King Dwargo. I am the Supreme Overlord of the Tempest Hegemony, Momonga Tempest." He responded in an equally majestic tone.

'Why did I have to follow up on their advice on using such a title? At least Peroroncino and Veldora thought it sounded cool.'

"I will start by stating that I hold no ill will, even with how my servant was treated when entering the Tempest territory, as no one was aware of the nation's existence at the time. That said, I want to send an official envoy and open up trade relations between our nations."

"I will await your representatives and assure you that no harm will come to them."

Standing and listening to the polite interaction between her King and Lord Momonga had the calming effect she desperately needed. If Tempest and Dwargon were on friendly terms, then she was safe as well. The two demons still looked at her as if she was less than dirt, but that was likely because of their nature. Even lesser demons were a considerable threat. For most of the powerful ones, an elf like her was no more than a plaything, posing no threat. There was one thing she knew for sure: demons tend to follow any deal made to its fullest extent. If their master was to assure no one from Dwargon would be harmed, that meant they would do everything in their power to make that true.

When the conversation was over, and the orb was given back to her, Momonga spoke, "As the Voice of King Gazel, we will provide you with accommodations according to your current stature."

"Thank you, Lord Momonga."

"The servant assigned to you is waiting outside. Enjoy your stay," Demiurge said, twisting his face into a half-smile half-smirk.

Elma gulped again and did her best to muster a smile in return. She knew she wanted to avoid interacting with this demon at all costs. With a quick jump through the shadows, she was outside once again, where the hobgoblin that guided her before already waited. He bowed with a charming smile, saying.

"Lady Elma, your accommodations are prepared. I am assigned to be your assistant and promise to do my best to not sully the good name of my master."

The young hobgoblin surely felt like a honey trap. It was a common tactic used in both espionage and diplomacy. It was unclear why it was used against her, as a shadow demon was a much more effective safeguard, but there was no helping it either way.

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The moment Gazel's representative was gone, Momonga wanted to let out a sigh of relief, but that had to wait until he was not in the presence of his two advisors. At least he could use the opportunity and let both of them express their opinions.

"I am curious about your opinions on the current matter?" he started, knowing that the bait would be eagerly taken.

"This King Gazel is clearly a cautious and calculating ruler. It was a brilliant move to use the spy as his representative, knowing we wouldn't get any new information out from her. If I would have to guess, the official envoy will not possess any intimate knowledge of Dwargon's inner workings either."

"Excellent. Right on point, as always."

"You give me too much credit, my lord," Demiurge said, barely containing himself.

'They will figure out that I am just making them do all the work eventually. I must learn to be a leader on my own before it's too late. But he is so happy to think he has guessed my plans… Maybe with the help of |Dark Sage|, I can at least get to his level at some point.'

"Albedo, do you have anything to add?"

"It would be safe to assume Dwargon will try to assess both our financial situation and military might. A greater number of pop units stationed outside would make Tempest look stronger and wealthier than it actually is without Nazarick's direct support. I would think it is adamant that we do not reveal Nazarick itself in any capacity before we have a full assessment of all the power bases of this world."

"Right you are. You can carry it out."

"At once, Lord Momonga." Albedo said, giving Demiurge a smug glance.

'Are they competing? That can't be good. What if they overdo it? I'll just have to wait and see, and hope that they both don't go too far overboard.'

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Two hundred hobgoblins and goblinas stood in orderly rows dressed in manservant and maid outfits respectively. In front of them stood the six Pleiades battle maids, with Yuri in the center. Thanks to Lady Bukubukuchagama, they had received the task of training Tempest's castle staff. Best of all, there was no need to worry, as Lord Momonga had promised that both cleaning the ninth floor and catering to the needs of Nazarick's leadership would still be left in the hands of the Pleiades and Homunculus maids.

She personally named fifty goblins, with her sisters each getting thirty. In the end, it didn't matter that much, as all of them would serve Nazarick either way. Each would be trained to perform cleaning at the same level as the homunculus maids and be taught basic etiquette. Finally, all of them would be trained in combat, forming the battle servant unit.

Yuri could clearly see how excited her sisters were to prove themselves to the Supreme Beings. Of course, the newly gained servants were a far cry from Nazarick's native denizens, but they still served all the same, and thus should be treated as any other servant of Supreme Beings.

"Now then." Yuri said, clapping her hands together, "Each of you will start with the simple task of cleaning the palace with our oversight. By the end of the day, not one speck of dust should remain. Take your tools and start."

"Can we at least punish those who slack off?" Lupu asked, barely being able to stand in one place. For her to receive so many new toys to play with was beyond exhilarating.

"Pain is a great motivator, after all." Solution chimed in with a smile too wide for the human appearance she held at the moment.

"Why do you both have to be so horrible? They serve Nazarick the same as us. Treat them accordingly."

"The Supreme Being entrusted us to train these worthless creatures to be on par with the Homunculus maids. I'll be off to whip them into shape." Narberal Gamma said. Her creator had chosen to make her with long dark hair styled in a ponytail, eyes to match the hair, and snow-white skin. Although each of them had a different creator, all the Pleiades considered themselves sisters. In the case of Narberal, she looked similar enough to Yuri to be considered her actual sister.

"Then I'll be off as well." Solution said, fading away using one of her assassin's abilities.

"Of course, just remember to make them finish before the sun goes down. Lord Sebas will come to inspect the results." Yuri said to her sisters, although some of them were already gone.

"Got it, sis." Lupu said, sprinting off in the direction of the group that she named.

One of the last two present was CZ2128 Delta, or Shizu, the shortest of the group. Dressed in a metallic maid's outfit with camouflage coloring, long red-gold hair, and a green right eye. Her left or targeting eye was covered with eyepatch making her stand out the most among the group as her appearance was more that of a soldier than a maid.

'One of the good girls. At least Shizu will not cause any problems.'

The final one, Entoma Vasilissa Zeta, was only a tiny bit taller than Shizu. Her notable feature was the unmoving face with red eyes. In fact, her real insectoid face was hidden beneath the cute mask, with her entire body being covered with clothing only a few knew how she looked.

"Shizu, Entoma, is everything clear?"

"Yes." Both responded in unison, walking off to their own groups.

'I hope Entoma will not try to eat the ones she named. She can be a good girl if she is not hungry, and breakfast was big enough.'

Just as she predicted, the goblin servants struggled to perform the tasks correctly, but at least they listened to her advice on how to apply proper cleaning techniques. Yuri noticed how, after she had named them, they too felt like brothers and sisters. Of course, not in the sense that she and the rest of the Pleiades shared a connection, but undeniably the naming had made a bond between them and her.

She felt about them as she thought her creator would have felt about her. Lesser beings compared to her, but still important. Each and every goblin she named was her responsibility now, making the task of teaching them that much more important.

Edited by Edgy

Additional proofreading by placid_void