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I woke up.

When I checked the Tozumaho, it was 5:30 am. The demons still hadn’t come.
In the end, I only slept for 4 and a half hours. My sleep was probably shallow due to being nervous.

I got out of the simple bed and checked my surroundings. Apparently, about one fourth of the people at the north gate were currently taking a nap.

I called out to the knight commander who was standing close by. It looked like he had been nice enough to guard Mika and me.

“…Mr. Knight Commander, I’m awake now. Thank you so much for watching over us.
“Oh… Alim. Good morning. Those demon fellows still haven’t arrived, you see.”
“Yes… that seems to be the case.”

I casually looked at Mika, who was still meditating. How should I put it, the magic power swirling around her had become quite terrifying.

The people in this world could feel MP and magic power, as if they had a dedicated sense for it. Of course, Mika and I could do so, too. The magic power I could perceive from Mika wasn’t anything half-hearted, and I understood at a glance that, should she fire off magic in that condition, it would likely manifest tremendous power.

Great, looks like Mika’s meditation worked properly. In one and a half more hour, she’ll probably be finished.

Since my belly felt a bit empty, I took out the ingredients to make some soup.

Of course, it’s impossible to feed all 15’000 people, but let’s make enough for Mika, me, the king and the others, and the surrounding knights who look like they’re guarding us.

Consequently, I went into the magic room for a spell to make the soup. The broth was made from a Master Potion with the taste removed. For the meat… Blue Chagemaro¹ tongues and Child Dragon meat. For vegetables, it was mainly cabbage and onions.

I distributed it to the knights at once, who were quite delighted.
Very good.

Well, as was only natural for those called knights, they were all quite refined, so it would be ridiculous to compare them to members of the “Association of Alim Adorers”… They were the kind of people you expect to see in fantasy novels.²　

Samurais, in Japanese terms.

Well, about 30% of those knights are people I’ve talked to before at least once, but…

Of course, I also distributed soup to the king, the minister, the knight commander, and the archbishop. I was worried, eating meat might be a religious taboo for the archbishop, but apparently that wasn’t the case. He accepted the soup and ate it normally.

Recently, the seasons had turned to fall, and it started to become a bit chilly. The soup distribution was readily announced.

Now, I’m done killing some time, though, in fact, it has only been 20 minutes since I woke up. Still… there’s no sign of them showing up, is there~…? What should I do?

To busy myself some more, I created an accessory to wear on my foot with the “if the owner dies, they are automatically revived once³“-effect, and equipped it.

This will probably come in handy.

By the way, an accessory worn on the foot is apparently called an “Anklet”. I didn’t know that.

While I was doing stuff like that, it turned 6 am. When I checked the Tozumaho, and saw it was 6:02 am, I had a thought.

Couldn’t it be possible, that they’d arrive at 6 am, plus 6 minutes and 6 seconds?⁴

Nah… It can’t be that the demons of this world are imitating Greek legends from earth… or the book of revelation… Well, the names of the upper echelon certainly sound like those names in some regards.
No, that’s impossible…

While thinking about it, I looked at the Tozumaho.

It showed 06:05:48.

Finally, when it turned 06:06:06⁵, the sky suddenly started to cast over completely with black clouds.

While I was still wrapping my thoughts around this, I sensed some kind of power. I readied my weapon. It looked like everyone else was the same.

It felt different from Mephistophales or the demons Mika and Bacchus had fought with… A great force. When I tried to look into the direction from where I felt that force, I saw a woman… no, a girl of the same age Mika and I were on earth, with wings that shone with dark, rainbow colors on her back. She, who was likely Samaeyl, approached together with Mephistophales and 3 other demons. In one hand, the girl was grasping Droprot.

“Ka… Karuna⁶…” I could hear the king mutter.

So, that means, this girl is the queen. She’s currently Samaeyl… right?

“Yes~! You’ve all been waiting, haven’t you?!” Mephistophales declared with a smile⁷. “May the war between the demons and humans… begin~!”

Together with his voice, the three other demons fell onto the humans. Further, a large demon driving an enormous chariot emerged from the sky.

And at the same time… from all directions in this place… or would it be better to call it airspace? Where nothing should have been, demons and magic beasts suddenly appeared.

I didn’t expect them to appear at my predicted time. …You know, could there be someone, who’s originally from earth, on our opponents’ side? At this point, I can only assume so…

TL notes:
The number 666 comes from the Textus Receptus in the Book of Revelation. I didn’t find anything about it appearing in Greek legends, it’s possible the author mixed it up with the New Testament originally being written in Greek. There’s also a theory the number represents the Roman emperor Nero, since transliterating his name from Greek into Hebrew apparently produces the number 666.

1. The original is チャゲマロ (chagemaro). “Maro” appears to be a common pet-name for small, round things, but I have no idea where the “chage” part might come from. The name showed up in chapter 47. They are the fur-ball things from the first dungeon.
2. Not 100% sure if I got that sentence right. The “are all quite refined”-part might also refer to the association people, though that wouldn’t make much sense.
3. At this point, is there anything he cannot do with item master?
4. This works better in Japanese since they write the time as #hours, #minutes, #seconds.
5. Makes you wonder if there’s some magical framework the Tozumaho (and whatever the demons use to tell the time) taps into to get an accurate time measurement. Otherwise, they’d probably be several minutes off.
6. The original is マルア (marua). Later chapters indicate that the name is actually Karuna. It’s possible the author changed it partway through volume 7 and forgot to fix it here and in the next chapter.
7. In the original it uses 広角 (wide-angle) instead of 口角 (corners of the mouth), which is most likely a typo. Otherwise Mephistophales would raise (something undefined) in a wide-angle before he talks.