Chapter 749: Christmas Extra Chapter: A Starry Night Part 1 (2/2)
[Head-dono…… Since when have you been there…… No, no, I'm going to enjoy my tea time now.]
[Cut with the bullsh*t and get your ass over here.]
[Head-dono, aren't you being a bit too strict to me!? I've just taken on the important role of overseeing the venue……]
Before she knew it, Iris had arrived at the venue and just like that, she grabbed Polaris by the scruff of her neck and took her away.
[What, you probably just watched the others in the first half, and you only joined in after someone pointed you out.]
[……This is quite the problem. I can't say anything back because all of it is true. If that's the case, I at least demand that the method of transportation be improved. Putting aside whether you have a higher standing on me or not, the maiden that I am isn't comfortable with a method of transportation that involves my buttocks sweeping the floor.]
[I see, in that case……]
[Okay, Head-dono. I'm sorry. I'll stand and walk. So, please stop trying to blast me away with magic…… I'd like to excuse myself from being cooked along with the other ingredients.]
After seeing off Polaris, who was also taken away just as usual, Eulpecula and Spica, who were left behind, looked at each other.
[Eul~~ What should we do?]
[Yes, we're not as bad at cooking as that idiot Sirius, but we're not really that good at it…… so even if we help, we'd just be in the way.]
[Guess you're right~~ We'd just drag them down.]
[Then, let's just do something else. We still have some time to spare, so why don't we prepare our present for Isis-sama and Kaito-sama?]
As a side note, Eulpecula and Spica are good friends. The innocent and cheerful Eulpecula and the carefree and gentle Spica are somehow compatible in terms of personality.
[That's a great idea~~ I'm sure that they'll definitely be delighted.]
[That's right! And then, if things go well, they might pat my head again…… Ehehe.]
[Since the two of them look good together~~ maybe we should get them matching gifts.]
[Hmmm, if it's accessories or flower wreaths, we could easily make it. Let's make it together!]
[Yes~~]
Unlike the other pairs, this pair seemed to be enjoying themselves as they discussed what kind of present they wanted to give.
<Afterword>
Additional details about the Pleiades, longer than the main story
① Black Violent Star, Iris Illuminus
She is the leader of Pleiades and is everyone's mother. The member she's closest with is Polaris, being that she is also the second oldest of the group. Even though she finds Polaris a bit of a handful in a different way than Alice, that doesn't mean she doesn't like her.
I've already talked about her a lot in the main story, so I have nothing more to add.
② Far North Star, Polaris
She is the deputy head of the Pleiades, basically assisting Iris with her duties.
She was born with Limited Future Sight, which allows her to ”know the consequences of her actions before they happen”.
She is a Demon who was saved by Isis when she was dying about 14,000 years ago, but as a weak Demon at that time, she was frightened by Isis' magic power of death and ran away from her.
She deeply regretted that she hadn't even thanked the person who saved her life, and wanting to use the life that Isis had saved for Isis, she settled down on an uninhabited island in the far north of the Demon Realm, and spent all her time training with the dream of one day apologizing to Isis and becoming her subordinate.
After spending so many years acquiring the power of a peak Count-rank, she was happy to finally be able to become Isis' subordinate…… but in the futures Polaris saw through her ability, for some reason, she could only see ”the result of hurting Isis's heart, making her sad” when she tried to become her subordinate.
(At that time, Isis' heart wasn't composed enough to accept subordinates, where her eyes are only set on her first wish, someone without any power who would accept her, so being accepted as her subordinate would be quite rough.)
Polaris' ability is limited, so although she knows the result, she wasn't about to know ”the process ending on that result or the cause of why such a result occurred”, so she was stuck, unable to understand why she would make Isis sad by trying to become her subordinate.
She continued to train during the day, wondering if her power was still lacking, and at night, she continued to use ability to figure out how to become Isis' subordinate without causing her grief but…… the ”result” she saw didn't change, causing her distress.
But one day, the result that was visible suddenly changed from ”hurting Isis' heart, making her sad” to ”Isis refusing Polaris' request to become her subordinate with an apologetic expression on her face.
(Isis' mentality changed after meeting Kaito)
Sensing the hint of possibility, she used her ability even more and continued to seek the future where she could become Isis' subordinate…… In the end, she was able to see that the action of ”waiting in place” would lead her to ”becoming Isis' subordinate along with a woman with hair of two colors, black and gray”, so she suppressed her impatience and continued to wait for Iris' arrival on the northernmost island.
Her wish was fulfilled, and she was able to express her gratitude and apology to Isis and became her subordinate. In the beginning, she had mixed feelings about Iris, because she honestly wanted to be ”Death King's Head subordinate”…… but once she had a mock battle with Iris, she approved of her being Death King's Head subordinate and started calling her ”Head-dono”, and their relationship started going towards a good direction.
She adores Isis to the point of fanaticism, believing that her life exists for Isis' sake. However, she isn't someone like Pandora, whose loyalty can be observed by others, and was instead like Ein, who is loyalty quietly laid within her heart, so it is hard for people to notice her.
③ Fox Monster Star Eulpecula
Not only is she the last member to join the Pleiades, she is also the youngest among the Count-level, high-ranking Demons at the age of 119. She is an overwhelming genius who has outgrown the 700-year record of World King's executive subordinate ”Cherry Blossom Princess” Blossom, and has risen to peak Count-rank in just 80 years, the fastest time in history for a Demon who is supposed to grow slowly. (T/N: Sakurahanahime)
According to Alice, ”In terms of talent alone, she's one of those bug characters along with Lilia-san”.
When she was injured and collapsed when she was a monster, she was found and treated by Isis and Kaito, who happened to be passing by. (This is after she temporarily overcame her magic power of death in the Intermission Chapter: Challenge to the Magic Power of Death)
At that moment, in order not to give her unnecessary burden, Isis held hands with Kaito and applied Recovery Magic while suppressing her magic power of death, so both Isis and Kaito's magic power entered her body.
It wouldn't have mattered if it was just that, but due to her original talents and characteristics, she adapted to the magic power of death and became attached to Isis and Kaito.
Exposed to Isis' powerful magic power, her dormant talent blossomed. She quickly evolved into a Demon and acquiring knowledge and power like a thirsty sponge absorbing water, she became Isis' subordinate.
She loves Isis and Kaito, and is a sweet and obedient child in front of them, but her attitude changes when they aren't around…… In particular, she repeatedly plays pranks on Sirius and Rasal, such as slamming pies into their faces as they pass each other, or dropping giant snowballs on them when they are fighting each other, which is why Sirius and Rasal call her an ”evil fox”.
Perhaps, because of their compatible personalities, she was closest to Spica among the Pleiades, and they often play together.
She wears a miko-like outer garment, skirt and leggings, which makes it look like she's wearing a modified miko outfit.
④ Crystal Flower Star Spica
Spica is a Blue Crystal Flower spirit. She is a calm and relaxed older sister who makes people feel at ease just by being around her.
Her tone of voice is a mixture of Kansai dialect and Kyoto dialect, and her outfit is that of a western dress, although she sounds like she would be wearing Japanese clothes.
She first bloomed in a place close to the center of the Demon Realm…… ”The Forbidden Lands”, and as a result of the residual magic power of the Six Kings that flowed from the Forbidden Lands, she gained a lot of power and as a result, a spirit dwelled within that flower.
However, that didn't mean that she did anything in particular. She moves around the Demon Realm, lazily swaying with the wind for several hundred years, and as if she remembered something, she would move to another place to sway with the wind again. She is a genuinely laid-back person.
Isis found that Blue Crystal Flower blooming in a wasteland by chance, and brought it back without knowing that it was inhabited by a spirit, because she felt sorry for it to be blooming in such an empty place.
At first, due to her magic power of death, she thought Isis was an evil being and never showed herself, wanting to escape when she saw an opening…… but as she learned more about Isis, realizing that it was just a misunderstanding, she showed Isis her appearance as a spirit.
Later, when she learned about Isis' deep attachment to Blue Crystal Flowers, she took a liking to her and eventually decided to take root in her castle and became her subordinate.
As is the case with other Spirits, she is better at defending than attacking, and her sturdy defense has earned her the nickname ”The Fortress of Chalk”…… However, she doesn't like fighting in the first place, and she is more proud about her ability to make Blue Crystal Flower bloom as much as she wants.
She usually spends her time relaxing, having tea with Isis and the other members of Pleiades, or with Isis' permission, growing Blue Crystal Flowers in a part of the Land of Death.
Among the Pleiades, she gets along with Eulpecula the most, and she loves her like a sister.
As a side note, the place where Spica was growing the Blue Crystal Flowers was the place that would later become ”Crystal City”, the city ruled by Isis, and the large amount of Blue Crystal Flowers that Spica grew became a tourist attraction and symbol of the city.
Regarding her personal thoughts about what had happened, she is just happy that so many people like the Blue Crystal Flowers.
⑤ Celestial Blade Star, Sirius
An Insectoid Demon that only pursued her own strength. She was confident in her strength and called herself the best swordsman in the Demon Realm. But one day, she was defeated by a mysterious swordsman, and with that humiliation in mind, she continued to train herself for many years. (T/N: She’s a Humanoid Insect.)
She perfected her ideal swordsmanship, and wishing to fight an overwhelmingly powerful person, she visited the castle of one of the Six Kings, Isis, whom she could easily meet in person, and asked Isis for a fight.
It resulted in her disastrous defeat, but seeing Isis was so kind and strong that she was willing to accept her sudden request and even worried about her when she was defeated, she wanted to become her subordinate.
In short, it was something like ”I fell in love with your strength, Big Sis! Please make me your lackey!!!”
After that, although their circumstances are somewhat similar, Sirius, who is a proud knight who fights fair and square, and Rasal, who is the complete opposite and thinks that winning easily, even by using cowardly means, is justice, were like cats and dogs, fighting with each other almost every day.
However, it doesn't mean that she truly dislikes Rasal. She recognizes her abilities and cooperates with her when she should.
She is still searching for that mysterious swordsman who defeated her in the past, but has yet to find any information about her, even though she was a very strong person. However, she isn't in a hurry to find her, for she believes that as she continues to train under Isis, the day of her revenge will eventually come.
As a side note, when a certain Transcendental Beauty saw her from a distance, she murmured ”……No, you're mistaken…… I just happened to be in disguise at that time and was fooling around with the sword I just made…… I'm not a swordsman, okay?” or something like that……
⑥ Earth Bound Star Rasal Malfik
A super-elite loner and transcendental hikikomori necromancer-cum-sorcerer…… She had been holed up in a cave doing research for a long time and had no interest in the outside world, so she had never attended the Festival of Heroes and even though she knew they existed, she had never even seen the Six Kings.
It's on a level that she only comes out of her cave once every few thousand years, and not holding any interest about how she was apparently a Count-level, high-ranking Demon, she forgot about it.
After many years, she had finally completed the research she had envisioned and left her cave. And as she searched for her next goals, the thought ”For the time being, I heard that among those Six Kings whatever, there was someone self-conceited that they dare call themselves the Death King disregarding my opinion, so let's make her see who is worthy of being the Death King” came to her mind, so she attacked Isis' castle without knowing who she was or what she was capable of.
She was expecting her to be about even with her, or maybe even a little better, but when she saw Isis appear, fully clad in her magic power of death……Muttering ”She's the real deal……”, she decided to ”bow down in a dogeza right from the start”.
As for what was in Rasal's mind at that time…… It was ”I thought the Death King was a necromancer just like me, but then, I saw something that looked like the concept of death given form itself. There's no way I can win against that.”
As a result, the flow of the situation made her say something along the lines of ”I'm here to be your subordinate”, and ended up being her subordinate, living in Isis' castle.
While she was dismayed by Isis' naivety, who welcomed me with open arms, she thought it was the perfect place for research because of the large number of rare books, and her new master being sweet and naive, she became a hikikomori in Isis' castle and began to research at her leisure, without doing anything that would be considered as a subordinate's duty.
However, Isis herself was so happy to have a new resident, and she didn't even complain about Rasal isolating herself. Even though she was supposed to be her master, Isis came to visit her with gifts, and she taught her when she didn't understand something……
Before she knew it, she had somehow become moved by Isis' kindness, swearing her allegiance to Isis, and this time, she began to work diligently as her subordinate…… Well, she didn't have that much work to do anyway, so she still spends most of her time for research.
She often clashes with Sirius because of their different values, but just like Sirius, she doesn't really hate her. Saying ”She's an annoying woman, but I'm a little jealous of the way she lives, which is something I can't do for the rest of my life”, she recognizes her, and cooperates with her when needed.
Incidentally, she always carries around a huge coffin, which inside seems to be the same as a magic box, containing all the undead she made.