Two months had passed since the skirmish between the Heroes and the Demon-Lord occurred. The world was quietly tense, wondering what the Demon-Lord was up to. But if any of the world’s people saw his situation, they would be confused by his current predicament.

Rana had Caeldaemos pinned up against the wall, both hands on either side of his head.

“Cael. Why did you not mention having such knowledge earlier?” Rana asked him.

“Um…” He glanced down at the small ladder she was standing on to meet him face-to-face. “Sorry?”

“Do you have any idea how profitable such ideas are!?” Rana hopped down the ladder.

“Well… no.” He responded.

She sighed. “OWP corners the market on advanced technology from your world all the time! The five heroes? Likely signed a contract with OWP to prevent them from working with any other company. With you being a separate entity, we could start an entirely different company!”

“Do we know what kind of technology the other heroes brought?” Liara asked.

“Yes! I have been looking into it in my spare time.” Rana smiled and pulled out a notebook.

Opening it, she gathered them around. “Hana hasn’t really brought much regarding technology but has brought forth several workplace revisions and management techniques. Greggory apparently worked in agriculture, so OWP is working on building farm equipment. Lindsey had knowledge of modern medicine and medical procedures, so they are making advancements in that. Haley apparently knows a lot about transportation.”

“And the piece of shit?” Liara asked, scorning the last hero.

“The only things he has contributed was the creation of drills and some construction equipment.” Rana reluctantly replied.

“So, what is different with Cael then?” Listamati asked.

“Advancements in computer technology and… entertainment!” Rana exclaimed.

“I agree with the first part, but entertainment? I’m sure the other heroes can provide that.” He commented.

“But that’s the thing! There have not been any advancements in entertainment! OWP targets wealthy individuals to make their profits, but I have a different plan: tap both markets.” Rana was practically bouncing in her seat.

“You want to have items specialized toward the wealthy while providing more affordable items for commoners?” Caeldaemos asked.

“Correct! When you told me about your world and how most technology was available to the masses, I wanted to do it!”

“I don’t know, Rana. Video games and television might keep people locked inside their homes with such items. Some people would develop unhealthy habits because of it. I certainly did.” Caeldaemos warned.

“Which is why I got more interested in that one thing you mentioned… um, what was it… V, V, V-something.”

“VR?”

“Yes!” She smiled while pointing at him.

He exhaled heavily. “Virtual Reality is good in the fact that it allows people to move their bodies, but I am still worried about the costs of your plan. Not to mention that I am not great with programming beyond PLCs. We would need someone who can build an Operating System for the games to run off, not to mention games to play.”

“That’s why you need to talk to someone who can help,” Rana replied with a happy smile.

“And that’s how we ended up here.” Caeldaemos finished explaining.

Yanni was borderline vibrating in his seat with how excited he was. “That is fantastic, Cael! I love the idea! I will help you two start your business and be an investor!”

“Thank you for accepting our proposal.” Rana thanked him.

“But Rana.” Caeldaemos turned to her.

She looked up at him with an expectant smile.

“Do we really need that much money?”

“Pah! You most definitely need money! If you want to make the plan successful, you will need a lot of it!” Yanni shouted.

Caeldaemos tilted his head at the merchant noble. “I somehow feel we are not talking about the same plan.”

Rana gave Yanni a look that could kill. Yanni’s covered his mouth and began to sweat.

Caeldaemos eyed them suspiciously. “What are you two hiding?”

“Nothing bad! I swear by Io!” “What she said, my friend! We only mean the best for you! I swear by Tilra!”

The hazes of light passed over the two nervous people.

Caeldaemos sighed. “Fine. I won’t pry.”

The two sighed in relief.

Caeldaemos had been catching many of his closest people doing suspicious things behind his back.

The first three were his wives, catching them having a heated discussion while looking at a map. They panicked when he appeared in the room and covered the map with their bodies.

Another was Lily and Mari traveling between Hallibrush and Galgalake using One with Darkness. He asked them what they were up to and if he could help. They responded that they were providing a correspondence service for Mayor Toto and the Town Hall.

Next was Mayor Toto, that brought a special pendant that he had one of the Hallibrush craftsmen make. It was a plain metal pendant, but the symbol carved into it was that of a pair of praying hands with three pairs of wings. Two pairs were feathery, while one set looked like a set of demon wings.

Mayor Toto had Caeldaemos use a new ability he unlocked since he got his Create Item skill above rank 20, Copy-Item. Any item he touched or held, he could easily copy the thing using mana or materials if they were available.

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The good mayor asked Caeldaemos to add the status cloaking ability to the pendants to hide anything related to the Demon-Lord. Caeldaemos didn’t mind, as it would help him improve his skill. He decided to practice his circuit building into the pendant, adding a deployable protective barrier. All one had to do was pour some mana into it.

After making a few hundred of the pendants, Orelia and Sophia helped to distribute them among the people of Hallibrush. Orelia also had him take some to the town of Flower for Lady Temerilla and her people.

Back in Yanni’s estate, he passed over the pendant for Yanni and explained what it did.

“Fantastic! Hmm, the design is quite nice.” Yanni commented as he inspected it.

“Do you happen to have any more of those?” Aurea, Yanni’s tall wife, asked.

“I have a bunch. After I turned over the ones to Orelia, I made a handful more to give to anyone I closely associate with.” Caeldaemos pulled another out for her.

“Lord Cael!” “Mister Cael!” “Mista Qwail.”

Yanni’s three children ran into the room and began hanging on Caeldaemos.

“Hey! Paul, Roger, Mindy.” Caeldaemos welcomed them with a smile.

Paul was Yanni’s eldest son, taking after his mother’s looks and height. Roger was the middle child who looked more like his father, and Mindy, the youngest, looked to be an even mix between the two parents.

The three didn’t mind Caeldaemos’ True Demon-Lord form in the least bit. Though, since he had learned everyone was looking for a giant demon with four horns and wings, he kept one set hidden. They loved hearing his stories and playing with him when he came around.

“Can you play with us?” Paul asked.

“Yes! Please?” Roger begged.

“Pwease?” Mindy added while tilting her head cutely.

Rana giggled. “Go ahead, Cael. I will discuss the business items with Yanni.”

“I will join you, Caeldaemos.” Aurea stood from her seat.

“Sounds excellent! Let’s head up to my study Rana. We have a lot to go over.” Yanni said as he got up.

Rana and Yanni headed upstairs while beginning their discussions. Caeldaemos carried Roger and Paul on his shoulders while Aurea carried Mindy to the back garden.

“WAH! HAHAHAHAH!” Paul cheered happily as Caeldaemos flew above the estate carrying the boy.

Caeldaemos swooped up, tilting backward, and began plummeting toward the ground. For an extra thrill for the boy, he began to spin. A decent distance from the land, he swooped up again and coasted to where Aurea awaited.

Caeldaemos put down the dizzy boy, who laughed and stumbled onto his mother’s lap.

Aurea laughed at her giggling son. “Oh my, look at your hair and clothes.”

Both boys were in a disheveled state after flying around in such a wild manner.

Mindy toddled over to Caeldaemos. “Me next!”

“Alright.” Caeldaemos picked her up and floated into the air.

Unlike with the boys, he was much more careful to not scare the little girl, keeping only six feet above the ground and casually flying about.

Mindy would giggle and cheer whenever he would lazily roll in the air or dip low and come back up to six feet.

After flying for about five minutes, he returned the little girl to her mother.

“Thank you, Caeldaemos.” Aurea thanked him as she took her happy daughter into her arms.

“Heh, heh. No problem.” He smiled as he took a seat at the table.

The boys were already back to running about the open area of the garden, pretending like they were flying.

Caeldaemos watched them with a happy smile.

“Have you thought of having some yourself?” Aurea asked as she helped her daughter to drink.

“Huh? Kids…” Caeldaemos sat back in his seat heavily.

“What troubles you?” Aurea asked with a kind smile.

He sighed. “Mostly, the Demon-Lord thing.”

“What about Lily?” Aurea asked.

“I love Lily wholeheartedly and want to give her the world.” He paused. “Not in a Demon-Lord kind of giving.” He clarified.

Aurea laughed.

“I don’t know. The girls haven’t mentioned the desire to have kids to me, but then again, I haven’t broached the subject with them. All of us have been so busy these last couple of months. I often check on Geon at the Ever-Night Forest as she continues to absorb all the miasma there. Then I have been doing mercenary jobs solo lately.” He sighed.

It was not like they didn’t see each other at all. He saw them plenty each day and would spend time together. But it just seemed like everyone has been too busy lately that it was primarily meals and sleeping together.

He sighed again.

“Sad?” Mindy asked.

Caeldaemos smiled down at her. “Nope. Just a bit lonely.”

Mindy hopped off her mother’s lap and had him put her on his.

“Still lonely?” She asked.

His expression brightened immensely. “Nope. Not lonely at all.” He hugged her.

“You should talk to them, Caeldaemos. I’m sure they would be more than willing to make more time for you.” Aurea offered.

“Yeah, but I don’t want to be a bother to them and their ‘Great Secret Plan.’ I’ve offered to help them, but they just asked me to keep working on getting stronger. I’ve just about cleared out the entirety of the Ever-Night Forest.” He huffed.

“How is your injury? I heard you got hurt.” Aurea asked.

“That? Hah, hah, hah. I have instant regeneration. I don’t think I have to worry too much about being taken out by the heroes so long as I keep ahead of them. Besides, I have a powerful trump card to use if things look dicey.” Caeldaemos replied.

Mindy played with the amulet around her neck as her mother, and him spoke. Caeldaemos had checked Aurea’s and the kid’s statuses earlier and found they all had the Demon-Lord Follower descriptor. When he gifted pendants to the kids, they cheered happily.

“Cael.” Rana and Yanni approached.

“Finished up?” He asked.

“Yes. We have a good plan. We will be building the workshop in Hallibrush. Yanni will provide raw materials and financial assistance.” Rana answered.

Yanni looked at her tiredly. “You are, by far, one of the most difficult deals I have ever done.”

Aurea laughed at his comment and made sure to exchange numbers with Rana.

“We’ll be in contact,” Rana said as she joined Caeldaemos.

“I’ll visit again soon, guys.” Caeldaemos bid farewell to the children.

With their goodbyes complete, Caeldaemos teleported them back to Hallibrush.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

“Welcome back!” Lily skipped over to them and gave out hugs.

“You just got back from Galgalake? How was the house?” Caeldaemos asked.

“It was good.” Lily brightly smiled.

“Cael, do you have any ideas of how to make the VR?” Rana asked.

“Honestly, I don’t know where to start. I could probably make the circuits for it. The problem is the program. I will think on it more while I check on Geon.” Caeldaemos replied.

“Say hi for me!” Lily said happily.

“Take care over there.” Rana saw him off.

He then teleported to the ruins of Ever-Night.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Caeldaemos looked out the open window. “Wow, the miasma looks like it thinned out a lot.”

He left the small room he was in and entered the throne room where Geon’s core was set.

“Hey, boss!” Geon cheerily welcomed him.

“How are things, Geon. Are you doing well?” He sat down in a chair he created.

“Yup! Since Dawnfrey is gone from the location, the miasma is no longer generating, so I think I might be done cleaning the area in a couple of weeks. Thanks for creating another barrier to keep it from being purified.”

“You’re welcome.” Caeldaemos pulled out a pen and paper.

“What are you working on?” She asked.

“An entertainment system. But I don’t know where to start.”

“Tell me about it. Maybe I can help?”

Caeldaemos took an hour to go over what their goal was.

“That… sounds… COOL!” Geon excitedly swam around in her core.

He chuckled at her reaction. “Like I said, it is hard to decide where to start. I can make all the items with my mana….” He tilted his head in thought.

“Mana…” He raised his hands, created a wooden board, and broke it in half.

“Not it.” He tried again, but the board deteriorated, reduced to nothing but pure mana.

Caeldaemos continued to try while Geon watched on curiously.

Thirteen attempts later, he broke the board in two. Once it was broken, it began to slowly deteriorate, releasing small amounts of pure mana into the air.

“Got it!” He cried with a triumphant smile.

“Huh. Instead of converting the mana into wood, you kept it as a solid pure mana in the form of wood. Is there a reason for that?” Geon asked.

“I remember a concept from my world called Hard-Light-Formations. Basically, it’s solidifying light to create a form. I tried doing it with mana. I think instead of VR, why not do something a bit more… magical?”

Caeldaemos then went into detail about what his idea was. With each additional point, Geon got more excited at the thought.

“That’s great! Oh, I think I could make the ‘Operating System.’” Geon informed him.

“Really? That would be great. I will work on making the hardware.” Caeldaemos fist bumped the core surface where Geon reciprocated.

The two got to work on their ends.

Caeldaemos called his family to inform them that we would stay in Ever-Night while he worked on the project. They had their secret plan, he was going to have his, and he wanted to surprise them.