"S, so. We, should get going…" Axel mumbles as he glances at the owner, who was sitting behind the counter…

"Mind the blood on the floor…" The owner responds flatly as he keeps looking at the blood splatter on the ceiling…

"Ye, yea…" Axel nods slightly as he turns around.

"Are you going to be alright?..." Reila asks right after with a worried voice as she glances towards a table on the far right side of the room, the ex Demon queen casually sitting on a chair, nomming on some fried fries…

"I'll manage. Watch the roads you two…" The owner nods back…

"Also, mind I ask that you don't bring every single Spire knight here? I can handle this myself." He adds as he also glances at Aria, who was too focused on gobbling down her plate…

With a small nod, the party of two turned to head towards the exit. The owner then let out a small sigh, and turned towards his attendance book…

(Let's see…)

He then grabbed a pen and turned to the 'D' page.

"Two chicken breasts, three large portions of fried fries, one smashed wall, a cleaning crew…." The owner wrote 'Aria' on the book as he kept mumbling. Then deleted it, and wrote 'Annoying Ex Demon queen'' over it.

"And, a menace to society." He adds.

"You called?" Aria almost instantly responds as she turns to look at the owner, a single potato fry between her lips.

"You done?" The owner asks back.

"Umm, nope. And I want to order one more plate. These fries are amazing!" Aria merrily responds as she glances at her almost empty plate…

"Fourth plate. Where do you even fit all that? You should normally look like a fat ork if you always eat like that…" The owner closes the book as he turns to look at Aria.

"Oh~ everything just goes, here~." She responds as she grabs her chest, then squeezes it together with a grin.

"...Keep your succubus genes in check please. This is a family-friendly store." The owner shakes his head as he turns to walk towards the kitchen.

"Hey! You were supposed to stare and get embarrassed!" Aria shouts as the owner closes the door behind him.

He then went straight to the chopping board, and started to prepare the Ex Demon queen's fourth plate…

"She'd better pay for all this…" The owner sighs as he keeps chopping away.

"Or what? Are you going to mess me up?" A female voice responds with a giggle from his left.

"No, I'm going to ban you and kick you out, even if it levels this place to the ground." The owner responds with a slight shrug.

"That, is actually no fun at all." Aria answers as she walks up next to the owner, then sits on the counter next to him.

"Come on, why are you so hostile towards me?" Aria asks right after.

"You blasted a hole in my wall, and have yet to pay a single coin. This is my friendly face." The owner responds as he turns to look at her with a serious expression.

"And correct me if I'm wrong, but this is 'your' plate I'm making." The owner adds.

"Well, yea. But, there's no love in it." Aria answers as she leans towards the plate.

"I think you're in the wrong store if that's what you're looking for." The owner adds flatly.

"Woa there. Just because we Demons are more passionate compared to humans. Doesn't mean we're shallow." Aria frowns as she folds her arms.

"Rabbit Demons gang up on everything remotely male." The owner responds.

"Dragon Demons stay loyal to one person for their whole life." Aria answers.

"A succubus. No explanation needed." The owner keeps on.

"Mermaids save shipwrecked humans without expecting anything in return." Aria adds right after.

"The kitsune in your castle abducts adventurers." The owner shrugs.

"She saves idiots that wander too far unprepared. She lets them go after they recover. It's not her fault they all want to touch the fluffy tail. You can't simply just touch fluffy tail." Aria answers.

"The, who what? Uhh, can you get your butt off the counter? I need it." The owner responds as he arches an eyebrow.

"Only if you apologize. I'm not shallow." Aria answers as she pouts slightly with her arms folded.

"What are you, five? Fine, I apologize. Now get your ass off my counter. Please." The owner groans.

"...That, was the sorriest excuse of an apology if I ever heard one. But at least you said please." Aria chuckles as she jumps off the counter.

"Just pay your damn tab once you're done…" The owner adds as he slides the chopped potatoes to where Aria was sitting, then pulls a pan from under the counter.

"If that's all you're worried about, then don't worry, I'll pay." She answers. Then, her eyes go slightly wide.

" Actually! I'll do more than just pay~. Wait here." She adds as she quickly leaves the room by phasing through the wall next to her…

"...Should I be, worried?..." The owner asks pretty much himself as he glances at the wall the Ex Demon queen just used to exit the room.

And the rest of the process of making fried potatoes, went on in silence…

-15 minutes later-

The owner was in front of the counter with a mop. The table that Aria was sitting at some time ago having a plate full of fried fries, untouched by the person they were made for, since that person was nowhere to be seen.

"How the crap am I going to clean the ceiling…." The owner sighed as he looked up.

"Calling actual cleaners will take too long, the blood will end up caked on the surface. I'm still adding this to Aria's tab though. And I can't just slap water to the ceiling.." The owner continued, then turned to look outside.

And speaking of the Devil, or more correctly, Demon. A white horned woman appeared on the stone path in the distance.

And as she walked towards the building. Behind her, a tall gray-skinned male ogre appeared, about two times the height of the average human. Carrying large treated wooden planks on its shoulder with a bored expression.

Behind that ogre, another one, carrying smooth marble slabs, behind that one, another, and another….

"...I have a really bad feeling about this." The owner whispers as he walks out of the building towards Aria. Mop still in hand.

"What, exactly are you doing…" He asks as he closes in on the purple-skinned woman.

"I'm going to fix your wall." She responds as she folds her arms.

"My wall didn't have marble." The owner adds as he points the bloody mop at the ogre with the marble slabs.

"And I'm also going to upgrade this poor excuse of a building. For free~" Aria adds as she grins.

"You no touch my building woman." The owner then responds as he points the mop towards Arias face.

"Something tells me you don't trust me." Aria chuckles as she moves the mop away from her face with one finger.

"I don't trust you." The owner declares flatly.

Enjoying this book? Seek out the original to ensure the author gets credit.

"...Hmm, how about this then. If you don't like it after I'm done. I'll let you take whatever you want from my vault. No strings attached." Aria answers as she smiles…

"..." The owner just kept staring in silence.

"Come on, I kept my word after I lost, I deserve at least this much faith." Aria continues. The owner glances at the Ogres, then back at Aria.

"Fine…" And he finally lowers his mop as he answers.

"Perfect~. Alright you lot! Get to work!" Aria shouts with a wide smile as she turns towards the ogres.

"Just one question." The owner adds as he turns to look at the tall ogres.

"How the crap did you get them here undetected?" He continues.

"Oh, it was easy. I just teleported them into the forest." Aria casually shrugs.

"All of them?" The owner asks as he glances at the group of a total of six ogres.

"Please, something like this is child's play for me." Aria declares proudly.

"Then why didn't you just teleport a whole army past the mountain when you were still in charge?" The owner asks again.

"Hmm, now you sound just like Tiama." Aria chuckles.

"Tiama?" The owner asks back.

"The kitsune that I mentioned, the one in the castle. She had the same idea when I was still ruling. Too bad some crazy human beat me before I could pull it off." Aria answers.

(Wonder if her daughter is capable of such a feat, it would be really bad for the humans if she could just teleport a whole army flat center into Iero.)

"But! No more questions! Time to go~" Aria chimes as she walks up closer to the owner.

"Go? Go where?" The owner asks as he takes a step back.

"We obviously can't stay here while the ogres work." Aria chuckles.

"I'm not…"

"Off we go!" She then quickly adds before the owner could respond. And the world around him turned black…

After several seconds in pitch blackness, the owner felt his feet touching the ground again, rocky, uneven ground…

And…

"Uhh. This, was not where I was aiming to go…" Aria whispers as she looks around a very primitive-looking village, several large bonfires littering the uneven rocky ground, along with circular stone huts. The air was also rather cold, as from looking around you could see that the whole village was actually on the side of a mountain. And, ogres, gray mountain ogres everywhere…

"Did you just bring me to an ogre village…" The owner turns his sight towards Aria, broom still in hand.

"Uhh damn it, did the ogres around me somehow affect the teleportation? Ugh, long-range teleporting is so finicky…" Aria grumbles while the ogres started to slowly gather around the two new 'visitors'.

"First you waste a plate of good fries, now this. What's next?" The owner asks.

"Uhh, I did what with fries?" Aria asks, ignoring the Ogres around her.

"You know, the fourth plate you ordered?" The owner responds. Aria letting out an, 'Ohhh' as her eyes went slightly wide.

"Well, guess the ogres you dragged there will have a free meal." The owner adds. And Aria, after looking at the owner in silence for a few seconds.

"Wait here for a sec." Speaks up, and disappears….

Now it was the owner, surrounded by ogres…

(Did she just….)

"UUUGRAAAAA!" And before he could finish that though, a loud shout echoed from behind him, as a single ogre with a club lifted over its head, which looked more like a ripped tree trunk, came charging straight at him, the rest of the ogres keeping a closed circle around the owner as they started shouting, grunting, and overly being noisy.

(Leave me here?...)

The owner casually jumps to the side as the club comes crashing down next to him.

"AAAAAA!" The ogre then slides the club on the ground, straight towards the owner.

(No wonder female ogres tend to live in separate villages, these guys are way too aggressive. And while the females are taller than the average human, they are still about half the size of the males, also much thinner. These guys are friggin fat...)

The owner thought as he jumped on the club. The ogre then lifting the club to shoulder height as he stared at the owner.

"STUPID FLY!" It shouted as it started flaying the club around.

"You really need to calm down." The owner responds as he shoves the wet mop in the ogre's face.

"UGRRAAAAA!" Which of course had quite the opposite effect as the ogre, now blinded by the mop in its face, charged forward, lifting the club violently up and tossing the owner behind it. Then, using the momentum, it brought the club down, straight on the head of another random ogre….

As the owner landed, he found that everything had turned silent. Turning to glance behind him, he found a single ogre motionless on the ground, the other ogres staring at it in silence. A silence that must have lasted, two seconds at best. As every single ogre then decided that the next best thing to do after seeing one of their own getting a concussion, was to start rampaging.

Some ogres punched each other, others grabbed whatever was next to them to swing like a makeshift weapon, even the club ogre which was initially aiming towards the owner, was now swinging that club towards the nearest ogre.

(...)

The owner just stood in the middle, mop still in hand as he kept looking around him. Other than the occasional ogre that rushed towards him, then past him and into whatever ogre was then in its way, they mostly ignored him.

Using the chance, he slipped by the giant brawl that had broken out, and headed towards the edge of the village, which was next to a very steep slope that went downhill, essentially it was more like a failed cliff and a failed hill at the same time.

(Well, at least the view is something to behold.)

Down in the distance, you could see a long desert, and even further, on the other side of that desert. Black scorched earth.

(Hmm, wait, I know this layout, I'm actually on the Schism. On the side that overlooks the Underworld. The desert, then the scorched land, and past that are the forests, swamps, and purple fields, before finally reaching the Demon castle.)

The owner glanced behind him, and after making sure that no stay ogre was going towards him, he looked back towards the Underworld.

(I had also spotted several cities when I first came here, but honestly, I never did go inside any of them. But this place is friggin vast compared to the Overworld. I even got lost, several times. For longer than I'd like to admit. Though, I guess that worked in my favor in the end…)

"Hey~ Sorry for that~ I couldn't leaWUoa!" And Aria appears where the owner was some time ago, in other words, in the center of an ogre royale.

The owner turns to look behind him, to find the ex-Demon queen with a plate full of fries on her hand, only for her to then disappear behind a couple of ogres a second later.

"What do you think you're doing!?" She shouts right after.

"Where you think you're touching you perverts!? OI! Hands, Off, my fries!" And just as she finishes speaking.

A loud blast, and half the ogres that had encircled the ex Demon queen, along with a couple of huts, get sent flying, with one of the ogres getting shot over the owner with a loud cry, and towards the desert.

"Ohhh, he ded…." The owner whistles as he follows the flying ogre with his sight. Until it disappeared into the vast desert below.

"Amazed by my increased power? You may bask in my glory, I'll allow it, just for you~" Aria chimes as she walks up to the owner. Who then turns to look at Aria, who was nomming on her fries.

"You just killed a living being for a bunch of fries." The owner adds.

"Please, ogres don't die this easy." Aria scoffs.

"You tossed one all the way to the desert." He then pointed at the desert in the distance.

"So now he's a desert ogre. Also, they attacked me." Aria shrugs.

"...They were attacking everything, you just happened to be in their way." The owner shakes his head as he turns to look towards the desert.

"They ganged up on me! And a couple of them groped me too..." Aria responds as she frowns.

"Then wear normal clothes?" The owner flatly adds.

"These clothes are part of the Demon lord's legacy. I can't just wander around in rags." Aria then answers as she folds her arms.

"Or are you actually bothered that another guy got a feel?~" Aria then adds as she leans towards the owner with a smirk.

"How long till your refurbishings are finished?" The owner asked.

"Avoid the question ehh? But, to answer your question. Why the rush? Come on, don't be boring. Where do you wanna go next? Underground crystal cave complex? Scorched land lava baths? The swamp treant village? Pyramid oasis? Violet field outlook? My room?" Aria brings up her hand and starts counting with her fingers as she speaks.

"How does your room even compare to the rest?" The owner asks back as he folds his arms.

"It has me inside." Aria responds almost instantly.

"Figures…" The owner sighs.

And after a few seconds.

"Silence means I get to choose~" Aria speaks up, she then lifts her hand in a motion to snap her fingers.

And as Aria snapped her fingers, the owner quickly sidestepped. Which caused Aria, and her plate of fries, to teleport without him.

"So much about having a quiet day…" He sighs as he glances behind him, half the ogre 'village' flattened by the wrath of a potato munching woman. The ogres themselves seemingly not giving much of a fig about the state of their village…

"Hmm, now that she mentioned it though, if I take a couple of colorful big crystals from the crystal cave, then self illuminate them, polishing them and put them under the pool's water. It would make for quite the atmosphere during the night." And just as the owner scratches his chin while whispering to himself.

"Hey! Don't just skip out on me!" An annoyed Ex Demon queen appears next to him. The plate of fries, gone.

"...Where's the plate?" The owner asks as he glances at Aria.

"Left it in my room." Aria responds casually.

"I'm adding that plate to your tab." The owner answers as he looks back towards the desert.

"You can take it back, I don't want it. You just need to come along with me~" Aria chimes right after.

"And I'm pretty sure it was a silver plate. So that's, two gold coins." The owner continues.

"...Uhh, wait. Why is a silver plate worth gold coins and not silver coins?" Aria asks as she tilts her head with a slight frown.

" Because a craftsman needs to make a profit." The owner responds.

"Your craftsman overcharges you. Find a better one." Aria scoffs.

"I could introduce you to an Oni craftsman, err craftswoman I know. Buuut, you need to come with me." She continues.

"I don't need any craftsmen right now. And if I will need one because of your refurbishings. Then I'm…"

"Adding that to my tab?" Aria cuts off the owner as she smirks.

"Yes, and should you be smirking like that when you're getting charged?" The owner asks as he turns to look at Aria. Who just shrugged.

"Because you're barely even making a dent anyway." Aria responds flatly.

" I see. Well I'm staying here till the ogres are done wrecking my shop." The owner answers back as he turns to sit on a nearby rock.

"Fiiine. Let's do it your boring way then..." Aria groans as she walks up to the rock, and sits right next to the owner.

(Did I lock the enchantment room? Last thing I need is a bunch of ogres in there…)