It was in the middle of winter, as the town was feeling merry once more.

A marriage!

But it wasn't Villager B and Villager C. He still couldn't work up the courage to ask her.

Fewer people were traveling, so they decided to work harder on refurbishing the homes and buildings. Money making was put on hold, which aggravated Lord Beltos.

Sitting around him were the top three, Villagers A, B, and C.

"Hmm…I could go for a warm soak about now."

For some reason, Villager C's answer gave Lord Beltos an idea. The next day, four strange beings were in front of them.

"These are Elementals. I bought four since they were cheaper as a bundle."

The three humans nodded since this was common for something their Lord to say.

The large stone monster turned around and made a large hole in the ground. It created a tunnel towards a place higher up the mountain. The water monster and fire monster sat near each other, producing their element quickly. The Fire Elemental was not in the water, but just near it to warm it up.

The water went through the tunnel and cooled down enough to become normal. But when the fire creature tried to enter the water, the water evaporated, making it pointless to try and warm up the water that way.

Stolen from its rightful place, this narrative is not meant to be on Amazon; report any sightings.

In sad spirits that his idea didn't work out, Lord Beltos went back to the castle, leaving the trio to watch over the four monsters alone. Then, a plopping sound came from one of them.

"Did that mud monster just…poop?"

"It did…what do we do?"

"Leave it? It doesn't stink."

"Guys! Look at it! It's a magic stone!"

Sure enough, Villager C was right. These elemental rocks gave off great power. They looked at each other and grinned at the money going to come in. Then, they realized something.

"Wouldn't a fire stone work perfectly here?"

"Yes!"

Sure enough, when they added the fire stones to the pool in which the water monster laid in, the water immediately heated up past the heat normal humans could take. Thankfully, the Water Elemental was fine.

When a dejected Demon Lord walked back outside several days later, he saw lots of people in the town.

"My Lord! It worked! We have a lot of customers!"

Lord Beltos started to cry.

"It worked!"

The three laughed at the childlike way Lord Beltos acted, and then showed him the magic stones.

"Ew, get that away from me!"

The three laughed. It wasn't squishy like normal fecal matter, so it wasn't messy. They were like stones, hence the name.

"We can make a lot more money off of these than even the magic dust!"

The Demon Lord's eyes went wide as money symbols could be seen reflected in them.

The hot springs of Rotenburg became a popular sensation to the citizens of the Holy Kingdom, and the Royal Family finally made a move. However, it was just to visit the hot springs as well.

Did they even know about the Demon Lord? Most people did, they just kept quiet about it. Times were tough and no one wanted to cause problems. But the rough diamond now known as Rotenburg was looking mighty tasty to other nobles who were down on their luck.

The city was about to face tough times.

But Lord Beltos was happily counting his money and ignoring the world.