I can feel my body stiffen a bit but thankfully the others don’t notice. It is a good thing I am projecting normal eyes over my fancy glowing blue ring ones. If I had not been doing that from the start they would have probably noticed my eyes shifting back and forth nervously and gotten suspicious.

Straightening myself out and acting as though my reaction is out of shock at their actions and not at my own dangerous situation; I feel dozens of questions rush through my mind as I try to formulate the best way to respond.

Why is the guild investigating? Is it just this group? Why send Class 3s? The Dragon Empire should have plenty of high level soldiers to send out on their own, so how did I only run into a group now after my Title was announced many months ago?

[ Be careful in giving away any information, don’t let on that you have been in this forest since before the announcement. ]

With that warming from Alice appearing in the corner of my vision I hedge my bets with a safe but vague response.

“Oh right, I had forgotten about the Demon Lord announcement thing. I had been so busy focusing on surviving in this forest that it slipped my mind.“

Trying to not outright lie while keeping the reality of my situation under wraps I press a for a bit of information.

“Has there been any news about what was going on with that? I had a lot to deal with at the time so I couldn’t check how other people were responding.”

Keeping my detached vision focused on the three’s faces I try to gauge their response in case they suspect me of anything. Thankfully I don’t see the slightest suspicion in their reactions.

“Oh no, don’t worry. We were sent by the guild just to calm down some baseless rumors that were spreading in town. There have been all kinds of rumors and false sightings since, people were quite freaked out when the announcement went out.

By now though, most people just think that the Demon Lord must be far away or has no interest in attacking humans. After all, our only records of the Demon Lord title read like children's books.”

Ah, that must be why they only sent Class 3s and they were just running around the second ring.

“There was a bit of a stir when the adventurers noticed a lot of high danger Class 2 threats in the second ring were all killed. So we were sent to check things out and make sure there was nothing fishy going on.”

Chiming in with a bit more context on their reason for being out here Rose waved off the whole Demon Lord talk.

“Yeah, we don’t need to worry about that anymore since we discovered the reason for the dead Class 2 Leaders.” Jen gives a pointed look at me, a small smirk forming on her lips.

I shrink back a bit, thinking this situation just keeps getting worse and worse.

Congrats guys, you accomplished your mission. You found the Demon Lord…

I am glad no one in their right mind would think a 15 year old Class 2 girl to be the Demon Lord. I may have to lean on that perception to stay out of trouble in the future.

“There was a lot of panic when that freaky box appeared in everyone's vision. All the nearby nations formed an alliance just in case, but now that is on the verge of breaking after there being no real sightings of this Demon Lord.”

Leaning back Helimos runs his hands through his golden hair in a way that I feel is just an attempt to try and look cool.

“The Alcott Kingdom which proposed the alliance is not in a great position right now.”

“I see. I didn’t know that, thanks.”

The tale has been taken without authorization; if you see it on Amazon, report the incident.

Taking in the information I realize that the effects of that announcement were far larger than I had imagined, and at the same time the result is less so.

I am amazed that so many nations came together to form an alliance after just one announcement. Most nations are at eachothers throats constantly. Putting aside their differences and greed is something I have never seen happen before.

Though it seems that my lack of action as the Demon Lord has allowed their greed to push past their fear. Maybe I should wait until the alliance breaks before taking any action in my role as Demon Lord. Let the chaos conceal my work.

After all, a united human front would be a real problem for someone as weak as me.

As I contemplate my possible plans for when I finally put deed to Title I curl up under a dome of wood and spikes made from my horse golem and go to sleep.

…

..

.

We have been walking and chatting for a couple days now as I find myself warming up to the adventurers. I don’t trust them in the slightest but I understand that the more they like me the more I can get out of them once we reach the city.

I have been working on a new spell since yesterday so I have been a bit quiet. I saw the group fight against a Class 2 monster and it made me reevaluate my perspective on my current spell list.

They cut apart the creature faster than I could blink, moving at inhuman speeds that not even my distorted perception could keep up with. That scene made me realize that you can’t fight against an attack that you can’t perceive. And while I have plenty of attacks by now, I am still rather lacking in defense.

My main focus is on combining my detection map that I have constantly running with some form of accelerated thinking. I should get proper enhanced perception like that when I advance to Class 3 but having it early could greatly affect my eventual evolution. That, and provide massive benefits in combat.

I had been moving my vision around at high speed while messing around with some golemancy magic on my own body when I saw something massive get in my way.

“Oh, wow. We are already so close to the big cliff thingy that separates the rings.”

That careless comment gets some surprised looks from the adventurers.

“You can tell?” Rose asks, looking a bit confused at how I noticed before they did.

I do my best to come up with a technically true answer while concealing my light magic.

“Oh, uh. yeah. I have some golems out there ahead of us and I can see through their eyes if I want.”

Nothing I said was a lie. I really do have golems out there and I can look through their eyes using light magic, I just didn’t tell the whole truth. I have a weird hangup about lying, which is probably not the best for a Demon Lord I’ll be honest. It is a complicated and troublesome character trait I would like to get rid of, but have had to accept as part of me for a while now.

I sigh a bit internally at how hard it will be to keep my identity secret when I find it quite difficult to force myself to lie.

“Huh, interesting. This golemancy seems really useful. You can even make your own weapons and armor from what I see.”

Getting a slightly rare comment from Jen, who usually keeps out of conversations, I nod my head at her observation. I am not sure if she just doesn’t talk much or is focused on scouting with her wind magic. Whatever the reason may be, I like her the best. Because she knows what boundaries are.

After a bit more idle chatter about the city, and Rose trying to get back into my good graces with her attempt at comedy, we come face to face with a steep cliff of solid stone.

Towering into the sky the dark grey monument of stone extends past the tree tops and gives us a glimpse of the first ring above.

Helimos walks up to the cliff face, trailing along the side for about an hour before coming across a big metal pole stuck into the ground a foot away from the wall.

I see him pull out his golden adventurers badge and hold the little shield up to the post. Mana flows between the small badge and the dull and slightly worn box of metal that is about as tall as I am. The ground rumbles for a second and then I see an incredible sight.

The stone of the cliff twists and warps until a barrier that I had not even realized was there falls away. Before my eyes runes float up and glow along the wall which then presses the stone open to reveal a staircase that could fit a creature several times the size of my horse golem. The staggeringly large staircase lighting up in intervals like those torch scenes in every story about exploring ancient magic temples for glass skulls or whatever.

“Woah, I had no idea this thing was here…”

I can see a smug look on Helimos’ face at my comment but everyone ignores him when Jen asks me how I actually ended up in the second ring if I didn’t know about the staircase.

“Ah, wait sorry. If you don’t want to talk about it, that is fine.”

Trying to walk back her question after realizing that such a question would touch on my whole parents trying to kill me experience, Jen waves her hands in apology.

“It is fine, I ended up in the second ring after that whole situation was over. I was trying to get out of the forest when a monster kicked me off the cliff.”

“What?!”

Now that gets a real freak out from the group, causing them to all pause on the steps and look at me like I have two heads.

“How did you survive?!” Rose shouts out making me wince as the sound pierces my ears and echoes through the cave like staircase.

“I ended up getting caught by a monster on the way down as it was planning to save me for a snack. I managed to get out of it fine in the end though.”

“You can be all blase about it now but you were freaking out quite a bit when it happened.”

“Oh yeah, like you were any better. You were trying to act all cool but I could see the fear in your eyes when I woke up.”

As I bicker with Alice, I get some rather incredulous looks from the three adventurers. Both amazed that I can be so casual about such a dangerous situation and shocked at the way Alice and I are teasing each other.

“Actually, back on the whole Demon Lord topic from a while ago. Does anyone know what the Title does?”

Helimos apparently being the one with the most knowledge about the topic seems overjoyed to be the one to fill me in on the lore.

“No, all records of it are vague at best. just lots of death and destruction. However there are all kinds of ancient stories about demons that I have found interesting. Listen to this: Supposedly all the demons were sealed away millennia ago by a hero from another world!”

Once again I have to stop myself from freezing in my tracks at the revelations I keep getting as I talk to these people more.

“A hero from another world?”