Gray was a real taskmaster. The moment Isabelle shook his hand, he dumped a shopping list onto her. It was like having an anvil dropped on her head. With the aid of new servants, Aria found that her life had become far easier — especially since said servants physically could not refuse orders.

With Gray being Aria’s superior, those benefits applied to him as well. If he wanted, he could have Troy do handstands for the Hell of it.

Isabelle, being a demoness, had to hide her features if she wanted to be able to walk outside in public. Knowing that, Gray went ahead and gave her a pair of hazel contacts to cover up her demonic red eyes, civilian clothing and a woven basket that made even a demoness like her seem like a sweet, innocent woman.

It was the perfect disguise, and with that, Isabelle was sent out as soon as she entered the dungeon. Isabelle thought she would hate this new life as a servant, but for the first time in her life, she found that she could step out into the public without being attacked.

She strolled past the townsfolk who, despite her being a stranger, smiled and waved. Isabelle made her way past children who played outdoors that morning. She stood and observed the kids who ran about, play-fighting with wooden swords and pot-lid shields. It was mildly amusing — enough so that she could stop and watch.

“Morning,” Isabelle heard. She turned to find the hulking soldier that was Troy.

“T — Troy? What are you doing out here?”

“Why, I live here. We all live here,” he answered. She found his answer to be quite strange.

“Troy, you and I are servants who belong to the East Tide Dungeon. It isn’t like some temporary job where you go to work from dawn to dusk. You live in the dungeon — not here in this village. You are the dungeon’s guardian. You belong to the dungeon, do you not?”

“Lady Aria is my master, but she’s kind enough to let me have days off,” he answered. “On those days off, I like to spend my time living like I used to.”

“Used to?” she asked, and he let out a chuckle.

“Ignore what I just said. How about I give you a tour of this village?”

A tour? Hearing that, Isabelle gave in and nodded. Troy, with all of concealing armor on, guided her through the village. He brought her to the stalls where she marked off a few items on her grocery list, then to the shops where she marked off more and more. Finally, she made her way towards a weapon shop.

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“Mister Arkos wants you to get a weapon, doesn’t he?” Troy asked. “If I had to guess, it’s a staff, or maybe a tome. If I was the master, I’d want you to use a magical weapon — something to compliment your explosive wisps.”

“Good guess, but you’re wrong — moron.”

Isabelle pulled out the grocery shopping list. On the bottom was an unusual weapon — gauntlets.

“Gauntlets? He wants you punching enemies?” Troy asked and she shrugged.

“If you want answers, drag them out of the boss.”

The dungeon had been coming together nicely. Gray worked quietly behind his desk, scribbling away with a second pen since he had given Pen Pen to Aria. On a wide sheet of paper he made a schematic that would become the future dungeon designed like the body of a dragon — one feared by all of humanity.

He mulled it over, but at the moment, he built on whims. Whatever came to his mind, he added without a second thought. So long as he had the power of alchemy, he could build and deconstruct as he pleases.

Gray might’ve been a harsh taskmaster to his second in command’s minions, he was kind enough to go out of his way to construct rooms for the two. He made a slime cavern with lots of water taps for Troy, meanwhile Isabelle got a more fancy room, one that was reminiscent of a luxurious smoking lounge lit with gentle and demonic crimson flames. He had his skeleton minions chop down trees and cut logs into planks — material he needed to construct said rooms.

Aria worked with Gray, ordering the skeleton minions around, telling them exactly what to do. She had them cut, carve and oil with precision — forming the perfect rooms she desired. She even went ahead and planned out the entrance, and with Pen Pen’s help, she drew up schematics with traps and tricks marked out.

After a hard day’s work, the previous entrance, which was nothing but the ruins of some ancient structure, had been refurbished completely. Into the mouth of a cavern was the opening of the dungeon marked out with stone brick. She had the skeletons set torches connected with flame crystal dust accompanied by fog creating wisps that added a dreary, dangerous atmosphere to the lair.

She stood before her masterpiece surrounded by her skeleton minions who all patted one another on the back. A job well done. Approaching from behind were her two star minions.

“Lady Aria?” she heard. It was Troy who stumbled across the fog covered entrance of his home.

Aria turned to see the two, and with a smile, she bowed.

“Welcome back. While you were gone, I put the skeleton crew to work. What do you think?”

Seeing the lair, Troy put a hand on his chin to say, “It’s quite impressive. You did all this in a few hours?”

“When you have a skeleton crew like ours, they can get work done incredibly quickly.” and she pointed to the mountain face which was covered in scaffolding. While they spoke, there were skeletons working to carve into the cave and form the towering entrance.

Aria brought the two inside. Instead of heading towards Gray’s office, they instead went down a new corridor that led to a room that radiated intense heat. She turned the corner to find a forge had been installed. Sitting by the heart of the forge was none other than Gray. He wore a metal welding mask, a soot covered apron and carried with him a hefty hammer.

He reached out a hand to Isabelle. “Hand the gauntlets over.”