The Head Maid

At night, things remained peaceful in the company of Luna and Asi.

When the gray morning light once again struggled to pierce the thick clouds, Vivian and her silent, resilient column, filled with an almost numb exhaustion, embarked on the final leg of their journey home.

After a week of marching, one morning, Vivian finally led her old forces back to her own Demon Lord’s Castle.

However, all that remained was a scene of ruin and broken walls.

The Demon Lord’s Castle, which should have loomed like a coiled demon dragon, was now just a vast, jagged, ugly… ruin.

Only the broken lower half of the once magnificent Demon Lord’s Castle remained.

The upper part had been sheared off by Lucia’s 【Holy Light Annihilation】 on the day of her attack.

As far as the eye could see, there was only rubble.

“Lady Demon Lord…”

Luna and Asi both looked at Vivian with some concern.

Gazing at the scene before her, even though Vivian had anticipated it, she couldn’t help but let out a deep sigh.

“It’s fine.”

She took a deep breath, her gaze piercing through the jagged wreckage.

“As long as the underground storage rooms are intact, everything can be started anew.”

That’s right.

The biggest reason she had brought everyone back to the Demon Lord’s Castle to make a comeback was the hidden underground chambers beneath it.

They stored a large amount of military supplies, including weapons, equipment, and reserve food.

The warehouses were decentralized, so in theory, they shouldn’t have been easily wiped out in one go.

Moreover, only high-ranking demons and she, Vivian, knew their specific locations and how to open them.

The warehouses had built-in self-destruct devices; if an outsider tried to open them blindly, they would be blown to smithereens along with the warehouse.

Although the Demon Lord’s Castle was destroyed, as long as the supplies underground were still there, she was confident she could reorganize production in a short period of time and re-establish order in her territory.

Vivian began to walk, stepping onto the land that had once been hers but was now covered in rubble.

The gravel under her feet made a grating sound with her every move.

And at the very moment she, Vivian, stepped into her old city—a massive shadow, swift as a phantom and burning with an ominous black flame, like a long-lurking venomous snake, suddenly burst out from behind a pile of twisted wreckage!

It carried a violent, desperate, suicidal killing intent, tearing through the air and lunging straight for Vivian’s face!

Its speed and power were so immense that the air itself let out a scorched hiss!

“Lady Demon Lord!”

“Look out—”

The alarmed cries of Luna and Asi rang out one after another.

In response, Vivian just silently glanced at the lunging black shadow, sidestepped with a very slight movement, and precisely evaded the fatal trajectory of the pounce.

At the same time, her movements were as fluid as flowing water.

She smoothly circled around to the massive black shadow’s exposed back, and without any courtesy, kicked out and stomped it under her foot.

“Awooo!”

What followed was a howl filled with rage.

It was an astonishingly large black vixen!

It maintained a half-human, half-fox beast form, its muscles bulging and rippling, covered in fur as glossy as ink, its entire body engulfed in deadly black flames that seemed to devour light—it was a high-ranking demon, a Shadowveiled Fox!

Its crimson eyes burned with pure, reckless madness and hatred.

Even while being firmly suppressed, a threatening growl still rumbled in its throat, its sharp claws frantically clawing at the ground, carving deep gouges.

Although it had hidden itself well at first, in Vivian’s eyes, it had nowhere to hide.

“Awooo—I’ll kill you! You will not defile the Lady Demon Lord’s territory! Get out! Get out!”

The black fox struggled wildly under Vivian’s foot, letting out roars filled with madness.

“Calm down, Elia. You can’t even recognize me anymore?”

Listening to the struggles and roars of the black fox she had pinned to the ground, Vivian took a breath and, with a ripple of mana, sent her voice directly into its mind.

“!”

Upon hearing Vivian’s voice, the creature’s own voice froze.

All its roaring and struggling ceased in an instant, and it stopped resisting entirely.

“Looks like you’re lucid now.”

Seeing this, Vivian lifted her foot from its back and released it.

The black fox, whom she had called Elia, scrambled up, looking at Vivian with utter disbelief.

Then, Elia’s voice choked.

Her massive body trembled from the intense emotional turmoil, and two streams of hot tears instantly gushed from her crimson beast-like eyes.

“I-I’m not seeing things, am I? It’s really… Lady Demon Lord!”

The creature was both shocked and overjoyed, clearly never expecting to see Vivian again in this lifetime.

And looking at the giant fox-like beastman, Vivian was both amused and exasperated.

The black fox before her was named Elia.

She was her head maid, responsible for maintaining the cleanliness and order of the Demon Lord’s Castle.

It could be said that seeing her again made Vivian herself very happy; at the very least, it meant there were survivors in the Demon Lord’s Castle.

“Elia, where are the others?”

“…It’s only me left, Lady Demon Lord.”

Vivian looked at the black fox beastman, who was crying tears of joy, and asked.

But Elia’s reply immediately hit her with the heavy hammer of reality.

“What happened after I left?”

“…Many humans, and also many demons, wanted to plunder the Lady Demon Lord’s legacy… but we drove them all away… Oh, it shouldn’t be called a legacy now! They are just a bunch of scoundrels coveting your property, Lady Demon Lord!”

Elia said through gritted teeth, her crimson beast eyes once again burning with a monstrous hatred, as if she were filled with hatred for those thieves.

“I understand… but regardless, I’m back now. You should revert from your beast form first, Elia.”

“Oh, I understand, Lady Demon Lord.”

With that, a fierce flame erupted from the giant black fox’s body, engulfing it entirely and gradually shrinking.

Then, as the flames suddenly extinguished, a figure staggered and appeared before Vivian.

It was a fox-girl dressed in a maid outfit that was already tattered and stained with blood and dirt.

She had messy, lusterless black hair, a pair of equally fluffy black fox ears drooped listlessly, and a large black tail covered in scars hung behind her.

Her once delicate face was covered in smudges and a few shallow cuts.

This was Elia’s usual appearance.

Elia, now in her human form, respectfully lifted her maid’s skirt and curtsied to Vivian.

“Head Maid Elia, at your service, Lady Demon Lord.”