Supreme Monarch

Albert walked from the first floor through to the Third Floor of the north wing in the Demon's king castle. The hard soles of his leather shoes clacked loudly against the ground, and the echoes faded away into silence. He stopped by a large window in the hall he was in and glanced at the view outside the castle.

Many of his men who are now his master's vassals had been set out to maintain security, including creatures like the gray trolls and the undead. He also had a few of them in the castle but they did not impair the mythic atmosphere in this place.

Suddenly, Albert looked around and smiled.

"…Truly magnificent."

The object of his admiration was the entirety of the Castle, especially the fourth floor of the north wing which he had just entered. It was a place that complemented a supreme monarch, the entity for whom Albert had pledged his utmost loyalty and would abandon everything for. Therefore, Albert had grown to cherish everything here, striving to maintain and improve on them.

He had spent only a little over two weeks here but after patrolling the entire castle several times already. He could tell how much more valuable and precious this place was than his own family's castle. This place was like a delicate treasure that belonged to his master and thus he would do everything in his power to take care of it.

There was nothing more important to a servant than to be of use to one's master and thus, Joy filled Albert's heart every time he walked through this place, after making sure the new maids he had trained had properly cleaned and maintained it. The satisfaction he received from this further reinforced his devotion to his master who was currently away in business.

Including the trolls and undead, the current fighting force of the castle was still less than a hundred and they had more than four hundred people in the castle. While most of those could not offer any help on the battlefield, Albert had still put most of the women to work.

Based on his experiences as a Noble even before he became a Lord, he trained the young women to become maids capable of cleaning and taking care of the castle flawlessly. He also had them make uniforms for them based on the design that the Lady Rain had suggested which Albert didn't agree with as he did not understand why they had to be that short but she had insisted, saying that Lord Ty would like it and he had no choice but to yield to her wishes.

As these thoughts passed through Albert's mind, he turned a corner. His destination was before his eyes, the dome-shaped room that lead to the throne room of his master. The room contained the last layer of defense (The passage of the Fallen) although those defensive measures were currently inactive.

As he approached the room's large door, he saw several people open it and leave.

These people immediately noticed Albert and waited courteously for him to approach.

One of them was dressed like a butler, but he was dressed entirely in black aside from his white gloves. It looked less like a set of butler's clothes and more like a combat uniform.

He was the new addition to Albert's team, a former member or leader for the scout of the Zorak family. Zomatsu was his name but ever since his master had called him Z in passing, that had become his name to everyone else. The name didn't seem to bother him but Albert still maintained use of his full name as a show of respect for recognizing his master's strength and pledging his loyalty towards him.

He currently wore a silver-colored mask to hide his face as his normal hooded cloak was prohibited by Albert saying it wasn't a proper outfit that could be worn around such a magnificent castle. Zomatsu was seemingly unable to stand his appearance for some strange reason even though he was quite the attractive fellow, so Albert gave him the mask and permitted only that within the premises.

In addition, another person was standing next to him, dressed in his usual coveralls and holding a parchment while fiddling with a strange device.

"Well hello. This is quite an unusual sight, why exactly are our famed blacksmith and new trainer coming out of that room?"

Upon hearing Albert's questioning greetings, Zomatsu and Berlin Bungo bowed slightly at him as they turned to answer.

"Indeed, you're right lord Albert. Also good morning sir."

"Good morning."

"Yes, I was called to escort Mr. Blacksmith here to take a look at those stone golems if he could fix it or make a new one as he could not be reached via telepathy and had locked himself in his room."

"Ah, I see." Albert had immediately understood the entirety of the situation as he knew full well what a hand full this so-called famed blacksmith was just because he claimed to have been taught by dwarves.

However, the fact that Zomatsu had been able to drag him out of his room without issues was truly impressive. Even if he had gone himself he would have to spend hours there trying to convince him to leave his work.

Albert was very impressed with Zomatsu's ability. Not only was he very prudent, but he was also very intelligent, enough to pick up on everyone's tendencies so he could be more efficient around them and in the task, he was given.

Nodding his head he asked another question.

"Is Erin inside?"

"Yes, the Lady Erin and Lady Liz are both working within."

While Albert was put in charge of the castle while his master was away. The girls, Erin, Liz, and Rain were also given tasks of their own and Rain was currently busy preparing to leave the castle with Liz on business he wasn't aware of.

However, he was aware of the fact that they had also been tasked with taking notes and if possible fixing all the magic mechanisms within the castle and currently, they seem to be working on the ones inside this room.

He nodded to Zomatsu and then asked:

"Say, how is the new training regimen you prepared for our fighting force going?"

"Quite well if I do say so myself. Everyone is incredibly eager to grow after getting ran over by Lord Ty's minion the other day. They are now able to hold their own against the undead knight."

"And the Lich?"

"Not yet. There is still a lot to work on but a few of them have shown great promise and rapid progress."

"I take it Azar Is one of them."

"Hmm, oh you mean the ogre chieftain. Well, I sent him and the evolved trolls out on a mission on lord Ty's orders. Their strength is already equal to mine so there was nothing much to teach them. I only gave them a little advice based on everything I've seen so far."

"I see."

"Yes, I have also currently been tasked with devising a feasible plan in Lord Ty's desire to regain control over the darkin mountain range as well as setting up and choosing the right personnel for our information network as we're currently blind to the rest of the world."

Albert nodded his head to Zomatsu's words and when he was done speaking, he asked another question:

"I know your job is very important for the growth and safety of Lord Ty's vassals, but who will be in charge of the vassal's training while you're indisposed?"

"That would be Jarret. According to what I gathered he seemed to be the most capable although he still has a lot to learn he has an incredible drive to improve and I'm sure lord Ty would agree, although I hate to be presumptuous."

"Oh no, I'm sure lord Ty would agree that Jarret was the best person for the job. Although it seems I may have been rude in my questioning."

After seeing Albert slightly lower his head in apology, Zomatsu signaled that he had not taken it to heart. "Then, I'll be on my way. I have to escort Mr. Berlin back to his chambers as he seems to be unfamiliar with the layout of the castle due to him spending all his time in his room. He claims he'll get lost otherwise."

"That indeed sounds like you Berlin."

Berlin chuckled dryly as he scratched the back of his head still staring at the device he had been tinkering with the entire time.

"Then, We shall take our leave, Lord Albert."

"Alright. Farewell."

After looking briefly at the famed blacksmith being lead out of this floor by Zomatsu, Albert knocked gently on the large doors to the oval-shaped room:

"This is Albert. Pardon the intrusion."

He was exceedingly polite, despite the absence of the room's owner. This was because to Albert, every room in the castle was deserving of respect especially the ones that had anything to do with his master's authority.

Albert entered the room, which should have been empty and contained the remains of several broken statues on the floor.

The first thing he saw was Erin in her full glory. It had been a long time since Albert had seen her in this form as she floated in the air with her hair being almost translucent and her skin literally glowing.

Water tentacles sprout out from the ground as they moved around the room seemingly attempting to fix the magic circuits that were originally hidden in the room. Magic runes that Albert had not noticed before appeared in the walls all around the room. It was like the entire room was one large and complicated magic circle.

Liz moved around with an expensive looking hardcover book and a quil, as she jotted down the magic runes that they did not understand for later translation. It would seem she could read some level of magic runes which was something that eluded Albert as he could only read a portion of the basic runes.

Zomatsu had made mention of that to him as well. If he wanted to get stronger he had to work on his spells instead of only his skills and secret techniques.

Albert stared at the pair for a while as they worked in silence. It would seem they were communicating using telepathy as no words had been spoken up to this point and yet they were working with such flawless teamwork.

Seeing Albert suddenly inside the room, Liz stopped what she was doing as she bowed slightly to him in respect and Albert surprisingly did the same.

"Is there a problem?"

"No. I was doing my usual rounds and came to check up on you. How is it going."

"Most of the mechanisms here are constructed with advanced magic runes so we can't fix it but we're trying to locate all the ones done in intermediate runes so we have a semblance of the entire circuit and work from there. We should be done within the hour."

"I see. And what of the lady, miss Rain."

"Rain, umm… She's umm… busy at the moment."

Albert felt the strangeness in her words as she spoke about her friend but he opted not to pursue the matter. Lord Ty had given them an equal authority as his so he didn't have to worry about them.

He took a look at the floating Erin once more and nodded. "Very well, I shall take my leave now."

"Hm, okay."

With that, Albert left the room that lead to the throne room as he did not bother to check that room in order not to distract Erin from her concentrated state. It was rare to find her so serious about doing something as she was usually so reserved and shy.

She probably still felt indebted to Lord Ty for saving her life back then in the settlement and doing something for him was her way of paying him back. Albert sighed ruely.

It had been more than a century now since he first met Erin when he was still only a child. She originally lived by herself in a sacred lake that was located deep inside his family's region and he would usually sneak out there to hang out with her. She was a lot more livelier back then than she was now and he had always felt a shred of guilt for what had happened to her home.

Seeing her now slowly coming out of the shell she had built around herself for decades, he couldn't help but be grateful to Lord Ty even more.