Welcome to the Impregnable Demon King Castle

251 – Lottery for the Monsters 1

All-Heaven Festival Contest.
A contest that made strong people from all over the world gather there with the goal of claiming the title of「strongest」, and those people are made to fight repeatedly to carefully narrow down the number.

The large-scale qualifying round is the first phase that produced many great matches, following that, the second phase is ― a tournament system.
Those of us gathered here today will now draw lots to determine the order.

With the appearance of the 1st ranked in the world, the Storm Hero Aerial, the atmosphere of the hall became tense.
However, it didn’t last long before the atmosphere relaxed.

A loud sound resounded.
Explosive sounds and bright lights.
It seemed to have come out from a cylindrical device set up on the side of the stage.

I guess it was a signal that the lottery was about to begin, as the representatives of the 100 Parties had gathered.
The video of the lottery was going to be broadcasted, so it was understandable that there would be some flashy effects for the viewers.

However, I really couldn’t predict the people who came out subsequently.

『Hello!』

From both sides of the stage, the girls jogged to the center of the stage.

The way they ran must have been calculated so that they wouldn’t seem to be in a hurry.
That way, they would seem very energetic and lovable when they ran in this direction.

「Sir Lem already knows this, but this year’s world ranking in the 90s seems to be called as the『New Wave』.」

That voice.
Not many people call me Sir Lem.

Brown, delicate, long hair. The side hairs on both sides are tied up and joined to the back.
She has a soft smile that is both elegant and ephemeral ― Margret.
Wait, I should call her Mar.

She is the Summoner of the world’s 3rd ranked Hervor party and the second daughter of a famous large company.
She is an Adventurer who I fought against as an opponent in the raid battle and my comrade in the Original Dungeon.

In other words, from Wraith’s and Fran’s point of view, she is their comrade during the raid battle.
From Josh’s point of view, she is also his comrade that he fought alongside with in the Original Dungeon.
Of the 5 members of the Wraith Party, 4 of them are actually acquainted with her.

「It’s Mar.」

「Hello, Sir Wraith. I’m glad to see Lady Fran and Sir Josh again. That lovely lady over there is Melania, right?」

But Melania was absorbed in the stage when she was mentioned by Mar. Her eyes sparkled as she looked at the girls.
Without feeling offended, Mar glanced at Melania with a smile and then returned her gaze to me.

Like Melania, I answered without taking my eyes off the stage.

「The『New Wave』huh… Well, after years of being in the Adventurer industry, I’ve realized that once in a while there are years like this.」

There are years when users of particular attributes get included in the world rank at the same time, or there is a particular style that is popular at the time.
Like this『New Wave』, the up-and-coming people are ranked successively. This kind of thing happens occasionally.
This was exactly the case with the 90s ranking this year.

For example, ranked 99th in the world is the Silver Hero Nicola Party.
It’s rare for both brother and sister to be a Hero, and the same goes for their choice of including a Fairy and the Holy Paladin into the Party.
They also act out a great Hero Show.
Nicola’s gentleman-like character that even made her called the『Silver Prince』.
The relationship between the Thief Leila and Nicola has been well received to the point that they are referred to as a prince and a princess.

In addition, she has recently shown a new way of fighting and the gap has greatly excited the fans.
It’s precisely because both Nicola and her brother Philip have experienced setbacks in their respective parties in the past, that caused them to seek for and finally succeed in creating a style that is accepted by society.
Well, there were some conflicts about that, which also became the trigger for me and Nicola to participate in the Tag Tournament…….

「There was also a Party that sided with the Monsters during the raid.」

Wraith murmured as if he remembered something.

I soon realized he was talking about the Undefeated Hero Ellie Party that is ranked 95th in the world.
They have an extremely unbalanced Party composition as they have two White Sorcerers and two Black Sorcerers.
It’s amazing because that Party composition is not merely eccentric, it is also the charm of the Party.
The four of them make Ellie shine brighter, and Ellie proves with her victories just how good their support is.

It’s not only these two groups. There are many interesting Parties gathered in the 90s ranking this year.
I’ve heard of a Party where all of the members are pretty boys ― it seems that they are sometimes called as male girls.
Different from general Adventurers, there is also a Party that is extremely popular in the cyber net after releasing their videos.

And some of the people that are currently on stage are members of one of those Parties.

The Singing Hero Pacel Party that is ranked 98th in the world.
They are lovely Adventurers who can sing and dance.
They are a unique group of idols-cum-adventurers.

As we were talking, they were performing one of their signature songs. It seemed to be the short version of it, not the full version, and the song and dance ended after a little over a minute.

The Warrior Hamill and other members of the Scathach Party were in the front row, shouting out their love for their favorite member.
The Hunter Caleena, who is also a member of the Scathach Party, saw this scene and covered her face while sighing.

But for today, I think I’m more on Hamill’s side.
Because they were there.

My friends are on the stage.

『Wow～. Did you all see that? Sitri-chan’s and the others’ choreography was perfect and super cute, right～』

Pacel is a girl with long, black, silky hair and blue eyes that can draw you in.
She wears a variety of outfits and hairstyles from time to time, but today she is wearing a twin-tailed maid outfit.
In addition, she is wearing matching outfits with the Floor Boss of the 5th Stratum・the Domain of the Dream Demons in the Impregnable Demon King Castle ― the Demon of Love Sitri.

That’s right, as Pacel just said, Sitri is on the stage.
It’s not only her, several other Dream Demons from the 5th Stratum have participated as well.

『Pacel and her friends also look great with the maid outfits. So cute.』

Sitri and Pacel exchanged words with a smile on the stage.
Ever since the Fenix Party cleared the 5th Stratum, Sitri and her friends have been attracting attention due to their lovely appearance.

Pacel and her friends are so popular that all their members are ranked in the 90s even though they are still in their early teens.

Both Parties were eliminated in the first phase of the competition, but their popularity must have led to them being entrusted to host this event.
The video of the lottery will be broadcasted. So I guess he thought that the more elements that would be talked about, the better.
It was truly typical of Fellow to do this.

Ahh, but this time I have to be grateful to him.

I know. Or maybe I’m the only one who knows.
At the deepest part of the Original Dungeon, we went through the trial of the Spirit Dark.

We were thrown into our own ideal world and we had to escape from it on our own.
It took me and Sitri a long time to get out of it.
We had a hard time leaving the dream world.

For me, it was a world where I became a Hero.
For Sitri, it was a world where she was born as a real Dream Demon.
In that world, there was no discrimination against Dream Demons and she could simply pursue the cuteness she seeks for. She could attempt to do whatever she wanted, such as being an idol or an actress.

We escaped from that sweet and irresistible world.
We chose this reality.
But that doesn’t mean that we didn’t feel anything for that idealistic world.

– That’s why I feel happy for her.

I’m very happy to see Sitri working cheerfully in a cute outfit, just like an idol.
Our king seems to feel the same way and is cheerfully watching the activities of her subordinate.

『At any rate, I felt so nervous. There was a lot of famous people lined up in a row and I felt really thrilled as I sang.』

『Yeah yeah, the number of cute and strong girls has increased recently and it’s fun just to look at them.』

『As expected of Sitri-chan, you don’t get bewildered at all. But you’re right, it’s nice to see cute fighters. Do you have someone cute that you want to recommend?』

She put her index finger on her lower lip and thought for a moment,「Hmm」, then she said

『I guess it’ll be Sitri?』

After hearing that response, Pacel said,『I totally understand!』, and nodded a lot.

『No matter what other people think, you have to think you are the cutest! Or else it’ll be like being rude to yourself. Of course, I also live my life thinking that I’m very cute.』

Pacel said as she put her hand on her chest.

At the edge of my field of vision, the Thief Leila twined her arm around Nicola’s and whispered,「I think my prince is the most beautiful」.

Nicola, having the appearance of a prince, smiled bitterly and said,「Thank you very much, though I’m not your prince」, as she tried to pull Leila away.

Around the time when the atmosphere of the hall was sufficiently softened by the conversation between the girls, mainly led by Sitri and Pacel.
The topic shifted to the lottery.

『Now we’re going to call out the names in order, so if you’re the leader of the Party, please come forward.』

「All you have to do is hit this record stone with the registration card you used when you came here.」
『All you have to do is put the registration card you used to get here on this recording stone.』

It’s the huge device that I saw when we transferred to this space.

『Umm, so once you do that a round thing will pop out of this device.

『Then, the Giant brother will break it open and tell you the number written in the lottery inside.』

Boom boom boom… along with the sounds of his footsteps, the Giant in charge came over.

Behind the stage, there was a huge screen that lit up.
Once I looked at it, there were four tournament tables lined up.

Now, instead of the participants, numbers were drawn on them.
She explained that the numbers would be changed to Party names once the numbers were drawn.

『With this, all the tournament tables will be filled and established! Ahh, I’m so disappointed. I wanted to participate in this as well.』

The tone of her voice sounded like she was trying not to get too depressed.
I could feel the frustration that Pacel was feeling inside.

『Yeah…. ― By the way, who will announce the names first?』

The expression of Sitri, who agreed briefly with Pacel’s words, became serious for a moment, but she returned to having a smiling expression in a blink of an eye.

Even if there is something very frustrating, tomorrow will come as usual.
These women have the strength to move forward while embracing those feelings.

『Aha. There is no choice but to decide that with rock-paper-scissors, which has been handed down to maids since ancient times.』

Pacel won the mysterious rock-paper-scissors that seemed to have been handed down to maids since ancient times.

『Let’s go!』

There are four tournaments.
Only the four Parties that have won in their respective tournament will advance to the battle against the legendary strong people.
If we don’t win this, I won’t be able to reach the future where I can fight against my master.

Who are we going to fight against?
That will be decided now.