"... Are you alright?"

Her voice carried no emotion, no tone, no concern, and yet it was so much better, so much more soothing, so much more comforting than the fake smile and fabricated concern of the Goddess of Light.

"... Are you alright?", she repeated when I did not give an answer. Her face, too, though I couldn't see it properly, didn't carry any emotion.

"Ah, uh... Yes, I'm fine", I answered, trying to get up when I noticed there was a hole where my stomach should be.

"... Are you sure?", she asked, eyeing the hole.

"Heh... Guess not, huh?", I responded, scratching the back of my head. I felt no pain even though I had such a grievous wound: for only the second time in my months as a Hero, I felt grateful towards Lady Luciel.

"Your soul... She was not able to touch it", the white-haired girl said, looking at my chest with her emotionless gaze.

"My soul... She...? Lady Luciel?", I asked, roughly inferring what she was referring to.

"... Indeed", she said, "the Azalyth hasn't latched on properly. You've noticed, haven't you? She's been trying to brainwash you."

"She's already succeeded with my friends", I said, looking down, "and I won't live much longer, so I can't do anything."

"... Then", she said, looking directly into my eyes, "won't you join me? Your abilities are strong, so with you by my side, we could take her down."

"... You're not going to try to kill me? You're Lady Luciel's enemy, right?"

"... My enemy is the puppetmistress, not her puppets. If their strings can be cut without hurting them, then I will."

"Heh. For a Goddess of Darkness, you sure are kindhearted. Sure, I'll join you. I want revenge, and I want to liberate this world."

"... Then, not 'Goddess of Darkness'. Call me by name."

"Then, should I call you Entropy?"

"... Over-familiar. You, are you always like this?", she said, turning away her head. It was a gesture that implied she should've been blushing, or perhaps pouting, but her pure white skin did not change in colour, and her expression remained flat.

"Not 'you'. I'm Arthur- no, I suppose I don't deserve to have a legendary hero's name anymore, huh? Hmm... Then, I'm Astaroth."

"Astaroth, Astaroth", she said, rolling the name around her mouth a few times. "... Then, Astaroth, how long can you live with that wound?"

"Ah, right", I said. "Hm... Heroes have more vitality than a regular human, but even then, I'll bleed out within a minute. If I tried to move, faster."

"... Troubling", she said, reaching out into her black dress and seemingly searching around for something. After several seconds, she took out a piece of black chalk and a large book, with ebony cover and bound in gold. "... These are my scriptures", she explained, "and enchanted chalk. Don't move." She gripped the chalk in her hand, drawing a magic circle around me on the cold, hard ground, and stood on its edge. "... Your face will be the same after this", she explained, "but you might grow. You'll also gain new abilities, and a black eye." She then started to recite something in a language I didn't understand, and I blacked out...

I woke up in bed, under luxurious black covers and facing up, towards the roof of my four-poster bed. "A dream, huh...", I muttered. Looking to the side, I noticed the curtains on the right side of the bed had been opened, and locked eyes with an expressionless rainbow-coloured pair of eyes.

"... Good morning", she said with the same flat voice as always.

"Yes, good morning", I responded reflexively, before raising an eyebrow and continuing: "You were watching me sleep, Lady Entropy?"

"... I don't sleep, so I was bored", she answered, turning her head to the side.

"I knew your reason, you've done this several times before", I said, a wry smile on my face. "But, Lady Entropy, would you be terribly objected to leaving my room? I plan on changing into my regular clothes."

She did not speak, but she did rather speedily leave the room. Getting out of bed, I walked over to the walk-in closet, tossed off my sleepwear- even this was decorated with gold linings- and got dressed in my regular clothing. It was mostly black- white in the few places it wasn't- and looked almost like a military uniform, and it was decorated with many golden linings, chains and medals. It all came together to give off a 'grand general'-kind of vibe. I plucked the golden crown off the hook on the wall of my room, placed it on my head and left my bedroom, deciding to head to the dining hall.

The moment I approached the rather large doors of the dining hall, the Living Armours on either side opened the doors for me while announcing my presence in unison: "Great Demon Master Astaroth has arrived!", in response to which most of the Demons in the room stood up, faced my direction and saluted. "At ease", I said, and they sat back down.

Strolling between the rows of Demons feasting on... mostly unappetising-looking food, such as purple steaks, broth made out of some kind of poison-green ingredient and some twisted, vaguely carrot-like vegetable, I made my way to the back of the dining hall, where there was a large throne- though not as large as the one in my throne room- with a number of chairs near it and a dragon behind it. Davna, the dragon in question, was chowing down on some kind of pinkish meat in what was essentially a huge dog bowl, not even pausing her meal as she telepathically told me "Good morning, Master!"

The chairs and the throne were positioned around a round table, and in front of every chair was a meal perfectly suited to its intended occupant's preferences. There were also a few extra chairs which were normally unoccupied, in case there were guests or a Demon who did not normally eat here was invited or somesuch.

The seat directly to the right of mine was occupied by Charlotte, who was awaiting me in gorgeous posture. Upon seeing me approach, she stood up and curtsied, accompanied by a "Good morning, Master." In front of her stood a plate of small pieces of meat from various sources, all as good as raw as to preserve the bloody taste.

Next to her, lazily leaning back into her chair and already having stuffed food into her mouth when Charlotte wasn't looking, was Lilith, whose plate looked mostly like a regular breakfast, except for the fact that the colours were majorly different: as an example, the bread was bright yellow. Upon spotting me, she lazily raised a hand accompanied by a "Mornin', Master."

On the other side, the seat directly left of mine was occupied by Tempest, who had taken her hat off and hung it on the back of her chair. She was still wearing her lab coat, though. "Good morning, Master", she said in a composed voice. Whenever she wasn't working on her projects, she tended to be far calmer and more mature. On her plate was, surprisingly enough, a normal breakfast.

Next to her was Navillus in her human form, performing an action which could roughly be described as 'sitting' in what was essentially a chair like the rest, except it was closed on all sides except the top. She roughly imitated the motion of a wave together with a "Good morning, Master!" once she spotted me. On her plate was something which couldn't quite be described as a meal: it was mostly the scraps and leftovers from various sources from yesterday's meals, combined with some of the higher quality material scraps from the forge and such. She was a slime, so she needed a high amount of nutrition to support her body, and high-quality materials- food or not- would accomplish this while also making her stronger.

The three seats directly opposite my throne were empty. I walked around the table and sat down on my throne, in front of me what would undoubtedly be a meal reserved only for the highest of nobles in the human world, but I did not start eating, for I was still expecting guests.

As I expected, after a few minutes, a group of three people arrived in the dining hall, escorted by a set of Ghost Maids. They were, of course, Evyna, the Ice Queen and Richard, who now had light blue skin and entirely monochrome, dark blue eyes: there was no longer any distinction between his pupils and his irises or the whites of his eyes. They were escorted to my table, upon which I greeted them with a "Good morning, everyone. Did you sleep well?" while carrying a confident smile on my face.

Richard was too busy looking at the Ice Queen to look around and the Ice Queen was used to it, but Evyna nervously looked around, specifically at the Demons' various breakfasts across the dining hall. She looked visibly relieved once she saw my breakfast, though.

"Good morning, my liege", the Ice Queen said, the blue flames in her sockets flickering in slight ridicule. "It has been a while, so I had forgotten, but your dining room is a mess as always, isn't it?"

"I find eating together with my troops raises morale", I replied matter-of-factly.

"Good morning, Demon Master. I am grateful for being provided with a bed and food, I suppose", Richard said, taking a single glance in my direction before looking back to the Ice Queen.

"Good, good morning", Evyna stuttered. "Thank you for the bed, and the food, but... But why are you, are you giving us these?"

"Sit down and eat for now", I said, gesturing to the three empty chairs. The Ice Queen took the leftmost seat from my perspective, and Richard sat down directly next to her, moving his chair slightly closer to her: by process of elimination, Evyna sat in what was from my perspective the rightmost chair. The moment they sat down, two Ghost Maids each presented a plate of food to Richard and Evyna: Richard got a plate full of pieces of ice and snow, arranged carefully to look like actual food, whereas Evyna got a breakfast similar to my own, except one or two degrees less fancy. Evyna raised an eyebrow at Richard's food, and upon Richard digging in hungrily, I explained: "Ice Statues don't actually need to eat, but he needs the ice supplement since my castle isn't as cold as their natural habitat."

"I... I see. Well, uh, thank you for the, for the food", she said before picking up her cutlery and starting to eat. With those two as a signal, the rest of us, too, started to eat- though Davna had already begun and Lilith had already been sneaking bites of food in.

During the meal, there was what might be described as small talk: Davna boasted to me about the number of soldiers she'd defeated yesterday like a proud child boasting about her grades to her father, Lilith showed a breach in etiquette, upon which Charlotte admonished her like an older sister, Navillus made some vague movement, and Tempest watched all this in silence. If one left out the fact that we were all Monsters, we might've seemed like a happy family. Evyna seemed to share this sentiment, as her gaze had slightly- only very slightly- warmed up, and her movements had become a tad less stiff.

After the breakfast was finished, Evyna meekly raised her hand.

"There is no need to raise your hand", I said. "Speak if you wish to speak."

"Then, uh, mister Astaroth, I can, can understand why you'd give, give these two a bed and food, but, but why me? I'm a, a Hero, right? Aren't I your, your enemy?", she asked, starting to stutter more and more as she realised this sentence might actually be quite bad for her.

"You are not a Hero", I answered. "You still have Lady Luciel's blessing, yes, but so do I; That does not make me a Hero. You no longer serve Lady Luciel, so you are no longer a Hero. As for why I'm feeding you... Is it not basic etiquette to feed a guest? Well, leaving etiquette aside, I was hoping to turn you into an ally."

"Guest...? Ally...?", she parrotted, tilting her head to one side.

"Yes. Shadowcasters make reliable comrades, after all."

Charlotte nodded in response, noting that "Another rearguard could have its uses", while Tempest began muttering something about researching magic together.

"Well, you all seem like, like nice, uh, nice people, so I'll, uh, I'll think about, about it", she answered.

"Wrong! Put yer back into it! And y'all over there, chant faster! Ya'd have been killed ten times over by now if this weren't training!"

A booming voice resounded over the church's training grounds as the new Heroes underwent their rigorous training. The voice belonged to the Royal Knight Commander, who looked quite intimidating with his towering stature and bulging muscles.

"But Commander... I already have... No strength... Left...", a Hero responded, panting, before falling to the floor.

"Priest! Get that guy up-and-running again- but don't ya spoil 'im, ya hear?!", the Royal Knight Commander's voice resounded once again.

"U-Understood, sir! Right away, sir!", a different Hero wearing priestly garbs responded before running over to the fallen Hero and casting a recovery spell.

Through this hellish training commanded as such by the Goddess herself, she was sealing her own fate, though at this point, she could have had no way of knowing...