Chapter 274 – Main Protagonist: Surveillance Camera

“Alice! We visited the Obsidian Tower today, and it's super tall! I don't think there is such a tall building even in the human realm!”

It was already evening when Alice returned to Flaman's mansion.
Zauna, Lalu, and Luna had also returned from their outing with Heris.
Meanwhile, upon seeing Alice, Lalu promptly went up to her and started sharing her experience today with a jubilant expression on her face.

Alice could understand Lalu's excitement.
The loli elf had spent most of her life living in the Elven Forest, so even attending school in the human realm and seeing the various facilities there was a new and exciting experience for her.
Naturally, visiting one of the demon realm's iconic landmarks was an experience worth getting ecstatic over.

Although Alice had never visited the Obsidian Tower before, she had researched plenty about the demon realm so that she could fit into the role of “Demon King.” Hence, she knew that the Obsidian Tower was a famous landmark in the Fear Kingdom.

According to the information she found, the Obsidian Tower was something built thousands of years ago.
However, despite its name, the tower wasn't actually colored black.
It wasn't even made of obsidian.
Instead, it was constructed using translucent magic crystals.

However, due to the sensitivity of magic crystals toward mana, it didn't take long for the demon realm's environment to pollute the “magic crystal” tower, turning it black.
Meanwhile, after thousands of years of contamination, the tower had become so dark that it couldn't even reflect light anymore.
Eventually, the Obsidian Tower came into being, and it was now one of the most popular scenic spots in the demon realm.
It also wasn't something one could find in the human realm.

On top of having spent most of her life living in the untainted Elven Forest, Lalu was also a child when put in the perspective of the long-lived elves.
So, it wasn't strange to see her holding great curiosity toward a construct that was a byproduct of mana pollution.

Of course, Lalu didn't really like others calling her a child.
She also disliked others talking about her height.

“The Obsidian Tower is indeed a spectacle.
I doubt that the human realm can produce such a bewilderingly dark construct.
Even if we deliberately contaminate magic crystals with polluted mana, it'll be difficult to reproduce something like the Obsidian Tower in a short period,” Zauna said, agreeing with Lalu's sentiments.
She was similarly surprised when she visited the Obsidian Tower today.
The experience was a true eye-opener for her.
“I couldn't get any reflection even when I tried using Illumination.
The tower devoured all light that hit it.
And because of the lack of reflected light, the tower looks just like a flat surface.”

When Alice saw her two friends' reactions, she felt that Heris had done a good job as a tour guide today.
It would seem that Heris was aware that there were many similarities between the human and demon realms.
Hence she had deliberately chosen to bring Lalu and Zauna to a scenic spot that couldn't be found in the human realm.

As for her maid Luna, she looked very calm, as if she wasn't interested in the Obsidian Tower at all.
However, Alice noticed that Luna's expression would change from time to time.
These changes were especially noticeable when Lalu and Zauna talked about the Obsidian Tower.
Although Alice wasn't skilled at reading faces, she could tell that Luna was quite concerned about the Obsidian Tower.

It wasn't strange for Luna to behave this way.
By now, Luna had already gotten over her bad childhood experience.
So, it was normal for her to start to take an interest in new and strange things.
However, she probably avoided participating in the discussions due to her position as Alice's maid.

I'll have to try and get Luna to become more initiative in the future… Alice thought while rubbing her chin.
In reality, Lalu and Zauna had long since started to treat Luna as their friend.
Only Luna was keeping a distance from them because of her identity.

“Alice.”

While Lalu was eagerly telling Alice about the places she had visited today, a gruff voice called out to Alice.
Immediately, Lalu stopped chattering and looked behind Alice.
Alice also followed the voice and looked behind her.

Flaman had appeared behind Alice before she knew it.
For the sake of keeping Alice's identity secret, Flaman did not address Alice with honorifics.
However, as this was in line with his eclectic personality, he didn't find it awkward to address Alice in such an informal manner.

Unfortunately, despite Flaman's attempt at being amiable, Lalu still couldn't help but feel nervous when standing in his presence.
Anxiety would fill her whenever she stood near Flaman's hulking body.
Even though she was aware that Flaman was Alice's acquaintance in the demon realm, her body would still subconsciously tense up when she stood near him.
This situation was akin to ordinary civilians coming across a veteran soldier.

The fact that Flaman had a scruffy beard and fierce facial features didn't make things any better for Lalu.
With her childlike personality, it was normal for her to be afraid of fierce-looking people like Flaman.
In comparison, although Zauna also behaved a little tense around Flaman, her reaction wasn't as severe as Lalu's.

After giving the loli elf a pat on the head, Alice turned around and followed Flaman to his study.
Flaman had pointed in the study's direction when she turned to look at him, so it was obvious that he had something he wanted to say to her.

…

Lalu breathed a sigh of relief after seeing Alice and Flaman entering the study at the end of the hallway.
Then, she turned to Heris and curiously asked, “How did Alice meet your father? Your father seems to be taking good care of Alice.

“They don't seem like people from the same walk of life.”

“This…
It's a long story, but the general gist is that Alice got to know my father through me,” Heris said, offering Lalu a vague answer.
After all, she couldn't possibly say that her father was one of the Four Heavenly Kings and Alice was the Demon King, so her father was essentially Alice's subordinate.
Of course, she wasn't lying, either, when she said she was responsible for introducing her father to Alice.

…

How Heris had deluded Lalu and Zauna was outside of Alice's knowledge.
After following Flaman into his study, Alice couldn't help but wonder what the other party wanted to talk to her about.

Flaman did not waste time with pleasantries.
Of course, that didn't mean he did not respect Alice.
On the contrary, he respected Alice very much as not only was she a powerful Demon King, but she had even managed to find her way into the upper ranks of human society so quickly.

Regardless, after bringing Alice into his study, Flaman led her to his desk and turned his computer's screen to Alice.
Then, he said, “Please look at this, Lord Demon King.”

“This is…?”

When Alice saw what was displayed on the monitor, she could quickly tell it was real-time surveillance footage of the mansion's courtyard.
However, she couldn't notice anything special about it.

“Isn't this your courtyard?”

“Yes.” Flaman nodded.
Then, he said, “Please look closely at the bushes, Lord Demon King.”

Hearing this, Alice took a closer look at the bushes displayed on the screen.
Due to the demon realm's sky having a slightly darker tone than the human realm's sky, it looked like a faint shadow was cast over the entire demon realm.
Hence, Alice had previously failed to notice that there was actually a person hiding in the courtyard's bushes.